Cloudways Review (2024): Is It the Right Fit for Your Business?

If you’re a website owner or developer, you know the pain of finding reliable, scalable hosting without technical complexities. Managing server settings, ensuring high-speed performance, and securing your website can be never-ending.

But what if there was a solution that simplified all this while offering top-tier performance? Enter Cloudways—a managed cloud hosting platform that takes the hassle out of web hosting without compromising speed, security, or flexibility.

Cloudways is designed for anyone who values control over their hosting environment but wants to avoid dealing with the tedious aspects of server management. From startups to established businesses, Cloudways provides:

A robust solution for hosting your websites.
Offering features like one-click scalability.
Built-in security.
A user-friendly interface.

In this review, we’ll explore everything Cloudways offers. We’ll cover its key features, explore the pros and cons, share personal experiences, and compare it with other hosting providers so you can decide if it’s the right choice for your needs.

Overview of Cloudways

Founded in 2011, Cloudways set out to simplify cloud hosting by offering managed services that combine speed, security, and flexibility. Over the years, Cloudways has grown into a trusted name in the web hosting industry, primarily focusing on removing the complexities of server management while still providing users with the benefits of top-tier cloud infrastructure.

Cloudways is ideal for many users, including website owners, developers, agencies, and eCommerce businesses. For website owners, it eliminates the need for technical expertise, offering an intuitive platform to manage everything from server configurations to backups. Developers appreciate its flexibility with SSH and Git integration, while agencies benefit from its scalability and ability to host multiple client sites with ease.

Cloudways’ unique selling proposition sets It apart from traditional hosting providers: it offers managed hosting on industry-leading cloud providers such as AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode. This means users can harness these giants’ power and performance without worrying about the technical complexities of managing cloud servers.

The combination of performance, simplicity, and robust infrastructure makes Cloudways an appealing option for anyone looking for scalable, secure, and fast hosting without the headaches of self-management. Whether running a small blog or a high-traffic business website, Cloudways offers a comprehensive solution tailored to your needs.

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Performance and Reliability

Regarding web hosting, performance and reliability are key factors that can make or break your website’s success. Cloudways excels in these areas by leveraging the power of leading cloud providers, offering optimized speeds, high uptime rates, and a solid range of performance-enhancing features.

Speed and Uptime

Cloudways prioritizes speed, and the numbers speak for themselves. Websites hosted on Cloudways consistently show server response times as low as 200ms. Real-world testing using tools like GTMetrix and Pingdom reveals page load speeds ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 seconds on average for a well-optimized website. These times are competitive with, and often faster than, many shared and VPS hosting providers.

Cloudways also boasts an impressive 99.99% uptime guarantee, which aligns with the reliability expected from its cloud partners like AWS and Google Cloud. Overextended testing periods, Cloudways-hosted websites consistently show minimal downtime, making it a dependable option for businesses where uptime is critical.

Server Locations

Your website’s performance is closely tied to the physical location of the servers hosting your data. With 65+ data centres spread across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, Cloudways offers a significant geographic reach.

By allowing users to choose their server locations from cloud providers like Google Cloud, AWS, and DigitalOcean, website owners can strategically position their servers closest to their target audience, minimizing latency and ensuring faster content delivery.

This worldwide network of data centres ensures that no matter where your visitors are, they will experience faster loading times and minimal delays, improving the overall user experience.

Caching and CDN

Cloudways includes a suite of built-in caching solutions to boost performance further. Varnish, Memcached, Redis, and OPcache come pre-configured, allowing users to optimize their websites with minimal effort. These caching tools reduce server load and speed up content delivery, particularly for dynamic websites and eCommerce stores.

Cloudways also offers its proprietary CloudwaysCDN (Content Delivery Network) for global reach. The CDN distributes your website’s content across various international locations, ensuring users can access your website from the nearest server and reducing load times. This is especially beneficial for websites with a worldwide audience, helping them maintain speed consistency regardless of the visitor’s location.

In combination, Cloudways’ caching and CDN capabilities allow even high-traffic websites to handle load spikes smoothly, providing a seamless user experience.

