Cloudways Review: Power, Flexibility, & Ease for Your Website (2024)

Cloudways might be your answer!

Imagine having a powerful cloud server but without the messy setup and confusing controls. That’s what Cloudways offers: an easy-to-use platform that lets you choose the perfect IaaS provider for your website.

Whether you’re a small business owner, an online store whiz, a blogger with a growing audience, or a developer building the next big thing, Cloudways can handle it all.

It’s like having a team of tech experts on hand, ready to take care of the server stuff while you focus on what you do best.

In this article, we’ll break down Cloudways in simple terms. We’ll talk about the cool features it offers and whether it’s the right fit for you. So, grab a coffee, ditch the tech jargon, and read this detailed Cloudways review!

 

Who is Cloudways for?

Cloudways is a one-size-fits-all solution and caters to a different range of individuals and businesses with specific needs:

SMBs and Ecommerce Stores

Are you an SMB or an eCommerce store experiencing growth spurts?

Cloudways scales seamlessly, handling traffic spikes and future expansion with ease. Plus, its budget-friendly pay-as-you-go model aligns perfectly with your cost-conscious needs.

Freeing up your time is a bonus, thanks to the user-friendly interface that simplifies server management.

 

Developers and Agencies

Flexibility and control are your middle names, and Cloudways speaks your language.

Choose from various cloud providers and server configurations, crafting the ideal environment for your project.

One-click deployments and built-in caching plugins streamline your workflow, while team collaboration features empower agencies to manage multiple client websites efficiently.

 

Bloggers and Content Creators

Speed matters and Cloudways delivers.

Ensure your blog loads like lightning, keeping your audience engaged even during high-traffic times. Security is paramount, too, and Cloudways offers robust features like firewalls and regular updates to protect your content and audience data.

All while letting you focus on what you do best – creating captivating content.

 

Tech-savvy users

Want full control and customization. Cloudways gives it to you! Advanced features and granular controls let you fine-tune performance for optimal results.

Automation tools like scaling and backups save you time, and API access seamlessly integrates Cloudways with your development tools.

 

Features of Cloudways

Cloudways packs a punch regarding features, catering to both technical and non-technical users. Let’s delve into the key functionalities that empower your website:

 

Speed & Performance

Imagine lightning-fast page loads and happy visitors.

Cloudways conducts this magic with SSD storage, the NGINX web server, and PHP 7.4 to 8.2 support. Varnish caching stores frequently accessed content, ensuring it’s delivered instantly, like a well-rehearsed encore.

 

Third-Party Integration

Imagine pairing the powerful cloud hosting capabilities of Cloudways with stunning design options and functionality themes and plugins. It’s a winning combination that ensures your website not only performs optimally but also looks great doing it.

 

Multiple IaaS Provider

Freedom is the theme here.

Choose from renowned providers like DigitalOcean, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform, each offering unique strengths. Need cost-effectiveness?

DigitalOcean is your maestro. Global reach and scalability? AWS takes the lead. Google Cloud Platform offers advanced functionalities for the tech-savvy conductor.

 

Easy-to-Use Platform

Even if you’re not a tech virtuoso, Cloudways welcomes you with an intuitive interface.

Managing servers, applications, and backups becomes a smooth melody. Need a WordPress website in a flash? One-click app deployment makes it happen.

And the built-in Breeze plugin optimizes performance for WordPress websites, like a skilled technician fine-tuning your instrument.

 

Advanced Security

Rest assured, your website is safeguarded.

Firewalls act as vigilant guards, constantly monitoring and blocking suspicious traffic.

DDoS protection shields you from overwhelming attacks, while regular security patches keep your website up-to-date, ensuring no vulnerabilities disrupt your performance.

SafeUpdates takes the hassle out of managing WordPress updates.

You can update your core, themes, and plugins on-demand or schedule them for automatic execution. This ensures your website always benefits from the latest security patches and performance improvements, without requiring manual intervention.

 

Seamless Scalability

As your website grows, Cloudways effortlessly adapts. Need more resources?

Upgrade with a few clicks, ensuring smooth transitions and avoiding performance bottlenecks. For unpredictable traffic spikes, Cloudways Autonomous takes the stage, adding servers during peak hours and removing them when things calm down, optimizing both performance and cost.

 

Integrations & Add-ons

Cloudways doesn’t stand alone; it embraces collaboration. Through its diverse selection of integrations and add-ons, you can seamlessly connect your website with powerful tools to enhance functionality and security.

One standout integration is Cloudflare Enterprise. This powerhouse CDN supercharges your website’s speed and security, minimizing latency and safeguarding against malicious attacks. Imagine lightning-fast global delivery coupled with robust DDoS protection – that’s the magic of Cloudflare Enterprise working alongside your Cloudways hosting.

But value doesn’t have to come at a premium. Cloudways also offers Object Cache Pro, a free add-on (worth $95) that optimizes performance by caching frequently accessed content. This translates to faster page loads and a smoother user experience, all without dipping into your budget.

 

Pay-As-You-Go Pricing

Leave overpaying behind.

