If you’re choosing from Cloudways vs. Hostinger, Cloudways is significantly better/faster.
Cloudways costs more than Hostinger because it’s faster cloud hosting. You can choose from 5 providers (I like Vultr High Frequency and DigitalOcean). Unlike Hostinger who doesn’t support object cache, Cloudways uses Redis Object Cache Pro which is specifically good for speeding up WooCommerce/dynamic sites. Their Cloudflare Enterprise has powerful features to improve TTFB like full page caching, Argo Smart Routing, prioritized routing, and HTTP/3. Main cons are there’s a bigger learning curve, no email hosting (I use Google Workspace), and they cost more.
Hostinger is unethical. Their employees write fake reviews, vote for themselves in Facebook polls taken on the best hosting, and pose as customers without disclosing their an employee. Aside from ethics, they’re only cheap because they give you less resources (including slower SATA SSDs) and support is one of the worst out there. Their network status page isn’t accurate because they try to hide downtimes. If you’re hell-bent on using them because they’re cheap with LiteSpeed, look into a better LiteSpeed host like NameHero, ChemiCloud, or Scala Hosting.
| Cloudways | Hostinger | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting Type | Cloud | Shared |
| Server | Apache | LiteSpeed |
| Storage | NVMe on Vultr HF | SATA |
| CDN | Cloudflare Enterprise | QUIC.cloud |
| Cache Plugin | Breeze | LiteSpeed Cache |
| Object Cache | Redis Object Cache Pro | x |
| Data Centers | 44 | 7 |
| Uptimes | Good | Poor |
| Email Hosting | x | ✓ |
| Security | Average | Security breach affects 14M customers |
| Support | Good | Poor |
| Dashboard | Custom | Custom (hPanel) |
| Price | Monthly with 30% off 3 months (but costs more) | Cheaper but 4 year price traps |
| Facebook Feedback | Great | Banned from groups |
| TrustPilot Rating | 4.5/5 | 4.5/5 (Fake) |
| Winner | Yes | No |
1. Hosting Type – Cloud Is Faster Than Shared
Cloudways is cloud hosting, so unless you’re comparing them to Hostinger’s cloud hosting, Cloudways is already much faster.
On Cloudways, you get to choose between 5 cloud hosts (which are much more reputable like Vultr and DigitalOcean) to Hostinger. You’ll also see Hostinger’s cloud hosting requires you to sign up for 4 years to get the cheapest price which is pretty much unheard of and usually only applies to shared hosting. It’s well-known that any serious website should skip the shared crap and go straight to cloud, in which case, Cloudways already has a huge advantage due to both Vultr + DigitalOcean being some of the most reputable cloud hosting providers in the industry.
2. Server – Cloudways Uses Apache, Hostinger Uses LiteSpeed
The biggest draw to Hostinger (besides being cheap) is they use LiteSpeed while Cloudways uses Apache.
This means you can use LiteSpeed Cache with QUIC.cloud CDN which is one of the fastest setups on a budget. However, it’s only fast when your hosting is fast, which Hostinger is not.
Again, don’t get stuck on Hostinger just because they use LiteSpeed. Other LiteSpeed hosts like NameHero are similar between LiteSpeed, cPanel, and price, but they give you more CPU/RAM. Their uptimes, support, and TrustPilot reviews are also better than them. Do your own research!
3. Storage – Cloudways Vultr HF Uses NVMe (Faster Than SATA SSDs)
If you use Vultr High Frequency on Cloudways, they use NVMe SSDs which are faster than SATA SSDs used on Hostinger.
The test below was done by Rocket.net which measures speeds of SATA vs. NVMe SSDs using the WordPress Hosting Benchmarks plugin. This is one reason I suggest Vultr High Frequency.
4. CDN – Cloudflare Enterprise vs. QUIC.cloud
Cloudways has a Cloudflare Enterprise add-on for $5/mo per domain while you’ll probably use QUIC.cloud with Hostinger (which integrates with LiteSpeed). And since QUIC’s free plan only uses 6 PoPs, you want to use the paid (standard) plan for $01. – $.04/GB which uses all 70+ PoPs with DDoS protection. To get the best results on each host, you would need to pay for your CDN.
