Cloudways vs Kinsta: one sells servers, the other sells sites — and the year-one gap is $218
How to read this page: every number below was read from the vendor’s own public pricing page on the date shown, and the pages are re-checked daily. Currencies differ because that is what each vendor showed an EU visitor. Some links on this page are affiliate links — if you subscribe through one we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Per our method, that never changes a number or a verdict. Source links always point to the vendor’s plain page.
Prices as this vendor showed them to a visitor in the EU — USD. A reader elsewhere may be quoted a different figure — we publish what we were served, never a conversion.
Plan
Price
Contacts
What the page says
Micro (Standard)
$11/mo
1GB RAM / 1 vCPU
Unlimited websites. Suitable for personal websites and simple blogs.
Small (Standard)
$24/mo
2GB RAM / 1 vCPU
Unlimited websites. Growing businesses and moderate traffic.
Medium (Standard)
$46/mo
4GB RAM / 2 vCPU
Unlimited websites. Marked 'Most Popular' on the page. More demanding sites with higher traffic.
Large (Standard)
$88/mo
8GB RAM / 4 vCPU
Unlimited websites. E-commerce and resource-intensive applications.
Micro (Premium)
$14/mo
1GB RAM / 1 vCPU, premium class
Unlimited websites
Small (Premium)
$28/mo
2GB RAM / 1 vCPU, premium class
Unlimited websites
Medium (Premium)
$54/mo
4GB RAM / 2 vCPU, premium class
Unlimited websites
Large (Premium)
$99/mo
8GB RAM / 4 vCPU, premium class
Unlimited websites
Source: https://www.cloudways.com/en/pricing.php · read 2026-08-27 (UTC) · Cloudways prices by server size, not by site count — every plan carries unlimited websites. Two server classes sit behind tabs on the same page, Standard and Premium, and Premium costs roughly 12-27% more at the same size. A second row of tabs selects the underlying cloud provider (DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, Google), which changes the price again; the figures below are the default provider view. Billing is monthly or hourly — the page prints an hourly rate beside every monthly one — and there is no annual plan and no annual discount anywhere on the page. All figures read in a browser on the date shown above with both class tabs visited.
Prices as this vendor showed them to a visitor in the EU — USD. A reader elsewhere may be quoted a different figure — we publish what we were served, never a conversion.
Plan
Price
Contacts
What the page says
Single 20GB
$35/mo ($30 annual)
1 WordPress install, 20GB bandwidth
Managed WordPress on Google Cloud C2, Cloudflare enterprise integration, free migrations, staging
Single 40GB
$50/mo ($42 annual)
1 install, 40GB bandwidth
As Single 20GB, with more bandwidth
Single 65GB
$90/mo ($75 annual)
1 install, 65GB bandwidth
As Single 20GB, with more bandwidth
Single 125GB
$170/mo ($142 annual)
1 install, 125GB bandwidth
As Single 20GB, with more bandwidth
Single 250GB
$290/mo ($242 annual)
1 install, 250GB bandwidth
As Single 20GB, with more bandwidth
Single 500GB
$375/mo annual
1 install, 500GB bandwidth
Top single-site tier. The annual figure was read directly; the monthly figure was cut off by the table's horizontal scroll and is deliberately left unread rather than inferred.
WP 2
$70/mo ($59 annual)
2 WordPress installs
Same platform as the single-site plans; the price buys install count
WP 5
$115/mo ($96 annual)
5 WordPress installs
As WP 2, with five installs
WP 10
$225/mo ($188 annual)
10 WordPress installs
As WP 2, with ten installs
WP 20
$340/mo ($284 annual)
20 WordPress installs
As WP 2, with twenty installs
WP 40
$450/mo ($375 annual)
40 WordPress installs
As WP 2, with forty installs
Source: https://kinsta.com/plans/ · read 2026-08-27 (UTC) · Kinsta's plan table has three toggles and only one of them changes the prices. Single site / Multiple sites swaps between two entirely different plan families — single-site plans are named by bandwidth allowance, multi-site plans by how many WordPress installs they carry. The Monthly / Annual toggle changes nothing, because both figures are printed side by side on every row. Bandwidth / Visits changes nothing either. Annual billing is exactly ten months' cost on every plan, which matches the '2 months off' label on the page. Every figure below was read in a browser on the date shown above with each toggle state visited in turn.
What the record says
Cloudways sells you a server. You choose a size — Micro at 1GB through Large at 8GB — you choose a class, Standard or Premium, and you choose which cloud it runs on, because DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS and Google each sit behind their own tab with their own prices. What you do not choose is how many websites to put on it. Every Cloudways plan, at every size, says unlimited websites.
Kinsta sells you sites. Its plan table has two entirely separate families behind a single toggle, and a reader who misses the toggle will quote the wrong ladder. Single-site plans are named by bandwidth — Single 20GB at $35 a month up to Single 500GB — and each carries exactly one WordPress install. Multiple-site plans are named by install count: WP 2 at $70 a month, WP 5 at $115 WP 10 at $225 WP 20 at $340 WP 40 at $450. Same platform underneath; the price buys permission to run more of it.
