Host Overview
What Is Cloudways?
Founded around 2012 by Owais Khan, Pere, Uzair, and Umair, Cloudways developed a managed cloud hosting platform designed to make application deployment and day-to-day server management more accessible. DigitalOcean acquired Cloudways in 2022, bringing the service into its cloud computing portfolio. Cloudways company history.
Cloudways Flexible supplies managed cloud servers on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud, while Cloudways Autonomous focuses on autoscaling WordPress and WooCommerce workloads. Flexible also supports compatible PHP applications such as Magento and Laravel.
Cloudways is positioned toward developers, agencies, and businesses that want more application-level controls than conventional shared hosting, without taking on every server administration task. Its flexibility is useful, although costs and optional services require closer attention than a fixed-price shared hosting package.
Hosting Services
What Hosting Services Does Cloudways Offer?
The company’s core services are managed cloud hosting and managed WordPress. Cloudways also offers an AI-assisted website builder in public preview; it does not market a conventional shared hosting plan.
- Managed cloud hosting: Flexible offers cloud hosting with managed deployment and server administration.
- WordPress hosting: Flexible can host and manage WordPress websites.
- Managed WordPress hosting: Autonomous offers autoscaling WordPress and WooCommerce environments.
- Managed VPS-based hosting: Flexible uses VPS technology but is not an unmanaged root-access VPS.
- AI Website Builder: a public-preview product for creating WordPress or WooCommerce websites with AI.
Plans and Pricing
What Are Cloudways Plans and Pricing?
Public prices are in USD. Cloudways uses usage-based billing: displayed monthly figures represent a full month of service, not an annual payment requirement. Flexible rates vary by provider and infrastructure type; Autonomous bills application runtime hourly and can charge for extra usage.
Cloudways Flexible — DigitalOcean Cloud Servers
The DigitalOcean configurations cover SSD-based Basic Standard and NVMe-based Premium servers, plus General Purpose and CPU Optimized series. The entry-level Basic Standard Micro server is listed at $11/month. All rates below are in USD for a full month of hosting, excluding usage overages and applicable tax.
| Server series | Size | RAM | vCPU | Storage | USD / month* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Standard | Micro | 1 GB | 1 | 25 GB SSD | $11.00 |
| Basic Standard | Small | 2 GB | 1 | 50 GB SSD | $24.00 |
| Basic Standard | Small+ | 2 GB | 2 | 60 GB SSD | $33.00 |
| Basic Standard | Medium | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB SSD | $46.00 |
| Basic Standard | Large | 8 GB | 4 | 160 GB SSD | $88.00 |
| Basic Standard | XL | 16 GB | 8 | 320 GB SSD | $149.00 |
| Basic Standard | 2XL | 32 GB | 8 | 640 GB SSD | $240.00 |
| Basic Standard | 3XL | 48 GB | 12 | 960 GB SSD | $342.00 |
| Basic Premium | Micro | 1 GB | 1 | 25 GB NVMe | $14.00 |
| Basic Premium | Small | 2 GB | 1 | 50 GB NVMe | $28.00 |
| Basic Premium | Small+ | 2 GB | 2 | 60 GB NVMe | $37.00 |
| Basic Premium | Medium | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB NVMe | $54.00 |
| Basic Premium | Large | 8 GB | 4 | 160 GB NVMe | $99.00 |
| Basic Premium | XL | 16 GB | 8 | 320 GB NVMe | $170.00 |
| Basic Premium | 2XL | 32 GB | 8 | 640 GB NVMe | $279.00 |
| Basic Premium | 3XL | 48 GB | 12 | 960 GB NVMe | $388.00 |
| General Purpose Standard | Large | 8 GB | 2 | 25 GB SSD | $98.00 |
| General Purpose Standard | XL | 16 GB | 4 | 50 GB SSD | $186.00 |
| General Purpose Standard | 2XL | 32 GB | 8 | 100 GB SSD | $345.00 |
| General Purpose Premium | Large | 8 GB | 2 | 30 GB NVMe | $106.00 |
| General Purpose Premium | XL | 16 GB | 4 | 60 GB NVMe | $216.00 |
| General Purpose Premium | 2XL | 32 GB | 8 | 120 GB NVMe | $395.00 |
| CPU Optimized Standard | Medium | 4 GB | 2 | 25 GB SSD | $72.00 |
| CPU Optimized Standard | Large | 8 GB | 4 | 50 GB SSD | $134.00 |
| CPU Optimized Standard | XL | 16 GB | 8 | 100 GB SSD | $236.00 |
| CPU Optimized Premium | Large | 8 GB | 4 | 50 GB NVMe | $164.00 |
| CPU Optimized Premium | XL | 16 GB | 8 | 100 GB NVMe | $308.00 |
DigitalOcean prices are capped at the listed monthly level for full-month server use. Transfer allocations depend on server size (the Standard 1 GB server has 1 TB); extra bandwidth is billed separately.
