Cloudways vs DigitalOcean: Which Fits Your Hosting Workflow?
Cloudways adds a managed hosting layer; DigitalOcean also sells infrastructure directly.
The real difference
DigitalOcean Droplets are virtual machines that you operate. Cloudways Flexible can use DigitalOcean infrastructure while providing a managed application/server experience on top.
Cloudways side
Cloudways currently splits its offering between Flexible, where you select supported cloud infrastructure and server resources, and Autonomous, a WordPress/WooCommerce product focused on hands-off autoscaling. That means the correct comparison depends on which Cloudways product you mean.
Competitor side
Choose direct DigitalOcean when you want to own more of the infrastructure work. Choose Cloudways when you want DigitalOcean-style infrastructure without handling as much server administration.
How to decide
List what you need the host to own: infrastructure maintenance, backups, staging, scaling, application support, team workflow and incident support. Then compare current pricing and plan limits using the official sites. Avoid deciding from an old benchmark alone.