Cloudways DigitalOcean Vs Vultr

This Cloudways DigitalOcean Vs Vultr post will help you choose between the two Cloudways hosting providers in case you are having difficulty choosing between the two. I have tested the performance of two Cloudways hosting providers by hosting a WordPress website with both. In this article, I will walk you through the results of the various performance tests that I conducted on the two websites.

Here is the setup I had on both the websites:

• Twenty Twenty-Four WordPress Theme
• PHP 8.1
• Contact form 7
• Rank Math SEO
• Breeze caching plugin by default.
• Akismet

Here are the five crucial performance tests I conducted on the websites:

1. Server Response Time (TTFB): In this test, I monitored the server from 22 different US locations, and from that, I calculated the average server response time (TTFB).
2. Uptime: I monitored the Uptime consistency of the websites using the Pingdom tool.
3. Load Testing: In this test, I sent 500 clients in 1 minute to the websites to monitor the load handling capacity of the websites during traffic spikes.
4. Core Web Vitals: I used GTMetrix to determine the Core Web Vitals score of the websites.
5. Global TTFB: I pinged the websites from 10 different global locations to calculate the Global TTFB.

Cloudways DigitalOcean Vs Vultr: Performance Tests

Server Response Time (TTFB):

When analyzing the performance of a hosting server, the Server Response Time test is the first thing to do. During the test, I pinged the demo websites from 20 different USA locations. Next, I calculated the average response time by averaging the server response time scores.

Here is the performance data for the 2023:

• DigitalOcean Standard: 332 ms
• DigitalOcean Premium: 339 ms
• Vultr: 330 ms
• Vultr HF: 331 ms

As you can see both DigitalOcean and Vultr have performed equally well in the server response time test. However, Vultr seems to have a slightly better server response time than DigitalOcean.

Uptime:

Just as in Server Response Time, I tested the Uptime of the demo sites from 22 USA locations. Here is the Uptime data for 2023:

• DigitalOcean Standard: 99.99%
• DigitalOcean Premium: 99.99%
• Vultr: 99.99%

You can see both DigitalOcean and Vult have pretty reliable Uptime with 99.99%.

Load Testing:

Load Testing is a crucial test to know the ability of a hosting service to handle traffic spikes. I tested the load handling capacity of the websites by sending 500 clients in 1 minute to both websites. Next, I measured the average response time that the websites took to handle the traffic. 

Here are the Load Testing results:

• DigitalOcean Standard: 275 ms
• DigitalOcean Premium: 245 ms
• Vultr Standard: 380 ms
• Vultr High Frequency: 245 ms

As you can see, DigitalOcean Premium and Vultr High Frequency have the best average response time of 245 ms. DigitalOcean Standard has a slightly lower average response time of 275 ms, while Vultr Standard has an average response time of 380 ms.

Core Web Vitals:

In the Core Web Vitals, we measure metrics like the Largest Contentful Paint, Total Blocking Time, and Cumulative Layout Shift. Vultr HF performed exceptionally well with the Largest Contentful Paint of 388 ms, while DigitalOcean Premium secured the second spot with an LCP of 389 ms. Vultr Standard recorded an LCP of 402 ms, and DigitalOcean Standard had an LCP of 412 ms. The Total Blocking Time and the Cumulative Layout Shift for all four plans is zero.

Global TTFB:

During the Global TTFB test, I pinged my demo sites from 10 different global locations. Then, I calculated the Global TTFB by averaging the TTFB for the 10 places. Here are the Global TTFB test results:

• DigitalOcean Standard: 369.81 ms
• Premium: 365.07ms
• Vultr: 359.45 ms
• Vultr HF: 364.49 ms

As you can see, Vult Standard has the best Global TTFB and Vultr HF holds the second spot with 364.49 ms.

Which Cloudways Provider to Choose?

The choice of a hosting provider completely depends on the type of website you want to host. Even though Vultr has done equally well in all the performance tests, Cloudways Vultr hasn't been that reliable in terms of Uptime in recent years. 

If we consider pricing, Cloudways Standard is comparatively more affordable and may be an ideal choice for any small or new website. However, if you are looking for a powerful performance, you should choose Cloudways Premium since it comes with a better load-handling capacity.