Cloudways Review

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform, not a traditional web host. Instead of owning servers, Cloudways lets you spin up servers on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode (Akamai Cloud), Amazon Web Services, or Google Cloud Platform from a single dashboard and handles server management tasks like security patches, caching, and backups for you.

This review covers who Cloudways is best for, how the pricing works, what the platform is genuinely good at, and where it falls short compared to simpler shared hosts or fully managed WordPress hosts.

Who Is Cloudways For?

Cloudways sits between shared hosting and self-managed VPS. It is a good fit if you:

• Want cloud server performance without managing Linux yourself
• Run WordPress and want reliable uptime with server-level caching (Varnish, Redis, Memcached)
• Need to host multiple client sites on one server and pay per server, not per site
• Are migrating from shared hosting and want meaningful speed and resource improvements
• Need flexibility to switch cloud providers without changing your management workflow

Cloudways is a harder sell if you need a domain registrar, built-in email hosting, or a one-click website builder. Those features are intentionally out of scope.

Cloudways Pricing

Cloudways charges per server per hour, billed monthly. You pay for the underlying cloud server at the provider’s rate plus Cloudways’s management fee. The combined costs as of 2025:

• DigitalOcean 1 GB RAM / 1 vCPU / 25 GB SSD: approximately $11 per month. Best for low-traffic WordPress sites or staging environments.
• DigitalOcean 2 GB RAM / 1 vCPU / 50 GB SSD: approximately $22 per month. Handles a moderate-traffic WordPress site comfortably.
• Vultr 1 GB / 1 vCPU / 25 GB SSD: approximately $11 to $13 per month depending on region.
• Linode 2 GB / 1 vCPU / 50 GB SSD: approximately $22 per month.
• AWS and GCP: Higher entry costs, starting around $36 per month for small instances, with pricing varying more by region and instance type.

There is no contract and no setup fee. You can pause or delete a server at any time. Cloudways also runs a free 3-day trial that does not require a credit card. For a full breakdown of setup costs and first-month configuration, see the Cloudways setup and migration guide. If you are unsure which cloud provider to select at signup, our guide on which Cloudways hosting supplier to choose compares all five providers by price, location, and use case.

Why Use Cloudways for WordPress?

Cloudways is well-regarded in the WordPress community for consistent TTFB performance and a simpler management experience than a raw VPS. Key reasons people choose it:

• Multi-layer caching: Every WordPress install gets Breeze (the Cloudways caching plugin), Varnish at the server level, and optional Redis object caching. This stack handles high-traffic pages without expensive server upgrades.
• One-click WordPress staging: Clone any application to a staging environment with a single click from the Cloudways dashboard. Push changes to live when ready.
• Free migrator plugin: The Cloudways Migrator plugin moves an existing WordPress site to your new server at no extra cost. You can also migrate manually via SSH and WP-CLI if you prefer. Moving from SiteGround specifically? The SiteGround to Cloudways migration guide covers SG Optimizer removal, email migration, and the DNS cutover.
• Multiple CMS options: Beyond WordPress, Cloudways supports Magento, WooCommerce, Joomla, Drupal, Laravel, and custom PHP applications.
• Choice of five cloud providers: DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and GCP. You can read our individual reviews of Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services for deeper comparisons. You can also host multiple websites on one Cloudways server, since billing is per server, not per application.

Cloudways Pros and Cons

After using the platform across multiple projects, here is an honest assessment:

• Pro: Genuine server-level performance at shared-hosting prices. A $22 DigitalOcean server handles more concurrent visitors than a typical $30 shared plan.
• Pro: Pay-per-hour billing with no lock-in. You can scale up for a traffic spike and scale back down without penalty.
• Pro: Strong uptime record. Cloudways passes SLA compliance responsibility to the underlying cloud provider (DigitalOcean, AWS, etc.) rather than owning it, and provider uptime is typically 99.95% or higher.
• Con: No domain registration. You must buy domains from a separate registrar (Namecheap, Google Domains, etc.) and point them at your server.
• Con: No built-in email hosting. You need Google Workspace, Zoho Mail, or a similar third-party provider for business email.
• Con: No file manager in the dashboard. You manage files via SSH/SFTP or a third-party plugin. That said, you can view application logs and reset file permissions directly from the Application Settings panel.
• Con: Technical support assumes some server knowledge. Live chat is available 24/7, but support quality for complex issues varies, and the most detailed help is in the documentation rather than from agents.

Cloudways Security and Backups

Cloudways handles OS-level security patching automatically. The platform includes a dedicated firewall per server and offers free SSL certificate installation via Let’s Encrypt. After installing the certificate, enabling the HTTP to HTTPS redirect on Cloudways takes about 30 seconds. For WordPress specifically, you also get two-factor authentication for Cloudways dashboard access.

Backups are automated at the application level. You set the frequency (hourly down to every 8 hours) and retention period from the application settings panel. It is also good practice to run manual backups before any major change. See our guides on server-level backups and application-level backups on Cloudways.

For SSL setup, firewall configuration, and WordPress hardening, the Cloudways security and SSL guide covers the full setup in order.

