Cloudways
Best for: Developers and agenciesPros
- Monthly, no contract
- Choose cloud provider
Cons
- More knobs to manage
Kinsta
Best for: Hands-off business WordPressPros
- Google Cloud infrastructure
- Polished MyKinsta dashboard
- Staging and backups built in
Cons
- Priced by visits; watch limits
The key difference: Cloudways manages a server for you, and you can run several apps on it. Kinsta manages WordPress sites for you on its own platform.
| Cloudways | Kinsta | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | Monthly, per server | Monthly or annual, per plan |
| Control | More server-level control | Less to manage, fewer knobs |
| Best for | Agencies and developers | Owners who want hands-off WordPress |
Plans and prices change. Check current pricing on the official page: www.cloudways.com/en/pricing.php
Plans and prices change. Check current pricing on the official page: kinsta.com/pricing/
How this page was made: from each provider's official product and pricing pages and its public documentation. We haven't run a formal hands-on test for this page. When we add hands-on notes, we'll label them.
Pricing compared
| Plan | Monthly | Sites | Monthly visits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single 35k | $35 (first month free) | 1 | 35,000 |
| Single 65k | $50 | 1 | 65,000 |
| Single 125k | $90 | 1 | 125,000 |
| Single 315k | $170 | 1 | 315,000 |
| WP 2 | $70 | 2 | Shared across sites (check page) |
| WP 5 | $115 | 5 | Shared across sites (check page) |
| WP 10 | $225 | 10 | Shared across sites (check page) |
| Agency 20 | $340 | 20 | Shared across sites (check page) |
| Enterprise | From $500 | Custom | Custom |
Kinsta counts a visit as a unique IP address within 24 hours. Going over your plan's visits or storage triggers overage fees, with alerts at 80% and 100%. Plans include free unlimited migrations, daily backups with 14 to 30 days of retention depending on plan, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Kinsta prices as listed on kinsta.com/pricing in October 2026, in US dollars per month on monthly billing. Annual billing is listed as two months free. Confirm before you buy.
Cloudways bills by server size and cloud provider, monthly or hourly. See cloudways.com/pricing.
How we evaluated
Scores on this page are editorial scores out of 10. We built them from official product, pricing and documentation pages, checked in October 2026, using the weighted criteria below. Advertisers do not influence our ratings, and we haven't run lab-style benchmarks for this page.
| Criterion | Weight | What we looked at |
|---|---|---|
| Managed features | 30% | Staging, backups, caching, CDN, security, migrations |
| Plan limits and pricing | 25% | Visit and storage limits, renewal and overage pricing |
| Infrastructure and scaling | 20% | Cloud provider, data centers, scaling options |
| Support | 15% | Documented channels and hours |
| Business and agency fit | 10% | Multi-site plans, team access, white-label options |
Frequently asked questions
Is Cloudways managed hosting?
Does Kinsta limit visits?
How we score
Our scores are editorial scores out of 10. They're our judgment, weighted across the criteria below, based on each provider's official product pages, pricing and documentation, plus public feedback. They aren't user ratings or lab test results, and commissions don't change them.
- Managed features (staging, backups, caching, CDN)
- Plan limits and renewal/overage pricing
- Infrastructure and scaling options
- Support channels documented
- Fit for business and agency use
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