Cloudways Web Hosting Review 2023
4.7
Ranked 13 From 3855 Webhosting
Cloud Hosting $11.00 – S183
Great Britain ✓
Cloudways: REVIEWS AND EXPERT OPINION
4.7
$11 / mo.
Reg. Price $11 – Get 50% Off!
- Collaboration tools
- Pay-as-you-go prices
- Built-in caches
- Very stable hosting environment
Cloudways wordpress review
4.8
First, this Malta-based company works with five top cloud providers—DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud. These five provide the infrastructure, but you don’t need to set up a direct account with them as Cloudways will set things up for you. As a managed hosting platform, Cloudways will help you deploy your website in just several clicks and within a few minutes. It supports not only WordPress but also Joomla, Drupal, Larvel, Magento, PHP, and other open-source tools.
Easy-to-use site migration
Cloudways handles the migration of your site when you have to change hosts. I appreciate the one-click installation so you can easily move your site and get it running and functional for your customers and clients.
You can easily reach out to their experts to help move your website in one piece. Cloudways guarantees that your website will not have downtime throughout the migration process.
Other tools that can be used to migrate your website to Cloudways include configuration services like Apache and MySQL. You can also use Cloudways’ migrator tool to move your current WordPress site to the Cloudways hosting platform.
What is the Cloudways control panel for?
The control panel is where you manage everything related to your website’s hosting and accounts, including domain name management (hosting, registration, renewals, or transfers), email address/inbox configuration, and payments/billing for the services you receive.
Cloudways Built-in SSL certificate
One of the top Cloudways benefits is using a built-in, free SSL certificate that secures your site and allows you to communicate safely with your customers. The free SSL certificate is available on all hosting packages and plans and will help ensure your website adheres to Google’s recommended security practices, which can help boost your site rankings. if you want to try 90 days trial most secure SSL Certificate you can chose here.
How SSL certificates work
SSL certificates are small data files installed on website pages (log-in screens, payment pages, or online forms) that require users to submit sensitive information, such as names, credit card numbers, or passwords.
Essentially, SSL certificates serve one purpose: to bind together an identifier (domain name, server name, or hostname) and the identity of an organization. This proves the originator or the recipient of the files is who they say they are.
SSL certificates can also be installed on web servers, enabling a more secure HTTPS protocol and ensuring protected connections. see our review to top 10 free SSL certificate provider.
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Cloudways pricing
4.9
What you’ll pay for Cloudways depends on the cloud hosting provider that you choose and your server’s resources.
In general, the cheapest option is the $10 entry-level DigitalOcean server, which will already offer excellent performance. If you use our Cloudways coupon, it will be even cheaper.
You do not need to pay separately for the cloud hosting. The price that you see at Cloudways includes both the underlying cloud hosting charges and the charges for Cloudways.
Cloudways offered plans start at $7.50/month and can go as high as thousands of dollars a month. While it’s a huge gap, it can be explained by the different amounts of disk space, bandwidth, CPU, and RAM each service
provider includes.
Each hosting solution has its own pricing but the base features in the basic plans are the same – SSLs are free,
unlimited daily backups, and you can host unlimited websites or apps.
Now that we are on this topic, I think that such billing is super budget-friendly.
§ You don’t need to pre-pay – no huge stress on your bank account initially.
§ You always know what you’re paying for.
§ If a busy period comes, you can instantly increase your server resources and decrease them just as quickly after.
More so, Cloudways offers a 3-day free trial that does not require credit card details. It’s a convenient and risk-free way to test if the provider meets your expectations.
Honestly, the pricing department is the strength of Cloudways. They do charge more for added simplicity, but the billing concept and the possibility to scale up and down whenever is just amazing. Not to mention the absolutely free 3-day trial.
Cloudways Cloud Hosting
Webhostingplanets users get an exclusive 50% off A2 Hosting’s VPS Hosting !
(this discount will be applied automatically)
VPS Disk Space 150 GB
A2 Hosting vs. HostGator
We’ve all heard that it’s impolite to brag, but when comparing hosting providers, we typically let this rule slide.
See full comparison »
Cloudways Hosting Plan Features
4.8
Cloudways has an impressive selection of hosting plans to meet virtually any business owner’s needs. There are varying amounts of memory, storage space, power, and bandwidths, with the standard cloud-based hosting plan offering 1 GB of RAM, 25 GB of storage, 1 TB of bandwidth, and one core processor.
You will also get a one-click WordPlus installation and free, built-in site migration. Cloudways keeps your WordPress site functioning, fast, and easy to use through various features, including:
· Easy-to-use site migration
· Account management dashboard
· Free site builders
· One-click installation
· Two-factor authentication
· Auto-healing feature
· Technology to support faster site speeds
· Built-in SSL certificate
· Dedicated firewalls
How to install WordPress on Cloudways?
