Head to head
Cloudways vs Kinsta
Cloudways and Kinsta both sit at the top of current cloud hosting benchmarks, but they win on different criteria. Cloudways is faster at the origin and materially cheaper to start. Kinsta is faster globally and easier to run day to day. Which one is "faster" depends entirely on where your visitors are.
Reviewed August 2026 · 2024–2025 benchmark data · methodology
Cloudways
2/5
metrics led
$14/mo
Kinsta
3/5
metrics led
$35/mo
Counted across the five measured columns below. Not a weighted score.
Quick verdict
Cloudways for most people
Choose Cloudways for the better price-to-performance ratio and the faster raw server. Choose Kinsta if your audience is spread internationally, or if you would rather pay more and think about infrastructure less.
Measured
Benchmark comparison
Straight from the ranking table — these figures are shared with the homepage dataset rather than restated here, so the two can never disagree.
| Metric | Cloudways | Kinsta | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| US origin TTFB No CDN — measures the server itself | 118ms | 132ms | Cloudways −14ms |
| Global TTFB Each provider’s default delivery setup | 312ms | 184ms (CDN) | Kinsta −128ms |
| Under load Concurrent-user simulation | Stable | Excellent | Kinsta |
| Uptime Published availability figure | 99.98% | 99.99% | Kinsta |
| Entry price Lowest advertised plan | $14/mo | $35/mo | Cloudways |
Figures marked (CDN) are achieved with a bundled content delivery network and describe delivery rather than server performance. Comparing a CDN-assisted global figure against an unassisted one is not like for like.
Beyond the numbers
Key differences
The parts a benchmark cannot measure, which is usually where the decision actually gets made.
Infrastructure control
Cloudways leads- Cloudways
- Pick your own cloud — DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or GCP — and scale the server independently.
- Kinsta
- Opinionated Google Cloud stack. Less to decide, less to tune.
Day-to-day management
Kinsta leads- Cloudways
- More surface area exposed. Comfortable if you have run a server before.
- Kinsta
- Genuinely hands-off. The platform makes most decisions for you.
CDN posture
Kinsta leads- Cloudways
- CDN is a paid add-on. The 312ms global figure reflects no CDN.
- Kinsta
- Cloudflare Enterprise bundled, which is why global TTFB drops to 184ms.
Entry cost
Cloudways leads- Cloudways
- Starts at $14/mo, and you can size the server to the workload.
- Kinsta
- Starts at $35/mo — 2.5× the entry point for the smallest plan.
Support depth
Kinsta leads- Cloudways
- Competent, though breadth of coverage varies by plan tier.
- Kinsta
- Consistently cited as a differentiator, with WordPress specialists on hand.
Multi-site / agency work
Comparable- Cloudways
- Cheaper to run many small sites; server-level control helps with odd requirements.
- Kinsta
- Cleaner client handover and per-site isolation, at a higher per-site cost.
Decide
Which one should you pick?
Find the row that sounds most like you.
-
Mostly US or single-region audience
Origin speed is what your visitors experience, and Cloudways is 14ms faster there for less than half the price.
Cloudways -
Genuinely international audience
The bundled enterprise CDN cuts global TTFB to 184ms versus 312ms — the single largest gap between these two.
Kinsta -
First WordPress site, non-technical owner
Fewer infrastructure decisions to get wrong, and support that expects those questions.
Kinsta -
Agency running many low-traffic client sites
You can host several sites on one right-sized server rather than paying per-site premium pricing.
Cloudways -
Traffic spikes and campaign load
Rated Excellent under concurrent load versus Stable for Cloudways in the same test window.
Kinsta -
Tight budget, performance still matters
The fastest origin figure in the whole table at the lowest managed-cloud entry price.
Cloudways
Common questions
Cloudways vs Kinsta FAQs
Is Cloudways actually faster than Kinsta?
At the origin, yes — 118ms versus 132ms US TTFB in this dataset. Globally, no: Kinsta averages 184ms against Cloudways at 312ms, because Kinsta includes an enterprise CDN by default and Cloudways does not. Add a CDN to Cloudways and that gap narrows substantially, but that is a configuration you have to buy and set up.
Is Kinsta worth 2.5× the price?
It is if the things it charges for are things you would otherwise buy or do yourself: a CDN, hands-off management, and specialist support. If you are comfortable managing a server and your traffic is regional, the premium is harder to justify on performance grounds alone.
Can I run WooCommerce on either?
Both handle WooCommerce. Kinsta has the stronger load-test rating, which matters for checkout under concurrency. Cloudways lets you scale the underlying server directly, which is often the cheaper way to add headroom.
Which is easier to migrate to?
Both provide migration tooling for WordPress. Kinsta includes free migrations on most plans; Cloudways offers a migration plugin plus assisted migrations depending on plan.
Other comparisons
All comparisonsBefore you decide
Cloudways vs WP Engine
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The clearest illustration of why origin speed and global speed are different things.
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