As a web hosting review expert who has set up and managed numerous websites, I had been hearing a lot about Cloudways and decided to give their services a try. Despite being one of the newer hosts on the market, Cloudways has quickly built a strong reputation. In this Cloudways review, we’ll explore how this hosting provider offers exceptional scalability, performance, and value for website owners.

If you’re wondering whether Cloudways lives up to the hype, this guide has everything you need!

Cloudways Review

Cloudways has carved out a unique space in the cloud hosting market by offering a flexible, user-friendly platform designed to meet the needs of both small businesses and large enterprises. What makes Cloudways particularly appealing is how it simplifies cloud hosting by acting as a bridge between users and major cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and DigitalOcean, allowing for easy management of applications and websites.

One of the standout features of Cloudways is its scalable hosting plans, which provide exceptional speed, performance, and security without requiring users to manage server intricacies.

With tools like managed backups, real-time monitoring, and automated security updates, Cloudways lets you focus on growing your business rather than dealing with complex technical issues. Boasting an impressive 4.5 Trustpilot rating, Cloudways has proven itself as a reliable and customer-focused hosting provider.

Cloudways Rating – my personal take 

In the hosting industry, each provider offers a distinct combination of pricing, features, and services, making direct comparisons challenging. To address this, I developed a rating system, scored from 1 to 5, to assess and fairly compare these hosting providers. Below is the breakdown for Cloudways:

Cloudways Plans and Pricing

Cloudways makes cloud hosting more accessible by offering tailored plans powered by industry leaders like DigitalOcean, AWS, and Google Cloud. What distinguishes Cloudways is their straightforward pricing structure. As someone who values clear and transparent hosting solutions, I appreciate their pay-as-you-go pricing model. This flexibility is a major advantage, allowing you to pay only for what you use. Plus, their 3-day free trial with no credit card required lets you test their services risk-free, making it easy to explore what they offer without any upfront commitment.

DigitalOcean Hosting on Cloudways

Most Popular Plan: 4GB RAM, 2 Core Processor, 80GB Storage, 4TB Bandwidth for $54/mo.

Personal Take: This plan hits the sweet spot for most small to medium-sized businesses. The robust storage and generous bandwidth ensure that your site can handle traffic spikes and large volumes of data efficiently. Plus, the pricing includes all DigitalOcean hosting charges, making budgeting straightforward.

Who It’s Best For: Ideal for tech startups and small businesses that need a reliable, scalable solution without a hefty price tag. If you’re running multiple small websites or a single medium-sized site, this plan offers excellent value.

AWS Hosting on Cloudways

Most Popular Plan: 4GB RAM, 2 vCPU, 20GB Storage, 2GB Bandwidth for $91.84/mo.

Personal Take: AWS is renowned for its high-performance capabilities, and this plan is no different. While the pricing might seem a bit higher, the added value of free Object Cache Pro, SSL certificates, and 24/7 customer support makes it worthwhile. A standout feature is the CloudwaysBot alerts, offering real-time monitoring that boosts both your site’s security and performance.

Who It’s Best For: This plan is ideal for rapidly growing businesses and e-commerce sites that require a strong infrastructure, excellent uptime, and dynamic scalability. With its comprehensive support and features, it’s a smart option for enterprises that depend heavily on their online presence and need reliable, high-performance hosting solutions.

Google Cloud Hosting on Cloudways

Most Popular Plan: 3.75GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 20GB Storage, 2GB Bandwidth for $84.12/mo.

Cloudways Hosting Plans

Choosing the right Cloudways hosting plan requires balancing available resources with your application’s specific needs. My recommendations below take into account the requirements of both small projects and more resource-intensive, high-traffic environments.

WordPress Hosting

For WordPress sites that are in the early stages or experiencing growth, I suggest the 2 GB RAM plan on DigitalOcean. This plan is highly cost-effective for new blogs and small business websites with moderate traffic. For high-traffic sites or those using resource-intensive plugins, the 8 GB RAM plan on DigitalOcean is an excellent option, offering a strong balance between performance and price, with enough resources to efficiently handle larger workloads.

WooCommerce Hosting

Starting an online store on WooCommerce with the 4 GB RAM plan from DigitalOcean is a smart decision, offering a balance of affordability and strong performance, making it ideal for handling the early stages of e-commerce operations. As your store grows and traffic or transaction volumes increase, upgrading to the 16 GB RAM plan becomes essential, providing the additional capacity required to maintain smooth performance during traffic surges and high transaction volumes.

Magento Hosting

PHP Hosting

The 2 GB RAM plan from DigitalOcean is typically adequate for most PHP projects, providing a good balance of affordability and performance. For larger projects that need more processing power or handle higher traffic volumes, the 8 GB RAM plan offers a solid performance boost while remaining more budget-friendly compared to options from AWS or Google Cloud.

Laravel Hosting

Laravel applications typically perform well on the 4 GB RAM plan from DigitalOcean, offering sufficient power for most backend tasks of average-sized applications. For larger applications or those with heavy usage, upgrading to the 16 GB RAM plan ensures smooth handling of even the most resource-intensive tasks.

