Contemplating utilizing Cloudways to host your WordPress web site or one other sort of web site? In our hands-on Cloudways evaluation, we’ll show you how to determine whether or not this well-liked internet hosting supplier is best for you.

Cloudways is a little bit of an outlier within the internet hosting area as a result of it makes use of a singular strategy to internet hosting. As an alternative of offering its personal infrastructure, Cloudways helps you to select from 5 totally different cloud internet hosting suppliers – DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud with its Versatile plans.

Then, Cloudways handles correctly configuring and sustaining the server, together with offering you numerous helpful instruments to handle your web site.

The upshot of this strategy is that you may get excellent efficiency for a low worth. Nonetheless, it’s a bit of extra sophisticated than conventional internet hosting, so we don’t suggest Cloudways to all customers.

Additionally they have Autonomous plans, which give a hands-off, managed WordPress internet hosting resolution, designed particularly for companies on the lookout for high-performance internet hosting. It’s constructed on Kubernetes and ensures automated scaling and cargo balancing to deal with site visitors spikes.

Right here’s all the pieces that we’ll cowl in our 2024 Cloudways evaluation:

Right here’s How We Examined Issues for Our Cloudways Evaluation

We all the time need our internet hosting opinions to be utterly goal, so we signed up and paid for our personal Cloudways Versatile account to put in writing this evaluation. Our expertise is strictly the identical as what you’ll expertise and Cloudways didn’t present us with any particular deal and even know that we’re scripting this evaluation.

All the checks that we ran, the screenshots we collected, and our normal ideas all got here from our direct expertise of utilizing the Cloudways account that we bought.

With that out of the best way, let’s dig into our Cloudways evaluation.

⚙️ Cloudways Key Options

Whereas Cloudways does use the distinctive cloud internet hosting strategy that we talked about within the introduction, Cloudways nonetheless presents a collection of options that compares favorably with extra “conventional” internet hosting suppliers.

First, let’s speak concerning the internet hosting atmosphere itself. Within the Cloudways Versatile plans, they configure your server with a hybrid Apache + Nginx stack. It then presents a number of caching layers to enhance efficiency together with Nginx, Varnish, and Memcached. There’s additionally an choice to simply set up Redis.

When Cloudways units up your server, it’ll mechanically implement all of this, together with securing your server and conserving all the pieces up to date.

Past that, Cloudways presents the next helpful options:

• Automated server-level backups and on-demand single-site backups
• Staging websites
• Free WordPress efficiency plugin referred to as Breeze
• Website cloning
• Free SSL certificates
• Constructed-in content material supply community (CDN)
• SMTP on the server stage for transactional emails
• Bot safety
• Cron job administration
• Primary server monitoring
• Possibility so as to add staff members for collaboration

You’ll see numerous these options in additional depth later in our evaluation.

🚀 Cloudways Efficiency Checks

To kick off our hands-on Cloudways evaluation, let’s run some efficiency checks. In any case, efficiency is without doubt one of the most vital issues in any internet hosting supplier.

To check Cloudways’s efficiency, we arrange an actual take a look at web site utilizing the favored Astra theme and a full demo web site. 

Our take a look at web site additionally consists of the Breeze efficiency optimization plugin, which Cloudways installs by default.

For our server, we’re utilizing the most cost effective $10/month DigitalOcean server.

Then, we ran it by means of two web site velocity take a look at instruments:

• WebPageTest with a throttled FIOS connection to gather one-off efficiency metrics. We ran 9 checks and took the median worth.
• Load Focus to see how Cloudways holds up underneath scale. We hit our web site with 20 guests in a 60-second interval.

WebPageTest

Cloudways carried out excellently within the one-off WebPageTest evaluation, with a median load time of underneath half a second. This is without doubt one of the greatest outcomes from the entire WordPress hosts that we’ve examined:

Load Focus

Within the Load Focus testing, Cloudways additionally carried out excellently. The imply common response time was simply 582 ms and the ninetieth percentile time was 611 ms. This is without doubt one of the higher outcomes we’ve seen from all of the hosts that we’ve examined, although Nexcess (our evaluation) and WP Engine (our evaluation) carried out barely higher.

