The honest shortlist
7 Cloudways alternatives for 2026
Pricing verified August 2026 from published pricing pages — prices and limits can change. One entry on this list is us; it's marked, and the case against us is included.
Cloudways deserves credit for popularising the model we also believe in: rent a server, host unlimited sites on it, stop paying per site. People search for alternatives for two opposite reasons. Some want the same thing cheaper — prices have climbed since DigitalOcean acquired the platform in 2022 (the first rises in its history landed in 2023), and newer panels now undercut it. Others discovered what 'managed' means there: the platform keeps your server alive, but plugin updates, security incidents and broken client sites are still your job — their genuinely-managed 'Autonomous' line costs $99–399/month per single app.
So this list is split by which exit you're taking: cheaper-and-still-DIY, or more-managed. Pricing verified August 2026; one entry is us (WPenguin), marked clearly, and if you're leaving Cloudways purely on price, we say so plainly: we're not the cheap option.
Why people leave Cloudways
Price creep
Post-acquisition rises: an 8GB premium server now runs ~$88–99/mo — newer panels bundle similar hardware for half that.
"Managed" means the server
Support covers the platform. WordPress care — updates, malware, downtime triage on your sites — stays with you.
Managed costs per app
Their done-for-you Autonomous tier is $99–399/mo for a single WordPress app — fleet economics collapse instantly.
Platform drift
Since the DigitalOcean acquisition, provider options and pricing have kept shifting — some long-time users no longer recognise the product they signed up for.
The alternatives, compared
1. WPenguin — that’s us
One dedicated server, unlimited sites, fully managed — with an AI assistant and human engineers.
Pricing: £69/mo (2 vCPU / 4GB) to £499/mo (32GB), flat. No per-site fees, no visit caps, no overages.
Full disclosure: this is us, so read the rest of this list too. WPenguin gives every customer a dedicated server — not a slice of a shared platform — and doesn't count sites or visits on it. The management layer that per-site hosts charge for and panels leave to you is included: tested plugin updates with auto-rollback across the fleet, daily offsite backups, malware scanning and cleanup, 24/7 monitoring where we fix first and tell you after, staging, and free migrations in.
The interface is different too: you message an AI assistant on the web or Telegram ('update WooCommerce everywhere', 'why is client-x.co.uk slow?'), and real UK-based WordPress engineers pick up whatever the assistant can't. It's a young service — launched July 2026 — so you're trading a long track record for dedicated hardware, a flat bill, and included engineering.
- you run many client sites (or one big one) and want the maintenance done for you, at a flat price, on hardware nobody else shares
- you enjoy server administration and your time is genuinely free — a panel on a cheap VPS will cost less cash
2. xCloud
Same unlimited-sites server model, newer and cheaper.
Pricing: Managed servers from $12/mo (2GB); 8GB ~$45/mo, 16GB ~$88–100/mo. BYO-server panel from free.
The most direct swap: bundled servers, unlimited sites, no metering, at prices Cloudways charged years ago. The trade is maturity — xCloud is young and iterating quickly. The management layer is the same shape as Cloudways': the infrastructure is theirs, the WordPress work is yours.
- you want exactly the Cloudways proposition at roughly half the price and accept a younger platform
- platform maturity matters — it's moving fast, with the rough edges that implies
3. GridPane
Agency-grade panel + your own VPS — maximum control.
Pricing: Core panel free (≤25 sites, BYO server ~$20–60/mo); managed PeakFreq servers $18–288/mo; done-for-you from $2,000/yr.
Where Cloudways abstracts the server away, GridPane hands you the keys: root access, your choice of VPS provider, serious tooling. After the 2026 restructure the Core panel is free up to 25 sites. It's the power-user exit — unbeatable value if server administration is something you enjoy rather than endure.
- you left Cloudways wanting more control, not less work — real server access, your own provider choice
- the reason you're leaving is that you're tired of being the sysadmin
4. RunCloud
Popular control panel + your own VPS.
Pricing: Panel from roughly $9–49/mo by tier (white-label and team features on the top tier) + your server. Check current tiers — they restructured recently.
A long-standing Cloudways alternative for the do-it-yourself route: connect a DigitalOcean/Vultr/Hetzner server, manage everything through their panel. Solid tooling, white-label options for agencies — and the same honest caveat as every panel: nobody but you is watching your sites.
- you want a mature, well-liked panel with agency white-labelling at DIY prices
- you'd rather not own two bills (panel + server) and all the operational responsibility
5. SpinupWP
Developer-focused panel + your own VPS.
Pricing: $12/mo (Essentials) or $19/mo (Advanced, adds monitoring + better backups) + your server.
The tasteful minimalist of the panel world — built by the team behind WP Migrate. Less agency machinery than GridPane or RunCloud, more polish per screen. Same division of labour: the panel is excellent, and the operational pager is yours.
- you're a developer who wants a clean, opinionated panel from the Delicious Brains team
- you need agency features (white-label, client handoff) or anyone else doing the maintenance
6. Kinsta
Premium per-install managed platform on Google Cloud.
Pricing: $35/mo for 1 site (25k visits) to Agency 40 at $450/mo. Visits metered on every tier.
The upmarket exit: genuinely lovely dashboard, strong support, Google Cloud infrastructure. But it reintroduces everything the server model freed you from — per-install billing and visit caps with overage charges. At 20+ sites you'd be paying triple Cloudways' price for capped capacity.
- you're leaving Cloudways for polish and support quality, and your portfolio is small enough for per-site pricing
- you came to Cloudways to escape per-site pricing in the first place
7. Rocket.net
Per-install platform with Cloudflare Enterprise built in.
Pricing: $30/mo (1 site) to $200/mo (25 installs); dedicated infrastructure from $649/mo.
A performance-first per-install platform: full-page caching on Cloudflare Enterprise with WAF included on every plan. Fast, well-supported — and structurally the opposite direction from Cloudways: caps per tier instead of one server, as many sites as it carries.
- raw per-site edge performance is why you're moving — the Cloudflare Enterprise stack is genuinely quick
- install caps and pooled storage feel like a step backwards from unlimited sites (they are)
Common questions
What is actually cheaper than Cloudways?
For the same unlimited-sites model: xCloud (~$45/mo for 8GB managed) or a free/cheap panel (GridPane Core, RunCloud, SpinupWP) on your own VPS — all assume you keep doing the WordPress maintenance yourself. Nothing on this list is cheaper *and* more managed; that combination doesn't exist anywhere.
What's the difference between Cloudways 'managed' and WPenguin 'managed'?
Cloudways manages the infrastructure: provisioning, stack updates, server uptime. WPenguin manages that *and the sites*: tested plugin/core updates with rollback, malware scanning and cleanup, 24/7 monitoring where we fix first, offsite backups, staging — with an AI assistant and human WordPress engineers included. That's the layer Cloudways prices at $99–399/mo per single app (Autonomous); ours is included for the whole server.
Is it hard to migrate off Cloudways?
No — it's standard WordPress on standard servers, which is one of Cloudways' genuine virtues. Exports and migration plugins work everywhere. WPenguin migrates whole portfolios free with zero downtime, planned and batched for you.
When should I just stay on Cloudways?
If it's working, honestly: stay. It's a fair product at a fair price for self-managers, with mature tooling and unlimited sites. The reasons to move are concrete — the bill has crept, you want the maintenance off your desk, or you want dedicated hardware — not vibes.
Want the deeper head-to-head? WPenguin vs Cloudways