Side-by-Side Comparison
Cloudways vs DreamHost — Detailed Comparison
Compare features, pricing, performance, and support side-by-side. Pick the one that fits your needs.
Company Information
Founded
2011
1996
Headquarters
Malta
USA
Hosting Types
User Reviews
746
1,942
Pricing & Plans
Cheapest Plan
$11.00/mo
$1.99/mo
Number of Plans
Money-Back Guarantee
—
97 days
Performance & Infrastructure
Uptime Guarantee
99.99%
100%
NVMe Storage
Yes (DigitalOcean Premium)
Yes (All Plans)
LiteSpeed Web Server
No (Apache + Nginx + Varnish)
Data Centers
60+ (across DO/AWS/GCP)
2 (USA only)
PHP Versions
7.4 – 8.3
7.4 – 8.3
Inodes (File Count)
—
—
Email Send Limit
N/A — Rackspace required ($1/mailbox)
500/hour per domain
Free Features Included
Free SSL
—
—
Free Domain
—
—
Free Migration
Yes (1st migration free)
Yes (WordPress 1-click)
Free CDN
—
—
Support
24/7 Support
—
—
Phone Support
Callback (paid)
Control Panel
Cloudways Platform
DreamHost Custom Panel
Expert Ratings
User Friendly
—
Support
—
Features
—
Reliability
—
Pricing
—
Key Features
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
DreamHost
- 97-Day Money Back Guarantee (Industry's Longest)
- WordPress.org Officially Recommended
- 100% Uptime Guarantee with Service Credits
- NVMe SSD Storage on All Plans (10x Faster)
- Free Domain Privacy for Life
- Free SSL, CDN & DDoS Protection
- Daily Automated Backups Included
- 24/7 Live Chat & Ticket Support
Pros & Cons
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
DreamHost
Pros
- 97-day money-back guarantee (longest in industry)
- Officially recommended by WordPress.org
- 100% uptime guarantee with service credits
- NVMe SSD on all plans
- Free domain privacy for LIFE
- Unlimited bandwidth on every plan
Cons
- No cPanel — uses proprietary custom panel
- No phone support
- Shared Starter: NO email included (paid add-on at $1.67/month)
- Shared Starter: must buy email separately
- Database size limited to 3 GB per database
- 25 GB max per email mailbox (Unlimited plan)
Ready to choose?
Visit any of these providers to claim their best deal:

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 |

DreamHost Plans
24 plans available across all hosting types.
Shared Hosting 3
| Plan | Price | Storage | CPU | RAM | Bandwidth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web Hosting Launch | $1.99/mo | 25 GB NVMe SSD | Shared CPU | Shared RAM | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| Web Hosting Growth Best | $3.49/mo | 50 GB NVMe SSD | Shared CPU | Shared RAM | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| Web Hosting Scale | $7.99/mo | 100 GB NVMe SSD | Shared CPU | Shared RAM | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
WordPress Hosting 6
| Plan | Price | Storage | CPU | RAM | Bandwidth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress Hosting Launch | $1.99/mo | 25 GB NVMe SSD | Shared CPU | Shared RAM | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| WordPress Hosting Growth Best | $3.49/mo | 50 GB NVMe SSD | Shared CPU | Shared RAM | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| WordPress Hosting Scale | $7.99/mo | 100 GB NVMe SSD | Shared CPU | Shared RAM | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| DreamPress 1 | $11.99/mo | 15 GB NVMe SSD | Managed Dedicated Resources | Managed Dedicated Resources | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| DreamPress 2 | $14.99/mo | 25 GB NVMe SSD | Managed Dedicated Resources (Higher Tier) | Managed Dedicated Resources (Higher Tier) | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| DreamPress 3 Best | $16.99/mo | 30 GB NVMe SSD | Managed Dedicated Resources (Top Tier) | Managed Dedicated Resources (Top Tier) | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
VPS Hosting 4
| Plan | Price | Storage | CPU | RAM | Bandwidth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPS Business | $10.00/mo | 60 GB NVMe SSD | 2 Cores | 2 GB RAM (with Auto-Boost RAM Protection) | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| VPS Professional Best | $20.00/mo | 120 GB NVMe SSD | 2 Cores | 4 GB RAM (with Auto-Boost RAM Protection) | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| VPS Enterprise | $40.00/mo | 240 GB NVMe SSD | 4 Cores | 8 GB RAM (with Auto-Boost RAM Protection) | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| VPS Premier | $60.00/mo | 360 GB NVMe SSD | 6 Cores | 12 GB RAM (with Auto-Boost RAM Protection) | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
Dedicated Server 5
| Plan | Price | Storage | CPU | RAM | Bandwidth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DH Dedicated - Standard 16 | $165.00/mo | 480 GB SSD (RAID 1) | 6-Core 12-Thread Processor | 16 GB RAM | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| DH Dedicated - Enhanced 16 | $229.00/mo | 480 GB SSD (RAID 1) | 12-Core 24-Thread Processor | 16 GB RAM | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| DH Dedicated - Enhanced 32 Best | $309.00/mo | 960 GB SSD (RAID 1) | 12-Core 24-Thread Processor | 32 GB RAM | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| DH Dedicated - Enhanced 64 | $455.00/mo | 1920 GB SSD (RAID 1) | 12-Core 24-Thread Processor | 64 GB RAM | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |
| DH Dedicated - Enhanced 128 | $625.00/mo | 1920 GB SSD (RAID 1) | 12-Core 24-Thread Processor | 128 GB RAM | Unmetered Bandwidth | Get Plan |