Laravel Cloud

Laravel Cloud vs. Cloudways by DigitalOcean

Laravel Cloud is the best cloud hosting platform for deploying and scaling Laravel applications.

Deploy with Cloud Read the docs

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.

  • Check Fully managed infrastructure platform built exclusively for Laravel applications. Bring your repo and we handle the rest.
  • Check Creating a Laravel Cloud account prevents the need for creating a separate server account.
  • Check 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.

  • Check Managed hosting across top cloud providers including DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, and Linode.
  • Check Manual configuration still required for scaling, queue workers, and Laravel optimization.
  • Check 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

Check Launch in under a minute from Git to live with fully managed infrastructure.

Check Build and ship faster with native Laravel integration across your stack.

Check Scale and save costs automatically with built-in auto-hibernation.

“

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

Nika Jorjoliani

Head of Engineering at Redberry

Read Redberry’s story

Laravel Cloud handles what Cloudways still makes you manage

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Laravel Cloud handles what Cloudways still makes you manage

Read the comparison guide: Laravel Cloud vs. Cloudways

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Laravel Cloud compared to Cloudways

Laravel Cloud outperforms Cloudways with faster deployments, autoscaling, and zero server management.

Key differences

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.

Cloudways by DigitalOcean offers managed hosting across multiple providers that lacks Laravel-specific optimization and demands more manual setup, delaying deployment.

Purpose-built for Laravel
Check

Built and maintained by the Laravel team.

X

General PHP hosting requiring manual Laravel configuration.

Framework support

Laravel only

WordPress, Magento, Laravel, Joomla, Drupal, custom PHP apps

Server management

Zero configuration required

Manual PHP versions, caching, and server settings

Integrated caching and queues
Check

Auto-configured Redis and queue workers.

X

Requires manual setup and management.

Infrastructure control

Limited (fully managed)

Greater control over server configuration

Performance and scalability

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.

Depends on the performance of its chosen provider and server size. It supports caching tools like Redis and Varnish, but scaling often means manual resizing or tuning, which is fine for steady traffic, less so for dynamic demand.

Deployment speed

Under 60 seconds from Git

Requires server provisioning + app setup (5+ minutes)

Automatic scaling
Check

Autoscaling with zero downtime

X

Manual vertical scaling via control panel

Cloud Provider choice

AWS only

DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, Linode

Deployment

Go from Git to live in one step, with automatic builds and zero-downtime deployment.

Supports Git and webhook deployments, but vertical scaling is done through server resizing, which often requires waiting for provider operations and includes downtime.

Git integration
Check

Seamless, zero-config deployment.

X

Available but requires initial server setup.

Monitoring and security

Offers detailed traffic analytics, real-time logs, metrics, and error tracking. Optional Nightwatch integration for Laravel-specific insights is also available with minimal configuration.

Provides real-time server and app monitoring with optional New Relic integration, adding setup complexity.

Built-In monitoring
Check

Real-time infrastructure monitoring. HTTP analytics, logs, and app metrics (CPU & memory charts, plus database metrics)

Check

Real-time server monitoring (CPU, RAM, bandwidth, PHP performance)

SSL & CDN
Check

Included

X

SSL via Let's Encrypt; CDN requires add-ons for extra security

Backups
Check

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.

Check

Server-level backups (files + database) with configurable 1hr-7-day frequency and 1-4 week retention.
Backup-point selection only (no true PITR).

Pricing

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

Starts around $14/month for 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 25 GB storage, and 1 TB bandwidth, with hourly or monthly billing tied to your chosen server size.

Pricing model

Pay-per-use with zero-cost hibernation

Fixed monthly per server (starts at $14/month on DigitalOcean)

Who should choose Laravel Cloud vs. Cloudways?

Laravel Cloud outperforms Cloudways with faster deployments, autoscaling, and zero server management.

Laravel Cloud

Laravel Cloud

Choose Laravel Cloud if you want a fully managed, Laravel-native platform that removes server management entirely.

Cloudways by DigitalOcean

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

  • 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.

Deploy with Cloud Contact sales
Laravel Cloud handles what Cloudways still makes you manage

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

Peter Steenbergen

“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

Sam Pizzo

“Laravel Cloud is the next generation platform for powering Laravel applications. This is the future of infra for PHP devs.”

Rafael Lunardelli

CTO, Devsquad

Rafael Lunardelli

“Onboarding was smooth. UI is eye candy. Tinkering with scaling, replicas and resources is seamless.”

Bradley Bernard

Software Engineer, Snap

Bradley Bernard

“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

Duncan McClean

“Wow, Laravel Cloud is very smooth! Took almost no time to deploy a Filament app with database and custom domain.”

Silvan Hagen

Developer & Consultant

Silvan Hagen

“The first deployment is as easy as possible: connect your git, and boom, your page will be online.”

Tim Geisendoerfer

CEO & Founder, Innoge

Tim Geisendoerfer

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.

Learn more about Laravel Cloud

Laravel cloud: more features, smarter pricing

1M deploys on Laravel cloud: lessons on billing, admin & integrations

From 0 to 150K visitors in 4 hours: scaling a real-time engagement platform

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