Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that runs WordPress, WooCommerce, and other applications on top of major cloud providers including DigitalOcean, Vultr, AWS, and Google Cloud. The setup process is straightforward but it does involve more than just creating an account. This guide walks through every step from signup through to a live domain pointing at your WordPress site.
Why Use Cloudways?
Cloudways handles the server management layer so you do not have to configure Nginx, PHP, or databases yourself. That is the core appeal compared to going directly to a cloud provider like DigitalOcean or AWS, where you would be starting from a blank server.
Key advantages include:
- Server-level Varnish caching and Redis available out of the box
- One-click WordPress installs with the Breeze performance plugin included
- Free SSL certificates via Let’s Encrypt, renewed automatically
- Vertical server scaling without data migration
- Team collaboration and staging environments built into the dashboard
The platform is cloud-based, which means your server resources are not shared with other customers in the way they are on traditional shared hosting. For a detailed breakdown of how Cloudways compares to other options, see our Cloudways review. Before picking a server provider, our guide on what hosting supplier to choose on Cloudways covers the performance and pricing differences between DigitalOcean, Vultr, AWS, and others. If you are specifically considering AWS, our Amazon Web Services review covers what to expect.
Cloudways also offers a trial period so you can test the platform without committing to a paid plan from day one.
If something goes wrong during setup or later on, you can check the application logs directly from the Cloudways dashboard before opening a support ticket.
How to Set Up Cloudways: Step by Step
The full setup process covers six steps: creating your account, starting free, completing the signup form, deploying your first server, adding your WordPress application, and connecting your domain.
Step 1 – Go to the Cloudways Website
The first step is to open the Cloudways website. You can sign up for Cloudways using our link.
Step 2 – Click Start Free
On the Cloudways homepage you will see a ‘Start Free’ button in the top right corner. Click it to begin the account creation process. This opens the signup form without requiring a credit card upfront.
Step 3 – Complete the Signup Form
Cloudways gives you four ways to create an account: sign in with LinkedIn, GitHub, or Google, or fill in the short registration form manually. The manual form asks for your name, email address, and a password. It takes about two minutes to complete.
When you have finished, click ‘Start Free’ at the bottom of the form. You will be taken to the Cloudways dashboard and asked to verify your email address.
Step 4 – Deploy Your First Server
After verifying your email, Cloudways will prompt you to launch your first server. This is where you choose the infrastructure your WordPress site will run on.
You have six cloud provider options:
- DigitalOcean – Fast, affordable, and the most popular choice for WordPress sites. Good global coverage with data centers in the US, EU, Asia, and Australia.
- Vultr – Comparable to DigitalOcean in price and performance. Often slightly faster on raw benchmarks.
- Linode (Akamai) – A reliable alternative with competitive pricing.
- AWS – Higher capacity and more regions, but more expensive. Better suited to enterprise workloads.
- Google Cloud – Strong network infrastructure globally. Priced at a premium.
- Cloudflare – Edge-based deployment for latency-sensitive applications.
For a new WordPress site, DigitalOcean or Vultr on the smallest plan (1GB RAM / 1 CPU) is the right starting point. You can scale up later from the Cloudways dashboard without any migration.
Next, choose your server size. The entry-level plan is enough for a new site or a low-traffic blog. If you are moving an established WooCommerce store, start with at least 2GB RAM.
Finally, choose your server location. Pick the data center region closest to the majority of your visitors. If your audience is in the UK, choose London or Amsterdam. If it is in the US East Coast, choose New York.
Click Launch Now. Server provisioning takes about five to ten minutes.
Step 5 – Add Your First Application
Once your server is running, you need to add a WordPress application to it. From the Cloudways dashboard, click on your server name, then go to Applications and click Add Application.
You will be asked to choose an application type (select WordPress or WooCommerce if you are building a store), give the application a name, and choose the WordPress version.
Click Add Application and Cloudways will install WordPress on your server. This takes about a minute. Once it is done, you will see the application listed under your server with a temporary staging URL (something like app-id.cloudwaysapps.com). You can use that URL to build and test your site before pointing your real domain to it.
Cloudways installs the Breeze caching plugin automatically with each new WordPress application. It is already configured to work with Varnish, which is Cloudways’ server-level full-page cache. You can enable Varnish from Application Management > Application Settings. Once your site is live, see our guide on how to make Cloudways faster for WordPress for the full performance setup including Varnish, Redis, and CDN.
Step 6 – Connect Your Domain
When your WordPress site is ready to go live, you need to point your domain at the Cloudways server.
In Cloudways, go to Applications, select your application, then open Application Management > Domain Management. Enter your domain name (e.g. yoursite.com) and click Add Domain.
Next, log in to your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, or wherever your domain is registered) and update the DNS settings. You need to point the A record for your root domain to your Cloudways server IP address. You can find your server IP on the Cloudways server overview page.
DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours to propagate, though most complete within a few hours. Once propagation is done, your domain will resolve to your Cloudways WordPress site.
If you launched on the temporary staging URL and are now switching to your real domain, you may need to update the application domain name in Cloudways so WordPress knows which URL to use.
What to Do After Setup
Once your site is live, a few additional steps will protect your data and improve performance:
- Enable automatic backups: Go to Application Management and turn on scheduled backups. Daily backups stored off-server mean you can recover from any accidental change or hack.
- Redirect HTTP to HTTPS: Cloudways installs a free SSL certificate automatically. Make sure all traffic forces HTTPS from day one. See our guide on redirecting HTTP to HTTPS on Cloudways.
- Add more sites if needed: You can host multiple WordPress sites on one Cloudways server by adding new applications from the same server dashboard, which keeps costs down.
Final Word: How to Set Up Cloudways
Cloudways is a good way to get a WordPress site online with managed infrastructure, decent default performance settings, and room to grow. For a wider look at what Cloudways offers and how it compares to other hosts, read our Cloudways hosting guide. If you are still mapping out the full process from server creation through DNS, our setup and migration guide walks through every stage in order. If you already have a WordPress site to bring over rather than starting fresh, our step-by-step guide on how to migrate WordPress to Cloudways covers both the plugin method and manual SFTP steps. Once your server is live, it is also important to set up automatic backups on Cloudways to protect your site against data loss.
Once your server is live, you should also redirect HTTP to HTTPS on Cloudways to secure all visitor connections from day one.
