Best & Cheap Cloud Hosting Providers in 2020

Okay, so first you might be wondering what’s with all this new rage for ‘cheap cloud hosting’ technology and how does it differ from the typical hosting servers?

Cloud hosting basically means that multiple servers are interconnected & are located in multiple parts of the world so you can get better speeds and reduced downtimes, kind of similar to a CDN(Content Delivery Network).

Now because of using more than 1 server, the costs are arguably higher than the usual physical hosting server but not to worry, there are still cheap cloud hosting options around and we’re going to find out the best of them.

Advantages of using cloud hosting

• On-Demand Resources – with this type of hosting you will usually pay hourly for the resources you use and thus you can scale easily by just allocating more RAMs, CPUs or even storage to your server.
• Highly-Stable – because of the infrastructure behind them, these hosts will hardly go down as if a node goes down there are a few others who will back it up so your site will stay online.

Disadvantages of using cloud hosting

Of course, every good thing has its downside so let’s see what are some of the reasons that might make you think twice before going with this solution:

• Cost – now this might be one of the main reasons some will not go for this option; it can definitely be more expensive than a ‘normal’ VPS if you don’t look well enough.
• Management – this is one of the things I found a bit tricky when going for this solution for my sites and that’s because paying by the hour also means you need to check and make sure you don’t run out of funds in your accounts otherwise as stable as this gets you will make your website go down.

If you’re still reading this then let’s get on with this and let’s find out what’s the best cloud hosting provider for your needs.

If you don’t want to read further then that’s also great because here’s my top pick from all these 17 companies I just reviewed:

Best Cloud Web Hosting Providers in 2018

In this list, you’ll find our best of the best in terms of value & money for cheap cloud hosting packages. We do recommend you read our thorough reviews and choose whichever one seems a good fit for your needs.

1. Digital Ocean

Digital Ocean is one of the biggest companies around offering this service and they are well known for their stellar infrastructure. They are highly customizable and you get full access to your ‘droplet’ (which is their name for servers) from which you can even choose the OS you want running on your droplet. You can also add/remove resources to your server as you wish and their plan starts at only $5/month or $0.007/hr

This basic plan includes 512 MB of RAM, 1 vCPU, 20 GB SSD and 1 TB of transfer data but it can be easily upgraded as you need. Adding storage, for example, will cost you an extra $0.10/GB per month.

If you’re also looking to have backups then you can get that for 20% of your monthly droplet price. So if your droplet is costing your $10/month then having a backup will cost you an extra $2/month.

They promise a 99.99% uptime and they also offer other services like cloud firewalls or load balancers which help you distribute traffic to other nodes if needed for only $20/month.

Their tech support team is available 24/7 through email only but they do have a big knowledge base which in most of the cases will answer your questions.

You can choose to deploy your droplet on servers located in San Francisco, Toronto, New York, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Bangalore and Singapore and you also have 1 click installations apps from which you can easily install WordPress, Magento, Drupal, Ruby on Rails and Joomla.

2. Linode

Linode is another one of the big ones out there with over 400.000 users. They brand themselves as a hosting solution for developers but you can still use them if you’re not a geek so to speak as it’s pretty easy to setup.

Their servers are located in 3 main regions with a total of 9 data servers, Singapore(1), Japan(2), US(4 – Central, West, South, East parts of America) and 2 in Europe(Frankfurt and London) so it’s safe to say the infrastructure is quite good.

The basic plan starts from $5/month and comes with 1 GB RAM, 1 CPU, 20 GB SSD and 1 TB transfer and scaling comes pretty easy with Linode as you can choose whichever resource you want to add to your plan so if you only need more RAM or disk space then you can only upgrade that one.

As for features, Linode does offer quite a few that could come in handy.

NodeBalancers will distribute traffic among several servers when needed and Longview will allow you to get a better insight on your server resource usages like memory and CPU. They do offer managed cheap cloud hosting servers but those will cost an extra $100/month so it might not be such a good deal at this price point but they do offer free migration and cPanel.

If you need to contact support you can choose to do so by Email, Phone, Ticket and Chat; they also have a community forum which could also help you. Also, security issues are handled with priority by their team and they will do their best to solve them as soon as possible.

