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Cloudways Reviews: 4.7/5 — Highly Rated
Cloudways is a managed hosting provider that focuses on performance and simplicity. Whether you need simple server and application launches, or ongoing server maintenance, Couldways is built to simplify the whole process of server management to support business growth thanks to its powerful suite of tools and services that can help manage your eCommerce stores and business sites. It also underscores user options–from cloud providers and hosting.
| Capabilities |
API
CLI
|
|---|---|
| Segment |
Small Business
Mid Market
Enterprise
|
| Deployment | Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based |
| Support | 24/7 (Live rep), Chat, Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support |
| Training | Documentation |
| Languages | English |
Cloudways Pros and Cons
- Option to add as many website installations as you want
- Server speed is faster than competition
- Pay as you go pricing plan
- Managed app option with database backups
- No root access or server modifications
- Add ons require additional cost
- Inability to use Plesk or cPanel
Cloudways includes unlimited websites and unlimited visits on every plan, starting at $14 a month. That is the whole proposition, and it is a genuine outlier. Kinsta’s entry plan is $35 a month for one WordPress install with 20 GB of bandwidth; Cloudways’ $14 Micro server carries no install cap at all and 1 TB of transfer. You are renting a server rather than buying licensed slots, and the difference in what that gets you is substantial.
- What it is: Managed cloud hosting for WordPress, Magento, Laravel and PHP, on your choice of cloud provider.
- Best for: Agencies and developers hosting many sites who want managed infrastructure without per-site licensing.
- Pricing: From $14 a month for 1 GB RAM, rising to $99 for 8 GB. Verified July 2026.
- The honest catch: Server resources are the real limit — unlimited sites still share one server’s RAM.
What Is Cloudways?
Cloudways is a managed hosting layer that sits on top of cloud providers rather than running its own metal. You choose the provider and the server type — Basic, General Purpose or CPU Optimized; Standard or Premium — and Cloudways manages the stack, now branded Lightning Stack.
Two product lines sit side by side: Cloudways Flexible, the customisable managed hosting reviewed here, and Cloudways Autonomous, a fully managed autoscaling WordPress product for high-traffic ecommerce and LMS sites.
There is a free trial with no credit card required.
How Cloudways Works
- Server size is the meter — RAM, vCPU, storage and bandwidth.
- Websites and visits are unlimited on every plan.
- Billing is hourly, with a monthly figure shown alongside.
- Offsite backup storage costs $0.033 per GB per server.
- You choose the cloud provider and server class.
- All listed prices exclude tax.
Cloudways Pricing
Captured from Cloudways’ pricing page in July 2026 in US dollars, on DigitalOcean Standard servers.
| Plan | Monthly | Hourly | RAM | vCPU | Storage | Bandwidth | Per GB RAM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Micro | $14 | $0.0208 | 1 GB | 1 | 25 GB NVMe | 1 TB | $14.00 |
| Small | $28 | $0.0417 | 2 GB | 1 | 50 GB NVMe | 2 TB | $14.00 |
| Medium | $54 | $0.0804 | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB NVMe | 4 TB | $13.50 |
| Large | $99 | $0.1473 | 8 GB | 4 | 160 GB NVMe | 5 TB | $12.38 |
Every plan: Lightning Stack, unlimited visits, unlimited websites.
What actually decides your cost:
- Unlimited websites is the reason to be here. Managed WordPress hosts almost universally meter installs — Kinsta allows one at $35 a month and forty at $450. Cloudways allows as many as your server can run, at $14. For an agency with twenty small client sites, that difference is the entire business case.
- The real constraint moves from licences to resources. Unlimited sites on 1 GB of RAM is unlimited in the licensing sense only. What you are actually buying is a server, and twenty WordPress sites on a Micro will perform accordingly. Size by expected load, not by site count.
- The volume discount is real but modest. Cost per GB of RAM runs $14.00, $14.00, $13.50 and $12.38 across the four sizes — about 12% better at the top than the bottom, and no improvement at all from Micro to Small. Compare that with the flat-rate hosts reviewed here, where the per-unit price never moves at any size.
- Check how the hourly rate resolves against a full month. The published hourly figures correspond to the monthly price divided by 672 hours, a 28-day month — $0.0208 × 672 is $13.98, and the same holds for all four sizes. A 30-day month is 720 hours and a 31-day month 744, so confirm with Cloudways whether the monthly figure is a cap or whether a full month bills above it.
