Cloudways vs. Microsoft 365

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cloudways
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Cloudways, by DigitalOcean, offers a range of managed hosting solutions, including managed Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, and others, with a choice of infrastructure providers and media delivery via CloudwaysVPN, and CloudwaysBot notification system.
$10
per month
Microsoft 365
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is a Microsoft Cloud subscription service that includes Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access). The software can be installed across multiple devices and ensures that users always have the most up-to-date version of the included Office applications.
$5
Per User Per Month
Pricing
CloudwaysMicrosoft 365
Editions & Modules
Starting Price
$10.00
per month
Maximum Price
$274.33
per month
Business Basic
$5.00
Per User Per Month
Individual
$5.84
*Per Month
Business - Apps
$8.25
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - F3
$10.00
Per User Per Month
Business Standard
$12.50
Per User Per Month
Business Premium
$20.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E3
$32.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E5
$57.00
Per User Per Month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CloudwaysMicrosoft 365
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup Fee$25 per applicationNo setup fee
Additional DetailsCloudways offers 1 free migration to all customers. For any further migration needs the customer can use our free WordPress migration plugin and do it themselves. Or they can request paid migration services for any PHP based application, which start at $25 per application.*When billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Best Alternatives
CloudwaysMicrosoft 365
Small Businesses
Flywheel
Flywheel
Score 9.9 out of 10
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
WP Engine
WP Engine
Score 9.7 out of 10
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Pantheon
Pantheon
Score 8.4 out of 10
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
CloudwaysMicrosoft 365
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(4 ratings)
8.4
(240 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(6 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.5
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
9.7
(2 ratings)
8.9
(54 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
CloudwaysMicrosoft 365
Likelihood to Recommend
DigitalOcean
When you dont know how to set up a cloud server technically, (The LAMP stack or the PHP settings etc) Cloudways comes handy. You can easily modify the server settings with one click.
Less Appropriate - If you want to save costs, go for direct cloud providers. Setting up technical stuff is a one time job.
Read full review
Microsoft
I usually recommend Microsoft 365 to my clients to keep them away from the Exchange server (sorry!) Our business has a lot of issues with exchange email functions and copy machines. I always recommend they download the desktop version and use the online version as needed. You never know when you will be without an internet connection, but you can usually trust your laptop will have a decent charge, and you can still be productive! Let it sync when the powers are back on - or your connection is alive.
Read full review
Pros
DigitalOcean
  • Automatic Daily One Click Restore Backups
  • Integrated CDN
  • Easy & Intuitive Alternate Interface to cPanel and WHM
  • Very Affordable for High Specs
  • 24/7 Customer Support is Extremely Helpful
  • Serve & Application Management is a Breeze
  • Choose from Multiple Server Locations
Read full review
Microsoft
  • keeps me extremely organized. It is so easy to link calendars, emails, and documents.
  • keeps me well connected. It is so easy to send a quick message on teams or send an email to a group (for example, my particular team within the company).
  • easy to use. Everything is straightforward, making it easy to find an answer to a question. There is even a search option to figure out how to do something within Microsoft.
Read full review
Cons
DigitalOcean
  • Their free alternative to WP Rocket could be made more user-friendly and easier to understand
  • Create a function to automatically report heavy usage to specific email IDs
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Microsoft 365 really needs to work on protection part. In complex environment it is not reliable as compared to its competitors like Proofpoint. There are many instances where it fails to perform effectively.
  • In SharePoint Online the versioning feature of the document needs to be improved by Microsoft. Sometimes when we have to roll back to the previous version it does not work as expected.
  • In Teams messaging and app permission policies can be improved. There are some settings where we have to add a lot of things manually.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
DigitalOcean
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
There are many features of Office that we cannot replicate in any other tool. Plus people know it already. It's not going away anytime soon.
Read full review
Usability
DigitalOcean
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
While Microsoft 365 is an amazing toolset, its still a Microsoft product. Sadly, I think the quality control regarding updates has dropped a lot the last few years. Also, I think things like the new Outlook are no improvement. In my opinion, so many features are missing. Still they proceed to push this. Microsoft knows their suite is one of the only of its kind broadly used and because of that, in my opinion, they can pull whatever they want on the users and do that without issue.
Read full review
Support Rating
DigitalOcean
Technical support is just 2-3 clicks away and the Cloudways homepage and the operators are available almost 24/7. They also are able to answer any kind of question related to their services, whether economical or technical. I sometimes made mistakes while using their services and they have been keen to help me, and fixed my problems really fast.
Read full review
Microsoft
Over the past 8 years of using Microsoft 365, I have noticed that they change vendors often. This always leads to a poor experience in the beginning, then levels out after some time for the company to get things worked out. As a customer, it is really frustrating because I don't have time when something isn't working to have them "look into my issue" and get back with me. They have even closed a ticket I specifically told them to keep open. Your applications are only as good as the support.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
DigitalOcean
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Everything works and I use it all the time.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
DigitalOcean
VPS and dedicated hosting are costly, Therefore cloud hosting provides a cheaper way to own a powerful server, and IP is dedicated as well. Cloudways was the decision because:
1) Easy to set up without any linux commands we can set up the server
2) Live chat for technical help. (Excellent agents, they helped out of the scope issues too)
Read full review
Microsoft
Its very user-friendly, collaborative and efficient that boosts productivity using cloud tools. their security is strong and it provides data protection. There are regular updates that shields us from attackers too. It offers a wealth of learning resources, including tutorials, help articles and video guide to help users make the most of the application and personally upgrade their skills.
Read full review
Return on Investment
DigitalOcean
  • Massive ROI compared to Go Daddy's Server
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Positively, it has increased productivity and efficiency in creating templates and being able to systemize some of the protocols we are working on putting into place.
  • It has been a positive as well as most individuals and companies that we associate with also use MicroSoft 365 and therefore there is no need to have formats change in our documents when they open them up using another type of program.
  • Getting work done quickly.... One and Done!!!
Read full review
ScreenShots

Cloudways Screenshots

Screenshot of Managed ServicesScreenshot of Team Management