ScalaHosting vs Cloudways
ScalaHosting and Cloudways compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. ScalaHosting scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
ScalaHostingWins overall
Dallas and Sofia host with its own SPanel, an anytime prorated refund and a credit table that reaches 100 percent
DigitalOcean's managed cloud layer: servers from $11 a month on five clouds, billed hourly, staging and caching included
ScalaHosting wins 3 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (8.1 vs 7.8).
How do the scores compare?
ScalaHosting leads on 3 sub-scores, Cloudways on 0. Higher is better.
| ScalaHosting | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Uptime | 8.5 | 8.5 |
| Support | 8.5 (better) | 7.5 |
| Features | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Value | 7.5 (better) | 7.0 |
| Ease of use | 7.5 (better) | 7.0 |
Which one is faster and more reliable?
| ScalaHosting | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 8.1 (better) | 7.8 |
| Uptime (published)Kripesh Adwani 365 d vs Kripesh Adwani 365 d; methods differ | 99.99% | 99.99% |
| Response time (published)WPBeginner vs HostingStep; methods differ | 526 ms | 442 ms (better) |
Which one costs less?
On renewal, ScalaHosting is cheaper ($11.95/mo vs $14.00/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| ScalaHosting | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | Mini | DigitalOcean Premium Micro |
| Intro price | $2.95/mo (better) | $14.00/mo |
| Renewal price | $11.95/mo (better) | $14.00/mo |
| Required term | 36 months | 1 months (better) |
| Websites | 1 | unlimited |
| Storage | 10 GB | 25 GB |
| Money back | 30 days, then prorated at any time (better) | 0 days |
What does each include?
| ScalaHosting | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | Start, Advanced and Entry Cloud; not on Mini | No |
| Free SSL | Yes | Let's Encrypt certificates on every application |
| Automated backups | Daily, 7 restore points kept for the last 7 days | Not stated |
| Free migration | Website and email migration | Free migration of existing sites |
| Control panel | SPanel (free, with SShield security and spam protection) or cPanel | Not stated |
| CDN | CDN integration | Not stated |
| WP-CLI and SSH | Yes | Not stated |
| Malware protection | Real-time, on every plan | Not stated |
| Staging | Not listed on the plan cards | Advanced staging and cloning on every plan |
| Uptime guarantee | 99.9%; credits from 10% at 99.8% up to 100% below 99%, claimed through billing | No |
| Money-back guarantee | Full refund within 30 days; prorated refund of unused time at any time after that; new clients only; web, reseller and VPS hosting | Not stated |
| Choice of data center | Dallas, New York, Seattle or Sofia on ScalaHosting's own infrastructure; partner cloud and AWS regions for cloud plans | Not stated |
| Phone support | Yes | 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
| ScalaHosting | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Control panel | SPanel (ScalaHosting's own) or cPanel | Cloudways platform (its own console); no cPanel |
| Data centers | 5 (better) | 1 |
| Support channels | chat, ticket, phone, knowledge-base | chat, ticket, knowledge-base |
| Founded | 2007 | 2011 |