As a web designer, choosing between SiteGround and Cloudways comes down to a fundamental trade-off: convenience and managed hand-holding versus scalability, raw performance, and server control.

Both are top-tier choices, but they fit completely different workflow models for managing client websites.

SiteGround: The Plug-and-Play Choice

SiteGround is a traditional, premium shared/cloud host running on Google Cloud infrastructure, wrapped in a custom, highly polished control panel (Site Tools).

• Pros for Web Designers:
  • Beginner-Friendly Client Handover: If you plan on handing the hosting control panel over to your clients post-launch, SiteGround's dashboard is intuitive and hard to break.
  • Collaborator Tools: You can easily add clients or team members as collaborators to specific sites without giving them access to your entire billing profile.
  • Staging & Git: Offers simple one-click staging environments and Git integration for pushing updates.
  • Exceptional Support: Their 24/7 live chat support is fast, friendly, and handles WordPress issues competently.
• Cons for Web Designers:
  • Renewal Shock: Introductory pricing is low, but renewal rates jump significantly. Pitching this ongoing cost to smaller clients can sometimes be a tough sell.
  • Resource Limits: Strict limits on file inodes and visitor counts per plan mean high-traffic client sites will be forced to upgrade tiers rapidly.
  • Less Flexibility: You are locked into their server environment, caching architecture, and PHP limits.

Cloudways: The Scalable Powerhouse

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform . Instead of giving you a slice of a shared server, they sit on top of top-tier cloud infrastructure providers (DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud) and manage the server configuration for you.

• Pros for Web Designers:
  • Pay-As-You-Go & Predictable Pricing: No surprise multi-year renewal spikes. You pay hourly or monthly for the exact server size you spin up.
  • Unmatched Performance & Speed: Independent testing frequently shows Cloudways outperforming SiteGround in response times (TTFB) and heavy traffic loads because resources aren't bottlenecked by typical shared hosting constraints.
  • Unlimited Sites per Server: You can host as many client sites on a single Cloudways server as the RAM and CPU can handle, making it vastly more profitable if you bundle hosting into a monthly retainer for clients.
  • Staging & Cloning: Exceptional server cloning and individual application staging features that make testing redesigns risk-free.
• Cons for Web Designers:
  • No Built-in Email: Cloudways doesn't provide free native email hosting. You have to set up external business email (like Google Workspace or Elastic Email), which adds an extra step for clients.
  • Steeper Learning Curve: It requires a basic understanding of server management, DNS configurations, and file permissions.
  • Support Tiers: Standard support is great, but advanced technical troubleshooting sometimes requires ticket escalation.

Side-by-Side Comparison for Designers

The Verdict: Which should you choose?

To help narrow this down, tell me:

• Are you planning to manage the hosting yourself and bill your clients monthly, or do you want to hand the account over to them?
• Roughly how many client websites do you currently manage or plan to launch this year?

If you’re a web designer managing websites for clients, I’d lean Cloudways overall—but SiteGround is better if you want maximum simplicity and low-touch management.

Here’s how I’d look at it from an agency/freelancer perspective.

Quick verdict

| SiteGround | Cloudways --- | --- | --- Ease of use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Performance | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Multiple client sites | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Scalability | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Client/agency management | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Staging & cloning | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Technical control | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ White-label/client access | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Predictable simplicity | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Value for growing agency | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🏆 My pick: Cloudways

For a web designer who might eventually manage 10, 20, 50+ client websites, Cloudways is the more attractive architecture. You can choose your underlying cloud provider, create multiple applications, clone sites/servers, use staging, scale resources, and manage multiple projects from one platform.

For example, Cloudways currently offers managed servers through providers including DigitalOcean and Vultr, with plans starting around $11/month for a 2GB/1-vCPU configuration.

That makes it particularly appealing when you want to treat hosting as part of your web-design business, rather than simply buying hosting for individual websites.

Where SiteGround wins

SiteGround is much easier for the average client.

Its standard hosting includes things such as SSL, CDN, daily backups, email, migrations, caching and 24/7 support. Its GrowBig and GoGeek plans also include staging, while GoGeek adds things such as white-label access and priority support.

That makes SiteGround excellent if your typical clients are:

• Local businesses
• Restaurants
• Contractors
• Professional services
• Small ecommerce sites
• Brochure/marketing sites
• Businesses getting relatively modest traffic

You can essentially say:

"I'll build your website, host it, and take care of everything." And SiteGround makes that relatively painless.

