Leave managed hosting and keep the panel. Connect your own DigitalOcean, Hetzner, AWS or Vultr account, provision a hardened server, and ship zero-downtime Git deploys with one-click rollback. You pay the provider directly and keep full root access.
Bring your own cloud: Hetzner, DigitalOcean, AWS, Vultr, Linode, OVHcloud and custom VPS.
The best Cloudways alternative for teams that want more control is DeployManage: you connect your own cloud account (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, AWS, Vultr and more), pay the provider's raw price with no per-server markup, and get full root and SSH access plus a panel that ships zero-downtime deploys with rollback. Cloudways is managed hosting where you pay a monthly markup and never touch the server, which is genuinely convenient. DeployManage is self-managed, so it costs less and gives you the whole box, in exchange for a little more comfort with a VPS. It is free to start.
Last updated July 2026
Connect DigitalOcean, Hetzner, AWS, Vultr, Linode or OVHcloud and provision a hardened server in under a minute. You pay the provider directly at raw price, with no per-server markup on top.
Point a repo at a domain and ship atomic releases with health checks. Traffic only switches after the build passes, so a deploy never takes the app offline.
A bad release reverts to the previous version instantly. No support ticket, no waiting, no restoring a backup by hand while customers are down.
Create MySQL and PostgreSQL databases and users, issue auto-renewing Let's Encrypt certificates, and manage firewall rules, queues, cron and mailboxes from one dashboard.
The server is yours. Open a shell, install anything, tune the stack, read every log. Managed hosting sandboxes the box; here you own it end to end.
Every provision, deploy and config change is logged across all your servers, built from reusable recipes so the stack, firewall and hardening stay identical instead of drifting per box.
Add your own DigitalOcean, Hetzner, AWS or Vultr credentials once. The servers, data and billing stay in your account, not a host's.
Pick a size and region and get a hardened, firewalled box built from your recipe in under a minute. You pay the provider's raw price.
Point a Git repo at a domain, add Let's Encrypt SSL, and ship the first zero-downtime release with health checks and rollback ready.
Manage databases, queues, backups, cron, SSL and mailboxes for every site, with full root access and a fleet-wide audit trail.
Cloudways is managed cloud hosting: they run the server and bill you a markup for the convenience. DeployManage is a self-managed panel: you own the server and pay the cloud provider directly. Here is where each one fits.
| Task | DeployManage | Cloudways |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs the server | You do, with the panel automating the work | Cloudways runs it as managed hosting |
| Cloud account ownership | Your own account with the provider | The server sits inside Cloudways' account |
| Pricing model | Free to start, you pay the provider's raw price | Monthly per-server markup on top of the cloud |
| Root and SSH access | Full root, open a shell anytime | Limited by the managed platform |
| Provider choice | Hetzner, DigitalOcean, AWS, Vultr, Linode, OVHcloud | A curated set of managed cloud options |
| Zero-downtime deploy and rollback | Built in with health checks and one click | Git deploy available, workflow differs |
| Support model | You own the box, panel handles the ops | Bundled managed support and add-ons |
Move client sites to your own cloud accounts and drop the per-server markup. One dashboard, recipe-driven provisioning and an audit trail across every server you run.
Stop working inside a managed sandbox. Open a shell, install what you need, tune the stack, and still get one-click deploys and rollback from the panel.
As traffic grows, a per-server markup adds up fast. Pay the provider's raw price on your own account and keep the same clean deploy workflow.
Because the server lives in your cloud account, you are never trapped. Move providers, keep the box, or take the whole fleet with you at any time.
Place each project on whichever provider fits, from Hetzner for price to AWS for compliance, and manage them all from one panel.
Run WordPress and WooCommerce on a VPS you own, with SSL, backups and firewalls handled, for less than a managed markup on the same underlying cloud.
The best Cloudways alternative depends on how much of the server you want to own. Cloudways is managed hosting: you pick a cloud, they provision it inside their own account, run it for you, and add a monthly markup on top of the underlying provider's price. That is a fair trade if you never want to touch a server. If you want the same clean deploy experience but on infrastructure you control, a self-managed panel is the better fit.
DeployManage is built for that second group. You connect your own cloud account (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, AWS, Vultr, Linode or OVHcloud), provision a hardened server from the panel, and ship zero-downtime Git deploys with one-click rollback. Because the box lives in your account, you pay the provider's raw price with no markup, you keep full root and SSH access, and there is nothing to unwind if you ever leave. It is free to start, so you can provision your first server and compare the workflow directly.
