Cloudways Review: Is it a Reliable Web Hosting for Your Website?

A quality web hosting is crucial for your blog or e-commerce business. In this Cloudways review, we have explained if Cloudways makes a good option for you. Are you looking for a reliable, managed web hosting? Are you fed up with the sub-par service current market leaders provide? Cloudways could be the solution you’ve been waiting for. This Cloudways review will explore the hosting service in detail and leave no stone unturned. On the surface, this web hosting service seems to have the right balance of efficiency and affordability, which is rare to find these days. But is it really going to make any difference, especially if you’re migrating from another hosting platform? Most Cloudways hosting reviews only look at the most basic things. We want to dig deeper and analyze everything, including how you can set up a server, migrate a website, manage it, etc. We also want to explore the infrastructure this hosting service is based on and what makes it different from others. Started in 2011, Cloudways is based in the tiny country of Malta in the Meditteranean. However, it’s garnering popularity all over the world. Their hosting solutions cover a variety of hosting needs, including managed WordPress, managed cloud hosting, and PHP app hosting. One of the highlights of Cloudways is that you can choose the cloud hosting provider. This list contains five of the best cloud hosting platforms in the world right now. There are plenty of other key features that give this particular hosting company quite a leverage over other popular platforms. Cloudways does not offer shared hosting, but that could be a possibility in the future. With servers located across seven countries and major technological hubs of the world, it’s fair to say that the company has a solid infrastructure. In this Cloudways review, we’ll look into that as well to determine how it affects the speed and performance.

Cloudways Review: A Detailed Analysis of the Hosting Services

Cloudways offers a free trial for its hosting services, so you can experience their service for yourself and see if it fits the bill. To use the free trial, you will need your full name and an email address. The Cloudways Bot guides you all along, which would make things even easier for you. We used this free trial to do all of this for you. From creating a server to testing the performance of the website, we looked into everything. From the get-go, Cloudways will feel a lot different from the traditional managed hosting platforms. The main differentiating factor of Cloudways is that it does not have its physical hardware (servers). Also, unlike other platforms, they do not restrict you by using someone else’s hardware. Well, they do use someone else’s, but you get to choose who that someone will be. Speaking in technical terms, Cloudways lets you choose which cloud hosting server provider you want. The good thing is there are plenty of choices, five to be exact. Aside from this major control you get, you also get to control the resources you receive from the provider you ultimately choose.

The Five Cloud Server Providers

Cloudways uses five of the best cloud server providers in the world:

1. Digital Ocean
2. Amazon Web Services (AWS)
3. Google Cloud Platform
4. Vultr
5. Linode

No one but Cloudways is providing this type of freedom, that gives the control in your hand from the beginning. As a customer, you can choose the cloud hosting provider you already use or know about. Since Cloudways does not even host your website on its own servers, this begs the question of why not just use the hosting service provider directly? Well, for starters, you can do something like that, but it would not be the same. Think of Cloudways as the middleman that helps you make sense of it all. On its own, for instance, AWS may be too raw of a hosting provider for you. Cloudways help configure all the stuff on the server level while providing a user-friendly interface. If you’re a rookie, you can forget about setting up and maintaining a cloud hosting space on your own. Let’s be honest, it might be too technical for you and will take you a lot of time to learn and understand how things work. With an environment like Cloudways, all that learning curve gets eliminated. Many cloud hosting platforms that provide managed hosting services using a third-party server usually rely on a single infrastructure. Here, you get to choose from five different options. Let’s look at each of them individually:  

1 Digital Ocean

Digital Ocean is a relatively new name in the world of web hosting, but it’s quickly climbing ranks. The cloud infrastructure is considered as more developer-friendly. The biggest advantage of the Digital Ocean is that it’s one of the most affordable options.

Digital Ocean’s servers are located in Singapore, Banglore, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, Toronto, New York, and San Francisco. With a reliable infrastructure, it’s able to offer cheap bandwidth.

2 Linode

Linode is not as expensive but not the cheapest either; it’s more in the mid-range price. They also offer cheap bandwidth. However, scaling up is a little slower as compared with AWS or Google Cloud.

