Cloudways Web Hosting Review (2023)

A good hosting provider is integral to having a successful web presence.

Without a reliable hosting provider, your site will experience frequent downtime, which can harm conversions and rankings.

Hopefully, this comprehensive Cloudways review will help make that process easier.

I’ve spent the last decade in the world of web design, and have familiarized myself with countless different hosting providers.

With my background knowledge and the dedicated research of the TYB team, this review has become possible.

Let’s get into it!

What is Cloudways?

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform.

It’s quite unconventional, though, especially when compared to other hosting solutions like DreamHost, Hostinger, and HostGator.

Firstly, Cloudways only offers cloud hosting. No traditional hosting like shared or dedicated to be found in their services offered.

It doesn’t stop there, though.

Their cloud hosting options are also unique. They utilize clustered servers to evenly distribute your website load on a pay-as-you-go plan that allows for a special variety of scalability.

They offer a variety of plans from a diverse provider selection, too, rather than reselling from one cloud provider and leaving the customer out.

Some of these cloud providers include DigitalOcean, their parent company, as well as Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, Vultr, and more.

Compared to sites like DreamHost, Cloudways is still relatively new in the world of web hosts with its conception in 2012.

Since then, the company has successively scaled up to 280+ employees committed to serving advanced and unique cloud hosting solutions.

So, what did we think of Cloudways here at Tweak Your Biz?

Read on for a general summary, then a review of our experience with each cloud network provider.

General Cloudways Review

At TYB, we make a point to comprehensively test every hosting platform as we become aware of them.

As such, this Cloudways review is backed by:

• Independent lab testing using WordPress CMS
• Personal experience with the platform
• Third-party review research
• Site scouring to ensure we’re covering all its features

We chose to judge Cloudways primarily by the unique cloud hosting services it offers.

As such, our comparisons to other hosting providers will only include their cloud hosting plans. No points docked in the Cloudways review for a lack of traditional hosting.

Here’s what we discovered!

Overall Performance — 8/10

• Automated backups
• Server access if desired
• Intuitive site-building on WordPress site with staging area
• Reliable security features
• Cloudways customer support is expert-level
• Top-tier uptime
• Missing some important features like domain registration and email hosting
• PHP-based solutions for options like WordPress website, Magento store, etc.
• Free WordPress cache plugin

Speed — 8.5/10

• 2-second load time on average
• 63 millisecond response time

Uptime — 10/10

• 60+ data centers around the world
• 9.99% uptime
• Site didn’t go down even once during our month-long test

Customer Service — 8/10

• 24/7/365 expert help from Cloudways Support — they can’t guarantee total access to their cloud providers and server resources, though
• Highly responsive over web chat
• Option for phone call or Skype video call if you request through a form
• Premium Support available with an extra fee on a private Slack channel
• Credit provided against next monthly invoice if service isn’t met
• No assistance with SEO, site appearance, plugin functionality, app-level security, code editing, migration to another provider, or plugin upgrades

Ease of Use — 7.5/10

• Cloudways site commitment to “removing the complexity around cloud hosting”
• Managed hosting comes with daily backups and site monitoring so you aren’t left to configure uptime on your own
• Free site migrations if you’re already running a site with another provider
• Huge host of online server resources
• We found that the platform was easy to navigate once your plan was set up
• Configuration is potentially confusing to beginners, especially when it comes to domain registration and third-party apps
• No cPanel

Hosting Options Offered

• Managed WordPress Hosting from Cloud Servers
• eCommerce functionality from WooCommerce and Magento
• Reseller Hosting
• Laravel Integration
• PHP Hosting
• Enterprise Plans

Pros

• Free SSL Certificates with one-click installation, as well as firewalls, OS patches, auto-healing servers, and TFA
• All-inclusive managed hosting
• High-quality and reliable uptime — some of the best on the market
• Above-average speeds
• High levels of customizability within the multiple servers on their host plans
• Effective site builder
• Highly-ranked service from Cloudways Support
• Supports multiple apps

Cons

• No domain registration
• Difficult to install domains due to their unusual back-end design
• No email accounts unless you integrate with RackSpace for an extra fee
• No money-back guarantee

Cloudways Cloud Hosting Provider Review

To conduct a full-scale Cloudways review, the TYB team tested out each of Cloudways’s cloud hosting options.

Customers have the freedom to choose their servers from this list.

Each of these hosting plans is available with a minimum of a six-month commitment. Each also comes with a three-day free trial.

Furthermore, Cloudways’s payment system works on a pay-as-you-go model. This means that you only need to pay for the resources you actually use.

There are even hourly price plans, though I’ll be focusing on monthly payments for the sake of being succinct.

Each hosting system I’m about to discuss works on a simple model.

Cloudways will take care of the technicalities from the hosting side, allowing you to focus on your personal business success.

