Founded in 2011, Cloudways is a cloud-based web hosting platform with headquarters in Malta. It’s designed to have excellent levels of power, and could be a great choice for a more experienced user.
Knowing what you need from your web hosting platform is key to being satisfied with your choice. You want your website to suit the platform you choose. You’ll need to decide what matters most to you. Do you need something with lots of power? Is storage a priority? How much do you value a customer support team? Do you want a phone line or live chat?
All of these questions are important when deciding on the web hosting platform for you. Luckily, our review is here to help. We’ll dive into an examination both sides of its services, answer some of the most frequently asked questions on the provider and offer alternative platform options. Our definitive review can help you make a more informed choice.
Table of Contents
Is Cloudways Good: The Bottom Line Up Front
Cloudways is quite an unusual hosting provider in that all of the hosting
Pros
Works With Various Providers
Cloudways is hosted on six of the biggest providers –
Amazon, Google, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, or Kyup. Don’t worry about creating an account; it’s not necessary with your managed cloud server, as the service does the work for you.
Works Well With WordPress
This is a particularly good choice for managed WordPress hosting. It’s also easy to install other web apps, resources and features with the drop-down menu with the service.
High Quality Customer Support Team
Cloudways offers a variety of excellent customer support articles online with solutions to common issues. On top of this, there’s a super-helpful customer forum, and 24/7 live chat team for those who hit a snag.
Affordable
Cloudways offers a variety of excellent value plans. Because it specialises in managed cloud server hosting, it can offer competitive pricing plans for highly powerful plans. There are also free trial options.
Cons & Problems
Less User-Friendly Interface
The Cloudways cPanel is unique, so can be more difficult to learn. If you’re particularly used to one application then moving over can be a fairly steep learning curve.
Application Limits
The standard Cloudways installer can support only twelve applications. While this is plenty of resources for most, it’s still worth bearing in mind.
Real Customer Reviews: What People are Actually Saying
Good Things People Are Saying
Cloudways has a highly positive reputation online, with the majority of real life customer reviews at five stars. There are a few different aspects which customers point to in particular to warrant their positive ratings.
Customers love the quality of the Cloudways server, the high levels of customer support, and the speed of the WordPress platform. They also draw attention to the great value for money it offers. The stack of performance boosting features is also a huge pro for the service. These include Nginx reverse proxy, PHP 7.2 FPM, Varnish, Redis, and Memcached. Fans also point out that the speed and efficiency work even on the smallest of their available server plans.
Other fans point out how stress-free the hosting experience is through this platform. This will clear up some headspace so you can invest energy into growing your blog’s audience and reach, rather than leaving you bogged down in details. This platform can be suitable for any website style. Many draw attention to the fact the service makes it so easy to host multiple sites and blogs at the same time.
Another thing customers love is the excellent levels of uptime the service offers. The high-level security features are another great benefit.
The free trial, although short, is also a pro that users point out. The fact that it gives you an opportunity to test the service in real time is undeniably helpful. It gives you the most informed idea about things like speed, uptime, security and customer service which couldn’t be known otherwise.
The different plans offered means there is something for everyone. There are options to suit every budget. The 24/7 support offers almost instantaneous remedies to any of your hosting problems, which is great especially when you’re just starting out.
Another aspect of the service which users love is the easy-to-use and attractive interface. It looks super appealing and clean, and this aesthetic appeal also makes it easier and more intuitive to use.
If you’re looking for excellent speed and uptime, this looks to be a fantastic choice. Many user reviews conclude by saying they’d absolutely recommend this service to a friend without hesitation.
Bad Things People Are Saying
In spite of the overall extremely positive reception Cloudways has online, there are some downsides which customers point out. Whether or not they’re deal breakers for you is entirely your decision.
Some users point out that the service doesn’t offer customers a free domain, meaning you’ll have to rely on a third-party domain register to host your site. This can be annoying and make the process seem overly complicated.
In fact, there are a few things this option does not include, which customers find to be problematic to their user experience. There’s no free CDN feature, for example. Email accounts through the platform also cost extra. Many customers think they’d feel more valued if they were given some of these freebies instead of constantly having to pay more for special features.
Some users claim the number of applications you can add through Cloudways is a little bit too limited. The applications are also primarily PHP, which further limits additional apps.
Another issue with the service is the billing system. Some customers report issues with their cards being blocked without any real reason. Although the support team is always on hand to deal with any issues regarding payment, it’s still something that eats into users time and should be resolved as an issue with the company, rather than on a case by case basis.
Some users think that in spite of the customer support is available 24/7, the actual operators are spread a little thin. Some report waiting several minutes between chat interactions, leading them to assume that each operator is dealing with multiple help requests at once. This can slow down resolutions to common issues, and feel frustrating.
The scripts made available to install are also seen as somewhat limited. The server is mostly reliant of PHP based scripts, which can feel limiting to some. This can mean if the third-party server experiences issues, your Cloudways site can experience unnecessary problems, too.