Cloudflare Enterprise is arguably better than QUIC.cloud since it has more powerful features. While both have full page caching, HTTP/3, and image optimization, Cloudflare Enterprise has a larger network of 270+ PoPs with Argo Smart Routing, prioritized routing, and load balancing.
5. Cache Plugin – Cloudways Breeze vs. LiteSpeed Cache
Since Hostinger uses LiteSpeed, you would use LiteSpeed Cache which is free and one of the fastest cache plugins since it does an excellent job addressing core web vitals and has faster server-level caching. The Cloudways Breeze plugin isn’t great (although they’ve been making improvements) and you’re better off on FlyingPress which does a better job at core web vitals.
| Breeze | WP Rocket | FlyingPress | LSC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Server-side caching | x | x | x | ✓ |
| Remove unused CSS | x | Inline | Separate file | Separate file |
| Critical CSS | x | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Host fonts locally | x | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| Preload images | x | x | ✓ | x |
| Fetchpriority resource hint | x | x | ✓ | x |
| Lazy render HTML elements | x | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| Lazy load background images | x | Inline | Helper class | Helper class |
| Exclude images from lazy load | x | By URL | By number | By URL |
| Self-host YouTube placeholder | x | x | ✓ | x |
| Add missing image dimensions | x | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scheduled database cleanups | x | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Control preloading | x | x | x | ✓ |
| Advanced cache control | x | x | x | ✓ |
| ESI (edge side includes) | x | x | x | ✓ |
| Gravatar cache | x | x | x | ✓ |
| Limit post revisions | x | x | x | ✓ |
| Price | Free | $49/year | $42/year | Free |
| Tutorial | View tutorial | View tutorial | View tutorial | View tutorial |
6. Object Cache – Cloudways Uses Redis Object Cache Pro
A huge disadvantage to Hostinger’s shared/cloud hosting is it doesn’t support object cache.
Cloudways supports Redis Object Cache Pro which is arguably the fastest object caching type and specifically good for speeding up WooCommerce/dynamic sites while also reducing CPU usage. This can be activated in 1-click under Servers → Settings & Packages → Packages → Install Redis. Cloudways will install it as a drop-in plugin under your WordPress plugins menu.
7. Data Centers – Cloudways Has More Data Centers Worldwide
While Hostinger only has 7 data centers, Cloudways has 44. Even between Vultr and DigitalOcean, they have 22.
Choosing a data center close to your visitors has a large impact on TTFB (that is, unless you’re using a CDN with full page caching, etc). Since DigitalOcean, Vultr, and other cloud hosts from Cloudways have different data centers, this really depends on which cloud provider you choose.
Cloudways Data Centers
| San Francisco, USA | Netherland, Netherlands | Hong Kong, China |
| New York, USA | Tokyo, Japan | Miami, USA |
| Silicon Valley, USA | Seoul, Korea | Seattle, USA |
| Paris, France | Bangalore, India | Northern California, USA |
| Frankfurt, Germany | Mumbai, India | Northern Virginia, USA |
| Singapore, Singapore | Sydney, Australia | Northern Carolina, USA |
| Dublin, Ireland | Los Angeles, USA | Ohio, USA |
| London, England | Dallas, USA | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Sao Paulo, Brazil | Chicago, USA | Belgium, Belgium |
| Toronto, Canada | Newark, USA | Oregon, USA |
| Montreal, Canada | Atlanta, USA | Iowa, USA |
| Fermont, Canada | Taiwan, China | |
| Amsterdam, Netherlands | Bahrain, Bahrain |
Hostinger Data Centers
| United States | Brazil |
| United Kingdom | Indonesia |
| Singapore | Lithuania |
| Netherlands |
8. Uptimes – Hostinger Has Frequent Downtimes
Just like Hostinger writes fake reviews, they also fake their network status page (there’s been multiple reports they don’t actually report downtimes).