Ease of Use & User Experience

One of Cloudways’ most vital points is its focus on simplifying cloud hosting without sacrificing power or flexibility. It caters to both beginners and experienced users by offering a streamlined interface and a variety of tools to help you get up and running quickly. Whether setting up a new website or migrating an existing one, Cloudways makes the process as smooth as possible.

Setup and Migration

Cloudways has made the onboarding process incredibly straightforward. After signing up, users are guided through setting up their first server. The platform offers one-click installations for popular applications like WordPress, Magento, Joomla, and Drupal, making it easy for beginners to launch their websites without any technical hassle. The platform automates the setup, from selecting server configurations to installing SSL certificates.

For those moving from another hosting provider, Cloudways offers a free migration service for their first website. This service benefits users who want to avoid the technical complexities of migrating a site, particularly from shared or VPS hosting environments.

For more complex migrations, Cloudways offers premium services or provides comprehensive guides for self-migration, ensuring a smooth transition to their platform.

User Interface

Cloudways’ dashboard is designed with user experience in mind, making it intuitive for both beginners and seasoned developers. The interface is clean and uncluttered, featuring a left-hand menu with quick access to critical settings such as server management, application settings, backups, and monitoring tools.

Navigating the Cloudways platform feels smooth. Tasks such as launching new applications, setting up domains, or configuring server settings are straightforward and step-by-step.

Unlike traditional cPanel or Plesk interfaces, Cloudways has crafted a custom dashboard that simplifies complex server management tasks. This makes it an ideal solution for users who want the performance benefits of cloud hosting without being bogged down by technicalities.

For more advanced users, Cloudways still provides access to detailed server metrics, monitoring tools, and advanced options like cron job scheduling, all from within the same user-friendly interface.

Control and Customization

Despite its focus on ease of use, Cloudways still needs to offer advanced control for those who need it. Users can manage their servers directly, and for developers, the platform provides SSH access, Git integration, and staging environments—all essential features for those who need more granular control over their hosting environment.

You can easily customize your server’s resources, tweak caching settings, and adjust security protocols. At the same time, beginners who may not be comfortable with server management can rely on Cloudways’ built-in features, such as automatic backups, managed security patches, and performance optimizations, to keep their websites running smoothly.

This balance between user-friendliness and advanced control makes Cloudways appealing to a broad audience. Whether you want to keep things simple or dive deep into customization, the platform adapts to your needs without overwhelming you with complexity.

Features and Flexibility

Cloudways is renowned for the flexibility it offers in hosting environments. It allows users to tailor their web hosting experience to their specific needs, from choosing their preferred cloud provider to integrating essential tools and services. Cloudways provides a versatile platform that adapts to a variety of business requirements.

Choice of Cloud Providers

One of Cloudways’ most distinctive features is its multi-cloud approach, which allows users to select from five leading cloud providers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, Vultr, Linode, and DigitalOcean. This flexibility ensures that users can choose the cloud infrastructure that best suits their performance, scalability, and budgetary needs.

For instance, users seeking enterprise-level power and global reach might opt for AWS or Google Cloud, which offer unparalleled reliability and infrastructure. On the other hand, DigitalOcean, Linode, and Vultr are more affordable alternatives that still provide excellent performance, particularly for small- to medium-sized businesses and developers.

This multi-cloud choice enables website owners to avoid vendor lock-in, ensuring that as their business scales, they can move to a different cloud provider within Cloudways’ platform without migrating to an entirely new hosting service.

Staging Environment

When making updates or significant changes to your website, one of Cloudways’ standout features is the staging environment. This feature allows users to create an exact clone of their live website to test new changes, plugins, themes, or code customizations in a secure, isolated environment.

Once you’re satisfied with the modifications in the staging area, Cloudways makes it easy to push the changes live with just a click. This safety net prevents the risk of your live website breaking due to faulty updates or conflicting plugins. This feature is invaluable for businesses, developers, and agencies managing high-traffic sites or eCommerce stores, reducing the stress of live updates and ensuring website stability.

Automated Backups

Reliability is critical, and Cloudways ensures your data is secure with its automated backup system. Cloudways allows users to schedule backups at intervals that suit their needs, from as frequently as hourly to once a week. You can also manually create backups before making significant changes, giving an added security layer.

