DigitalOcean is one of the leading cloud-hosting service providers. CW is one of the best managed hosting service providers. Coincidentally, both companies were founded in 2011. While DO has built its own infrastructure from scratch, Cloudways offers plans for various popular cloud hosting providers, including DigitalOcean. Below, we’ve compared the pricing and features of the two cloud companies.
Applications
Cloudways and DigitalOcean let you install various popular applications such as WordPress, Drupal, Magento, etc with a few clicks of a button. However, there’s a big difference between the two companies. You’ll discover the differences after going through the below paragraphs.
Support
DigitalOcean offers support via email. Once you install the application of your choice, you’re on your own. If the site crashes or encounters a technical issue, you will have to fix the problem yourself. Cloudways provides real-time support with the help of its live chat system. It bundles a standard support add-on with each of its plans. The add-on allows customers to get help with its services and guidance from its support staff. The company also provides email support. Unanswered emails are converted into tickets automatically. Guidance is a big difference between CW and DigitalOcean support. If something happens to your website and you contact Cloudways via live chat, the support staff may guide you by sharing documentation that will help you fix the error. Will you need support from Cloudways? No, the reason for this is covered below.
Pricing
CW and DO have launched many plans. The Cloudways plans are grouped by the infrastructure providers. The cheapest servers belong to these three categories – Linode, DigitalOcean, and Vultr. The Vultr nodes are a bit costlier than that of Cloudways DO and Linode. Here are the most popular plans of the two cloud hosting companies:
1GB RAM: You can buy a 1GB RAM server from CW by paying 10 to 13 dollars per month. The 1GB RAM node comes with 25GB to 32GB storage memory and one core processor. The same configuration server on DigitalOcean costs 6 dollars.
2GB RAM: A machine with 2GB RAM costs 12 to 18 dollars on DO and 24 to 26 dollars on Cloudways. This server has a 1 to 2 core processor and 50 to 64GB storage memory.
4GB RAM: A droplet with 4GB RAM costs 24 dollars per month on DO, and that on CW is priced between 44 to 50 dollars. This machine ships with two core processors and has 80GB of storage memory.
8GB RAM: On Cloudways, an 8GB RAM Cloud VPS is priced between 84 to 96 dollars and costs 48 USD on DigitalOcean. In addition to 8GB RAM, this server comes with 160GB of storage memory.
CDN
Each Cloudways plan ships with a free CDN add-on. You don’t have to pay money to use the add-on. DO offers a CDN service. This service is not offered for free. It costs 5 dollars per month and offers 250GB of storage for the data.
Backups
DigitalOcean doesn’t offer a free backup service. You can enable the backup if you want from its dashboard. The backups cost 20% of the droplet plan you’re currently subscribed to. The Cloudways managed hosting plans will automatically back up your website data daily. The daily backup service is offered at no additional cost.
Firewall
DO offers a basic GUI-based firewall for allowing access to certain ports, blocking ports, etc. CW servers are protected by dedicated firewalls. The firewalls are pre-configured. They allow access to only those ports that the user should be allowed to access.
Advanced cache
CW accelerates the website’s performance hosted on its servers by automatically turning on an advanced caching solution immediately when the website goes live. DigitalOcean users must fine-tune their website’s performance by enabling a server-side caching solution or installing a plugin by themselves.
Free Migration
Migrating a website from one machine to another can be confusing and time-wasting. If something goes wrong during transfer, the site’s traffic may tank. Cloudways lets users raise site migration tickets. When you raise a ticket, you should share details of the old site and server with its staff. The staff will migrate the website for you at no additional cost. DigitalOcean doesn’t offer a free website transfer service yet.
Staging environment
It can be dangerous to install a plugin/theme on a production server before testing it. Unless you’ve written the code and you’re confident that the code works great, you should always test the code/script thoroughly before implementing it on a production server. Cloudways staging environment is built for the purpose of testing. Each plan of the company gives you access to a staging environment for free. If you’re using DigitalOcean, you will have to buy another droplet for using it like a staging environment or create a staging environment on your PC or laptop manually. If you use the staging environment of Cloudways wisely, you will never have to contact the support team of the company.
Monitoring
The two hosting firms enable you to monitor the traffic and server resource usage in real-time. The monitoring tool is available in the hosting service provider’s dashboard.
Closing words: As you can see above, Cloudways plans are costlier than the plans of DigitalOcean, but the company offers many additional services built to boost the website’s performance, keep your website secure, etc. It also provides live chat support.
