Start a smooth hosting journey with Cloudways, a managed cloud hosting provider. Cloudways helps your online businesses succeed with performance, reliability, and cutting-edge technology. It's ideal for all web hosting needs due to its user-friendly platform for beginners and experts.
As a website owner and hosting expert with a lot of experience, I’ve looked at a lot of companies like Cloudways, which stands out even though it doesn’t have its own data centers. In this review, I’ll talk about their plans, pricing, customer service, and how well it works for small and medium-sized companies.
Cloudways is a dedicated cloud hosting provider/affiliate that helps small to mid-sized businesses with tailored cloud hosting solutions sourced from five other popular cloud giants – DigitalOcean, VULTR, Linode, AWS and GoogleCloud. They are also partnered with CloudFlare, malcare, and Object cache Pro. Founded in 2012, the company now serves over 570,000 websites and continues to help them with the right cloud solutions for their needs. Cloudways also offers managed WordPress and reseller hosting packages.
Cloudways boasts a commendable rating of 4.6 stars from both Hostadvice (536 reviews) and Trustpilot (1,805 reviews). These ratings illuminate the trust and satisfaction of their diverse clientele. While Cloudways, being headquartered in Malta, does not have a BBB rating, the feedback from major review platforms speaks volumes about their consistent performance.
In my perspective, Cloudways epitomizes excellence in managed cloud hosting, presenting a harmonious blend of performance, flexibility, and exceptional customer service, making it a top pick for discerning webmasters.
Cloudways
Unlock the power of managed cloud hosting with Cloudways. Experience unparalleled speed, robust reliability, and tailor-made features built for modern online ventures. Elevate your web presence effortlessly with Cloudways.
Unlock the power of managed cloud hosting with Cloudways. Experience unparalleled speed, robust reliability, and tailor-made features built for modern online ventures. Elevate your web presence effortlessly with Cloudways.
Hosting providers come in all shapes and sizes… with different plans and pricings… and even more features. How do you compare the vast number of hosting providers based on the goodies they offer?
Our experts at HostAdvice have developed a detailed rating methodology with different factors to consider and specific scores to give each host, based on how they perform in the said factors.
Parameter
Score
Why we gave this score
PRICES
9.0
Cloudways offers different pricing tiers depending on the cloud provider you choose and whether you want ‘Standard’ or ‘Premium’ plans. I give them a 9.0 because compared to other cloud providers, they are affordable.
FEATURES
9.0
Vast cloud packages, CloudFlare-compatibility, SSD servers, free SSL, free migration, and other features make Cloudways feature-heavy. However, I’d give them an 8.5 because they only offer cloud hosting.
PERFORMANCE
9.5
254 ms response time, 99.9% uptime, SSD servers and storage, and incredible load times make the host among the high performers. I’d give them a 9.5 because they’re fast.
USER FRIENDLINESS
9.0
Cloudways intuitive control panel, incredibly organized UI, and 1-click installs make the host very user-friendly. However, cPanel die-hards may frown. I’d give them a 9.0 because the control panel may be a little technical to understand at first.
SUPPORT
8.5
Live chat, ticketing, phone support, private Slack channel, and a vast knowledgebase. However, I’d give them an 8.5 as Cloudways does not offer video guides and most of its support is reserved for paid customers.
Cloudways Prices & Plans – 2024
Cloudways can be a little technical to understand as they don’t offer their own hosting plans. The best way to understand their services is that they act as a reseller – optimizing the packages from five other cloud providers and then reselling a much more tailored plan to you.
They offer cloud hosting plans from five providers – DigitalOcean, VULTR, Linode, AWS, and GoogleCloud… as well as WordPress optimized plans, also from the same providers.
While Cloudways doesn’t say much on a money-back guarantee, they do offer a 3-day (no credit card) free trial and once you commit, you only pay for what you use. And when you do decide to commit to Cloudways, you can pay via credit card and Paypal, plus wire transfer for transactions above $1000.
Cloudways is special among most other hosting providers thanks to their model. By implementing five other providers, they give you access to over 65 data centers around the world. Incredible!
Asides from the features already provided by each of these providers, you also get Cloudways’ own features that are must-haves for your website’s performance and security.
Performance
This review won’t be complete without testing Cloudways performance – speed, uptime, and load times. If you’re planning to host your website on their platform, how quickly would your website load when a user visits?
To get values on the host’s performance metrics, I tested https://apps.geo.tv,a website hosted on Cloudways on GTMetrix to see how they scored.
These were the results:
On GTMetrix, the website had an impressive 254 ms response and a fully loaded time of 1.7s. The site also has an impressive overall performance of 96%:
Do note that the overall performance is not the same as the uptime. Cloudways promises a 99.9% uptime – i.e your website will be online 99.9% of the time (which has now become the industry’s standard).
Cloudways
Unlock the power of managed cloud hosting with Cloudways. Experience unparalleled speed, robust reliability, and tailor-made features built for modern online ventures. Elevate your web presence effortlessly with Cloudways.