Where Cloudways becomes more interesting

Imagine you have 25 WordPress clients.

With Cloudways, you can organize applications/projects, clone sites, create staging environments, integrate Git, and scale server resources when necessary.

That's a much more developer/agency-oriented workflow.

It also gives you more architectural flexibility than traditional shared hosting. You're essentially putting your clients' websites on managed cloud infrastructure rather than simply putting everything into a conventional shared-hosting account.

That's the biggest reason I'd choose Cloudways as a web designer.

But there's an important catch

Cloudways is not necessarily cheaper for every client.

Its current Flexible plans start around $11/month for a small DigitalOcean configuration, but your actual cost rises as you select more resources, backups, add-ons, etc.

Meanwhile, SiteGround's advertised introductory pricing is extremely low—although its current published renewal prices are considerably higher. For example, GrowBig is advertised at $4.99/month initially and $29.99/month on renewal.

So don't compare the introductory prices directly.

The setup I'd use as a web designer

If I were building a small-to-medium web design business today, I'd consider this model:

Client website → Cloudways → you manage hosting → client pays you monthly

For example:

Website build: $2,000 Hosting/maintenance: $75–150/month Includes: hosting + backups + updates + security + small maintenance allowance

Now hosting becomes a recurring revenue stream, rather than something you simply hand over to the client.

Cloudways is particularly well suited to this model because its platform is designed around multiple applications, teams, projects, staging, cloning and server management.

One alternative you shouldn't overlook

Interestingly, SiteGround Cloud is much more compelling for agencies than regular SiteGround shared hosting.

Their current Cloud offering starts at $100/month and includes unlimited websites, dedicated resources, automated scaling, white-label access, client roles, staging, Git, backups, CDN and priority support.

So I'd actually break the decision down like this:

• 1–10 relatively simple client websites: SiteGround
• 10–50+ WordPress/client websites: Cloudways
• Agency with serious hosting requirements and $100+/month budget: SiteGround Cloud or Cloudways
• High-traffic WooCommerce/ecommerce: Cloudways
• You don't want to deal with servers: SiteGround
• You want more control and scalability: Cloudways
• You want to resell/manage hosting as part of your agency: Cloudways

My recommendation for you

If you're serious about becoming a web designer and hosting your clients' websites as an ongoing service, I'd choose Cloudways.

I'd start with a relatively modest server, put several low-traffic WordPress sites on it, establish your backup/security/maintenance workflow, and increase server resources as the portfolio grows.

SiteGround would be my choice if your priority is "make this ridiculously easy and don't make me think about infrastructure."

One more thing: don't automatically put every client on the same server. For higher-value or higher-traffic clients, I'd isolate them on their own server/application architecture so one client's traffic spike or problem doesn't become everyone else's problem.

If you tell me roughly how many client websites you expect to host (e.g. 5, 20, 50+) and whether they're mostly WordPress, I can map out the exact Cloudways vs SiteGround setup and what I'd charge each client per month.

But there's an important catch

Cloudways is not necessarily cheaper for every client.

Its current Flexible plans start around $11/month for a small DigitalOcean configuration, but your actual cost rises as you select more resources, backups, add-ons, etc.

Meanwhile, SiteGround's advertised introductory pricing is extremely low—although its current published renewal prices are considerably higher. For example, GrowBig is advertised at $4.99/month initially and $29.99/month on renewal.

So don't compare the introductory prices directly.

The setup I'd use as a web designer

If I were building a small-to-medium web design business today, I'd consider this model:

Client website → Cloudways → you manage hosting → client pays you monthly

For example:

Website build: $2,000 Hosting/maintenance: $75–150/month Includes: hosting + backups + updates + security + small maintenance allowance

Now hosting becomes a recurring revenue stream, rather than something you simply hand over to the client.

Cloudways is particularly well suited to this model because its platform is designed around multiple applications, teams, projects, staging, cloning and server management.

One alternative you shouldn't overlook

Interestingly, SiteGround Cloud is much more compelling for agencies than regular SiteGround shared hosting.

If you’re a web designer hosting multiple client websites, I’d lean Cloudways over SiteGround—but it depends heavily on what kind of clients you serve.

My quick verdict

| SiteGround | Cloudways --- | --- | --- Ease of use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Client-site management | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Performance | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Scalability | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ WordPress | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Staging | ✅ | ✅ Backups | ✅ Daily | ✅ Automated White-label/client access | ✅ | ✅ Server control | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Multiple client sites | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Beginner-friendly | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Growing agency | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Value at scale | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🏆 For a web designer: Cloudways

cloudways.com is the one I'd choose if your goal is to build a repeatable hosting business around your web-design clients.

