Hostinger
Best for: New sitesPros
- Low entry price
- Beginner friendly
Cons
- Higher renewal rates
Cloudways
Best for: Developers and agenciesPros
- Monthly, no contract
- Choose cloud provider
Cons
- More knobs to manage
Hostinger is where many sites start. Cloudways is where many go once traffic and revenue grow. The question is when the upgrade pays for itself.
Signs you've outgrown budget hosting
- Pages slow down noticeably during traffic spikes.
- You need staging to test changes safely.
- Your site makes enough money that an hour offline costs more than a month of better hosting.
| Hostinger | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Price level | Budget (watch renewal rates) | Mid-range, monthly billing |
| Resources | Shared | Dedicated server resources per plan |
| Skill needed | Beginner | Comfortable beginner to developer |
Plans and prices change. Check current pricing on the official page: www.hostinger.com/pricing
Plans and prices change. Check current pricing on the official page: www.cloudways.com/en/pricing.php
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.
WP Engine, Cloudways, Liquid Web, Hostinger and DigitalOcean change prices and promotions often, and introductory rates can differ from renewal rates. We link to each official pricing page instead of listing figures: WP Engine, Cloudways, Liquid Web, Hostinger, DigitalOcean.
See also managed vs shared hosting.
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
Why does Hostinger renew higher?
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
Get the hosting migration checklist
The steps to move a business site to new hosting without downtime.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Privacy.