- Backups are an add-on. Offsite backup storage is charged at $0.033 per GB per server. On a 160 GB Large server that is a small but non-zero line, and it is separate from the storage included in the plan.
- Prices exclude tax, which the page states plainly. For EU buyers that is a meaningful addition to compare against gross-quoting competitors.
Who Should Use Cloudways
- Agencies hosting client sites. The clearest case — one server, many sites, no per-install licence.
- Developers running multiple projects. Laravel, Magento and PHP alongside WordPress on the same platform.
- Businesses wanting cloud choice. Pick the provider and server class rather than accepting one stack.
- Anyone testing before committing. A free trial with no credit card.
It fits poorly for people who want one high-performance site with dedicated support, where Kinsta or WP Engine invest more per site; for teams wanting a fully hands-off product, which is what Cloudways Autonomous exists for; and for buyers who need certainty on monthly cost before understanding hourly billing.
Honest Pros and Cons
Strengths
- Unlimited websites and unlimited visits on every plan, from $14.
- 1 TB of transfer bandwidth even on the entry server.
- Choice of cloud provider and server class.
- NVMe storage across the range.
- A free trial with no credit card.
- A real, if modest, volume discount — 12% better per GB at the top.
Limitations
- Unlimited sites still share one server’s RAM.
- No per-GB improvement from Micro to Small.
- Offsite backups cost $0.033 per GB on top.
- Hourly rates imply a 28-day month — confirm whether monthly is a cap.
- Prices exclude tax.
- Support and tuning are lighter than dedicated managed-WordPress hosts.
Cloudways Alternatives and How It Compares
- Kinsta and WP Engine are the premium managed-WordPress hosts, metering installs but investing more per site.
- Flywheel targets designers and agencies with a similar philosophy to Kinsta.
- SiteGround and A2 Hosting sit in the mid-market with simpler shared plans.
- Hostinger and DreamHost compete at the budget end.
- Liquid Web offers managed VPS and dedicated infrastructure.
- DigitalOcean directly, if you are willing to manage the stack yourself.
For a broader survey, browse our cloud hosting directory.
The Verdict
Cloudways answers a question the managed-WordPress market mostly refuses to: what if you just rented a server and put as many sites on it as it could handle? Unlimited websites and unlimited visits on every plan, starting at $14 a month with 1 TB of transfer, is a fundamentally different proposition from hosts that license installs. Against Kinsta’s $35 entry plan for a single WordPress site with 20 GB of bandwidth, the contrast is stark — and for an agency carrying twenty small client sites, it is the whole argument.
The honest counterweight is that “unlimited” describes licensing, not physics. Twenty sites on a 1 GB Micro server will perform like twenty sites on a 1 GB server, and the skill Cloudways asks of you is sizing by real load rather than by site count. That is a fair trade for the price, but it does move a responsibility onto you that premium managed hosts absorb — which is also why their per-site investment, support depth and tuning tend to be greater.
Two commercial details to settle before you commit. The published hourly rates work out to the monthly price divided by 672 hours — a 28-day month — so $0.0208 × 672 gives $13.98 against the $14 headline, and the same relationship holds at every size. Real months run 720 to 744 hours, so ask Cloudways directly whether the monthly figure is a cap or whether a full month bills above it. And offsite backup storage is $0.033 per GB per server, separate from the NVMe storage in the plan, with all prices excluding tax. The volume discount, meanwhile, is modest but genuine: $14.00 per GB of RAM at Micro and Small, falling to $12.38 at Large — roughly 12%, which is more than several flat-rate competitors offer at any size.
FAQ
How much does Cloudways cost?
Captured in July 2026 in US dollars on DigitalOcean Standard servers, excluding tax: Micro $14 a month for 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 25 GB NVMe storage and 1 TB bandwidth; Small $28 for 2 GB; Medium $54 for 4 GB; and Large $99 for 8 GB. Every plan includes unlimited websites and unlimited visits. Offsite backup storage costs an additional $0.033 per GB per server.
Does Cloudways limit how many websites I can host?
No. Unlimited websites and unlimited visits appear on every plan, including the $14 Micro server. The practical limit is server resources rather than licensing — the sites you host share the RAM, CPU and storage of the plan you buy — so size the server by expected traffic and application load rather than by how many sites you intend to run.
Is Cloudways billed hourly or monthly?
