Review: Is Cloudways Good for WordPress Hosting in 2024?
Cloudways isn’t technically a web hosting provider because they don’t host any websites on their own servers.
Instead, it’s a managed platform that offers automatic tools for deploying PHP-based apps to one of three cloud server providers: DigitalOcean, AWS and Google Cloud.
In other words, instead of getting a cloud server plan directly from one of those providers where you’ll have to install and configure server software on your own, Cloudways will do that for you and they’ll handle all server management and security.
This provider allows you to host a WordPress website (or multiple sites) on an isolated cloud server instance with dedicated computing resources (CPU and RAM). You can get significantly better performance and security compared to regular shared hosting.
In this review of Cloudways, I’d like to highlight the main advantages and disadvantages of the service for the purpose of hosting WordPress sites.
Pros of Cloudways Hosting
1. Higher performance
The first thing you’ll likely notice if you host a WordPress site with Cloudways is improved performance and loading speed, especially if you are migrating from a crowded shared hosting service.
That’s because instead of sharing the same server resources (most importantly CPU and RAM) with many other sites, Cloudways gives you a dedicated quota of CPU cores and RAM depending on the plan you choose.
2. Better security
You’ll have your own isolated server software environment that is not shared with other sites. This results in improved security since your site won’t be affected by threats and vulnerabilities originating from other sites on the server, like the case is with shared hosting.
Additionally, Cloudways installs a firewall and a vulnerability scanner for each WordPress site.
3. Instant scalability
I think the biggest advantage of Cloudways is the ability to scale up your plan’s resources (CPU, RAM and disk space) with one click from the control panel.
This is a major convenience for small business and e-commerce websites since they can instantly scale up as their traffic grows without having to migrate to another server or provider.
4. Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
This is another one of the great features I like about Cloudways — the ability to utilize the high performance and speed of the Cloudflare Enterprise CDN. This feature is available as a paid add-on at a very affordable price for the great benefits it provides.
You can take advantage of full-page caching via Cloudflare Enterprise, which will significantly boost the loading speed of your website across the globe.
Cons of Cloudways Hosting
1. A little advanced for beginners
If you are used to cPanel, you may find Cloudways’ custom-built control panel a little complicated at first.
For example, there is no web-based file manager, but instead you’ll need to use an external SFTP client to access your site’s files on the server. They don’t have phpMyAdmin but rather a basic database manager and the option to use an external database management client.
DNS service isn’t provided by default unless you opt for the DNS add-on. Otherwise, they give you your server’s IP address and then you’ll have to configure DNS records with your domain registrar.
2. Email is a paid add-on
Email isn’t included for free in their plans and they don’t provide email hosting services. However, they do offer third-party email service from Rackspace.
This is available as an add-on at a cost of $1 per mailbox per month.
3. Free-tier support is limited
Cloudways has tiered support plans. The default free-tier support service only covers platform and server related issues but it doesn’t include help with website-specific issues. Response times for free-tier support requests can extend to several hours.
The advanced support add-on, which costs an extra $100 per month, does include website-related assistance, such as error troubleshooting, theme and plugin issues, site optimizations, etc.
4. Requires identity verification for the free trial
This is the most annoying thing about this provider. If you sign up for their free 3-day trial, they don’t ask you for any payment information, but they require you to verify your identity by submitting a photo ID and a link to your website or social media account.
They say it’s a measure to prevent abuse of their free trial offer by bots and other bad actors.
Which Plan to Choose?
Cloudways offers three cloud providers to choose from (DigitalOcean, AWS and Google Cloud), and under each provider you can choose from different plans with different amounts of resources.
For the server provider, DigitalOcean is the most affordable option for most use cases. I recommend you select the “premium” option rather than “standard” since it offers better CPU performance.
A good starting point for a WordPress site is the DO2GB plan. This will give you 2 GB of RAM, 1 CPU core, 50 GB NVMe storage, and 2 TB bandwidth. You can later scale up to add more resources when needed.
What Do Reddit Users Think About Cloudways?
The feedback about Cloudways is generally positive on Reddit, and many Redditors consider it a better and more cost-effective alternative to oversold shared hosting.
The more technically advanced users on Reddit who can manage a server on their own would suggest going directly with one of the upstream providers like DigitalOcean or AWS. This is obviously the cheaper option, but it can be too risky for a beginner with limited experience in Linux systems and server software.
Conclusion: Is Cloudways Good for WordPress Hosting?
All in all, I’d say Cloudways is one of the best managed cloud platforms for hosting a serious WordPress site or multiple sites.
You get higher performance for the dollar compared to most shared hosting services, and you can easily scale up to meet the growing demands of your website and business.
The platform is more technically advanced compared to shared hosting platforms, but it’s not too complicated to figure out and get used to given all the documentation and help articles provided by Cloudways.