While not strictly one-click, the process of installing a new application like WordPress is one that you can do even while being blindfolded.
Head to “Applications” and click on “+ Add Application.” The list of applications is quite limited – WordPress,
WordPress+WooCommerce, Magento, Laravel, and “custom PHP app.” The last one means that you can install any
PHP-based app, but you’ll have to do that manually. For me, it looks like an unfinished tool as other hosting providers are capable of offering hundreds of apps automatically.
Thankfully, WordPress is there, and it is the primary choice for many users. In any case, just choose the wanted application from the list and it will be installed and will appear in the “Applications” section.
How to add a domain name to Cloudways?
To add a domain to your Cloudways-hosted application, you’ll need to point that domain to your server. That’s because Cloudways does not sell or provide domain names. It doesn’t even have its own name servers.
As tricky as it sounds, it’s actually very simple. But to do this successfully, you have to have these things:
§ A domain name in any registrar that you like (e.g. GoDaddy, NameCheap, Uniregistry, Hostinger, etc.),
§ Possibility to log in to that domain registrar,
§ Find your Cloudways server IP address (it’s written in the “Servers” window by your server name).
Head to “Your Application” and select “Domain Management.” Insert your domain of choice here. As for me, I purchased a domain, specifically for this purpose.
Yes, there were several faster web hosts. Hostinger, for example, is one of Namecheap’s closest competitors in terms of price. And they had slightly faster load times.
But Namecheap also beat many other web hosts for speed, all of which are more expensive. One of them (Kinsta) costs many times the price of Namecheap.
And you can see in the table below that their speeds have been consistently good for the last two years.
2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
Page Load Time in Seconds | |||
2.39 | 1.56 | 1.29 | |
3.15 | 2.01 | 1.30 | |
3.40 | 1.94 | 1.44 | |
2.32 | 1.73 | 1.46 | |
2.14 | 1.54 | 1.56 | |
4.19 | 1.61 | 1.63 | |
2.21 | 1.65 | 1.66 | |
– | 1.60 | 1.69 | |
3.28 | 1.84 | 1.75 | |
2.98 | 1.77 | 1.82 | |
3.07 | 2.87 | 2.07 | |
– | 1.95 | 2.32 | |
4.36 | 2.75 | 2.58 | |
4.19 | 2.76 | 2.60 | |
3.77 | 2.78 | 2.72 | |
Results in seconds
Namecheap claims that it’s their genuine cloud based technology that is responsible for such impressive speed. And it also seems to be doing wonders for their reliability…
4.7
Easy-to-use website builder is great for first-timers, and the team offers done-for-you website building
4.7
Stellar uptime in testing. Excellent dedicated hosting plans. Offers a choice of Linux or Windows servers
4.7
Utilizing SSD-only storage for files and databases storage and providing Global CDN access
While Cloudways does use the unique cloud hosting approach that we mentioned in the introduction, Cloudways still offers a suite of features that compares favorably with more “traditional” hosting providers.
First, let’s talk about the hosting environment itself. Cloudways configures your server with a hybrid “Apache + Nginx” stack. It then offers multiple caching layers to improve performance including Nginx, Varnish, and Memcached. There’s also an option to easily install Redis.
When Cloudways sets up your server, it will automatically implement all of this, along with securing your server and keeping everything updated.
Beyond that, Cloudways offers the following useful features:
§ Automatic server-level backups and on-demand single-site backups
§ Staging sites
§ Free WordPress performance plugin called Breeze
§ Site cloning
§ Free SSL certificates
§ Built-in content delivery network (CDN)
§ SMTP at the server level for transactional emails
§ Bot protection
§ Cron job management
§ Basic server monitoring
§ Option to add team members for collaboration
You’ll see a lot of these features in more depth later in our review.
To kick off our hands-on Cloudways review, let’s run some performance tests. After all, performance is one of the most important considerations in any hosting provider.
To test Cloudways’s performance, we set up a real test site using the popular Astra theme and a full demo site. Our test site also includes the Breeze performance optimization plugin, which Cloudways installs by default.
For our server, we’re using the cheapest $10/month DigitalOcean server.
Then, we ran it through two website speed test tools:
§ WebPageTest with a throttled FIOS connection to collect one-off performance metrics. We ran nine tests and took the median value.
§ Load Focus to see how Cloudways holds up under scale. We hit our site with 20 visitors in a 60-second period.
Cloudways Alternatives
Namecheap vs Hostpapa
Plan Cost
As low as per $2.95 per Month
Money back guarantee
30 days
Basic Plan Storage
100 GB SSD
Cloudways FAQ's
What are the disadvantages of Cloudways?
Limited Trial Period. Despite their simplified pricing structure, Cloudways does have one main con in the pricing area… and that’s their limited trial period. Usually hosting platforms will come with some sort of guarantee or trial period, so you can test them out before you commit.
Is Cloudways a web host?
