Flashcloud vs Cloudways
Flashcloud and Cloudways compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. Flashcloud scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
8.7 out of 10
FlashcloudWins overall
Shared and WordPress hosting with a free domain for life, 30-day backups and an anytime prorated refund
7.8 out of 10
DigitalOcean's managed cloud layer: servers from $11 a month on five clouds, billed hourly, staging and caching included
Flashcloud wins 6 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (8.7 vs 7.8).
How do the scores compare?
Flashcloud leads on 6 sub-scores, Cloudways on 0. Higher is better.
| Flashcloud | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 8.5 (better) | 8.0 |
| Uptime | 9.0 (better) | 8.5 |
| Support | 8.5 (better) | 7.5 |
| Features | 9.2 (better) | 8.0 |
| Value | 9.0 (better) | 7.0 |
| Ease of use | 8.0 (better) | 7.0 |
Which one is faster and more reliable?
| Flashcloud | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 8.7 (better) | 7.8 |
| Uptime (published)HostScore 30 d vs Kripesh Adwani 365 d; methods differ | 100.00% (better) | 99.99% |
| Response time (published)HostScore vs HostingStep; methods differ | 142 ms (better) | 442 ms |
Which one costs less?
On renewal, Flashcloud is cheaper ($9.99/mo vs $14.00/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| Flashcloud | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | Start | DigitalOcean Premium Micro |
| Intro price | $2.79/mo (better) | $14.00/mo |
| Renewal price | $9.99/mo (better) | $14.00/mo |
| Required term | 12 months | 1 months (better) |
| Websites | 1 | unlimited |
| Storage | 25 GB | 25 GB |
| Money back | 30 days, then prorated at any time (better) | 0 days |
What does each include?
| Flashcloud | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | For life: registered free and renewed free while the plan is active, eligible extensions only | No |
| Free domain privacy | Yes | Not stated |
| Free SSL | Issued and renewed automatically | Let's Encrypt certificates on every application |
| Daily backups | 30-day retention, stored on separate infrastructure, restore files, a database, email or everything from the portal | Not stated |
| Free migration | Done by staff, usually within 24 hours; up to 6 unused months at the old host credited on annual and 3-year plans | Free migration of existing sites |
| Free handcrafted website | Up to five pages with navigation, one free revision, usually ready in one to two working days | Not stated |
| Staging | Included with WordPress hosting | Advanced staging and cloning on every plan |
| Email hosting | Unlimited mailboxes, webmail, forwarding, autoresponders | Not stated |
| SSH and WP-CLI | Yes | Not stated |
| FTP, SFTP and shell users | Unlimited | Not stated |
| Cloudflare CDN and DNS | Yes | Not stated |
| Server caching | LiteSpeed with LSCache and Redis object cache | Not stated |
| Malware scanning and removal | Daily, ImunifyAV | Not stated |
| Web application firewall | ModSecurity rules on every request | Not stated |
| Choice of data center | US East, US West, Frankfurt or Singapore at order time | Not stated |
| Uptime guarantee | 99.9% per calendar month, service credits start at 10% below that | No |
| Phone support | No | No |
| Windows hosting | No | No |
| Backups | Not stated | On-demand and scheduled server backups with one-click restore; offsite storage billed at $0.033 per GB per server |
| Free CDN | Not stated | No |
| Caching | Not stated | Lightning Stack (NGINX), Object Cache Pro and Redis included on every plan |
| Not stated | No | |
| Resource limits | Not stated | A whole server per customer: 1 to 8 GB RAM and 1 to 4 vCPU on the listed sizes, larger sizes and other providers available |
| Data center choice | Not stated | The provider's regions, chosen per server: DigitalOcean 9, Vultr 30, Linode 25, AWS 28, Google Cloud 28 |
| Security | Not stated | Built-in firewall with IP blocking, WordPress vulnerability scanner, bot protection and dedicated firewalls per the pricing page |
| Free trial | Not stated | 3 days without a credit card |
Company facts
| Flashcloud | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Control panel | cPanel, plus the Flashcloud portal for backups, staging, cron and support | Cloudways platform (its own console); no cPanel |
| Data centers | 4 (better) | 1 |
| Support channels | chat, ticket, email, knowledge-base | chat, ticket, knowledge-base |
| Founded | 2026 | 2011 |