Their cloud hosting collaborations all support multiple app integrations, including unlimited Magento and other PHP solutions.

Now, before we get started, I’d like to quickly note something.

Cloudways collaborates with these server resources to offer their cloud hosting solutions.

Unlike other web hosts, they don’t perform cloud server management themselves.

As such, they function as a kind of reseller hosting solution. This is, in my opinion, a brilliant business model.

It’s what allows their company size to stay small and manageable while also providing stellar service in terms of customer support and educational resources.

Necessarily, though, this Cloudways hosting review must also be, in part, a review of their partner web hosting companies!

Let’s get started.

Cloud DigitalOcean Centers

Web Hosting Plan Features

• 24/7/365 Chat and Ticket Support
• Fully-managed security with dedicated firewalls
• Managed backups
• Support for any PHP app
• Unlimited WordPress site staging
• Advanced cache built-in
• SSD-based servers
• MySQL Manager
• Cloudways Account Dashboard

Plan Pricing

Standard Plans:

Premium Plans:

Additionally available:

• Extra storage space
• Extra site transfers
• Scaling

SSL Included & Activated?

Yes, SSL is included with any price plan.

One-click activation is available after purchase.

Our Take

DigitalOcean offers reliably fast servers, from a wide host of locations:

Cloudways sells them, along with site management and dedicated customer care, for a seriously affordable price.

Cloud VULTR Centers

Web Hosting Plan Features

• 27/7/365 support
• Free site migrations
• Firewalls and auto-healing
• HTTP/2 servers
• Advanced caches
• Cloudflare add-ons
• Team management
• Real-time site monitoring
• SSH access
• SFTP Access
• Unlimited app installs

Plan Pricing

Standard Plans:

High-Frequency Plans:

SSL Included & Activated?

SSL included, activation required after purchase.

Our Take

Vultr offers data centers at a truly nationwide level.

Their speeds proved to be rapid and matched up with other major hosting providers.

The Vultr plans are extremely scalable, so you’re likely to find something that fits your business needs.

AWS Cloud Centers

Web Hosting Plan Features

• 24/7/365 support
• Free site migration
• Firewalls, SSL, auto-healing
• HTTP/2 Enabled
• Advanced caches
• Unlimited app installs
• SSH and SFTP Access
• Real-time monitoring
• Team management

Plan Pricing

SSL Included & Activated?

SSL is included in this plan but must be activated after purchase.

Our Take

AWS offers a wide swath of server centers, particularly in the U.S., making it a great option for local web hosts.

This hosting server option didn’t have any issues during our trial period.

Cloud Google Cloud

Web Hosting Plan Features

• 24/7/365 customer support
• Free site migration
• Firewalls, auto-healing, and SSL
• HTTP/2 enabled
• Advanced caches
• Unlimited app installs
• Security patching
• 24/7 monitoring

Plan Pricing

SSL Included & Activated?

Like the other plans, SSL is included but requires 1-click activation after initial setup.

Our Take

• Cloudways proves consistently reliable and fast with all of their hosting server providers. Google Cloud is no exception!

Alternatives to Cloudways

Some alternatives to Cloudways include the following:

• Hostinger
• A2 Hosting
• Bluehost

Hostinger

Hostinger is one of the most popular hosting providers currently on the market.

Cloudways is a formidable rival when it comes to cloud hosting.

Both hosts offer great value for the cost of their price plans, reliable uptime/speed, and excellent customer support.

However, Cloudways offers more cloud hosting resources than Hostinger. These include larger amounts of storage, RAM, and CPU cores.

A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting and Cloudways function quite differently, so can be difficult to compare.

A2 Hosting offers more traditional hosting solutions, while CLoudways offers Managed Cloud Hosting.

Neither provider offers domain names for their customers, but Cloudways offers more scalable features that can make committing to them a potentially easier venture.

Ultimately, Cloudways offers advanced security and site management due to using large-scale data centers from Google and Amazon.

Bluehost

When it comes to cloud hosting, Cloudways easily tops popular hosting provider Bluehost.

This is because despite having a personalized infrastructure and attractive prices, Bluehost doesn’t offer cloud hosting at all.

While Bluehost offers low-cost shared hosting plans, you would be sacrificing a great deal of flexibility and speed by selecting them.

Furthermore, when your initial period is finished, their renewal fees are surprisingly high.

Cloudways provides more opportunities to expand your services while offering reliable assistance every step of the way – making it the smarter choice.

The Bottom Line

If you’re looking for a cloud hosting plan, Cloudways is, without a doubt, the way to go.

Their near-perfect uptime, affordable prices, and flexible server center options make it hard to beat.

I hope this article provided direction in your journey to finding the right web host for you.

Cloudways FAQ