Cloudways occupies an interesting spot in the hosting market: it’s not a traditional host, and it’s not quite a raw cloud provider either. It’s a managed layer that sits on top of DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode/Akamai, or AWS, giving you managed-hosting convenience while letting you pick (and pay for) the underlying infrastructure directly. Here’s what you’re actually getting in 2026.
Last updated: August 2026
What Is Cloudways?
Cloudways doesn’t own its own data centers. Instead, it partners with major cloud infrastructure providers and adds a management layer on top: server provisioning, security patching, monitoring, backups, a built-in CDN, and a clean dashboard so you don’t have to touch a command line to manage your server. It supports WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, and general PHP applications, which makes it more flexible than a WordPress-only host.
Key Features
- Choice of cloud provider: Pick between DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode/Akamai, or AWS based on your budget and performance needs, then choose the server size (RAM, CPU, storage) that fits your traffic.
- Built-in CDN: Cloudways offers an integrated CDN option to speed up global asset delivery without a third-party setup.
- One-click staging: Clone your live site to a staging environment, test changes, then push live when ready.
- Automated and on-demand backups: Scheduled backups run automatically, and you can trigger manual backups before major changes.
- Free SSL: Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates are included and auto-renewed.
- 24/7 monitoring and support: Server health monitoring runs continuously, with support available around the clock.
- Team collaboration tools: Add team members or clients with role-based access, useful for agencies managing multiple projects.
Platform Ecosystem and Add-Ons
Beyond core hosting, Cloudways offers an add-on marketplace of optional services — dedicated CDN plans, advanced backup retention, object caching add-ons, and a managed database service for applications that need it. This a la carte structure means you’re not paying for capabilities you don’t use, but it also means the “true” cost of a fully-loaded setup can be higher than the advertised base server price once you add the extras a growing site typically wants. It’s worth budgeting for at least one or two add-ons (usually a CDN and enhanced backups) rather than assuming the base price is the final number.
Pricing
Cloudways pricing is usage-based rather than a handful of fixed named tiers. You choose your cloud provider and server specs (RAM, CPU cores, storage, and bandwidth), and price scales accordingly — entry-level DigitalOcean-backed servers are among the cheapest ways to get genuinely managed WordPress hosting, with costs rising as you increase server resources or add more applications. This structure means small, low-traffic sites can run quite cheaply, while high-traffic stores will pay closer to what comparable resources cost on a premium managed host.
The tradeoff for this flexibility is that there’s more to configure upfront. You need to make a decision about provider and server size, rather than just picking “Plan B” off a pricing page. Cloudways does provide guidance and recommended starting sizes, so this isn’t as intimidating as it might sound, but it’s a different mental model than a fixed-tier host like Kinsta or WP Engine.
Performance
Because you’re choosing the underlying cloud provider, performance depends partly on which one you pick — DigitalOcean and Vultr tend to be popular for cost-effective performance, while AWS offers more enterprise-grade scaling options at a higher price point. Cloudways layers in caching (Varnish, Redis, Memcached depending on setup) and its CDN to keep page speeds competitive with dedicated managed WordPress hosts.
Support
Cloudways offers 24/7 live chat support, and the team is generally responsive and knowledgeable about server-level issues. Where it differs from a WordPress-only host like Kinsta is depth of WordPress-specific troubleshooting — Cloudways support is strong on infrastructure (server errors, resource limits, backups) but you may need to lean on the WordPress community or a developer for deep plugin-level debugging.
Security Features
Cloudways bakes in a reasonable security baseline across every server: free auto-renewing SSL via Let’s Encrypt, dedicated firewalls, regular OS-level security patching handled by Cloudways rather than left to you, and two-factor authentication for your account login. For WordPress specifically, you can layer on Cloudways’ own security add-ons or third-party plugins for malware scanning and hardened login protection. It’s not quite as security-forward out of the box as WP Engine’s SOC-2-oriented enterprise stance, but it covers the fundamentals well for small business and agency use cases.
Using Cloudways for WooCommerce
Because Cloudways supports more than just WordPress, it’s a common choice for WooCommerce stores that need more server headroom than a typical shared-hosting WooCommerce plan provides. You can size a server specifically around expected traffic and checkout volume, add Redis object caching for faster catalog performance, and scale the underlying server up temporarily during high-traffic periods like a product launch or holiday sale — something that’s much harder to do on a fixed-tier host without changing plans entirely.
If you’re evaluating your broader software stack alongside hosting — CRM, payment tools, or accounting software for the business behind the store — our guide to best accounting software for startups is a useful next read.
Who Cloudways Is Best For
- Agencies and freelancers managing multiple client sites who want cost control across projects.
- Growing businesses that want to scale server resources incrementally instead of jumping between rigid plan tiers.
- Technically comfortable founders who don’t mind choosing a server size and want more value per dollar than a fully managed premium host.
It’s a weaker fit if you want the absolute simplest, most hands-off setup with zero configuration decisions — for that, a fixed-tier host like Kinsta may suit you better. See our head-to-head Kinsta vs Cloudways comparison for that exact tradeoff, or check our full hosting roundup for how it stacks up against WP Engine and Hostinger too.
Onboarding Experience
Getting a first site live on Cloudways typically takes under 20 minutes: create an account, choose your cloud provider and server size from a guided setup flow, select a starter application (WordPress, WooCommerce, or a blank PHP stack), and Cloudways provisions the server automatically. The dashboard afterward is clean and doesn’t require touching a terminal for day-to-day tasks like clearing cache, restarting services, or checking resource usage — though the option is there if you want it.
Migrating an existing site is handled through Cloudways’ free migrator plugin, which copies your files and database over without requiring DNS changes until you’re ready to point your domain at the new server, minimizing downtime risk during the switch.
Our Recommendation
Cloudways is one of the best value picks in managed WordPress hosting today, particularly if you’re comfortable making one upfront decision about server size and provider in exchange for meaningfully better pricing flexibility. We’d recommend it for freelancers, agencies, and growing small businesses that want managed convenience without paying a full premium-host markup. If you want zero-configuration simplicity above all else, it’s worth comparing against Kinsta or WP Engine first — but for most cost-conscious buyers, Cloudways delivers strong value.
