What is the Difference Between Cloud and VPS?

Hostwinds has two virtual private servers (VPS) available for purchase from our main website: Cloud and VPS. Due to this, you may find yourself asking, "what is the difference?" or "which one is best for me?". This guide will answer those questions.

Cloud vs. VPS

At its core, a Hostwinds Cloud server and a VPS are identical. They are the same products, with the same technical specs available and with the same features available.

Regardless of whether you order a Cloud server or a VPS, it will appear on your account as a Managed or Unmanaged "SSD Cloud X" (where X is the tier of your server). This means that you have a Virtual Private Server built within Hostwinds Cloud infrastructure and have access to our Cloud Portal features' features.

More specifically, the Cloud servers found on our Cloud server page are identical to our Unmanaged VPSs pages.

Billing

You may notice that the Cloud page on our storefront displays the different tiers of servers in an hourly format. However, this primarily makes it easier to compare our servers to those found elsewhere, which handle their servers' billing as hourly instances.

Our servers are not directly available as hourly instances. Instead, when ordering a Cloud server, you are presented with the same standard billing cycle options as you would get with any of our other services and may choose from 1 Month, 3 Months, 6 Months, 12 Months, 24 Months, or 36 Months when placing your order.

Hostwinds does offer VPS instances under hourly billing. Please let us know via Live Chat if you want to know more about how hourly billing works if this is a service that interests you.