{"id":38048,"date":"2025-07-11T14:17:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T14:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/?p=38048"},"modified":"2025-08-02T22:33:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T22:33:53","slug":"cloudways-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/cloudways-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloudways Review 2024: The Good &#038; Bad (Honest Thoughts)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Considering using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/go\/cloudways\">Cloudways<\/a> to host your WordPress site or another type of site? In our hands-on Cloudways review, we\u2019ll help you decide whether this popular hosting provider is right for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cloudways is a bit of an outlier in the hosting space because it uses a unique approach to hosting. Instead of providing its own infrastructure, Cloudways lets you choose from five different cloud hosting providers \u2013 DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud with its Flexible plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, Cloudways handles properly configuring and maintaining the server, along with providing you lots of useful tools to manage your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The upshot of this approach is that you can get very good performance for a low price. However, it\u2019s a little more complicated than traditional hosting, so we don\u2019t recommend Cloudways to all users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They also have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudways.com\/en\/autonomous.php?ref_id=web_navbar\">Autonomous plans<\/a>, which provide a hands-off, managed WordPress hosting solution, designed specifically for businesses looking for high-performance hosting. It\u2019s built on Kubernetes and ensures automatic scaling and load balancing to handle traffic spikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s everything that we\u2019ll cover in our 2024 Cloudways review:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/cloudways-review\/#features\">Key features<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/cloudways-review\/#performance\">Performance tests<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/cloudways-review\/#ux\">User experience<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/cloudways-review\/#support\">Support<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/cloudways-review\/#pricing\">Pricing<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/cloudways-review\/#pros-cons\">Pros and cons<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/cloudways-review\/#faq\">FAQs<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/cloudways-review\/#recommendation\">Recommendations<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Here\u2019s How We Tested Things for Our Cloudways Review<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We always want <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/category\/wp-hosting\/\">our hosting reviews<\/a> to be completely objective, so we signed up and paid for our own Cloudways Flexible account to write this review. Our experience is exactly the same as what you will experience and Cloudways did not provide us with any special deal or even know that we\u2019re writing this review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All of the tests that we ran, the screenshots we collected, and our general thoughts all came from our direct experience of using the Cloudways account that we purchased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With that out of the way, let\u2019s dig into our Cloudways review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\u2699\ufe0f Cloudways Key Features<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"493\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-5.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43944\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-5.jpeg 1000w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-5-300x148.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-5-768x379.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>While <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/go\/cloudways\">Cloudways<\/a> does use the unique cloud hosting approach that we mentioned in the introduction, Cloudways still offers a suite of features that compares favorably with more \u201ctraditional\u201d hosting providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, let\u2019s talk about the hosting environment itself. In the Cloudways Flexible plans, they configure your server with a hybrid <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/apache-vs-nginx\/\">Apache + Nginx<\/a> stack. It then offers multiple caching layers to improve performance including Nginx, Varnish, and Memcached. There\u2019s also an option to easily install Redis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Cloudways sets up your server, it\u2019ll automatically implement all of this, along with securing your server and keeping everything updated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beyond that, Cloudways offers the following useful features:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Automatic server-level backups and on-demand single-site backups<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Staging sites<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Free WordPress performance plugin called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/go\/cloudways-breeze\">Breeze<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Site cloning<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Free SSL certificates<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Built-in content delivery network (CDN)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SMTP at the server level for transactional emails<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bot protection<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cron job management<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Basic server monitoring<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Option to add team members for collaboration<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ll see a lot of these features in more depth later in our review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\ud83d\ude80 Cloudways Performance Tests<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To kick off our hands-on Cloudways review, let\u2019s run some performance tests. After all, performance is one of the most important considerations in any hosting provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To test Cloudways\u2019s performance, we set up a real test site using <a href=\"http:\/\/designbombs.com\/go\/wpastra\/\">the popular Astra theme<\/a> and a full demo site.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43943\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-4.jpeg 1000w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-4-300x165.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-4-768x422.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Our test site also includes the Breeze performance optimization plugin, which Cloudways installs by default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"462\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43940\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.jpeg 1000w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1-300x139.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1-768x355.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For our server, we\u2019re using the cheapest $10\/month DigitalOcean server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, we ran it through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/top-10-free-website-speed-test-tools\/\">two website speed test tools<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.webpagetest.org\/\">WebPageTest<\/a> with a throttled FIOS connection to collect one-off performance metrics. We ran nine tests and took the median value.