- 7-Day Free Trial, Cancel Anytime
- Free First Web App Migration, 1-Click Free SSL
- Backups, Staging, Cloning, Atomic Deployments and 24/7 Support
- 3-Day Trial Without Credit Card
- Dedicated cloud resources with automated SSL, firewalls, real-time monitoring, and daily backups with one-click restore — no shared hosting slowdowns.
- Support available 24/7/365 via Phone, Chat, Knowledge Base and Blog
RunCloud vs Cloudways: Quick Summary
Cloudways is the overall winner. It scored 99% on GTmetrix with a 119ms TTFB on a real content-built site, bundles Imunify360 with Patchstack vulnerability monitoring on every server, supports unlimited apps per server at $14/month all-in, and connected me to a real support agent in under 30 seconds.
For most users the all-in pricing, included security stack, and managed infrastructure are the decisive advantages. RunCloud wins on customization and cloud provider flexibility.
1. Prices and Plans Comparison
Cloudways Is Cheaper All-In for Most Users; RunCloud Wins for High-Server-Count Operations
RunCloud’s plan fee covers only the management panel. The Essentials plan at $9/month manages one server. The Professional plan at $19/month manages fifty servers. Business at $49/month manages one hundred. Enterprise at $399/month manages five hundred. Each plan also requires a separate cloud server subscription: a basic DigitalOcean Droplet starts at $4 to $6/month, making the real entry cost approximately $13 to $15/month for a single server.
RunCloud requires a credit card to start the 7-day free trial and charges automatically when the trial ends unless canceled. A 14-day money-back window applies after the first charge. The checkout confirms: “7 days free, then $49.00 monthly” for the Business plan, with first charge due on May 5, 2026 at $49 in testing.
Cloudways starts at $14/month for a DigitalOcean server with everything included: management layer, Imunify360 security, caching, unlimited apps, and support. No separate server subscription is required. A 3-day free trial requires no credit card, but there is no money-back guarantee after that window.
For a single-server setup, costs are comparable at entry level. The comparison shifts at scale: RunCloud’s $19/month Professional plan manages fifty servers, making it dramatically cheaper than fifty separate Cloudways servers if you supply your own cloud infrastructure.
2. Customer Support Comparison
Cloudways Connected to a Real Agent in Under 30 Seconds; RunCloud Is Ticket-Only
RunCloud Customer Support
RunCloud’s support is ticket-based. From the dashboard, users submit support tickets and wait for a response. A customer review noted a reply within five minutes on a ticket, which is a strong result if consistent.
RunCloud’s documentation is thorough, covering server management, Git deployment, backups, and API usage in technical depth that reflects the developer audience it serves.
There is no live chat at any plan tier. For urgent production issues outside business hours, ticket response time is the only human support channel available. RunCloud’s ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification signals operational maturity, and the platform manages over 86,000 servers and 464,000 applications according to its own published metrics.
Cloudways Customer Support
I tested Cloudways support from inside the dashboard by clicking “Need a Hand?”, selecting Technical Help, then SSH/SFTP.
My question was about sudo access restrictions after encountering a “user not in sudoers file” error.
The chatbot responded immediately with an accurate explanation: Cloudways restricts sudo access by design on managed hosting, with most server-level settings adjustable through the dashboard instead.
I clicked “Get more help” and reached a real agent named Faraz in under 30 seconds. He confirmed the restriction, explained the security rationale, and sent a relevant Knowledge Base article.
Cloudways does not offer phone support at any tier.
3. Hosting Features Comparison
Cloudways Bundles Security and Management; RunCloud Offers Deeper Server-Level Customization
RunCloud Features
RunCloud’s feature depth at the server management level exceeds what Cloudways exposes through its dashboard. Custom NGINX configurations from the Professional plan give developers direct control over server behavior.
Atomic Deployment on Business plans enables zero-downtime deploys via Git, with each deployment creating an isolated release directory before atomically switching the active symlink.
The Business plan’s ModSecurity plus OWASP Core Rule Set WAF provides application-layer protection equivalent to Cloudways’ Imunify360, but only from $49/month. Essentials and Professional users have no WAF at all.
RunCloud supports seven cloud providers, including Hetzner and UpCloud, which Cloudways does not offer. Hetzner in particular is known for competitive pricing in Europe, which makes RunCloud the more cost-effective option for European infrastructure budgets.
