DigitalOcean App Platform vs Cloudways (DO)
Pricing data as of 2026-10-12 · refreshed weekly
DigitalOcean App Platform (paas) and Cloudways (DO) (managed-cloud) overlap on 1 stacks. The table below shows the cheapest fitting plan on each for a typical startup workload (~50,000 visits/month) — list prices, no promos.
DigitalOcean App Platformpaas
| Static site (free tier) | $0/mo |
| Shared 1 vCPU / 512MB | $5/mo |
| Shared 1 vCPU / 1GB (fixed) | $10/mo |
| Shared 1 vCPU / 1GB | $12/mo |
| Shared 1 vCPU / 2GB | $25/mo |
| Shared 2 vCPU / 4GB | $50/mo |
Cloudways (DO)managed-cloud
| Micro | $11/mo |
| Small | $24/mo |
| Medium | $46/mo |
Cheapest fitting plan per stack (startup traffic)
| Stack | DigitalOcean App Platform | Cloudways (DO) | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laravel | $10 (Shared 1 vCPU / 1GB (fixed)) | $11 (Micro) | DigitalOcean App Platform |
Laravel by traffic level
| Traffic | DigitalOcean App Platform | Cloudways (DO) |
|---|---|---|
| Hobby / side project (~5,000/mo) | $10 (Shared 1 vCPU / 1GB (fixed)) | $11 (Micro) |
| Startup / small business (~50,000/mo) | $10 (Shared 1 vCPU / 1GB (fixed)) | $11 (Micro) |
| E-commerce (~200,000/mo) | $23.64 (Shared 1 vCPU / 1GB (fixed)) | $11 (Micro) |
| High traffic (~1,000,000/mo) | $37.3 (Shared 1 vCPU / 1GB (fixed)) | $24 (Small) |
"+" = even the largest plan may not cover that traffic. Full breakdowns: Laravel on DigitalOcean App Platform · Laravel on Cloudways (DO)
FAQ
Is DigitalOcean App Platform or Cloudways (DO) cheaper?
For Laravel at startup traffic (~50,000 visits/month), DigitalOcean App Platform is cheaper: DigitalOcean App Platform $10/month vs Cloudways (DO) $11/month. Price alone ignores ops work: DigitalOcean App Platform is a PaaS, Cloudways (DO) is a managed cloud host.
What does a Laravel app cost on DigitalOcean App Platform vs Cloudways (DO)?
Cheapest fitting plan by traffic level — hobby / side project: DigitalOcean App Platform $10/month (Shared 1 vCPU / 1GB (fixed)) vs Cloudways (DO) $11/month (Micro); startup / small business: DigitalOcean App Platform $10/month (Shared 1 vCPU / 1GB (fixed)) vs Cloudways (DO) $11/month (Micro); e-commerce: DigitalOcean App Platform $23.64/month (Shared 1 vCPU / 1GB (fixed)) vs Cloudways (DO) $11/month (Micro); high traffic: DigitalOcean App Platform $37.30/month (Shared 1 vCPU / 1GB (fixed)) vs Cloudways (DO) $24/month (Small).
What is included with DigitalOcean App Platform and Cloudways (DO)?
DigitalOcean App Platform bundles CDN, SSL, Auto-deploy; not included: Image opt, Edge, Previews. Cloudways (DO) bundles SSL; not included: CDN, Image opt, Edge, Previews, Auto-deploy.
How current are these prices?
They are official list prices as of 2026-10-12, re-checked against each provider's pricing page on a weekly cycle. Intro promos and coupons are not used in totals; taxes are not included unless a plan note says so.
More comparisons
- Vercel vs DigitalOcean App Platform
- Netlify vs DigitalOcean App Platform
- Cloudflare Workers/Pages vs DigitalOcean App Platform
- Hetzner Cloud vs DigitalOcean App Platform
- Hetzner Cloud vs Cloudways (DO)
- DigitalOcean Droplets vs DigitalOcean App Platform
- DigitalOcean Droplets vs Cloudways (DO)
- DigitalOcean App Platform vs Vultr