This company also has a reliable infrastructure with eight locations, including four for each region of the US. The other four are in the usual tech hotspots like Tokyo, Singapore, Frankfurt, and London.

3 Vultr

Vultr is the newest of the five cloud hosting providers that Cloudways uses. It’s also cheaper than both Google and Amazon’s cloud hosting.

For a new company, they have managed to have 12 locations worldwide. Most of these locations are in the US, in New York, Chicago, Miami, Silicon Valley, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Other locations include Sydney, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and London.

4 Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS hardly needs an introduction, as its cloud hosting is one of the most popular in the world right now. With great infrastructure, easy scaling, and quick backup, AWS provides a reliable cloud hosting environment for time-sensitive and heavy traffic websites.

AWS is one of the best web hosting providers as far as their infrastructure is concerned. With 14 different locations spread across different regions, it has the most locations than any of the web hosting providers.

5 Google Cloud Platform

Google Cloud Platform is really popular with cloud hosting solutions like Cloudways that rely on other company’s infrastructure. Again, a relatively new player, but one with a good track record. Also, the prices are lower as compared with Amazon.

If you’re an environment-conscious individual or company, you should know that Google Cloud relies on 100% renewable energy, with zero emissions.

How Does Cloudways Work?

No best web hosting review can be complete without actually using it and testing it. In this Cloudways review, we have tried to do the same. From application installation to the website going live, each step will determine whether Cloudways is even worth your money. The very premise of this cloud hosting platform is flexibility and ease. The only way to confirm that is to see how it works. We did exactly that by creating a WordPress website.

Launching Server

The setup process of Cloudways is one of the easiest and quickest we have encountered. Before you do anything, you have to understand two things. First, decide what server in terms of resources and the provider you want to use. Secondly, the application you want to employ, i.e., WordPress, Joomla, WooCommerce, etc. There is enough flexibility for you to run multiple applications on a single server. That said, the server should have ample resources to handle all those applications. So your first step is to install WordPress. You can go for Naked WordPress, WordPress Multisite, or WordPress with WooCommerce. With one-click installation, there’s really not much to do on your part. Now, you have to choose the server. We went with the basic free trial server from Digital Ocean, which offers 2 GB RAM. Remember, you can always upgrade to a bigger server later on. So it might be better to start off with something basic, just to get the sense of the platform at first. You get to choose the size and even the location of your server. Once you have set these configurations, you can see the price at the bottom, in both hourly and monthly rates. Next to these rates is the ‘Launch Now’ button. As soon as you click on Launch Now, Cloudways starts installing the application and setting up the server. This could take a while, and finally, you’ll be able to move to your website. So to launch your server, it only takes minutes, which is pretty impressive.

Creating a Website

You will find Cloudways a bit different, mainly because there’s no traditional cPanel or Plesk. Rather, Cloudways has its own custom control panel that can be a little daunting at first. However, as you will start using it more, you’ll find it to have a nice flow and navigation. The control panel is mostly for managing the server. With just a few clicks, you can proceed to set up the pages of your application. On the WordPress page, there are almost all the necessary tools you need to set up the website. Here we found a screen to set up the domain. Now, Cloudways does not offer domain registration. However, it makes up for it by offering temporary URLs for the admin panel and the website. You can add the domain later when you have bought one. Also, we found SSL installation for installing Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate to the WordPress website. After allocating a temporary URL, we proceeded to the WordPress Dashboard. From here on, everything is standard, as you would find on other platforms for WordPress hosting.

Site Migration

If you already have a website and have it hosted somewhere else, you can migrate it to Cloudways for free. You can move an unlimited number of websites. For WordPress, you can use the Cloudways WordPress Migrator Plugin. This plugin is available at WordPress.org and is super convenient. You just need to provide the SFTP details from the account you just set up on Cloudways. The rest of the job is for the plugin. As is typical with site migration, the time it takes depends on the amount of data that’s migrating. However, a small WordPress website should not take longer than four hours to move to Cloudways. You can use the same plugin to migrate a WooCommerce website or WordPress Multisite.

