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Cloudways

Managed servers on top of big cloud providers, billed by the hour..

Cloudways sets up and manages servers that run on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS and Google Cloud. You choose the provider, size and location, and pay for usage by the hour with an invoice in arrears. It does not sell domains or classic shared hosting.

Move in if you runagencies with client sites, developers, online shops
Think twice if this bothers youNo domain registration
Rent over three years$396

One floor per score. Lit windows out of five.

Cloudways logoCloudwaysfrom $11.00/mo See Cloudways' prices

What comes with the flat

  • Choice of five cloud providers with 25 to 30 locations each
  • Hourly billing with no long contract
  • 3-day free trial without a credit card
  • Trustpilot score of 4.6 across about 3,766 reviews
  • Servers can be resized as traffic grows

The small print

  • No domain registration
  • Email hosting is a paid add-on
  • Bills vary with usage and bandwidth overage
  • Steeper learning curve than shared hosting

Floor plans

DigitalOcean 2 GB

$11.00 /mo
then $11.00/mo
1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 50 GB storage, 2 TB transfer
Only provider with a price shown on the page read. No intro discount, pay as you go.

DigitalOcean 8 GB

n/a /mo
renewal not published
4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 160 GB storage, 5 TB transfer
Page still shows two prices for this size ($11 and $88), so no price is given.

Read on 2026-10-26 on Cloudways' own pricing page, USD excl. tax. Work out the rent year by year

What the neighbours say

4.6
out of 5 on Trustpilot
3,766 reviews, read 2026-10-14

Our verdict

Suits agencies, developers and growing shops that want their own server without doing the sysadmin work, and can live with usage-based bills. Beginners who want a simple flat price with email and a domain included will find it harder and costlier. Email is a paid add-on, and moving a site that is not WordPress costs $99.

The details

Kinds of hosting
cloud, wordpress
Control panel
custom Cloudways platform
Backups
Automated server backups; offsite storage $0.033 per GB
Support
24/7 live chat and tickets according to reviews
Moving in
free for WordPress and WooCommerce sites; other apps such as Laravel or custom PHP cost $99 via the Application Migration add-on
Free domain
no
Free SSL
Yes
Data centers
25 to 30 locations per provider (Vultr 30, Linode 25, AWS 28, Google Cloud 28)
Only DigitalOcean prices were readable; Vultr, Linode, AWS and Google Cloud prices were not shown. No money-back period appears on the pricing page or terms pages read, and reviews say Cloudways offers a 3-day free trial instead of refunds, so moneyBackDays stays null. Migration terms are from the pricing page (2026-10-14). 24/7 support comes from reviews. The page also shows Advance Support at a limited-time 75% discount ($25 instead of $100 a month). Scores are editorial. Terms (2026-10-14): Cloudways bills hourly and invoices monthly in arrears with no prepaid terms, so DigitalOcean 2 GB has a single month-to-month term at $11. DigitalOcean 8 GB has no terms because the page still shows conflicting prices ($11 and $88). Re-check 2026-10-19: pricing page read again; DigitalOcean 2 GB is still $11 a month and the 8 GB (Medium) size still shows both $11 and $88, so it stays null. The banner still offers 30% off for 3 months with no code or end date, while an FAQ answer on the same page says 30% off for the first 5 months; the banner wording is kept. No money-back period is stated, so moneyBackDays stays null. Re-check 2026-10-26: pricing page read again; DigitalOcean 2 GB is still $11 a month and the 8 GB (Medium) size still shows both $11 and $88, so it stays null. The banner still offers 30% off for 3 months with no code or end date, and the FAQ text still says 5 months; the banner wording is kept. Still no money-back period, only a 3-day free trial, so moneyBackDays stays null.

Sources

Scores are our reading of the sources above, on a 1 to 5 scale. We did not run our own server tests for this listing.