Drupal Hosting

For Drupal sites, the 4 GB RAM plan is generally sufficient for efficiently managing community-focused and content-heavy sites. For high-traffic or feature-rich Drupal sites, the 16 GB RAM plan from DigitalOcean is a cost-effective solution that delivers the necessary resources to handle complex operations smoothly.

Joomla Hosting

The 2 GB RAM plan from DigitalOcean is adequate for most standard Joomla sites, making it a great cost-effective option. For larger, more complex sites, the 8 GB RAM plan provides additional resources without a substantial price increase, making it a smart choice for sites anticipating higher traffic.

PrestaShop and General E-commerce Hosting

The 4 GB RAM plan is an excellent starting point for new e-commerce sites, delivering essential performance at an affordable price. As your demands increase, the **16 GB RAM plan** provides a cost-effective upgrade that can handle higher traffic volumes and more intensive e-commerce operations without the financial strain typically associated with AWS or Google Cloud.

Cloudways Features

Cloudways offers an extensive range of hosting features designed to cater to various user needs, from simple site installations to advanced server management. Key basic features include 

• 1-Click WordPress Installer for quick site setup
• Free SSL Certificates to secure your online presence, 
• CDN Integration to speed up website load times globally. 
• Optimized Caching to enhance site performance effectively.

Unique Selling Points of Cloudways

What distinguishes Cloudways is its shift away from the traditional cPanel in favor of a custom control panel, which significantly simplifies backend management. This adjustment allows users with limited technical skills to manage their websites more effectively.

Other notable features of Cloudways include 24/7/365 support, ensuring assistance is always available, real-time monitoring to keep an eye on server performance, automated backups for data protection, and a staging environment to safely test updates before they go live. Additionally, the platform features dedicated firewalls for enhanced security and auto-healing servers that minimize downtime by automatically addressing issues as they occur.

These features are crafted not only to fulfill the basic hosting needs but also to deliver a comprehensive, secure, and efficient hosting environment suitable for various applications and user expertise levels.

Cloudways  Performance

Evaluating the performance of websites hosted on Cloudways requires attention to key metrics like speed, uptime, and loading time. These elements are crucial as they significantly affect user experience and SEO rankings. I chose a website hosted by Cloudways and conducted a test using GTMetrix to measure its **Time to First Byte** (TTFB), which indicates the server’s response speed.

The website tested demonstrated a commendable 254ms server response speed, achieving an overall GTMetrix performance score of 94%. Furthermore, Cloudways guarantees 99.9% uptime, ensuring that websites remain nearly always accessible to users, which is essential for fostering user trust and engagement.

These performance metrics underscore why Cloudways is a leading choice for hosting, striking a balance between speed, reliability, and efficiency to cater to a variety of online projects.

Cloudways Level Of Support 

Cloudways provides comprehensive support options to ensure users receive assistance whenever they need it.

Live Chat

Although live chat support is available, it can be somewhat difficult to find as it’s tucked away in the support section under the knowledge base. Additionally, accessing live chat requires server activation, which may pose an inconvenience for users seeking immediate help.

Phone Support

Cloudways provides phone support solely for users on Premium support plans. This direct line is perfect for urgent issues that need personalized assistance.

Ticketing System

Users can submit support requests through the ticketing system, which guarantees a response within 24 hours. This option is ideal for non-urgent inquiries or follow-up questions.

Knowledge Base

Cloudways’ extensive knowledge base with a built-in search engine provides self-help resources for quick issue resolution.

Private Slack Channel

Available exclusively to Premium plan subscribers, Cloudways’ private Slack channel provides a distinctive support experience, elevating the level of personalized assistance offered.

Cloudways Security features

Cloudways prioritizes website security and offers a variety of advanced protections to ensure your online assets remain safe and secure..

6. Dedicated Server-Level Firewall: Cloudways utilizes a server-level firewall to protect your website from malicious traffic and unauthorized login attempts, providing round-the-clock security against potential threats.
7. Automated Protection with Fail2ban: Cloudways emphasizes ongoing protection by routinely applying security patches and updates to the server operating system. By keeping up with the latest security measures, Cloudways ensures that your website is safeguarded against emerging threats.
8. Regular Security Patches & Updates: Cloudways places a strong emphasis on continuous protection by routinely applying security patches and updates to the server operating system. By staying current with the latest security measures, Cloudways ensures that your website is safeguarded against emerging threats, providing peace of mind for your online presence.
9. Bot Protection: Powered by MalCare, Cloudways’ bot protection feature strengthens your website’s defenses against brute-force attacks by effectively blocking malicious bot traffic. This proactive measure helps prevent unnecessary costs and safeguards the integrity of your WordPress sites.
10. Vulnerability Scanner: In collaboration with Patchstack, Cloudways provides a Vulnerability Scanner that instantly alerts you to any vulnerabilities in your WordPress core, plugins, or themes. This proactive scanning enables you to stay ahead of potential security risks and take timely action to mitigate them.
11. Free 1-Click SSL: Cloudways offers free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates, enabling you to enhance your website’s security with HTTPS encryption. This feature ensures a secure online experience for your visitors without any extra cost or complexity.

