In this post I am going to explain everything you have to know about Cloudways hosting so you can see if it is worth it or not to hire some of their hosting plans. In my continuous search for a good WordPress hosting at a reasonable price, I have come across Cloudways. A hosting company that has surprised me with its features, performance and price
Although that yes, I warn you that it is not the typical shared hosting that other companies offer. Well, here is the table of contents so you can go to the part that most interests you.
Table of Contents
- Why did I decide to try Cloudways?
- What is Cloudways hosting?
- Cloudways highlights
- Application management
- Server management
- Team management
- Staging and Cloning
- Cloudways WordPress Migrator
- Cloudways support
- Cloudways Price
- What I like about Cloudways
- Easy to use administration panel
- Quick and easy application installation and management.
- Pay as you go or pay as you go
- What I don’t like about Cloudways
- Does not have a file editor
- They do not register domains
- My opinion on Cloudways
- Summary review Cloudways
Why did I decide to try Cloudways?
One of the reasons why I chose to try Cloudways is because I wanted to try managed cloud hosting and get a little out of the typical shared hosting with cPanel or Plesk . And the other reason is because I needed a web hosting for testing, hosting my side projects and having a space for client web development separate from my personal blog.
So that in case of a failed experiment, my website would not be affected .
I leave you here my review on videos about Cloudways
What is Cloudways hosting?
Cloudways is a Managed Cloud Hosting in which you choose one of the cloud hosting providers they work with and they connect their management platform with that cloud hosting provider making it very easy to manage.
In exchange, you pay a small extra to use their management platform and the support they give you when you need it.
Cloudways highlights
Cloudways is very focused on WordPress-based websites, so you can expect all the functionalities and adjustments necessary to manage your website with WordPress. Things like installing an SSL certificate, changing the PHP version, creating a staging environment, backups, etc.
I will now explain what it is like inside and some of its functionalities.
Application management
Cloudways makes it very easy for you to manage the different facilities.
Once you have configured your server, you can add new applications whenever you want. With applications I mean WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, etc.
Within the application settings, you will see several tabs. A relevant tab is the Domine Management tab .
If you have not yet assigned a domain or have not registered one, a provisional URL will be generated by Cloudways so that you can create your website even if you do not have the domain yet.
Another important tab is the « SSL Certificate « , from which you can install the free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate .
There is also the ” Backup & Restore ” tab in case you ever have to restore from a backup .
Server management
In addition to control over applications, you also have quite a bit of control over different aspects of the server. Inside Server Management one of the first tabs you will find with your access credentials .
In the “Monitoring” tab you will find the consumption of resources (RAM, CPU, Storage …) of the server. It is important that you have this monitored , because if your server reaches the limit frequently the performance of your websites will be affected.
Keep an eye on resource consumption. The server runs various services that you can activate, deactivate or restart from the ” Manage Services ” tab .
In the next tab, « Settings & Packages « you have a series of more advanced settings at the level of PHP, SQL and other parameters such as upload size, memory limit, etc.
In the ” Security ” tab you can block or unblock IPs.
NOTE: I had to add my IP to the list of safe IPs (” Whitelist “) so that it would not block me when trying to access by FTP. Keep this in mind in case it happens to you.
In case your server is reached the limit or you know that during certain dates such as Black Friday you need more resources in the “Vertical Scaling” tab you can increase the power of the server with a few clicks .
Nor can the settings of the backups be missing, you have them in the ” Backups “ tab . As expected. In this aspect you have enough control, you can choose to make backups every X hours or X days . Choose up to a maximum of 4 weeks of retention (which allows you to restore the web to how it was a month ago) of the bakcups and choose the time at which they should be carried out.
And finally there is the ” SMTP “ tab, although it is rather a tab, but well, it goes without saying. This tab is where you have to configure your SMTP email server to be able to receive emails from the server. This is important because otherwise the automatic emails sent by WordPress and some plugins will not be sent. I have used SendGrid , it is free and easy to configure (you just have to create an account and copy an API key) .
A quite useful functionality especially if you collaborate with other professionals. Cloudways allows you to add new users / team members with full or limited access to the administration panel.
In the following image you can see the different permissions that you can assign to new team members.
It has much more settings than what appears in the screenshot that I have put you. If you want to know more, take a look at this documentation on how to add new members to Cloudways.
Staging and Cloning
When you go to make important changes to your page it is good that you first do some tests on a copy of it to avoid loading your website in production.
In these cases, the Staging functionality that Cloudways hosting offers will come in handy .
Through staging you can create a copy of your website, do the tests or changes you want, and pass that copy to production with a few clicks. In this way you do not have to worry that by making a change you will load your page.
Cloning is similar to staging in some ways. For example, I use it to create copies of a blueprint and thus speed up the process of creating web pages.
Cloudways WordPress Migrator
If you are concerned about migrations, with the Cloudways WordPress Migrator plugin you can migrate your websites from your old web hosting provider to the Cloudways platform in a very simple way.
Plugin to migrate your website to Cloudways at 0,
It is a free plugin that is in the WordPress repository, very similar to the SiteGround Migrator.
I have migrated several websites with it and without problems. No need to touch databases or files, it’s just a few clicks and wait for the migration to finish .
