We discovered that it is up to the task.
Our verdict: # 1 for managed cloud hosting
Created for developers, Cloudways
is known for highly managed and scalable cloud hosting. With strong customer support, you can access comprehensive documentation and tutorials.
Cloudways 4.5 out of 5 stars have earned more than 80 customers, with the best quality ratings.
Cloudways is perfect for your website ??
Looking for something specific? Jump to our most popular sections:
- Expert Review: Read our in-depth review from hosting specialist Gary McGath
- Customer feedback – see real customer reviews
- Hosting Plans – Find the Right Cloudways Plan for You
What is Cloudways ??
Cloudways is a developer hosting provider that creates an abstraction layer to eliminate the hassle of setting up and maintaining a server.
As the name implies, all of its services are based on highly scalable
cloud
hosting management
, which can be implemented quickly and easily.
Have you thought about staying with Cloudways? Or just starting with pay-as-you-go cloud hosting? I will explain everything you need to know below.
Company and history
Cloudways, based in Malta, has two distinct faces. It is an integration point for many cloud services, all managed from a single console.
It is also a site that allows PHP developers to implement their own applications in containers . It offers a wide range of features for developing PHP applications.
The company was founded in 2011 . It completely revamped its site in 2016, calling it “Cloudways 2.0”.
Cloudways has data centers worldwide. Customers and users will always be within reasonable reach of one.
Services offered by Cloudways
After logging in to Cloudways, all customers can add “servers” to their account at any time.
Customer can add services from cloud infrastructure providers like Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean, Google Cloud Platform and Vultr.
Depending on the vendor and disk space you choose, Cloudways will configure a cloud-based virtual server. It generally takes less than a minute.
Managed services
Cloudways supports multiple CMS as managed services
, including the five most popular:
- WordPress
- Drupal
- Magento
- Joomla
- Moodle <.
Customers can use other PHP-based CMSs, although they are basically a DIY effort.
A customer can obtain any number of servers and clone a cloud application or server as needed. As usage increases, the client can add more servers.
Adding a server is simply on Cloudways
dashboard.
One-click cloud platform for e-commerce and facilities
The Cloudways E-commerce Cloud Hosting platform
allows customers to establish online stores . They get a free migration from their previous site.
Alternatively, they can build an eCommerce site on one of the supported CMSs.
The cloud console makes administration very convenient , with features like one-click SSL certificate management and domain mapping. With other hosts, these types of operations may require a support call. But at Cloudways, they are easy to do yourself.
Backups and CloudwaysBot
Backups run daily by default, and recovery is a one-click operation. The account owner can change the backup schedule using the console.
CloudwaysBot provides server status notifications, backups, and updates. You can also get advice and recommendations from CloudwaysBot
.
You can answer many support questions. Customers can choose to receive their messages through various means, including Slack, email and HipChat. They can also select the types of notifications they want to receive. And developers can access the bot with a custom API .
Cloudways CDN
Cloudways has an easy to integrate content delivery network (CDN) called CloudwaysCDN at a low cost
.
The CDN is based on StackPath (previously called MaxCDN).
Sites hosted by providers that Cloudways supports already run fast , but adding a CDN adds more speed and reliability.
Adding a CDN to your Cloudways
account is simple.
CDN Cost and Integration
Add CloudwaysCDN costs only $ 1.00
per 25 GB of bandwidth . For most sites, this will be a negligible fee.
Cloudways has guides for integrating your CDN with your site for all major CMSs, although it will be a little more difficult if you have a custom app.
Developer Features
PHP developers can choose between various frameworks or work with PHP 7. They can configure the implementation from a Git repository. A customer can deploy unlimited applications.
Cloudways provides a RESTful API to facilitate the creation of operations scripts . For example, a script could extract the latest version of an application from a Git repository, clone the application, and restart the cloud server
.
A Playground API is available to test scripts.
Developer support
The team’s granular controls help developers and testers coordinate their work. The account owner can add team members, assign titles, and set their access level.
They may have full access to the console or only certain console functions will be allowed. Your access may be restricted to certain applications.
The owner can set intermittent team members, such as consultants, to idle when they are not on the project.
Staging and access to the command line
A built-in staging mechanism allows developers to move new code to a test environment. The default installation subdomain is preconfigured for provisional and test code. Developers can create additional staging areas as needed, so new versions are confirmed before going public.
SSH access command line is available to developers , but they cannot have root access for security reasons.
Control panel and infrastructure
Cloudways is not your typical cPanel host. Many hosts that don’t use a control panel like cPanel have an outdated and difficult to use custom control panel.
But the Cloudways control panel has a modern design and is intuitive to
use.
Once you have a working server, you can add applications to it at any time in less than a minute.
There are only 3 main fields to complete when adding an app:
- The name of the application
- The server (that you created) to put it
- The type of application.
Video: The Cloudways
control panel in action
Supported applications
Cloudways has a decent list of compatible apps, but they are not compatible with many custom apps.
Adding an app to your Cloudways
site is simple.
The only general programming languages are compatible with PHP. The expectation is that most Cloudways users will use a CMS.
You can start, stop and restart the services on your server at any time through your control panel.
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. This is great business for fully managed high performance hosting.