Cloudways Website builder(s)

Cloudways does not provide an in-house website builder like many traditional hosting services, which may limit users seeking an all-in-one solution. Instead, Cloudways specializes in managed cloud hosting, making it an ideal choice for users who develop their own sites or use platforms like WordPress, which can be easily installed via their one-click installer.

Customers looking for a website builder will need to integrate third-party services. Popular options include WordPress with builders like Elementor or WPBakery, or standalone platforms such as Wix or Squarespace. However, using these may incur additional fees on top of your Cloudways hosting costs.

Recently, Cloudways introduced a feature that allows users to launch Divi, a powerful page builder, with just one click, further enhancing website creation capabilities on their elite cloud hosting platform.

User-Friendliness – Easy of use

How to register on Cloudways 

Registering on Cloudways is a simple process, though there might be a short waiting period before your account is fully activated. Here’s how it works:

Go to the Cloudways website and navigate to their pricing page.

Select the plan that fits your requirements and click on “Start 3 days trial” to initiate the registration process. 

Fill in your name, email address, and password as prompted on the registration form. 

After submitting your details, you’ll receive a notification that your account activation is pending and Cloudways will reach out to you within 1-2 working days.

Your account activation will take 1-2 working days to complete. During this time, Cloudways will assess your registration information and prepare your account. After your account is activated, you will receive an email informing you that your Cloudways dashboard is ready for access. You can then log in to start managing your hosting services.

Cloudways Control Panel

Cloudways offers an easy-to-use control panel for managing your hosting services. Unlike some providers that utilize the traditional cPanel, Cloudways features its own custom control panel designed for simplicity. Here are some of its key features:

User-friendly interface: The Cloudways control panel is built with usability in mind, making it accessible for beginners.

Hosting management: You can oversee various elements of your hosting services directly from the control panel, including domain settings, email accounts, and server configurations.

One-click installations: Cloudways facilitates one-click installations for popular applications like WordPress, allowing you to quickly set up your website.

How to install WordPress on Cloudways

Installing WordPress on Cloudways is straightforward and can be done via the control panel. Here’s how:

Step 1:Log in and Go to Servers

Access your Cloudways account.

Click the Plus button in the top right corner and choose “Add Server.”

Step 2: Select Configuration for WordPress

Choose a WordPress configuration.

Customize the application, server, and project names.

Prefer the Clean option for a fresh WordPress instance.

Step 3: Select Server Provider, Location & Resources

Choose a server provider and RAM allocation.

Opt for a server location closest to your audience.

Click “Launch” to proceed.

Step 4: Access Your WordPress Application

Wait for server configuration, usually 10-15 minutes.

Access your WordPress installation under the www option.

Step 5: Add a Domain Name

In the Application Dashboard, select “Domain Management.”

Type in your domain name and save changes.

Step 6: Add SSL Certificate

Let Cloudways issue a free SSL certificate automatically.

Optionally, add a custom SSL certificate.

Step 7: Access the WordPress Dashboard

Log into your WordPress admin dashboard using the provided credentials.

Change the default password for security.

If you’ve followed through all the steps, you should have a brand new WordPress website ready to be used.

Conclusion: Do We Recommend Cloudways? 

I strongly recommend Cloudways to anyone in search of powerful and scalable cloud hosting solutions. Their distinctive method of simplifying the cloud through an intuitive platform that connects major providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and DigitalOcean is a notable advantage.

Additionally, Cloudways provides competitive pricing, a wide range of support options, and robust security features that are well-suited for both small businesses and larger enterprises. Although the absence of a built-in website builder may pose a slight inconvenience, the flexibility and performance benefits make Cloudways an attractive option for those who value quality and scalability in their hosting services.

FAQs

Does Cloudways have a website builder?

Yes, Cloudways provides a straightforward website-building solution by offering the Divi page builder with a one-click setup. This integration enables users to effortlessly create websites on Cloudways’ premium cloud hosting platform.

Is Cloudways only for WordPress?

No, Cloudways is not restricted to WordPress. Although it is finely tuned for WordPress hosting with features such as one-click installation and managed security, it also accommodates a wide range of other applications and content management systems (CMS), enabling you to deploy various types of websites and applications.

Is Cloudways good for beginners?

Cloudways is very user-friendly, even with its advanced cloud hosting features. The platform streamlines the management of cloud servers through an intuitive control panel, user-friendly tools, and robust customer support, making it accessible for individuals with limited technical skills.

Is Cloudways better than GoDaddy?

The decision between Cloudways and GoDaddy hinges on your individual requirements. Cloudways stands out for its flexible and scalable cloud hosting solutions, featuring advanced capabilities and an emphasis on performance. In contrast, GoDaddy provides a wider array of hosting services, including domain registration and traditional hosting options. Generally, Cloudways is favored for its exceptional performance and scalability in cloud settings.