Cloudways Review 2023: Is It the #1 Managed Cloud Hosting Platform?

Cloudways Review 2023

Product Name: Cloudways

4.9

Summary

Want to host your website on an affordable, reliable and FASTER cloud hosting platform? Try Cloudways hosting today as it offers excellent hosting solutions starting only at $11 per month. Here’s our detailed review along with features, performance reports, alternatives, and pricing plans.

• Try Cloudways Hosting (Starts at 11/mo)

Are you planning to use Cloudways to host your WordPress site? Looking for an unbiased Cloudways review for 2023? You’re in the right place. 

First things first: Cloudways is not a typical web hosting provider. 

Cloudways simplifies cloud hosting as it enables you to set up your website on one of five different cloud hosts including DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud.

So when you create a new website using Cloudways, you can configure everything from which cloud host to use, storage to pick, RAM size, etc. 

Is Cloudways worth your money? 

In this detailed Cloudways review, you’ll find out exactly that where we’ll talk about;

• Cloudways hosting performance (speed & uptime)
• Features & pricing
• Pros & cons of Cloudways
• Cloudways alternatives
• Customer reviews and many more

Are you ready? Let’s jump into the details to read our in-depth Cloudways review to decide whether it’s a good hosting choice.

Cloudways Review 2023: Is It An Affordable & Superfast Cloud Web Host?

Cloudways Features List

Here’s an incredible list of features offered by Cloudways hosting.

Cloudways Hosting Performance

Cloudways claims to offer superior website performance. Is that really true? Let’s find out now.

One of our websites is hosted on Cloudways (using Digital Ocean cloud plan) and here’s the speed test report on GTMetrix;

As you can see above, the site is loading within half a second which is really impressive.

We all know faster websites have many benefits including better user experience, improved site rankings, higher conversion rates, and so on. 

So if you’re looking for an affordable yet FASTER hosting provider to host your WordPress site, you should definitely try Cloudways.

5 Benefits of Using Cloudways Hosting

What are the benefits of using Cloudways web hosting? Why should you choose Cloudways instead of other web hosting providers? Here are the top 3 benefits of using it.

1. Access to 3 Cloud Providers

One of the major benefits of using the Cloudways platform is that it gives you access to five amazing cloud hosting providers which are;

1. DigitalOcean
2. AWS
3. Google Cloud

It will be a daunting task if you want to individually host on any one of these cloud hosts. 

Cloudways makes it easier for anyone to host their websites and it takes away all the complexities of setting up your website quickly.

All you need to do is to follow a simple 3-step process which is;

• Select Your Application (WordPress, PHP, etc)
• Select your server (from 3 different cloud providers)
• Pick  your size

That’s it, you’re done. You’re ready to set up your site within a few minutes.

2. Blazing-Fast Speed

Faster websites help you with better rankings, higher conversions, and better user experience.

Your web hosting provider plays a crucial role in your website loading times. Here’s where a cloud hosting provider like Cloudways comes into play as it offers faster performance and extremely fast loading time.

If you’re curious to know why Cloudways is faster, here’s the reason: it uses Cloudways Thunderstack technology which is packed with the world’s best server software to offer superior loading times.

Have a look at the following illustration to understand the Cloudways Thunderstack technology.

As you can see above, Cloudways uses a ton of various technologies that help you with better speeds and performance. Some of them include;

• NGINX webserver
• Apache server
• Memcached 
• MySQL 
• Varnish Cache
• Redis
• PHP 8 and more

3. Free Automated Backups

No matter what web host you choose, make sure it offers automated backups.

You never know when your site gets hacked or files get corrupted (or deleted). That’s when you can easily restore all your files if you’ve automated backups in place.

Fortunately, Cloudways offers free automated backups that help you automatically store and retrieve all your files easily with just one click.

To make backups of your website, log in to your Cloudways hosting account and click on the Backups option.

Then, you can select a backup frequency and make changes. You can also take backups manually whenever you want.

