Cloudways Review: Features, Pricing Plans, Pros and Cons, and more

Are you looking for the best Cloudways Review to know if Cloudways is best for you? 

If you have a website, you know the importance of hosting. Because you can’t run a website without a hosting server. That’s all? Absolutely not. Let’s know more.

Hosting is mandatory to create a website. It plays an important role in the success of any website. For this, choosing the best hosting for your site is important. If you search, there are lots of hosting providers available that confuse you to buy hosting.

Choosing the best hosting from various companies is quite difficult. You must check the detailed features and understand if they fulfill your requirements. To help you choose the best hosting, I am here with a Cloudways review.

Cloudways is a leading hosting providing company that offers all types of hosting. In this article, I will provide a complete Cloudways review including features, pricing, security, support, and pros and cons, and also share my opinion. So without further ado, Let’s start.

About the Cloudways

Cloudways is a popular hosting provider company founded in 2011. It gained popularity within a short time for its high-quality hosting service. They offer the fastest and high performance hosting from top hosts such as Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and DigitalOcean. 

The platform is designed for beginners that offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface that simplifies the often complex process.The server of Cloudways is also optimized for popular apps like WordPress, Magento, Laravel, etc. to provide top performance.

Also check: Best WordPress Hosting For Agencies

Key Features of Cloudways

Cloudways offer all advanced hosting features to ensure website security, performance, and loading speed. They also provide top customer support to fix any issue immediately. Now let’s see all the features of Cloudways.

1. High Performance

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that offers a range of features for optimizing website performance and those are:

SSD Based Hosting server: Cloudways server builds with Solid State Drives (SSDs) for faster data access speeds to ensure website performance. It helps to improve website loading times when users visit the website.

Advanced Built-in Cache: Cache helps to load any site faster. Cloudways offers built-in caching mechanisms such as Varnish, Memcached, and Redis.

Cloudflare CDN: CDN is another significant way that increases your website performance. It delivers website-cached files to the user from the nearest server. For this, it reduces latency and loading time. Cloudways added Cloudflare CDN to their server which helps to faster browsing globally.

WordPress Cache Plugin: If you use WordPress as your cms, Cloudways offers a cache plugin that helps to boost website performance. It is a pre-installed plugin for your site that comes for free.

HTTP Supported Server: HTTP protocol also helps to increase communication between the server and the user. Cloudways servers are HTTP/2 enabled. If you activate the Cloudflare Enterprise add-on you also get HTTP/3 Support which is really amazing.

Image and Mobile Optimization: Image optimization is very important to load sites faster. Besides, a fast-loading website that is fully optimized for mobile helps to rank fast on SEO. Cloudflare Enterprise add-on allows users to optimize website images and also for mobile with just a click.

2. Cloudways security

Cloudways offer managed security service to protect website from DDoS attack, firewall, etc. They also offer 2FA, security updates, bot protection, etc to make your website safe and secure. Let’s see in detail:

Firewalls and DDoS Protection: Ensuring security is very important to prevent malicious, DDoS or other attacks. The server of cloudways are protected OS-label firewalls. Besides, It has advanced DDoS protection that comes with cloudflare. So your application will always be safe.

SSL Encrypted: SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is essential for online security to encrypt data transmitted between a user’s device and a website server. Cloudways offer built-in free SSL that you can install with just a single click. 

IP Whitelisting: IP whitelisting is important to minimize the risk of malicious activities, such as hacking, data breaches, and unauthorized data access. Cloudways provide IP whitelisting features to create a list of approved IP addresses that are allowed to access the server.

Bot protection: Bot protection is essential to safeguard against various automated attacks. Cloudways implement bot protection which prevents malicious bots, brute force login attacks, and (DoS) attacks to secure your site.

Monitoring: Cloudways offer 24/7 automatic Real-time Monitoring. So you will get an instant notification if your site has any changes.