Cloudways support
The fastest way to get help is through their 24/7/365 chat support . Although you can also create a ticket for more complex incidents, go to the community forum or the Cloudways documentation.
They also have a bot that alerts you if there is anything new on their platform, incidence or you have any configuration that can give you problems.
I personally, the doubts I have had have been solved by all consulting their documentation.
I only had to go to the support once . It was by chat and an hour outside of business hours. They responded to me almost instantly. It is seen that they comply with the 24/7 support.
It was because I was unable to access one of the WordPress installations by FTP. It turns out that I had to put my IP in the whitelist because for security reasons they were blocking me.
So, my experience with support is quite positive. I can not complain.
Cloudways Price
Since Cloudways use a pay-per-use system. At first, the prices are still confusing or complicated because Cloudways works with several cloud hosting providers:
- DigitalOcean
- Linode
- Vultr
- AWS
- Google Cloud
DigitalOcean, Linode and Vultr are the cheapest options, with plans from $ 10-$ 12 a month.
Cloudways prices with DigitalOcean.
With AWS or Google Cloud at least you will have to pay $ 33 / month. Which is already a much higher price range.
Cloudways pricing with Google Cloud
If you contract a plan directly with one of those cloud hosting providers, it would be cheaper, but you would have to manage everything on your own. Whereas with Cloudways, for a little more you get a managed hosting and you save all those quite technical adjustments.
If you want to try Cloudways , you can take advantage of its trial period . It is short, only 3 days, but enough to see how it works and assess whether it is worth hiring any of their plans.
Also, you do n’t even need to enter your bank details . So, they will not charge you anything after the trial period.
Of course, the trial is only available for DigitalOcean, Linode and Vultr, which are the cheapest providers.
Try Cloudways Free
What I like about Cloudways
I’m going to mention a few highlights that I like about Cloudways.
Easy to use administration panel
Cloudways is quite easy to use, I was expecting something more complex because I had never used this type of hosting.
If you come from using cPanel or Plesk, it may surprise you a little at first, but you won’t get lost in its settings. Everything is very well organized and quite intuitive.
Quick and easy application installation and management.
You can install WordPress, WordPress + WooCommerce, Magento, Drupal, Joomla, Laravel … with a few clicks, and manage everything in a simple way from the ” Applications ” tab .
You can even create categories to classify the different websites you have. For example, if you have a client with multiple websites, you could create a category and assign all their websites to that category.
I have created a category for « Side Projects » and one for test websites that I am setting up.
In addition to that, it is also very easy to clone the websites, use staging and since it generates a provisional url, you do not even need to link a domain. The latter is quite useful for creating websites and testing them.
Pay as you go or pay as you go
It is a fairly flexible payment model because you don’t stick to typical annual plans . If you want to unsubscribe next month, cancel the plan and you’re done. You only pay for the months you had hired him.
With shared hosting plans, in most cases, you cannot do that because it is usually charged for a full year or a quarter at least (some allow you to pay month to month).
Another advantage of pay-per-use is that if at any given time you need more server resources , you can upload them and pay an extra only that month.
You do not have to go to a higher plan and pay a full year as it happens with typical shared hosting.
This can also be used to test whether with more server resources the performance of your website improves or if speed problems are on your website.
What I don’t like about Cloudways
In some ways they could improve.
Does not have a file editor
In the cPanel or Plesk panels you can manage the files directly from the administration panel. In the case of Cloudways you have to do it by force by FTP.
Not that it is a big inconvenience, but it is sometimes more convenient to go directly to the control panel to edit a file and not be downloading and uploading files via FTP.
They do not register domains
Cloudways does not offer the option to register domains, what they do is create a temporary url for each application. You have to register the domains with another provider (I use Namecheap) and then assign it to the application you want. They also do not offer email hosting , which has its advantages and disadvantages. Since your email is not linked to the web hosting, if you decide to migrate the page or when you unsubscribe you will not have to migrate the email because you have it separated. But on the other hand, that implies that you have to hire a separate email hosting. They are cheap, in Don Dominio you have them from € 1 / year.
My opinion on Cloudways
Cloudways seems to me a cloud hosting provider with good benefits at a reasonable price. Although the pricing issue may be a bit confusing at first, the pay-as-you-go system is actually quite flexible.
You can choose the plan that best suits your needs without having to commit to an expensive hosting plan that you are not taking advantage of 100% for fear that a cheaper plan falls short. Its administration panel makes it very easy to manage all WordPress installations or other applications that you have installed. I personally find it easier than with cPanel or Plesk. In summary, I consider Cloudways to offer a good balance between performance, features and price. I find it a very good option for users who manage multiple projects or have a website with enough traffic that needs extra resources during certain times of the year.
If you still have doubts about Cloudways, all you have to do is try their services totally free for 3 days.
Try Cloudways Free
Summary review Cloudways
The truth is that it is a hosting that has surprised me for good, and while they give us the price of their services radically, I think I will continue using it for quite some time.
I could say that it is the solution I was looking for to host all those secondary projects that I can think of and to test WordPress without fear that they affect my blog.
If Cloudways is not the type of hosting you are looking for, you are still interested in taking a look at the review of the hosting I use for my blog.
