Cloudways vs SiteGround 2026: Which is Better for WordPress Agencies?

Cloudways and SiteGround serve different parts of the WordPress hosting market. SiteGround is a traditional managed WordPress host with fixed plans, shared infrastructure, and strong marketing toward small business owners. Cloudways is a cloud hosting platform layered on major infrastructure providers, aimed at developers and agencies managing multiple sites.

They're often compared because both sit between budget shared hosting and premium hosts like Kinsta — but they're built differently and optimised for different users.

Quick summary

Short answer: Cloudways for developers and agencies managing multiple sites with technical requirements. SiteGround for small business owners or clients who need a hands-off managed experience with phone support.

Infrastructure and architecture

Cloudways

Cloudways provides managed hosting on top of major cloud infrastructure. You choose the provider:

• DigitalOcean — reliable, affordable
• Linode (Akamai) — solid alternative
• Vultr High Frequency — NVMe SSD, best performance option
• AWS — for enterprise clients requiring Amazon infrastructure
• Google Cloud Platform — for GCP requirements

You rent a server (VPS), and Cloudways manages the setup: Nginx, Varnish, PHP-FPM, MariaDB, Let's Encrypt. Multiple WordPress sites run on a single server as separate applications. You control server sizing and scaling.

SiteGround

SiteGround uses their own managed infrastructure built on Google Cloud. Plans are fixed: StartUp (1 site), GrowBig (unlimited sites), GoGeek (unlimited sites + priority support). Sites are on shared servers — the resources available to your site depend on what other sites on the same server are using.

SiteGround's SG Optimizer plugin provides server-level caching integration, image optimisation, and performance configuration from within WordPress.

Performance

From the WordPress Hosting Speed Test 2026:

Cloudways is significantly faster on both cached and uncached metrics. The 95ms vs 32ms cached TTFB difference is perceptible to users — it's the difference between a page that feels instant and one that has a slight delay. The 380ms uncached TTFB on SiteGround reflects the shared infrastructure constraints.

These results are on comparable entry-level plans for each host. SiteGround performance improves on GoGeek (higher resource allocation). Cloudways performance scales with server size.

Pricing

Cloudways

Cloudways is priced by server size, not by site count. Multiple WordPress sites on one server have no per-site cost within that server tier.

Vultr High Frequency (recommended):

Redis add-on: €14/month per server (not per site).

SiteGround

Warning on SiteGround pricing: The introductory rates shown in their marketing (€3.99, €6.69, €10.69) are for the first 12 months only. Renewal rates are significantly higher (€14.99, €24.99, €39.99 per month). This is standard in the budget managed hosting market but catches people who don't read the renewal terms.

For 10 client sites:

• Cloudways Vultr HF 2GB: €25/month (no site limit, 5–10 sites comfortable)
• SiteGround GrowBig at renewal: €24.99/month (10-site practical limit before performance degrades)

At renewal pricing, they're similar in cost for 10 sites. Cloudways outperforms SiteGround significantly at that price point.

Features comparison

Caching

Cloudways: Nginx + Varnish Cache on every server. Varnish is a proven full-page cache — configured correctly, it serves cached pages in 30–40ms. Requires correct WooCommerce exclusion configuration (documented, not automatic). Redis available as €14/month add-on.

SiteGround: SG Optimizer plugin provides server-side caching integration. Simpler to configure than Cloudways' Varnish setup. Less flexible but more beginner-accessible. No Redis option.

Staging

Cloudways: One-click staging per application. Available on all plans. Staging is a full WordPress clone with separate database. Push to production via the Cloudways dashboard.

SiteGround: Staging included on GrowBig and GoGeek. Not included on StartUp. Staging is functional but less mature than Cloudways' implementation.

Team access

Cloudways: Team member access with role-based permissions. Add developers to specific applications without giving them server access. Essential for agencies with multiple developers.

SiteGround: Collaborator access available, but limited role customisation. Better suited to single-owner accounts than multi-developer agencies.

Developer tools

Cloudways: SSH/SFTP, WP-CLI, PHP version switching per app, Git deployment support, application-level PHP configuration, server-level access for technical users.

SiteGround: SSH, SFTP, WP-CLI, PHP version selection. Less server-level access than Cloudways — you work within SiteGround's managed constraints.

Automatic updates

SiteGround offers automatic WordPress core and plugin updates via their platform. Cloudways does not — you manage updates yourself or via a third-party tool like WP Umbrella.

This is a meaningful difference for agencies running maintenance retainers. If you're managing updates manually at scale, add this to the workflow comparison.

Support

Cloudways: 24/7 live chat and ticketing. Response typically 5–15 minutes. Support quality is good for managed hosting questions, weaker for deep WordPress troubleshooting.

SiteGround: 24/7 live chat, phone support on GoGeek, and email ticketing. SiteGround's phone support is a differentiator — Cloudways doesn't offer it. Response times are comparable for chat.

For clients who want to call their host when something breaks, SiteGround's phone support matters. Cloudways is chat-first.

When to choose Cloudways

You're an agency or developer managing multiple client sites. Cloudways' team access, per-app staging, and server economics make it the stronger platform for agencies. Running 10 sites on a Vultr HF 2GB server at €25/month outperforms 10 SiteGround accounts.

You need technical control. PHP-level configuration, Varnish tuning, server scaling, and SSH access to the underlying system. Cloudways gives you this; SiteGround keeps you within their managed constraints.

WooCommerce with Redis. Cloudways offers Redis (€14/month add-on). SiteGround doesn't. For WooCommerce stores with significant concurrent sessions, Redis object cache matters.

Performance is a priority. Cloudways' 32ms cached TTFB on Vultr HF vs SiteGround's 95ms is a meaningful performance difference. If site speed is part of your agency's value proposition to clients, Cloudways is the better argument.

When to choose SiteGround

You're handing hosting off to the client. SiteGround's interface is more client-accessible than Cloudways. A non-technical client can navigate SiteGround; Cloudways is more confusing for non-developers.

The client wants phone support. Cloudways doesn't offer phone support. SiteGround does (GoGeek plan). For business owners who will call their host when something goes wrong, SiteGround's support model fits.

Budget is the primary driver on a single site. SiteGround's introductory pricing is lower than Cloudways for a single site. At renewal, Cloudways is competitive — but the initial cost is lower.

You need a beginner-accessible interface. SiteGround's WordPress-specific onboarding and SG Optimizer plugin are more approachable than Cloudways for users without server management experience.

Verdict

For WordPress agencies and developers, Cloudways is the better platform. The performance advantage is real, the team access and staging are more mature, and the server economics at scale are better than SiteGround's renewal pricing.

SiteGround is a solid choice for small businesses, single-site owners, and clients you're handing hosting off to who need a simple, phone-supported managed experience.

Don't let SiteGround's introductory pricing mislead you. Compare at renewal rates — at that level, Cloudways' performance and feature advantage is clear.

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