This comparison is for small businesses, freelancers and agencies choosing managed hosting for WordPress. Kinsta and Cloudways are two of the most popular managed hosts, and they take different approaches. Kinsta sells fully managed WordPress plans priced per site, with extras such as a CDN and malware removal included. Cloudways sells managed cloud servers priced by the hour, on the cloud provider you choose, and you can run as many sites as the server handles.

This is a research-based comparison. We did not host sites on either platform. We compared both using their pricing pages, documentation, service level agreements and terms, checked in October 2026. All prices are in US dollars and exclude tax. For more detail, see our Kinsta review and Cloudways review. The If you're in Canada section covers Canadian data centres and sales tax.

The quick answer

Choose Kinsta if you run one or two WordPress sites and want them looked after end to end. For $35 a month or $350 a year, the CDN, firewall, malware removal and unlimited migrations are included, support is 24/7 in 8 languages, and there is a free first month and a money-back guarantee to start.

Choose Cloudways if you run several sites, host non-WordPress apps, or want to pick your own cloud provider and pay by the hour. One server can host unlimited sites, servers start at $11 a month, and you add a CDN, malware protection and email as you need them.

FeatureKinstaCloudways
Starting price$35/mo or $350/yr per site$11/mo (1GB server), billed hourly
Price for a live site$35/mo or $350/yr$24 to $28/mo (2GB DigitalOcean server)
How you're chargedPer site, prepaid monthly or yearlyPer server, hourly, billed monthly in arrears
Sites included1 on entry plansUnlimited per server
Apps supportedWordPressWordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, Laravel, PHP
Data centres30, on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure150+ across 5 cloud providers
CDNCloudflare, includedCloudflare Enterprise add-on, from $4.99/domain/mo
MalwareFree malware removalProtection add-on, from $4/app/mo
MigrationsUnlimited, freeFirst site free; unlimited WordPress per the migration page
BackupsDaily, kept 14 days on entry plansDaily by default, kept 1 week; adjustable, $0.033/GB
Email mailboxesRackspace add-on, from $1.50/mailbox/mo
Trial or guaranteeFirst month free on select plans; 30-day money-back3-day free trial, no card
Support24/7 chat in 8 languages24/7 chat and tickets; phone with Premium support
Kinsta entry WordPress plans vs Cloudways Flexible servers, USD before tax, checked October 2026.

Price: one site and several sites

The two price differently. Kinsta charges a plan price per site, with the extras included. Cloudways charges for the server by the hour, capped at the monthly price on DigitalOcean, Linode and Vultr, and you add extras by the month.

One WordPress site, for a year:

SetupMonthlyYear one
Kinsta entry plan, annualn/a$350
Kinsta entry plan, monthly$35$420
Cloudways 2GB DigitalOcean Standard, server only$24$288
Cloudways 2GB DigitalOcean Premium, server only$28$336
Cloudways 2GB Standard + Cloudflare CDN + malware protection$32.99$395.88

The last row adds Cloudways' Cloudflare Enterprise CDN for one domain ($4.99) and malware protection for one site ($4), the two extras closest to what Kinsta includes. Kinsta's annual billing is two months free compared with monthly, and new customers on select entry plans also get the first month free. Cloudways' offsite backups add $0.033 per GB of storage. Our totals multiply the published prices and exclude tax.

Cloudways Halloween offer. Cloudways is offering NorthVetted readers 40% off for their first 4 months, plus unlimited free migrations, with the code TREAT26 (new customers; checked October 20, 2026). Our table uses Cloudways' regular prices.

Get the Cloudways offer (affiliate link, opens NorthVetted redirect)

Several sites. This is where Cloudways' model fits well. Cloudways says there is no limit on the number of applications on one server, so five small sites can share one server. For example, a 4GB DigitalOcean Standard server is $46 a month; the CDN for five domains ($4.99 each) and malware protection for five sites ($4 each) would add about $45. Kinsta prices by the number of sites: its WP 2 plan is $70 a month for two sites, and its add-ons page lists extra sites at $30 a month each. If you manage many client sites, compare Cloudways with Kinsta's multi-site plans for your exact count.