Application Management Dashboard

If you want to manage your website, simply click on the specific website, and it will take you to the Application Management Dashboard. This dashboard is pretty neat, with lots of functions for you to control and make changes to the application. We have already talked about SSL Certificate and Domain Management. Those options are here as well. Other than that, you have Access Details. Here you can find the FTP and MySQL credentials. Here you can also find the Restore option that allows you to restore your website from an automatic backup. For developers, there’s the Deployment via Git and Cron Job Management features. CloudwaysCDN is also available under the Application Management Dashboard. You can set up a dedicated CDN to make your website even faster. For this, you have to pay, but Cloudways offers cheap rates starting at just $1.

Server Management

With Cloudways, you also have another interface for managing your server. It’s similar to how you manage the applications. Each server has its own configurations, and you can have as many as you need.   Another great thing is that you’re not restricted to one server provider. For instance, if you bought a server from Google Cloud, you can also get a server from Amazon or any of the other three server providers. This portal is more developer-centric, so they can make low-level changes to the servers. The one feature you’ll encounter most commonly is vertical scaling. As the traffic and data needs of your website grow, you’ll need to increase resources for the server. You can alter store limits, increase RAM, and add more cores. While scaling up is fairly simple, scaling down may require cloning. Also, with some server providers scaling down is not an option. That said, you’ll rarely need to scale down, provided you have opted for the right plan for your websites. The whole process of scaling up just takes a few clicks. The server management interface also has the Backups tab. This is where you can manage the backups and configure them to your needs. You can always change when the backups happen. You can also initiate an on-demand backup through this tab. Again, it’s pretty easy, and even a non-developer person can do these things. With the SMTP tab, you can configure the SMTP server. If you’re sending transactional emails, then you will have to set this up. It gives you several options, including Mailgun, Mandrill, AuthSMTP, and SendGrid. You can use the Server Management interface for monitoring the server. All the metrics for gauging the performance of the server are available here. Even though Cloudways monitors and sends updates, you can view all the analytics on this tab.

Team Management

You can use Cloudways Team features to set up a team framework. Using this feature, you can grant access to the server or applications to your team members. It’s fairly simple, and great for businesses using a team to manage their online presence. You can grant access to specific servers or applications to other members on your team. Full access gives full access to the console, except for the team module, which only you as an admin can access.

Cloning/Staging a Site

If you’re using WordPress, or any other application for that matter, staging a site can come in very handy when applying major upgrades or adding plugins. Staging or cloning basically creates a copy of the website, which can be used for testing. This ensures that your website is live at all times, and any changes causing problems do not affect it. To create a staging website, click on the orange floating action button. Once you click, you’ll see the option ‘Clone App/Create Staging.’ From there on, it’s quite simple staging your website. You can choose the server you want to clone the website on. Once on the server, it’ll just be like your live website. When you toggle to the Applications Management dashboard, you will see the website marked as staging. Now, you can apply the changes or plugins to the staging website. Transferring the changes from staging to live website is also simple and takes just a few clicks. The Staging Management portal has all these options. What’s great about Cloudways Staging Websites is that it allows you to choose exactly what you want to push live. You can push live only the files, only the databases, or both. When you’re doing this, it also gives an option to backup the website automatically. Similarly, you can push data from live websites to the staging websites.

Performance

Measuring the performance of a web hosting provider relies on so many factors. However, with Cloudways, it gets even more complicated. As with almost everything on Cloudways, speed and performance also depend on the cloud server hosting provider you have chosen. The good news is that Cloudways’ performance is one of the best we have seen. During our testing, the uptime was 100%. Also, the loading speeds are quite impressive, ranged between 300-600 milliseconds. That’s almost 50% faster than what you would normally get from shared hosting. Uptimes are usually high for such small testing phases. However, if you look around, most people indicate similar uptimes in their Cloudways reviews. This is mainly because of the high-quality servers Cloudways is relying upon. When setting up the website, you can choose the location of your server, in some case, even the city where it’s located. You can choose a server that’s near you and your market to make speed and performance better from the get-go. Keep in mind that, in the end, the performance really depends on the provider you have chosen and the resources you have allocated. So one performance test might not be too general to give a verdict about all service providers. Nevertheless, the uptime would hardly ever be lower than 99.99%.