Here’s how it looks like;

See that? It’s extremely easy to take backups of your site on Cloudways.

4. Cloudways Provides Real-Time Billing

One of the biggest benefits of using Cloudways is that it charges its customers on a pay-as-you-go basis.

That means you get access to real-time billing details.

Here’s how it looks like;

You’ll be charged only for the resources you consume with pay as you go billing. Also, there’s no lock-in period with Cloudways hosting – so you can freely use their hosting services without being tied up in a yearly hosting contract.

5. Extremely easy to use

If you’re a beginner or someone who doesn’t like technical stuff, you might need a web host that’s easy to use.

Cloudways doesn’t offer a traditional cPanel where everything is buried under menus. Instead, it uses a visual easy to use dashboard where you can easily manage web servers and websites.

You can easily manage all the following things with the intuitive interface offered by Cloudways.

• Installing SSL certificates 
• Creating and launching servers
• Adding staging
• Managing website caching
• Taking backups and restores
• Cloning a server and more

How to Start A Blog on Cloudways [Get 25% Off]

Want to know how to save more on Cloudways web hosting? Here’s a simple tutorial on starting a new blog on Cloudways where you can get a 25% discount.

Click on this link to visit the Cloudways website.

Once you’re on their website, click on the View Pricing button to continue.

You’ll be instantly redirected to their Pricing and plans page. You’ll see the pricing plans from 5 different cloud web hosts when you scroll down.

Have a look;

See that? You can pick any one of the 3 cloud web hosting providers and choose the right hosting plan that suits your budget and website needs.

Then, click on the Start Free button to continue. You can try Cloudways FREE for 3 days. You can either use your Google account or create an account using your email. 

As you can see above, you can try any of their hosting plans FREE for 3 days and you’ll be charged only after 3 days. You can also cancel your account if you want. 

The best part? You can grab their 3-day free trial and try out every feature of the Cloudways hosting platform without a credit card!

Breeze Cache Plugin by Cloudways

Looking to boost your website speed? Then, you should install the ultimate FREE caching plugin called Breeze from Cloudways.

Breeze WordPress cache plugin is a powerful cache plugin developed by Cloudways for WordPress users. It’s free to use.

Here are some of the benefits of using this caching plugin;

Cloudways Pricing

Cloudways gives you access to 3 cloud providers including;

1. Digital Ocean
2. AWS (Amazon Web Services)
3. Google Cloud

The pricing plans differ for each cloud provider, so let’s talk about the pricing packages offered by all the above cloud hosting providers.

1. Digital Ocean 

Digital Ocean offers the following FOUR pricing packages in the “Standard” option and you don’t have to pay extra to Digital Ocean when purchasing from Cloudways.

1. $11/mo plan: This plan from the Digital Ocean cloud provider costs you $11 per month and gives the following hosting limits.

• RAM 1GB
• Processor 1 Core
• Storage 25GB
• Bandwidth 1TB

2. $24/mo plan: This plan costs you $24 per month and offers you the following hosting limits.

• RAM 2GB
• Processor 1 Core
• Storage 50GB
• Bandwidth 2TB

3. $46/mo plan: This plan costs you $46 per month and offers you the following hosting limits.

• RAM 4GB
• Processor 2 Core
• Storage 80GB
• Bandwidth 4TB

4. $88/mo plan: This plan costs you $88 per month and offers you the following hosting limits.

• RAM 8GB
• Processor 4 Core
• Storage 160GB
• Bandwidth 5TB

Digital Ocean has Data Centres in the following places. 

• London
• San Francisco
• Singapore
• New York
• Amsterdam
• Frankfurt
• Toronto
• Bangalore

2. AWS (Amazon Web Services)

AWS is one of the most popular cloud hosting providers and it currently offers the following four pricing plans on Cloudways.

1. $38.56/mo plan: This plan costs you $38.56 per month from AWS where you’ll get access to the following limits.