3. Customer Support

Cloudways always try to provide the best customer support. They have an expert support team to provide any solutions and they are available every hour and every day.

24/7 Live Chat: Live chat is a real-time digital communication system that supports between users and support agents. Cloudways has live chat support that is always available with highly-trained experts.

Online Ticketing: If you have any complex issue that is not possible to fix via live chat, you can create a support ticket. The Cloudways support team provides the fastest response and they back to you with a solution very soon. 

Phone Access: If you have a critical business and purchased a premium Support Addon this feature is for you. You will get support any time and to speak the support engineer directly over the phone.

Slack Support: Cloudways also provide premium support via Slack. This is very interesting. So you can chat with support engineers anytime.

4. Team Collaboration

Team collaboration is very important for a big project. It cultivates a sense of unity, boosts employee morale, and reduces conflicts, creating a positive work environment. Clowdways provide team collaboration features to manage your team easily to achieve the goal.

Git Integration: Git is very essential for developers to control versions and deploy new codes. Cloudways integrates Git to their server so that you can update new changes on the live server soon.

Project Management: If you are managing many websites at a time, Cloudways project management features really helpful to you. You can create separate projects and assign a team for specific projects.

Multiple Teams: Cloudways allows you to create multiple teams under one account. It helps to manage your project easily and more smoothly.

SSH and SFTP: Sometimes we need to access the server via SSH, FTP, and SFTP to update files and folders. Cloudways offer individual SSH and SFTP  credentials for your team to manage apps file and folders.

5. UI and Controls

Cloudways offer a modern and advanced dashboard where you can control any settings without any coding knowledge. So let’s see some features:

User Interface: Cloudways comes with a clean and easy-to-use dashboard that is also beginner-friendly. So you can manage any option from your dashboard without any hassle. 

Backup & Restore: This platform offer automatic daily and weekly backups to make your site safe. So if you need to restore your site, you can do it with just a click.

App Settings: Using Cloudways UI, you can manage or configure all apps easily. You do not need any coding knowledge or write commands to configure any apps. 

Varnish Cache: This hosting provider included Advanced Varnish Cache Settings. So you can control cache rules to exclude or include any URL or cookie according to your needs. This is an important feature.

Also Check: WP Engine Pricing: Is it costly or value for money?

Cloudways Pricing Plans

Cloudways provide hosting service from different Cloud platforms and that are Digital Ocean, AWS, and Google Cloud. The hosting price is also different for different platforms. 

If you want to use any plan from Digital Ocean, they offer two types of hosting and those are Standard and Premium. The premium plan cost is slightly higher than the standard hosting pricing plan.

Amazon Web Services(AWS) and Google Cloud offer similar types of packages but prices are different. Every package is different because of its RAM space and Number of Virtual CPUs (vCPU) are not similar. So let’s see all the packages in detail:

1. Cloudways DigitalOcean Server (Standard) Plans

Cloudways DigitalOcean Standard plans offer the most cheapest packages. If you have a small business, blog, or any agency website and want the cheapest hosting plan from Cloudways, the DigitalOcean standard package is for you. 

The DigitalOcean plan starts from $11/month and you will get 25GB Server storage, 1GB Ram, 1 Core Processor, and 1TB bandwidth. This plan also comes with other all additional features that are included in all packages.

DigitalOcean Server (Standard) Plans also have more than 3 packages that come with different configurations and prices. The most popular plan(plan-3) offers an amazing configuration for any website. It offers 80GB server space, 4GB Ram, 2 Core processor, and 4 TB Bandwidth. 

Let’s see all the Standard Plans in a quick table:

Plans	Price	RAM	Processor	Storage	Bandwidth
Plan 1	$11/month	1GB	1 Core	25GB	1TB
Plan 2	$24/month	2GB	1 Core	50GB	2TB
Plan 3	$46/month	4GB	2 Core	80GB	4TB
Plan 4	$88/month	8GB	4 Core	160GB	5TB

2. Cloudways DigitalOcean Server (Premium) Plans

DigitalOcean Premium server configurations are the same as the Standard plans. The difference is its price. The premium packages start from $14/month where the standard was $11/month. So the premium plans are slightly higher than the Standard. 