Larger single sites. Kinsta's next tiers are $50 a month (Single 65k or Single 40GB) and $59 a month (Launch Plus). For stores and membership sites, Kinsta recommends its Launch plan (also $35 a month, sized for about 75,000 visits) or the $50 tiers and up, rather than the Single 20GB and Single 35k plans. On Cloudways, you move to a larger server: 4GB is $46 a month and 8GB is $88 on DigitalOcean Standard.

What each includes

Kinsta includes, on every plan:

  • A Cloudflare-powered CDN and edge caching
  • A fully managed web application firewall with DDoS protection
  • Free malware removal if a site is hacked
  • Unlimited free migrations
  • A free staging environment for each site
  • An application performance monitoring (APM) tool and uptime checks every 3 minutes
  • Daily backups, kept 14 days on entry plans

If a site goes over its visits or bandwidth, Kinsta keeps it online and bills an overage: $0.50 per 1,000 visits or per GB of server bandwidth.

Cloudways includes, on every Flexible server:

  • Free SSL, an Imunify360 server firewall and a WordPress vulnerability scanner
  • Free staging and cloning
  • Redis cache, plus Object Cache Pro on servers of 4GB or more
  • Unlimited sites per server, with no visit limit
  • Daily offsite backups, adjustable from hourly to weekly and kept up to 4 weeks, billed at $0.033 per GB

Cloudways' extras are add-ons you choose: the Cloudflare Enterprise CDN (from $4.99 per domain a month, with a 30-day free trial), malware protection (from $4 per app a month), Rackspace email (from $1.50 per mailbox) and paid support tiers.

Data centres and infrastructure

Kinsta lists 30 data centres for WordPress hosting: 4 in the United States, 2 in Canada, 4 in Latin America, 8 in Europe including London, 3 in the Middle East, Johannesburg in Africa and 8 in Asia-Pacific, including Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo and Singapore. Kinsta says its infrastructure now runs on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), and its CDN and edge cache serve pages from Cloudflare's global network.

Cloudways says it offers 150+ data centres across five cloud providers: DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS and Google Cloud. The locations available depend on the provider you choose, so check that your preferred city is offered on the provider you want. AWS and Google Cloud servers cost more and bill hourly with no monthly cap; DigitalOcean, Vultr and Linode are capped at the monthly price.

Uptime, support and guarantees

Uptime. Kinsta's service level agreement guarantees 99.9% uptime on standard plans, with service credits if it misses that, and up to 99.99% on custom plans. Cloudways' own SLA covers its support and platform console, and for server uptime it points to each cloud provider's SLA.

Support. Kinsta offers 24/7 chat in 8 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch and Japanese, and says its average response time is under 2 minutes. Cloudways offers 24/7 live chat and tickets, and says its average response time is 90 seconds. Phone support and a private Slack channel come with Cloudways' Premium support add-on ($500 a month or 10% of your invoice, whichever is higher).

Trials and refunds. Kinsta offers the first month free on select entry plans for new customers, with a card required, and a 30-day money-back guarantee for first-time customers that starts after the free month. Cloudways offers a 3-day free trial with no credit card on DigitalOcean, Vultr and Linode servers. Cloudways uses the trial in place of a money-back guarantee, and its billing is for the hours you use.

Currency, tax and email

Currency. Both bill in US dollars only. If your card is in another currency, your card issuer converts the charge and may add a fee.

Tax. Both list prices before tax and add it based on where you are. Kinsta's tax page says it charges sales tax, VAT or GST in certain locations, including some US states, the EU, the UK, India and Nigeria. Cloudways, as part of DigitalOcean, collects VAT, GST or sales tax for customers in specific countries and US states, shown as a separate line on the invoice. A business with a valid VAT or GST number can usually add it to the account.

Email. Neither includes mailboxes in the base price. Cloudways sells Rackspace email from $1.50 per mailbox a month. Kinsta recommends Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or Zoho Mail. Budget for email on top of either.

Beyond WordPress

Cloudways' Flexible servers host WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, Laravel and other PHP apps, and Cloudways has launched a separate product for Node.js apps. Its Autonomous plans, from $99 a month with autoscaling, are for WordPress.

Kinsta focuses on WordPress. Since February 2, 2026, its application hosting, database hosting and static site hosting run through Sevalla, a separate Kinsta platform, with apps and databases from $5 a month and static sites free.

