Pros & Cons
What We Like
- Developers and agencies needing managed cloud hosting
- WordPress/WooCommerce sites needing scalable performance
- Users wanting flexibility across AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode
- Teams needing staging environments and Git deployment
- Growing businesses that need to scale quickly
- Users who want cloud power without server management
What Could Be Better
- Need email hosting included
- Want traditional shared hosting pricing
- Prefer cPanel
- Need domain registration
- Budget-conscious with predictable monthly costs
- New to web hosting (steeper learning curve)
Rating Breakdown
Value for Money
3.5Performance
5.0Support Quality
4.5Security
4.5Features
4.5Ease of Use
3.5Transparency
4.0Overall Rating
Weighted average of all categories
4.2/5
Technical Specifications
Complete feature breakdown across all 163 data points
Storage & Resources
- Storage
- 25 GB SSD
- Storage Type
- SSD
- Bandwidth
- 1000 GB
- Websites
- Unlimited
- Databases
- Unlimited
- PHP Versions
- 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3
Performance
- Uptime Guarantee
- 99.99%
- Uptime SLA Credit
- CDN Included
- CDN Provider
- Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
- HTTP/2
- Brotli Compression
Server Locations
- Location Count
- 65 locations
- Choose Location
- Locations
- US (Multiple), Canada, UK
Security
- Free SSL
- Wildcard SSL
- Dedicated IP
- DDoS Protection
- DDoS Level
- Bot Protection and Firewall via Cloudflare
- 2FA
Backups & Malware
- Malware Scanning
- Malware Removal
- Firewall
- Backup Frequency
- Hourly to Daily (configurable: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, daily)
- Backup Retention
- 14 days
- On-Demand Backup
- Restore Fee
- Free
Developer Tools
- SSH Access
- Git Deployment
- Staging
- Cron Jobs
- Redis
- WP-CLI
Language Support
- Node.js
- Python
- Ruby
WordPress
- WP Optimized
- Auto Install
- Auto Updates
- WP Staging
- WooCommerce
- LiteSpeed Cache
- Object Caching
- Multisite
Support
- Live Chat
- Chat Hours
- 24/7/365
- Phone Support
- Phone Hours
- Premium Support add-on only
- Ticket Support
- Priority Support
- Avg Wait
- 2 min
- KB Quality
- 5/5
- Channels
- Live Chat, Ticket, Knowledge Base, Phone (Premium add-on), Slack (Premium add-on)
- Languages
- English
- Email Included
- Account Limit
- Not specified
- Webmail
- Spam Filter
- Forwarding
Pricing Details
- 1st Year Cost
- $168
- 2nd Year Cost
- $168
- Setup Fee
- None
- Monthly Billing
Free Inclusions
- Free SSL
- Free Domain
- Free Migration
- Free CDN
Migration
- Free Migration
- Sites Limit
- 1 sites
- Turnaround
- 2 days
- Quality
- 5/5
Control Panel
- cPanel
- Panel Name
- Cloudways Platform
- Softaculous
- Site Builder
Compliance
- GDPR
- PCI
- HIPAA
- Certifications
- SOC 2, ISO 27001
CMS Platforms
- Drupal
- Joomla
- Magento
- Laravel
- Django
- Next.js
- Rails
- Static Sites
Content Policies
- Adult Content
- Gambling
- Crypto Sites
- Bandwidth Overage
- Pay-as-you-go; bandwidth included varies by plan (1TB base); overage charged at provider rates
- Storage Overage
- Pay-as-you-go; can upgrade server size or add block storage
Business Features
- API Access
- Reseller Hosting
- White Label
Best For (Score)
- Beginners
- 2/5
- Bloggers
- 3/5
- Developers
- 5/5
- eCommerce
- 5/5
- Agencies
- 5/5
- Enterprise
- 4/5
Company Info
- Founded
- 2011
- Headquarters
- Malta
- Parent Company
- DigitalOcean
- Trustpilot
- 4.6/5 (3,600 reviews)
Our Ratings
- Overall
- 4.2/5
- Value
- 3.5/5
- Performance
- 5/5
- Support
- 4.5/5
- Security
- 4.5/5
- Features
- 4.5/5
- Ease of Use
- 3.5/5
- Transparency
- 4/5
Managed WordPress
- Available
Regional Info
- Best Countries
- United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, Australia
- Currencies
- USD, EUR, GBP
- Support Languages
- English
- Data Sovereignty
- GDPR, SOC 2
External Ratings
- Trustpilot
- 4.6/5
- Reviews Count
