Cloudways vs DigitalOcean: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Cloudways and DigitalOcean are both popular cloud hosting platforms. While they have similarities, they also have key differences that set them apart. In this article, we will explore six important differences between Cloudways and DigitalOcean.

1. Managed vs Self-Managed: Cloudways is a managed hosting platform that provides a user-friendly interface and automates many tasks such as server setup, security, and backups. On the other hand, DigitalOcean is a self-managed platform where users have complete control over their servers, but they are responsible for managing everything themselves.

2. Pricing: Cloudways offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model with hourly billing, allowing users to scale their resources up or down as needed. On the contrary, DigitalOcean has a fixed monthly pricing model, which means users have to pay a fixed amount regardless of their server usage.

3. Server Management: Cloudways employs a user-friendly control panel that simplifies server management tasks, making it suitable for beginners and those without technical expertise. DigitalOcean, on the other hand, offers a command-line interface (CLI) and API for server management, making it more suitable for developers and advanced users.

4. Server Locations: Cloudways has a wide range of server locations across multiple cloud providers, including AWS, Google Cloud, and DigitalOcean itself, allowing users to choose the most suitable location for their target audience. DigitalOcean, however, has a limited number of data centers, which may not be ideal for users with specific geographical requirements.

5. Scalability: Cloudways offers vertical scaling, which allows users to easily add or remove server resources without downtime. DigitalOcean also supports scaling, but it involves more manual configuration and may require some downtime during the process.

6. Additional Features: Cloudways provides several additional features such as managed backups, server monitoring, and a built-in CDN, which are not available in DigitalOcean. On the contrary, DigitalOcean provides features like floating IPs and block storage, which are not offered by Cloudways.

In Summary, Cloudways is a managed hosting platform with a user-friendly interface, pay-as-you-go pricing, and additional features like managed backups and server monitoring. On the other hand, DigitalOcean is a self-managed platform with fixed monthly pricing, a command-line interface for server management, and features like floating IPs and block storage.