Here are the DigitalOcean Premium Plans details:

Plans	Price	RAM	Processor	Storage	Bandwidth
Plan 1	$14/month	1GB	1 Core	25GB	1TB
Plan 2	$28/month	2GB	1 Core	50GB	2TB
Plan 3	$54/month	4GB	2 Core	80GB	4TB
Plan 4	$99/month	8GB	4 Core	160GB	5TB

3. Cloudways Amazon Web Service (AWS) Server Plans

Amazon Web Service(AWS) is one of the popular web hosting provider and Cloudways offer their hosting. We all know that the AWS server is very fast and optimized. Cloudways offer 4 different plans but the server space and bandwidth of all plans are the same. 

The four plans of the AWS server come with different Ram space, Virtual CPU numbers, and also pricing. So you will get a difference in server speed between the plans. Below I created a comparison table between all AWS server packages.

Plans	Price	RAM	vCPU	Storage	Bandwidth
Plan 1	$38.56/month	2GB	2	20GB	2GB
Plan 2	$91.84/month	4GB	2	20GB	2GB
Plan 3	$183.22/month	8GB	2	20GB	2GB
Plan 4	$285.21/month	16GB	4	20GB	2GB

4. Cloudways Google Cloud Server Plans

Google Cloud is another popular hosting giant that offers the fastest and reliable hosting service. You can get Google Cloud Hosting from cloudways. It offer 4 different package like AWS plans. If you comparison between Google Cloud and  AWS, Google Cloud plan are slightly low than AWS.

Google Cloud hosting in Cloudways offers four different packages. The difference between all the plans of its RAM space and vCPU number, and other configurations are the same. Now let’s see the plans with a table:

Plans	Price	RAM	vCPU	Storage	Bandwidth
Plan 1	$37.45/month	1.75GB	1	20GB	2GB
Plan 2	$84.12/month	3.75GB	1	20GB	2GB
Plan 3	$152.14/month	7.5GB	2	20GB	2GB
Plan 4	$241.62/month	15GB	4	20GB	2GB

Some features that are included in all hosting plans(DigitalOcean, AWS, and Google Cloud) are:

Comparing Cloudways Pricing vs Other Providers

Cloudways offers multiple plans with different providers. Their pricing plans mainly vary for different hosting providers. But is their pricing higher than other providers? Or what features are offered by other hosting providers at the same price?

Let’s compare with other hosting providers to Cloudways

1. Bluehost vs Cloudways

Cloudways and Bluehost are both popular hosting providers, but hosting plans and pricing are different. Bluehost offers 3 types of hosting and those are Shared, Dedicated, and VPS. Besides, Cloudways offers cloud hosting. The plans between the two providers are not the same. 

If you compare Cloudways DigitalOcean plans with Bluehost shared hosting, you will see Bluehost offers hosting at a low cost. But we need to keep in mind that Cloudways offers cloud hosting.

Besides, if you compare Cloudways AWS and Google Cloud hosting with Bluehost dedicated plans, you will see Cloudways pricing is quite high. But Cloudways offers better hosting and features than Bluehost.

2. Cloudways vs Hostinger

Hostinger is one of the top hosting provider companies. They provide multiple types of hosting like shared hosting, Cloud hosting, and VPS hosting. But Cloudways focuses on managed cloud hosting that is more highly optimized than Hostinger.

If you compare pricing between Cloudways and Hostinger, you will see that Hostinger offers hosting at a low cost. But you will miss some essential features in Hostinger that Cloudways offers.

If you seek scalable and optimized cloud hosting with greater flexibility and budget does not matter, Cloudways is better suited for you. On the other hand, Hostinger is a budget-friendly option for those requiring basic hosting services with a simpler setup process. 