Nonetheless, Cloudways is miles forward of different funds hosts, which is kind of spectacular on condition that our take a look at web site prices simply $10 per 30 days.

Takeaway: Cloudways did very properly in our checks, particularly when you think about how low-cost it’s.

🤗 Cloudways Person Expertise

As a result of Cloudways has a singular expertise, let’s begin initially with organising a server and putting in WordPress. Then, we’ll take you thru a number of the instruments included you need to use to handle your websites and servers through Cloudways’s customized dashboard.

Launching a Server and Putting in WordPress

If you first signal as much as Cloudways, you’ll be prompted to launch a server and deploy an “utility”. An utility is any software program that you simply need to set up in your server – e.g. WordPress, Magento, Laravel, and so forth.

When you’ve chosen your utility and entered some fundamental particulars, you may make three key choices. You’ll be able to select…

1. Your cloud internet hosting supplier
2. The sources in your server
3. Your server’s bodily location 

You’ll see a abstract of the value on the backside after which you possibly can click on Launch Now to create your server:

And that’s it!

Managing Your Server

Your Cloudways dashboard has two principal tabs:

• Servers – that is the place you handle your entire cloud servers.
• Functions – that is the place you handle your particular person web sites.

When you open a server’s dashboard, you’ll be capable of handle the entire server-level particulars together with:

• Monitoring – control your server’s sources.
• Vertical Scaling – simply improve the sources of your server.
• Backups – take backups of your complete server.
• SMTP – you possibly can arrange an SMTP supplier for transactional emails on the server stage.

Managing Your WordPress Website

When you go to the Functions tab, you’ll see an inventory of your entire WordPress websites. When you click on on a selected web site, you’ll open its dashboard. That is the place you possibly can entry the entire site-specific info and instruments together with:

• Viewing entry credentials for WP Admin, FTP, MySQL, and so forth.
• Associating domains along with your web site.
• Establishing cron jobs.
• Putting in the free SSL certificates.
• Taking and managing backups.
• Deploying a web site through Git.
• Integrating the Cloudways CDN.

Exploring Some Helpful WordPress Instruments

Now, let’s check out a number of the most helpful Cloudways options for managing your WordPress websites.

First, Cloudways presents a simple cloning/staging instrument, which you’ll be able to entry from the primary Functions checklist. You’ll be able to both create a real staging web site or simply clone your web site to the identical server or a unique server:

When you create a staging web site, it’s going to present up as its personal utility you’ll be capable of simply push or pull knowledge between your stay web site and staging.

Within the Backup And Restore tab, you possibly can create on-demand backups for a selected web site along with the server-level backups that Cloudways mechanically takes:

The Cron Job Administration tab supplies a extremely easy interface to arrange your individual server cron jobs:

Lastly, the SSL Certificates tab helps you to set up a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates with simply a few clicks:

That is not at all an entire checklist of instruments, however we’re primarily simply seeking to spotlight that Cloudways does provide you with a full suite of administration instruments that compares favorably in opposition to extra “conventional” hosts.

Cloudways Add-ons 

Cloudways presents a number of add-ons to boost web site efficiency, safety, and administration. As an example, with Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, your web site will get sooner load instances and stays robust throughout site visitors spikes. And it tacks on additional layers of safety with DDoS safety and a Net Utility Firewall (WAF), too, which retains your web site secure and performing properly irrespective of how a lot site visitors comes your means.

On the upkeep facet, SafeUpdates is a superb instrument for WordPress customers who don’t need to fear about updates breaking issues. It automates the replace course of, runs well being checks, and creates backups to maintain downtime or points at bay when updates roll out.

On the subject of safety, the Malware Safety add-on, powered by Sucuri, takes care of detecting and eradicating any malicious threats earlier than they trigger hurt.

And if managing your area looks like a headache, DNS Made Simple simplifies all the pieces. It optimizes area efficiency, reduces latency, and ensures your web site stays up and operating reliably, serving to to ship a easy expertise in your guests.

These add-ons (together with Cloudways Help, which we’ll speak about in a second) allow you to make your Cloudways Versatile plan your individual. 

