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Recently, Digital Ocean bought Cloudways. Obviously, they removed other VPS providers since they were providing competitors VPS providers such as VULTR and Linode. So the most affordable option is to choose Digital Ocean server. But something amazing is that they offer $100 credit with the code : DOCEAN100
Read further to learn more about Cloudways, we will detail its features, pros and cons with our rating, and a conclusion about why you should use it.
Click on “open” if you want to see exactly what we will talk about in the rest of this article:
Quick Overview
What is Cloudways?
Cloudways is a cloud server that is managed and it allows you to choose your favorite cloud provider. To make it easier for you to manage, Cloudways link their platform to it. For it, you pay a small premium on a monthly basis. This service is very easy to use but still, you will need to have some understanding of various technical details to have a good and smooth experience.
It provides you value for your money; its normal servers are of great value but with scaling up your servers, you will need to pay more. Moreover, as for Cloudways support, constant improvements are being made to it and it gets better with the passage of time.
You will find a lot of web hosting solutions in the market, but choosing a service that you will not regret later is a difficult task. Cloudways has a simple and unique approach to web hosting which attracts its potential customers towards it.
The top five cloud providers that this Malta-based company works with will provide you the infrastructure but you do not need to set up an account with them which is direct; Cloudways will do all the necessary setup for you. It is a managed hosting platform, therefore, within a few minutes, it will deploy your website.
Cloudways specifications
Features | Backup / SSH access / Staging system / VPS hosting / WordPress optimized |
Best suited for | Freelancers, Small businesses, Mid size businesses |
Website languages | English |
Website URL | Visit official website |
Support link | Support page |
Live chat | Yes |
Company address | 140-H Allama Iqbal Rd P.E.C.H.S Block 2 Karachi, Karachi City Sindh, Pakistan |
Year founded | 2011 |
Pricing
Cloudways pricing: How much does Cloudways cost?
Cloudways starts at $10 per month minimum and you can scale your server to add more resources any time you want. We recommend you to choose the Vultr server with High Frequency which starts at $13/month, it’s the best value for your money. Cloudways free trial allows you to decide on the plan which is best for your needs. Once the free trial is finished, you can use your credit card or PayPal to pay for any plan. You also get hourly billing plans and customized plans.
Pricing range | From $10 to $274 per month |
Pricing types | Monthly subscription |
Free plan | No |
Free trial | Yes, 3 days |
Money back guarantee | No |
Pricing page link | See plans |
Cloudways pricing plans
Cloudways offers you hosting plans depending on the size, type, and budget of your website. First, you will have to choose a cloud infrastructure provider from among the five, each of which comes with a different pricing plan. Many people consider its flexible pricing as an attractive aspect. The company has a pay-as-you-go structure which makes Cloudways an outstanding choice for businesses that are small-to-medium-sized. It is also an excellent choice for users who are low on budget. This Cloudways review will surely help you obtain more knowledge about this hosting provider.
Digital Ocean
This provider has plans that range from $12 to $80 per month. Depending on various plans that you choose, you’ll get 25GB to 160GB storage processors, 1 to 4 core processors, 1GB to 8GB RAM, and 1TB to 5TB bandwidth. With Digital Ocean, you’ll get 4GB RAM, 2 core processors, 4TB bandwidth, and 80GB storage for $42 per month.
Linode
Linode offers you 4GB RAM, 2 core processors, 4TB Bandwidth, and 80GB storage for $50 per month. With other plans, this provider offers 1GB to 8GB RAM, 1 to 4 core processors, 1TB to 4TB bandwidth, and 20GB to 96GB storage for $12 to $90 per month.
Vultr
Vultr offers you 4GB RAM, 2 core processors, 3TB bandwidth, and 80GB storage for $44 per month. Its other plans include 1GB to 8GB RAM, 1 to 4 core processors, 25GB to 100GB storage, and 1TB to 4TB bandwidth for $11 to $84 per month.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
With the popular AWS monthly plan, you’ll get 3.75GB RAM, 1vCPU, 20GB storage, and 2GB bandwidth for just $86.77 per month. With other plans, you’ll get 3.75GB to 15GB RAM, and 1 to 3 vCPU for $85.17 to $272.73 per month. Furthermore, you’ll get 4GB storage and 2GB bandwidth with all plans.