All in all, Linode might be a good solution for you if you’re looking for an unmanaged server at a good price but if you’re not prepared to start solving issues that might come up when running a server then this might not be the best way to go as their managed plans are not the best in terms of value for money.

3. CloudWays

The best thing about CloudWays is that this is a managed cheap cloud hosting provider with prices starting from only $7/month. They are a full hosting solution fitted from small business websites or blogs to high traffic websites like e-commerce. If you’re not sure about them they currently have a trial which you can use to see if you like them.

One of the best things about them is that they employ servers from all the big companies like Amazon, Digital Ocean, Google, Vultr and KYUP so through them you have access to over 25 data centers all around the world.

Their basic plan starts only from $7/month and it includes 512 MB RAM, 1 CPU, 20 GB disk and 1 TB bandwidth, and it’s all managed.

Cloning is straight forward with them as you have a 1 click application to do that for you.

Unlike many other hosting companies, their support is second to none in terms of availability, communication, and helpfulness. You have 24/7 access to them through live chat and they are quite helpful when it comes to providing solutions for your hosting/website problems.

Using CloudWays can have some benefits over the other hosting solutions:

They also have a firewall that scans the servers for malicious activity in order to keep your sites from being hacked and you also get 1-click SSL install

Cloudways also offers ThunderStack which acts as a caching tool that actually works really well and greatly improves your site loading speed.

4. BlueHost

With the basic plan starting at only $2.5/month, Vultr is one of the cheapest cloud hosting providers out there. The plan includes 20 GB SSD, 1 CPU, 512 MB of RAM and you can very well say they’re going head to head with Digital Ocean on this only at half the price.

It’s also very user-friendly to use and it only takes around 60 seconds to have a server live after payment.

You can choose from any of their 15 cloud locations in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia( a great option if you have lots of Australian traffic).

You also get full root access to your instance so you can choose to install any OS you want(Ubuntu, Windows, CentOS, Debian etc). Should also mention that as part of any plan you get a dedicated IP, a thing that on lots of other hosts you’d have to pay extra to get.

They offer a very intuitive and clean panel from which you can deploy or destroy cloud instances and you can also get an overview of the resources used and you also have 1 click installation for apps such as Magento, WordPress or Joomla.

Vultr also offers high-security DDOS protection and routinely scan their servers for malicious malware.

Their support team, however, lacks in speed and efficiency and sometimes you might have to wait quite a bit to have your ticket answered but in many cases, you can use their knowledge base or even their dedicated forum to find your answers and won’t have to wait for your ticket to be replied.

6. Atlantic.net Cloud

Atlantic.net has a wide variety of plans when it comes to cheap cloud hosting and I can admit it can be a bit overwhelming choosing from General Purpose plans to Storage Optimized, Compute Optimized or Memory Optimized.

The general Purpose plan starts at $10/month for Linux OS and $15/month for Windows OS. This is for on-demand pricing but if you choose for a 3-year long plan then it’s $8/month for Linux and $14/month for Windows so it’s not really a good deal since lots can change in 3 years.

This cloud plan comes with 1 vCPU, 1 GB of RAM, 40 GB SSD and 3 TB of bandwidth. I should also mention that all servers include 1 IPv4 Address and additional ones would cost an extra $2.19/month. Daily backups are also available at 20% of the server price with a minimum starting from $1/month.

If you used a lot of shared hosts before then you should know that you can also get a WHM/cPanel license for $14.97/month but that might not be needed since they also offer 1 click app installations so you can get WordPress installed without a hassle even if you

On the downside, they only have 4 data centers in the US, 1 in Canada and another one in the United Kingdom.

Atlantic claims to have 100% UpTime which might justify the higher price.

Also, the support team behind the company is very helpful providing help over the phone, live chat, email or even ask questions on their community board.

7. DreamHost

DreamHost is one of the best WordPress host providers but they also offer VPS, Dedicated Servers and Cloud hosting among others. They claim you can launch a server in 30 seconds or less and that’s due to their easy to use dashboard.

If you are a developer then this might be a good solution for you as you can run any application on which require MongoDB, node.js, ruby or python. Using OpenStack and Ceph you can access their powerful APIs for a better integration.

