Side-by-Side Comparison
WordPress.com vs Cloudways — Detailed Comparison
Compare features, pricing, performance, and support side-by-side. Pick the one that fits your needs.
Company Information
Founded
2005
2011
Headquarters
United States
Malta
Hosting Types
User Reviews
1,354
746
Pricing & Plans
Cheapest Plan
$4.00/mo
$11.00/mo
Number of Plans
Money-Back Guarantee
14 days
—
Performance & Infrastructure
Uptime Guarantee
99.9%
99.99%
NVMe Storage
Yes (DigitalOcean Premium)
LiteSpeed Web Server
No (Apache + Nginx + Varnish)
Data Centers
Global Edge Network
60+ (across DO/AWS/GCP)
PHP Versions
8.0+
7.4 – 8.3
Inodes (File Count)
—
—
Email Send Limit
N/A — Forwarding Only or Google Workspace
N/A — Rackspace required ($1/mailbox)
Free Features Included
Free SSL
—
—
Free Domain
—
—
Free Migration
Yes (Business+)
Yes (1st migration free)
Free CDN
—
—
Support
24/7 Support
—
—
Phone Support
Control Panel
WordPress.com Dashboard
Cloudways Platform
Expert Ratings
User Friendly
—
Support
—
Features
—
Reliability
—
Pricing
—
Key Features
WordPress.com
- Run by Automattic (Founded by Matt Mullenweg)
- Fully Managed WordPress — Zero Server Admin
- Global Edge Network for Fast Delivery
- Jetpack Pre-Integrated (Security + Performance)
- Real-time Backups (Business+) with One-Click Restore
- Free SSL on All Plans
- Free Subdomain (or Custom Domain on Personal+)
- Unlimited Bandwidth on All Plans
Cloudways
- 3-Day Free Trial — No Credit Card Required
- 3 Cloud Providers: DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud
- Lightning Stack (Nginx + Varnish + Redis + PHP-FPM)
- Object Cache Pro Included Free (4GB+ servers, $95/mo value)
- Cloudways Autonomous (auto-scaling)
- Free SSL, CDN & Migration
- Free First Migration by Cloudways Engineers
- 24/7 Live Chat Support
Pros & Cons
WordPress.com
Pros
- True managed WordPress — no maintenance work
- Updates happen automatically and safely
- Support team built and maintains WordPress core
- Incredibly easy to start — free tier exists
- Real-time backups with one-click restore (Business+)
- Upgrades are seamless with no downtime
Cons
- No plugins on Free / Personal / Premium plans
- Business plan ($25/mo) is the cheapest with plugin support
- Pricier than budget shared hosts for equivalent functionality
- No email mailboxes — only forwarding or Google Workspace
- Limited theme customization on lower tiers
- Free plan shows WordPress.com ads on your site
Cloudways
Pros
- Choice of 3 enterprise cloud providers (DO, AWS, GCP)
- Managed platform — no server admin needed
- Object Cache Pro free on 4GB+ ($95/mo value)
- Free migration done by Cloudways engineers
- Vertical scaling — increase RAM/CPU with one click
- Pay-as-you-go billing
Cons
- No domain registration
- No email hosting at all (must use Rackspace add-on at $1/mailbox/month)
- Backups cost extra: $0.033/GB
- Higher entry price than shared hosting
- No money-back guarantee (uses 3-day free trial instead)
- No free email — even Elastic Email is paid
Ready to choose?
Visit any of these providers to claim their best deal:

WordPress.com Plans
6 plans available across all hosting types.
WordPress Hosting 6
| Plan | Price | Storage | CPU | RAM | Bandwidth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | $4.00/mo | 6 GB | — | — | Unlimited | Get Plan |
| Premium | $8.00/mo | 13 GB | — | — | Unlimited | Get Plan |
| Business Best | $25.00/mo | 200 GB | — | — | Unlimited | Get Plan |
| Commerce | $45.00/mo | 200 GB | — | — | Unlimited | Get Plan |
| Enterprise (VIP) | $2,083.00/mo | Custom (Enterprise SLA) | — | — | Unlimited | Get Plan |
| Free | — | 1 GB | — | — | Unlimited | Get Plan |

Cloudways Plans
12 plans available across all hosting types.
Cloud Hosting 12
| Plan | Price | Storage | CPU | RAM | Bandwidth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DO Standard 1GB — DigitalOcean | $11.00/mo | 25 GB SSD | 1 Core | 1 GB | 1 TB Transfer | Get Plan |
| DO Premium 1GB — DigitalOcean | $14.00/mo | 25 GB NVMe | 1 Core | 1 GB | 1 TB Transfer | Get Plan |
| DO Premium 2GB — DigitalOcean | $28.00/mo | 50 GB NVMe | 1 Core | 2 GB | 2 TB Transfer | Get Plan |
| GCP Standard Small — Google Cloud | $37.33/mo | 20 GB SSD | Shared | 1.7 GB | 1 GB Transfer | Get Plan |
| AWS Standard Micro — Amazon Web Services | $38.56/mo | 20 GB EBS | 2 Cores | 1.75 GB | 2 GB Transfer | Get Plan |
| DO Premium 4GB — DigitalOcean Best | $54.00/mo | 80 GB NVMe | 2 Cores | 4 GB | 4 TB Transfer | Get Plan |
| DO Premium 8GB — DigitalOcean | $99.00/mo | 160 GB NVMe | 4 Cores | 8 GB | 5 TB Transfer | Get Plan |
| DO General Purpose 8GB — DigitalOcean | $106.00/mo | 30 GB NVMe | 2 Cores | 8 GB | 4 TB Transfer | Get Plan |
| GCP Standard Large — Google Cloud | $152.02/mo | 20 GB SSD | 2 Cores | 7.5 GB | 1 GB Transfer | Get Plan |
| DO CPU Optimized 8GB — DigitalOcean | $164.00/mo | 50 GB NVMe | 4 Cores | 8 GB | 5 TB Transfer | Get Plan |
| AWS Standard Medium — Amazon Web Services | $183.22/mo | 20 GB EBS | 2 Cores | 8 GB | 2 GB Transfer | Get Plan |
| GCP Compute Optimized XL — Google Cloud | $255.37/mo | 20 GB SSD | 4 Cores | 16 GB | 1 GB Transfer | Get Plan |