The short answer
A2 Hosting is cheaper at the door but it's shared hosting; Cloudways' managed cloud delivers more consistent speed and scales cleanly. Choose A2 on a tight budget, Cloudways once performance starts to matter.
Side by side
| Spec | Cloudways | A2 Hosting |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $14/mo | $3/mo |
| Global TTFB (lower is better) | ~444ms | ~700ms |
| Uptime SLA | 99.99% | 99.9% |
| Infrastructure | Managed cloud VPS (DigitalOcean, Vultr, AWS, GCP) | Shared / VPS, Turbo (LiteSpeed) servers |
| Data centers | 65+ data centers via cloud providers | 4 data centers (US, EU, Asia) |
| Best for | Best value & cloud flexibility | Tight budgets |
Strengths & trade-offs
Cloudways
Best value & cloud flexibility
Cloudways is managed hosting layered on top of raw cloud VPS infrastructure you choose — DigitalOcean, Vultr High Frequency, AWS, or Google Cloud. The price-to-performance ratio is excellent, and adding its Cloudflare Enterprise CDN closes most of the gap to the fully-managed hosts.
Strengths
- Choose your own cloud provider
- Pay-as-you-go, no long-term contract
- Cloudflare Enterprise available as an add-on
- Strong value for the price
Consider
- Raw TTFB depends on the cloud you pick
- Email hosting is a paid add-on
- More hands-on than fully-managed hosts
A2 Hosting
Tight budgets
A2 Hosting is the budget pick: budget-priced shared and VPS plans, with optional Turbo (LiteSpeed) servers that meaningfully outrun standard shared hosting. It won't match managed cloud hosts on consistency, but for a small WordPress site on a tight budget it's a reasonable starting point.
Strengths
- Very low entry price
- Turbo (LiteSpeed) plans for faster shared hosting
- Anytime money-back guarantee
- Free site migration
Consider
- Shared resources on entry plans
- Higher, less consistent TTFB than managed hosts
- Renewal pricing jumps after the intro term
Frequently asked questions
Is Cloudways or A2 Hosting faster?
Cloudways posts the faster global Time to First Byte (~444ms vs ~700ms for A2 Hosting). Lower TTFB means the browser starts rendering sooner, which directly helps Core Web Vitals and perceived speed.
Is Cloudways or A2 Hosting cheaper?
A2 Hosting starts lower at $3/mo versus $14/mo for Cloudways. Factor in renewal pricing and add-ons (CDN, email, staging) when you compare the real monthly cost.
Should I choose Cloudways or A2 Hosting?
A2 Hosting is cheaper at the door but it's shared hosting; Cloudways' managed cloud delivers more consistent speed and scales cleanly. Choose A2 on a tight budget, Cloudways once performance starts to matter.
TTFB and uptime figures are representative global benchmarks for directional comparison, not a live feed. Pricing verified June 2026 — hosts change plans often, so confirm the current price on each provider's site before buying. SiteRacer earns an affiliate commission if you sign up through some links here, at no extra cost to you.