Cloudways Autonomous 

All the things we’ve mentioned to date has associated to the Cloudways Versatile plans. However when you’ve got a higher-traffic web site and wish one thing extra hands-off, the Autonomous plans may work higher for you. 

Autonomous, powered by Kubernetes, takes the stress out of managing WordPress internet hosting by mechanically adjusting your sources as site visitors surges. Whether or not it’s a busy gross sales season or a viral second, your web site stays quick and on-line with out you needing to do something specifically. 

The great thing about Autonomous is that its autoscaling kicks within the second it’s wanted, including sources when site visitors spikes and scaling again when issues settle down. This makes it good for high-traffic websites like WooCommerce shops, occasion ticketing platforms, and even content-heavy blogs. No have to manually improve or modify settings — it simply does it.

It additionally comes with Cloudflare Enterprise CDN built-in and Redis Object Cache Professional to make knowledge retrieval tremendous fast. and safety features like DDoS safety and a Net Utility Firewall (WAF) to maintain your web site secure and acting at its greatest. This mixture of efficiency, scaling, and safety ensures that your web site can deal with something thrown its means.

📞 Cloudways Help

Help is usually a little bit of a difficult topic at Cloudways.

Cloudways help is nice for what it does, however you must understand that the scope of Cloudways’s help isn’t as broad because it could be at one other host, particularly a managed WordPress host.

By default, Cloudways helps your internet hosting server and the Cloudways platform. When you have an issue with the server or one thing with Cloudways itself, Cloudways will certainly hop in and show you how to.

You will get in touch with them 24/7 through stay chat help.

Nonetheless, Cloudways does not present utility help by default. That’s, they don’t formally provide help for any functions that you simply set up in your server, similar to WordPress.

For instance, when you’re having issues with the WordPress installer that Cloudways presents, their help will show you how to. However when you’re seeing an error in your WordPress web site, that’s outdoors the scope of the free help (although Cloudways will typically assist anyway).

When you do need one of these superior utility help, you possibly can pay additional for premium help, but it surely’s not low-cost.

💰 Cloudways Pricing

What you’ll pay for Cloudways depends upon the cloud internet hosting supplier that you simply select and your server’s sources.

Typically, the most cost effective choice is the $11 entry-level DigitalOcean server, which can already provide wonderful efficiency. When you use our Cloudways coupon, it is going to be even cheaper.

You do not have to pay individually for the cloud internet hosting. The value that you simply see at Cloudways consists of each the underlying cloud internet hosting fees and the fees for Cloudways.

One factor to notice is that the entire worth is usually a a number of of the value of the underlying internet hosting.

For instance, right here’s a break-down of the DigitalOcean plans:

• Complete Worth – consists of each the underlying and Cloudways’ charge. That is what you pay per 30 days.
• DigitalOcean Worth – the value for the unmanaged VPS when you purchased it immediately from DigitalOcean.
• Implied Cloudways Price – what you’re primarily paying for the Cloudways service alone (complete worth minus DigitalOcean worth).

Tier (RAM)	Complete Worth	DigitalOcean Worth	Implied Cloudways Free
1 GB	$11	$5	$6
2 GB	$24	$10	$14
4 GB	$46	$20	$26
8 GB	$88	$40	$48

As you possibly can see, the premium that you simply pay for Cloudways vs the underlying cloud internet hosting will get increased as you improve your internet hosting, which ends up in a bizarre state of affairs:

For lower-resource servers, Cloudways could be very reasonably priced. For instance, when you’re buying the entry-level server (which might be positive for many websites), Cloudways presents wonderful worth since you’re primarily simply paying $6 per 30 days to have Cloudways handle your DigitalOcean server.

Nonetheless, when you’re contemplating buying one of many higher-resource servers, Cloudways will be costly for what it presents. You go from paying a $6 premium vs the underlying internet hosting on the 1 GB plan to paying a $48 premium on the 8 GB plan, though the Cloudways platform is strictly the identical in each conditions.

Which Cloud Internet hosting Ought to You Use?