What makes Cloudways’ backup system stand out is the flexibility it provides. You can store backups on your server and offsite locations, ensuring your data is safe even in a server issue. Moreover, restoring backups is simple and can be done with just a click, making it a user-friendly feature for technical and non-technical users.

Add-ons and Integrations

Cloudways enhances its core offerings with various valuable add-ons and integrations that extend functionality without overwhelming users. For example, SSL certificates can be installed with just a click, ensuring secure connections for your website. Cloudways also integrates with Cloudflare, offering easy CDN (Content Delivery Network) integration to optimize site speed and performance further.

Additionally, Cloudways offers email hosting services through Rackspace and Elastic Email, ensuring you can manage professional-grade email services alongside your website hosting. The CloudwaysBot is another useful add-on that informs you about your server’s health and real-time issues via Slack, email, or SMS.

These optional add-ons allow users to customize their hosting experience based on their specific requirements. Whether you need robust email solutions, additional security features, or performance enhancements, Cloudways provides the necessary tools to enhance your website’s performance and security.

Cloudways Pricing and Plans

Cloudways takes a unique approach to pricing compared to traditional web hosting services. Rather than locking users into long-term contracts or pre-defined plans, Cloudways offers a flexible, pay-as-you-go pricing model that ensures users only pay for the resources they use.

This flexibility, combined with the features of managed cloud hosting, makes Cloudways an appealing option for a wide range of users, from small business owners to large enterprises.

Pricing Model

Cloudways follows a pay-as-you-go pricing structure, meaning you only pay for the server resources you consume each month. This differs from traditional hosting providers that often require users to commit to long-term contracts, whether monthly or yearly, for a fixed set of resources.

This pricing structure is ideal for businesses that need flexibility, especially those that experience fluctuations in traffic or are growing and scaling their web presence. You can easily adjust your server resources as your needs evolve without worrying about being locked into a plan that no longer fits your website’s requirements.

Pricing starts at $11 monthly on DigitalOcean for smaller websites, scaling up based on your selected cloud provider and the server power and storage you require.

This model offers excellent transparency and control. It allows users to dynamically adjust resources such as RAM, CPU, and storage, allowing you to upscale during high-traffic periods and reduce resources when demand slows.

Cost vs. Value

The value proposition becomes apparent when comparing Cloudways’ pricing to traditional shared or VPS hosting. While shared hosting plans may appear cheaper upfront, they often come with speed, scalability, and security limitations. With Cloudways, you’re essentially getting managed cloud hosting on top-tier providers like AWS and Google Cloud, which would typically require advanced technical knowledge if managed independently.

For example, DigitalOcean hosting on Cloudways costs $11 monthly, while AWS and Google Cloud plans begin at around $36. By comparison, the pricing of competitors such as WP Engine or Kinsta, which also offer managed hosting services, tends to be higher, often starting around $30-$35 per month for basic plans. Cloudways offers a lower entry price for many users while still providing managed features like backups, security patches, and performance optimizations.

While Cloudways’ pricing is competitive, users should be aware of additional bandwidth costs. Each provider has bandwidth pricing, which may lead to extra charges if your site experiences heavy traffic. However, these costs are transparently displayed and can be monitored directly from the Cloudways dashboard, so there are no hidden surprises.

Transparency

Cloudways excels in providing transparent pricing. From the outset, you can see exactly what you’ll be paying based on your chosen server resources, with no hidden fees or sudden upcharges. The pricing structure for each cloud provider is laid out, including specific details on storage, bandwidth, and the amount of RAM and CPU power each plan includes.

Upgrading or downgrading your plan is seamless within the Cloudways platform. You can scale server resources with just a few clicks, allowing you to respond to traffic spikes or reduce resources during quieter periods. This level of transparency and flexibility makes Cloudways an attractive option for users who want to avoid the rigid pricing structures of traditional hosting.

Additionally, Cloudways offers free trials without requiring a credit card, allowing users to test the platform before making any financial commitment. This further highlights their transparent, customer-focused approach.