What RunCloud does not include:
- Real-time malware scanning at any plan tier
- WordPress vulnerability monitoring (no Patchstack equivalent)
- Live chat support
- All-in pricing (server costs are separate)
Cloudways Features
Cloudways includes Imunify360 on every server at no extra cost: dedicated firewall, brute-force blocking, bot mitigation, and real-time malware scanning.
Patchstack monitors WordPress plugins and themes for known CVEs before they are exploited. These two tools together cover the threat surface that RunCloud’s WAF alone cannot match without the Business plan upgrade.
Unlimited apps per server, vertical scaling from the dashboard, Git integration, and a 99.99% uptime guarantee are included from $14/month.
What Cloudways does not include:
- Custom NGINX configurations
- Atomic zero-downtime deployments
- Hetzner or UpCloud as cloud provider options
- Live chat is the deepest support tier (no phone)
4. Website Performance Comparison
Cloudways Wins on GTmetrix Score and TBT; RunCloud’s Own Site Benchmarks Show a Capable but Inconsistent Stack
A methodology note applies to both results. Cloudways’ figures come from a real content-built customer WordPress site. RunCloud’s figures come from GTmetrix testing of runcloud.io, which is RunCloud’s own marketing website.
Both provider-owned sites reflect infrastructure managed by the provider but not a standard customer deployment. The numbers are used as tested.
RunCloud Performance Results
I ran GTmetrix from San Antonio, TX on runcloud.io on April 28, 2026.
Metric by metric:
- GTmetrix grade: 90% — a solid result for a marketing site on managed infrastructure
- TTFB 133ms: Fast server response, close to Cloudways’ 119ms and inside the excellent sub-200ms threshold
- LCP 653ms: The fastest LCP in this comparison; the main visible element appears in well under a second
- TBT 171ms: The most significant limitation. Above GTmetrix’s 150ms warning threshold, meaning visitors experience a brief but perceptible delay before the page fully responds to clicks and scrolls
- CLS 0.13: The highest layout shift score in this comparison, indicating visible content movement during load that users can detect
- TTI 983ms: The page becomes interactive in under a second, which is a strong result despite the TBT
- Fully loaded 3.2s: All resources complete in 3.2 seconds
Cloudways Performance Results
Cloudways scored 99% performance and 96% structure on a real content-built WordPress site with plugins, images, and actual page content installed before benchmarking.
Metric by metric:
- GTmetrix grade: 99% — top-tier result on a real customer account
- TTFB 119ms: 14ms faster than RunCloud’s 133ms on server response
- LCP 925ms: Slower than RunCloud’s 653ms on this metric, reflecting heavier page content on the test site
- TBT 1ms: The decisive gap. RunCloud’s 171ms TBT versus Cloudways’ 1ms means Cloudways pages become interactive almost instantly while RunCloud’s own infrastructure shows meaningful blocking time
- CLS 0: Perfect visual stability versus RunCloud’s 0.13
5. Ease of Use Comparison
Cloudways Is More Accessible; RunCloud’s Multi-Step Signup and Server-Concept Requirements Create a Steeper Start
Registration Process
RunCloud Registration
I went through RunCloud’s full signup flow firsthand. The process runs across four labeled steps displayed as a progress bar.
Step 1 asked for first name, last name, email, and password, with GitHub or Google as alternatives.
Step 2 required email verification with a 6-digit code sent to the registered address.
Step 3 was a personalization screen asking for country, city, how I planned to use RunCloud (three checkbox options covering personal projects, client websites, and hosting provider use cases), and team size.
Step 4 showed the plan selection and checkout. A credit card was required to start the 7-day trial. The order summary confirmed: 7 days free, then $49/month for Business, with the first charge on May 5, 2026.
Payment accepted via PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and JCB through Paddle as the merchant of record.
Before using RunCloud to manage a site, I also needed to provision a separate cloud server from DigitalOcean, AWS, or another supported provider, then connect it to RunCloud’s panel by following the server connection instructions. That step is not part of RunCloud’s signup and happens after account creation.
Cloudways Registration
Cloudways’ free trial required no credit card. I entered name, email, and password, then answered brief onboarding questions about hosting experience, monthly spend, and use case before reaching the dashboard.
The 3-day trial began immediately. No separate server provisioning was required; I deployed a DigitalOcean server directly from within the Cloudways dashboard in the same session.