- 3,600
- G2 Rating
- 4.7/5
- BBB Rating
- N/A (Malta-based, no US BBB listing)
Advanced Technical
- DB Type
- MySQL/MariaDB
- Elasticsearch
- PHP Switching
Access & Limits
- Subdomains
- Unlimited
- FTP Accounts
- Unlimited
- SSH Tier
- All plans
- Staging Tier
- All plans
- Instant Activation
Additional Pricing
- Exclusions
- No money-back guarantee; pay-as-you-go model means you only pay for resources used; unused prepaid funds can be refunded within 3 months of adding funds
- Payment Methods
- Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal
- Auto Renewal
- SSL Provider
- Let's Encrypt
Support Details
- Phone Countries
- United States
- Community Forum
- Outsourced
- Object Cache Type
- Redis/Memcached
Affiliate Program
- Affiliate Available
- Commission Type
- Recurring
- Commission Amount
- Up to $125 per referral or lifetime 7% recurring; 90-day cookie
Additional Policies
- File Hosting
- Proxy/VPN
- Suspension Policy
- Account suspended for TOS violations; servers still billed until deleted; fraud prevention enforcement active
- Downloadable Backups
Additional Platforms
- PrestaShop
- Ghost
- Shopify Migration
- Wix Migration
- Squarespace Migration
- Webflow Export
Editorial Notes
- Best For
- Developers and agencies needing managed cloud hosting; WordPress/WooCommerce sites needing scalable performance; Users wanting flexibility across AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode; Teams needing staging environments and Git deployment; Growing businesses that need to scale quickly; Users who want cloud power without server management
- Avoid If
- Need email hosting included; Want traditional shared hosting pricing; Prefer cPanel; Need domain registration; Budget-conscious with predictable monthly costs; New to web hosting (steeper learning curve)
- Known Issues
- Email hosting not included (requires third-party add-on at extra cost); No domain registration; Backup storage charged separately at $0.033/GB; DNS hosting is paid add-on; Premium Support with phone/Slack costs extra; Pay-as-you-go billing can be confusing; Charged in arrears for previous month; Some users report billing issues and being charged after cancellation; No cPanel (proprietary panel); Post-DigitalOcean acquisition some users report declining support quality
- USP
- Managed cloud hosting across 5 providers (AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode) with pay-as-you-go flexibility
- Ideal Customer
- Developer or agency wanting managed cloud power without server administration complexity
Competition
- Competitors
- Kinsta, WP Engine, Flywheel
- Best Alternative To
- WP Engine
We strive for accuracy, but pricing and features change frequently. Some data may be outdated. Report an error and we'll update it promptly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Cloudways
Cloudways is excellent for developers and agencies needing managed cloud hosting with flexibility across AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode, but lacks email hosting and traditional cPanel.
Cloudways was acquired by DigitalOcean in September 2022 for $350 million. Originally founded in Malta in 2011.
Cloudways uses pay-as-you-go pricing starting at $14/month for DigitalOcean and $11/month for Vultr. No promo-to-renewal markup.
Cloudways has a learning curve and is better suited for developers. Beginners may find traditional shared hosting easier.
No, Cloudways does not include email hosting. You need third-party email like Rackspace ($1/user/month) or Gmail.
Yes, Cloudways offers optimized WordPress hosting with staging, auto-updates, Redis caching, and Cloudflare Enterprise CDN.
Cloudways guarantees 99.99% uptime with SLA credits for downtime.
Yes, Cloudways is pay-as-you-go with no contracts. You're billed monthly in arrears for usage. There's a 3-day free trial.
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