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/loadfocus.com\/\">Load Focus<\/a> to see how Cloudways holds up under scale. We hit our site with 20 visitors in a 60-second period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WebPageTest<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Cloudways performed <em>excellently<\/em> in the one-off WebPageTest analysis, with a median load time of <strong>under half a second<\/strong>. This is one of the best results from all of the WordPress hosts that we\u2019ve tested:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1250\" height=\"403\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43939\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.jpeg 1250w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-300x97.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1024x330.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-768x248.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1250px) 100vw, 1250px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Load Focus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Load Focus testing, Cloudways also performed excellently. The <strong>mean average response time<\/strong> was just <strong>582 ms<\/strong> and the <strong>90th percentile time<\/strong> was <strong>611 ms<\/strong>. This is one of the better results we\u2019ve seen from all the hosts that we\u2019ve tested, though <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/go\/nexcess-wp\">Nexcess<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/nexcess-review\/\">our review<\/a>) and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/go\/wpengine\">WP Engine<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wpengine-review\/\">our review<\/a>) performed <em>slightly<\/em> better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1250\" height=\"790\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43941\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-2.jpeg 1250w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-2-300x190.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-2-1024x647.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-2-768x485.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1250px) 100vw, 1250px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, Cloudways is miles ahead of other budget hosts, which is quite impressive given that our test site costs just $10 per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Takeaway<\/strong>: Cloudways did very well in our tests, especially when you consider how cheap it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\ud83e\udd17 Cloudways User Experience<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Because Cloudways has a unique experience, let\u2019s start at the beginning with setting up a server and installing WordPress. Then, we\u2019ll take you through some of the tools included you can use to manage your sites and servers via Cloudways\u2019s custom dashboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Launching a Server and Installing WordPress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When you first sign up to Cloudways, you\u2019ll be prompted to launch a server and deploy an \u201capplication\u201d. An application is any software that you want to install on your server \u2013 e.g. WordPress, Magento, Laravel, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you\u2019ve chosen your application and entered some basic details, you can make three key decisions. You can choose\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Your cloud hosting provider<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The resources for your server<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Your server\u2019s physical location&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ll see a summary of the price at the bottom and then you can click <strong>Launch Now <\/strong>to create your server:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"742\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-6.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43947\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-6.jpeg 1000w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-6-300x223.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-6-768x570.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And that\u2019s it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Managing Your Server<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Your Cloudways dashboard has two main tabs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Servers <\/strong>\u2013 this is where you manage all of your cloud servers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Applications <\/strong>\u2013 this is where you manage your individual websites.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you open a server\u2019s dashboard, you\u2019ll be able to manage all of the server-level details including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Monitoring<\/strong> \u2013 keep an eye on your server\u2019s resources.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Vertical Scaling <\/strong>\u2013 easily increase the resources of your server.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Backups <\/strong>\u2013 take backups of your entire server.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>SMTP <\/strong>\u2013 you can set up an SMTP provider for transactional emails at the server level.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"503\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43942\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3.jpeg 1000w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3-300x151.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3-768x386.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Managing Your WordPress Site<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you go to the <strong>Applications<\/strong> tab, you\u2019ll see a list of all of your WordPress sites. If you click on a specific site, you\u2019ll open its dashboard. This is where you can access all of the site-specific information and tools including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Viewing access credentials for WP Admin, FTP, MySQL, and so on.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Associating domains with your site.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Setting up cron jobs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Installing the free SSL certificate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Taking and managing backups.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deploying a site via Git.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Integrating the Cloudways CDN.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1375\" height=\"847\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43945\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.png 1375w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-300x185.png 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1024x631.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-768x473.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1375px) 100vw, 1375px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Exploring Some Useful WordPress Tools<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, let\u2019s take a look at some of the most useful Cloudways features for managing your WordPress sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, Cloudways offers an easy cloning\/staging tool, which you can access from the main <strong>Applications<\/strong> list. You can either create a true staging site or just clone your site to the same server or a different server:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"746\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43951\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3.png 1600w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3-300x140.png 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3-1024x477.