Security

Cloudways security is impressive, to say the least. In an ever-changing world of the internet, security is an important consideration for any business or person creating a website. With a dedicated firewall, Cloudways protects the world’s largest CMS from cyber attacks. When you set up your website, you get free Let’s Encrypt SSL Certification. This certification is imperative for security and also improving the ranking of your website on SERPs. Without SSL encryption, your website is susceptible to attacks and data theft. In addition to the essential SSL, you also get free managed backups. This feature allows you to restore your website to an earlier version. These backups prove very useful when you have technical problems with your website, and reduce downtime. The backup process takes just a few minutes, and you have your website again, with all the data and files intact. You can control everything in the Backups tab, for instance, how long to retain backups and when to create new ones. You can also instantly create a backup whenever you want, using the On-Demand Backup option. Lastly, Cloudways also employs Two-Factor Authentication to make access to the admin account and control panel even more secure. This way, only you can log in and manage the website. Even if you want to give access to someone else in your company or team, you can safely do so. The platform allows you to grant access to a particular server or application to a certain member.

Add-ons

Cloudways offers Add-ons that can make your overall cloud hosting even better. With Email add-ons and other utility add-ons, Cloudways is able to balance out some of its drawbacks, which we will discuss later. Some of these, like the Gmail SMTP, are free, while others cost additional money.  

Developer Features

There are plenty of features for developers, with several PHP frameworks available. They can also work with PHP 7. With Git repository tab, developers can set up deployment, and ultimately deploy an unlimited number of applications. For scripting operations, you have the RESTful API. A script could do a bunch of operations that otherwise you would do manually. Also, an API background can help you test scripts. The team management support is also targeted at developers. This way, developers, testers, and QA members of the team can have access to the servers and applications. It makes collaboration between developers as seamless as possible. As an admin, you can also set team members as inactive when they are no longer working on the project. Developers also have command line access by SSH. However, they do not have root access. The staging site can help developers make new changes in a test environment before deploying them. This makes rolling out new upgrades and changes a lot safer.

Support

Support is a vital consideration when it comes to web hosting. You know how they say everyone needs help sometimes, that applies to the most tech-savvy people too. You can need help from the support staff anytime to ensure your website runs smoothly. Fortunately, Cloudways offers 24/7 customer support. When we say 24/7, it really is round the clock. The best part is that the customer support comes with all the plans as a standard feature. You do not have to splurge more just to get an agent to help you. The customer support channels include live chat and ticket system. You can also request a call or dial customer support yourself to speak to a representative. You will find ‘Need a hand?’ tab on the right side of the screen. This will layout all the Help Center options. The Knowledge Base section of the website contains a lot of useful information divided by categories. You can find a bunch of FAQs, where you might find the answer to your question instantly. There are hundreds of tutorials and articles to help you get started on Cloudways. If you’re migrating a website, you can browse from the many articles for specific web hosting platforms. For instance, if you have your website on Bluehost, you can find information about moving your website from there to Cloudways. There is a Cloudways forum as well for users to have discussions. Forums like that are not always helpful, but it can be a good place to gauge what problems existing customers might be facing.

