Side-by-Side
Bluehost vs Cloudways: Which Hosting Is Better in 2026?
A side-by-side comparison of Bluehost and Cloudways on price, renewal cost, performance and support.
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Feature Count | Large | Custom |
| Regions | USA, Europe, India | USA, Europe, Asia, Global |
| Email Limits | 500 emails per hour | No internal mail service |
| Ecommerce Ready | 7 ▼ | 9 ▲ BETTER |
| Intro price / year | $47.88/year▲ BETTER | $168/year▼ |
| Renewal price / year | $119.88/year▲ BETTER | $168/year▼ |
| Contract term | 36-month term | 1-month term |
| Score: Features | 7 ▼ | 10 ▲ BETTER |
| Score: Support | 7 ▼ | 8 ▲ BETTER |
| Score: Value | 9 | 9 |
| Score: Updates | 8 ▼ | 9 ▲ BETTER |
| Score: Ease of Use | 9 ▲ BETTER | 7 ▼ |
| Active Installs | 2M+ | 500K+ |
| Best for | New WordPress users and small businesses | Developers, agencies, and high-traffic websites |
| Get Started | See Pricing | See Pricing |
Bluehost vs Cloudways: the verdict
Cloudways renews at the price it starts at, which almost nothing else in this comparison does. Bluehost's advertised rate is not a yearly bill: it requires prepaying 36 months, $143.64 in one payment. Cloudways bills annually. Bluehost is the cheaper way in, at $47.88 per year against $168 for Cloudways.
The gap widens at renewal: Cloudways goes to 1× its intro price, Bluehost to 2.5×. The widest gap in our scoring is features: Cloudways rates 10 against 7 for Bluehost. Across the 13 dimensions compared above they split almost evenly, which makes this a decision about what you specifically need rather than which is better.