The big advantage is that Cloudways lets you host on infrastructure from DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, and others, while Cloudways handles much of the server management. It also provides staging, cloning, backups, scaling, firewall/security features, and centralized management.

That makes it particularly attractive when you go from:

"I have 3 client websites" to:

"I manage 20–50+ WordPress websites." You can manage multiple applications from one Cloudways dashboard rather than treating hosting as an individual product for every client.

Where SiteGround wins

siteground.com is arguably the easier choice for smaller clients.

Its WordPress environment is very polished: automated daily backups, staging, SSH/WP-CLI, Git, WordPress management, migration tools, client/collaborator access, and white-label capabilities are built into its ecosystem.

And current independent testing still rates SiteGround highly for small businesses and ease of use, particularly because of its support and user-friendly Site Tools interface.

The catch is renewal pricing. Promotional pricing can look excellent initially, but the regular price can be substantially higher.

---

The way I'd structure it as a web designer

I'd actually think about hosting as part of your service offering, rather than simply asking "which host is better?"

Option A — You want simple client hosting

Choose SiteGround.

Good for:

• Local businesses
• Brochure websites
• 5–20 page WordPress sites
• Low/moderate traffic
• Clients who want you to "just make it work"
• Clients who may eventually take over their own hosting

It's extremely easy to hand a client a SiteGround account and say, "Here's your website."

Option B — You want recurring hosting revenue

Choose Cloudways.

This is where I think it becomes much more interesting for a web designer.

For example, you could offer:

Website Care — $99/month

• Hosting
• SSL
• Daily backups
• WordPress updates
• Security monitoring
• Uptime monitoring
• Minor maintenance
• Monthly report

Your actual hosting cost becomes just one component of the recurring revenue.

Cloudways is particularly well suited to this model because it gives you more control over the underlying infrastructure and lets you scale resources as your clients grow.

Option C — You expect larger/e-commerce clients

Cloudways, without much hesitation.

For WooCommerce, membership sites, LMS sites, high-traffic sites, etc., I'd rather have the additional infrastructure flexibility and scaling options available through Cloudways.

Cloudways currently also offers features such as autoscaling, advanced caching, Cloudflare integration, staging/cloning, automated backups, and managed security.

---

One important consideration

Don't choose Cloudways simply because it's "faster."

The bigger distinction is:

SiteGround = hosting product

Cloudways = managed cloud infrastructure platform

That's a meaningful difference.

If you're a designer who doesn't want to think about servers, Cloudways can actually be more complexity than you need.

If you're becoming an agency/freelancer managing dozens of websites, that additional flexibility becomes a major advantage.

My recommendation

If I were starting a web-design business today:

1–5 client sites: SiteGround 5–20 sites: Cloudways 20–100+ sites: Cloudways or a more agency-focused managed WordPress host High-end/eCommerce: Cloudways / Kinsta / similar premium managed infrastructure

And if your ultimate goal is "I build websites and charge clients monthly for hosting + maintenance", I'd pick Cloudways between these two.

One caveat: Cloudways' current pricing/features have changed considerably, including new WordPress plans and additional services, so I'd evaluate the actual cost per client site at your expected number of sites, rather than comparing the advertised entry prices.

If you tell me roughly how many client websites you expect to manage (5, 20, 50, 100+) and whether they're mostly WordPress, I can give you a much more concrete "here's exactly what I'd buy and how I'd price it to clients" recommendation.

As a web designer, choosing between SiteGround and Cloudways comes down to a fundamental trade-off: convenience and managed support versus scalability and raw performance.

Both are heavily favored by digital professionals, but they serve different workflow styles and client tiers.

SiteGround: The Plug-and-Play Choice

SiteGround functions as a traditional, premium shared/cloud host heavily customized for WordPress and SiteTools (their custom cPanel alternative).

