Cloudways Review: Managed Cloud Hosting Platform (Dec 2021)

Cloudways is a Managed Cloud Hosting Platform. In this article, we’ll talk about Cloudways Review, Pricing, Details, Pros & Cons, etc.

Cloudways Review

Cloudways is a hosting solution for websites, and it is positioned as a managed hosting platform affiliated with multiple cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, Vultr, and Linode. While these are all cloud providers, once you are registered with Cloudways, you will not need to register with any of these providers anymore.

Cloudways does all the job for you through its simplified setup and approach to web hosting. It is a company based in Malta, and it supports sites built with WordPress, PHP, Magento, Drupal, Larvel, and a host of other open-source platforms.

Cloudways is a highly recommended hosting platform for small and medium businesses and users with low budgets for hosting because of its flexible pricing. All hosting plans on Cloudways are on a”Pay-As-You-Go” structure, which is not common in many hosting options. Have you been considering Cloudways but aren’t sure if it will be the best option for you? Continue reading for an in-depth review of Cloudways.

Features of Cloudways

Cloudways is popularly called a hosting platform for WordPress sites. Virtually every WordPress task can be handled by Cloudways such as HTTPS redirects, SSL installations, backups, and other not-so-simple tasks. Below is a breakdown of the features of Cloudways:

1. Intuitive Control Panel

After signing up for a Cloudways account, everything you want to do is available from the control panel, including your server management. Cloudways panel is intuitive and gives you direct access to your Applications, Servers, Projects, and Teams.

• Applications

After setting up your server and navigating to “Applications,” you can add any application of your choice, such as WordPress. In the Applications tab, too, you can map a domain or do a host of other things using the tabs. If you do not have a domain name that you want to map, Cloudways will issue a temporary URL to you. Under the Restore tab, you can also execute the recovery process.

• Server

After setting up your applications, the next thing is to make sure your website has everything it needs to run properly. Navigate to “Server Management” to check your login credentials. You can also track the CPU usage as the number of users at any time determines your website’s performance. Under “Managed Services,” you can start, restart, or stop any service running on your server.

When you navigate to “Settings & Packages,” you will find the options to tweak and configure all server-related settings. The Security tab gives you access to block any IP address, and there is a cloud-based firewall to protect your website against cyber-attacks and malware.

Cloudways runs backup for your website every day, but if you want to change the schedule, you can do so from the “Server Management” tab.

• Team

This feature allows you to add team members to your site’s control panel so they can have full or limited access to make changes. This is the feature that allows you to add other people as administrators on your website.

2. Staging and cloning

This feature allows you to test new changes before pushing out the changes on your website. The Staging features allow you to set up those changes and test them to see what the changes look like. This way, you can test all new changes before your website users. Cloning allows you to create multiple clone sites when showcasing your websites or changing servers.

3. Advanced Caching

Since Cloudways is affiliated with five cloud providers that provide its server infrastructure, Cloudways is leveraging the dedicated servers and SSD-based VPS servers that these platforms offer, which ensure fast server for any website on Cloudways. Cloudways also makes use of different caching mechanisms to keep its servers optimized. With its in-house caching plug-in named Breeze, you can easily set it up, enable or disable it at any time. It also supports the Cloudways content delivery network known as CloudwaysCDN. With CloudwaysCDN, your web pages will be cached on different servers all over the world. You will find this feature under the “Application Management” tab.

4. Vertical Scaling

Vertical scaling is a feature under “Server Management” and can be used to upgrade your server so you can increase your server resources. It involves only a few clicks, and you can use the feature to downgrade whenever you want.

5. Customer Support

Cloudways has provided different channels for users to get across in case they need assistance. You can chat with the customer support team via LiveChat or put a call through or even send an email. The support team is also active on social media, and on the Cloudways blog, you will find a lot of helpful resources. CloudWaysBot is another feature that monitors the servers and notifies you of a problem or update.

Cloudways Pricing

As mentioned earlier, Cloudways makes available to its customers a “Pay-As-You-Go” pricing model, which means you only pay for the time you use Cloudways services. At first glance, it may seem complicated because the pricing plans are in different categories based on Cloudways’ affiliated cloud-providing partners, Amazon Web Services (AWS), DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, Vultr, and Linode, but then when you break it down, the plans are quite simple.

There is also a three-day free trial plan for you to test Cloudways features and see if you like the service. Out of the affiliated partners, a light user should go for the basic plans under Linode and DigitalOcean while Google Cloud plans and AWS are suitable for heavy users. The beauty of using Cloudways with the infrastructure of these cloud providers is that Cloudways sets everything up for you through managed hosting support.

Managed DigitalOcean Hosting Plans

Managed Linode Hosting Plans

Managed Vultr Hosting Plans

Managed AWS Hosting Plans

Managed Google Cloud Hosting Plans

Final Words

The best thing about Cloudways is how it saves users and businesses from getting tied up in an expensive and long-term hosting plan through its “Pay-As-You-Go” model. Its custom panel is also impressive and easy to use. Despite the numerous one-click functionalities, Cloudways still needs to keep up with the competition. If you wish to try out Cloudways, sign up, and make use of the three-day free trial.