Their basic cloud hosting plan starts at $4,5/month and comes with 1 vCPU, 80 GB SSD, 512 RAM and what’s more interesting they offer 100 GB of block storage so you can easily store any other files that don’t need computing so you won’t occupy the SSD space.

You can contact their award-winning customer support team through live-chat or email. In my opinion, this will

8. InterServer

InterServer is a company offering multiple hosting solutions. Their cheap cloud hosting solutions  stand out because of the features they’re having.

They have 3 data centers located in the US and their plans start from $6/month for Linux OS and $10/month for Windows OS. Both come with 1 CPU, 1 GB RAM, 25 GB storage and 1 TB transfer.

Scaling your cloud plan comes pretty easy with them at a push of a button and if you already have a running website then you might want to take them up on their free migration offer.

Addition IPs come at $1/month but you can also get a cPanel at $10/month or Softaculous at an extra $2/month. I should also mention that you don’t have direct admin access and that’s a paid service which you can get for $8/month.

As OS Options you can choose from Linux, Ubuntu, CentOS to Windows or Fedora.

InterServer also has 24/7 premium support but sadly they don’t offer live chat only phone, ticket or email and that’s a bit unusual as you’d expect exactly the opposite

9. ServGrid

ServGrid offers a KVM service and high-level firewall protection for early detection and prevention of data loss or infection.

Their lowest plan starts at $9.99/month and offers 1 CPU, 512 RAM, 10 GB storage and 250GB transfer but they have different recommendations depending on what platform you’re looking to use so for were looking to host a Magento website then they recommend a different cloud plan that comes with 8 CPU, 16 GB RAM, 120 storage and 3 TB transfer for $249.99/month.

Scalability also comes easy with ServGrid and you can scale down or up almost instantly using the VPS control panel. From the same dashboard, you can also access the daily backups and you get your free dedicated IP address.

In terms of the support, they offer a full package so to speak with 24/7 access on live-chat, tickets or even phone calls so that might justify the higher pricing point.

10. RackSpace  

Rackspace’s cutting edge technology made it one of the top names in the cloud hosting industry. They provide specialized managed dedicated & cloud hosting solutions for devs and medium to big size businesses. Of course if you’re just starting out you can still get onboard with them but their prices are more on the higer-end and they might not be the best fit for you.

Their cheapest plans starts at around $50/month for Public hosting solutions and around $150/month for Private  which is their cheap cloud hosting solution. They guarantee a 99.9% uptime and 24/7 support. I should add that their support guys are very helpful and will do their best to help you and fix your problem so if you’re not too bothered about the higher price you might want to have a look at their website.

They do have 6 data centers all around the world so location wise you should be covered. They don’t have prices on their website but they have a custom pricing solution so in order to find what’s best for you, you’d have to contact their sales team which is very easy to reach to.

11. VPSDime

Although the basic Linux plan at VPSDime starts at $7/month it does offer a lot more in terms of resources compared to other cloud hosts. For that price at VPSDime, you’ll get a cheap cloud hosting package with 4 vCPU, 6 GB RAM, 30 GB SSD and 2 TB transfer. You can also opt for the Windows plan but that is a bit more expensive and starts at $12/month and comes with 1 Xeon E5 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB SSD, 1 TB transfer and 1 dedicated IP address with full administrator access.

The servers are located in US(Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas and Piscataway) and 2 others in Europe(Amsterdam and Maidenhead UK). So if you mainly target other markets other than US or Europe then this might not be a good solution for you and you may want to look for hosts offering data centers closer to your visitors location.

As for the OS options with the Linux plan you can choose from Debian, CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE. You also get foot root access with SSH and you can manage your VPS with a control panel from which you can see how are the resources utilized.

VPSDime also claims to have a 99.9% uptime and they do offer a money back guarantee(you have 3 days to contact them after the invoice date to get a refund.

They do take regular backups of their infrastructure in case of server fail but you won’t be able to request for a backup on your site specifically so you’ll have to take care of that yourself.

Although they do offer support, because this is an unmanaged server they will only offer you guidance in terms of hosting issues and will not solve them for you. They do promise to answer all tickets in around 15 minutes.

