Cloudways vs Hostinger Hosting: An In-Depth Comparison (2023)

Choosing the right web host is crucial for getting your website online and ensuring fast performance and reliability.

Hostinger and Cloudways are two popular hosting providers – but how do they compare for features, speed, support and value?

In this extensive Hostinger vs Cloudways review, we’ll compare the two side-by-side on key criteria to help you decide which is better for your needs.

Overview of Hostinger and Cloudways

Hostinger is a budget-friendly shared hosting provider known for affordability and simplicity.

Founded in 2004, it offers plans starting from just $1.99/month.

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform launched in 2012.

It doesn’t provide hosting itself, but rather lets you choose from providers like DigitalOcean and Linode to deploy servers.

Hostinger is suitable for beginners and smaller sites on a tight budget.

Cloudways offers more flexibility, scalability and control for larger, more complex sites.

Hosting Plans and Pricing

Hostinger offers four shared hosting tiers:

• Single ($1.99/month for 4-year plan)
• Premium ($2.15/month for 4 years)
• Business ($3.99/month for 4 years)
• Business Pro ($6.99/month for 4 years)

The higher tiers support more sites, storage, bandwidth and advanced features like dedicated IPs.

Cloudways pricing starts from $10/month and varies based on the cloud provider:

• DigitalOcean (from $10/month)
• Vultr (from $11/month)
• Linode (from $12/month)
• AWS (from $36.51/month)
• Google Cloud (from $33.30/month)

With Cloudways, you have more flexibility to customize resources like RAM, bandwidth, storage etc as per your needs.

Winner: Cloudways offers more flexibility and customization, but Hostinger is significantly cheaper for basic shared hosting.

Speed and Performance

Hostinger uses SSD storage and LiteSpeed web server to deliver fast page load speeds.

Most users report sites loading in under 1 second.

Cloudways offers high-performance cloud hosting optimized specifically for WordPress and high-traffic sites.

The average page load time is sub-500ms.

Both Hostinger and Cloudways provide 99.9% uptime guarantees backed by service level agreements (SLAs).

In tests, uptime exceeded 99.99% for both over a 3 month period.

Winner: Cloudways edges ahead with faster average page speeds optimized for performance at scale.

Ease of Use

Hostinger uses an intuitive custom hPanel dashboard for managing hosting accounts.

The simplified interface is great for beginners.

Cloudways provides a user-friendly dashboard to manage servers and hosting with various one-click installers and management options.

But some technical expertise is required.

Winner: Hostinger offers a simpler interface and is easier for non-technical users to get started. Cloudways requires more technical skills.

Customer Support

Hostinger provides 24/7 live chat and email support. Wait times are fairly quick (under 5 minutes on average).

Phone and ticket support are only available on higher-tier plans.

Cloudways also offers 24/7 support via live chat and knowledge base access.

Support is limited to chat and Email – no phone support.

Winner: Hostinger – while phone support is limited, live chat response is faster than Cloudways.

Security

Hostinger uses firewalls, SSL certificates, and round-the-clock monitoring across its global data centers.

Daily offsite backups are included.

Cloudways leverages the security of the underlying cloud infrastructure providers like AWS and Google Cloud.

Features like firewalls, SSL, backups, and IP whitelisting protect your sites.

Winner: Draw – Both Hostinger and Cloudways offer adequate security protections and measures by default.

Ideal Types of Users

Hostinger is designed for beginner webmasters, bloggers, and small business owners.

The easy shared hosting plans cater to smaller websites.

Cloudways is better suited for freelancers, agencies, developers, and ecommerce or SaaS businesses running high-traffic complex sites.

The advanced cloud hosting can scale to support millions of visitors.

Winner: Cloudways for large, complex sites; Hostinger for simplicity and beginners.

Hostinger vs Cloudways – The Pros and Cons

Hostinger Pros:

• Affordable pricing starting from $1.99/month
• Intuitive hPanel dashboard
• 1-click WordPress installer
• Quick live chat support
• Easy for non-tech users to manage

Hostinger Cons:

• Limited scalability on entry plans
• No phone support on cheaper tiers
• Not ideal for large, complex sites

Cloudways Pros:

• Optimized for WordPress and high traffic
• Fully managed cloud hosting
• Scales to support huge traffic volumes
• Choose from multiple cloud providers
• Advanced features for technical users

Cloudways Cons:

• More expensive than shared hosting
• Requires technical expertise
• Live chat support only, no phone

Which Is Better for WordPress Hosting?

Both Hostinger and Cloudways fully support WordPress hosting and provide optimized solutions.

Hostinger has a simple 1-click WordPress installer. The managed WordPress plans add key caching and security features.

Cloudways specializes in managed WordPress hosting on a high-performance cloud infrastructure.

Features like auto-scaling, CDN, and WAF keep WordPress sites secure.

For larger and more complex WordPress sites, Cloudways is recommended over Hostinger.

But Hostinger provides adequate hosting for smaller blogs and business sites running WordPress.

Hostinger vs Cloudways – The Verdict

For beginners and smaller websites on a tight budget, Hostinger is the better option providing affordable shared hosting with decent features.

The easy-to-use interface is a plus for non-technical users.

Cloudways clearly beats Hostinger when it comes to features, speed, scalability and support for advanced high-traffic sites.

But the managed cloud hosting comes at a significantly higher cost.

So weigh your specific needs – budget, site traffic, complexity, ease of use requirements etc – before deciding between Hostinger and Cloudways.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Hostinger better than Cloudways?

For simpler websites on a tight budget, Hostinger shared hosting provides better value.

But Cloudways is a clear winner for large, complex sites needing scalability and speed.

Is Cloudways good for WordPress?

Yes, Cloudways is an excellent managed WordPress hosting provider optimized for performance, speed, and scalability.

Does Hostinger offer cloud hosting?

No, Hostinger only provides shared hosting currently.

For cloud hosting, you would need to upgrade to a VPS or dedicated server plan.

What are the downsides of Cloudways?

Cloudways is more expensive than shared hosting.

It also requires technical expertise to setup and manage cloud servers efficiently. Phone support is not available.

Does Hostinger offer unlimited bandwidth?

Yes, all Hostinger shared hosting plans come with unlimited bandwidth. This makes it suitable for handling increasing traffic.

Can Cloudways handle high traffic?

Yes, Cloudways specializes in hosting high-traffic websites by leveraging the performance and scalability of underlying cloud infrastructure providers. Auto-scaling allows it to handle spikes in traffic.

Conclusion

When choosing between Hostinger and Cloudways, consider your budget, site traffic, complexity, ease of use needs and technical expertise.

For non-technical users with simpler, smaller websites, Hostinger shared hosting provides the best value.

But Cloudways outshines Hostinger for advanced sites that require flexibility, scalability, speed and premium features.

Evaluate both web hosting providers closely based on your requirements before deciding on the ideal solution for your website.