--- title: "Cloudways vs Liquid Web: which is better in 2026?" url: "https://hostidea.com/compare/cloudways-vs-liquidweb" canonical: "https://hostidea.com/compare/cloudways-vs-liquidweb" author: "Jennifer T." generated: "2026-10-15" note: "Markdown twin generated at build time from the same content as the HTML page. The HTML page is canonical." --- # 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.](https://hostidea.com/authors/jennifer-t) ยท Updated Oct 14, 2026 We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. Rankings come from the published methodology and sourced data, not from commissions. [Disclosure](https://hostidea.com/disclosure). ## Verdict [7.8 out of 10](https://hostidea.com/methodology#scoring) [Cloudways](https://hostidea.com/reviews/cloudways)Wins overall DigitalOcean's managed cloud layer: servers from $11 a month on five clouds, billed hourly, staging and caching included [7.7 out of 10](https://hostidea.com/methodology#scoring) [Liquid Web](https://hostidea.com/reviews/liquidweb) 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](https://hostidea.com/reviews/cloudways) | [Liquid Web](https://hostidea.com/reviews/liquidweb) | | --- | --- | --- | | Performance | 8.0 | 7.5 | | Uptime | 8.5 | 8.0 | | Support | 7.5 | 8.0 | | Features | 8.0 | 8.5 | | Value | 7.0 | 7.0 | | Ease of use | 7.0 | 7.5 | ## Which one is faster and more reliable? | | [Cloudways](https://hostidea.com/reviews/cloudways) | [Liquid Web](https://hostidea.com/reviews/liquidweb) | | --- | --- | --- | | Overall score | 7.8 | 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 | 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. Prices verified Oct 14, 2026 (Cloudways) and Oct 14, 2026 (Liquid Web). USD. | | [Cloudways](https://hostidea.com/reviews/cloudways) | [Liquid Web](https://hostidea.com/reviews/liquidweb) | | --- | --- | --- | | Cheapest plan | DigitalOcean Premium Micro | Essentials WordPress | | Intro price | $14.00/mo | $9.00/mo | | Renewal price | $14.00/mo | $9.00/mo | | 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](https://hostidea.com/reviews/cloudways) | [Liquid Web](https://hostidea.com/reviews/liquidweb) | | --- | --- | --- | | 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 | | Email | 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](https://hostidea.com/reviews/cloudways) | [Liquid Web](https://hostidea.com/reviews/liquidweb) | | --- | --- | --- | | 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 | | Support channels | chat, ticket, knowledge-base | chat, phone, ticket, knowledge-base | | Founded | 2011 | 1997 | Visit Cloudways (affiliate link: /go/cloudways)Visit Liquid Web (affiliate link: /go/liquidweb)