The annual question splits them completely, and it is the thing most comparisons of these two never mention. Kinsta's annual billing is exactly ten months' cost on every one of its eleven plans — $35 a month becomes $350 a year rather than $420, which matches the '2 months off' label printed on their page and checks out on every row. Cloudways has no annual plan at all. There is no yearly tab, no prepay discount, no commitment rate. A Cloudways server costs twelve times its monthly price in year one and twelve times its monthly price in year six.
That cuts both ways and the direction depends on your horizon. If you are certain about a host, Kinsta's two free months are real money — $580 saved a year at the Single 250GB tier. If you are not certain, Cloudways bills hourly as well as monthly, printing an hourly rate beside every plan ($0.0164 for Micro Standard, $0.0357 for Small), so a server you spin up to test costs you a few cents rather than a month. Neither is more honest than the other; they are pricing for different kinds of buyer.
The add-ons are where a Cloudways quote drifts from a Cloudways bill. Offsite backup is $0.033 per GB per server. Automated malware removal starts at $4 per application per month. Rackspace email is $1 per mailbox per month. Advanced support is a further $100 a month. None of that is in the $11. Kinsta's plan prices include free migrations, staging environments and its Cloudflare integration, though it too meters extras — $20 a month per additional environment, $20 per site per month for six-hourly backups, $100 per site per month for hourly ones, and $1 per GB for bandwidth over the plan allowance.
One quirk worth knowing before you read either page. Kinsta's table carries three toggles and only one of them changes anything. Single site versus Multiple sites swaps the entire plan family. Monthly versus Annual does nothing, because both columns are printed side by side on every row regardless. Bandwidth versus Visits does nothing to the prices either. Cloudways has the same trap in reverse: the Standard and Premium tabs look cosmetic and are not — Premium costs $14, $28, $54 and $99 against Standard's $11, $24, $46 and $88 at the same four sizes.
Beyond the price tag
What the price buys
Cloudways sells server capacity and puts unlimited websites on every plan, at every size — the $11 Micro included. Kinsta sells WordPress installs, or bandwidth for one site, across two separate plan families: Single 20GB through Single 500GB for one install, or WP 2 through WP 40 for two to forty.
Annual billing — the split that decides year one
Kinsta's annual is exactly ten months' cost on all eleven plans: $35 a month becomes $350 a year, matching the '2 months off' label on their page. Cloudways has no annual plan at all — no yearly tab, no prepay discount — so a server costs twelve times its monthly rate in year one and in year six alike.
What the headline price leaves out
Cloudways bills offsite backup at $0.033 per GB per server, malware removal from $4 per app per month, email at $1 per mailbox per month, plus advanced support at $100 a month. Kinsta includes migrations, staging and its Cloudflare integration, but meters extra environments at $20 a month, six-hourly backups at $20 per site per month, hourly backups at $100, and overage bandwidth at $1 per GB.
Questions people actually search
Is Cloudways actually cheaper than Kinsta?
At every comparable tier, yes, and by a wide margin. Cloudways Micro is $132 a year against Kinsta's cheapest single-site plan at $350 annually — and the Cloudways plan carries unlimited websites where Kinsta's carries one. At the 4GB mid tier it is $552 against $900. The gap is not a promotion; it follows from the two companies charging for different things.
Does Cloudways have an annual discount?
No. There is no annual plan on the Cloudways pricing page at all — only monthly and hourly billing. This matters more than it first appears, because it means a Cloudways price never improves with commitment, while Kinsta's annual billing takes two months off every plan permanently.
How many sites can I host on each?
Cloudways says unlimited websites on every plan including the $11 Micro; the constraint is the server's RAM and CPU, not a licence. Kinsta caps by plan: single-site plans allow one install, and the multi-site family runs WP 2, WP 5, WP 10, WP 20 and WP 40, priced $70 to $450 a month.
What is not included in the price?
On Cloudways: offsite backups at $0.033 per GB per server, malware removal from $4 per app per month, email at $1 per mailbox per month, and advanced support at $100 a month. On Kinsta: extra environments at $20 a month, six-hourly backups at $20 per site per month, hourly backups at $100 per site per month, and bandwidth over allowance at $1 per GB. Neither host's headline price is the whole bill.
THE VERDICT, ONE MORE TIME
Our pick: Cloudways — the entry plan costs $132 a year against Kinsta's $350 and it carries unlimited sites where Kinsta's caps at one.
Cloudways Micro on the Standard class is $11 a month, read from their own pricing page on 2026-08-27, and every Cloudways plan carries unlimited websites regardless of size. Kinsta's cheapest single-site plan is $35 a month, or $350 paid annually. At the entry tier that is $218 more a year for one site instead of unlimited. The gap holds as you scale: Cloudways Medium at 4GB is $552 a year with unlimited sites; Kinsta Single 65GB is $900 a year for one.
Every figure above was read from each vendor's own pricing page on the dates shown beside each table, with each toggle and tab clicked in turn rather than accepting whichever state the page opened in. Cloudways figures are the Standard and Premium classes on the default cloud provider; selecting Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google changes them. Kinsta's Single 500GB monthly rate was cut off by the table's horizontal scroll and is deliberately not quoted here — its annual figure of $3750 was readable and is. Year-one totals are arithmetic on those published rates, not estimates. The method →
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