Cloudways Pricing

Cloudways pricing is not as straightforward as you would normally find with web hosting providers. Since Cloudways offers multiple cloud server providers, the plans and prices vary for each service provider. As a result, there are quite a lot of plans for you to choose from. Every plan’s price may vary depending on the data center you have chosen and also the resources you will use. The price goes up and down as you add or remove resources. Come to think of it, the pricing strategy is not that complicated after all. To make things easier, you can choose from one of the plans that Cloudways has designed for each cloud hosting provider. Digital Ocean plans are the cheapest of all. The cheapest plan offers 1 GB RAM, 25 GB storage, 1 core, and 1 TB bandwidth, for $10 per month. On the other end of the price spectrum is AWS. The basic plan using AWS servers will cost you $36.51 per month. This plan includes 1.75 GB RAM, 20 GB storage, 1 core, and 2 GB bandwidth. For higher resources plans, the prices are higher; however, still quite decent. For Linode, the high-end plan includes 8GB RAM, 160 GB storage, 4 cores, and 5 TB bandwidth, for $90 per month. Although these prices are quoted in monthly rates, you’re actually billed by the hour. This hourly rate depends on the resources you use every hour. This type of payment setup is groundbreaking because it can eventually save you money and give you the opportunity to test scaling up. Cloudways offer a free trial without even asking for credit card information, but you get a very basic version of the server. Nevertheless, you can get a sense of what it can do for your website hosting. The company accepts all major debit and credit cards, as well as PayPal. You can use a Cloudways coupon to get a discount on your chosen plan.

Benefits of Cloudways Hosting

Now that you have read in detail the Cloudways review, you can understand that this platform offers quite a lot of benefits that are either unavailable or too expensive on other platforms. Here are the many benefits of using cloud server hosting at Cloudways:

1. Freedom and Control

The main distinguishing aspect of cloud hosting at Cloudways is that it offers a lot of control. You get to choose the server provider you want, that too, from a list of reliable names. As a result, you’re in the driver seat from the moment you decide to host your website on this platform. You can upscale anytime you like without needing to pay outrageous costs. Cloudways makes scaling up or down seamless, as it charges depending on the resources you use. With such a setup, you can run your business with peace of mind.

2. Free Migration

If you’re already hosting your website on another web hosting platform, you can move the website on Cloudways for free. Not only does it offer free migration, but it also provides a lot of material in the help and resources section to make the process easier. No matter what plan you have chosen, there will be no additional charges for migrating the website. Those who are moving a WordPress website can use the special plugin, designed to make migration for WP websites seamless.

3. Unrivaled Performance

The performance Cloudways delivers gives the best of cloud hosting providers a run for their money. If Cloudways hosting reviews are anything to go by, the uptime is nearly 100%, and loading time is under one second. The whole infrastructure of the server providers delivers blazingly fast speeds. As a result, your website performs effortlessly, and there’s virtually no downtime unless you’re scaling up or down on certain hosting providers. There is no arbitrary traffic on the servers, so the performance is uniform. You can run tests yourself and check the rankings; you’ll be impressed.

4. Great Value

While there are more affordable options for cloud hosting out there, Cloudways still manages to deliver great value for money. This is mainly because their plans are quite flexible and billed on an hourly rate. It’s simple: you pay for what you have used. There are no hidden charges, and some of the essential features come with all the plans. This includes SSL certification, 24/7 customer support, and dedicated firewalls. Since there are multiple server providers onboard, you have a variety in terms of pricing too. Even if you’re on a tight budget, you can find a plan that meets your requirements and does not burn a hole in your pocket. For those who do not have budget restrictions, there are all sorts of features and add-ons to explore.

5. Real-time Monitoring

With Cloudways, you get 24/7 website monitoring. No matter what server your data is on or what plan you have opted for, your website gets monitored at all times. This helps keep things on an up and up, so you know your website is running smoothly. The Cloudways Bot, monitoring the website, sends updates in real-time by email or text message. You can also integrate the platform with Slack or other such third-party applications. The Relic integration feature makes resolving issues even easier. You get over 16 metrics on the console to monitor the performance of your website. Based on these analytical metrics, you can improve your website’s performance. These metrics can help you resolve smaller issues before they even begin to cause trouble.

6. Team Collaboration

While some people may not think of it as a big advantage, Cloudways makes team collaboration a breeze. This is the age of collaboration, and many businesses rely on different people that may not even be at one geographical location. You have unlimited staging areas, automatic git deployment, and secure SFTP/SSH access to make collaboration a possibility even before the website goes live. You can also control who can access which server or applications on the control panel.

