In this Cloudways hosting review, you will discover the pros and cons of choosing Cloudways as your hosting provider.
You will also learn how to use certain features available on the Cloudways hosting platform.
Finally, you will get in-depth answers to most of the frequently asked questions about Cloudways hosting in this review.
Most importantly, you would be able to decide whether Cloudways will be a good fit for you or otherwise.
Obviously, aside from your prospective website address or domain name, there is one service you cannot avoid: web hosting.
Choosing web hosting for your website is really essential to the success of your website to a very large extent.
This is obviously due to the fact that your website is hosted or kept on the servers and other infrastructure of the web hosting provider. Hence, your website is only as good as the hosting company that runs it.
Some people are simply concerned with the cost of hosting and fail to consider all of the important factors that influence the website’s performance.
Remember that making the wrong decision in this area might result in slow website speed, security concerns, data loss, and server failures.
As a result, when looking for a web hosting company, price isn’t always the most significant issue to consider.
However, a hosting provider that offers reliable optimal performance with affordable pricing and optimal performance is definitely the number one choice of all website owners.
This is where
What is Cloud Hosting?
As you probably know, in traditional shared hosting, several websites share the same resources on a single server. Cloud hosting, on the other hand, is a bit different.
Instead of storing all of your data on a single system, cloud hosting distributes it over a number of devices, including many servers located around the globe that are all linked together.
The speed of your website on shared hosting is affected by the performance of other websites on the same server.
Cloud servers outperform shared servers for this and many other reasons.
Cloudways Hosting Review Highlights (Features)
In the Cloudways hosting review below, there are a few things to keep an eye out for:
- Cloudways provides managed cloud hosting services
- Cloudways enables you to deploy your own server
- Cloudways lets you host unlimited websites on your server
- Cloudways provides a 3-day free trial
- You can choose from top cloud providers such as Digital Ocean, Linode, AWS, Vultr and Google
- Pay low monthly hosting fees for your server
- One-click installation of WordPress, Magento, Drupal and other CMS.
- Free SSL Certificate
- PHP hosting
- One-click staging environment
- Fast performance
- Scalability of server resources
- Website and server cloning
- Automated backups of your applications
- SSH/SFTP
- Top-notch security
- Built-in caching
- Pay as you go; no large upfront payment
- Free Cloudways subdomains
Managed Cloud Hosting
Cloudways is not just a cloud hosting provider but a managed cloud hosting company providing you with dedicated cloud servers from cloud providers such as
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Google Cloud Platform
- Digital Ocean
- Linode
- Vultr
These are big names in the world of cloud computing obviously due to the high performance of their SSD-based VPS and dedicated servers.
To use their servers, however, you would need to be a technical person
Hence, managed cloud hosting by Cloudways allows you to take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing without having to learn everything.
This implies that things like cloud computing and everything associated with it are all completely managed by experts so you can focus on developing your website.
Specifically, instead of managing your cloud server using Command Line, Cloudways provides you with an intuitive dashboard packed with powerful tools to easily manage your cloud servers and websites.
Deploy a server with one-click
Cloudways provides you with a control panel with an easy-to-navigate interface to seamlessly manage your servers and website applications.
You actually get started by launching a server with one-click.
Cloudways makes you choose your server from one of the top cloud providers, offering your website superior performance, 99.9% uptime and high speed.
In addition to selecting a choice cloud provider, when deploying your server on Cloudways, you are able to choose:
- server size (size of RAM and disk space)
- server location (the closer the server to your audience, the better the results delivered to them)
Managed WordPress Hosting
Cloudways offers managed cloud hosting services for WordPress sites on a cloud server where multiple copies of your content will be replicated throughout your chosen data center.
In cloud hosting, a complicated algorithm handles data transfer, and if your primary server fails, a duplicate of your website is provided from the next available server.
PHP Hosting
On its servers, Cloudways supports practically all major frameworks, such as Laravel, Symfony, Codeigniter, Yii2, and other micro-frameworks.
Cloudways includes everything you’ll need to operate your project on these frameworks, from the basics to the complex.
All of the main PHP versions are supported by Cloudways PHP web hosting.
PHP 5.6, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4 are available on the platform, enabling you to pick the version you want for your projects.
The great thing is how simple it is to switch from one version to another with only a few mouse clicks.
Cloudways has a fantastic management console. You may quickly install multiple clouds and web apps via the console.
Cloudways does not cut corners when it comes to security. As a result, all PHP and MySQL hosting servers on their platform have been hardened.
They have also installed a platform-wide firewall to ensure data protection and security. In addition, they upgrade package versions as soon as a security update is released.
They also have an automatic backup system in place, with all backup data being kept elsewhere.
