Do you plan to use Cloudways to host your WordPress site or another type of website? In our Cloudways review, we'll help you decide if this popular hosting provider is right for you.
Cloudways is a bit of an exception in the hosting space because it uses a unique approach to hosting. Instead of providing its own infrastructure, Cloudways lets you choose from five cloud providers.cloud hosting different: DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS and Google Cloud.
Next, Cloudways properly handles server setup and maintenance, while providing you with plenty of useful tools to manage your site.
The result of this approach is that you can get very good performance at a low price. However, it's a bit more complicated than traditional hosting, so we don't recommend Cloudways for all users.
Here's how we tested things out for our Cloudways review
We always want our accommodation reviews are totally objective, so we signed up and paid our own Cloudways account to write this review. Our experience is exactly the same as you will have and Cloudways didn't offer us any special offers and don't even know we're writing this review.
All of the testing we've done, the screenshots we've collected, and our general thoughts all come from our direct experience using the Cloudways account we purchased.
With that being said, let's move on to our Cloudways review.
Cloudways Key Features
Although Cloudways uses the unique approach ofcloud hosting As we mentioned in the introduction, Cloudways still offers a suite of features that compares favorably to more "traditional" hosting providers.
First, let's talk about the hosting environment itself. Cloudways configures your server with an âApache + Nginxâ hybrid stack. He then proposes several layers of cached to improve performance, including Nginx, Varnish, and Memcached. There is also an option to easily install Redis.
When Cloudways configures your server, it will automatically implement all of this, while securing your server and keeping everything up to date.
Beyond that, Cloudways offers the following useful features:
- Automatic server-level backups and on-demand single-site backups
- Preparation sites
- Free WordPress performance plugin called Breeze
- Site cloning
- Free SSL Certificates
- Integrated content delivery network (CDN)
- Server-level SMTP for transactional emails
- Protection against robots
- Cron job management
- Basic server monitoring
- Ability to add team members for collaboration
You'll see many of these features in more detail later in our review.
Cloudways Performance Testing
To kick off our Cloudways review, let's run some performance tests. After all, performance is one of the most important considerations with any hosting provider.
To test the performance of Cloudways, we have set up a real test site using the popular Astra theme and a full demo site. Our test site also includes the Breeze performance optimization plugin, which Cloudways installs by default.
For our server, we use the cheapest DigitalOcean server, at $10/month.
Then we ran it through two website speed test tools:
- WebPageTest with a limited FIOS connection to collect point-in-time performance metrics. We performed nine tests and took the median value.
- LoadFocus to see how Cloudways holds up to scaling. We hit our site with 20 visitors in a 60 second period.
Webpage testing
Cloudways got excellent results during WebPageTest one-time analysis, with median load time less than half a second . This is one of the best results of all the WordPress hosts we tested:
Load Focus
In the Load Focus tests, Cloudways also achieved excellent results. THE average response time was only 582 ms and 90th percentile time was from 611 ms . This is one of the best results we've seen from any host we've tested, although nexcess and WP Engine got results slightly best.
Still, Cloudways is miles ahead of other budget hosts, which is pretty impressive considering our test site only costs $10 per month.
Overall, Cloudways did very well in our tests, especially considering how cheap it is.
Cloudways User Experience
Because Cloudways has a unique experience, let's start at the beginning with setting up a server and installing WordPress. Next, we'll walk you through some of the tools you have to manage your sites and servers through Cloudways' custom dashboard.
Launch a server and install WordPress
When you first sign up for Cloudways, you will be prompted to launch a server and deploy an "application". An application is any software you want to install on your server â for example WordPress, Magento, Laravel, etc.
Once you've chosen your application and entered some basic information, there are three key decisions you can make. You can chooseâŠ
- Your suppliercloud hosting
- Resources for your server
- The physical location of your server
You'll see a price summary at the bottom, then you can click Launch now to create your server:
And that's all!
Managing your server
Your Cloudways dashboard has two main tabs:
- servers â this is where you manage all your cloud servers.
- Applications â this is where you manage your individual websites.
If you open a server's dashboard, you'll be able to manage all server-level details, including:
- Monitor â keep an eye on your server resources.