7. Great Customer Support

Last but not least, Cloudways customer support is just as reliable as it’s other aspects. With a round the clock support included for all plans, the company knows how to treat its customers. Plus, there is a lot of study material present online to help get started or find solutions to common problems. Although this Cloudways review shows that it is targeted towards developers, Cloudways has made sure to reduce the learning curve for beginners. After all, the whole point of Cloudways is to make cloud hosting as simple as possible.

Cons of Cloudways Hosting

All in all, Cloudways cloud hosting proves to be a reliable cloud hosting environment, with lots of useful features and tools. However, there are some areas where it can use some improvement.

1. Lacks Domain Registration

Domain registration is almost a given with web hosting plans. Most web hosting providers give free domain with their web hosting plans. Cloudways does not offer a free domain or even paid for that matter. Domain name registration is not difficult or expensive, so one can do without this on the table. However, for a newbie creating their first website, this would be extra work and a hassle. They would have to buy a domain separately. This is something that they could easily include in their plans to make things a bit more easier and cohesive. Rather than going to another seller, one could get the domain name from the cloud hosting provider.

2. Lacks Email Hosting

The plans on Cloudways do not include email hosting, which is a necessity for most businesses. Instead, you have to pay for every email account. This can add unnecessary amounts to your bill that other hosting websites usually include in their plan prices. Email services are available as an add-on. The G-mail SMTP add-on is free, but you may have to pay for others. Cloudways can make their plans more inclusive by including email hosting options catering to small as well as large businesses.

3. Takes Time Getting Used to

Even if you had owned websites before and used web hosting providers, you would find Cloudways to be a little different. This difference is its uniqueness and what makes it relatively better than other cloud hosting platforms. However, it can take some time to get used to it, especially the console.

4. Restricted to Applications

If you want to build your website on one of the common CMS like WordPress or Joomla, then you can use Cloudways. However, if you’re building the website from scratch using languages like JavaScript, Python, or Ruby, then this cloud hosting solution is not for you. Also, it does not give root access, which some people prefer to have.

Cloudways Comparison

If this Cloudways review is not enough for you, perhaps you’ll be better able to decide if it’s a good fit for you after comparing it with other cloud hosting platforms and web hosting providers. Cloud hosting is becoming a preferred choice for small and enterprise-level businesses alike, so there’s a lot of offerings on the market. If you’re a small blog or business, you might be thinking of sticking to the usual shared hosting service. We’re comparing Cloudways with both cloud hosting providers and shared hosting providers, giving you a better idea about where it stands. After Cloudways review, the comparison is the best way to rate its capabilities.

Cloudways vs. Kinsta

Kinsta is another popular managed cloud hosting provider for WordPress. So if there’s any other platform to compare Cloudways WordPress hosting plans with, it’s Kinsta. If we compare prices, Cloudways is cheaper than Kinsta. The cheapest plan on Cloudways is $10 per month, whereas the cheapest plan on Kinsta is $30. In terms of the resources you get for this price, there’s not much of a difference. It’s safe to say that Cloudways is much cheaper. When comparing cloud hosting, the number one differentiating aspect is speed. Both of these platforms use cutting-edge technology such as caches like Nginx and PHP 7 to offer impressive loading speeds for the websites. On average, Cloudways reviews show loading speeds of less than a second. However, Kinsta is not far off, but it’s not under a second. Cloudways manages to provide the speed it promises, at a price that’s lower than that of Kinsta. Kinsta offers one of the best managed WordPress hosting on the market. If you’re interested in a hosting provider that’s absolutely optimized for WordPress, then Kinsta would be it. Nevertheless, the convenience Cloudways provides for WordPress hosting is comparable. There’s no clear winner in this category. One area where Kinsta has the edge over Cloudways is backup. On MyKinsta dashboard, backups are available as downloadable files. They also offer additional paid backup plans that make backups every hour or every six hours. While Cloudways offers a free three-day trial, Kinsta does not. But it does offer a money-back guarantee for 30 days.

