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Cloudways vs IONOS has the simplest price comparison on this site. IONOS Plus costs $1.00 a month for its first year and then renews at $14.00. Cloudways charges $14.00 a month from the start. So after month 12 the two cost exactly the same. The whole difference is what IONOS saves in year one, thirteen dollars a month for twelve months, and that gap never grows or shrinks. What differs is what the money buys, and under load the two are far apart. The same IONOS figures against Kinsta are in our Kinsta and IONOS comparison.
Cloudways vs IONOS: The Short Answer
Cloudways, at 4.1 against 3.1 in our reviews. For the same monthly price after year one, it completes the load test that the IONOS entry plan failed, bills by the hour, and lets you resize the server. IONOS is the better choice only for a trial project that may end within the dollar year, or for a buyer who wants a named consultant. For the same host against Hostinger, see Hostinger vs IONOS.
Head to Head
| Criterion | Cloudways | IONOS Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Product | Managed cloud server | Shared hosting |
| Price, year one | $14.00/mo | $1.00/mo |
| Price from month 13 | $14.00/mo | $14.00/mo |
| Renewal step | None | 14.0× over 12 months |
| 36 months | $504.00 | $348.00 |
| Load test | 288 ms at 1.7% errors | Failed at 65.4% errors |
| Uptime | 99.996% to 99.999% | 99.99% |
| Server hardware | 7.6, Vultr HF | 7.2 of 10 |
| Not included | One account per plan | |
| Support | Chat and tickets; phone as a paid add-on | Phone and a named consultant |
| Billing | Hourly, no contract | 12-month term for the dollar rate |
| Our score | 4.1 | 3.1 |
The Same Price From Month 13
IONOS Plus bills $1.00 a month for twelve months and then $14.00, which is 14.0× over 12 months. Cloudways bills $14.00 from month one, with no promotional term. In year one IONOS costs $12.00 against twelve months at $14.00. From month 13 both charge $14.00.
So the running totals keep a fixed gap, the value of the IONOS promotion. Across 36 months that is $348.00 against $504.00, and across five years the gap is exactly the same size. After the first year, you are paying the same amount each month for two very different products. Our page on hosting renewal prices puts a step of 14.0× over 12 months beside the rest of the field.
⚠️ IONOS describes the dollar two ways. Its cheap-hosting page shows $1.00 on a one-year term, and another of its pages describes a dollar first month. We price the one-year reading, which is the friendlier one. On the shorter reading, IONOS saves far less and the comparison tilts further toward Cloudways.
| Host and plan | How it builds | 36-month total |
|---|---|---|
| ChemiCloud Starter, 36-month term | 36 prepaid months at $2.49 | $89.64 |
| InterServer Standard | 36 months at $2.50, price locked | $90.00 |
| DreamHost Launch, 48-month term | 36 of 48 prepaid months at $2.89 | $104.04 |
| Namecheap Stellar, 24-month term | 24 at $1.98, then 12 at $4.88 | $106.08 |
| Hostinger Premium, 48-month term | 36 of 48 prepaid months at $2.99 | $107.64 |
| HostGator Hatchling, 36-month term | 36 months at $3.75, renewal not reached | $135.00 |
| HostGator Hatchling, with daily backups | 36 at $3.75, plus CodeGuard at $35.88 a year | $242.64 |
| Bluehost Starter, 36-month term | 36 months at $3.99, renewal not reached | $143.64 |
| GoDaddy Economy, 36-month term | 36 months at $5.99, renewal not reached | $215.64 |
| GoDaddy Economy, with SSL from year two | 36 at $5.99, plus $119.99 in years two and three | $455.62 |
| Hostwinds Basic, annual | 12 at $4.54, then 24 at $6.99 | $222.24 |
| SiteGround StartUp, 24-month term | 24 at $2.99, then 12 at $14.99 | $251.64 |
| DreamHost Launch, annual | 12 at $2.89, then 24 at $10.99 | $298.44 |
| Scala Hosting Mini, annual | 12 at $2.95, then 24 at $11.95 | $322.20 |
| Bluehost Starter, 12-month term | 12 at $3.99, then 24 at $11.99 | $335.64 |
| IONOS Plus, annual | 12 at $1.00, then 24 at $14.00 | $348.00 |
| GreenGeeks Lite, 36-month prepay | 36 months at $2.95 | $106.20 |
| GreenGeeks Lite, annual | 12 at $2.95, then 24 at $13.95 | $370.20 |
| SiteGround StartUp, 12-month term | 12 at $2.99, then 24 at $17.99 | $467.64 |
| Cloudways, from | 36 months at $14.00, flat | $504.00 |
