Cloudways vs Liquid Web
Cloudways and Liquid Web compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. Cloudways scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
CloudwaysWins overall
DigitalOcean's managed cloud layer: servers from $11 a month on five clouds, billed hourly, staging and caching included
Lansing's managed host since 1997: WordPress plans from $9 with Cloudflare edge CDN and a 100% network SLA, no refunds
Cloudways wins 2 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (7.8 vs 7.7).
How do the scores compare?
Cloudways leads on 2 sub-scores, Liquid Web on 3. Higher is better.
| Cloudways | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 8.0 (better) | 7.5 |
| Uptime | 8.5 (better) | 8.0 |
| Support | 7.5 | 8.0 (better) |
| Features | 8.0 | 8.5 (better) |
| Value | 7.0 | 7.0 |
| Ease of use | 7.0 | 7.5 (better) |
Which one is faster and more reliable?
| Cloudways | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 7.8 (better) | 7.7 |
| Uptime (published)Kripesh Adwani 365 d vs HostingStep 365 d; methods differ | 99.99% | 99.99% |
| Response time (published)HostingStep vs HostingStep; methods differ | 442 ms (better) | 496 ms |
Which one costs less?
On renewal, Liquid Web is cheaper ($9.00/mo vs $14.00/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| Cloudways | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | DigitalOcean Premium Micro | Essentials WordPress |
| Intro price | $14.00/mo | $9.00/mo (better) |
| Renewal price | $14.00/mo | $9.00/mo (better) |
| Required term | 1 months | 1 months |
| Websites | unlimited | 1 |
| Storage | 25 GB | 15 GB |
| Money back | 0 days | 0 days |
What does each include?
| Cloudways | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | No | No |
| Free SSL | Let's Encrypt certificates on every application | Free SSL certificates on the WordPress plans |
| Backups | On-demand and scheduled server backups with one-click restore; offsite storage billed at $0.033 per GB per server | Daily backups kept 7, 14 or 30 days by tier; Acronis backup storage on managed VPS |
| Free migration | Free migration of existing sites | A self-serve migration tool and migration by a person on every WordPress plan |
| Free CDN | No | Edge CDN powered by Cloudflare on every WordPress plan; CDN overage is usage-billed |
| Caching | Lightning Stack (NGINX), Object Cache Pro and Redis included on every plan | Object Cache Pro on every WordPress plan |
| Staging | Advanced staging and cloning on every plan | Staging sites with visual comparison on Pro and Elite; not on Essentials |
| No | Not stated | |
| Resource limits | 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 | WordPress plans are sized by visitors (50,000 a month on the entry tiers), shared storage and bandwidth; managed VPS plans state vCPU, RAM, SSD and bandwidth |
| Data center choice | The provider's regions, chosen per server: DigitalOcean 9, Vultr 30, Linode 25, AWS 28, Google Cloud 28 | Lansing, Phoenix, Ashburn and Amsterdam, selected on the purchase screen where a plan offers it |
| Uptime guarantee | No | 100% network uptime in the SLA with credits up to the monthly charge, claimed within days of an outage; the managed VPS page states 99.9% server uptime |
| Security | Built-in firewall with IP blocking, WordPress vulnerability scanner, bot protection and dedicated firewalls per the pricing page | DDoS protection, WAF, Kadence Security Pro and daily malware scans on every plan; Patchstack virtual patching on Elite |
| Free trial | 3 days without a credit card | Not stated |
| Phone support | No | 24/7 by phone, chat and ticket |
| Windows hosting | No | On VPS and dedicated servers |
| Managed VPS | Not stated | Fully managed from $72 a month for 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD and 3 TB; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk; Windows available |
Company facts
| Cloudways | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Control panel | Cloudways platform (its own console); no cPanel | Liquid Web's own platform for WordPress plans; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk on VPS |
| Data centers | 1 | 4 (better) |
| Support channels | chat, ticket, knowledge-base | chat, phone, ticket, knowledge-base |
| Founded | 2011 | 1997 |