Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Cloudways VS Netlify

Compare Cloudways VS Netlify and see what are their differences

Cloudways logo Cloudways

Cloudways is a managed hosting platform for PHP based application including WordPress, Magento, WooCommerce or a custom-built site.Experience fast performance, reliability, security with 24/7 support.

Netlify logo Netlify

Build, deploy and host your static site or app with a drag and drop interface and automatic delpoys from GitHub or Bitbucket
  • Cloudways Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-08-23

Cloudways is built for speed, flexibility, and simplicity. Experience 65% faster performance with our new NGINX stack and let Cloudways Copilot save time on hosting maintenance. Host unlimited websites on a single plan with no visitor limits, and scale effortlessly with five leading cloud providers โ€” DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud. Enjoy pay-as-you-go pricing, 24/7 expert human support, and complete freedom to grow your business without the usual hosting restrictions.

BFCM Deal 2025 - Promo Code: BFCM5050 - Offer: 50% off for 3 months + 50 free migrations - Add-ons: 50% off for 3 months on all app-level add-ons (Malware, Cloudflare, Rackspace, Elastic, DNS Made Easy) and the Advanced Support add-on - Validity: 12th November to 5th December, 2025 - Link: https://platform.cloudways.com/signup?coupon=BFCM5050

  • Netlify Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-23

Cloudways

$ Details
Free Trial $10.0 / Monthly
Platforms
PHP Laravel Wordpress Magento Woocomerce More..
Release Date
2012 October

Netlify

$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Cloudways features and specs

  • Scale of Resources
  • Staging Environment
  • Restore Server and Apps
  • Github deployment
  • 1-Click Free SSL Installation
  • Multiple PHP Versions
  • Pay as you go

Netlify features and specs

  • Deployment Speed
    Netlify offers very fast and easy deployment processes, often requiring just a push to a Git repository.
  • Built-in CDN
    Netlify includes a global Content Delivery Network (CDN) to speed up the delivery of websites and applications.
  • Serverless Functions
    Netlify provides serverless functions allowing developers to run backend code without managing servers.
  • Automated Builds
    Automated build processes are integrated, supporting continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD).
  • Custom Domains and SSL
    Easily manage custom domains and automatically provision and renew SSL certificates.
  • Integrated Form Handling
    Netlify offers form handling capabilities out-of-the-box, simplifying the process of collecting form data.
  • Plugins and Integrations
    Extensible with a wide range of plugins and integrations including analytics, CMS, and other third-party services.
  • Developer-Friendly
    Offers a wide range of developer-friendly features, such as split testing, instant rollbacks, and APIs for customization.
  • Free Tier
    Generous free tier that allows for hosting of personal projects and small websites at no cost.

Possible disadvantages of Netlify

  • Pricing
    While there's a free tier, more advanced features and higher usage can become expensive on a paid plan.
  • Function Limits
    Serverless functions have execution and duration limits, which may not be suitable for all applications.
  • Platform-Specific
    Deployment and feature configurations can be platform-specific, which may require learning new processes that differ from other providers.
  • Build Minutes
    The free tier includes limited build minutes, which can be a constraint for projects that require frequent deployments.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Using Netlify-specific features (like certain build plugins) can make it harder to migrate to another hosting provider.
  • Limited Backend Services
    Primarily designed for frontend applications, so it may not be as robust for extensive backend services compared to traditional servers.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    Some advanced features may have a steep learning curve for beginners.
  • Build Times
    Build times can be slow for very large sites or monorepos, impacting continuous deployment speed.
  • Support
    Customer support responses can be slow on the lower-tier plans.

Analysis of Cloudways

Overall verdict

  • Cloudways is considered a strong option for those seeking managed hosting solutions that are both powerful and adaptable. It stands out due to its competency in handling different cloud platforms and ease of use, making it a notable choice for small to medium-sized businesses that seek efficient and scalable web hosting services.

Why this product is good

  • Cloudways is often praised for its flexibility and managed hosting services, which cater to various needs, such as developers who prefer a platform that supports multiple cloud infrastructures. It offers features like automated backups, managed security, staging areas for testing changes, and reliable customer support. Users appreciate its performance optimization and scalability, which are crucial for websites with varying traffic demands.

Recommended for

    Cloudways is recommended for developers, digital agencies, small to medium-sized businesses, and anyone looking for a balance between control and management in cloud hosting. It's particularly suited for users who require the flexibility to choose their cloud provider without managing the underlying server infrastructure directly.

Analysis of Netlify

Overall verdict

  • Netlify is considered a good option for many developers and businesses looking for a platform to deploy and manage static websites or Jamstack applications.

Why this product is good

  • Netlify offers a seamless and easy-to-use platform for deploying static sites and modern web applications.
  • It provides developers with a variety of powerful features like continuous deployment, built-in HTTPS, DNS management, and serverless functions.
  • The platform supports server-side rendering and dynamic functions, which is advantageous for modern web development needs.
  • Netlify's workflow optimizes for Git, allowing developers to connect their repositories directly and automate deployment processes.
  • The platform's collaboration tools make it easy for teams to work together on website development.

Recommended for

  • Developers building static sites or Jamstack applications.
  • Teams looking for streamlined deployment workflows integrated with Git providers.
  • Businesses seeking a robust hosting solution with minimal server management overhead.
  • Projects requiring custom domains with automatic HTTPS.