| A2 Hosting Turbo Boost, annual | 12 at $6.99, then 24 at $20.99 | $587.64 |
| Rocket.net Starter, annual | 12 at $25.00, then 24 at $30.00 | $1,020.00 |
| WP Engine Startup, annual | 12 at $27.00, then 24 at $35.00 | $1,164.00 |
| Liquid Web managed VPS | 36 months at $33.00 | $1,188.00 |
| Kinsta Starter | 36 months at $35.00, flat | $1,260.00 |
| InMotion Core, 36-month term | 36 months at $3.19, renewal not reached | $114.84 |
| InMotion Launch, 36-month term | 36 months at $4.99, renewal not reached | $179.64 |
Under Load, Far Apart
We run no tests, so these figures belong to Hostingstep. Its load test ramps to 100 concurrent visitors over 60 seconds. The IONOS entry plan failed it with a 65.4% error rate, which the tester reads as the plan being unable to serve concurrent traffic. Cloudways’ weakest result, on its Vultr High Frequency plan, finished at 288 ms with a 1.7% error rate.
Uptime is much closer. IONOS records 99.99% in the same project, and Cloudways between 99.996% and 99.999% across five plans. Hardware is close too, at 7.2 against 7.6. So on a quiet day the two may look alike; on a busy one, they do not. Our guide to reading an uptime report explains why uptime alone cannot show it.
⚠️ A plan that fails at 100 visitors is fine for a site that never sees them together. A newsletter, a sale or a shared post is exactly that moment. Our roundup of hosting for high traffic ranks hosts by this result.
Where IONOS Has an Advantage
The first year, clearly: a dollar a month is the cheapest honest way to try an idea. IONOS also answers the phone and assigns a named consultant to each account, which few budget hosts match in writing. One review disputes how reachable that consultant is in practice.
IONOS Plus bundles one email account per plan, where Cloudways includes none. For a sole trader that one address may be enough. For anyone with staff, a separate email provider is needed at either host, and our guide to setting up email on your domain covers the records.
What Cloudways Offers for the Same $14.00
Cloudways runs a managed server on the cloud provider you choose. SSH, WP-CLI, Git deployment, staging and PHP version selection ship on every tier, and it runs any PHP application. You can resize the server when traffic grows and shrink it afterward.
Billing is by the hour, so stopping the server stops the bill. That is a different kind of flexibility from IONOS’s 12-month term: no commitment at all, rather than a short one. Our Cloudways review covers each cloud.
The practical value of that flexibility shows up in a busy month. A site expecting a launch can move to a larger Cloudways server for the week and back again afterward, paying only for the hours it used. On IONOS Plus the plan is the plan, and a burst of visitors meets the limit the load test found.
Support in a Changing Year
In September 2026, United Internet announced restructuring that cuts about 800 roles across IONOS and 1&1. That does not change what the terms promise, and it is worth knowing if the named consultant is the reason you are buying.
Cloudways answers chat and tickets around the clock and sells phone support as an add-on. Neither publishes a measured response time, and no controlled test of hosting support exists in the sources we found.
A named consultant suits an owner who will never debug anything personally and wants the same person to call each time. For a technical owner, a written ticket thread is often easier to act on. Neither preference is wrong, and the difference between these hosts is real on this line.
Panels and Leaving
IONOS runs its own dashboard rather than cPanel, and Cloudways runs its own console. Neither exports an account in the standard cPanel format, so leaving either means moving the site rather than the account. Our guide to migrating web hosting covers the steps.
IONOS refunds within 30 days and excludes domains. Cloudways has no refund window in the usual sense, because there is nothing prepaid to return.
Year One as a Trial
The honest way to use IONOS’s dollar year is as a trial. Build the site, see whether the idea works, and decide before month 13 whether to keep going. If the project is still alive then, you are about to pay the same as a cloud server for a plan that failed the load test.