As a top-class WordPress hosting provider, Cloudways delivers on all three factors for growing WordPress websites – at a price point that resembles shared hosting.
How many websites can be hosted on Cloudways?
On Cloudways hosting, you can launch as many websites as you like. There is no cap on this.
How long is Cloudways free trial?
The free trial lasts for three days. After that, you’ll need to pay for a plan.
Who Should Choose Cloudways?
· New businesses: Cloudways is an ideal option for small businesses that are looking for reliable, affordable web hosting.
· Entrepreneurs: if you are looking for an easy-to-use web host provider at a great price, Cloudways allows you to grow as your business does.
· E-commerce: Cloudways’ stand-out features include their stable systems, which ensure that when a consumer visits your site, it’s functioning as designed so you can increase revenue and keep customers happy.
· Personal websites: Whether you run a blog or other personal websites, Cloudways is affordable with impressive security features.
What are some good Cloudways alternatives for cloud hosting?
Pros & Cons of Using Cloudways Web Hosting
Pros
- Easily upgrade your plan to a dedicated server or VPS without moving your website
- 24/7 live chat support
- Collaboration tools
- Pay-as-you-go prices
- Extensive security features including a free SSL, IPs, and SiteLock protection
- Solid state drive (SSD)-based hosting
- Flexible and customizable hosting plans
- Built-in caches
- Auto healing features
- Very stable hosting environment
Cons
- Email hosting not included Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a $4.99 a month add-on
- Complicated UI design
CLOUDWAYS REVIEW: BOTTOM LINE
4.9
If you want the power of cloud hosting but prefer not to fuss with the technical details of setting your site up all by yourself or hiring a developer to do things for you, Cloudways’ managed hosting services will help you leverage the power of the cloud for your own nefarious purposes … I mean, for your own website.
If you’re not sure if Cloudways is the right solution for you, you can find some excellent hosting solutions for the simplest website to the most complex project in our list of the top web hosting services in 2023.
Cloudways Coupon Discounts
There is currently is an active Cloudways Coupon / Cloudways Discount available. When ordering your plan, enter WPCRAFTER for the promo code to receive 20% off your first invoice. Also, if you do order Cloudways through the link on this website, I will give you access to one of my premium training course which normally sells for $99.
Cloudways: What I Liked About It
Cloudways is quite easy to use. Building websites and adding apps are done with just a few clicks. WordPress, Magento, and other apps can be automatically installed. If you have an old site, Cloudways can quickly help you migrate through the custom plug-in.
Some users who are more familiar using cPanel, however, may get some surprises here. However, I’m sure they won’t get lost with Cloudways’ control panel. The Monitoring and Vertical Scaling tabs under Server Management are worth the mention. These two will let you monitor your server’s performance at a glance and provide insights when it’s high time to scale up.
Unlike shared hosting, Cloudways is a managed hosting provider so you won’t have to worry about your website all the time. It uses several technologies, like its own CloudwaysCDN, to ensure speedy page loading and site performance. Moreover, the staging, cloning, and the temporary URL are features that should be welcomed by new users.
Lastly, there’s the flexible, “pay-as-you-go” pricing which you can tailor depending on what you need. You can scale up or scale down your hosting plan as desired. There’s also a free three-day trial which, while short, should be enough to test Cloudways’ features.
Cloudways: What I Don’t Like About It
Cloudways is a fully-managed hosting platform. So if you want to have control over how your site runs (like having root access), then Cloudways might not be suited to your liking. Moreover, you’re out of luck if you want to create a custom app in a programming language not named PHP. However, I think these issues would only affect developers and advanced users.
Cloudways also doesn’t have domain name registration, though you’ll be given a temporary URL for a start. Some people may not like the fact that Cloudways doesn’t have email hosting, though lacking such a feature is arguably beneficial in some situations.
While there are several support channels, this is one area where Cloudways needs to improve on. During those times I contacted support, I am getting an inaccurate or a too technical response, or my ticket takes a long time to get resolved.
Conclusion
Cloudways is a scalable, fully-managed, cloud-based web hosting provider. While the pricing can be confusing at first, the plans offer great flexibility so you can choose the right plan that will meet your demands. The “pay-as-you-go” model makes Cloudways ideal for businesses and users who have a limited budget for hosting their websites. Moreover, such a pricing structure ensures you won’t get locked up in a lengthy, expensive subscription plan.
The custom control panel of Cloudways makes things easy for users who are unfamiliar with command lines and are entirely new to website building. While Cloudways offers several one-click integrations, it still lags behind some of its biggest competitors.
Overall, Cloudways is one of those cloud-based hosting companies that strike a nice balance between affordability and features. By partnering with five of the top cloud providers out there, Cloudways offers cloud-based hosting services that are made for speed, performance, and reliability. If you’re still unsure about Cloudways, there’s always the free three-day trial for you to test out its services.