When you’re unsure which cloud internet hosting supplier to decide on, we suggest beginning with the Vultr Excessive Frequency servers. They’re a bit of costlier than the entry-level DigitalOcean servers, however the small added charge is value it for improved efficiency.

You can begin with the bottom sources (the most cost effective server) after which scale your server if wanted.

👍👎 Cloudways Execs and Cons

As we get close to to the tip of our Cloudways evaluation, let’s speak about a number of the execs and cons of utilizing Cloudways for internet hosting.

Execs

• Wonderful efficiency for the cash. Even the most cost effective Cloudways plan can provide wonderful efficiency – even underneath scale.
• No arbitrary limits. Cloudways doesn’t put any arbitrary web site limits. So long as your server has the sources, you possibly can host as many websites as you need.
• Helpful WordPress instruments – you get useful options similar to staging websites, backups, a WordPress optimization plugin, and extra.
• Server-level SMTP – this can be a actually useful gizmo for dependable emails, as many different cloud server panels make you arrange SMTP companies for every particular person WordPress web site.
• Autoscaling is on the market – no want for wrestling with scaling-related complications. When you have a heavy-traffic web site, you need to use an Autonomous plan and it’s dealt with for you.

Cons

• A little bit bit extra sophisticated than conventional internet hosting. Once more, you undoubtedly do not should be a developer, however complete newcomers may need to keep away.
• Info overload. On the same be aware to the above, getting began with Cloudways is usually a little complicated. The plan choices — and getting to pick which host you need – may really feel like numerous decision-making proper upfront.
• Pricing isn’t pretty much as good for high-resource servers. As a result of Cloudways fees a a number of of the underlying internet hosting price, it may be costly for high-resource servers.
• No electronic mail internet hosting. If you wish to create a customized electronic mail tackle (you@yoursite.com), you’ll want a separate electronic mail internet hosting service.

❓ Cloudways Evaluation 2024 FAQ

To complete out our Cloudways evaluation, let’s go over some FAQs.

🤔 Ought to You Use Cloudways in 2024 and Past?

As we talked about at first, Cloudways is a superb internet hosting supplier that may provide excellent efficiency for the cash, but it surely isn’t the correct host for everybody.

So – let’s speak about when it is best to select Cloudways, and when it is best to select a unique host (together with some good Cloudways alternate options).

Use Cloudways If…

Cloudways is a superb choice when you’re on the lookout for wonderful efficiency on a funds. And that is all due to its distinctive cloud internet hosting strategy. With simply the most cost effective DigitalOcean server, you possibly can host a number of web sites with surprisingly excessive site visitors (so long as you’re utilizing web page caching).

Cloudways is a bit of bit extra sophisticated than a conventional web site, however you should not have any points utilizing it so long as you’ve made a number of web sites earlier than.

General, when you’re on the lookout for high-performance internet hosting within the $10-$50 worth vary, Cloudways is unquestionably one among your greatest choices.

Be certain that to use our Cloudways coupon to avoid wasting cash in your first three months.

GO TO CLOUDWAYS

Use One other Host If…

There are two conditions the place you may want a Cloudways various.

First, when you’re a complete newbie who’s by no means constructed an internet site and/or feels overwhelmed by fundamental technical particulars, Cloudways may not be for you. As an alternative, GreenGeeks may be a great choice. Or, in order for you one thing actually beginner-friendly, Bluehost suits the invoice, although Bluehost’s efficiency isn’t pretty much as good as Cloudways or GreenGeeks, as you possibly can see in our Bluehost evaluation.

Second, Cloudways may not be the best choice when you want one of many high-resource servers. However that is solely as a result of it’s costly because of the percentage-based markup. Most individuals do not want the high-resource servers, so this may not matter to you.

Nonetheless, when you do want a server with 8GB+ of RAM (and related sources), you would use the identical cloud internet hosting strategy and avoid wasting cash by selecting a flat-rate internet hosting management panel like RunCloud or SpinupWP.

To see much more choices, take a look at our full roundup of one of the best WordPress internet hosting.

That about covers it! We hope you discovered this Cloudways evaluation useful. Better of luck in no matter determination you make.

Do you continue to have any questions on Cloudways or our Cloudways evaluation? Tell us within the feedback!

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