Cloudways has an advanced caching technology known as ThunderStack. On their PHP MySQL hosting platform, they ensure that all applications are performance-optimized, making their web hosting platform speedier.
Host Multiple Websites
You can host several website applications on your server. A cloud server costing $10 per month can enable you to host as many as 10 websites! This is possible because you are charged for the server and not for the number of websites.
All website applications such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento and other CMS can be launched with a single click.
The best part is that, you pay as you go, month-to-month; there is no large upfront payment for this reliable service.
Super-Fast Page Loading
In addition to partnering with top cloud providers in the industry, Cloudways uses a technology that makes use of Varnish, Memcached, Apache, Nginx, Redis, PHP-FPM, MariaDB for databases and Solid State Drives (SSD) to optimize your website’s speed. In fact, one of the hallmarks of Cloudways is speed!
Server and Website Cloning
For one reason or the other, there may arise the need to replicate your server or websites.
Server cloning becomes necessary when you want to
- change from one cloud provider to another
- migrate your websites to a new server
- change the location of your server
- downgrade or upgrade your server size
Here’s how website cloning can also be really beneficial: having created your website with WordPress or another CMS up to a certain level, you can easily replicate it for subsequent projects, so that you do not start from scratch again.
Build Staging Sites with One-Click
A staging site is a duplicate of your main site that allows you to work on it and make changes without impacting the main website.
It’s an environment where new applications may be tested to make sure they don’t break your website.
With WordPress, you can make use of this feature to test updates, themes and plugins.
Once you’re happy with the modifications, you may push them all to the live website with a single click and the changes will be duly effected.
This means that if your site has issues, they may be identified and repaired before a customer sees them, ensuring a good user experience.
Server Scaling
If you need to upgrade your server for whatever reason, you can do it with only a few clicks thanks to Cloudways’ vertical scaling. This would enable you to increase the size of the RAM, storage space, and core processors. You can equally downgrade the server size when the need arises. The best part? You can do all these without facing any downtime.
Cloudways Free Trial
Cloudways is so convinced that you will enjoy their service that they provide a risk-free trial that allows you to create a server, create your site, and instantly get started to discover whether they are the ideal host for you.
The free trial does not require a credit card to sign up. Yet, you get access to all the features you will need to get your website up and running with optimal performance guaranteed.
Cloudways Server Transfers
Cloudways allows you to transfer a server from one account to a new one.
This feature can be really helpful if you run a digital agency: you can easily deploy a server and an application, create a website for your client and transfer the server to your client by entering their email address.
Once they accept the transfer, the server will be added to their account and subsequent server costs will be billed to them.
Easily Backup and Restore Websites
Cloudways backup feature is really effective and yet requires only one or two clicks.
With this feature, you are able to set automatic backup frequency; whether every 1 hour, 2 hours, 1 day, 3 days and so on. You can also manually back up the site at any time the need arises.
To restore a backup, it’s as simple as choosing the website application, selecting the date and time to revert to and clicking on restore.
Cloudways Managed Security
Security is integrated into the platform’s structure, with firewalls that filter out harmful traffic before it reaches your websites.
Similarly, two-factor authentication (TFA) is enabled by default for all Cloudways Platform accounts.
In addition, there is CloudwaysBot, smartly built to keep an eye on your Cloudways account and send you a timely warning when your accounts are accessed in an unrecognized manner.
Cloudways Platform provides a powerful IP Whitelisting function that allows users to allow (or restrict) specified IP addresses from accessing their managed servers, thus enhancing the security of your managed servers.
Whitelisting users’ IP addresses prevent illegal access and allow them to operate your server and websites from anywhere.
Free SSL Certificate
Cloudways offers a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate to encrypt all client-server communication. You can freely install this SSL for all your websites, including subdomains.
Team Management
This feature enables you to easily collaborate with others to work on your servers and websites and everything around them. With this feature, you are able to add other members and assign roles to them.
You can give full console access to a member, for instance, they can have complete access to the platform and manage all servers and applications available.
If you want a member to have access to and manage just a particular server or website, you can use the “Limited Access” feature to accomplish this.
More specifically, you can decide to allow them to perform only certain actions on the server you’ve allowed access to.
24/7 Customer Support
Amazingly, they can even perform tasks on your website on your behalf, if you are unable to.
Free Website Migration
Cloudways freely migrates your website when you first sign up for their managed cloud hosting service. All you have to do is to provide them with the login credentials of your CPanel or any other hosting platform(or provide SFTP or SSH details).
If your website is powered by WordPress and you wish to migrate it by yourself, you can easily do that by using their WordPress Migrator Plugin. With that, you would just provide your Cloudways SFTP details to the Plugin, sit and relax and the plugin will take care of the rest.
Credibility
Server and Application Monitoring
Performance monitoring on Cloudways displays critical server resource consumption data. This includes your usage of the RAM, CPU, disk space and bandwidth.