When looking at Cloudways vs. Hostinger’s uptimes, you have to keep in mind Cloudways doesn’t own their server (they’re from DigitalOcean, Vultr, Google Cloud, or whatever cloud hosting you choose to use with Cloudways). DigitalOcean tends to have better uptimes than Vultr, but either one is better than Hostinger’s servers which continuously have multiple down reports (daily) if you check websites like downdetector.com. In this category, Cloudways wins.
9. Email Hosting – Both Don’t Have It (Or It’s Very Limited)
Cloudways doesn’t support email hosting, so you’ll need to use a third-party service like Google Workspace.
Hostinger does support email hosting, but they only give you 1GB of space. There are quite a few other limitations on Hostinger’s email service in which case, they’ll prompt you to upgrade. In either case, it would be a wise move not to attach your email to your web hosting company.
10. Security – Hostinger Security Breach Impact 14M Customers
Hostinger had a huge data breach in 2019 which impacted 14M customers.
Cloudways bumped up their security after adding Cloudflare Enterprise which comes with a firewall (WAF), something they definitely needed to do. Here’s a nice WordPress security checklist you should go through regardless of choosing a WordPress host based on security.
11. Support – Hostinger’s Support Is Awful
Neither Cloudways or Hostinger have what I’ll call “excellent” support, but Cloudways’ is definitely better.
Hostinger’s support is known for being some of the worst in the industry (another reason why they’re so cheap). Go ahead and read their bad TrustPilot reviews and you’ll find quite a few complaints about support. I’ve always thought Cloudways’ was fine (I’ve reached out to them over 20 times), but they can be overly technical considering the dashboard is a learning curve.
12. Dashboard – Cloudways Custom Dashboard vs. Hostinger hPanel
Cloudways uses their own custom dashboard and Hostinger uses their own version of cPanel (called hPanel).
The biggest reason people are intimidated by Cloudways is because it’s too technical, but the dashboard is actually pretty easy. Launching a server, connecting your WordPress site (or installing a new one), and adding SSL are all point and click. Hostinger would win in this category, but their hPanel can be very laggy. For that reason, I give them a tie in this category.
13. Price – Cloudways Is Monthly, Hostinger Is Yearly
Cloudways is monthly pricing while Hostinger is yearly.
Hostinger makes you sign up for 4 years to get the cheap intro price (that’s how they get you). Cloudways has no long-term contracts but is a little more expensive with most their plans (DigitalOcean + Vultr HF) ranging from $10-$13/month for a 1GB server. Cloudways is more expensive than going straight to DO/Vultr because they manage the server, provide you with a dashboard, etc. If you were to go straight to DO/Vultr, you’d be doing things in command lines.
14. Facebook Feedback – Hostinger Banned For Unethical Behavior
Hostinger is the most unethical host I’ve come across.
Fake Reviews – they’ve been caught numerous times writing fake reviews. When they were caught, the CEO not only admitted to this, but encouraged his employees to continue doing it.
Banned from Facebook Groups – Hostinger was also banned from the WordPress Hosting Facebook Group for employees voting for themselves in Facebook polls taken on the best hosting. When polls were taken, employees would storm them (with fake Facebook accounts) and vote for Hostinger, among other infractions. They were caught and banned from the group.
Posed as customers – Hostinger used to monitor Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites searching for people asking about hosting recommendations, then pose as a Hostinger customer (without disclosing they’re actually an employee) saying how great Hostinger was.
Cloudways has much better feedback and was rated #1 in numerous Facebook polls:
15. TrustPilot Rating – Both Are Around 4.5/5
Hostinger writes fake reviews, so take their rating with a grain of salt.
16. Winner – Cloudways Is Better/Faster Than Hostinger
There is no comparison between Cloudways vs. Hostinger. Cloudways is faster with better support, monthly pricing, and they’re more ethical. I’ve been with Cloudways since 2019 and always had a fast site/TTFB. Don’t believe me? Search Facebook Groups like WP Speed Matters.
Cheers,
Tom