• Pros for Designers:
  • Incredible Ease of Use: Extremely beginner-friendly dashboard. Handing a site off to a non-technical client is seamless because their interface isn't intimidating.
  • Client Management: You can easily add collaborators or transfer ownership of a specific site/project directly to a client’s own SiteGround account.
  • Built-in Email: Professional email hosting (e.g., [email protected]) comes standard, which many small business clients still demand.
  • Staging & Backups: Good one-click staging environments and automated daily backups.
• Cons for Designers:
  • Renewal Hikes: Introductory pricing is low, but renewal rates jump significantly. If you bundle client billing under your own account, you absorb these costs or face awkward price hikes.
  • Resource Limits: Strict limits on visitor counts and storage per plan. If a client's site goes viral or gets heavy traffic, you’ll be forced to upgrade plans.
  • Less Raw Power: Performance is decent out of the box via their SuperCacher, but it typically lags behind cloud-server stacks under load.

Cloudways: The Performance & Scaling Choice

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform . Instead of hosting your sites on a traditional server, they sit on top of high-performance cloud infrastructure providers like DigitalOcean, AWS, or Google Cloud.

• Pros for Designers:
  • Blazing Fast Performance: Their "Lightning Stack" (Nginx, Varnish, Redis, Apache) delivers top-tier speed and exceptional PageSpeed scores straight out of the box.
  • Pay-As-You-Go Pricing: You pay a flat hourly/monthly rate based on server resources consumed. No sudden multi-hundred-dollar surprise annual renewals.
  • Server Isolation: Unlike shared hosting where one bad neighbor affects performance, your server (or application partition) has dedicated resources.
  • Great for Multi-Client Scaling: You can host dozens of low-to-medium-traffic client sites on a single affordable server (e.g., a $14/mo DigitalOcean server) and bill clients a monthly retainer, creating a lucrative recurring revenue stream for your agency.
• Cons for Designers:
  • No Native Email: Cloudways doesn’t provide native mailbox hosting. You have to configure an external email provider like Google Workspace or ElasticEmail, which adds an extra step (and cost) for clients.
  • Steeper Learning Curve: It is a developer-friendly platform. Managing server configurations, PHP versions, and basic DNS troubleshooting requires a bit more technical know-how.
  • Client Handoff is Harder: Transferring a Cloudways application to a client requires them to either set up their own Cloudways account or you maintaining management of the server indefinitely.

The Verdict: Which should you choose?

• Choose SiteGround if: You are a solo designer who builds brochures or local business sites, prefers a hands-off administrative experience, needs built-in email for clients, and wants the ability to effortlessly transfer site ownership directly to the client upon project completion.
• Choose Cloudways if: You want to build a recurring revenue model by hosting multiple client sites on a single master server, prioritize top-tier speed/SEO performance, and don't mind handling external email setup or managing the technical backend yourself.

To help narrow this down, tell me:

• How many client websites are you managing or planning to launch this year?
• Do your clients require built-in email hosting included with the server?

When choosing between SiteGround and Cloudways as a web designer for client websites, you are looking at two entirely different beasts . SiteGround is a premium shared/cloud-hybrid managed WordPress host , while Cloudways is a platform that provisions and manages dedicated cloud servers (DigitalOcean, Vultr, AWS, Google Cloud) for you.

Both are top-tier, but they serve different agency workflows and technical appetites.

SiteGround for Client Sites

SiteGround uses a custom, user-friendly dashboard ("Site Tools") and is famous for its beginner-friendly ecosystem and stellar in-house support.

• Pros for Designers:
  • Ease of Use: Incredibly intuitive. Handing a site off to a client or setting up a new WordPress install takes minutes.
  • Email Hosting Included: You can easily create free, unmetered domain-based email accounts (𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜@𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑑𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛.𝑐𝑜𝑚) directly from the panel.
  • Client Collaboration: Allows you to easily add clients or coworkers with customized access levels to specific sites.
  • Built-in Tools: The SG Optimizer plugin handles caching and basic image compression seamlessly out of the box.
• Cons for Designers:
  • The "Shared Hosting" Ceiling: Even on higher plans, you share server resources with other accounts, which can lead to CPU throttling or performance dips during high-traffic spikes.
  • Steep Renewal Rates: Introductory pricing is attractive, but renewal rates jump significantly.
  • Strict Limits: Inode (file count) and storage limits on lower/mid-tier plans can catch you off guard if a client uploads massive uncompressed assets.

Cloudways for Client Sites

Cloudways is a managed cloud layer . You pick a provider (like Vultr High Frequency or DigitalOcean), and Cloudways optimizes it, handles the firewall, and gives you a clean dashboard to host as many individual "apps" (websites) as your server resources can handle.

