Laravel Cloud vs. Cloudways by DigitalOcean
Laravel Cloud is the best cloud hosting platform for deploying and scaling Laravel applications.
Start in Cloud with $5 in free usage credit.
Laravel Cloud
Laravel Cloud delivers deployments in under a minute without configuration hassles. Everything from infrastructure to scaling and security runs automatically, purpose-built for Laravel.
- Fully managed infrastructure platform built exclusively for Laravel applications. Bring your repo and we handle the rest.
- Creating a Laravel Cloud account prevents the need for creating a separate server account.
- Autoscaling, auto-hibernation, zero-downtime deployment, and security are included out of the box.
Cloudways by DigitalOcean
Cloudways is a managed hosting layer that sits on top of providers like DigitalOcean, AWS, and Google Cloud. However, you're still manually configuring queue workers, database backups and recovery, and scaling.
- Managed hosting across top cloud providers including DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, and Linode.
- Manual configuration still required for scaling, queue workers, and Laravel optimization.
- Git deployment requires manual webhook configuration and SSH key setup, lacking a streamlined push-to-deploy workflow.
Over 20K teams deploy faster with Laravel Cloud
Why Laravel Cloud is better
Launch in under a minute from Git to live with fully managed infrastructure.
Build and ship faster with native Laravel integration across your stack.
Scale and save costs automatically with built-in auto-hibernation.
Start building with $5 of usage credit.
“We've built countless projects with Laravel, and we're accustomed to the seamless productivity it offers during development. What Laravel Cloud brought to the table was that same level of efficiency, but now for deployments and infrastructure, allowing us to scale instantly without worrying about downtime.”
Nika Jorjoliani
Head of Engineering at Redberry
Laravel Cloud compared to Cloudways
Laravel Cloud outperforms Cloudways with faster deployments, autoscaling, and zero server management.
Laravel Cloud is a fully managed platform built by the Laravel team, purpose-built for Laravel apps with one-click autoscaling, databases, caching, storage, and security.
Built and maintained by the Laravel team.
Laravel only
Zero configuration required
Auto-configured Redis and queue workers.
Limited (fully managed)
Delivers high concurrency and rapid response under load with automatic scaling that adjusts instantly to traffic. It handles variable workloads seamlessly and deploys in under a minute.
Under 60 seconds from Git
Autoscaling with zero downtime
AWS only
Go from Git to live in one step, with automatic builds and zero-downtime deployment.
Seamless, zero-config deployment.
Offers detailed traffic analytics, real-time logs, metrics, and error tracking. Optional Nightwatch integration for Laravel-specific insights is also available with minimal configuration.
Real-time infrastructure monitoring. HTTP analytics, logs, and app metrics (CPU & memory charts, plus database metrics)
Included
Daily automated database backups with point-in-time recovery to any second within 1-30 day retention.
Restores to new cluster for zero-risk recovery.
On-demand backups available.
Starter tier with no monthly base fee and a pay-for-what-you-use model. Includes automatic deployments, custom domains, and unlimited applications.
Calculate your usage and pricing
Pay-per-use with zero-cost hibernation
Start for free with $5 in usage credit
Who should choose Laravel Cloud vs. Cloudways?
Laravel Cloud outperforms Cloudways with faster deployments, autoscaling, and zero server management.
Laravel Cloud
Choose Laravel Cloud if you want a fully managed, Laravel-native platform that removes server management entirely.
Cloudways by DigitalOcean
Choose Cloudways if you prefer control over your infrastructure and host multiple types of PHP applications beyond Laravel.
Deploy now with Cloud
Start in Cloud with $5 in free usage credit.
Launch in under a minute from Git to live with fully managed infrastructure.
Build and ship faster with native Laravel integration across your stack.
Scale and save costs automatically with built-in scale-to-zero.
Trusted by developers, startups, and enterprises
Join thousands of developers and companies around the world.
“Laravel Cloud makes it easy to demo projects to clients. I can deploy a fresh app in seconds. You only pay for what you use, letting you focus on business value instead of infrastructure.”
Peter Steenbergen
Search & GenAI Specialist, Elastic
“Laravel Cloud has saved us thousands of dollars per month and eliminates the need for a dedicated engineer to monitor our server.”
Sam Pizzo
CEO, CMS Max
“Laravel Cloud is the next generation platform for powering Laravel applications. This is the future of infra for PHP devs.”
Rafael Lunardelli
CTO, Devsquad
“Onboarding was smooth. UI is eye candy. Tinkering with scaling, replicas and resources is seamless.”
Bradley Bernard
Software Engineer, Snap
“Selected my repo, hit deploy, and boom. 60 seconds later my site was ready! I didn't even have to configure anything.”
Duncan McClean
Software Developer, Statamic
“Wow, Laravel Cloud is very smooth! Took almost no time to deploy a Filament app with database and custom domain.”
Silvan Hagen
Developer & Consultant
“The first deployment is as easy as possible: connect your git, and boom, your page will be online.”
Tim Geisendoerfer
CEO & Founder, Innoge
Frequently asked questions
Laravel Cloud is a fully managed platform built by the Laravel team for Laravel apps. It automates deployment, scaling, caching, and monitoring with no manual setup. Cloudways, owned by DigitalOcean, offers managed hosting for multiple PHP frameworks but still requires server configuration, scaling, and maintenance.
Yes. Laravel Cloud deploys apps in under 60 seconds and automatically scales based on traffic. Cloudways performance depends on your chosen provider and server size, and scaling usually requires manual intervention.
Completely. Laravel Cloud handles all server setup, updates, scaling, and monitoring automatically. Cloudways simplifies server management but still expects you to handle configurations, PHP tuning, and queue or cache setup.
No. Cloudways allows you to scale vertically, meaning you must resize your server manually through the control panel. You can also scale horizontally, but that means you'll need to spin up multiple servers and a load balancer yourself.
Laravel Cloud offers a pay-for-what-you-use model with auto-hibernation, making it cheaper for apps with variable or idle traffic. Cloudways has fixed monthly pricing (starting at $14/month) even when your app isn't serving requests.
Laravel Cloud is purpose-built and maintained by the Laravel team, offering seamless Git deployments, easy integration with the Laravel ecosystem, and zero manual setup. Cloudways supports Laravel, but it is built for a general PHP stack, so you'll spend more time configuring servers and integrations.
Yes. Laravel Cloud includes managed databases (MySQL, Serverless Postgres), Redis caching, and queue workers that are auto-configured for your app. On Cloudways, these services must be installed and managed manually.
Laravel Cloud supports instant Git-based deployment with zero configuration. Cloudways allows Git deployment too, but you must first set up the server and app manually.
Yes. Every new organization gets $5 in free usage credits, and your first month on the Starter plan is free. Credits top up automatically each month, and you only ever pay for usage beyond them. Your apps and databases scale to zero when idle, so you're never charged for compute time while they're not in use. View detailed pricing here.
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