If you're in Canada

Canadian data centres. Kinsta lists Montreal and Toronto. Cloudways offers Toronto on DigitalOcean, Vultr and Linode, Montreal on AWS and Google Cloud, and Calgary on AWS. A Quebec business that wants its site hosted in Quebec can choose Montreal on either; on Cloudways that means AWS or Google Cloud, which bill hourly with no monthly cap and are not part of the free trial. Our managed WordPress hosting review covers what Quebec's privacy law asks of businesses that host outside the province.

Sales tax. Cloudways bills as part of DigitalOcean, which charges GST, HST, QST, PST or RST by province, for example 13% HST in Ontario. A registered business can add its GST/HST number for future invoices. Kinsta's tax page does not list Canada among the places where it collects tax. Ask your accountant how GST/HST applies to a US-dollar hosting bill, and see GST, HST and PST rates by province.

Support in French. Kinsta lists French among its 8 support languages. Cloudways does not publish a list of support languages, so ask before you sign up if you need French.

Paying in Canadian dollars. Both bill in US dollars. If paying in CAD matters to you, see Kinsta vs WP Engine, or our best web hosting in Canada roundup for Canadian hosts that bill in CAD and include email.

Which should you choose?

Choose Kinsta if you:

  • Run one or two WordPress sites and want hosting fully looked after
  • Want the CDN, firewall, malware removal and migrations included in one price
  • Want a free first month and a 30-day money-back guarantee
  • Want an uptime guarantee with service credits, or support in Spanish, French, German or another of Kinsta's 8 languages

Choose Cloudways if you:

  • Run several sites, for example as an agency or freelancer, and want them on one server
  • Host Magento, Laravel or other PHP apps alongside WordPress
  • Want to choose your cloud provider and data centre from a wide list
  • Like paying by the hour, for example for a short-lived staging or test server
  • Are comfortable sizing a server and adding the extras you need

Kinsta

4.5
Visit Kinsta (affiliate link, opens NorthVetted redirect)

Cloudways

4.0
Visit Cloudways (affiliate link, opens NorthVetted redirect)

Our verdict

4.5

Kinsta is the better fit for most businesses running one or two WordPress sites. For $35 a month or $350 a year, it includes the CDN, firewall, malware removal and unlimited migrations, with 30 data centres, support in 8 languages, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, a free first month and a money-back guarantee. Cloudways is the better fit for agencies, developers and anyone running several sites or PHP apps: servers start at $11 a month, a 2GB server for a live site is $24 to $28, one server hosts unlimited sites, and you choose from five cloud providers and add the extras you need.

Frequently asked questions

Is Cloudways cheaper than Kinsta?

For a bare server, yes: Cloudways starts at USD $11 a month, and a 2GB server for a live site is $24 to $28 a month on DigitalOcean, against Kinsta's $35 a month or $350 a year. Kinsta includes a CDN, firewall and malware removal that are add-ons on Cloudways; with the Cloudflare CDN and malware protection for one site, a 2GB Cloudways server is about $33 a month. For several sites, Cloudways usually costs less, because one server can host unlimited sites while Kinsta charges per site.

Which is easier to use for one WordPress site?

Kinsta is built for that case. You pick a plan and Kinsta runs the server, caching, CDN, firewall and malware cleanup for you. On Cloudways you choose a cloud provider and a server size first, then add the CDN and malware protection if you want them. Both include free staging and 24/7 chat support.

Which has more data centre locations?

Cloudways says it offers 150+ data centres across DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS and Google Cloud, and the choice depends on the provider you pick. Kinsta lists 30 data centres across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

Do Cloudways or Kinsta offer a free trial or money-back guarantee?

Kinsta offers the first month free on select entry plans for new customers, and a 30-day money-back guarantee for first-time customers that starts after the free month. Cloudways offers a 3-day free trial with no credit card on DigitalOcean, Vultr and Linode servers, and we did not find a money-back guarantee.

Can I host non-WordPress sites on Kinsta or Cloudways?

Cloudways hosts WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, Laravel and other PHP apps on its Flexible servers. Kinsta focuses on WordPress; since February 2, 2026, its application, database and static site hosting have run through Sevalla, a separate Kinsta platform with apps from $5 a month and free static sites.

Do Cloudways or Kinsta include email?

Neither includes mailboxes in the base price. Cloudways sells Rackspace email from USD $1.50 per mailbox a month. Kinsta does not provide email and recommends Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or Zoho Mail.

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