• Pros for Designers:
  • Blazing Fast Performance: Dedicated RAM and CPU mean your client's site isn't slowed down by a noisy neighbor on a shared server . Loading scores routinely crush traditional shared hosting.
  • Host Unlimited Sites: You pay for the server size , not per website . If you host 10 small client sites on a single $14/month DigitalOcean/Vultr server via Cloudways, your hosting economics are fantastic.
  • Staging Environments: One-click staging for every single app/site makes pushing design or plugin updates risk-free.
  • Predictable, Flat Pricing: No nasty renewal shock. You pay for what you use on a pay-as-you-go model.
• Cons for Designers:
  • No Email Hosting: Cloudways does not provide native email hosting. You have to integrate a third-party service like Google Workspace or ElasticEmail for client mailboxes.
  • More Technical Overhead: Pointing DNS, managing server-level configurations, and setting up backups require a slightly higher technical comfort level than SiteGround.

The Verdict: Which is Best?

• Choose SiteGround if you are a solo designer who builds a few sites a year, values having phone support , wants email setup bundled in for clients , and prefers a completely hands-off, traditional hosting interface.
• Choose Cloudways if you run an agency (or are scaling up fast), manage multiple client sites, care deeply about page speed and Core Web Vitals, and want the power of dedicated cloud infrastructure without manually configuring a raw Linux server . For growing portfolios, Cloudways offers much better long-term profit margins and performance.

If you'd like, let me know:

• How many client websites you currently manage (or plan to launch this year)
• Whether your clients rely on you for business email hosting
• Your comfort level with managing DNS and server environments

I can help you map out the exact pricing math or workflow strategy for your design business.

Yes — for a web designer managing client websites, I’d lean Cloudways over SiteGround, but there’s an important distinction: they’re designed for somewhat different workflows.

My verdict

🏆 I'd choose Cloudways for a web design business

Cloudways is essentially a managed layer on top of cloud infrastructure. You can choose providers such as DigitalOcean or Vultr, and Cloudways handles much of the server management for you. Its current Flexible offering includes things like staging/cloning, free migration, vertical scaling, firewall, caching, and WordPress tools.

That's particularly attractive if you're doing this:

You → manage hosting → 10–50+ client websites → clients pay you monthly

Cloudways gives you a much more "agency" oriented setup.

For example, you can have:

• Client A — WordPress
• Client B — WordPress
• Client C — WooCommerce
• Client D — WordPress
• Client E — Elementor
• Client F — high-traffic site

…and manage them from your hosting environment rather than treating each website like a separate little hosting account.

Cloudways also currently offers unlimited applications/sites subject to the server's resources, staging, cloning, vertical scaling, and centralized management.

Where SiteGround wins

SiteGround is arguably the better choice if your priority is simplicity and support.

Their current WordPress plans include free SSL, CDN, backups, email, staging on higher plans, migrations, managed updates, SSH/WP-CLI, and 24/7 human support.

And that's a big deal when a client calls you and says:

"My website is down and I don't know what I did."

SiteGround is easier for a less technical client/business owner to understand.

The downside is renewal pricing. For example, SiteGround currently advertises StartUp at $2.99/month initially, but lists $17.99/month as the renewal price; GrowBig is $4.99 initially and $29.99 on renewal.

---

The BIG issue for web designers: email

This is one of the reasons I wouldn't automatically put every client on Cloudways.

SiteGround includes email hosting. Cloudways doesn't function as your traditional email host.

So if you have:

client.com

and they need:

you'll generally want something like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 alongside Cloudways.

That's not necessarily bad — I actually prefer separating website hosting from business email for professional client setups.

---

My recommended agency setup

If I were building a web design business today, I'd probably do:

Domain: Cloudflare Registrar / appropriate registrar
↓
DNS: Cloudflare
↓
Website: Cloudways
↓
Email: Google Workspace or Microsoft 365
↓
WordPress: Cloudways-managed
↓
Backups: Cloudways + independent backup
↓
Client billing: You bill client monthly for hosting/maintenance

This gives you much cleaner infrastructure than putting absolutely everything inside one hosting company.

Cloudways' current platform also has features specifically useful for this type of setup, including staging/cloning, server scaling, monitoring, and centralized application management.

One caveat

Don't buy Cloudways simply because someone says "cloud hosting is faster." Your WordPress configuration, theme/page builder, plugins, database, images, caching and CDN can matter enormously.

Independent 2026 comparisons generally put Cloudways ahead for performance/scalability and SiteGround ahead for simplicity/support, which matches how I'd position the two.

What I'd do in your shoes

1–5 client websites: → SiteGround is perfectly fine.