Dashboard and Interface
RunCloud Dashboard
After completing the sign-up, the first screen I landed on was a “Connect your first server” prompt.
The left sidebar showed the full navigation structure: Servers, Web Applications, Atomic Deployment, Teams, Backups, DNS Manager, Settings, and Billing.
The main content area explained the next required step clearly: connect a cloud VPS before anything else is possible. Three feature callouts appeared below the Connect button covering Diversified Cloud Providers, Health Monitoring, and Manage Services and Tools.
Once a server was connected, the server-level view opened a dedicated left sidebar covering Dashboard, Health, Web Application, Database, System User, Deployment Key, and Services, with a Utility section below it listing Cronjob, Supervisor, and SSH.
The SSH management page showed a clean table for adding public keys with a label, user assignment, and public key field. The level of granularity available from this single server view is deeper than any managed hosting dashboard in this comparison.
Cloudways Dashboard
Cloudways opens with tabs for Servers, Applications, Team, and Projects. Clicking a server reveals monitoring, vertical scaling, security, backup, and SSH controls.
Clicking an application shows WordPress-specific controls, including cache management, staging, SSL, and domain management.
The interface requires understanding the server-to-application relationship, but does not require any external server provisioning before the dashboard becomes useful.
WordPress and Site Setup
RunCloud WordPress Setup
WordPress deployment on RunCloud starts from the Web Application section of a connected server.
Clicking into that section opens the Deploy Web App page, which presents four deployment methods as tabs: One-Click, Script Installer, Git Repository, and Empty Web App.
Under the One-Click tab, two options appeared: phpMyAdmin and WordPress. Clicking WordPress begins a guided configuration sequence covering domain, system user, web application type, PHP version, and stack selection.
RunCloud’s WordPress Canvas feature, accessible through Settings, takes this further. The Create Canvas screen lets me name a canvas template and select cleanup items to remove from the base WordPress install before saving it as a reusable configuration: Hello World Post, Sample Page, Default theme, Default plugins, and sample files can all be excluded. This creates a clean, opinionated WordPress baseline that deploys consistently across projects.
Before all of this, I needed to have already provisioned and connected a cloud server. That step happens outside RunCloud’s interface.
Cloudways WordPress Setup
- Navigate to the Applications tab
- Click Add Application and select a server
- Choose WordPress from the application list
- Confirm configuration and wait for deployment
WordPress is provisioned and accessible within a few minutes. No external server setup is required.
Hosting Management
RunCloud Hosting Management
RunCloud’s Atomic Deployment section is the standout management feature for development teams. The Atomic Deployment page presents a “Deploy a Project” flow built around Git-based operations: CI/CD pipelines, branch management, and issue tracking integrate directly into the deployment process.
Zero-downtime deployments are guaranteed by keeping a production copy live while the new deployment is built in an isolated directory before the atomic switchover.
At the server level, the management depth covers NGINX and PHP configuration, Redis and Memcached service controls, cron jobs, Supervisord workers, SSH key management, server firewall rules port by port, and database access.
Custom NGINX configurations on Professional plans expose direct control over server behavior. The IP Whitelisting tool in the Settings section adds access restriction at the account level, separate from server-level firewall rules.
Cloudways Hosting Management
Cloudways’ management covers vertical scaling, PHP version control, backup scheduling, cache management, staging, SSL, and deployment logs from a single application view.
Imunify360 security events and Patchstack alerts are accessible without navigating to a separate interface. Vertical scaling upgrades server resources without application downtime.
The trade-off is less granular NGINX control and no atomic deployment capability compared to RunCloud’s feature depth on those specific tools.
6. Privacy and Security Comparison
Cloudways’ Imunify360 Plus Patchstack on All Plans Versus RunCloud’s WAF Only From $49/Month
RunCloud’s WAF on the Business plan at $49/month is the full ModSecurity plus OWASP Core Rule Set implementation, a comprehensive application-layer firewall. On Essentials ($9/month) and Professional ($19/month), there is no WAF and no real-time malware scanning.
Users on those plans are responsible for their own application security beyond the server firewall port management and SSH key tools RunCloud provides.
RunCloud Security
RunCloud’s security stack at the server level is solid for developers who configure it deliberately. SSH key management is available on all plans, with a dedicated SSH section covering key storage, login notification alerts, session management, and server-level config controls.
