Quick answer
Treat VPS and cloud as infrastructure clues, then compare management, redundancy, billing and scaling rather than relying on the label alone.
A raw VPS is usually a server responsibility
You typically manage the operating system, patching, web stack, backups and security unless a management service is added.
Cloud can be raw or managed
A cloud VM can be just as unmanaged as a VPS. Managed cloud platforms add an operational layer on top.
Scaling models differ
Some services resize a single server; others distribute or autoscale application capacity.
Where Cloudways enters the decision
Cloudways Flexible is a managed layer on supported cloud infrastructure, so it is more comparable to a managed VPS or cloud service than to a raw VM price alone.