5–20 websites: → Cloudways starts making considerably more sense.

20+ websites / serious agency: → Cloudways, and I'd build a proper standardized hosting/maintenance system around it.

High-traffic WooCommerce/LMS sites: → Cloudways, particularly its higher-performance/autoscaling options. Cloudways now offers an Autonomous WordPress product specifically aimed at dynamic, high-traffic WordPress/eCommerce/LMS workloads.

Clients who need email bundled with hosting: → SiteGround is easier.

⭐ My score for a web designer

Cloudways: 9/10
SiteGround: 8/10

If you're planning to resell hosting to your web-design clients and charge them a monthly hosting/maintenance fee, I'd pick Cloudways.

If you tell me roughly how many client websites you expect to host (5, 10, 25, 50+) and whether they're mostly WordPress/Elementor, I can also break down the actual monthly cost per client and what I'd charge the client.

For a web designer managing client websites, I would generally choose Cloudways over SiteGround — but it depends on your client profile and how much technical control you want. They solve different problems.

Quick verdict

Why Cloudways is usually better for a web designer

1. Better agency workflow

If you build 10, 20, or 50 client sites, Cloudways fits the agency model better:

• One server can host multiple WordPress installs
• Separate applications for each client
• Staging environments
• Easier cloning/migration
• More control over PHP, caching, and server resources

This means you can maintain client sites from one dashboard instead of managing many separate hosting accounts.

2. Better performance for professional sites

Client websites increasingly need speed for SEO and conversions. Cloudways runs on cloud infrastructure providers and gives you dedicated server resources rather than traditional shared hosting.

A typical setup:

• Cloudways + DigitalOcean/Vultr
• Cloudflare CDN
• WordPress + LiteSpeed alternative caching stack (depending on setup)
• Performance optimization

This is a stronger foundation for:

• WooCommerce
• membership sites
• restaurants with online ordering
• real estate sites
• high-traffic business sites

3. Easier to charge clients for maintenance

A common agency model:

• Hosting: $30–100/month
• Maintenance: $50–300/month
• Updates, backups, security, performance monitoring

Cloudways makes it easier to package this as a professional service.

---

Where SiteGround wins

SiteGround is excellent when your client wants:

✅ "I just need a website and email"
✅ Simple WordPress site
✅ Non-technical owner who wants phone support
✅ A low-maintenance setup

It also includes email hosting, which many small businesses expect. Cloudways does not provide traditional mailbox hosting, so you would typically pair it with something like Google Workspace or another email provider.

---

My recommendation as a web designer

Choose Cloudways if you:

• Build websites professionally
• Manage multiple clients
• Want recurring revenue
• Care about speed
• Work with WordPress
• Want to grow into an agency

Choose SiteGround if you:

• Only build a few websites per year
• Your clients need email included
• Your clients manage their own hosting
• You want the easiest support experience

---

A setup I would use for a freelance web designer

Option A: Professional agency setup

• Cloudways server
• Cloudflare
• WordPress
• ManageWP or MainWP for updates/backups
• Google Workspace for client email

Option B: Beginner-friendly client handoff

• SiteGround account owned by client
• You build/manage the site
• Client handles billing

---

If you are trying to build a web design business, I would lean Cloudways. If you are mostly delivering one-off websites to small businesses and handing everything over, SiteGround is simpler.

As a web designer, choosing between SiteGround and Cloudways for client websites depends heavily on your agency model, your technical comfort level, and how you plan to handle ongoing maintenance. They operate on entirely different hosting architectures and cater to different workflows.

An evaluation of both platforms through the lens of a web designer highlights which option best fits specific scenarios.

SiteGround: The Client-Handover & Simplicity Choice

SiteGround is a premier, heavily optimized shared/cloud-hybrid platform built on Google Cloud infrastructure. It is designed for out-of-the-box ease.

• Pros for Web Designers:
  • Beginner-Friendly Dashboard: SiteGround uses a clean, custom control panel (Site Tools ) that is easy for non-technical clients to navigate if you decide to transfer ownership.
  • Built-In Email Hosting: Unlike Cloudways, email creation and management are included natively right inside the dashboard.
  • Exceptional Support: SiteGround is renowned for fast, helpful 24/7 live chat and phone support, which is a lifesaver when you are pressed for time.
  • Collaborator Features: You can easily add clients or team members as collaborators with restricted access to specific sites.
• Cons for Web Designers:
  • Steep Renewal Rates: Introductory pricing is cheap, but renewal rates jump significantly (often $17.99 to $35/mo+ per site depending on the tier).
  • Strict Resource Limits: Plans are tightly capped by monthly visitor counts and storage, meaning you may be forced to force-upgrade clients sooner.
  • Shared Hosting Environment: Though fast, it is still a shared environment where heavy neighbor resource usage can occasionally affect performance.