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Support and Resources

A robust support system is critical when choosing a web hosting provider, especially for users needing to be more expert in server management. Cloudways recognizes this and offers a variety of support options and resources to ensure that users can resolve issues quickly and efficiently, whether through direct assistance or self-help resources.

Customer Support Options

Cloudways provides 24/7 customer support through live chat, email, and ticketing systems, ensuring that help is always available when you need it. One of the standout features is their live chat support, which connects you with knowledgeable agents within minutes. Users frequently report that responses are quick and detailed, helping to resolve most issues without escalating to a ticket.

For more complex problems, Cloudways’ ticketing system allows you to submit detailed inquiries, and their response times are generally impressive, often within hours. The support team is known for its responsiveness and ability to troubleshoot various hosting and server issues.

For premium users, Cloudways offers Advanced Support add-ons, which provide even faster response times and proactive support, such as server monitoring and priority issue resolution.

This comprehensive support infrastructure ensures that technical novices and more experienced users can get the help they need without delays.

Knowledge Base and Community

In addition to direct customer support, Cloudways offers extensive self-help resources. Their knowledge base is rich with articles, tutorials, and step-by-step guides that cover everything from basic server setup to advanced customization and optimization. Whether you’re trying to configure SSL, improve your site’s caching, or troubleshoot specific server issues, the knowledge base is a valuable resource that can often save you a support call.

The Cloudways blog is another excellent resource. It offers detailed articles on website performance, cloud hosting trends, security best practices, and more. It benefits developers and business owners who want to stay informed about the latest web hosting innovations.

Cloudways boasts an active forum for community-driven support where users can ask questions, share tips, and discuss best practices. The community is entirely engaged, and it serves as a valuable resource for those looking to learn from the real-world experiences of other Cloudways users.

Expert Help

For users who need more advanced help, Cloudways offers the Cloudways Expert Program. This program connects users with certified developers, designers, and cloud hosting professionals who can provide specialized assistance for your project or business needs. Whether you need help with a complex website migration, custom development work, or server optimization, these experts are vetted and skilled in working within the Cloudways environment.

This feature particularly benefits businesses or agencies needing more hands-on, expert-level assistance. Using the Expert Program, you can ensure that your web projects are handled by professionals who are well-versed in Cloudways’ tools and services, streamlining the process and delivering faster, more effective solutions.

In summary, Cloudways offers a robust combination of 24/7 support, extensive documentation, an active community, and access to expert-level assistance, making it an excellent choice for users of all experience levels who want comprehensive support options.

Cloudways Pros and Cons

No hosting platform is perfect, and while Cloudways offers an impressive array of features and flexibility, it’s essential to weigh the pros and cons to determine if it’s the right choice.

Cloudways Pros

Flexibility in Cloud Provider Choice: One of Cloudways’ standout features is the ability to choose from five leading cloud providers—AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode. This gives users various options depending on their performance, budget, and scalability needs.
Ease of Use: Despite offering advanced cloud hosting, Cloudways’ platform is easy to navigate, even for those needing to be more technical. The intuitive dashboard, one-click installations, and pre-configured settings allow users to start without a steep learning curve.
Performance and Reliability: Cloudways excels in speed and uptime. It offers built-in caching options like Varnish and Memcached and a global CDN (CloudwaysCDN). Performance testing shows fast server response times and reliable 99.99% uptime, making it a strong choice for businesses that need dependable hosting.
Scalable Pricing: Cloudways’ pay-as-you-go model offers flexibility for websites that experience fluctuating traffic or are looking to grow. You can easily adjust server resources without being locked into a fixed plan, allowing for better cost management.
Managed Hosting: The platform provides fully managed hosting with automatic backups, security updates, and server monitoring, saving users from the headache of server management.
Staging Environment: The built-in staging feature lets users safely test changes before going live, reducing the risk of breaking a live site during updates or plugin installations.