That makes month 12 a decision point worth putting in the calendar. A site that has found traffic by then is exactly the site that needs to survive a crowd. A site that has not may be fine where it is, or ready to close.
Moving From IONOS to Cloudways
For a WordPress site the move is routine. Cloudways provides a migration plugin that copies the site to the new server, and the domain can point at the new address, as our guide to pointing a domain to a new host explains. Move the IONOS mailbox first, because Cloudways will not host it.
Time the move for month 12, before the renewal rather than after it. The dollar year is the cheapest part of the IONOS plan, and the renewal is where the comparison turns.
Which Site Belongs Where
An idea you want to test for a year. IONOS, for the dollar rate and a short term.
A site that gets bursts of traffic. Cloudways, which completed the load test at the same monthly price. Our list of hosting for developers covers its tooling.
An owner who wants a person to call. IONOS, for the phone line and a named consultant.
A first site with no technical help. Neither is ideal: IONOS fails under load and Cloudways assumes server skills. Our list of hosting for beginners weighs gentler options.
Who Owns Them
DigitalOcean acquired Cloudways in 2022 and sells the cloud underneath many of its servers. IONOS Group SE has been listed in Frankfurt since February 2023, and United Internet holds about 64%, alongside 1&1, STRATO, GMX and WEB.DE.
A listed company publishes its accounts, which is a form of transparency a private group never has to offer. It also answers to shareholders on costs, which is the context for September’s restructuring.
Where Each One Is Weakest
IONOS is weakest under load and after the first year. A 65.4% error rate on the entry plan is a real limit, and from month 13 it charges the same as a cloud server that handled the test.
Cloudways is weakest in year one and on what it leaves out. It costs thirteen dollars a month more than IONOS over the first twelve months, and it includes no email, no cPanel and no phone line as standard.
Winners by Category
Year one: IONOS, at $12.00 against twelve months at $14.00. From month 13: level at $14.00. Load handling: Cloudways, which completed the test IONOS failed. Uptime: close, with Cloudways slightly ahead. Named contact: IONOS. Billing flexibility: Cloudways, hourly. Email: IONOS, with one account.
When to Choose IONOS Instead
Take IONOS for a project that may close within a year, when the dollar rate and a short term are worth more than performance. Take it too if a named person to call matters to you. Our comparison of Bluehost against IONOS, a Newfold Digital brand, weighs it against a shared rival.
Take Cloudways for anything you expect to keep past the first year, because from then on it costs the same and does more. Our comparison of Cloudways against GoDaddy sets it against another budget brand.
How We Research
We run no tests. Load, uptime and hardware figures come from Hostingstep’s 2026 benchmarks with their windows. Prices come from the providers’ own pages, read on 20 September 2026, and we price the friendlier of IONOS’s two readings of the dollar. Ownership comes from IONOS Group’s investor pages and reporting on the September restructuring.
The criteria behind our scores are on our about page, and the full workings are in our IONOS review.
Cloudways vs IONOS FAQ
IONOS in year one, at $12.00 against twelve months at $14.00. From month 13 both charge $14.00 a month, so the running totals keep a fixed gap. Across 36 months that is $348.00 against $504.00.
Because it measures concurrent visitors. The IONOS entry plan failed the 2026 test with a 65.4% error rate, while Cloudways’ weakest plan finished at 288 ms with 1.7% errors. A newsletter or a shared post creates exactly that kind of load.
Its cheap-hosting page shows $1.00 a month on a one-year term, and another IONOS page describes a dollar first month. We price the one-year reading. Check the cart before paying.
IONOS Plus bundles one email account per plan. Cloudways includes none; mailboxes come through Rackspace at about a dollar each per month.
DigitalOcean has owned Cloudways since 2022. IONOS Group SE is listed in Frankfurt, and United Internet holds about 64%.
The Verdict
Cloudways takes this, at 4.1 against 3.1, and the reason is plain once the dollar year ends. From month 13 the two cost the same, and only one of them completed the load test. For any site you intend to keep, that is the whole argument.
IONOS is a sensible buy for a short trial with a named person to call, as long as you read the dollar as a one-year discount rather than a lasting price. If you move later, our guide to moving from shared to VPS covers the signals.