General infrastructure
Software infrastructure is based on Cloudways ThunderStack
It consists of Nginx and Apache web servers, MySQL, MariaDB, PHP 7 and various types of caching . The operating system is Debian Linux. All applications use ThunderStack.
Security measures include platform-level firewalls on each server and continuous monitoring. Two-factor authentication is available and recommended. OAuth-based API keys restrict access to the Cloudways API.
SSL certificates
Adding and managing services is intuitive with Cloudways
dashboard’s simple interface .
Customers can install Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates for free through the user interface.
Alternatively, they can obtain their own certificates and install them on their sites.
Most clients, in addition to those working only with their own PHP applications, will require additional infrastructure from one of Cloudways’ third-party services. Customers can use as many services as they want from one account.
Customer service and prices
Customers can get assistance through live chat or by sending report tickets.
They can also check CloudwaysBot for help 24/7 customer support.
one day, 7 days a week.
Premium customer support is available at an additional cost. Premium customers get priority resolution on issues. In addition to regular support channels, they can get phone support or use a private Slack channel. They can also request application support and server customization.
Finally it’s incredibly common to seek help on social media , and Cloudways is active on all major social platforms. There are always multiple ways to get in touch if necessary.
Knowledge base and blog
While live chat is good, most developers I know are more than happy to turn to the support documentation to help them solve the problems on their own.
CloudWays provides many tutorials and solutions for hosting problems through its knowledge base.
Additionally, they have an active blog where they regularly post posts with frontend tutorials and how to grow a business.
Prices
There are four price levels available. Each provides a specific level of RAM, processor, storage, and monthly bandwidth.
The price is pay-per-use. You are charged for server time .
Customers can pay for multiple servers and scale to a higher level during high volume periods or as long as they need it. They exist without contracts ; customers only pay monthly
.
Infrastructure services
Infrastructure services are in addition to this price and are billed monthly.
Major credit cards and PayPal are accepted. There was a time when Cloudways accepted Bitcoin payments, but suspended them.
A free trial version is available for potential customers to test the console. No credit card is required. An affiliate program allows customers to charge commissions for bringing in new customers.
How pay-per-use works
If you’ve never used the pay-as-you-go system before, it may seem a little scary. You don’t want to wake up to a bill that is hundreds or even thousands higher than expected. Surprises are highly unlikely to happen with Cloudways.
You can view your resource usage in real time and invoice at any time on your control panel.
Your Cloudways
account panel shows current server usage.
It also provides an estimate of how much you will need to pay on your next bill.
Cloud hosting alternatives
There aren’t many hosts like Cloudways that are aimed at developers. But there are a few alternatives that share some of the best aspects of Cloudways.
This table compares the closest cloud server to the most popular Cloudways server:
Cloudways
LiquidWeb
Hostwinds
DigitalOcean
Vultr
| VCPU cores | two | two | two | two | two |
| RAM | 4GB | 2 GB | 4GB | 4GB | 4GB |
| Storage | 80 GB | 40 GB | 75 GB | 80 GB | 80 GB |
| Broadband | 1TB | 10TB | 2 TB | 4GB | 3GB |
| Price * | $ 42.00 | $ 59.00 | $ 18.99 | $ 20.00 | $ 20.00 |
| * Prices are based on the use of the whole month. |
LiquidWeb
LiquidWeb specializes in high performance managed servers. But they are much more expensive. They also support all kinds of applications, and you will have root access on most plans.
They are best for sites that require a lot of resources and reliability. Read our detailed LiquidWeb review.
Hostwinds
If you were initially interested in Cloudways because you heard that they accept Bitcoin, HostWinds is a good alternative.
It is not designed for developers, but it does emphasize website speed and good support. Here’s a closer look at HostWinds.
DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is actually a Cloudways partner, so they share a lot of details in common.
The big difference is that Cloudways offers fully managed services
while DigitalOcean is more for DIY enthusiasts. That means DigitalOcean’s plans are considerably cheaper, but be prepared to do the work yourself.
If you’re looking for DigitalOcean WordPress, you’ll find it as a one-click install option. If you want cPanel, you need to install it yourself.
Learn more in our DigitalOcean review.
Vultr
If Cloudways seems intriguing to you but you need root access and more programming languages, then you should also take a look at Vultr. Read more in our Vultr review.
Pros and cons
Overall, I think Cloudways is a great developer hosting option in many situations, but sometimes it’s not the best option.
Here are the pros and cons of the platform in my eyes, which I hope will help you make a decision.
Pros
- Intuitive and Simple User Interface –
Cloudways is easy to use , even if you’re new to it. It is developer friendly, but even someone with few technical skills could use it. - Spinning a server or app takes less than a minute: Compared to the time it takes to set up a drop of Digital Ocean (or equivalent), it’s fast.
- Extremely Reliable: Cloudways has a 99.999% uptime guarantee.
- Affordable pay-as-you-go price – Pricing is incredibly fair
, just above what the base cloud provider charges.
Cons
- Limited supported apps : Cloudways is great if you’re hosting a common CMS (like a WordPress site), but if you’re creating a custom app in Python, JavaScript, Ruby, etc., you’re out of luck.
- No root access: While Cloudways does a great job of keeping servers healthy and functional for you, sometimes you need root access yourself.