Google Computing Engine (GCE)
With its different monthly plans, you’ll get 3.75GB to 16GB RAM and 1 to 4 vCPU with $73.62 to $226.05 per month. And with its most popular monthly plan, you’ll get 20GB storage, 1vCPU, 3.75GB RAM, and 2GB bandwidth for just $73.62 per month. Lastly, in all plans, you’ll get 20GB storage and 2GB bandwidth.
Standard features that come with every plan
- Access to SSH and SFTP
- 24/7/365 support
- Real-time monitoring (24/7)
- Free migration
- Free SSL
- CDN add-on
- Dedicated firewalls
- Auto-healing
- Regular security patching
- Staging environment
- Backups that are automated
- Servers that are HTTP/2-enabled
Features
Cloudways features: What can you do with it?
Specifically, Cloudways is known as a WordPress hosting platform. Cloudways will do everything that you need for a WordPress site. For WordPress, you need SSL installations, backups, HTTPS redirects, and other things that can be complex for users that are not experienced.
Nowadays, cloud-based web hosting services are ubiquitous, and the delivery of these services is growing every day. Many hosting providers deliver you the best and unique web-hosting services.
However, cloud-based web hosting is one step ahead of them and does several things that stand out among all hosting providers. The exceptional services that it offers are: giving you a choice between five platforms, which include Google cloud platform and Amazon Web Services, has pay-as-you-go plans that are wallet-friendly, and lets you have a free trial as well.
Custom control panel
When you create your Cloudways account, you can do all the server management through Cloudways’ control panel which is very different from the typical cPanel of most hosts. Cloudways’ custom control panel is modern and intuitive and through this panel’s menu, you will be able to access Applications, Servers, Projects, and Teams.
Management of applications
There are settings under applications and once you have set up a server, you can anytime add applications, for example, WordPress. After that, you will enter the Application page where you can set up many things through tabs. There is a relevant tab for domain mapping and you will be provided with a temporary URL if you do not have or registered a domain name to be mapped.
You can also find a page for one-click SSL installation which will let you install Encrypt SSL certificates for free. Recovery, a one-click operation, is located under the restore tab.
Server Management
When you set up the application, you can then run the normal aspects of your website under Servers. As for login credentials, you can check them under the server management. Additionally, for monitoring the usage of CPU, there is a specific page for it. It is very important for you to keep track of your CPU usage because the high usage of CPU can negatively affect your website’s performance.
Several services run under your server and those services are listed under Manage Services. With this Managed Services option, you can start, stop, or restart the services any time you want.
Under settings and packages, you will be able to do PHP settings configuration. You can also configure PHP and MySQL versions.
You can also block specific unwanted IP addresses from accessing your resources in the security section settings.
Moreover, to check and modify the settings, any experienced user can access the server via SSH. To offer protection against malware and various other kinds of cyberattacks, Cloudways is providing you with a cloud-based firewall. You can also change the schedule of backups, which, by default, run daily. Lastly, to set up outbound emails from your server, there is a tab known as SMTP.
Management of team
The team is an important collaboration feature. With Teams, you will be able to add team members and assign them access to your website, full or limited.
Staging and cloning
Cloudways’ staging is a useful feature for testing changes before making them permanent on your website. Position the staging area, conduct the test, and when you like the changes, you can integrate those changes into your actual website. This way, you will be safe from mistakenly introducing harmful and irreversible changes to your website.
As for cloning, it is very similar to staging. With cloning, you can make various clone sites when you are shifting to new servers or letting your clients see your website.
Advanced caching
CloudWays is dependent on five cloud providers to obtain its server infrastructure and those providers provide SSD-based VPS and dedicated servers which make sure that your server performance is fast.
To optimize servers, CloudWays also take advantage of various caching mechanisms. The company makes use of Breeze, which is an in-house caching plugin. This plugin can be set up easily. You can also enable or disable it with ease and convenience. Breeze supports a content delivery network called CloudwaysCDN which is owned by Cloudways.
CloudwaysCDN adds to its speed and reliability by caching web pages that can be found on various servers around the world. You cannot avail of this feature for a free trial account, but you can get it at a lower cost at any of the Cloudways’ paid plans. You can access this feature under Application Management and can add it with just one click.
You can also use Cloudflare CDN on websites that are deployed on Cloudways and Breeze will work alongside Cloudflare. There are other popular caching mechanisms such as Redis and Varnish but it is recommended by Cloudways not to use them both.
Managed services
Cloudways supports various popular CMSs as managed services such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Moodle, and Magento. Also, you can use other CMSs that are PHP-based and can obtain any number of servers as your usage grows.
