Is Cloudways worth it in 2026? I ran the numbers for a small SaaS

I keep seeing "Cloudways vs raw VPS" debates. Here's what I found after running a small SaaS on both.

The raw VPS path

DigitalOcean droplet: $12/month

• You install nginx, MySQL, PHP, SSL
• You configure backups (or pay $2.40/mo extra)
• You patch security updates
• You fix it when it breaks at 3am

Time cost: ~2 hours setup + 30 min/month maintenance

The Cloudways path

Cloudways on DigitalOcean: $14/month

• Same server, managed
• One-click staging
• Automated backups included
• Security patches applied

Time cost: ~15 minutes setup + 0 maintenance

The math

Raw VPS: $12 + 2.5 hours of your time
Cloudways: $14 + 0.25 hours

If your time is worth $20/hour, raw VPS costs $62/month in real terms. Cloudways costs $19.

When raw VPS wins

• You enjoy server admin (some people do)
• You need custom kernel modules
• You're running 10+ servers and have scripts

When Cloudways wins

• You want to ship product, not manage servers
• You break things and need staging
• You don't want 3am pager duty

My setup

I use Cloudways for production and a $5 Hetzner box for staging/testing. Best of both worlds.

Full comparison with uptime data →

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