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3-768x358.png 768w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3-1536x716.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you create a staging site, it will show up as its own application you\u2019ll be able to easily push or pull data between your live site and staging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the <strong>Backup And Restore<\/strong> tab, you can create on-demand backups for a specific site in addition to the server-level backups that Cloudways automatically takes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"813\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43946\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png 1280w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1-300x191.png 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1-1024x650.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1-768x488.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Cron Job Management<\/strong> tab provides a really simple interface to set up your own server cron jobs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"785\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43950\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-2.png 1600w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-2-300x147.png 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-2-1024x502.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-2-768x377.png 768w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-2-1536x754.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, the <strong>SSL Certificate<\/strong> tab lets you install a free Let\u2019s Encrypt SSL certificate with just a couple of clicks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"780\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43954\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-4.png 1600w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-4-300x146.png 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-4-1024x499.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-4-768x374.png 768w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-4-1536x749.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This is by no means a complete list of tools, but we\u2019re mainly just looking to highlight that Cloudways <em>does<\/em> give you a full suite of management tools that compares favorably against more \u201ctraditional\u201d hosts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cloudways Add-ons&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Cloudways offers several add-ons to enhance website performance, security, and management. For instance, with Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, your site gets faster load times and stays strong during traffic spikes. And it tacks on extra layers of security with DDoS protection and a Web Application Firewall (WAF), too, which keeps your site safe and performing well no matter how much traffic comes your way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the maintenance side, SafeUpdates is a great tool for WordPress users who don\u2019t want to worry about updates breaking things. It automates the update process, runs health checks, and creates backups to keep downtime or issues at bay when updates roll out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to security, the Malware Protection add-on, powered by Sucuri, takes care of detecting and removing any malicious threats before they cause harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if managing your domain feels like a headache, DNS Made Easy simplifies everything. It optimizes domain performance, reduces latency, and ensures your site stays up and running reliably, helping to deliver a smooth experience for your visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These add-ons (along with Cloudways Support, which we\u2019ll talk about in a moment) let you make your Cloudways Flexible plan your own.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Cloudways Autonomous&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"594\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-9.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43952\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-9.jpeg 1000w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-9-300x178.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-9-768x456.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Everything we\u2019ve discussed so far has related to the Cloudways Flexible plans. But if you have a higher-traffic site and need something more hands-off, the Autonomous plans might work better for you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Autonomous, powered by Kubernetes, takes the stress out of managing WordPress hosting by automatically adjusting your resources as traffic surges. Whether it\u2019s a busy sales season or a viral moment, your site stays fast and online without you needing to do anything in particular.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The beauty of Autonomous is that its autoscaling kicks in the moment it\u2019s needed, adding resources when traffic spikes and scaling back when things calm down. This makes it perfect for high-traffic sites like WooCommerce stores, event ticketing platforms, or even content-heavy blogs. No need to manually upgrade or adjust settings \u2014 it just does it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also comes with Cloudflare Enterprise CDN integrated and Redis Object Cache Pro to make data retrieval super quick. and security features like DDoS protection and a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to keep your site safe and performing at its best. This combination of performance, scaling, and security ensures that your site can handle anything thrown its way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\ud83d\udcde Cloudways Support<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Support can be a bit of a tricky subject at Cloudways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cloudways support is good for what it does, but you need to realize that the scope of Cloudways\u2019s support isn\u2019t as broad as it might be at another host, especially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/managed-wordpress-hosting\/\">a managed WordPress host<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By default, Cloudways supports <em>your hosting server and the Cloudways platform<\/em>. If you have a problem with the server or something with Cloudways itself, Cloudways will definitely hop in and help you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can get in contact with them 24\/7 via live chat support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Cloudways does <strong>not<\/strong> provide application support by default. That is, they don\u2019t officially offer support for any applications that you install on your server, such as WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, if you\u2019re having problems with the WordPress installer that Cloudways offers, their support will help you. But if you\u2019re seeing an error on your WordPress site, that\u2019s outside the scope of the free support (<em>though Cloudways will sometimes help anyway<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you <em>do<\/em> want this type of advanced application support, you can pay extra for premium support, but it\u2019s not cheap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"615\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-7.