Cloudways is our cloud hosting provider for this website. In this article, I will tell you all about Cloudways and why we chose it over everyone else.
In my past life I was a sales + business analyst + website planner for million dollar web-based application projects. Knowing a thing or two about a thing or two about hosting was a requirement of the job.
You should really only read this review if you give all the f*cks –as in, you really, really care about your own personal success. It’s a lengthy review, but one that I think will clarify some concerns you may have and push the needle in the right direction.
Table of Contents
Website Speed Shapes User Experience
Your website and the experience your visitors have with it invariably will become one of the most critical assets for any entrepreneur –whether brick and mortar or 100% online and remote.
And the “experience” doesn’t come from shiny things; like your WordPress theme, or your colour scheme, or the flowery adjectives you use in the blog posts you write to draw traffic from search engines like Google –or from a minimalistic website design.
In the order of operations –speed trumps all, at first. Before a visitor can qualify the content of your website, how long it takes to load is everything.
They’re eager to know if your site is worth their time, it’s their first thought when they click on a search result.
Speed isn’t just about bandwidth, it’s also about the hardware your website is sitting on –how much RAM does your server have? How many cores are in the CPU? And are you sharing that hardware with other websites that can potentially slow yours down?
Learn More About CloudwaysWeb Hosting Support Matters
Shared hosts like Siteground, Bluehost, HostGator, et al just don’t cut it anymore (and often, their support sucks pretty bad –trust me on this).
Here’s an example of HostGator “support”, I tried them after Siteground, before Cloudways:
Simply put; Cloudways gives regular people access to super high end servers that normally require a technical team to manage with a Terminal window (white text black screen).
Powerful wholesale servers often don’t come with clever dashboards for less technical users.
Cloudways gives you access to BIG BIG TECH by adding a “managed layer” (aka dashboard) to cloud servers championed by companies like Amazon, Digital Ocean, Linode, Google, and Vultr. For the sake of this review, I use the latter and my experience is painted by their hardware and caching, it’s fire).
While setting up a website may look easy on its face—purchasing a domain, hosting, setting up CMS, and creating content—it’s a whole different world of technicalities like SSL certificates, safety from DDoS attacks, and more.
Cloudways is a one-stop shop.
These technicalities can be not only confusing but also a major waste of time. That’s when managed hosting providers, such as Cloudways, come into the picture.
I was a business analyst, not a programmer –I want clean, tidy, and simple. And that’s what I get from Cloudways.
This article reviews Cloudways and lets you decide if it’s the right choice for your business.
Learn More About CloudwaysWhat is Cloudways?
Quick recap: Cloudways, now a subsidiary of DigitalOcean, is a managed cloud hosting provider that allows its users to deploy or manage their websites on five cloud servers (and growing).
They don’t do hosting contracts. They don’t do annual packages. They don’t dangle carrots for your commitment. Which makes their cost easy to swallow if you’re just starting out.
It’s one of the fastest hosting platforms with a wealth of impressive features, including pay-as-you-go pricing, 24/7/365 customer support that’s the best I’ve ever experienced myself, and real-time AI-based bot notifications.
What’s more, it boasts an NPS (net promoter score) of 71, which indicates high customer satisfaction.
Cloudways’ managed cloud hosting service distinguishes it from other cloud hosting providers like Hostinger and A2 Hosting, making it a reliable hosting experience. This means apart from providing server space, a managed cloud host also takes responsibility for server maintenance, software updates, security, and backups on your behalf.
Adding to that, your account comes with free SSL certificates, two-factor authentication, IP whitelisting, server patching, and DDoS protection.
Learn More About Cloudways✨Features of Cloudways
1. Hosting Choices
Cloudways beats other competitors, like Kinsta, WPEngine, SiteGround, and BlueHost out of the water by offering five different hosting providers, while competitors offer their own bullshit shared hosting solutions. Users can host their websites on Linode, AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, and DigitalOcean.
2. Excellent Performance Guaranteed
Cloudways ensures that it delivers high-speed performances for all its services. Irrespective of your chosen package, they will pay attention to your website and facilitate outstanding performance.
SSD-based hosting is 3X faster and reduces page loading times for your websites.
They have automatic crash-resolving servers and built-in Advanced Caches for accelerating performance.
“Performance: Inbuilt caching as well as the Cloudflare add-on and offer superb performance and fast loading times for websites and applications.” – G A Q. Owner, Small-Business
3. Ease of Use
Cloudways provides a user-friendly interface and streamlined process for deploying and managing servers, making it an attractive option for those with limited technical knowledge.
From automatic server-level backups to on-demand single-site backups, you’re practically hands-free when you host your website on Cloudways.
“I was used to using a cPanel for over 10 years when I first used Cloudways about 2 years ago. While I still have a cPanel with another provider, all websites I host for clients are on Cloudways and I do all my development on staging sites on Cloudways.
It’s so very easy to use and has all the features necessary, plus there’s the bonus of having clients have their email hosted separately from their website which is always beneficial & optimal.