• RAM 2GB
• vCPU 2
• Storage 20GB
• Bandwidth 2GB

2. $91.84/mo plan: This plan costs you $91.84 per month from AWS where you’ll get access to the following limits.

• RAM 4GB
• vCPU 2
• Storage 20GB
• Bandwidth 2GB

3. $183.22/mo plan: This plan costs you $183.22 per month from AWS where you’ll get access to the following limits.

• RAM 4GB
• vCPU 2
• Storage 20GB
• Bandwidth 2GB

4. $285.21/mo plan: This plan costs you $285.21 per month from AWS where you’ll get access to the following limits.

• RAM 8GB
• vCPU 4
• Storage 20GB
• Bandwidth 2GB

AWS (Amazon Web Services) has Data Centers in the following places. 

• US N.Virginia
• California
• Ohio
• Oregon
• Montreal
• Ireland
• Frankfurt
• Paris
• London
• Milan
• Stockholm
• Singapore
• Sydney
• Tokyo
• Seoul
• Mumbai
• Hong Kong
• Sao Paulo
• Bahrain
• Cape Town

3. Google Cloud

Google Cloud is the MOST popular and trusted cloud hosting provider which offers the following four pricing plans on Cloudways.

1. $37.45/mo plan: This is the cheapest plan from Google Cloud on Cloudways as it costs you $37.45 per month where you’ll get the following features.

• RAM 1.75GB
• vCPU 1
• Storage 20GB
• Bandwidth 2TB

2. $84.12/mo plan: This plan costs you $84.12 per month where you’ll get the following features.

• RAM 3.75GB
• vCPU 1
• Storage 20GB
• Bandwidth 2TB

3. $152.14/mo plan: This plan costs you $152.14 per month where you’ll get the following features.

• RAM 7.5GB
• vCPU 2
• Storage 20GB
• Bandwidth 2TB

4. $241.62/mo plan: This plan costs you $241.62 per month where you’ll get the following features.

• RAM 15GB
• vCPU 4
• Storage 20GB
• Bandwidth 2TB

Google Cloud has Data Centers in the following places. 

• Iowa
• S.Carolina
• Oregon
• N.Virginia
• Las Vegas
• Belgium
• Netherlands
• London
• Frankfurt
• Finland
• Montreal
• Mumbai
• Taiwan
• Hong kong
• Singapore
• Tokyo
• Sydney
• Sao Paulo

Pros & Cons of Cloudways

This Cloudways review will be incomplete if we don’t talk about its pros and cons. 

Cloudways Pros:

• Offers hosting plans from 3 various cloud hosting platforms 
• You can pay for their hosting according to your usage as Cloudways charges you on a “pay as you go” basis
• You’ll get access to extremely fast web servers to host your site
• 24/7 support including live chat
• Free SSL with all plans
• Free automated backups with all plans
• Offers 1-click staging feature
• Provides you 24/7 real-time monitoring
• Free CDN
• First website migration is free with Cloudways

Cloudways Cons:

• It doesn’t offer a free domain registration 
• It costs you extra dollars if you want to create new email addresses 

Cloudways Reviews 2023

So what are the real Cloudways reviews? What other customers are saying about Cloudways web hosting? Let’s find out.

On TrustPilot;

As you can see above, on the TrustPilot Platform, Cloudways got a rating of 4.7 out of 5 ratings from over 1219 users which is great. 

On G2;

As you can see above, on the G2 Platform, Cloudways got an excellent 4.8 out of 5 ratings from over 230 users which is incredible. 

All in all, customers from all over the world love Cloudways web hosting platform for its speed, security, and performance. 

Top 3 Cloudways Alternatives 

Looking for better alternatives to Cloudways hosting? Here’s a handpicked list of 3 Cloudways hosting alternatives you can try in 2023 and beyond. 

1. Hostinger

The great thing about Hostinger is that it offers an exclusive cloud hosting package where you’ll find the following pricing options.