This area also displays a graphical representation of how your server’s resources are utilised, so you can quickly and easily keep track.
Configuring SMTP
Cloudways enables you to set up SMTP service on your server for your websites to deliver emails. Setting up SMTP on the server helps you to ultilise the same service for your websites on that server.
Here, you have two options: to choose between Elastic Email or your SMTP.
To use Elastic Email, you can easily activate it as an add-on for as low as $0.10 per month.
To use your own SMTP means signing up with an external SMTP service such as Mailgun, Mandrill, SendGrid, AuthSMTP, Gmail SMTP or any email gateway provider of your choice.
You would simply have to get the following details from your SMTP provider and enter them in your Cloudways SMTP settings area:
- SMTP host
- SMTP port number
- SMTP username
- SMTP password
You can send a test email to verify if the configuration was successful.
Cloudways Pricing and Plans
How much does Cloudways cost? The least pricing is $10 per month.
Essentially, Cloudways pricing is determined by which cloud hosting provider you select and the resources you require. You can choose which cloud provider to use for your website.
Let’s now see the pricing for each cloud provider Cloudways partners with:
Digital Ocean Pricing
Digital Ocean plan is the cheapest among the cloud providers, ranging from $10 to $80 per month, 1 GB to 8 GB RAM, 1 to 4 core processors, 25 GB to 160 GB storage space and from 1 TB to 5 TB bandwidth.
Linode Pricing
Linode ranges from $12 to $90 per month, 1 GB to 8 GB RAM, 1 to 4 core processors, 25 GB to 160 GB storage space and from 1 TB to 5 TB bandwidth.
Vultr Pricing
Vultr plan ranges from $11 to $84 per month, 1 GB to 8 GB RAM, 1 to 4 core processors, 25 GB to 160 GB storage space and from 1 TB to 5 TB bandwidth.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Pricing
For 20 GB storage space and 2 GB bandwidth for each plan, the AWS plan ranges from $36.51 to $274.33 per month with variation in the size of the RAM ranging from 2 GB to 16 GB RAM and vCPU from 2 to 4.
Google Cloud Platform Pricing
For 20 GB storage space and 2 GB bandwidth for each plan, the AWS plan ranges from $33.18 to $225.93 per month with variation in the size of the RAM ranging from 1.7 GB to 15 GB RAM and vCPU from 1 to 4.
Setting Up Cloudways (FAQs)
Working with Cloudways can be a lot of fun. This aspect of the Cloudways hosting review highlights questions people often ask about Cloudways. Hence, here are some frequently asked questions with corresponding answers to get you going:
What is Cloudways Hosting?
Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that provides you with an easy-to-use interface and tools for you to harness the power of cloud hosting provided by top cloud providers.
Is Cloudways shared hosting?
No, Cloudways is not a shared hosting platform. Instead, you are able to deploy your own server and add multiple applications (websites) to the server without sharing disk space and other resources with others.
Why use Cloudways?
You would want to use Cloudways if you want to enjoy the optimal performance of cloud hosting and have it conveniently managed for you. Simply choose your favourite cloud infrastructure and use a simple interface to manage your server and websites.
How many websites can I host on my Cloudways server?
You can host as many websites on your server as the resources allow. These include the size of your chosen server, size of RAM, number of processors and amount of bandwidth consumed by each website on the server.
Hence, the aforementioned factors will determine how many websites you can actually host on your cloud server. There is performance monitoring, which you can always check to give you insights into how many websites you can conveniently add to your server.
How Can I Install WordPress on Cloudways?
To install WordPress on Cloudways, click on the “Applications” tab, then click on “Add Application.”
Select your server and click on Add Application.
Choose the latest WordPress version, name your WordPress application and select a project to organise your applications. Now, you can add your application for WordPress to be installed.
After the WordPress application installs, go to applications once again and click on it.
Here, you will find credentials that you will use to log in to your WordPress dashboard.
After installation of your application, a temporary website address is generated for your website. You can work with this URL while your website is under construction.
When you finish working on the website, then you can actually point your domain name to it, as you will discover here.
Hence, by clicking on the arrow next to “application URL,” you’ll be taken to the homepage of your WordPress website.
To login to your WordPress dashboard, click on the URL under the admin panel. You can now log in with the username and password provided. (You may also modify the password as seen in the image above).
Is there Cloudways domain registration?
No, Cloudways does not offer domain name registration services. They do not have dedicated nameservers either.
However, this is no big deal at all. You do not need Cloudways nameservers to point your domain name to their platform. Users simply need to add their server’s IP address to the A record of the DNS records.
You can manage your domain name’s DNS at your domain registrar, Cloudflare’s free DNS management service or Cloudways’ DNS management add-on.