Cloudways vs. SiteGround

If you compare Cloudways with Siteground, it will not take you long to see the strengths of the former. The Pay as you Use pricing format makes Cloudways much more cost-effective. Initially, SiteGround is cheaper, but you have to sign up for one to three years. SiteGround also has its own control panel, similar to cPanel. It also uses Let’s Encrypt SSL certification. You can find developer features with its GoGeek plans. So there are similarities as well between the two providers. SiteGround’s shared hosting plans deliver great speed for a shared hosting plan. However, Cloudways is much faster, as it’s cloud-based and uses caching. One thing to note here is that Google now uses site loading times as one of the measures to rank websites. So if you want high speeds, Cloudways is the right choice. SiteGround does provide email hosting, which Cloudways does not. However, you can use an add on for email on Cloudways. All in all, SiteGround itself is a great shared hosting provider, but it cannot provide some of the benefits you can get from Cloudways. The major drawback of SiteGround is limited computing power. As the Cloudways review shows, you can easily increase computing power as and when you need it. That allows the cloud hosting provider to be much more flexible in allocating resources. Lastly, both platforms offer great customer service. Cloudways reviews indicate that customers are generally happy with their support services. The same is the case for SiteGround, which also provides customer-centric support services and online information.

Who is it For?

Just because something is good does not make it the right fit for you. Cloudways has many strengths that could give a business the right trajectory towards growth. However, you still have to figure if it meets your requirements and delivers your end-goals. Even if you do decide to use Cloudways, the decision making is not complete. You have to figure out which hosting provider to choose and which plan to go for. This means you have to take into account your storage needs, potential traffic, and budget. Cloudways supports many of the most commonly used applications and CMS, including Drupal, Joomla, Magento, and WordPress. The WordPress Managed Hosting plans are perfect for bloggers of all kinds. It’s quickly gaining popularity for its built-in advanced caches that make high speeds a reality. If you want to create an online store, you could go for their WooCommerce Hosting plans. These are geared towards online stores and deliver the performance that could make your e-commerce business take off. Cloudways offers a wide range of hosting solutions that cater to almost every kind of business. The quality and performance are delivered for all the plans. So there is no single type of hosting that could qualify as the best on Cloudways. Some plans are quite cheap, so even those startups or individuals on a shoestring budget can find something for their business. However, this is a cloud hosting platform, so you would not find any shared hosting plans. If you have a website that does not get a lot of traffic, perhaps you could go for a shared hosting plan elsewhere with even cheaper rates.

Cloudways FAQs

What types of hosting plans are available on Cloudways?

Cloudways is a cloud hosting platform, so as far as the type of hosting is concerned, there’s only one kind: managed cloud hosting. However, there are many different plans with varying resources. Prices depend on the plan you choose, and ultimately the resources that you allocate. Some of the services are available with all the plans. All you need to figure out is the size of the resources you need, like RAM, storage, and bandwidth. Also, the plans are divided by the five web hosting providers. Nevertheless, there’s plenty of variety for all types and sizes of businesses.

Does Cloudways charge yearly or monthly?

One of the key benefits of using Cloudways is that it does not charge you for the whole year upfront. You pay on a monthly basis, but really you are charged by the hour. You can see the rates of the plan in both monthly and hourly rates. The plan prices cover server fees and hosting management fees. You may have to pay more for server configuration and any extra resources or applications you use. This way, there’s more flexibility, and you can manage your budget easily. If you’re more comfortable with a yearly budget, you can put the whole yearly amount in your account. However, you will continue to be charged by the hour and or by the month.

What is Vertical Scaling in the Server Management tab?

Vertical scaling allows you to increase or decrease resources on the server, as per the needs of your website. Cloudways makes scaling up or down pretty quick and easy. With just a few steps, you will be able to allocate resources that can handle the growing traffic on your website. Similarly, if you think your website does not need resources that come with your plan and want to scale down, you can use the same Vertical Scaling to reduce resources. However, that option is only available for plans with AWS or Google Cloud.

Is Cloudways a good option for an app developer?