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43948\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-7.jpeg 1000w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-7-300x185.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-7-768x472.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\ud83d\udcb0 Cloudways Pricing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/go\/cloudways\">What you\u2019ll pay for Cloudways<\/a> depends on the cloud hosting provider that you choose and your server\u2019s resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In general, the cheapest option is the $11 entry-level DigitalOcean server, which will already offer excellent performance. If you use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/deals\/cloudways-coupon\/\">our Cloudways coupon<\/a>, it will be even cheaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You do <strong>not<\/strong> need to pay separately for the cloud hosting. The price that you see at Cloudways includes both the underlying cloud hosting charges and the charges for Cloudways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"821\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-10.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43953\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-10.jpeg 1000w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-10-300x246.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-10-768x631.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One thing to note is that the total price is generally a multiple of the price of the underlying hosting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, here\u2019s a break-down of the DigitalOcean plans:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Total Price<\/strong> \u2013 includes both the underlying and Cloudways\u2019 fee. This is what you pay per month.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>DigitalOcean Price<\/strong> \u2013 the price for the unmanaged VPS if you bought it directly from DigitalOcean.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Implied Cloudways Fee<\/strong> \u2013 what you\u2019re essentially paying for the Cloudways service alone (total price minus DigitalOcean price).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Tier (RAM)<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Total Price<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>DigitalOcean Price<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Implied Cloudways Free<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1 GB<\/td><td>$11<\/td><td>$5<\/td><td>$6<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2 GB<\/td><td>$24<\/td><td>$10<\/td><td>$14<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4 GB<\/td><td>$46<\/td><td>$20<\/td><td>$26<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>8 GB<\/td><td>$88<\/td><td>$40<\/td><td>$48<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As you can see, the premium that you pay for Cloudways vs the underlying cloud hosting gets higher as you upgrade your hosting, which leads to a weird situation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For lower-resource servers, Cloudways is very affordable. For example, if you\u2019re purchasing the entry-level server (which will be fine for most sites), Cloudways offers excellent value because you\u2019re essentially just paying $6 per month to have Cloudways manage your DigitalOcean server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, if you\u2019re considering purchasing one of the higher-resource servers, Cloudways can be expensive for what it offers. You go from paying a $6 premium vs the underlying hosting on the 1 GB plan to paying a $48 premium on the 8 GB plan, even though the Cloudways platform is exactly the same in both situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Which Cloud Hosting Should You Use?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re not sure which cloud hosting provider to choose, we recommend starting with the Vultr High Frequency servers. They\u2019re a little more expensive than the entry-level DigitalOcean servers, but the small added fee is worth it for improved performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"604\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-8.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43949\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-8.jpeg 1000w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-8-300x181.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-8-768x464.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>You can start with the lowest resources (<em>the cheapest server<\/em>) and then scale your server if needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\ud83d\udc4d\ud83d\udc4e Cloudways Pros and Cons<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As we get near to the end of our Cloudways review, let\u2019s talk about some of the pros and cons of using Cloudways for hosting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pros<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Excellent performance for the money<\/strong>. Even the cheapest Cloudways plan can offer excellent performance \u2013 even under scale.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No arbitrary limits<\/strong>. Cloudways doesn\u2019t put any arbitrary website limits. As long as your server has the resources, you can host as many sites as you want.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Useful WordPress tools <\/strong>\u2013 you get helpful features such as staging sites, backups, a WordPress optimization plugin, and more.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Server-level SMTP <\/strong>\u2013 this is a really useful tool for reliable emails, as many other cloud server panels make you set up SMTP services for each individual WordPress site.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Autoscaling is available<\/strong> \u2013 no need for wrestling with scaling-related headaches. If you have a high-traffic site, you can use an Autonomous plan and it\u2019s handled for you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cons<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>A little bit more complicated than traditional hosting<\/strong>. Again, you definitely do <strong>not<\/strong> need to be a developer, but total beginners might want to stay away.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Information overload<\/strong>. On a similar note to the above, getting started with Cloudways can be a little confusing. The plan options \u2014 and getting to select which host you want \u2013 might feel like a lot of decision-making right upfront.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Pricing isn\u2019t as good for high-resource servers<\/strong>. Because Cloudways charges a multiple of the underlying hosting cost, it can be expensive for high-resource servers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No email hosting<\/strong>. If you want to create a custom email address (you@yoursite.com), you\u2019ll need a separate email hosting service.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\u2753 Cloudways Review 2024 FAQ<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To finish out our Cloudways review, let\u2019s go over some FAQs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"schema-faq wp-block-yoast-faq-block\"><div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1733614752053\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\"><strong>Is Cloudways fast?<\/strong><\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">Yes! Cloudways is very fast and they offer excellent performance for the price. Consider the Vultr High Frequency servers for the best performance on a budget.