Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that sits between traditional shared hosting and bare-metal cloud servers. Instead of owning data centers, Cloudways acts as a management layer on top of five infrastructure providers: DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode (now Akamai), AWS, and Google Cloud. You pick the provider, choose a server size, and Cloudways handles the stack - operating system updates, security patches, caching, and backups. The servers function like VPS environments in practice; for a detailed breakdown of how they compare to raw VPS hosting from the same providers, see does Cloudways offer VPS hosting.
How Cloudways Works
Traditional hosting companies sell you space on hardware they own. Cloudways does something different. When you create a server through Cloudways, it provisions a virtual machine on your chosen cloud provider and installs its own optimized stack on top. That stack includes Apache or Nginx, MySQL or MariaDB, PHP-FPM, Redis, Memcached, and Varnish. You interact with the Cloudways platform through a custom dashboard rather than a raw cloud console. For a budget-tier alternative with a different trade-off (in-house control panel, lower entry price, no dedicated tier), the Hostinger guide is the right comparison.
This matters because it removes the two biggest barriers to cloud hosting. First, you do not need to know Linux system administration. Second, you avoid the unpredictable billing that comes with raw cloud providers - Cloudways charges a flat monthly rate per server with no bandwidth surprises.
Cloudways Pricing
Cloudways bills monthly on a pay-as-you-go basis. There are no annual contracts and no renewal price hikes - the rate you sign up at is the rate you keep paying. Pricing starts at roughly $14 per month for a 1GB RAM DigitalOcean server and scales up based on the provider and resources you select.
Here is what each provider tier looks like at the entry level:
- DigitalOcean - from $14/month (1GB RAM, 25GB SSD, 1TB bandwidth)
- Vultr - from $14/month (1GB RAM, 25GB SSD, 1TB bandwidth)
- Linode (Akamai) - from $14/month (1GB RAM, 25GB SSD, 1TB bandwidth)
- AWS - from $38/month (2GB RAM, 20GB SSD, 2GB bandwidth)
- Google Cloud - from $37/month (1.7GB RAM, 20GB SSD, 2GB bandwidth)
DigitalOcean and Vultr are the most popular choices for small-to-medium WordPress sites. For a deeper look at DigitalOcean as a standalone platform with self-managed Droplet pricing, see our DigitalOcean hosting guide. AWS and Google Cloud make sense when you need a specific region or compliance requirement that only those providers offer. If you are not sure which to pick, our guide on choosing a hosting supplier on Cloudways breaks down the decision.
What Cloudways Includes (and What It Does Not)
Every Cloudways server comes with a set of features built into the price:
- Free SSL certificates via Let's Encrypt - see our SSL installation guide for the setup steps, and the broader Cloudways security and SSL guide for the WAF, file-permission, and Cloudflare Full (Strict) details
- Automated backups on a schedule you choose, with one-click restore
- Built-in caching - Varnish, Memcached, and Redis are pre-installed
- Free site migration using the Cloudways WordPress Migrator plugin
- Staging environments - clone your live site to test changes before pushing them
- SSH and SFTP access for direct server management
- Team collaboration - add team members with role-based permissions
- 24/7 support via live chat and ticketing
What Cloudways does not include: email hosting (you will need a third-party service like Google Workspace or Zoho), domain registration (buy your domain elsewhere and point it to your server), and phone support (available only as a paid add-on).
Cloudways Paid Add-Ons Worth Knowing About
Cloudways keeps the base plan lean and sells optional extras on top. Three are worth evaluating depending on your use case:
- Cloudflare Enterprise CDN. Available for a few dollars per month per app, this upgrades the free Cloudflare tier to Cloudflare's enterprise network, which includes a web application firewall, image optimisation, and a higher cache hit ratio for dynamic content. Most low-traffic sites do not need it; high-traffic or security-sensitive sites often find the WAF alone worth the cost.
- Premium Support. Cloudways' paid support tier adds a dedicated account manager, priority ticket routing, and guaranteed response times. The standard live chat is good for most issues, but if a production outage costs real money per minute, the SLA-backed response time on the premium tier pays for itself during one serious incident.
- Rackspace Email / Google Workspace (via add-on). Cloudways partners with Rackspace to offer professional email hosting directly from the dashboard, which saves you from setting up a third-party email account separately. Google Workspace can also be added through the same flow. Either option is cheaper and simpler than managing email outside Cloudways if you are already in the dashboard every week.
Cloudways Performance
Speed is where Cloudways earns its reputation. Because each application runs on its own isolated stack with dedicated resources, you do not share CPU or RAM with other customers the way you do on shared hosting plans from Bluehost or Hostinger.
The three-layer caching stack (Varnish at the server level, Redis/Memcached for object caching, and Cloudflare Enterprise CDN as an add-on) means most page requests never hit PHP. For WordPress specifically, you can push this further - our guide on making Cloudways faster for WordPress covers the full optimization process, and you can also check whether WP Rocket is worth adding on top. For the complete overview of every cache layer and how to tune them together, see our Cloudways performance and speed guide.
Cloudways vs Traditional Hosting
The most common question people ask is whether Cloudways is worth the price jump over budget shared hosting. The short answer: if your site gets more than a few hundred visitors a day, or if page speed matters for your business, the difference is meaningful.
On shared hosting, your site shares a physical server with hundreds or thousands of other sites. One neighbour running a heavy database query can slow your site down. On Cloudways, you get an isolated virtual server with guaranteed resources. The tradeoff is that Cloudways requires slightly more setup - there is no cPanel, and you need to configure your DNS separately. For a deeper breakdown, read our comparison of Cloudways vs regular hosting.