Both figures appear. Each plan shows a monthly price and an hourly rate, and the hourly rate corresponds to the monthly price divided by 672 hours — a 28-day month. Since real months run 720 to 744 hours, it is worth confirming with Cloudways whether the monthly figure acts as a cap or whether a full month of hourly billing can exceed it.
Cloudways or Kinsta?
They solve different problems. Cloudways rents you a managed server with unlimited sites from $14 a month, putting resource-sizing in your hands. Kinsta licenses WordPress installs — one at $35, forty at $450 — with more per-site tuning, support and infrastructure investment. Choose Cloudways for many small sites at low cost, and Kinsta for fewer sites where performance and support matter more than price per site.
Does Cloudways include backups?
Not offsite ones at no charge. The pricing page notes that “$0.033/GB per server will be applied for offsite backup storage”, so backup retention is a separate usage-based line on top of the plan. The NVMe storage listed against each plan — 25 GB to 160 GB — is the server’s own disk rather than backup capacity.
Compare Cloudways with other popular tools in the same category.
I like the control panel that its all in one place and that the cloud servers are stable. I also love the starting price its affordable and ready to go right out of the box. It is a great solution, easy to use and with a good support team.
Its features are excellent and I am satisfied with the service.
Since we implemented Cloudways we have obtained the best possible support to migrate oru data and websites with hosting. I really liked it and offers the best possible user experience, solving many problems that data migration entails.
Excellent tool with a very accesible price to obtain fast and impeccable servers. I like that I can choose dfifferent servers with the ability to change the hosting region, which is great. I also like the customer support and user experience provided by its intuitive interface.
I dont like backup problems and I may have synchonization problems and I think they are not so safe.
We fix issues with virtual private serves and increase development productivity, get cloud hosting which benefits our work and track and prevent bugs and everything runs smoothly and performs well.
I like many things about this product, such as how fast it is and how cheap it is. I have been using it for a long time and it has been the best decision we have made when choosing this tool to manage the servers and have everything under control in a single panel. I hope it continues to improve for the better.
It is a solution that has been used for a long time and since day one there have never been any problems.
It is used to manage our main servers and has been a great benefit to our applications. We also tested other of its features like migration and developmend and everything was excellent.
Low communication for unimportant matters while having prompt timing and exact days of getting emails on billing and invoices and letting us know our budget
I personally do not find any downsides to cloud ways
They are helping me host my website and thats all im currently looking for it to do and its doing a wonderful job
The best thing I like about this is that I don't have to complete server setup, and I can manage multiple apps hosted at the same place at a low cost. I can create many apps of different technologies in one place very quickly.
I don't like this because I have to pay more for the main memory. The main memory is too low, which is a problem sometimes, but small apps can run smoothly on this.
It solves the problem of managing different websites in different places. Using cloudways we can handle all the websites/apps in one place hassle-free at a low cost.
It's very affordable, support is always ready and willing to help. There's a plethora of options for anyone or any sized business.
If I could suggest something that would be useful for agencies like myself I would have to say better email options and domain name purchasing.
They host all of my domains, I have faster more secure websites as a result.
Cloudways is simple, cost officiant, and offers top-notch customer support. I highly recommend anyone looking for quality hosting give Cloudways a try. I successfully and confidently host all of my websites, including WordPress, with and without WooCommerce sites with zero issues.
The only issue I have had with Cloudways is that I couldn't migrate my site over. Customer support was willing to help, but it would take 3days, so I just decided to rebuid.
I was tired of slow shared hosting with Cloudways. I can get build websites quickly without worrying about slowdown. Free SSL certificates are a huge perk!
I am using cloudways for 3-4 years and I never get any issues. The service has flexible cloud hosting plans and fast setup times no one can beat customer support of cloudways loved it.
It is kinda expensive for me as I am a working individual so I hope they reduce it in the future a little e bit.
Cloudways is providing a fast and secure web hosting service that is very beneficial for my company.
Everything works. Love the 24/7 staff always ready to help. And the knowledge to solve my problem! Very little prattle trying to sell me more services.
It's not a big deal, but I could really appreciate a way to get admin access to my WordPress sites directly through the Cloudways interface.
My WordPress sites were becoming unmanageable. They were demanding more of my time than I could justify, and I found myself constantly putting out fires. Now I can focus on helping my clients. It's fun to work again!
The hosting services are fast and reliable. And when I run into any issues, I have plenty of help available, whether it's their Help Center or their online chat.
I honestly cannot think of anything. I've hosted my sites with several other companies over the years. The quality and speed offered by Cloudways is on par with pricier options, but at a much more affordable rate.