<\/p> <\/div> <div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1733614758920\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\"><strong>Is Cloudways good for WordPress?<\/strong><\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">Yes! Cloudways works great for WordPress and includes a number of WordPress-specific tools like WordPress-optimized server-level caching, staging sites, a free WordPress optimization plugin, and more.<\/p> <\/div> <div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1733614763653\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\"><strong>Is Cloudways good for beginners?<\/strong><\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">Cloudways is definitely accessible for non-developers, but we wouldn\u2019t recommend it to total beginners who are just getting started with their first websites. You might want to choose a more traditional host until you understand the basics of running your website.<\/p> <\/div> <div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1733614772686\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\"><strong>How long is the Cloudways free trial?<\/strong><\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">The free trial lasts for three days. After that, you\u2019ll need to pay for a plan.<\/p> <\/div> <div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1733614779000\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\"><strong>How does Cloudways billing work?<\/strong><\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">Cloudways offers pay-as-you-go billing \u2013 there are no long-term contracts. You\u2019ll pay every month based on your actual usage for that month, which is billed down to the hour. At the beginning of the month, you\u2019ll receive an invoice based on your usage <em>for the previous month<\/em>.<\/p> <\/div> <div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1733614790634\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\"><strong>What are some good Cloudways alternatives for cloud hosting?<\/strong><\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">Because cloud hosting has become so popular, you can find a lot of tools to help you manage cloud hosting. Some of the most popular options are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpkube.com\/go\/spinupwp\">RunCloud<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/gridpane.com\/\">GridPane<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/spinupwp.com\/\">SpinupWP<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/ploi.io\/\">Ploi<\/a>.<br\/>These tools are <em>a little <\/em>more complicated, but not by much.<\/p> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\ud83e\udd14 Should You Use Cloudways in 2024 and Beyond?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As we mentioned in the beginning, Cloudways is an excellent hosting provider that can offer very good performance for the money, but it isn\u2019t the right host for <em>everyone<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So \u2013 let\u2019s talk about when you should choose Cloudways, and when you should choose a different host (<em>along with some good Cloudways alternatives<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Use Cloudways If\u2026<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/go\/cloudways\">Cloudways<\/a> is a great option if you\u2019re looking for excellent performance on a budget. And this is all thanks to its unique cloud hosting approach. With just the cheapest DigitalOcean server, you can host multiple websites with surprisingly high traffic (<em>as long as you\u2019re using page caching<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cloudways is a little bit more complicated than a traditional website, but you should have no issues using it as long as you\u2019ve made a few websites before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall, if you\u2019re looking for high-performance hosting in the $10-$50 price range, Cloudways is definitely one of your best options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Make sure to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/deals\/cloudways-coupon\/\">use our Cloudways coupon<\/a> to save some money on your first three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"db-button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/go\/cloudways\">GO TO CLOUDWAYS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Use Another Host If\u2026<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There are two situations where you might want a Cloudways alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, if you\u2019re a total beginner who\u2019s never built a website and\/or feels overwhelmed by basic technical details, Cloudways might not be for you. Instead, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/go\/greengeeks\">GreenGeeks<\/a> could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/greengeeks-review\/\">be a good option<\/a>. Or, if you want something <em>really beginner-friendly<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/go\/bluehost-wp\/\">Bluehost<\/a> fits the bill, though Bluehost\u2019s performance isn\u2019t as good as Cloudways or GreenGeeks, as you can see in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/bluehost-review\/\">our Bluehost review<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second, Cloudways might not be the best option if you need one of the high-resource servers. But this is only because it\u2019s expensive due to the percentage-based markup. Most people do <strong>not<\/strong> need the high-resource servers, so this might not matter to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, if you <em>do<\/em> need a server with 8GB+ of RAM (<em>and associated resources<\/em>), you could use the same cloud hosting approach and save some money by choosing a flat-rate hosting control panel like <a href=\"https:\/\/runcloud.io\/\">RunCloud<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/designbombs.com\/go\/spinupwp\">SpinupWP<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To see even more options, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/best-wordpress-hosting\/\">our full roundup of the best WordPress hosting<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That about covers it! We hope you found this Cloudways review helpful. Best of luck in whatever decision you make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Do you still have any questions about Cloudways or our Cloudways review? Let us know in the comments!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Considering using Cloudways to host your WordPress site or another type of site? In our hands-on Cloudways review, we\u2019ll help&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wp-hosting","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.1 (Yoast SEO v26.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cloudways Review 2026: The Good &amp; Bad (Honest Thoughts)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Considering Cloudways for web hosting? 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Some of the most popular options are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpkube.com\/go\/spinupwp\">RunCloud<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/gridpane.com\/\">GridPane<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/spinupwp.com\/\">SpinupWP<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/ploi.io\/\">Ploi<\/a>.<br\/>These tools are <em>a little <\/em>more complicated, but not by much.","inLanguage":"en-US"},"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/cloudways-detailed-review.png","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38048"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43973,"href":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38048\/revisions\/43973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designbombs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}