Cloudways is also different from fully managed WordPress hosts like Kinsta. Kinsta handles everything including WordPress updates and has a more polished dashboard, but it costs significantly more and limits the number of sites per plan. Cloudways lets you host unlimited applications on a single server - you only pay for the server resources, not per site.
Getting Started with Cloudways
Setting up a new WordPress site on Cloudways takes about ten minutes. The process goes like this: create an account (a 3-day free trial is available with no credit card), deploy a server on your chosen provider, install WordPress as an application on that server, and point your domain. Our full Cloudways setup guide walks through each step with screenshots.
When the 3-day trial ends, your server continues running and Cloudways charges your card on the standard hourly rate. Nothing shuts down automatically. If you decide not to continue, delete your server before the trial ends and you will not be charged. If you forget, Cloudways will send a billing email at the end of the first full month.
If you already have a WordPress site elsewhere, the migration process uses a free plugin that copies your files and database automatically. For a side-by-side look at the plugin route, the free managed migration option, and the manual SFTP path, our Cloudways setup and migration guide covers all three with a pre-flight checklist. If you are moving from SiteGround specifically, our SiteGround to Cloudways migration guide covers the SG Optimizer removal, email separation, and DNS cutover steps in detail.
Server Management on Cloudways
Once your site is running, the Cloudways dashboard gives you control over server-level settings without needing SSH. Here are the management tasks site owners handle most often:
- Scaling your server - increase RAM and CPU with a few clicks when traffic grows
- Application backups and server backups - on-demand and scheduled
- Setting up cron jobs for scheduled tasks
- Viewing application logs for debugging errors
- Resetting file permissions after plugin installations or updates
- Changing your domain name if you rebrand
For DNS, Cloudways offers the DNS Made Easy add-on for managing records directly from the dashboard, or you can use an external DNS provider like Cloudflare.
For backups, cron jobs, logs, scaling, and a routine maintenance schedule in one place, see the Cloudways management and maintenance guide.
Hosting Multiple Sites on One Server
One of Cloudways' strongest selling points for freelancers and agencies is that you can host multiple websites on a single server. Each site runs as a separate application with its own PHP version, database, and SSL certificate. You only pay for the server, not per site - so running five low-traffic client sites on a $28/month server costs $5.60 each rather than $14 per site on separate servers.
The catch is resource sharing. If one application spikes, it can starve the others. Monitor your server load and scale up before that happens.
Choosing a Server Location
Server location affects page load time more than almost any other variable. Cloudways gives you access to data centers across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America through its five provider partners. Pick the location closest to where most of your visitors are. Our guide on choosing the best Cloudways server location explains how to decide and what to do if your audience is spread across multiple regions.
Cloudways Support: What to Expect
Cloudways offers 24/7 support via live chat and a ticketing system. Chat response times for routine questions are typically under five minutes during business hours and somewhat longer overnight. For complex server-level issues, the Cloudways technical team can connect directly to your server, which is a capability that traditional shared hosts do not offer.
One important boundary: Cloudways support handles the server and platform. They will help you with SSL certificates, server scaling, backup restores, caching configuration, and deployment. They will not debug your WordPress theme, custom plugin conflicts, or PHP application code. For those issues you need a WordPress developer or specialist support (Kinsta’s premium plans include WordPress-specific support, for comparison).
Phone support is available as a paid add-on through Cloudways Premium Support plans. Most site owners on standard plans find the live chat team handles 90% of issues without escalation. If uptime is business-critical and you need guaranteed response times around the clock, the premium plan pays for itself during one serious incident.
Cloudways Free Trial and Pricing Tips
Cloudways offers a 3-day free trial with no credit card required. During the trial, you deploy a real server (not a sandbox), install WordPress, and run actual tests. There are no artificial limits: the trial server performs identically to a paid server, which means you can benchmark your current host against Cloudways before committing.
The pricing model rewards right-sizing. A 1GB DigitalOcean server handles most low-to-medium traffic WordPress sites comfortably. Starting small and scaling up when you hit resource limits costs less over a year than over-provisioning from day one. The Cloudways Monitoring tab shows CPU and RAM trends, so you can see when a server is genuinely underprovisioned rather than guessing.
Cloudways does not publish rotating discount codes the way budget shared hosts do. The main ways to pay less: choose DigitalOcean or Vultr over AWS or Google Cloud at the entry level (same performance for most WordPress use cases, lower cost), consolidate multiple low-traffic client sites on one server rather than individual servers per site, and scale down a server that has been overprovisioned since launch.
Who Cloudways Is Best For
Cloudways fits a specific type of user well:
- WordPress site owners who have outgrown shared hosting and want better speed without managing a raw VPS
- Freelancers and agencies who manage multiple client sites and want to consolidate them on one bill
- WooCommerce stores that need reliable performance during traffic spikes
- Developers who want SSH access and staging environments without the overhead of server administration
It is less ideal for complete beginners who want email, domain registration, and a website builder in one place. For that use case, a traditional host like Bluehost is simpler to start with, and InMotion Hosting is the closest equivalent that bundles real US-based phone support on every plan.
Cloudways offers a 3-day free trial with no credit card required. You can deploy a server, install WordPress, and test the platform before committing. Sign up through Cloudways to get started, or read our full Cloudways review for performance benchmarks and a detailed feature breakdown. For SSL certificates, firewall setup, and WordPress hardening, see our Cloudways security and SSL guide. For a complete walkthrough of the signup and deployment process, see our guide on how to set up Cloudways, which covers account creation, server deployment, and domain connection. For agencies or anyone running multiple client sites on one server, our guide on whether you can host multiple websites on one Cloudways server covers per-app costs, resource monitoring, and the multi-site management features Cloudways provides for agencies. When you need to update the primary domain on any application, the guide on how to change an application's domain name on Cloudways covers both the dashboard method and WP-CLI search-replace.
