Northflank vs Cloudways Pricing (2026)

How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.

Northflank Cloudways
Starts at Custom $14/mo
Number of plans 3 9
Free plan
Free trial
Pricing model usage-based hybrid

Sandbox

$0/mo
  • Always-on-compute – no sleeping :)
  • 2× free services
  • 1× free database
  • 2× free cron jobs

Pay-as-you-go

$0/mo
  • Only pay for consumption
  • Infinitely scalable
  • 6+ cloud regions, 600 BYOC regions
  • Deploy with CPU & GPU

Enterprise

Custom
  • Run in your VPC
  • 24/7 Support & SLA
  • FDE Onboarding
  • 100+ Enterprise features

Micro

$14/mo
  • 4 Free AI Copilot Credits
  • Lightning Stack
  • Unlimited Visits
  • Unlimited Websites

Small

$28/mo
  • 4 Free AI Copilot Credits
  • Lightning Stack
  • Unlimited Visits
  • Unlimited Websites

Medium

Popular
$54/mo
  • 4 Free AI Copilot Credits
  • Lightning Stack
  • Unlimited Visits
  • Unlimited Websites

Large

$99/mo
  • 4 Free AI Copilot Credits
  • Lightning Stack
  • Unlimited Visits
  • Unlimited Websites

8XL

$342/mo
  • 4 Free AI Copilot Credits
  • Lightning Stack
  • Unlimited Visits
  • Unlimited Websites

Growth

$99/mo
  • True Autoscaling
  • Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
  • Redis Caching
  • Object Cache Pro + Relay
  • Free Managed Migration

Scale

Popular
$199/mo
  • True Autoscaling
  • Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
  • Redis Caching
  • Object Cache Pro + Relay
  • Free Managed Migration

Plus

$399/mo
  • True Autoscaling
  • Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
  • Redis Caching
  • Object Cache Pro + Relay
  • Free Managed Migration

Enterprise

Custom
  • Optimized resources for your traffic and usage patterns
  • Custom resource allocation and baseline capacity
  • Expert consultation to match plan to requirements

Northflank vs Cloudways FAQ

Which one is cheaper?
One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.
Can I use either one for free?
Northflank has a free plan. Cloudways doesn't — though they do offer a free trial.
How do they charge?
Different approach here. Northflank uses usage-based pricing, while Cloudways goes with hybrid. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
Which one is a better deal?
Depends on what you need. Northflank: Northflank undercuts the 'enterprise PaaS' crowd like Platform.sh by letting anyone start at zero cost and scale purely with usage, positioning it closer to Railway or Render than to pricier managed Kubernetes platforms. It's chasing engineering teams who want cloud-native flexibility (including GPU workloads) without paying a premium markup just for orchestration. Cloudways: Cloudways sits in the middle of the managed hosting pack — cheaper than fully managed premium players like WP Engine or Kinsta, but pricier than raw cloud hosting since you're paying for the management layer on top of DigitalOcean/AWS/Vultr costs. They're clearly courting developers and agencies who want cloud flexibility without babysitting servers, not enterprises who'd go straight to AWS.

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