Cloudways Cons

No Domain Registration: Cloudways does not offer domain registration services, so you’ll need to purchase your domain through a separate registrar, which adds an extra step to the setup process.
No Native Email Hosting: While Cloudways does integrate with third-party email services like Rackspace or Elastic Email, it does not offer native email hosting as part of its core offering. This might be a drawback for users who prefer an all-in-one solution for their website and email.
Slight Learning Curve for Beginners: While the platform is intuitive, Cloudways might present a steeper learning curve for complete beginners unfamiliar with cloud hosting or server management. More tech-savvy users will appreciate the advanced control, but those new to hosting might take some time to get accustomed to the interface and settings.
Additional Costs for Bandwidth: While the base pricing is competitive, users should be aware of additional bandwidth usage costs, especially when hosting high-traffic sites. These costs vary depending on the cloud provider, so careful monitoring is essential.
Limited Support for Certain Applications: While Cloudways supports popular CMS platforms like WordPress and Magento, users of less common applications may need certain out-of-the-box features or support for niche systems.

In conclusion, while Cloudways provides a flexible, powerful hosting platform that caters to a wide range of users, some minor inconveniences—like the lack of domain registration or native email hosting—might be drawbacks for those seeking a more all-in-one hosting solution.

However, for users prioritizing performance, flexibility, and managed services, Cloudways is a solid choice.

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Personal Experience and Testing

Having tested various web hosting platforms over the years, I found Cloudways a refreshing option that balances performance, ease of use, and flexibility.

In this section, I’ll share my experience with Cloudways while working on a real-world project and compare it with other hosting platforms I’ve used.

My Experience with Cloudways

I used Cloudways to host a WordPress site for a client whose business was rapidly scaling and needed a more reliable solution than shared hosting. The setup process was surprisingly smooth. After signing up, I was guided through the server setup in just a few clicks. The one-click WordPress installation was beneficial, allowing me to get the site live in under 10 minutes.

In terms of performance, the site consistently demonstrated impressive load times—1.3 seconds on average, according to Pingdom testing, even with moderate traffic. The built-in caching tools like Varnish and Redis noticeably improved performance without needing third-party plugins, saving me time on optimizations.

When I needed help configuring SSL certificates and backups, I used the live chat support, and my experience was positive. The support team responded within minutes and walked me through the process. The 24/7 live chat support is one of Cloudways’ strong points, especially for users who might not be entirely comfortable with server management.

One challenge I encountered was Cloudways’ need for domain registration services. I had to purchase a domain separately from a registrar like GoDaddy, which added an extra step to the setup process. Also, the absence of native email hosting was inconvenient, but integrating Rackspace for email services was relatively straightforward.

Overall, Cloudways performed exceptionally well for this project. It offered the scalability and performance the client needed as their traffic grew while remaining cost-effective thanks to the pay-as-you-go pricing model.

Comparing Cloudways with Competitors

Having used other hosting platforms like SiteGround, Bluehost, and Kinsta, I can draw a few critical comparisons based on my experience:

Cloudways vs. SiteGround: SiteGround is known for its customer support and is a solid option for shared hosting. However, in terms of flexibility and performance, Cloudways pulls ahead. The ability to choose from multiple cloud providers like AWS and Google Cloud gives Cloudways a significant edge in terms of scalability. While SiteGround is more accessible for beginners, Cloudways offers more long-term value for growing businesses due to its advanced features and customization options.
Cloudways vs. Bluehost: Bluehost is a budget-friendly option for beginners, especially those hosting small websites or blogs. However, Bluehost can struggle with performance once a site grows, particularly during traffic spikes. On the other hand, Cloudways provides dedicated resources and performance optimizations that keep sites running smoothly even under load. Bluehost’s lack of managed services and cloud flexibility makes Cloudways the better choice for users looking for more power and control.
Cloudways vs. Kinsta: Kinsta, like Cloudways, focuses on managed cloud hosting with a premium experience, but it comes at a higher price point. Kinsta exclusively uses Google Cloud as its backend, whereas Cloudways allows users to choose from a broader range of cloud providers. While both offer excellent performance, Cloudways’ multi-cloud option and lower starting price give it an edge in flexibility and cost-effectiveness. However, Kinsta has a more streamlined, beginner-friendly interface, which may appeal to users looking for simplicity.

