Cloudways vs. Hostinger: Get Over The Email Hosting And Cloudways Is Better

Deciding between Cloudways vs Hostinger?

Cloudways is better than Hostinger in terms of speed, support, and they have monthly pricing (they’re also the host I use). Their Vultr High Frequency plan is one of the most popular hosting plans in Facebook Groups and they were rated the #1 host in numerous recent Facebook polls. Countless people have migrated to Cloudways and posted their speed results. While they may be less beginner-friendly than Hostinger, it’s not difficult to launch a server, install WordPress (or take advantage of their free website migration), then test results and core web vital scores.

Hostinger is unethical. Their employees write fake reviews, vote for themselves in Facebook polls taken on the best hosting, pose as customers without disclosing their an employee, and even copied my website while changing all hosting recommendations to Hostinger. But aside from ethics, they also have one of the worst support teams out of any host. And even though they use LiteSpeed servers, there are better options (like NameHero) if you want LiteSpeed. Hosting reviews are so biased these days (yes, I’m an affiliate too), but don’t listen to the people promoting Hostinger. Most affiliates know they’re a horrible choice and just want commissions.

	Cloudways	Hostinger
Pros + Cons	Average	Average
Server	Choice of 5 cloud hosts	LiteSpeed
Cache Plugin	Breeze	LiteSpeed Cache
CDN	StackPath	QUIC.cloud
Redis + Memcached	Yes	Yes
Data Centers	44	7
Uptimes	Good	Poor
Security	Average	Poor
Support	Good	Poor
Dashboard	Custom	hPanel
Price	Monthly	Yearly
Facebook Feedback	Great	Banned From Groups
Promo Code	30% Off 3 Months	Code At Checkout
Winner	Yes	No

 

1. Pros + Cons On Cloudways vs. Hostinger

 

2. Server – Vultr + DigitalOcean vs. LiteSpeed

Hostinger uses LiteSpeed while Cloudways lets you choose from 5 cloud hosts (DigitalOcean & DO Premium, Vultr & Vultr HF, Google Cloud, AWS, Linode).

LiteSpeed and Vultr High Frequency are both very fast and there will likely be minimal difference. However, Cloudways has many built-in caching levels which are automatically used on your website (Apache, NGINX, PHP-FPM, etc). You should get faster speeds on Cloudways especially since Hostinger cheaps out on their technology. You can test my own site in GTmetrix which uses Vultr HF. This is one of their most popular plans and has great reviews in Facebook Groups. Many people have already migrated to Cloudways and posted the performance results.

 

3. Cache Plugin – Cloudways Breeze vs. LiteSpeed Cache

Hostinger uses LiteSpeed which means you can use the LiteSpeed Cache plugin (I have a nice tutorial on configuring the settings). Cloudways’ Breeze plugin isn’t great and you’re better off using WP Rocket which does a better job at addressing core web vitals. LiteSpeed Cache also uses server level caching which is faster than WP Rocket’s file-based caching, so it’s faster (and also has excellent reviews). Since LiteSpeed Cache is arguably faster and free, Hostinger wins.

 

4. CDN – CloudwaysCDN vs. QUIC.cloud

Hostinger wins here since CloudwaysCDN uses StackPath’s data centers which aren’t great (they had many issues which were reported on cdnperf.com). QUIC.cloud CDN is faster, more reliable, and it’s free. You can only use QUIC.cloud on LiteSpeed (which Hostinger uses) so you would install the LiteSpeed Cache plugin then activate QUIC.cloud CDN. NameHero has a tutorial on setting up QUIC.cloud which also works on Hostinger. On Cloudways, I suggest using either Cloudflare’s CDN or BunnyCDN (what I use) as opposed to using CloudwaysCDN.

 

5. Redis + Memcached – Available On Both Hosts

Redis/memcached can significantly speed up your website with database caching.

Both Cloudways and Hostinger offer this, but I added it here as a reminder that you should definitely be using one of these (memcached is usually good for smaller static sites, Redis is good for dynamic WooCommerce sites). In Cloudways, you can find this under Servers > Settings & Packages. In Hostinger, you would activate Redis or memcached when using the LiteSpeed Cache plugin, then login to hPanel and activate it in the PHP Extension settings.

 

6. Data Centers – Cloudways Has More Data Centers Worldwide

While Hostinger only has 7 data centers, Cloudways has 44.

Choosing a data center close to your visitors has a huge impact on TTFB. Since DigitalOcean, Vultr, and other cloud hosts offered by Cloudways have different data centers, it really depends which cloud host you choose. But DigitalOcean and Vultr both have a good amount of data centers throughout the world. Since Cloudways has more locations, they win in this category.

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

 

7. Uptimes – Hostinger Has Frequent 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.

 

8. Security – Hostinger Security Breach Impact 14M Customers

Hostinger had a huge data breach in 2019 which impacted 14M customers.

I’m no security expert, but I’ve also heard Cloudways uses hashed passwords and could take a few extra steps to improve security. Regardless of which host is better, you should always secure your site yourself by doing things like using strong passwords, limiting login attempts, disabling XML-RPC, and moving the wp-login page. Here’s a nice WordPress security checklist.

 

9. Support – Hostinger’s Support Is Awful

I’ll be honest here – Cloudways used to have bad support but they’ve definitely improved it since around 2010. Hostinger’s support has always been awful (you don’t get great support with cheap hosting). Neither Cloudways or Hostinger offer phone support so you’ll have to use live chat or tickets. TrustPilot ratings are usually a good indication of how good a host’s support is, but there’s no doubt Hostinger wrote fake reviews here – so I would take their 4.3/5 star rating with a grain of salt. Cloudways’ TrustPilot rating is now 4.7/5 at the time of writing this.

 

10. Dashboard – Cloudways Custom Dashboard vs. Hostinger hPanel

Cloudways uses their own custom dashboard and Hostinger uses their own version of cPanel (they call it 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.

 

11. Price – Cloudways Is Monthly, Hostinger Is Yearly

Cloudways is monthly pricing while Hostinger is yearly.

Hostinger makes you sign up for 3 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.

 

 

12. 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 banned from the WordPress Hosting Facebook Group for employees voting for themselves in Facebook polls taken on the best hosting. When polls were taken, their employees would storm them (usually with fake Facebook accounts) and vote for themselves. 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.

Copied my website – Hostinger actually copied my website and changed all hosting recommendations to Hostinger. The website has been taken down, but I took a screenshot.

Cloudways has much better feedback and was rated #1 in numerous Facebook polls:

 

13. Promo Code – Use At CheckOut To Save Money

When you checkout on Cloudways, use the promo code OMM25 to save 25% your first 2 months. If you decide to use Hostinger, they automatically apply the best coupon at checkout.

 

14. Winner – Cloudways Is Better 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 hosting my blog on Cloudways since 2019 (I originally was using DigitalOcean but switched to Vultr High Frequency). My blog has a fast TTFB, passes core web vitals with great GTmetrix results, and I have no plans to move.

Cheers,
Tom