Cloudways does not sell traditional VPS hosting. What it offers instead is managed access to cloud servers from five providers, DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud. These servers function like VPS environments in most practical ways: you get dedicated resources, root-level access via SSH, and full control over your server configuration. The key difference is that Cloudways wraps them in a managed control panel that handles server setup, security patching, backups, and caching for you.
What is VPS Hosting?
A VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a virtualized slice of a physical server. Each VPS has its own allocated CPU, RAM, and storage that is not shared with other users on the same machine. This gives you more control and better performance than shared hosting, while costing less than a dedicated server.
Traditional VPS hosting providers, such as Linode, Vultr, or DigitalOcean used directly, give you a Linux server and leave the rest to you. You install the web server, PHP, database, SSL, and any caching yourself, and you handle ongoing security updates.
What is Cloud Hosting?
Cloud hosting distributes your workload across multiple servers in a cluster. If one server has a problem, the others pick up the load, which gives cloud infrastructure a reliability advantage over a single VPS. Resources can also scale more flexibly, you are not tied to one physical machine’s limits.
The underlying servers used by cloud providers are still virtualised slices, similar in architecture to VPS. The difference is in the redundancy and scaling model, not the fundamental technology.
What You Actually Get with a Cloudways Server
When you create a server on Cloudways, you are provisioning a cloud server from one of the five supported providers. Here is what that looks like in practice:
- Dedicated resources: Your server has its own vCPU, RAM, and SSD storage. Other Cloudways customers on the same provider do not share these resources with you.
- SSH access: You get SSH access to the server using the master credentials. You can run command-line tools including WP-CLI, manage files, and run cron jobs.
- Managed stack: Cloudways pre-installs and manages the web server (Nginx), PHP, MySQL/MariaDB, Redis, and Varnish. You do not configure these yourself.
- Control panel: The Cloudways dashboard handles backups, SSL certificates, team access, server scaling, and application cloning, tasks you would handle manually on a self-managed VPS.
- Server sizes: Entry-level servers start at 1GB RAM. You can scale up vertically (upgrade the server size) without downtime if your site grows.
What Cloudways Manages and What You Still Handle
The “managed” label covers more than most people expect, but it does not cover everything. Here is a clear breakdown before you sign up:
Cloudways handles automatically:
- OS-level security patches and kernel updates (applied without your input, on a rolling schedule)
- Web server configuration (Nginx settings, rate limiting, basic security rules at the server layer)
- PHP, MySQL/MariaDB, and Redis version availability and upgrade paths via the dashboard
- SSL certificate issuance and renewal via Let’s Encrypt
- Automated off-server backups on the schedule you configure
- DDoS mitigation at the infrastructure level (handled by the underlying cloud provider)
- Staging environments and one-click push-to-live
You still handle:
- WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates (Cloudways does not auto-update your application code)
- Application-level security (hardening WordPress login, monitoring for suspicious file changes)
- Email setup (Cloudways does not host email; you configure a third-party provider like Google Workspace or Zoho)
- CDN configuration beyond the server if you want edge caching
- Monitoring application performance (you use the Cloudways APM tab or a plugin like Query Monitor)
This split is why Cloudways works well for developers and agencies who want to skip the infrastructure chores but still control the application stack. It is less suitable for teams that want a fully managed WordPress platform where the host handles plugin updates too; for that, Kinsta or WP Engine fit better.
Cloudways vs. Traditional VPS Hosting
- Setup: A traditional VPS requires manual server configuration. Cloudways handles setup for you with one-click application installs.
- Management: On a traditional VPS, you manage security patches, PHP updates, and server software yourself. Cloudways handles these automatically.
- Cost: Traditional VPS from providers like DigitalOcean starts at around $6/month. The same server through Cloudways costs roughly 20-40% more due to the management layer.
- Control: A raw VPS gives you full root access to do anything. Cloudways gives SSH access but abstracts some server-level settings through its panel.
- Support: Cloudways includes 24/7 live chat. Traditional VPS support is typically ticket-based.
Cloudways vs Raw VPS: Side-by-Side Comparison
The practical difference between Cloudways and a raw VPS from the same provider comes down to what you manage yourself. Here is how a Cloudways server on DigitalOcean compares to a DigitalOcean Droplet managed directly:
- Operating system setup: Raw VPS requires you to configure the OS, install the web server, PHP, MySQL, and set up SSL. Cloudways provisions the full stack automatically.
- Security patches: Raw VPS requires monitoring for OS updates and applying them manually. Cloudways handles OS-level patches automatically.
- Caching: Raw VPS requires installing and configuring Varnish, Redis, and Memcached yourself. Cloudways includes all three pre-installed.
- Backups: Raw VPS has no automated backup system. Cloudways includes automated daily backups off-site and supports external backup to Amazon S3.
- Staging environments: Raw VPS requires manual setup. Cloudways provides one-click staging with push-to-live.
- Dashboard: Raw VPS is managed entirely via command line or a self-installed control panel (cPanel, Plesk). Cloudways provides a purpose-built management dashboard.
- Cost: Raw VPS is cheaper. A 1 GB DigitalOcean Droplet costs $6/month directly. The equivalent Cloudways server (including the management layer) costs around $14/month. You are paying the $8 difference for the managed control panel and handled operations.