Performance and Speed

Real-world TTFB benchmarks for Cloudways WordPress installs on DigitalOcean typically come in under 300ms for a cached page and under 800ms for an uncached PHP request on a 1 GB server. Enabling Redis object caching reduces database query load on WooCommerce stores and high-comment sites significantly.

For the full caching stack explanation and hands-on speed tuning steps (Varnish, Redis, Breeze, OPcache, Core Web Vitals), see the Cloudways performance and speed guide.

Server location matters. Choosing the nearest DigitalOcean region to your main audience is one of the cheapest speed improvements available on Cloudways. For guidance on which region to pick, see the article on choosing the best Cloudways server location. Adding Cloudflare in front of your Cloudways server further improves global load times and adds DDoS protection. See the guide on using Cloudflare with Cloudways for the tradeoffs and setup steps.

Cloudways Management Features

The Cloudways dashboard covers most day-to-day management without touching the command line:

• Scale server RAM and storage from the Server Management panel
• Set up and schedule cron jobs from Application Settings
• Configure server-level redirects and SSL settings
• View PHP error logs, access logs, and web server logs from the Logs tab
• Clone applications to staging with one click

For step-by-step guides on common tasks, see our how-to sections on scaling a Cloudways server, running cron jobs on Cloudways, and installing SSL on Cloudways.

Cloudways Support: What to Actually Expect

Support is one of the most discussed topics in Cloudways communities, and the honest picture is mixed. The platform offers 24/7 live chat, ticketing, and a knowledge base. For straightforward questions about the dashboard, billing, or DNS setup, live chat response times are typically under five minutes and the agents are competent. Where things get inconsistent is with server-level issues that require debugging outside the standard Cloudways stack.

• Managed tasks scope: Cloudways covers OS-level patches, stack updates, and infrastructure problems. It does not debug your WordPress plugins, theme conflicts, or application code. If your site is slow because of a badly-written plugin, support will tell you to investigate the application layer yourself.
• Platform-level bugs: When a Cloudways-managed component (Varnish, Redis, the Breeze plugin, a stack upgrade) causes a problem, support takes ownership and resolves it. These cases are handled well.
• Phone support: Not available on any plan. All support is chat and ticket-based. If phone access is a hard requirement for your organisation, Cloudways is not the right fit.
• Add-on: Cloudways Bot (AI agent): Cloudways launched an AI assistant for common tasks like application setup and basic troubleshooting. It handles routine queries quickly, though it redirects to a human agent for anything non-standard.

The best mitigant for support gaps is the documentation. Cloudways maintains thorough guides for most platform tasks, and their community forum resolves many configuration questions faster than chat. Budget time to self-serve for WordPress-level issues rather than assuming Cloudways support covers everything end-to-end.

When to Switch From Shared Hosting to Cloudways

Most people move to Cloudways from shared hosts like Bluehost, SiteGround, or HostGator when shared hosting stops keeping up. The signals that it is time to make that move:

• Recurring “resource limit reached” errors: Shared plans enforce CPU caps that trigger 503 errors during traffic spikes. If this happens more than once per week, you are outgrowing the shared environment.
• TTFB over 600ms consistently: A well-configured Cloudways server on DigitalOcean typically delivers TTFB under 300ms for cached pages. If GTmetrix or WebPageTest shows your current host consistently above 600ms, the bottleneck is likely server capacity, not your code.
• WooCommerce checkout slowdowns: Shared hosting's PHP process limits hit hardest during checkout, where concurrent sessions all need uncached PHP responses. Even a $22 DigitalOcean server on Cloudways handles WooCommerce checkout load far better than a $30 shared plan.
• You are running multiple client sites: Cloudways bills per server, not per site. Once you have three or more WordPress sites, consolidating them on one $22 Cloudways server is usually cheaper than three separate shared accounts and offers better isolation and performance per site.

The main thing you give up moving to Cloudways is the all-in-one convenience of shared hosting (domain, email, and site under one login). If you can handle those separately through a registrar and a transactional email service, Cloudways handles the rest.

Verdict: Is Cloudways Worth It?

Cloudways is the right choice if you are outgrowing shared hosting, want cloud server performance without a Linux sysadmin skill requirement, and can live without built-in email and domain registration. The value proposition is strong in the $11 to $50 per month range: you get dedicated resources, a mature management dashboard, and genuine flexibility to switch providers without migrating your workflow.

If you want an all-in-one with a website builder, email, and a domain under one roof, a shared host like Bluehost or SiteGround will be less friction. If you want even more control than Cloudways offers, a raw VPS from DigitalOcean or Linode gives you full root access. Cloudways sits in a practical middle ground, and for WordPress developers and growing businesses it hits that ground consistently.

For a full walkthrough of getting started, see our complete Cloudways hosting guide. Ready to create an account? Follow the step-by-step Cloudways setup guide from signup through to a live domain. For the ongoing maintenance routine covering backups, cron jobs, monitoring, and server alerts, see our Cloudways management and maintenance guide. For the full Cloudways speed optimisation stack including Varnish tuning, PHP workers, Redis, and CDN choices, see our Cloudways performance and speed guide. If you are currently on SiteGround and considering the move, our step-by-step guide on how to migrate from SiteGround to Cloudways covers the SiteGround-specific plugins, DNS cutover, and what to expect performance-wise after the switch.