3. Cloudways vs Siteground

Siteground is another popular hosting company that offers multiple types of hosting like Shared hosting, WordPress, WooCommerce, and Cloud hosting. Here I will compare Siteground cloud hosting plans with Cloudways AWS and Google Cloud plans.

Siteground Cloud hosting pricing starts from $100/month whereas Cloudways pricing starts from around $38/month. But the plans of both companies are not the same. Siteground offers better hosting configurations like Core, RAM, Server space, and bandwidth than Cloudways. But I think SiteGround plans prices  are slightly high.

4. WP Engine vs Cloudways

If we compare Cloudways and WP Engine, we see both companies offer WordPress-optimized hosting. However, the hosting configurations of WP Engine and Cloudways are not the same. Cloudways offer unlimited site host to any plan whereas WP Engine offers limited site to host.

Besides, Cloudways DigitalOcean plans come at a low price with enough features, whereas WP Engine offers a high price. On the other hand, WP Engine has more expensive plans than Cloudways.

Is Cloudways best for you?

Cloudways is a popular hosting provider that offers managed and high-performance servers. They provide Cloud Hosting from popular companies like Amazon Web Service(AWS), DigitalOcean, and Google Cloud. So you don’t worry about their hosting performance.

This platform offers multiple plans that you already see above. If you want to start your business, you can choose DigitalOcean plans. This plan comes with a low price that is perfect for beginners. So you can choose any plan from there according to your needs.

On the other hand, If you have a running business or a complex website, and need a high-performance server, you can choose AWS and Google Cloud plans. Those plans offer high-quality hosting servers to run your site smoothly.

You also need to keep in mind about Cloudways pricing. I already compared the pricing with other hosting providers above. So if you have a tight budget, this plan may not be for you. 

Pros and cons of Cloudways

Cloudways FAQs

1. What is Cloudways?
Cloudways is a managed and highly optimized cloud hosting platform that allows users to deploy and manage web applications easily. They provide hosting servers from popular hosting companies like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and DigitalOcean.

2. What types of applications can I host on Cloudways?
You can host a variety of web applications on Cloudways server, including websites, blogs, e-commerce stores, content management systems (CMS), and custom web applications. 

3. Is Cloudways a fully managed hosting service?
Yes, Cloudways provides a fully managed hosting service. It takes care of server setup, security patches, updates, and server maintenance, allowing users to focus on their applications. 

4. What programming languages and frameworks are supported?
Cloudways supports multiple programming languages and frameworks, including PHP, WordPress, Magento, Laravel, Symfony, Drupal, and more.

5. Can I scale my servers as my website grows?
Yes, Cloudways allows you to easily scale your current servers vertically by increasing resources like CPU, RAM, Bandwidth, and server storage. 

6. How does Cloudways ensure security?
Cloudways implements various security measures such as regular OS and application patches, firewalls, real-time monitoring, two-factor authentication, and SSL certificate installation.

7. What kind of customer support does Cloudways offer?
Cloudways offers 24/7 customer support through live chat, ticketing system, and phone. They also have a knowledge base and community forum for self-help. So you will get instant customer support.

8. Can I get a free trial of Cloudways?
Cloudways typically offers a 3-day free trial to new users, allowing them to explore the platform and its features. They also offer a pay-as-you-go pricing model, so you can stop using it anytime. You don’t need to pay extra.

Final thought

As a cloud hosting provider, Cloudways is very popular. They offer hosting from multiple cloud hosting platforms so you will get hosting from reliable and trusted providers. This platform offers many essential features, security, and customer service.

Cloudways offers many plans so you can easily choose any that suits your needs. If you need low-price hosting, you can choose DigitalOcean plans. Besides, you can also choose AWS and Google Cloud to get more high-quality hosting.

So which plan are you going to purchase? Comment below. Check more hosting-related articles from here.