A2 Hosting vs Cloudways
Both cover similar ground, so the useful question is which is better for your specific situation. Here is how they differ on the things that change the answer.
Developer-friendly shared hosting with tuned "Turbo" tiers
Managed cloud hosting layered over DigitalOcean, Vultr, AWS and GCP
Quick verdict
Neither wins outright: 1 categories each, with 6 undecided on the data we have verified. Which is right for you depends entirely on which categories you care about.
Category by category
Who wins what
A category shows “not enough data” when either side has a gap. We would rather leave it blank than invent a winner.
| Category | Winner | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Not enough dataNeither provider has a verified current price yet, so this cannot be called. | Neither provider has a verified current price yet, so this cannot be called. |
| Performance | TieComparable performance tooling on both, on the data we have verified. | Comparable performance tooling on both, on the data we have verified. |
| Beginners | TieNeither is meaningfully easier to start with than the other. | Neither is meaningfully easier to start with than the other. |
| Support | A2 HostingA2 Hosting offers more ways to reach a human. | A2 Hosting offers more ways to reach a human. |
| WordPress | TieBoth handle WordPress to a similar standard. | Both handle WordPress to a similar standard. |
| Ecommerce | CloudwaysCloudways is the stronger option for selling online. | Cloudways is the stronger option for selling online. |
| Developers | TieComparable developer access on both. | Comparable developer access on both. |
| UK visitors | Not enough dataBoth offer UK-region hosting, or neither does. | Both offer UK-region hosting, or neither does. |
Specifications
Feature by feature
| Feature | A2 Hosting | Cloudways |
|---|---|---|
| Control paneldiffers | cPanel | Cloudways Platform (custom) |
| UK data centre | Unknown | Yes |
| Free SSL | Yes | Yes |
| Email hostingdiffers | Yes | No |
| Staging | Yes | Yes |
| CDN included | Unknown | Yes |
| Free migration | Unknown | Yes |
| SSH access | Yes | Yes |
| Git | Yes | Yes |
| WP-CLI | Yes | Yes |
| WooCommerce | Yes | Yes |
A2 Hosting in short
Worth a look if you want shared hosting that does not fight you when you need SSH, Git or a specific PHP version.
- + Developer tooling available on shared plans
- + Choice of PHP versions
- + Anytime money-back guarantee
- − No UK data centre
- − Turbo branding makes plan comparison harder than it needs to be
Cloudways in short
A strong middle ground if you want cloud performance and control without administering the server yourself.
- + Choose the underlying cloud and region, including London
- + Vertical scaling without rebuilding the server
- + Full SSH and staging on every plan
- − Email hosting is a paid add-on, not included
- − Billing is usage-based, so costs are less predictable
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