Live chat is a must-have for any hosting provider where you’ll get support directly from a live agent. So I tested Cloudways live chat but couldn’t find it. Even after signing up on the platform, you need to activate a server before you can get the live chat support.
Thanks to their no credit card policy, I was able to chat with an agent and they were very knowledgeable and responded promptly:
Phone
However, their phone support is only available on their Premium support plans.
Ticketing
If you don’t have an emergency, you can request support via a ticket and you’ll be contacted within 24 hours:
A vast knowledgebase
And for self help? Their vast knowledgebase with a built-in search engine will give you to answers to most questions quickly:
A private Slack channel
Cloudways also offers support via a private Slack channel (quite unique) but also only available on their Premium plans.
Cloudways
Unlock the power of managed cloud hosting with Cloudways. Experience unparalleled speed, robust reliability, and tailor-made features built for modern online ventures. Elevate your web presence effortlessly with Cloudways.
It is very easy and straightforward to register and sign up on Cloudways. Their free trial allows you to create an account and have access to your dashboard without needing to specify the features you want immediately.
From the pricing page, just click ‘Start for free’
You’ll be asked to put in your name, email, and your account password. Next, you’ll be sent an activation email which once you click, will lead you to Cloudways intuitive control panel.
Cloudways Control Panel
Cloudways offers its own customized control panel – a cPanel alternative.
It is incredibly intuitive and from here, you can choose the provider and plans you want. Cloudways did an awesome job at making it easy to manage your hosting plans without the nostalgia of cPanel – and is exceptionally great for beginners.
Installing WordPress on Cloudways
Cloudways offers WordPress-optimized hosting that makes it easy to install and launch your WP packages in one click.
Once your account is active, under Application & Server details, Choose ‘WordPress’ and then name the Application & server, and finally click ‘select your project’
Next select the provider you want from the size and then specify the resources you’ll be needing. Next choose your server location and click ‘Launch now’:
Once your server is ready, go to ‘Applications’ > ‘WordPress’ > ‘Access details’ then ‘Admin panel’.
From there, you’ll be able to see your WordPress login details and temporary URL.
Add an email account with Cloudways
Cloudways doesn’t offer their native email hosting but has partnered with Rackspace – and it will cost you an extra $ 1/month.
You can use the Rackspace email add-on to add emails and manage them. Simply click the grid icon on your account homepage and click ‘Add-ons’. Then the edit icon beside ‘Rackspace email’:
Next simply fill in your email address and password and you’ll have it ready. Do note that for first-timers, you’ll need to configure your DNS records and it’s better to contact their support for help if you’re not very technical.
Cloudways Alternatives
Hostinger
Hostinger is an excellent choice for individuals and small businesses looking for an affordable yet reliable hosting solution. Its balance of price, performance, and user-friendly features make it a strong contender in the web hosting market, especially for those on a tight budget.
However, websites with higher traffic or storage needs might have to consider higher-tier plans or alternative providers.
Liquid Web is a premium managed hosting provider offering a range of high-performance services like dedicated, VPS, cloud, and managed WordPress hosting. It’s known for fully managed services, exceptional support, high reliability, scalability, and advanced security features.
While it excels in customer service and uptime, its high cost and complexity make it less suitable for small sites or those on tight budgets. Ideal for businesses and professionals needing robust hosting solutions, Liquid Web’s offerings ensure that customers receive tailored, high-quality hosting experiences.
Despite not providing their own in-house hosting services, Cloudways is a remarkable third-party hosting provider that gives you far more flexibility and resource control than you’d get if you purchased plans from the cloud providers directly.
They have an exceptional server footprint for superb response times, a customized control panel that rebelliously makes website management super easy, and also offer the most versatile plans on the market.
I recommend Cloudways as the go-to cloud provider if you are looking for scalable resources that can serve every kind of business.
Cloudways
Unlock the power of managed cloud hosting with Cloudways. Experience unparalleled speed, robust reliability, and tailor-made features built for modern online ventures. Elevate your web presence effortlessly with Cloudways.
While Cloudways excels at offering managed cloud hosting, some users may seek alternatives for a variety of specific reasons. You might consider other providers if you’re looking for more traditional hosting plans that include dedicated servers, require specialized integrations that are not supported by Cloudways, or are seeking a platform with a different pricing model that doesn’t charge based on server usage. To find a hosting solution tailored to your unique specifications, dive into our detailed guide on the 10 Best Cloudways Alternatives.
Cloudways is a good cloud hosting platform that allows you to manage your cloud server with ease from a useful GUI rather than dealing with CLI and complicated scripting.
It used to be a good service, however, in the last months, there were some unpleasant changes to the service: - their support is not the same as it used to be (you have to pay extra to get a better support). - They increased their prices (for no reason) which made them more pricier than before for example a VPS the costs $6 at Vultr costs $16 at Cloudways (they charge 167% of the VPS price for managing it!). - They removed Vultr & Linode from providers (after DigitalOcean acquisition).