12. HostGator, how cheap can it get?

If you’re really price sensitive then you might want to skip this one as it’s a bit on the higher end of cheap cloud hosting plans list. Their lowest plan starts at $15/month for 512 MB RAM, 2 processors clocked at 600 MHz, 10 GB HDD, 2 TB outbound transfer but unlimited inbound transfer.

What they lack in resources they compensate in features. Their SSD infrastructure is optimized for hosting and can bring higher performance thus, faster loading speeds for your websites. In case of a server failure, you can use Cloud Disaster Recovery service to restore a previous version of your site.

They also promise an uptime commitment of 99.99% with a 24/7/365 top notch support staff including system admins in case of severe issues. In case you’re not satisfied with their service you have a 30-day money back guarantee.

Part of the service also includes dedicated IPs, root access and you can resize your Virtual Machine on demand.

14. GoDaddy – Free trial

As one of the main players in the domain and hosting industry, GoDaddy has just announced they are joining the Cloud Hosting game and they will soon be releasing their services. As of right now, they are in beta phase and because of that you can test their service for free on a 30-day trial if you want to.

The basic plan comes with 512 RAM, 1 CPU, 1 TB transfer and 20 GB space, this time they went with SSD rather than HDD for faster speeds so it seems they plan to change their strategy and compete with other players at the same level of infrastructure. Their powerful API can be used to configure your server, allocate space and app development.

One concern I might have with GoDaddy is their server security as they had big issues in the past because of hackers and being such a big company they are a constant target which can be an issue when you don’t take security as a serious problem. Hopefully, they improved this part of their service but only time will tell as this is still a new service they’re offering.

If you have any problems and you don’t know what to do then you can contact their support team through phone or chat.

As for scalability, GoDaddy doesn’t offer any custom plans or scalable solutions so you’re stuck with the plans they offer.

Also, worth mentioning their new partnership with OpenStack to build their new cloud platform. This is a dashboard that allows you to control and monitor your server’s resources and help you allocate them more wisely.

15. Host1Plus

Host1Plus offers affordable cloud hosting plans starting from $8/month with Linux which comprises of 1 CPU, 512MB RAM, 20 GB disk and 2TB transfer.

The Windows plans are a bit more expensive and the basic one starts at $25/month but you do get 2 CPU, 4 GB RAM, 100 GB disk and 6 TB bandwidth.

They have 3 data centers, 1 in Chicago, another one in Frankfurt and the 3rd one in São Paolo. Scalability comes easy with them with their ‘Unlimited Scalability’ feature you can quickly scale your Virtual Machine in your dashboard area. It also takes very few seconds to have a server up and running with them and using their preinstalled templates you can configure your server really fast.

Talking about the dashboard area, you can also track your resource usage and set alerts in case of overuse and you also get VNC Console access so tinkering with your server shouldn’t be a hard task.

Another good thing is that you have an option to schedule daily, weekly, or monthly backups or even do a manual backup from time to time. In short, the management of your cloud plan should be really easy with all these powerful features.

When it comes to support offered, they do have a ticket system and a good knowledge base but unfortunately, they don’t offer any live chat help but you also have a 14 days money back guarantee if you want a refund for whatever reason.

16. FastHosts

FastHosts is a UK based company offering mid-range priced cloud hosting.Because of the higher costs that comes with having an UK based team their lowest package starts from £15/month and you get 1 CPU, 1 GB of RAM and 40 GB SSD.

You do get root access to your Virtual Machine and you can choose between Linux and Windows OS without having to pay extra for one or the other. Scaling can be done from the Cloud NX control panel without physically rebooting your server, so no interruptions. They do take security seriously so updates and patches are pushed on a regular basis and a firewall is constantly active in order to keep the servers secure. Also in case of node failures they have an automated system in place and another node will take its place almost instantly so the uptime is guaranteed to be 99.9%

With their custom created Cloud NX Control Panel you can also track server resources and manage all the server configurations from the same dashboard.

The data centers are located in US, UK, Germany and Spain and they promise a 24/7 UK based customer service team ready to help you either through phone or live chat.

17. Netcetera