I need a fast, reliable hosting provider that won't break the bank. I also need a hosting company that will answer questions when I'm in over my head (which happens from time-to-time). Cloudways delivers on all of this.
It is a solution that offers different hosting functions and is very powerful. I like many things, for example, it helps us increase the speed of our websites, its control panel is intuitive and everything is at hand, and it is very efficient in solving technical and WordPress problems.
I think this whole product is excellent. But I see the price as high, which would be a brake for new users.
The problems were mainly solved with the management of the servers since we did not have a place to host our websites. Once implemented, it gave amazing results improving speed and increasing security.
I love this product for its user interface and that the servers they offer are excellent with good performance and reliable. I also like that it is easy to understand and configure because it is an intuitive tool that requires no knowledged to use, it is also easy to create a PHP application and the comunication is fast and it is a software that today is ahead of its time.
Cloudway can sometimes show some errors on the host and mostly with Cloudflare. But it doesnt usually happen regularly, just a few time.
It is a productr that I continue to use every day for our servers due to its hosting as AWS and it is very fast and reliable and unique. It solves many problems and gives good benefits, finally avoiding mistakes and consuming less time.
I love it because it offers a reliable, easy-to-use, scalable, and low-cost services. I liked the hosting and that it can be deployed quickly and up and running in no time. Also, we are satisfied with most of its features, easy to use and easy to configure.
Customer service must be improved and stop putting bots that only give asnwers witohut a solution.
It is a productr that solves problems to be able to manage the VPS and that does not require that does not require that much knowledge. In addition, we were able to take advantage of the hosting to achieve our objectivies and all our business needs.
It is a great service where can host our website on your server and get benefits such as frequent backups and optimize the application in a simple way. This product end up being useful. I also loved being able to scale on the server and that the performance is high and we are improving and growing together with Cloudways.
Limitations in the email hosting server and we had to opt for a third party.
It is an excellent solution that I would not hesitate to recommend. It solved many problems with our websites to find hosting and also for our applications. It is great for managing different sites in one place and has improved speed thanks to its performance.
I like this tool for its good capabilities and flexibility and easy to use low-code. I love the app engine, the packages it includes, and that everything is in the cloud. It is an excellent tool for any company that wants to develop low-code and bug-free applications.
Its honestly a great platform that works well and Im not experiencing anything negative.
This tool is great for its private cloud hosting and VPS services. It has been a great help to manage the hosting and keep everything more orderly and efficient for development and to optimize and improve the workflow. It is a great solution more than anything for its performance.
I like the hosting of this tool and its flexible price and it is an easy platform to use and manage servers in the cloud I love its interface and its solid features it is excellent for hosting and without experience it can be used without any problem.
It would be excellent if performance and cloud providers improve to avoid errors.
We use this tool to manage fast and secure hosting and its service are very secure in the cloud and save us effort. In addition, your hosting is simplified and you take full advantage of its multiple service.
I like the ease with which you can create new sites. It offers a number of important features. I like the migration tool. I like its easy to use control panel. Your customer service was excellent. I like the ease of setting up a site.
Some raw hits would be helpful. I would like to see email hosting. I would like to be able to test updates. Sometimes the requirements need some customizations.
Help through the process of transferring our accommodation. It has been a great help throughout the migration process. It has a reliable uptime. It has all the tools you need to manage.
I like Cloudways because its a great hosting service that gives great overall performance and offers a good service to improve speed and I love the easy to use interface and its great for migration and clonning because it benefited us a lot. Besides that the support is kind.
It would be great if you improve the directory and the way to access the server to execute the commands more easily.
We needed cloud hosting and Cloudways gave us what we needed to make those changes and rotate our website in the cloud and everything is very easy to use and maintain and manage in the cloud. We save costs, effort and improve performance.
Cloudwayis is great for its cloud hosting features because of its high performance and that it offers SSL certificates and its cloud based performance is great, fast and reliable. I like that it reduces crashes and fixes hosting-related issues.
It would be great if they would improve their affiliate program, thats the only negative for now.
It solves many problems with hosting, we can manage and get VPS for our web service, we can easily manage all our sites in one place and I trust this platform because it has delivered the results we expected.
I like this tool for its nice graphical user interface and that it offers websites hosting and they are very cheap. I also love that their cloud hosting is easy to manage for hosting websites and the suppor team is alway on hand to fix issues.