- Vertical scaling â easily increase your server resources.
- Backups â make backups of your entire server.
- SMTP â you can configure an SMTP provider for transactional emails at the server level.
Manage your WordPress site
If you go to the tab Applications , you will see a list of all your WordPress sites. If you click on a specific site, you will open its dashboard. This is where you can access all site-specific information and tools, including:
- Display access credentials for WP admin, FTP, MySQL, etc.
- Associate domains with your site.
- Setting up cron jobs.
- Installation of the free SSL certificate.
- Creation and management of backups.
- Deploy a site via Git.
- Cloudways CDN integration.
Explore some useful WordPress tools
Now let's take a look at some of the most useful Cloudways features for managing your WordPress sites.
First, Cloudways offers a simple cloning/staging tool, which you can access from the main list applications . You can either create a real staging site, or simply clone your site on the same server or on a different server:
If you create a test site, it will appear as its own application, you can easily transfer/extract data between your live site and your test site:
In the tab Backup and Restore , you can create on-demand backups for a specific site in addition to the server-level backups that Cloudways performs automatically:
The tab Cron job management provides a very simple interface for setting up your own server cron jobs:
Finally, the tab SSL Certificate allows you to install a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate in just a few clicks:
This is by no means a complete list of tools, but we are mainly trying to point out that Cloudways gives you offers a complete suite of management tools that compares favorably to more âtraditionalâ hosts.
Cloudways support
Support can be a bit of a tricky subject at Cloudways.
Cloudways support is good for what it does, but you need to understand that the scope of Cloudways support is not as wide as it might be with any other host, especially a managed WordPress host.
By default, Cloudways supports your hosting server and the Cloudways platform . If you have a problem with the server or something with Cloudways itself, Cloudways will definitely step in and help you.
You can get in touch with them 24/24 via live chat support.
However, Cloudways does not provide to application support by default. In other words, they don't officially offer support for applications that you install on your server, such as WordPress.
For example, if you have any issues with the WordPress installer offered by Cloudways, their support will help you. But if you see an error on your WordPress site, it's outside the scope of free support ( although Cloudways will sometimes help you anyway ).
If you are a student, this silver necklace is absolutely your first choice. The silver color will show your vitality and your youth. want this kind of advanced app support, you can pay extra for premium support, but it's not cheap.
Cloudways Pricing
What you will pay for Cloudways depends on the cloud hosting provider you choose and your server resources.
In general, the cheapest option is the $10 entry-level DigitalOcean Server, which will already deliver excellent performance.
You do not have to need to pay separately for cloud hosting. The price you see on Cloudways includes both the underlying cloud hosting fees and the Cloudways fees.
One thing to note is that the total price is usually a multiple of the underlying hosting price.
For example, here is a breakdown of DigitalOcean plans:
- Total price â includes both underlying and Cloudways fees. This is what you pay per month.
- DigitalOcean Award â the price of the unmanaged VPS if you purchased it directly from DigitalOcean.
- Implicit Cloudways fees â what you essentially pay for the Cloudways service alone (total price minus the DigitalOcean price).
| Level (RAM) | Total price | DigitalOcean Pricing | Free Implicit Cloudways |
| Go 1 | 10 $ | 5 $ | 5 $ |
| Go 2 | 22 $ | 10 $ | 12 $ |
| 4 GO | 42 $ | 20 $ | 22 $ |
| Go 8 | 80 $ | 40 $ | 40 $ |
As you can see, the premium you pay for Cloudways over the underlying cloud hosting increases as you upgrade your hosting, leading to a strange situation:
For low-resource servers, Cloudways is very affordable. For example, if you buy the entry-level server (which will be fine for most sites), Cloudways offers great value for money because you're essentially only paying $5 per month for Cloudways to manage your DigitalOcean server.
However, if you are planning to buy one of the higher resource servers, Cloudways can be expensive for what it offers. You go from paying a $5 premium over the underlying hosting on the 1GB plan to a $40 premium on the 8GB plan, even though the Cloudways platform is exactly the same in both situations .
Which cloud hosting should you use?