I’ve had to contact support quite a few times and they are always very helpful, even making changes to the database for me, saving me from accessing that myself. “ – Michelle B. Creative Director
4. Assured security
Cloudways provides killer security with features like IP whitelisting, two-factor authentication, dedicated firewalls for operating systems you run in the cloud, monitoring, and protection against bots.
5. Freedom to Manage Your Server
Cloudways doesn’t insist on a long-term contract. Instead, its pay-as-you-go model allows you to pay for only what you have used.
You can also conveniently scale your server and extend your storage space without any hassle.
The best part is that you can host multiple WordPress and Magento sites on a single server.
6. Seamless Workflow and Collaboration
With Cloudways, you can give access, distribute and share your work with co-workers, regardless of their location.
It permits one member to be a part of multiple teams, encouraging a collaborative culture. It also allows you to transfer ownership of the servers to clients.
Learn More About CloudwaysWhich Cloudways Server Is Best?
Cloudways supports five hosting providers, giving you the flexibility to go with what suits your business the best. Here’s a quick rundown of each of these:
1. Linode: A well-known cloud provider that’s renowned for its performance. It has 8 data centers across three regions, which makes it an ideal choice for small-mid-size businesses. It offers a perfect blend of affordability and performance.
2. DigitalOcean: If you’re tight on budget, this server is the one for you. With 7 data centers in 3 countries, DigitalOcean is well-known for its high performance and SSD-based storage. Ideal for personal websites, such as blogs and small businesses.
3. Vultr: If you’re looking for a cloud hosting provider that offers excellent performance at a low price point, Vultr is the best one for you. It’s slightly more expensive than the DigitalOcean and Linode but offers more storage. This is the one I use for Hobo with a Laptop.
4. AWS: A well-known hosting provider, AWS is a clear business choice. Although AWS is an excellent choice for larger businesses and enterprises as it offers massive storage that ensures seamless scaling and no downtime.
5. Google Cloud: Being the second biggest cloud provider, Google Cloud is an excellent choice for enterprises.
Cloudways wraps a dashboard around these hosts that makes them easier to use. Kind of how Apple made Linux easy for average users to rely on –”it just works”.
The choice of cloud hosting provider greatly varies from business to business. It depends on various factors such as website traffic, required resources, budget, location of the target audience, and more.
Learn More About Cloudways💵 Cloudways Pricing
Cloudways pricing is flexible, affordable, and offers the best bang for your buck.
Cloudways is “wholesale” which makes them more affordable than others, with a specific stack.
Besides the free plan, the cheapest pricing starts at just $10 monthly, whereas Kinsta and WPEngine start at $30 monthly.
It varies depending on the cloud hosting provider and the resource configuration selected by the user. For instance, the pricing for Google Cloud on Cloudways ranges from $33.18 to $274.93 per month, while Linode ranges from $12 to $90 per month.
It also offers premium plans for DigitalOcean and Vultr cloud providers, which provide additional features and performance enhancements beyond the standard plans, giving you #BangForYourBuck.
As a bonus, hourly backups are also free, often paid on other hosting platforms. Because you never know when sh*t will hit the fan, and trust me, if it happens an hour after you posted an article or redesigned a section of your website –you’ll see why daily backups don’t cut it.
💭 Is Cloudways the Right Choice for You?
Besides the choice for selecting your preferred hosting provider, you can choose the application from Drupal, Magento, Laravel, Joomla, and any PHP-based app. In contrast, competitors such as Kinsta only offer support on WordPress websites.
Cloudways offers managed hosting instead of shared hosting—that some of its competitors, including SiteGround, offer. SiteGround, Rackspace, and other players in this space primarily offer traditional dedicated hosting, which is obviously less reliable and has limited customizable solutions.
This means whether you’re a busy entrepreneur or have little to no technical knowledge, Cloudways will take care of software updates, server maintenance, security patches, and more, making website hosting a hassle-free experience for you.
In the past, I’ve progressed from HostGator to BlueHost to SiteGround to Cloudways, and Cloudways is the end of the line. The final solution. My website grew from $6k USD per month to $21k+ USD per month on their watch.
Google values site speed. They don’t recommend duds. ‘Nuff said. And Cloudways offers speed at a cost that’s wholesale, cheaper for what you get, than the likes of Siteground et al in my opinion.
Learn More About CloudwaysHere’s what other Cloudways customers have to say:
All in all, Cloudways is a more robust and customizable hosting platform than its competitors, making it a better option for businesses and individuals looking for advanced hosting solutions.
Learn More About CloudwaysCloudways Free Trial & Final Words
While selecting a hosting provider is unique to each business, Cloudways is a great choice for most businesses as it is reliable, offers high performance, and comes with a host of features.
It offers the choice to choose from an array of 5 leading hosting providers choice of applications, like WordPress, Drupal, and more.
And finally, it provides a free no-CC trial before you choose a service that starts from $10 a month, which is bang for your buck you cheap bastard. Just kidding –the free trial allows you to explore the interface, it gives you time to learn why they’re the best. I say go for it. You have absolutely nothing to lose.
We don’t shill at Hobo with a Laptop. Never just take our word for it. We appreciate the best value –check it out yourself, take a test drive.
Cloudways Free Trial