Cloudways follows a pay-as-you-go model, meaning you only pay for the resources you use. It’s like a flexible conductor, adjusting the orchestra size to your needs, saving you money while ensuring optimal performance.

And with transparent billing, you always know exactly what you’re paying for, with no hidden fees or surprises. You can see a breakdown of your resource usage and costs in real-time, allowing you to easily manage your budget.

 

24/7 Dedicated Support

Never feel alone. Cloudways’ friendly and knowledgeable support team is available 24/7 via live chat, tickets, and phone, ready to answer your questions and solve any issues, just like a supportive chorus backing you up.

If you prefer self-service solutions, explore Cloudways’ extensive knowledge base with articles, tutorials, and FAQs. Additionally, their active community group on Facebook allows you to connect with other users and learn from their experiences.

 

The Definitive Cloud Hosting – Cloudways

As your online business grows, you need more and better resources to keep it ahead of the competition. Cloud hosting is a popular solution but in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape, conventional cloud hosting isn’t enough anymore.

This review will help you make an informed decision about choosing Cloudways as your managed cloud hosting provider.

For online businesses, selecting the right web hosting is a matter of considering several crucial factors including security, reliability, and dependable expert support (in case things go wrong).

When it comes to WordPress powered websites, you see a lot of offers that claim to provide cloud-based hosting in all its forms from shared to fully managed. We tried a lot of these options and found that Cloudways is a very interesting solution to web hosting challenges.

Cloudways Cloud Hosting Review 

A Brief Intro to Cloudways

This being a Cloudways hosting review, we think it’s best to start with a brief intro to Cloudways first.

It is a managed cloud hosting platform that lets you host your PHP-powered applications (WordPress is a great example) on dedicated cloud servers. It takes around ten minutes to get up and running on Cloudways. Couple that with 50+ 1-Click features and dedicated expert support, and you get a deal unlike anything else.

The Cloudways platform is optimized to deliver superior levels of performance fully supported by security features that are exceptional when compared with similar cloud hosting alternatives. These security features are crucial when it comes to the success of a WordPress website.

 

Why Should You Choose Cloudways

When the business assets are in safe hands, you can stop worrying and focus on growth.

Cloudways positions itself as your ally that makes sure that your WordPress websites continue to perform in a secure environment where the platform features continue to protect them from malicious attacks.

To know more, let’s dive deeper into what makes Cloudways the best solution for managed WordPress hosting.

 

Superior Performance – Guaranteed!

When you are considering cloud hosting options, the first and foremost aspect to consider is performance. On Cloudways, you get dedicated cloud servers, that you don’t need to share with anyone else. On top of that, each Cloudways managed server is optimized through advanced caching options such as Varnish, Memcached, and Redis.

According to a benchmarking test done here, Cloudways not only outperformed the competition but stayed true to its claims about performance during high traffic peaks. This gave us the confidence to recommend Cloudways as the best-managed cloud hosting platform for performance-hungry WordPress websites.

 

Scalable Resources

Many cloud web hosting reviews don’t mention server scalability as a platform feature. However, scaling servers on Cloudways is easy! If you have a growing website, Cloudways simplifies the whole process of server scalability without you having to deal with the technical complexities.

The way Cloudways has automated and simplified complex features is undoubtedly impressive.

 

Bulletproof Security

Security is central to the whole idea of online business. Cloudways ensures that all websites hosted on the platform always have ironclad security to protect against online threats.

Think dedicated firewalls, free SSL certificates, IP whitelisting, regular security patches, and two-factor authentication, all are integral components of Cloudways managed servers.

Platform level firewalls ensure your servers are protected to the max when it comes to blocking malicious traffic and attackers. On top of it, 1-Click Free SSL certificates add another level of security that encrypts all traffic coming in and going out of your servers.

IP whitelisting helps you streamline connections with servers that you are comfortable working with. Regular security patches ensure your server(s) are protected at all times against recent and emerging threats. Similarly, 2FA protects server and application login points with industry-proven standards.

Cloudways has a very efficient backup policy, that automatically takes backups of your web files and databases and stores them on AWS S3 instances. Generally, you have multiple backup versions that you can restore in a minute. In addition to this, you can take an on-demand backup whenever you feel the need.

In short, your servers on Cloudways are bulletproof!

 

Multiple Data Centers

Cloudways allows you to launch your server and host your WordPress websites on five industry-leading cloud providers including DigitalOcean, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Vultr, and Linode.

One of the great things about these providers is the collective number of available data centers. This means that you can pick from more than 55 available global locations to host your server nearest to your target audience. For your visitors, this means low latency and excellent website performance.

 

Flexible Plans and Pricing

With Cloudways, we have seen the best pricing model ever. There is transparency and most of all, a clear description that guarantees that you only pay for the services you consume.

You’d be happy to know that just like the scalability option,  your monthly invoice includes the actual costs of operating the “Cloudways Managed Server”. The Pay-as-you-Go model ensures peace of mind as you know exactly how much you would need to pay out in terms of hosting costs. This simplifies your business accounting and helps you with cost projections and estimations.