Quick answer
Compare total operating cost: renewal price, management responsibility, site limits, backups, CDN, email, support and scaling.
Promotional term matters
Some hosts advertise a monthly equivalent that requires paying years upfront and renews at a different rate.
Resource model matters
Per-site plans, visit-based plans and server-resource plans distribute cost differently as a portfolio grows.
Add-ons change the stack
Email, CDN, backups, malware protection or higher support can be included, optional or separate depending on the provider.
Where Cloudways enters the decision
Cloudways uses a different buying model from long-term shared-hosting promotions. Evaluate Flexible and Autonomous pricing against the management and resource model you actually need.