The server firewall in the panel lets you open or close specific ports globally or for specific IP addresses without touching the command line. IP whitelisting at the account level is accessible from the Settings panel.
The Business plan adds ModSecurity with the OWASP Core Rule Set as a WAF, Cloudflare DNS integration, and advanced SSL deployment. One-click Let’s Encrypt SSL is available from the Essentials tier.
What RunCloud does not include at any tier:
- Real-time malware scanning (WAF filters requests but does not scan files)
- WordPress vulnerability monitoring for plugins and themes
- Fail2ban or equivalent intrusion blocking built into the panel
- DDoS protection independent of the cloud provider chosen
RunCloud’s ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification is a meaningful organizational security credential reflecting its status as a certified platform operator. Over 86,000 servers are managed through the platform, and the organizational security posture behind that scale is backed by certification.
Cloudways Security
Cloudways includes Imunify360 on every server regardless of plan. Imunify360 covers a dedicated firewall, brute-force blocking, bot mitigation, and real-time file-level malware scanning, all active without any configuration after server provisioning.
Patchstack runs alongside it, monitoring WordPress plugins and themes for known CVEs and alerting before vulnerabilities can be exploited.
Fail2ban handles IP-level intrusion blocking. 1-click Let’s Encrypt SSL is available on all plans.
What costs extra on Cloudways:
- Advanced Malware Protection (active removal beyond scanning) is a paid add-on
- Cloudflare Enterprise CDN with additional security filtering is a paid add-on
7. Server Locations Comparison
RunCloud Connects to More Cloud Providers; Cloudways Offers More Pre-Built Location Options
RunCloud Server Locations
RunCloud’s location reach is determined by the cloud provider you choose. Connecting a Hetzner server gives access to Nuremberg, Falkenstein, and Helsinki in Germany/Finland at some of the lowest VPS prices in Europe.
Connecting a DigitalOcean server gives access to every DigitalOcean region globally.
Connecting an AWS server opens every AWS availability zone worldwide. RunCloud’s panel supports all seven providers simultaneously, so a team running servers in five different regions across three providers manages all of them from one RunCloud dashboard.
The geographic ceiling is higher than Cloudways because you are not limited to Cloudways’ five supported providers.
Cloudways Server Locations
Cloudways aggregates five cloud providers across 150-plus cities. You select the provider and city at signup without separately creating an account with that provider.
Cloning a server to a different region is possible from the Cloudways dashboard. The 150-plus city count and five-provider reach covers the most common use cases without requiring direct cloud provider accounts.
RunCloud vs Cloudways: The Bottom Line
Cloudways is the overall winner. All-in pricing from $14/month with no separate server subscription, Imunify360 with Patchstack security on every plan, a 99% GTmetrix score with 119ms TTFB on tested infrastructure, unlimited apps per server, vertical scaling from the dashboard, and a real support agent in under 30 seconds make it the more complete and accessible platform for most developers, agencies, and growing sites.
RunCloud earns a direct recommendation for two specific profiles. Developers and agencies managing large server fleets where RunCloud’s $19/month Professional plan covering fifty servers dramatically undercuts Cloudways’ per-server pricing. And experienced infrastructure engineers who need custom NGINX configurations, atomic zero-downtime Git deployments, Hetzner or UpCloud support, and granular server-level control that Cloudways’ managed model does not expose.
| Category | Winner | Why |
| Pricing | Cloudways | All-in $14/mo vs RunCloud panel fee plus separate server cost; RunCloud wins at 50+ server volume |
| Customer Support | Cloudways | Real agent under 30 seconds vs RunCloud’s ticket-only model |
| Hosting Features | Cloudways | Imunify360 + Patchstack all plans; RunCloud wins on NGINX control and atomic deployment |
| Website Performance | Cloudways | 99% GTmetrix, 1ms TBT vs RunCloud’s 90%, 171ms TBT; both TTFB results excellent |
| Ease of Use | Cloudways | No separate server provisioning, shorter signup, no credit card for trial |
| Privacy and Security | Cloudways | Imunify360 + Patchstack all plans vs RunCloud WAF only on Business ($49/mo) |
| Server Locations | Draw | RunCloud reaches 7 providers including Hetzner; Cloudways provides 150+ pre-integrated cities |