Had to move my site from a painfully slow server. The migration was painless using their wp migration app tool. Needed some help to point dns and set up mail but chat support was really helpful, prompt and always available. So far, so good. Really impressed.
This site is protected with the best service provider. Since I tried these tools, I never had any problem, therefore, I give a 100% rate. They fulfill their obligations, their services were designed to host critical servers and computer systems,Their technicians are reactive and efficient, they are experts in their work.
Hello carla, thank you for the 10/10 review. We are glad to hear that you are 100% happy with our services and platform. As a customer focused company we do whatever is the best for our customer because we believe that if you grow, we grow.
very bad service, compicated platform, you are alone, ... very dad service
my last message for them https://platform.cloudways.com/server I just want to have my money back Your plateform is bad Impossible to use To complicated I want my money back robbers
Après avoir lu tous les bons commentaires laissés par hostadvice.com, je me suis laissé faire ... J'ai pris un abonnement CDN à l'année directement avec cloudways, quelle catastrophe. J'ai fais confiance .. Je suis rentré dans leur système CDN pour installer et choisir mon serveur. Déjà il m'a fallu au moins 2 heures pour essayé de comprendre leur système d'exploitation. Tout cela est très brouillon, le prix est attractif, mais les services derrière il n'y a plus personne. Vous vous trouvez seul face à leur interface de très mauvaise qualité et incompréhensible. Au bout de 3 heures , j'ai demandé un remboursement intégral, ou un basculement sur un service d'hébergement partagé, aucune réponse. Je dis bien aucune réponse de leur part. Il m'ont indiqué au tchat que j'avais payé et que c'était trop tard et qu'il fallait réfléchir avant. On sent bien qu'ils sont là uniquement pour faire de l'argent sans proposer de véritable service derrière. Des gens malhonnêtes. Gardez votre argent ou prenez un autre hébergeur mais surtout ne donner pas votre argent à cette organisation douteuse. Merci de votre lecture pour ces propos vrais, vécus et sincères. Le but étant de vous alerter Merci
We are sorry for the unpleasant experience you had with our services. We are eager to learn more about the elements you found complicated in our platform so that we can look into it and further improve them for our existing and future customers.
Please share your details and registered email address with us on pr[@]cloudways[dot]com so we can investigate further on your refund request.
Please accept our sincere apology and let us serve you better in the future.
Yes, it does. Cloudways comes with a modern combination of Nginx and Apache servers that promise better performance and provide outstanding eCommerce plans.
What is a ‘pay-as-you-go’ system?
The ‘pay-as-you-go- system allows you to only pay for the time when you use their services and not for the entire month/year. This is an excellent feature that allows a smooth experience.
What paying methods does Cloudways hosting support?
Cloudways hosting comes with a variety of paying methods. This web host provider supports payments through Credit and Debit Cards, such as Visa, MasterCard, and Amex, and it also supports PayPal. But that’s not all. This highly ranked web host also supports the Wire Transfer service, which is only accessible on a minimum purchase of $1000.
Where is Cloudways located?
Cloudways is located in Malta, Europe, but nowadays, it has servers in many countries around the world.
Does Cloudways provide a free migration?
What I absolutely loved about this web host is that it comes with an option for free migration of one website, and things get even better if you want to transfer your WordPress website. This cloud hosting platform also has a WordPress migration plugin.
Does Cloudways come with email hosting?
Yes, you can use email hosting, but keep in mind that it requires extra fees. You can freely subscribe to their Rackspace Email add-on that costs $1/month for one email account.
When not to use Cloudways hosting?
If you are a complete beginner in the world of web hosting, you can consider beginning with shared hosting providers that offer an easy-to-use interface. However, if you are ready for some greater challenges, you can definitely purchase one of Cloudways’ plans.
Can I get help with moving my website to Cloudways?
Their support team is available 24/7 for everything you need. However, after signing in, you can watch a tutorial that shows how to migrate your WordPress account to Cloudways.
HostAdvice.com provides professional web hosting reviews fully independent of any other entity. Our reviews are unbiased, honest, and apply the same evaluation standards to all those reviewed.While monetary compensation is received from a few of the companies listed on this site, compensation of services and products have no influence on the direction or conclusions of our reviews. Nor does the compensation influence our rankings for certain host companies.This compensation covers account purchasing costs, testing costs and royalties paid to reviewers.
4.9Claim DealSpecial Coupons Deals Hosting Flash Sale: 25% OFF all hosting services
4.6Claim DealSpecial Coupons Deals Limited Offer: 10% Off Hostinger Hosting and Website Builder! + FREE Domain
4.8Claim DealSpecial Coupons Deals Get 50% OFF first 3 months on VPS Cloud Server
4.9Claim DealSpecial Coupons Deals 55% OFF on the yearly plan