If you're not sure which cloud hosting provider to choose, we recommend starting with them. Vultr High Frequency servers. They're a bit more expensive than the entry-level DigitalOcean servers, but the little extra is worth it for the improved performance.
You can start with the lowest resources ( cheapest server ), then scale your server if necessary.
Advantages and disadvantages of Cloudways
As we near the end of our Cloudways review, let's talk about some of the pros and cons of using Cloudways for hosting.
Benefits
- Excellent performance for the price . Even the cheapest Cloudways plan can deliver excellent performance even at scale.
- No arbitrary limits . Cloudways does not impose arbitrary limits on websites. As long as your server has the necessary resources, you can host as many sites as you want.
- Useful WordPress Tools â you get useful features such as test sites, backups, a WordPress optimization plugin, and much more.
- Server-level SMTP â this is a very useful tool for reliable email, as many other cloud server panels require you to configure SMTP services for each individual WordPress site.
Drawbacks
- A bit more complicated than traditional hosting . Again, you certainly do to need to be a developer, but newbies might want to stay away.
- Pricing is not as good for high resource servers . Since Cloudways charges a multiple of the underlying hosting cost, this can be expensive for high-resource servers.
- No email hosting . If you want to create a custom email address ([email protected]), you will need a separate email hosting service.
Cloudways 2023 Review FAQ
To wrap up our Cloudways review, let's run through some FAQs.
Is Cloudways fast?
Yes! Cloudways is very fast and offers great performance for the price. Consider Vultr High Frequency servers to get the best performance on a budget.
Is Cloudways good for WordPress?
Yes! Cloudways works very well for WordPress and includes a number of WordPress specific tools such as the cached server-level optimized for WordPress, prep sites, free WordPress optimization plugin, and more.
Is Cloudways good for beginners?
Cloudways is definitely accessible to non-developers, but we wouldn't recommend it to beginners who are just getting started with their first websites. You may wish choose a host more traditional until you understand the basics of running your website.
How long is the Cloudways free trial?
The free trial lasts three days. After that, you will have to pay for a plan.
How does Cloudways billing work?
Cloudways offers pay-as-you-go billing â there's no long-term contract. You'll pay each month based on your actual usage for that month, which is billed hourly. At the beginning of the month, you will receive a bill based on your consumption of the previous month .
What are good Cloudways alternatives for cloud hosting?
Because cloud hosting has become so popular, you can find plenty of tools to help you manage cloud hosting. Some of the most popular options are Run Cloud , GridPane , SpinupWP et Job .
These tools are a little more complicated, but not much.
Should you use Cloudways in 2023 and beyond?
As we mentioned at the beginning, Cloudways is a great hosting provider that can deliver great performance for the price, but it's not the right host for everybody .
So let's talk about when you should choose Cloudways and when you should choose another host ( as well as some good Cloudways alternatives ).
Use Cloudways ifâŠ
Cloudways is a great option if you're looking for great performance on a budget, thanks to its unique cloud hosting approach. With only the cheapest DigitalOcean server, you can host multiple websites with surprisingly high traffic ( provided you use the cached pages ).
Cloudways is a bit more complicated than a traditional website, but you should have no problem using it as long as you've already created a few websites.
All in all, if you are looking for high performance hosting in the price range of $10 to $50, Cloudways is definitely one of your best options.
Use another host ifâŠ
There are two situations where you might want a Cloudways alternative.
First, if you're a total beginner, who's never built a website before, and/or feel overwhelmed with basic technical details, Cloudways might not be for you. Instead of that, GreenGeeks might be a good option. Or, if you want something really beginner friendly , Bluehost does the trick, although Bluehost's performance isn't as good as Cloudways or GreenGeeks.
Second, Cloudways might not be the best option if you need a high-resource server, just because it's expensive due to the percentage-based markup. Most people don't have to need high resource servers, so it may not matter to you.
But if you need a server with more than 8GB of RAM ( and associated resources ), you can use the same cloud hosting approach and save money by choosing a flat-rate hosting control panel such as Run Cloud ou SpinupWP .
To see even more options, check out our comprehensive roundup of the best WordPress hosting .
Do you still have questions about Cloudways or our Cloudways review? Let us know in the comments!
