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Cloudways vs Galaxy Cloud Solutions: An Honest Comparison (2026)

Published May 3, 2026  ·  6 min read  ·  Galaxy Cloud Solutions

Cloudways is an interesting product. It is not a hosting company in the traditional sense — they do not own any servers. What they sell is a management layer that sits on top of other cloud providers like DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, and Linode. You pick a provider, pick a server size, and Cloudways handles the setup, security, backups, caching, and staging environment for you.

The pitch is that you get cloud infrastructure performance without having to manage a server yourself. And for WordPress agencies or non-technical people who need more than shared hosting but do not want to learn Linux, it is a reasonable deal. The platform is polished, the staging environments work well, and 24/7 support is included.

The tradeoff is cost. Cloudways charges roughly 220% more than going direct to the same DigitalOcean or Vultr server. Their entry plan on DigitalOcean is $11-14/month for 1GB RAM and 1 CPU. That same server costs $6/month direct from DigitalOcean. You are paying the difference for the management layer. Whether that is worth it depends entirely on how much your time is worth and how comfortable you are with server management.

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Pricing Comparison

Specs	Cloudways (DigitalOcean)	Galaxy Cloud Solutions
1 vCPU / 1GB RAM / 25GB	$11-14/mo	$5/mo
1 vCPU / 2GB RAM / 50GB	$24/mo	$5/mo
2 vCPU / 4GB RAM / 80GB	$46/mo	$10/mo
4 vCPU / 8GB RAM / 160GB	$88/mo	$35/mo

Cloudways pricing is for DigitalOcean-backed plans. AWS and Google Cloud plans cost significantly more. Galaxy Cloud Solutions pricing is flat monthly with bandwidth included and no management layer markup.

What You Are Actually Paying For at Cloudways

The management layer includes automated backups, one-click staging environments, server security hardening, a built-in caching stack, free SSL certificates, and a clean dashboard for managing multiple applications and servers. For WordPress agencies managing 10-20 client sites, that bundle genuinely saves hours of work per month and the cost is easy to justify.

There is no root SSH access on Cloudways, which matters if you need to install custom software or configure things at the OS level. You can SSH in but only with restricted access. No cPanel either — everything goes through their own dashboard.

One Thing Worth Knowing

Cloudways was acquired by DigitalOcean in 2022 for $350 million. They still operate as a separate product but they are no longer independent. If you are building long-term on Cloudways, keep in mind you are now essentially a DigitalOcean customer whether you intended to be or not.

Who Cloudways Is Actually For

WordPress agencies, freelancers managing multiple client sites, and non-technical people who want cloud performance without server management. If you are running a serious WordPress business and time is worth more than money, Cloudways delivers real value. The staging, backups, and caching alone can save a freelancer several hours a month.

Who Should Use Galaxy Cloud Solutions Instead

Developers, hobbyists, and anyone running projects beyond WordPress. Game servers, Discord bots, APIs, VPNs, personal projects — anything where you want a real Linux VPS with root access at a fair price and no management layer markup. Galaxy Cloud Solutions runs on dedicated bare-metal hardware in North Dakota, the price is flat and does not change, and you talk directly to the engineer managing the server when you need help. No middleman, no markup on infrastructure you could access directly anyway.