Upsun vs Cloudways
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Upsun and Cloudways.
Quick Verdict
4.0/5
Upsun
0 reviews
3.9/5
Cloudways
0 reviews
Upsun is rated higher (4.0 vs 3.9). Upsun is a cloud application platform that runs full-stack apps across multiple clouds and regions, with tools for running agentic development workflows, for developer and platform teams. 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.
Upsun Multicloud managed application platform (formerly Platform.sh) with production-parity environments | Cloudways Managed cloud hosting on your choice of provider | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.0 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.9 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $9/mo✓ | From $11/mo |
| Best for | Mid-market and enterprise teams shipping frequently who need compliant (PCI, SOC 2, ISO, HIPAA), EU-friendly, multicloud PaaS with Git-driven infrastructure and real preview environments | 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 | 99.5% | 99.99%✓ |
| Data-center count | — | — |
| €/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 | 16+ regions across AWS, GCP, Azure, IBM Cloud, OVHcloud incl. EU (Zurich, Berlin, Paris x2, London, Dublin, Stockholm), US, Canada, Australia | United StatesUnited KingdomGermanyNetherlandsSingaporeAustralia+1 |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | managed optioneu datacenterus datacenterteam featuressso | managed optionddos protectionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenter |
| Visit Upsun → | Visit Cloudways → | |
Upsun
Pros
- + Production-parity preview environments per branch: cloned data, services and routing, not just code review
- + True multicloud (AWS, GCP, Azure, IBM Cloud, OVHcloud) with portable YAML configuration
- + Compliance out of the box: PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA; Git-auditable infrastructure changes
- + Explicit uptime terms: 99.5% best-efforts baseline, 99.90%/99.99% SLA add-ons with service credits
- + Granular per-service resource sizing billed per second; idle environments pause and stop billing compute
Cons
- - The cost stack adds up: $9/project + $10/user + metered resources and storage, and standard support at +10% of global spend
- - No formal free tier — only a 15-day trial plus a credit covering one project and one user
- - YAML configuration model is powerful but has a real learning curve; SLA guarantees are paid add-ons
- - Proprietary platform layer from a ~290-person independent competing with hyperscaler PaaS pricing
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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