Bluehost vs Cloudways (2026): Cheap Shared Hosting or Fast Cloud Hosting?
Short answer: Choose Bluehost if you want the cheapest way to get a small site online: about $264 for four years. Choose Cloudways if your site is growing, sells things or feels slow: it costs about $14 a month, but your site gets its own cloud server, built-in caching and monthly billing with no contract.
Try Cloudways free for 3 daysThese two hosts solve different problems. Bluehost is shared hosting: your site shares a server with many others, which keeps the price low. Cloudways rents you your own small cloud server and manages it for you, so it costs more but your site doesn’t compete for resources.
Cloudways prices were checked on Cloudways’ site on November 7, 2026, during its Black Friday sale. Bluehost prices are from current published pricing reviews. Confirm at checkout.
Bluehost vs Cloudways at a glance
| Bluehost Starter | Cloudways Micro (DigitalOcean) | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Shared hosting | Managed cloud server |
| Price | $3.99/mo for 36 months, then $9.99/mo | $14/mo, billed monthly (80% off the first 2 months right now) |
| Contract | Prepay 12 or 36 months for the low price | None. Billed by the hour, cancel any time |
| Cost over 4 years | ~$264 | ~$650 |
| Websites | 10 | Unlimited (as many as the server can handle) |
| Server | Shared | 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 25 GB NVMe, 1 TB bandwidth |
| Backups | Weekly; CodeGuard $2.99/mo extra | Automated and on-demand (offsite storage $0.033/GB) |
| 1-month free trial, then $2.99/mo | Rackspace add-on, $1.50 per mailbox per month | |
| Staging site | Not on Starter | Included |
| Migration | Free for WordPress | Free, unlimited WordPress migrations |
| Free trial | No (30-day money-back) | 3 days, no credit card |
| Support | 24/7 chat; phone from Business up | 24/7 chat and tickets |
What each one really costs
Bluehost is cheaper in every year. Cloudways has no intro price to lose, so what you pay in month 3 is what you pay in year 4.
| Plan | Year 1 | First 3 years | First 4 years | Each year after |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bluehost Starter | $47.88 | $143.64 | $263.52 | $119.88 |
| Cloudways Micro | $145.60* | $481.60 | $649.60 | $168.00 |
| Cloudways Small (2 GB RAM) | $336.00 | $1,008.00 | $1,344.00 | $336.00 |
*With the current 80% off for the first 2 months. Without it, year 1 is $168.
The gap is smaller than it looks if you need email or backups. Bluehost charges extra for both after the first month, and a busy site often needs Bluehost’s Business plan ($6.99/mo, then $13.99/mo).
Check Cloudways’ current price
Speed: why Cloudways is faster
On Bluehost, your site shares one server’s memory and processor with many other sites. If a neighbor site gets busy, your site can slow down.
On Cloudways, the server is yours. It comes set up with caching (Cloudways calls it the Lightning Stack), Redis, and Object Cache Pro on 4 GB servers and up. That matters most for online stores, membership sites and blogs with steady traffic. For a small brochure site, you probably won’t notice the difference.
Ease of use
Bluehost is easier on day one. You buy a plan, click to install WordPress, and you’re done. Domain, email and site live in one account.
Cloudways adds a step. You pick a cloud provider (DigitalOcean is the cheapest), a server size and a data center, then add your app. It’s still point-and-click, and Cloudways handles security updates for you. There’s no domain registration, so you buy your domain somewhere else and point it at Cloudways.
Who should choose Bluehost
- You’re building your first small site and want the lowest total cost.
- You want domain, email and hosting in one place.
- You’re fine prepaying for 3 years to get the low price.
Who should choose Cloudways
- Your site sells things, has members, or gets steady traffic.
- Your current shared host feels slow and you want your own server without managing it yourself.
- You want to pay month to month with no contract.
- You run several sites and want them on one server you control.
When neither is the best fit
If you mainly want the cheapest good host for a small site, Hostinger costs about $96 for four years through our link, about a third of Bluehost, with free migration. See Bluehost vs Hostinger. If you want a server for an AI agent like OpenClaw rather than a website, see Best VPS for OpenClaw.
FAQ
Is Cloudways good for beginners? Yes, if you can follow a setup screen. You never touch the command line, and support is 24/7. It’s one step harder than Bluehost because you choose a server first.
Can I move from Bluehost to Cloudways? Yes. Cloudways migrates WordPress sites free, as many as you need.
Does Cloudways include email? No. Email is an add-on (Rackspace, $1.50 per mailbox per month), or you can use Google Workspace or another provider.
Why is Cloudways more expensive? You’re paying for your own server plus management: setup, security patches, caching, backups and support. Shared hosting splits one server across many customers.
Sources
- Cloudways pricing, Cloudways, checked Nov 7, 2026
- Bluehost pricing and plans, Website Builder Expert, updated Feb 2026