Pricing: Hostinger offers the following 3 pricing packages in cloud hosting.

1. Cloud Startup: This plan costs you $9.99 per month where you can install up to 300 websites. You’ll get 200 GB storage with 3 GB RAM and 2 CPU cores.

2. Cloud Professional: This plan costs you $14.99 per month where you can install up to 300 websites. You’ll get 250 GB storage with 6 GB RAM and 4 CPU cores.

3. Cloud Enterprise: This plan costs you $29.99 per month where you can install up to 300 websites. You’ll get 300 GB storage with 12 GB RAM and 6 CPU cores.

Hostinger cloud hosting offers you data centers in 7 different locations including the USA, United Kingdom, Singapore, Lithuania, India, France and the Netherlands.

Hostinger Features:

Here are the features you get with Hostinger cloud hosting plans.

• Free email address
• Free SSL certificates
• Free website migration  
• Managed WordPress 
• 30 days money-back guarantee 
• SSH Access  
• Cloudflare protected nameservers
• Free domain with ALL cloud hosting plans
• Free CDN ($9.95 value)  
• Daily Backups with all cloud hosting plans
• Unlimited bandwidth  and databases
• Dedicated resources 
• Dedicated IP Address  

You can read our unbiased Hostinger review if you want to find more details about their hosting and features. 

Read: Hostinger Coupon Code 2023: Up to 90% Discount + Free Domain

2. A2 Hosting

If you’re looking for a cheaper yet faster web hosting alternative to Cloudways, you should definitely check out A2 Hosting as its pricing plans start only at $2.99 per month. 

A2 Hosting also offers turbo servers (with Turbo plans) that offer up to 20x faster website loading times. 

A2 Hosting Features:

A2 Hosting offers you the following features.

Pricing: A2 Hosting offers the following four shared hosting packages. 

1. Startup: This is the cheapest plan from A2 Hosting which costs you $2.99 per month where you can install 1 website with 100 GB storage. 

2. Drive: This plan costs you $5.99 per month where you can install unlimited sites with unlimited storage. You’ll get free automated backups along with 2x resources. 

3. Turbo Boost: This plan costs you $6.99 per month where you can install unlimited sites with unlimited storage. You’ll get free automated backups along with 2x resources, 20x faster speeds, 40% faster performance. 

4. Turbo Max: This plan costs you $12.99 per month where you can install unlimited sites with unlimited storage. You’ll get free automated backups along with 5x resources, 20x faster speeds, 40% faster performance. 

You can also read our in-depth A2 Hosting review to learn more about their features.

Read: Top A2 Hosting Alternatives and Competitors

3. WPX Hosting

WPX is the same web hosting provider we’ve been using since 2016. It’s REALLY faster and offers superfast customer support assistance. Their pricing plans start at just around $20 per month.

WPX Hosting Features:

Here are the features offered by WPX;

Pricing: WPX offers the following 3 pricing plans.

1. Business: This plan costs you $24.99 per month where you can install up to 5 websites. You’ll also get access to 10 GB of storage along with 100 GB bandwidth.

2. Professional: This plan costs you $49.99 per month where you can install up to 15 websites. You’ll also get access to 20 GB of storage along with 200 GB bandwidth.

3. Elite: This plan costs you $99 per month where you can install up to 35 websites. You’ll also get access to 40 GB of storage along with unlimited bandwidth.

Want to learn more about WPX? Read our honest review of WPX Hosting to find more details about its performance, features, and more.

FAQs

Here’s a list of some of the frequently asked questions around Cloudways.

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Final Thoughts

If all you want is an affordable cloud hosting platform to host your site, Cloudways is an excellent choice for you.

Not only Cloudways is affordable but it also offers excellent speed, performance, and security.

It offers everything from an easy-to-use dashboard to automated backups to a built-in CDN and more. So what are your thoughts on the Cloudways review? Have any questions? Let us know in the comments.