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Cloudways

Cloudways

Overview

What is Cloudways?

Cloudways, by DigitalOcean, offers a range of managed hosting solutions, including managed Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, and others, with a choice of infrastructure providers and media delivery via CloudwaysVPN, and CloudwaysBot notification system.

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Learn from top reviewers

Dependable and easy to understand hosting for Wordpress.

Rating: 10 out of 10
June 14, 2023
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
A client was using Pantheon hosting for their website; we needed an environment to support us with two aspects. 1) Scaling website resources to support seasonal spikes in co...
Continue reading
Naz Haque
Consultant - Other
Google Consultant
Congruent Marketing
Cloudways1 year of experience

A good abstraction over complex cloud server setups

Rating: 9 out of 10
February 10, 2021
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
We have used [Cloudways] to host our social media monitoring platform in PHP. It is probably used by whole organization as our company is small. What business problems does it...
Continue reading
Kaushik Somaiya
C-Level Executive - Information Technology
Owner
wporbit.net
Cloudways3 years of experience

Absolutely Hands Down THE Best

Rating: 10 out of 10
April 1, 2020
Vetted ReviewVerified User
I used Cloudways for my personal sites and soon realized my company needed to be using Cloudways. The platform has the richest feature set of any hosting provider and their sc...
Continue reading
Brandon Dith-Berry
Manager - Information Technology
Senior Information Technology Manager
Texas Pride Trailers
Cloudways1 year of experience

Cheap, flexible, and well-performing

Rating: 10 out of 10
February 19, 2020
Vetted ReviewVerified User
I use CloudWays to host our website. Server performance is good and the website UI is intuitive and really clear. It makes me feel way more in control over what I am doing. C...
Continue reading
Dario Pedroni
Professional - Other
Web Developer
Virtual Nordic
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Pricing

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Starting Price

$10.00

Cloud
per month

Maximum Price

$274.33

Cloud
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • $25 per application
    Optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.cloudways.com/en/pricing.php

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Details

What is Cloudways?

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting provider that emphasizes performance and simplicity. From the simple server and application launch to ongoing server maintenance, the vendor states Cloudways' service is designed to take away the hassles of server management so that the user can continue to focus on growing the business.

Cloudways offers a managed environment for ecommerce stores and business websites. The vendor states their core USP is choice - the choice of cloud providers (AWS, GCE, DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode) and multiple versions of popular applications (including four flavors of WordPress and two of Magento), the users can configure the Cloudways Platform to fit operational requirements and business processes.

Whether the user is an online store, an agency or a freelance developer with several clients, Cloudways offers a mix of features to help achieve more out of the managed cloud hosting solution for business websites and client projects.

Cloudways Features

  • Supported: 5 Cloud Providers
  • Supported: All PHP Apps Supported
  • Supported: 24/7 Expert Support
  • Supported: Managed Backups
  • Supported: Optimized Stack
  • Supported: Advanced Caching
  • Supported: Unlimited Applications
  • Supported: Managed Security
  • Supported: PHP 7 Ready Servers
  • Supported: Innovative Control Panel
  • Supported: CloudwaysBot
  • Supported: CloudwaysCDN

Cloudways Screenshots

Screenshot of Managed ServicesScreenshot of Team Management

Cloudways Video

Squarebird is the UK based Digital Marketing Agency. One of their biggest challenges was finding the best partners to work with, especially when it came to website hosting. Then, they found Cloudways! Cloudways helped streamline their processes and provided a flexible, simp...
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Cloudways Competitors

Cloudways Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesGlobal Availability
Supported LanguagesEnglish
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(19)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Cloudways has been widely praised by users for its ability to improve website performance and speed. Users have experienced faster load times on their websites, resulting in improved performance and enhanced user experiences. The product has been commended for its user-friendly interface, making it easy to launch and manage new services. It has also been lauded for its stability and security, providing better speed and protection compared to other hosting providers.

One of the key use cases of Cloudways is its ability to facilitate smooth website migrations, saving users significant hosting costs. Users have successfully migrated their websites to Cloudways, experiencing faster site speeds and improved manageability. The platform also allows for centralized hosting of multiple clients, providing the convenience of managing all client websites in one place.

Cloudways has been highly recommended by SEOs for its support system and mind-blowing speed. The product enables businesses, particularly e-commerce sites, to achieve super-fast speed and high Core Vitals scores, leading to increased sales and revenue. Additionally, Cloudways eliminates the need for a full-time IT specialist to manage VPS servers, resulting in significant cost savings for users.