In conclusion, my experience with Cloudways has been overwhelmingly positive, particularly regarding performance, support, and the flexibility to choose from multiple cloud providers.

While competitors like SiteGround and Bluehost might be more suitable for beginners or smaller websites, Cloudways offers a superior solution for users who need scalable, reliable hosting with the convenience of managed services.

Ideal Users

Cloudways is an excellent choice for:

Growing Businesses and eCommerce Sites: If you run an eCommerce store or a high-traffic website, Cloudways provides the performance, scalability, and uptime you need to ensure your site stays fast and responsive, even during traffic spikes. The platform is optimized for WordPress, Magento, and WooCommerce, making it a top choice for online stores looking for reliable, high-performance hosting.
Agencies and Developers: Cloudways offers a wealth of tools developers, and digital agencies will appreciate, such as SSH and Git integration, staging environments, and flexible server control. The ability to manage multiple client websites on one platform, combined with scalable cloud infrastructure, makes Cloudways an ideal option for agencies handling various projects.
Tech-Savvy Entrepreneurs: For those with some technical background or a willingness to learn, Cloudways offers a great blend of flexibility and managed services. You can fine-tune your server settings and optimize performance without being a server admin. If you want the benefits of cloud hosting but don’t want to deal with its complexities, Cloudways handles the technical legwork while giving you the freedom to customize.
Businesses with Global Reach: Cloudways has access to multiple data centres worldwide, so businesses targeting international markets can benefit from faster content delivery to users, thanks to strategic server location choices and CloudwaysCDN integration.

Who Might Not Find It Suitable?

Cloudways might not be the best fit for:

Absolute Beginners: If you’re entirely new to web hosting and building websites, you might find Cloudways’ interface slightly overwhelming compared to traditional shared hosting platforms like Bluehost or HostGator. While Cloudways simplifies cloud hosting, the platform assumes users have some knowledge of hosting basics. A hosting provider with a more straightforward, hands-on approach to support and setup might be more suitable for beginners.
Small Blogs or Personal Websites: Cloudways is likely overkill for small, personal blogs or websites that don’t require extensive resources or high performance. Shared hosting from providers like SiteGround or Bluehost is typically a more cost-effective and straightforward solution for smaller sites that don’t expect to scale significantly.
Users Seeking All-in-One Services: Cloudways focuses exclusively on managed cloud hosting, which means that additional services like domain registration and email hosting are not included. Users looking for an all-in-one solution where domain registration, email, and hosting are bundled together may find platforms like GoDaddy or Hostinger more convenient.
Budget-Conscious Users: While Cloudways offers excellent value, its services-as-you-go pricing may be higher than basic shared hosting plans. More affordable shared hosting plans better fit those with tight budgets who don’t require advanced cloud infrastructure.

In summary, Cloudways is a powerful, flexible solution ideal for businesses, developers, and agencies that need performance and scalability. However, if you’re starting or need a more basic, cost-effective hosting option, you might want to explore simpler alternatives.

Final Verdict

Overall, Cloudways delivers a stellar combination of performance, flexibility, and user-friendliness, making it one of the top choices for businesses and developers seeking managed cloud hosting. The platform excels in critical areas such as speed, uptime, scalability, and support, allowing users to harness the power of leading cloud providers without being bogged down by technical complexities.

With its pay-as-you-go pricing model, Cloudways offers excellent value for those who want to avoid the rigid plans of traditional hosting services, providing a solution that can grow with your business.

While there may be a better fit for complete beginners or those looking for bundled services like domain registration or email hosting, for anyone needing a robust, high-performance hosting environment, Cloudways stands out as a flexible and reliable choice.

Rating:

Performance: 9.5/10
Value: 9/10
Support: 9/10
User Experience: 8.5/10

If you’re looking for a hosting platform that combines ease of use with the power of cloud infrastructure, I highly recommend Cloudways. Whether running a high-traffic website or looking for reliable managed cloud hosting, Cloudways offers a risk-free way to test their platform with a free trial—no credit card required.

Ready to experience hassle-free cloud hosting? Sign up for a free trial of Cloudways here and see the difference it can make for your website’s performance and scalability.