Only minor issues with Cloudways, limitations and issues creating business addresses and domain registrations.
It is excellent as a hosting, its speed is incredible because it solves e-commerce problems, improves websites, optimizis the work for the payment of invoices and I no longer have to worry because it is a secure platform.
I like this cloud hosting because it is safe and reliable and it helps us a lot. Its user interface is excellent and easy for developers to implement. Also, their hosting setup is fast and saves a lot of time. I like the control panel and its technical support.
Cloudways offers many features, but I found some issues with the control panel and limited customization.
It is a solution capable of solving problems with backups, website hosting, application creation in less time, business growth and cPanel management is all we needed for our company.
I like this excellent cloud hosting because it offers reliable and automatic backup. I like how easy it is to use and that it offers good documentation to get started with the implementation, plus the processing speed is incredible.
I see that it offers many features but does not offer customization. I also notice poor performance on certain features.
Great tool with good support and fixes problems with our cloud server. We noticed good performance, its scalable and we were able to manage our data in its setup and everything is very secure, easy and simple. This product is excellent.
One of the things I like the most about this hosting is that it is excellent for Linux and other operating systems. I love how fast it is and that virtual servers like VPS are scalable and have great support. I also like its high performance and learning curve.
The only thing is that unfortunately, it has a lot of limited features and sometimes difficult to access.
This software paved the way for a fast platform that provides web hosting for our sites and benefits us a lot with access to setting and optimized server and moving forward to improve load times has been great for me and my team.
I like this tool because it is high performance, easy for anyone to use, and the usr interface is intuitive and flexible. Furthermore, it is a reliable solution that offers great hosting features. I also like that it fits the needs of our company.
Some limited features and problems with the hosting provider and it was difficult to solve.
Cloudways is a high-performance cloud hosting solution that benefits us with its reliable way of storing our data and helps us a lot with its interface that makes all the work easier, increasing the speed of development and our sites this product is excellent.
I like Cloudways because it is a secure and easy to implement tool. It is also excellent because support is excellent and solves doubts and problmes and its dashboard is simple and clean. I also liked the performance and its multiple system for our content.
It need some improvements, especially in its functions, which are somewhat limited, but the hosting is excellent.
Its a fast and secure tool that fixes hosting issues and daily backups, is easy to manage and helps a lot with our shared hosting websites and all in one place. Is incredible.
El facil manejo de las interfaces y herramientas que ofrece para poder realizar todo lo que necesito en mis proyectos.
No poder manejar multiples nombre de dominios de forma sencilla
Instalacion de varis aplicaciones y poder agruparlas de manera individual para ofrecer acceso a terceros
Easy to host a webitse, and in case you need help then they have thier how to tutorial videos to help you at every step. But if you still need help then you can directly live chat with Cloudways support.
There is nothing i dislike about the Cloudways, but if they lower their service pricing a little it will be really great. Other than that i am satisfied with thier service.
As a biginner the bigger problem i have is technial issues. When i am stuck with any problem with my webiste hosting, i can esasily live chat with the cloudways support, and this is really a most helpful thing for me. With the help of cloudways support i can fix my webiste hosting issues with ease without spending anything extra. So with cloudways i am not just having hosting, instead i am also getting live support from the cloudways team whenever i need help. Other than that with cloudways i am also very chill about my webiste security and up time.
To be able to create servers in any of the services like gcp or digital ocean and also built in addons like cloudflare cdn and schedule backing up facility.
I should be able to see what discount or offers i have applied and what are my charges till now or estimated bill.
multiple apps and server management under one roof is an amazing thing i believe.
What I love about Cloudways is its user-friendly dashboard, the interface is intuitive, making it easy to navigate and manage my servers. I also appreciate the variety of payment methods they offer.
One downside of Cloudways is the short trial period. It would be better if they offered a longer trial to fully explore their services before making a decision!
Cloudways solves the problem of slow website speed, benefiting me by providing optimized server configurations and advanced caching for faster loading times.
It offers features such as automated backups, optimized performance, and support for multiple content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, Magento. If you are new user you can redeem $100 ree credit
Cloudways hosting is very expensive when consider with another hosting platform. Minimum package is also more than $10. if you are on a low budget, cloudways plans might not be the best suite for you.
I am a blogger and use WordPress as a CMS. I wanted to host my blog web site. In order to do that, I used Cloudways shared hosting plan. It gave me a great experience. Still, i use Cloudways for hosting my blog website.