Vultr vs. Cloudways

Affiliate links present. Disclosure

Vultr

Cloudways

Raw Cloud Droplets vs. Managed Cloud Layer

Vultr

Cloudways

Ease of Use

3.4

6.4

Performance

4.3

4.9

Reliability

3.7

7.5

Scalability

7.8

7.5

Dev Control

7.6

5.2

Support

1.9

4.4

Value

6.1

Vultr leads in 2Cloudways leads in 4

Feature

Vultr

Cloudways

Managed WordPress

✓

WordPress-only

Staging included

✓

Email hosting

LiteSpeed server

Phone support

Root/SSH access

✓

Eco credentials

Quick pick

→ Vultr fits if full OS control, bare-metal access, or specific region availability matter — and your team owns the stack configuration.

Visit Vultr

→ Cloudways fits if you want managed server tooling on cloud infrastructure and the markup is worth the operational simplicity.

Visit Cloudways

Cloudways can run on Vultr infrastructure — you can select Vultr as your cloud provider. The difference is what Cloudways adds: staging, automated backups, a GUI for server management, and PHP configuration. Vultr gives you the server; Cloudways builds an operations layer on top of it.

If you choose Vultr

What you get that Cloudways doesn't offer

Full root access — configure the entire OS without a managed layer restricting options. No markup: you pay infrastructure cost only. Bare-metal dedicated instances alongside cloud VMs. Wide global region footprint including locations Cloudways doesn't expose through its panel.

What you give up

Cloudways' managed layer: staging, automated backups, Redis, Elasticsearch, and PHP management configured through a GUI. Reliability on Cloudways is higher — the managed stack handles failure scenarios that raw droplets surface directly. Cloudways' support covers the application layer; Vultr's covers infrastructure only.

Visit Vultr

If you choose Cloudways

What you get that Vultr doesn't offer

Staging, automated backups, and Redis configured through a panel without SSH. Easier onboarding — no Linux administration assumed. Better support quality for web application workloads. Higher reliability backed by the managed stack.

What you give up

Full root access — Cloudways centralizes server configuration in its managed layer. Bare-metal instances unavailable. Management markup on top of base infrastructure cost. Some Vultr regions and instance types are inaccessible through Cloudways' provider selection.

Visit Cloudways