Two reasons come up most often when people search for an alternative to Cloudways. The first is cost. Cloudways charges a per-server monthly markup on top of the cloud you choose, so as your fleet or traffic grows, you are paying that premium on every box. The pricing model is on cloudways.com pricing. For an agency running many client sites, or a SaaS scaling its server count, the raw provider price on your own account is usually cheaper than the managed markup on the same hardware.
The second reason is control. Managed hosting keeps the server inside the host's account and limits how deep you can go. If you have ever wanted full root, a specific kernel setting, a custom package, or just to read every log without a support ticket, a self-managed panel removes that ceiling. You get the automation of a panel and the full box underneath it, which is the combination most people are really after when they want more than managed hosting gives.
Moving to a self managed Cloudways alternative changes one thing above all: ownership of the server. On Cloudways, the box sits in their account and they handle the operating system, patching and platform. With DeployManage, the box sits in your cloud account and the panel automates the same work: it provisions a hardened, firewalled server, sets up the stack from a reusable recipe, issues Let's Encrypt SSL, and wires up databases, queues, cron and mailboxes.
The honest tradeoff is that you now own the server, so you need a little more comfort with a VPS. In practice the panel absorbs most of that: provisioning, hardening, SSL renewal, backups and deploys are handled for you, and the fleet audit trail shows who changed what. What you gain is real. No per-server markup, full root access, any provider, and no lock-in because you can move or keep the box whenever you want. For most agencies and dev teams, that is a small step up in responsibility for a large gain in control and a lower bill.
If you read a Cloudways alternative Reddit thread, the same themes repeat. People like Cloudways for being genuinely hands-off and reliable, and they praise its WordPress and WooCommerce experience. The complaints cluster around the markup adding up as you scale, wanting deeper server access than the managed layer allows, and disliking that the server is not truly theirs. That is exactly the gap a self-managed panel fills.
The practical answer that keeps surfacing is: bring your own cloud account and put a panel on top. You keep the parts people value (a clean dashboard, easy SSL, backups, one-click deploys) while dropping the parts they complain about (the markup and the sandbox). DeployManage does that by provisioning on your own DigitalOcean, Hetzner, AWS or Vultr account, giving you root access and zero-downtime deploys with rollback, and charging you nothing to start. You still pay the cloud provider directly, at their price.
Cloudways is a solid managed platform, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. It is owned by DigitalOcean, it is genuinely good for teams that never want to administer a server, and it is strong for WordPress and WooCommerce and for agencies who want bundled support and one throat to choke. If your priority is zero server administration and you are happy to pay a markup for that peace of mind, Cloudways does the job well and switching would trade away convenience you value.
DeployManage is the better choice when you want the server itself. If you would rather pay the cloud provider's raw price on your own account, keep full root and SSH access, choose any provider, and avoid lock-in, a self-managed panel fits better and costs less on the same hardware. You still get zero-downtime deploys, rollback, recipe-driven provisioning and a fleet audit trail, so the day-to-day workflow stays clean. Connect a provider and provision your first server free to start, then decide which model fits your team.
The best alternative to Cloudways for teams that want control is DeployManage. You connect your own cloud account, pay the provider's raw price with no per-server markup, and keep full root access, while the panel handles provisioning, SSL, backups and zero-downtime deploys with rollback. Cloudways stays the easier pick if you want fully managed hosting.
Yes. Because Cloudways adds a monthly markup on top of the underlying cloud, running the same server on your own account is usually cheaper. DeployManage is free to start and provisions on your own DigitalOcean, Hetzner, AWS or Vultr account, so you pay the provider's raw price directly and skip the managed premium entirely.
Cloudways is managed hosting: the server sits in their account, they run it, and you pay a markup. A VPS panel like DeployManage sits on a server in your own cloud account, automates the same work, and gives you full root access. You own the box and pay the provider directly instead of renting managed convenience.
Cloudways is worth it if you never want to touch a server and are happy to pay a markup for managed hosting, bundled support and a strong WordPress experience. It is owned by DigitalOcean and is genuinely reliable. If you want lower cost, full root access and no lock-in, a self-managed panel on your own cloud is the better value.
Cloudways is owned by DigitalOcean, which acquired it in 2022. It remains a managed cloud hosting platform where you choose an underlying provider and Cloudways runs the server for you with a monthly markup. That ownership makes DigitalOcean-backed infrastructure a common Cloudways option, though the managed markup still applies on top of the raw cloud price.
Yes. You can self host on your own cloud account and put a panel on top so you keep the convenience without the markup. DeployManage provisions a hardened server on DigitalOcean, Hetzner, AWS or Vultr, gives you root access, and ships zero-downtime deploys with rollback. You own the server and pay the provider directly, free to start.
Connect your own cloud account, provision a hardened server, and ship a zero-downtime deploy with rollback. No markup, full root access, free to start.