Website Set Up and Development
Does Cloudways Offer WordPress Hosting Specifically?
Yes, it is a server designed with WordPress websites in mind.
Do You Get a Free Domain Name When You Sign Up? (Some Hosting Providers Offer This)
No, it does not offer free domain registration.
Do They Have Nameservers or Offer DNS Services?
Cloudways don’t offer their own nameservers, but it’s easy to add DNS services to your hosting.
Migrating a Site To Cloudways (and Transferable Installs): How Easy Is It?
There’s a specific plugin in make migrating easy. This addon takes the stress out of your website move.
Cloudways Control Panel (Cpanel): Do They Offer One To Manage Your Hosting?
The service has its own control panel. See a comparison between Cloudways and cPanel here.
FTP & SFTP: How Easy Is It to Connect?
Cloudways makes it easy to connect FTP and SFTP. They have a specific tutorial here.
Do They Offer Staging Environments and Temporary Urls?
Cloudways offers easy to use staging sites, but you must register the domain elsewhere yourself first. Learn more here.
Templates & Blueprints: Do They Offer Site Setup Templates?
Cloudways does not offer website setup templates, but there are many options for these available through WordPress, so you can find the ideal choice for your target audience.
PHP Versions: Do They Support Legacy and The Latest Versions?
Cloudways supports the latest in PHP hosting options, for maximum performance and security.
Do They Support Git or Command Line Tool Integrations?
Cloudways does support git repositories, but they need to be supported by your SSH to work properly.
SSH Connection: Do They Support It?
Yes, it supports an SSH connection.
Cloudways Speed & Load Time
The company offers high speeds thanks to its CDN. These high speeds make it a particularly good choice for hosting an e-commerce store. The service utilizes a range of tools to maximise your website speed and make your website load quicker. It promises to do away with painful WordPress load times and guarantees high levels of reliability.
Services and Goodies Offered With Hosting
Uptime, Outages & Down Time
As Cloudways relies on managed cloud hosting, it offers more reliable uptime than shared or dedicated servers. The company guarantees over 99% uptime.
Do They Offer a CDN With Hosting?
Cloudways offers a CDN called Stackpath. You can also choose to go with Cloudflare if that suits you better. The CDN can speed up server response time. The company has data centers around the world.
Does Cloudways Offer Shared Hosting and Dedicated Servers?
No, it only offers managed cloud hosting services.
Https: Do They Offer SSL Certificates or Letsencrypt?
Cloudways makes it easy to install an SSL certificate with their application and feature add-on section, which is filled with valuable resources.
How Do Site Backups Work?
Cloudways offers automatic website backups, and you can choose how frequently you want them to happen.
Redirects: Do They Support Server Level Redirects?
Cloudways has a redirection plug in to help with redirects. There’s more customer support on the topic to be found in their customer forum.
Do They Support Multisite & Subdomains?
As Cloudways is only a hosting provider, you must set up your domains elsewhere – but you can support multiple sites with one plan.
Does Cloudways Offer Email Hosting?
There’s a plugin option of email services, but you’ll need to purchase your domain name elsewhere.
Security & Past Hacking Incidents
Cloudways has an excellent track record for security. There are multiple safeguards against hackers and no past instances of threatened security. The service utilizes a two-factor authentication for maximum peace of mind.
Cloudways Pricing, Plans & Money Back
Pricing, Packages & Plans
There are a range of plans to suit every budget, from $10 to $80 per month. For more information, check out their site.
Do They Have a Monthly and Annual Plan Payment Option?
It is a pay as you go service, so is billed on a month to month basis.
Do They Offer Unmetered or Unlimited Bandwidth Plans for Hosted Websites?
The most expensive plan offers 5TB of bandwidth per month. If you exceed it, you’ll face a small charge.
How Does Canceling a Plan Work?
You can delete your servers at any time, and will only be charged for the time they are up.
Promo Codes & Discounts: Do They Have Special Offers?
From time to time, there are special offers to be found on plans. make sure you shop around to get the best deal.
Does Cloudways Have a Satisfaction or Money-Back Guarantee?
This option does not offer
Customer Service and Support
Cloudways Phone Number: Do You Get a Real Person?
Cloudways’ main form of support is through live chat, where you do get to speak to a real person, though only through text. They also have a ticketed system where they can call you, but this is not an available option for the free trial. It also offers multiple excellent customer support tutorials, plus an active forum where customers can help each other out.
Cloudways Alternatives: What We Would Recommend Instead
If Cloudways doesn’t appeal to you, don’t fear. We’ve reviewed multiple web hosting services to help you find your best fit. In order to get a better idea of what you’re looking for, check out our guide to web hosting for small businesses. If you know you want to host a WordPress site, we have a specific guide tailored to hosting WordPress, too.
We also have comparison guides between some of the most popular hosting platforms. These include a comparison between Wix and Bluehost, and a comparison between Dreamhost and Hostgator.
Sign Up
If this Cloudways review has made you think this is the hosting service for you, you can join on the web – sign up here.
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