Users have also found Cloudways effective for hosting WordPress sites, with easy setup of SSL certificates and improved site speeds. The platform offers features like website archiving, staging servers, and easy backups, enhancing scalability and performance. With Cloudways' reliable servers and 24/7 support, users no longer require an IT specialist and can focus on their core business activities.

Overall, Cloudways has proven to be a dependable solution for users seeking fast website loading times, improved performance, scalability, cost savings, and efficient management of multiple websites. Whether it's hosting e-commerce storefronts, social media monitoring platforms, or powering Google Servers, Cloudways offers a wide range of use cases that cater to the needs of businesses across various industries.

High-speed server options: Users appreciate the variety of high-speed server options offered by Cloudways, allowing them to choose the most suitable server for their website. Several reviewers have mentioned that these server options have significantly improved their site speed and reduced bounce rates.

Exceptional performance: The performance of Cloudways is highly regarded by users, with many stating that it has exceeded their expectations. They have noticed a significant increase in site open rates and a decrease in visitor loss after utilizing Cloudways' services. In real-life customer experience tests, users have seen improvements in site load times ranging from 80% to 120%.

Responsive customer support: Users value the responsive customer support provided by Cloudways. Many reviewers mention that their issues were resolved quickly and efficiently by the support team. They find the support team to be knowledgeable and ready to resolve any problems they encounter while using Cloudways hosting services.

Confusing User Interface: Many users have expressed frustration with the user interface of Cloudways, describing it as confusing and not beginner-friendly. This has made it challenging for them to navigate and perform tasks efficiently.

Complicated Setup Process: Several users have mentioned that they find the setup process of Cloudways to be complicated. They feel that the lack of options for email and domain configuration adds to the complexity, making it harder for them to get started.

High Pricing Plans: The pricing plans offered by Cloudways have received criticism from a number of users. They believe that compared to standard shared web hosting providers, the prices are higher than expected. Some users have even suggested the need for more affordable options to better align with their budgetary requirements.

Users have made several recommendations based on their experiences with Cloudways.

One common recommendation is to use CloudFlare as a CDN instead of Cloudways' built-in CDN. This is seen as a way to improve website load times and overall performance.

Cloudways receives high praise for its compatibility with WordPress. Users mention that it offers great speed and reliable customer service, making it an ideal choice for WordPress hosting.

Some users note the absence of an email service for clients provided by Cloudways. Additionally, clients who need server access are required to use sFTP instead of direct server access. Despite these limitations, users still view Cloudways as a fast and affordable hosting option.

Overall, users recommend Cloudways for those seeking fast and affordable hosting solutions. They suggest taking advantage of the 3-day trial to experience the platform firsthand. Users also highlight that Cloudways is suitable for small to mid-sized Drupal sites and is beginner-friendly for those new to dedicated servers. Additionally, users find value in Cloudways' superior resources and are willing to invest time in learning more about hosting administration to maximize its benefits.

Reviews

(1-4 of 4)
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Dependable and easy to understand hosting for Wordpress.

Rating: 10 out of 10
Incentivized
June 14, 2023
NH
Naz Haque
Google Consultant
Congruent Marketing (Marketing & Advertising, 1-10 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
Cloudways
1 year of experience
View profile
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
A client was using Pantheon hosting for their website; we needed an environment to support us with two aspects.

1) Scaling website resources to support seasonal spikes in concurrent users easily
2) Reliable uptime and consistent bandwidth and latency. I looked at a number of suppliers and tech stacks (cloud, VPS, shared hosting)etc.

Finally, I concluded Cloudways as the top choice as they would host the site with the vendor of our choice and provide us with an easy-to-use solution for management and scaling. The website is connected to native Android and ioS Apps, and there are a lot of API requests to sync with the apps. With all of this going on, Cloudways has been dependable and one less thing to worry about.
Pros and Cons
  • Server Management (visual intuitive tools)
  • Scaling Servers (through peaks and troughs)
  • Customer Service has been consistent and patient
Likelihood to Recommend
I'm very happy with the experience of Cloudways. Cloudways has helped us manage our needs, and the support team have been very thorough. They even helped with the migration of our site from Pantheon to Cloudways and the setup of our beta environment. We've always been easily able to scale up as and when needed, and their internal visualisation tool helps us easily understand when there are big loads on our server.

If you have a basic website with <1000 visitors per month, then you don't need them.

If you have apps or websites that process lots of actions, ec-commerce sites or deal with multiple concurrent users, then Cloudways is ideal.
Most Important Features
  • Easy rapid scaling
  • Cloud server management made easy
  • Easy to manage beta environment
Return on Investment
  • Increase in consistent uptime
  • Increase in speed optimisation
Alternatives Considered
Whilst all the top hosting companies have good customer service. Hostinger is the winner here for me.
SiteGround has fast servers, but fees increase significantly in year two.

