Are you considering Cloudways as your WordPress hosting provider? This comprehensive review will delve into the service’s features, performance, support, and pricing to help you decide if it aligns with your needs.
Cloudways: Simplifying Cloud Hosting for WordPress
Cloud hosting offers numerous advantages, including scalability, control over server choices, and often budget-friendly options. However, traditional cloud hosting platforms like Google Cloud or Amazon Web Services (AWS) can be overly complex for non-developers.
Enter Cloudways, a managed cloud hosting service specifically designed to simplify cloud-based hosting for non-technical users. It supports WordPress alongside other platforms and enables you to effortlessly deploy a website on a high-performance cloud server through a user-friendly interface.
Features:
Cloudways excels in providing user-friendly and intuitive features that cater to both beginners and experienced users.
- One-Click Application Deployment: Cloudways streamlines the setup process by allowing you to install popular applications like WordPress, WooCommerce, Drupal, and Magento with just a click.
- Customizable Control Panel: Cloudways provides a user-friendly and intuitive control panel that simplifies server management tasks, making it easy to control and monitor your applications.
- Server Scalability: Cloudways enables you to scale your server resources up or down as your website’s traffic demands fluctuate.
- Multi-PHP Support: Cloudways supports various PHP versions, allowing you to choose the one that best suits your website’s requirements.
- Database Management: Cloudways supports both MySQL and MariaDB database management systems, providing flexibility in data storage.
- SSH and FTP Access: Cloudways offers SSH and FTP access, enabling you to access your server files directly for advanced management tasks.
- Git Integration: Cloudways integrates seamlessly with Git, allowing you to manage your website’s code repository directly from the platform.
Performance:
Cloudways is known for delivering exceptional performance, thanks to its optimized infrastructure and caching mechanisms.
- Fast Loading Speeds: Cloudways consistently delivers fast website loading speeds, ensuring a smooth user experience.
- CDN Integration: Cloudways offers integrated CDN support, distributing your website’s content across multiple servers worldwide for improved performance.
- Resource Optimization: Cloudways optimizes your server resources for your website’s specific needs, ensuring efficient performance.
Support:
Cloudways provides comprehensive support options to assist users with any technical issues or inquiries.
- 24/7 Live Chat: Cloudways offers 24/7 live chat support, allowing you to connect with support agents promptly.
- Ticketing System: Cloudways provides a ticketing system for more detailed technical issues or inquiries.
- Account Manager: Cloudways assigns an account manager to each user, providing personalized support and guidance.
Pricing:
Cloudways offers flexible pricing plans based on your server resource requirements.
- Pay-As-You-Go: Cloudways utilizes a pay-as-you-go pricing model, ensuring that you only pay for the resources you consume.
- Hourly and Monthly Billing: Cloudways offers hourly and monthly billing options, catering to varying budget needs.
- Transparent Pricing: Cloudways provides transparent pricing with no hidden fees or charges.
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- User-friendly and intuitive platform
- Excellent performance and fast loading speeds
- Comprehensive support options
- Flexible pricing plans
- Scalability to accommodate growing traffic
Cons:
- Support response times can vary
- Pricing can be higher than traditional hosting options
- May require some technical knowledge for advanced configurations
Page Speed Tests with Pingdom
To assess the performance of a WordPress website, a quick page loading speed test is the most efficient approach. As previously mentioned, we established a new WordPress website on a DigitalOcean server and imported the WordPress Theme Unit Test Data. This was done alongside one of the default themes to mimic a basic website.
Once our website was prepared, we ran page loading tests from various locations using Pingdom:
| Location | Average Loading Time |
|---|---|
| Washington D.C. | 0.38 seconds |
| San Francisco | 0.63 seconds |
| London | 0.61 seconds |
| Sydney | 1.33 seconds |
These results are remarkably impressive, especially considering our test page weighs 6.5 MB. Such performance should be the norm for a well-configured cloud server.
The marginally slower loading times when testing the site from an Australian server are also expected. Since our website’s server is located in New York, the increased latency due to distance accounts for the higher loading time.
Here is the Cloudways BFCM deal:
Promo: BFCM4040,
Offer: 40% off for 4 months on all hosting plans + 40 free migrations
Affiliate Link: Buy Now
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, we’ll receive a commission. No worries though, you’ll still pay the standard amount so there’s no additional cost on your part.
Conclusion:
Cloudways stands as a compelling choice for businesses seeking a managed cloud hosting solution that combines ease of use, exceptional performance, and comprehensive support. Its user-friendly interface, flexible pricing plans, and scalability make it a suitable option for websites of all sizes. While the pricing may be slightly higher than traditional hosting options, the performance and support it provides often justify the cost. If you’re looking for a managed cloud hosting solution that simplifies server management and empowers you to focus on building and growing your business, Cloudways is an excellent option to consider.