How Can I Connect My Domain Name to My Website on Cloudways?
To connect or point your domain name to your website on Cloudways, you will need to:
- own a domain name or buy one.
- manage DNS of domain name
Buy a Domain Name at NameCheap
A domain name is basically your website address. It enables your website to be found on the internet.
One popular domain registrar is Namecheap. Namecheap offers you domain name prices which you would literally pay twice as much if you bought elsewhere. For instance, Namecheap is currently offering free domain privacy protection, a premium add-on service when you purchase any domain name.
Let’s get started, by buying a domain name at Namecheap. Click here to take you to the registration page.
Enter your desired domain name in the search box below and click on the search icon on the right.
If your prospective domain name has been taken, you can try a different one. Then Click on Add to Cart.
Look at the right bottom corner and checkout.
Choose the duration of the registration, at least 1 year and confirm the order.
Create an account and follow subsequent steps to continue.
Choose a payment method, either Card or Paypal and click on “Continue.”
Review your order and continue with payment if everything is OK.
After payment, check your inbox for an email from Namecheap to verify your email address.
Access your Namecheap account with the link on the success page, as seen in the screenshot above.
Manage DNS of your Domain Name
While the procedure below applies to Namecheap, you can use almost the same approach on any domain registrar’s control panel to manage your domain’s DNS and hence point your domain name to your Cloudways website.
Click on “Domain List,” identify your domain name and click on the corresponding “manage” button at the right.
Go to Advanced DNS and then “Add a New Record.”
Choose “A record” as the “Type” of record. At the text box below “Host,” enter “@“
Login to your Cloudways Control Panel. Go to your “Applications” and select the website to which you want to point the domain name. Click on the IP address to copy it.
Switch to your Namecheap domain control panel. Paste the IP address in the text box below “Value.”
Leave “TTL” as “automatic” or select the minimum value, then save changes.
Go back to your cloudways application (website). Click on “Domain Management.”
Enter your registered domain name in the text box below “PRIMARY DOMAIN” and save changes.
Congratulations. You have successfully added your domain name to your website on cloudways.
But there is one more thing to do: the addition of www alias to the domain name.
To add www to the domain name, go to your Namecheap domain control panel. Here, we are adding a new record, known as CNAME.
Choose “CAME Record” as the “Type” of record. At the text box below “Host,” enter “www” and type your domain name as the value. Save all changes.
Now, type your domain name in the address bar and take a look at your website. Your website is fully live!
How Can I Install an SSL Certificate on Cloudways?
This is how to install an SSL certificate on Cloudways: Login to Cloudways Control Panel. Go to Applications and select the website on which you want to perform this action.
You will be taken to the application management area. Click on SSL Certificate.
Choose “Let’s Encrypt” free SSL if it is not the default one. Provide an email address and the domain name of the website on which you are installing the certificate.
Then click on “Install Certificate.”
You should now enable HTTPS redirection. This ensures that your website always loads the secured version (“https”//” and not “http://”).
Visit your website now and take a look. It should now have a valid SSL certificate installed on, and fully load over HTTPS.
Does Cloudways have CPanel?
No, Cloudways does not have CPanel. However, they provide you with an intuitive control panel that easily enables you to manage everything you would need to: your servers, websites, domain names, SSL certificates and more. Their dashboard is less cluttered and easier to use.
Having been a CPanel user hitherto, the Cloudways platform was really a new experience. However, I found the Cloudways control panel really simpler to navigate as all the essential tools required to manage a website are readily available; a minimalist dashboard.
It is heartwarming to know that you can easily migrate your website from CPanel to the Cloudways platform. To accomplish this, you can request a free website migration service from the Cloudways team.
You can also do it yourself by making use of their WordPress Migration Plugin or the All in One WP Migration plugin.
What is Cloudways Hosting Rating?
Cloudways hosting rating is 5 stars, hands down! This is my verdict and I’m pretty sure you will take sides with me when you try them out. Cloudways provides a convenient platform for you to utilise the benefits of cloud hosting for your website.
Is this the best Cloudways hosting review?
This Cloudways review does well to cover almost everything there is to know about Cloudways. I’ve duly covered most of the features of Cloudways and the corresponding benefits you would gain by choosing Cloudways as your hosting provider.
Aside from the review of Cloudways’ features and services, I’ve also given you a peek behind the curtain when it comes to setting up Cloudways the right way.
With these, you can easily tell whether Cloudways is worth your while or not.
Summary of Cloudways Hosting Review
When it comes to cloud-based managed WordPress hosting, Cloudways is one of the few businesses that strikes a good mix between price and capability.
If you’re searching for lightning-fast servers with top-notch security, dependable support, and relatively low prices, Cloudways is the place to go.
You can sign up for the 3-day free trial that
