VETTED SAAS
Head to head · Web Hosting

Hostinger vs Cloudways

Hostinger and Cloudways both offer strong value, but for different users. Hostinger is beginner friendly all round hosting at a rock bottom intro price; Cloudways is managed cloud hosting that hands you more performance and control as you scale, in exchange for setting up a cloud server. We score both and explain which fits your skills and your site.

Reviewed by M. HALLORAN·Updated MARCH 2026·How we vet
★ Our pick
Hostinger
90 /100
vs
Challenger
Cloudways
87 /100
◂ Hostinger Advantage Cloudways ▸
Hostinger wins on value and beginner friendliness · Cloudways wins on scalable cloud performance and developer control.

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 Hostinger Cloudways Winner
Ease of use
90
82
Hostinger
Performance and speed
87
90
Cloudways
Support
85
85
Hostinger
Value for money
92
86
Hostinger
Scalability and control
84
90
Cloudways
Uptime and reliability
89
90
Cloudways

Scores are our editorial assessment against the VettedSaaS rubric · not vendor supplied.

Choose Hostinger if…
+You want the simplest path to a live site at the lowest price
+You are new to hosting and value a guided control panel
+You run starter, small business or portfolio sites
+You want built in email and a free domain on annual plans
Choose Cloudways if…
+You want cloud performance you can scale on demand
+You are comfortable picking a server size and provider
+You run growing or traffic heavy sites and stores
+You prefer pay as you go pricing with no renewal jump

Feature by feature

✓ full  ·  ∼ partial  ·  — none
Capability Hostinger Cloudways
Free SSL ✓ ✓Let's Encrypt
Free CDN ✓ ∼Cloudflare add on
Daily backups ∼weekly on Premium ∼paid, on demand
Staging environment ∼Business and up ✓
Built in email hosting ✓ ∼paid add on
Choice of cloud provider — ✓
Money back guarantee ✓30 days ∼3 day trial

Feature support verified as of June 2026 · check the vendor for current details.

Pricing, side by side

Intro rate per month · renewals differ
Hostinger Our pick
Premium $2.99
Business $3.99
Cloud Startup $7.99
Cloudways Challenger
DO 1GB $11
DO 2GB $22
DO 4GB $50

Pricing as of June 2026 · Hostinger intro rates need long terms and renew higher; Cloudways charges per server with no renewal jump (about $8.25/mo on annual for DO 1GB). Check the vendor for current pricing.

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