E-commerce Cloud Platform
Cloudways has an E-commerce cloud platform through which you can set up online stores. You’ll get one free migration from your previous site. You can also build an e-commerce site on one of the CMSs that Cloudways support.
With Cloud Console, it’ll be very trouble-free for you to do management with various features such as domain mapping and one-click SSL certificate management. These types of operations usually require a support call on other hosts but are easy to do it yourself on cloudways.
Master Credentials
You can access your server without password prompts when you upload multiple SSH public keys to it. To do it manually, select the SSH Public Keys button after which you will set a label and public keys. If you want to do it automatically for your websites, then Launch SSH Terminal on your browser.
Monitoring
With Cloudways, you can monitor your server, and it provides you around 15 different options to do so. Cloudways, with the help of New Relic, is offering you an application monitoring feature as well, which you access when you enable New Relic.
Outstanding Uptime
One of the key aspects of a hosting service is website uptime and it is one of the most important aspects when it comes to service hosting. If your site is down, your customers or clients will not be able to find you or access your products.
What is even worse is that they might not even visit your site again. Having an excellent Uptime is essential for your clients and customers to contact you or access the products and services that you offer. Cloudways offers you a superb uptime which you easily track with a website-monitoring tool.
Vertical Scaling
WIth Cloudways’ vertical scaling, you can adjust your server size. DigitalOcean and Vulr offer you to upgrade your server size whereas, with Amazon and Google Compute, you can also decrease your server size which comes in handy while dealing with traffic spikes. Moreover, scaling your server will automatically increase other attributes of your server such as RAM, SSD Disk, and Core Processors.
Vertical scaling allows you to upgrade your server and increase its resources with just a few clicks. Under server management, you can find this function as a tab. Scaling works both ways and if you want to revert to your previous hosting plan, you can downgrade also.
Backups
With the Backup feature, you’ll be able to back up your application and server data. The data will be stored in safe data centers so if you experience any undesirable circumstances, you’ll not lose your data. You can automate the backup frequency and set it as low as up to an hour. You’ll also have the option to enable or disable your local backup.
Moreover, by default, backups run daily and you can change the backup schedule using the console. As for recovery, it’s just a one-click operation.
Security
Cloudways takes a series of measures to ensure server security as the hosting company considers it of prime importance. Several security features that Cloudways offer are:
- Firewalls
- Two-factor authentication
- SSL
- Automatic site Backups
Cloudways also offers high-level security at application and network levels that act as an extra layer of security to ensure protection against cyber attacks. This is very important if you use sensitive data or have an online business.
Moreover, by default, backups run daily and you can change the backup schedule using the console. As for recovery, it’s just a one-click operation.
Customer service
Cloudways customer service is available 24/7, so you can reach someone any time you want. But for video calls, you will have to fill out a form. With web chat, you will get immediate answers. Cloudways has a knowledgable team that will answer your queries and feed you some accurate information. Its refund policy is also unique, detailed, and simple for you to carry out.
So you can get in touch with customer support through an email, call, blog, community forum, and different social media platforms associated with Cloudways.
CloudwaysBot
The CloudwaysBot provides you tips and recommendations, backups and upgrades, and notifications about server status. It answers many support questions and you can get its messages through various means such as email, HipChat, and Stack. Also, you can choose the types of notifications you want to receive. The bot is also accessible with a custom API. So this bot will monitor your servers and send you a notification whenever there is an issue or any update.
Referral Program
Spread your Cloudways love by referring your friends. You will get $20 for each referral and your friends will also get $15 credit!
Conclusion
Cloudways Review: Why should you use it?
So, should you go on with Cloudways? Is Cloudways worth your time and money? The answer is yes; it’s because, unlike other hosting providers, Cloudways cloud hosting is the most affordable and reliable option for you.
Also, you will find it easier to find a plan that suits your specific budget and website goals. You’ll surely be impressed with its excellent security services, best customer support, fast speed, and set up that’s easily scalable. Therefore, you should consider giving it a try.
This service is unique because it has excellent and flexible cloud hosting plans, its setup times are fast, has high-quality web-based customer support, and outstanding uptime. This is surely the best company that you can count on to keep your site up and running. Furthermore, some people are not very satisfied with the unusual way through which they can get customer service rep on the phone.
Alternatives
Cloudways Alternatives
Before subscribing to Cloudways, it’s always a good idea to check out the competition and find the best wordpress hosting for your needs. You can find the Cloudways alternatives here.
Here are some versus to compare Cloudways with its competitors: