Elestio vs Cloudways
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Elestio and Cloudways.
Quick Verdict
3.6/5
Elestio
0 reviews
3.9/5
Cloudways
0 reviews
Cloudways is rated higher (3.9 vs 3.6). 400+ open source tools Managed hosting layer that sits on top of DigitalOcean, AWS, GCP, Vultr, or Linode. You get managed control with one-click staging, Breeze caching, and 24/7 support.
Elestio Fully managed open source tools in one click | Cloudways Managed cloud hosting on your choice of provider | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.6 (0 reviews) | 3.9 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $11/mo | From $11/mo |
| Best for | Developers and small teams wanting managed open source tool deployment without DevOps hires, especially on infrastructure they already own | Agencies, freelancers and SMBs running WordPress/WooCommerce/Magento/Laravel who want managed cloud hosting with provider choice and no ops staff |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | — | 1 vCPU |
| RAM | — | 1 GB |
| Storage | — | 25 GB |
| Bandwidth | — | 1 TB/mo |
| SLA uptime | — | 99.99% |
| Data-center count | 100 | — |
| €/vCPU/mo | — | €11.00 |
| €/GB RAM/mo | — | €11.00 |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ✓ | |
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | 100+ regions across 9+ providers (Netcup, Hetzner, DigitalOcean, AWS Lightsail, Linode, Vultr, Azure, Scaleway); BYO infrastructure supported | United StatesUnited KingdomGermanyNetherlandsSingaporeAustralia+1 |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tiermanaged optionopen sourceapi access | managed optionddos protectionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenter |
| Visit Elestio → | Visit Cloudways → | |
Elestio
Pros
- + 400+ open source tools fully managed: daily backups, auto SSL, tested updates, patching, 24/7 monitoring
- + Deploy on 9+ cloud providers across 100+ regions — or bring your own infrastructure and keep ownership
- + Transparent management-fee formula ($5/vCPU + $2.50/GB RAM + $0.025/GB disk monthly) and hourly billing
- + Dedicated VMs, not shared containers; everything included with no per-seat charges
- + Revenue sharing with open source authors supports the projects being hosted
Cons
- - Young, small company (founded 2022, ~11-50 employees) — vendor risk for mission-critical platforms
- - No uptime SLA at base level; 99.5%/99.9% SLAs cost $50/$200 per service per month
- - Catalog covers mainstream self-hosted apps; heavily customized or niche software fits poorly
- - Underlying infrastructure costs are on top in the bring-your-own model, so totals vary by provider
Cloudways
Pros
- + Choose the underlying cloud (DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, GCP) and region per server
- + Entry pricing from $11/month on DigitalOcean with hourly billing and no contract
- + Managed stack with free migration, staging/cloning, automated backups, caching and 24/7 human support
- + Unlimited sites and visits per server on Flexible plans
- + Autonomous line adds real autoscaling, Cloudflare Enterprise CDN and a no-credit-card 3-day trial
Cons
- - Management markup of roughly $5-$35/month over buying the same server direct
- - No formal uptime SLA on the Flexible line
- - AWS/GCP plans include only 1-2 GB transfer; overage at $0.12/GB (AWS) adds up fast
- - Root-level control is limited — no custom kernels, bare metal, GPUs or own object storage
- - Owned by DigitalOcean since 2022 while reselling competing clouds — a roadmap consideration
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