Cloudways: The Agency-Scaling & Performance Choice

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform. Instead of giving you a shared account, they sit on top of top-tier cloud infrastructure providers like DigitalOcean, Vultr, and AWS, letting you deploy dedicated virtual private servers (VPS).

• Pros for Web Designers:
  • Unmatched Performance: Cloudways consistently outperforms traditional hosts in speed tests (TTFB and PageSpeed) because resources aren't shared with random neighboring sites.
  • Cost-Efficiency at Scale: You can host multiple client websites on a single server (e.g., a $14/mo to $28/mo DigitalOcean/Vultr server) rather than paying per-site fees. This allows you to bundle hosting into your retainer and make a healthy profit margin.
  • Free Staging Environments: Staging sites are included natively on every application, making testing design changes or plugin updates seamless.
  • Team Management: Advanced app/server-level team permissions let you control exactly which developers or designers have access to what.
• Cons for Web Designers:
  • No Native Email: Cloudways does not provide free email inbox hosting; you have to integrate a third-party service like Google Workspace or ElasticEmail.
  • Higher Learning Curve: Setting up custom DNS, mapping domains, or troubleshooting server-level configurations requires more technical know-how.
  • Client Handover is Messy: Handing a Cloudways server over to a non-technical small-business client is generally a bad idea; they will easily get overwhelmed or break something.

Summary Verdict: Which Should You Choose?

• Choose SiteGround if: You build sites for smaller local clients who want to take over their own billing and hosting post-launch, or if you prefer a hands-off administrative experience where email, staging, and support live under one simple roof.
• Choose Cloudways if: You are building an agency model where you retain control of hosting , charge clients a monthly maintenance/hosting fee, manage multiple/high-traffic sites, and demand top-tier speed and server optimization.

To help narrow this down, let me know:

• Are you planning to bill the clients directly and keep hosting as a recurring revenue stream, or do you want to transfer ownership to them immediately?
• Do you primarily build in WordPress , or do you use other platforms?

If you're a web designer hosting websites for clients, I would generally choose Cloudways over SiteGround—especially if you plan to manage more than a handful of client sites.

The key distinction is:

• SiteGround = easier traditional hosting
• Cloudways = better agency/developer hosting

My recommendation

Cloudways is specifically positioned toward agencies and developers, and its current platform lets you run multiple websites on a managed cloud server, with features such as staging/cloning, backups, SSL, free migration, firewall/security features, and vertical scaling.

SiteGround, meanwhile, is extremely easy to use and has strong support, making it particularly attractive when you want a client to be able to manage their own hosting without much technical knowledge.

Why I'd pick Cloudways as a web designer

Imagine you eventually have 20–50 client websites.

With Cloudways, you can organize sites into applications on servers and scale the server resources as needed. You don't necessarily need a separate hosting plan for every client. Current Cloudways plans advertise unlimited websites on the standard Flexible infrastructure, subject to the server's resources.

That gives you a much better business model:

Client → You → Cloudways

Rather than:

Client → Separate SiteGround account

You can then charge clients something like:

Website hosting & maintenance — $50/month

while your actual infrastructure cost is shared across multiple sites.

That's where Cloudways becomes particularly attractive.

But there's an important catch

Cloudways is not simply "better SiteGround."

Cloudways gives you considerably more control over the server environment, which means you are taking on more responsibility. It's still managed hosting, but you'll be dealing with concepts like servers, applications, PHP versions, server resources, staging, caching, DNS, etc.

SiteGround is more "just put the website here and let us handle it."

So I'd make the decision based on your business model:

Choose SiteGround if:

• You're primarily building small brochure/business websites
• Most sites get relatively modest traffic
• Your clients want email hosting alongside the website
• You want the simplest possible setup
• You don't want to think about server infrastructure
• You only manage ~5–10 websites
• Your clients will eventually take over the hosting themselves

Choose Cloudways if:

• You're building WordPress sites professionally
• You expect to manage 10+ websites
• You want to sell hosting/maintenance packages
• You want better control over performance
• You want staging and cloning workflows
• You expect some clients to grow significantly
• You want to consolidate hosting costs
• You're comfortable being the technical person responsible for the sites

A recent 2026 comparison similarly reaches the basic conclusion that SiteGround is better suited to smaller/simple sites, while Cloudways makes more sense for developers and agencies managing multiple sites.