Cloudways videos

Cloudways Review 2 Years Later & Cloudways Setup Tutorial - WordPress Cloud Hosting Provider

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How to Host a Laravel Project On Cloudways
  • Review - ๐Ÿ‘‰CloudWays Review 2023 | Watch This Before Buying!
  • Review - I Found my DREAM WordPress Host! | Cloudways Review
  • Review - Cloudways Review - Is Cloudways Worth It?

Netlify videos

Netlify Platform Tutorial Review

More videos:

  • Review - Deploy Websites In Seconds With Netlify
  • Review - Deploy Your Website In Minutes With Netlify

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Cloudways and Netlify)
Web Hosting
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Computing
24 24%
76% 76
Cloud Hosting
59 59%
41% 41
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Cloudways and Netlify

Cloudways Reviews

  1. Rahul sharma
    ยท Admin at Well cloud hosting ยท
    Cloudways has better uptime and speed

    Cloudways is amazing for non-techie, clean interface, better support & features are up to mark. who has good knowledge of coding, better would be to go directly and host your application on AWS or google cloud it saves a lot of money.

    ๐Ÿ Competitors: A2Hosting, InMotion Hosting, Vultr
    ๐Ÿ‘ Pros:    Easy user interface|Easy to scale|Better uptime
    ๐Ÿ‘Ž Cons:    No email hosting|No root access

9 Best SiteGround Alternatives 2024 {#1 is Most Voted}
Greengeeks, DomainRacer A2hosting and Cloudways are the hostings that are voted by making users as top 3 affordable siteground alternatives.
9 Best SSD Web Hosting Providers Of 2024
If you want to buy Cloud SSD hosting, you may use a special discount through the Cloudways Discount Code. You can use the basic DigitalOcean plan free for 3 months.
Top 5 Best Ubuntu VPS Providers for 2024
Overview and Unique Selling Points CloudWays stands out for its managed cloud hosting services, providing ease of use without sacrificing power or flexibility. The platform offers Ubuntu support along with a custom PHP stack optimized for performance. Partnering with five IaaS providers, including DigitalOcean and Google Cloud, CloudWays ensures a reliable and scalable...
7 High-Performance VM Hosting Companies To Get In 2024
Talking about the features, Cloudways only uses SSD hosting for reliable performance. Furthermore, you can enjoy a dedicated environment that will help you maximize server and app performance. Moreover, it uses PHP 7 servers, which are HTTP/2 enabled, to help increase the speed of communication between the web servers and clients.
Best European Web Hosting Companies โ€“ A Quick View
Cloudways has gained userโ€™s trust and support by offering optimum performance, security, reliability, and speed. You may check its exceptional characteristics through my detailed Cloudways review.

Netlify Reviews

  1. Eleanor Bennett
    ยท Digital Marketing Specialist at Logit.io ยท
    Useful previews

    As someone who is often creating new pages, Netlify's preview makes the review process easier. You can also use the generated URL from Netlify's preview to run an SEO audit prior to going live. This is very useful for spotting bugs or broken redirects.


Top 15 Cloudflare Alternatives: A Complete Guide
Netlify is a CDN service that also offers edge computing, web security, and VPN solutions. Netlify allows you to deploy and run your web content and applications on its edge network, which has over 70 edge locations in 35 countries. Netlify also provides security features, such as SSL, DDoS protection, WAF, and firewall, to protect your web content and applications.
Exploring alternatives to Vercel: A guide for web developers
Netlify is one of the most popular alternatives to Vercel, offering a comprehensive platform for deploying static sites and modern web applications. With a strong focus on developer experience, Netlify provides powerful features such as serverless functions, continuous deployment, and advanced analytics.
Source: fleek.xyz
Heroku Free Tier Gone โ€” 10 Alternatives Still Free in April 2026
Similar to Vercel, Netlify excels at static sites and serverless functions but isn't suitable for traditional backend applications that Heroku typically hosted.
Source: snapdeploy.dev
Choosing the best Next.js hosting platform
Where Netlify is superior to Vercel is the list of add-ons they offer. Among them, Netlify Forms allow developers to manage forms and submission without extra code. It even integrates with third-party applications such as MailChimp, Zendesk, and more.
Top 10 Netlify Alternatives
Although Netlify is a credible static app hosting and deployment platform for all sizes of businesses. But if you still want alternatives, then you should consider our suggested Netlify alternatives. This guide displays all these alternatives to Netlify in detail with pricing structure and core properties. Hopefully, you will pick a suitable option for your project.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Netlify seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 114 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Cloudways mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Cloudways yet. Tracking of Cloudways recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Netlify mentions (114)

View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Cloudways and Netlify, you can also consider the following products

DigitalOcean - Simplifying cloud hosting. Deploy an SSD cloud server in 55 seconds.

Vercel - Vercel is the platform for frontend developers, providing the speed and reliability innovators need to create at the moment of inspiration.

Kinsta - Fast, secure, and feature-rich managed hosting for WordPress on next-generation cloud infrastructure, secured by Cloudflare.

Heroku - Agile deployment platform for Ruby, Node.js, Clojure, Java, Python, and Scala. Setup takes only minutes and deploys are instant through git. Leave tedious server maintenance to Heroku and focus on your code.

A2Hosting - Need Fast, Reliable Web Hosting? A2 Hosting Is The Leader In Optimized Hosting For Any Need! Try Our Hosting Service Today!

CloudFlare - Cloudflare is a global network designed to make everything you connect to the Internet secure, private, fast, and reliable.