Cloudways Pricing vs Raw VPS Providers
Here is how Cloudways pricing compares to the same cloud providers used directly, at comparable server sizes:
- DigitalOcean 1 GB: $6/month direct vs $14/month on Cloudways
- DigitalOcean 2 GB: $12/month direct vs $28/month on Cloudways
- Vultr 1 GB: $6/month direct vs $11-13/month on Cloudways (depending on region)
- Linode 2 GB: $12/month direct vs $22/month on Cloudways
The markup reflects the managed control panel, automated patching, built-in caching stack, backup system, and staging infrastructure. Whether it is worth it depends entirely on your technical comfort level and how much your time costs. If you can configure and maintain a Linux server, the raw VPS saves money. If you cannot, or do not want to, Cloudways is the more practical option at a modest premium.
Scaling Your Cloudways Server
One practical advantage Cloudways has over a raw VPS is how it handles vertical scaling. On a bare DigitalOcean Droplet or Linode instance, scaling up to a larger server means provisioning a new machine, migrating all data, updating DNS records, and coordinating either a maintenance window or a live cutover. On Cloudways, vertical scaling (upgrading the server's RAM, CPU, and storage tier) is a one-click operation from the server settings panel in the Cloudways dashboard.
The upgrade process involves a short restart of the server, typically 30 to 60 seconds of downtime while the new resources are applied. You do not get a new IP address, and no DNS change is required. For most WordPress sites, this brief interruption is acceptable and the process is complete in two to four minutes total. You can scale down as well as up, which matters for seasonal traffic patterns where you want to save on infrastructure during slow months.
What Cloudways does not support is horizontal scaling: distributing a single WordPress application across multiple servers for load balancing or geographic redundancy. That requires a more complex architecture (shared database cluster, distributed filesystem, load balancer) that Cloudways does not manage. Sites that have grown beyond a single server's capacity typically migrate to a dedicated enterprise managed host or a custom infrastructure setup.
Which Cloudways Provider Should You Choose for WordPress?
Cloudways supports five underlying server providers, and the right choice depends on your audience location, budget, and whether you are already invested in a specific cloud ecosystem.
- DigitalOcean (starting from /month for 1 GB): The most popular choice for WordPress on Cloudways. Predictable pricing, 15 datacenter regions, and the provider Cloudways' stack is most thoroughly tested against. The right default choice for a new site with a North American or European audience. DigitalOcean also offers the widest range of server size options on Cloudways, from 1 GB to 96 GB RAM.
- Vultr (from -13/month for 1 GB depending on region): Slightly cheaper than DigitalOcean at the entry tier and covers 32 datacenter locations (including more in Asia-Pacific and South America than DigitalOcean). Right for sites targeting audiences in regions where Vultr has coverage but DigitalOcean does not, or for buyers who want the lower starting price.
- Linode (Akamai Cloud, from /month for 2 GB): Competitive pricing, solid infrastructure, and a long track record in developer hosting. Fewer datacenter locations than DigitalOcean but a reliable option if your team prefers Akamai's network or needs a specific Linode region.
- Amazon Web Services (from ~/month for a comparable small instance): Significantly more expensive than the others but brings AWS's global reach, reliability track record, and integration with other AWS services (SES for email, S3 for off-site backups, RDS for external databases). Right for teams already running on AWS who want Cloudways' management layer without giving up the AWS ecosystem. See our AWS hosting review for the full picture of AWS's strengths and limitations for WordPress.
- Google Cloud (from ~.50/month for a comparable instance): Similar positioning to AWS in price and targeting. Best for teams already using other Google Cloud services (BigQuery, Cloud SQL, Firebase) who want a single-vendor infrastructure bill. Google Cloud also powers Kinsta, so teams comparing the two get the same underlying infrastructure at very different price points and management models.
For a WordPress site starting on Cloudways, DigitalOcean on the 1 GB or 2 GB plan is the right default. Switch to Vultr if you need a datacenter location DigitalOcean does not cover. Move to AWS or Google Cloud only if your team already uses those platforms for other services and consolidated billing or compliance alignment justifies the higher cost.
Should You Choose Cloudways or a Raw VPS?
The decision comes down to three honest questions:
- Do you know Linux? If setting up Nginx, configuring PHP-FPM pools, and reading auth.log sounds familiar, a raw VPS from DigitalOcean or Vultr costs less and gives you more. If those terms are unclear, Cloudways removes all of it from your path.
- How much is your time worth? Server maintenance on a raw VPS takes roughly three to five hours a month for a small site (patches, log review, backup testing, PHP updates). At $50/hour, that is $150 to $250 in monthly time cost. Cloudways’ markup over the raw provider rate is usually $8 to $25 per month. The math often favors Cloudways.
- What happens when something breaks at 2am? Raw VPS support is ticket-based, with response times measured in hours. Cloudways includes 24/7 live chat that typically responds within a few minutes. If uptime directly affects revenue, that support availability has real value.
The sweet spot for Cloudways is small agencies, solo developers, and growing WordPress businesses that want VPS-grade performance without a dedicated DevOps function. If you are running a personal blog or a site that gets occasional traffic, a managed shared host (SiteGround, Kinsta’s entry tier) is simpler. If you are running infrastructure for a team of engineers, a raw VPS or bare-metal server probably fits better.
Final Word: Does Cloudways Have a VPS?
Cloudways is not a VPS host in the traditional sense, it does not sell a raw Linux server and leave you to manage it. Instead, it gives you managed access to cloud servers from providers like DigitalOcean and Vultr, which offer dedicated resources and SSH access comparable to a VPS, with a managed control panel on top. If you want full server control at the lowest cost, a raw VPS from one of those providers directly is cheaper. If you want VPS-grade resources without the server management work, Cloudways is the more practical option. See our guide to setting up Cloudways to see how the process works in practice. For a broader look at how Cloudways compares to traditional shared hosting on speed, scalability, and price, see our Cloudways vs regular hosting guide. For the full picture of Cloudways plans, providers, and pricing, see our Cloudways hosting guide.
