Head to head · Web Hosting
Bluehost vs Cloudways
Bluehost is classic shared hosting with a guided setup; Cloudways is managed cloud hosting that sits on top of providers like DigitalOcean and Vultr. One is simpler to start, the other is faster and scales on demand. We score both and show who each suits.
★ Our pick
Cloudways
87
/100
vs
Challenger
Bluehost
82
/100
◂ Cloudways
Advantage
Bluehost ▸
A solid edge to Cloudways on performance and scaling · Bluehost is the easier first host.
These are affiliate links marked rel=“sponsored”. We may earn a commission if you buy · it never affects our scores or who wins. Disclosure.
How they score
Criteria
Cloudways
Bluehost
Winner
Ease of use
80
85
Bluehost
Performance and speed
90
80
Cloudways
Support
84
80
Cloudways
Value for money
86
84
Cloudways
WordPress features
87
80
Cloudways
Uptime and reliability
89
83
Cloudways
Scores are our editorial assessment against the VettedSaaS rubric · not vendor supplied.
Choose Cloudways if…
+You want managed cloud speed with room to scale
+You are comfortable without cPanel or a one click domain
+You want pay as you go billing with no renewal hikes
+You run a store or app that needs more horsepower
Choose Bluehost if…
+You want the simplest possible first setup
+You like cPanel, a free domain and bundled email
+You prefer a flat low intro price to get going
+You do not want to think about server sizing
Feature by feature
✓ full · ∼ partial · — none
Capability
Cloudways
Bluehost
Managed cloud hosting
✓
—
Choice of cloud provider
✓5 providers
—
Server level caching
✓built in
∼basic
Staging environment
✓
∼higher plans
Free domain first year
—
✓
Free email hosting
∼paid add on
✓
Money back guarantee
∼3 day trial
✓30 days
Feature support verified as of June 2026 · check the vendor for current details.
Pricing, side by side
Intro rate per month · renewals differ
Cloudways
Our pick
DigitalOcean 1GB
$11
DigitalOcean 2GB
$22
DigitalOcean 4GB
$50
Bluehost
Challenger
Basic
$2.95
Choice Plus
$5.45
Online Store
$9.95
Pricing as of June 2026 · Cloudways is pay as you go monthly with no contract or renewal jump; Bluehost shows intro rates that renew from $10.99/mo. Check the vendor for current pricing.