Cloudways Wins
Winner
VS
Score Comparison
Criteria
Cloudways
DreamHost
Overall Score
8.6
8.1
Performance
9.5
8.0
Features
8.5
8.2
Ease of Use
7.8
7.8
Pricing/Value
8.2
8.5
Support
8.5
7.5
Pricing & Features
Specification
Cloudways
DreamHost
Starting Price
$14/mo
$2.59/mo
Pricing Model
Usage-based
Subscription
Making Your Decision
When to Choose Cloudways
Growing businesses and developers who need cloud performance without server management
Cloudways bridges the gap between shared hosting simplicity and cloud performance, offering managed infrastructure on top-tier cloud providers for users who've outgrown traditional hosting.
Strengths
- Managed cloud hosting with major providers (AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean)
- Excellent performance with built-in caching and CDN
- Pay-as-you-go pricing with no long-term contracts
- Free staging environments and easy cloning
Limitations
- Higher starting price than shared hosting
- Email hosting not included (requires third-party)
- Steeper learning curve for beginners
When to Choose DreamHost
Privacy-conscious users and those who value a generous refund policy
DreamHost combines solid performance with an industry-leading 97-day money-back guarantee and strong privacy values, though its custom control panel requires some adjustment for cPanel users.
Strengths
- 97-day money-back guarantee (industry leading)
- Officially recommended by WordPress.org
- Unlimited traffic and SSD storage on shared plans
- Free domain privacy protection included
Limitations
- Custom control panel instead of industry-standard cPanel
- Email hosting costs extra on basic plans
- No phone support on shared hosting plans