One thing I would NOT do

I wouldn't make "cheapest hosting" the selling point to your clients.

As a web designer, your hosting is part of your service offering.

I'd package it something like:

Website Care Plan — $75/mo

• Hosting
• SSL
• Daily backups
• WordPress/plugin updates
• Security monitoring
• Uptime monitoring
• Monthly maintenance
• Minor content updates

Then the hosting becomes infrastructure behind your recurring-revenue service rather than something you're simply reselling at cost.

My ranking for a web designer

If I were setting up a web-design business today:

1. Cloudways — best overall for an agency/freelancer
2. SiteGround — best for simplicity and smaller client sites
3. WP Engine — excellent premium WordPress option, but expensive
4. Kinsta — excellent, but usually harder to justify for typical small-business clients

Bottom line: I'd choose Cloudways if you're serious about hosting your clients yourself. SiteGround is easier, but Cloudways gives you a much better foundation for turning hosting + maintenance into a recurring revenue stream.

If you tell me roughly how many client websites you expect to host (e.g. 5, 20, 50+) and whether they're WordPress, I can also break down exactly which Cloudways vs. SiteGround plan I'd use and what I'd charge each client per month.

For a web designer managing client websites, choosing between SiteGround and Cloudways depends on your technical comfort level, how you want to bill your clients, and the scale of the sites you build. They are fundamentally different platforms: SiteGround is a traditional managed shared/cloud host, while Cloudways is a managed cloud platform sitting on top of infrastructure providers like DigitalOcean, Vultr, or AWS.

A head-to-head comparison tailored specifically to a web designer's workflow highlights these differences:

1. Performance and Speed

• Cloudways: Wins significantly here. Because you get dedicated server resources (RAM, CPU) rather than a shared environment, sites load faster and handle traffic spikes without degradation. Their built-in stack (Nginx, Varnish, Redis, Apache) is blazing fast out of the box for WordPress and WooCommerce.
• SiteGround: Performs very well for smaller or low-to-medium traffic sites using their custom caching ("SuperCacher"). However, under heavy concurrent traffic or resource-heavy plugins (like complex WooCommerce stores), shared limits will throttle performance compared to a dedicated cloud setup.

2. Ease of Use & Client Handover

• SiteGround: Wins for simplicity. Their custom "Site Tools" dashboard is intuitive, and they handle peripheral needs smoothly—like free built-in email hosting, easy domain management, and simple one-click staging. It is very easy to transfer a whole SiteGround account or site ownership directly to a non-technical client.
• Cloudways: Steeper learning curve. It doesn’t include native email hosting (you have redirectTo Google Workspace or Elastic Email add-ons) and managing DNS/domain mapping requires a bit more technical background. Handing a raw Cloudways server over to a client is rarely practical unless they also have an in-house tech person.

3. Agency Workflow & Scaling

• Cloudways: Built for growth. You can host unlimited applications (websites) on a single server until you run out of server RAM/CPU, making it extremely cost-effective as your portfolio expands. Team collaboration features, staging environments, and vertical scaling (upgrading server size with one click) are seamless.
• SiteGround: Limits you strictly by site counts and disk space tiers on their standard plans (e.g., GrowBig/GoGeek). Moving to their actual cloud plans gets expensive quickly, and managing dozens of independent accounts can become disorganized.

4. Pricing and Value

• SiteGround: Appears much cheaper upfront due to aggressive introductory promotional rates. However, beware of the renewal price shock —prices jump significantly after the first year.
• Cloudways: Uses a transparent pay-as-you-go hourly/monthly model starting around $14/month (depending on the provider like DigitalOcean or Vultr). There are no surprise promotional hikes, and you only pay for the exact server size you spin up.

The Verdict for Web Designers

• Choose Cloudways if: You manage multiple client sites, build heavy WordPress/WooCommerce builds, care deeply about 99+ PageSpeed scores, and want a scalable infrastructure that keeps your overhead low as you grow.
• Choose SiteGround if: You want a hands-off, beginner-friendly environment where you can easily bundle email accounts and hand billing/management directly over to the client when the project wraps.

To help narrow this down, tell me:

• How many client sites are you currently managing or building this year?
• Are you mostly building standard business brochure sites or heavy e-commerce/membership platforms?