CloudWays has excellent support at a lower price than SiteGround.

They win over the other two companies because they make it very simple to manage site hosting, specifically for VPS/cloud hosting.
You do not need to be as technical as you would if you're a customer of Hostinger and SiteGround.


So, in short, for a fast-growing website with 6k+ sessions per month (low WP maintenance experience), I'd choose Cloudways.
Other Software Used

A good abstraction over complex cloud server setups

Rating: 9 out of 10
Incentivized
February 10, 2021
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We have used [Cloudways] to host our social media monitoring platform in PHP. It is probably used by whole organization as our company is small.
What business problems does it address?
We needed a separate server since the social platform is very power consuming. That kind of power cannot be fulfilled by shared servers. And thus we need cloud servers. Cloudways was a good abstraction - it reduced the set up complexity of a cloud server. Everything was on a click.
Pros and Cons
  • Easy to set up
  • Inside user dashboard is amazing.
  • Live chat support is too handy.
Likelihood to Recommend
When you dont know how to set up a cloud server technically, (The LAMP stack or the PHP settings etc) Cloudways comes handy. You can easily modify the server settings with one click.

Less Appropriate - If you want to save costs, go for direct cloud providers. Setting up technical stuff is a one time job.
Return on Investment
  • We were able to reduce load on our main server.
  • By migrating social sentiment platform to cloudways, we were able to scale and run it effeciently.
  • It saved lot of time as well in terms of server management.
Alternatives Considered
VPS and dedicated hosting are costly, Therefore cloud hosting provides a cheaper way to own a powerful server, and IP is dedicated as well. Cloudways was the decision because:
1) Easy to set up without any linux commands we can set up the server
2) Live chat for technical help. (Excellent agents, they helped out of the scope issues too)

Other Software Used

Absolutely Hands Down THE Best

Rating: 10 out of 10
April 01, 2020
BD
Brandon Dith-Berry
Senior Information Technology Manager
Texas Pride Trailers (Transportation/Trucking/Railroad, 201-500 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
Cloudways
1 year of experience
View profile
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
I used Cloudways for my personal sites and soon realized my company needed to be using Cloudways. The platform has the richest feature set of any hosting provider and their scalability is unmatched with many affordable options. We are moving our sites to Cloudways, especially after GoDaddy's own support platform crashed and they were unable to help me. We were seeing incredibly slow server latency with GoDaddy and even their WHM & cPanel were lagging. This was using a dedicated server as well. They solved our issue of server latency, backups, CDN, etc.
Pros and Cons
  • Automatic Daily One Click Restore Backups
  • Integrated CDN
  • Easy & Intuitive Alternate Interface to cPanel and WHM
  • Very Affordable for High Specs
  • 24/7 Customer Support is Extremely Helpful
  • Serve & Application Management is a Breeze
  • Choose from Multiple Server Locations
Likelihood to Recommend
I would not hesitate to tell others to join Cloudways.
Return on Investment
  • Massive ROI compared to Go Daddy's Server
Alternatives Considered
I've used some of the major hosting providers including GoDaddy, Bluehost, and Siteground but none of them have been as easy to maintain and deploy as Cloudways. The Cloudways interface is easy on the eyes. Tools are easier to find compared to the other hosting provider's dashboard. Not having to use WHM and cPanel is a relief.
Support Rating
10
They answer quick and always help solve my problems. Their documentation is also robust.
Other Software Used

Cheap, flexible, and well-performing

Rating: 10 out of 10
February 19, 2020
DP
Dario Pedroni
Web Developer
Virtual Nordic (Information Technology & Services, 1-10 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
I use CloudWays to host our website. Server performance is good and the website UI is intuitive and really clear.
It makes me feel way more in control over what I am doing. Chat support is educated, fast, and helpful. I have made some configuration and payment mistakes in the past and they always helped me.
Pros and Cons
  • Good control panel interface with many settings.
  • Simple payment method.
Likelihood to Recommend
In my scenario (a WordPress website with WooCommerce on it) the website is always responsive and easy to navigate. It is using custom fonts and more than 10 shop products that are loading fast.
Alternatives Considered
I liked Cloudways more than other websites due to its simplicity and how clear their website was (and still is).
It is the first server hosting platform I ever used.
Support Rating
10
Technical support is just 2-3 clicks away and the Cloudways homepage and the operators are available almost 24/7. They also are able to answer any kind of question related to their services, whether economical or technical. I sometimes made mistakes while using their services and they have been keen to help me, and fixed my problems really fast.
Other Software Used
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