Yes, Cloudways can work great with any application and already supports thousands of them. As an app developer, having a managed cloud hosting plan in place would make things faster. You will have more time on your hands to work on developing. There are many useful features that can help you as a developer. This includes Git deployment and cloning of the server or app. Some people say that Cloudways is geared towards developers. However, it’s easy enough for those without programming skills.

What is Auto-Healing?

Auto-Healing is a great feature that comes with all the plans on Cloudways. This feature identifies and resolves problems with your website. As a result, your website will hardly ever crash as any problem will be nipped in the bud. Cloudways is able to offer this feature, thanks to its constant server and website monitoring. You get all the data regarding server resources, as well as application resources. Furthermore, you get regular updates and notifications about the performance of the server and your website. If you have a team, you can configure the CloudwaysBot to send notifications and updates to your team members. The whole process is very swift and helps businesses ensure there’s no downtime for their website.

Is Cloudways suitable for WordPress hosting?

Cloudways Managed WordPress hosting plans are some of the most popular on this platform. With these plans, you can get high speeds, great uptime, and stellar security. You get an unlimited WP installation, unlimited number of staged URLs, and pre-installed WP-CLI. While the features and resources you get with a Cloudways WP hosting are great, it’s a little costlier than some of the other popular options on the market. For bloggers that do not get a lot of traffic, even a shared hosting plan might work. That said, if you want to take advantage of the performance of cloud hosting, Cloudways could be a great fit.

Can I use Cloudways for My E-Commerce Website?

Cloudways offers several plans that are targeted at online stores. Many e-commerce businesses are already taking advantage of the blazingly fast speed their server provides. A slow website can essentially kill your online store. Cloudways also has some of the most popular platforms for e-commerce. These include Magento, WooCommerce, and PrestaShop. WooCommerce is the easiest and one of the cheapest platforms to use on Cloudways. You can find many favorable Cloudways reviews that indicate that the hosting services are pretty good for online stores. With one-click installation, it’s pretty easy and quick to set up your store. Even if you have it already on another hosting provider, you can migrate the website for free. The same is the case for Magento, where you can use a handful of useful tools and get the conversions you need to grow your business.

How to choose a Managed Hosting Provider?

If you have decided to take the managed hosting route for your website, there are a few things to keep in mind. While managed hosting makes it easier for you to configure your server and set up the website, it’s not without its challenges. A quality hosting provider can make all the difference. Your first consideration is the resources your website will use, like RAM, storage, and computing power. The hosting provider should offer the resources you need, ideally at an affordable price. Also, you want to make sure they have the technical capabilities to ensure reliable performance and unbreakable security. When it comes to hosting, scaling flexibility often gets ignored. You want to sign up for a managed hosting provider that makes it easy for you to grow and accommodate more visitors. All these qualities that make a good managed hosting provider are present in Cloudways plans.

Why Not Use CloudWays Providers Directly?

You can use one of the cloud providers that Cloudways uses directly. It may even be cheaper to host your website directly on the cloud server provider. However, you will have to set up the server and do all the configuration tasks yourself. This could be complicated for someone who does not program. Cloudways acts as a middleman managing all this stuff for you. This significantly cuts time and makes it easier for you to deploy your website. You get to use the servers of some of the best companies, but with Cloudways doing half the work for you.

Verdict

As this Cloudways review indicates, this cloud hosting provider offers freedom, flexibility, and reliability, at prices that are fairly decent. For those who want the fast performance of cloud servers, this could be a viable option. Cloudways has managed to use some of the best server providers, while also bridging the gap between server management and application management. Even a beginner can use the interface of this platform to set up the server. On the other hand, developers also have some room to play around. We would recommend Cloudways to any blogger, online store, or other types of businesses, on account of the features on the platform and reliable customer support. However, the most convincing thing about Cloudways is its billing. Pay for what you use is a much-needed billing method in the world of web hosting. You can check out other managed cloud hosting reviews to compare what Cloudways is offering. Most cloud hosting plans charge annually or monthly, never by the hour, unlike Cloudways.