Cloudways Flexible — Vultr Cloud Servers
Vultr offers Standard SSD, High Frequency NVMe, General Purpose, and CPU Optimized configurations. High Frequency and specialized compute series cost more than the entry-level Standard servers.
| Server series | Size | RAM | vCPU | Storage | USD / month* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Micro | 1 GB | 1 | 25 GB SSD | $14.00 |
| Standard | Small | 2 GB | 1 | 55 GB SSD | $28.00 |
| Standard | Medium | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB SSD | $54.00 |
| Standard | Large | 8 GB | 4 | 160 GB SSD | $99.00 |
| Standard | XL | 16 GB | 6 | 320 GB SSD | $150.00 |
| Standard | 2XL | 32 GB | 8 | 640 GB SSD | $234.00 |
| Standard | 4XL | 64 GB | 16 | 1.3 TB SSD | $400.00 |
| High Frequency | Micro | 1 GB | 1 | 32 GB NVMe | $16.00 |
| High Frequency | Small | 2 GB | 1 | 64 GB NVMe | $30.00 |
| High Frequency | Medium | 4 GB | 2 | 128 GB NVMe | $60.00 |
| High Frequency | Large | 8 GB | 3 | 256 GB NVMe | $118.00 |
| High Frequency | XL | 16 GB | 4 | 384 GB NVMe | $173.00 |
| High Frequency | 2XL | 32 GB | 8 | 512 GB NVMe | $270.00 |
| High Frequency | 4XL | 48 GB | 12 | 768 GB NVMe | $334.00 |
| General Purpose | Medium | 4 GB | 1 | 30 GB NVMe | $72.00 |
| General Purpose | Large | 8 GB | 2 | 50 GB NVMe | $132.00 |
| General Purpose | XL | 16 GB | 4 | 80 GB NVMe | $193.00 |
| General Purpose | 2XL | 32 GB | 8 | 160 GB NVMe | $309.00 |
| CPU Optimized | Small | 2 GB | 1 | 25 GB NVMe | $57.00 |
| CPU Optimized | Medium | 4 GB | 2 | 50 GB NVMe | $92.00 |
| CPU Optimized | Large | 8 GB | 4 | 75 GB NVMe | $141.00 |
| CPU Optimized | XL | 16 GB | 8 | 150 GB NVMe | $226.00 |
Vultr uses full-month reference prices capped for continuous service. Included transfer limits vary by server size and region-dependent overage rates may apply.
Cloudways Flexible — Linode Cloud Servers
Linode (Akamai) server choices include Standard, General Purpose, and CPU Optimized configurations, starting at $14/month for the Standard Micro server.
| Server series | Size | RAM | vCPU | Storage | USD / month* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Micro | 1 GB | 1 | 25 GB SSD | $14.00 |
| Standard | Small | 2 GB | 1 | 50 GB SSD | $28.00 |
| Standard | Medium | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB SSD | $59.00 |
| Standard | Large | 8 GB | 4 | 160 GB SSD | $105.00 |
| Standard | XL | 16 GB | 6 | 320 GB SSD | $176.00 |
| Standard | 2XL | 32 GB | 8 | 640 GB SSD | $260.00 |
| General Purpose | Medium | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB SSD | $69.00 |
| General Purpose | Large | 8 GB | 4 | 160 GB SSD | $115.00 |
| General Purpose | XL | 16 GB | 8 | 320 GB SSD | $216.00 |
| CPU Optimized | Medium | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB SSD | $89.00 |
| CPU Optimized | Large | 8 GB | 4 | 160 GB SSD | $141.00 |
| CPU Optimized | XL | 16 GB | 8 | 320 GB SSD | $251.00 |
Linode server usage is metered hourly with the published monthly cap. Included transfer increases with server size; extra bandwidth is separately charged.
Cloudways Flexible — AWS Cloud Servers
Amazon Web Services configurations include Standard and Compute Optimized options. Monthly figures are indicative for the referenced pricing region; AWS rates and storage/bandwidth charges vary by region and use.
| Server series | Size | RAM | vCPU | Storage | USD / month* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Micro | 1 GB | 2 | 20 GB | $20.56 |
| Standard | Small | 2 GB | 2 | 20 GB | $38.56 |
| Standard | Medium | 4 GB | 2 | 20 GB | $91.84 |
| Standard | Large | 8 GB | 2 | 20 GB | $183.22 |
| Standard | XL | 16 GB | 4 | 20 GB | $285.21 |
| Compute Optimized | Large | 4 GB | 2 | 20 GB | $164.50 |
| Compute Optimized | XL | 8 GB | 4 | 20 GB | $262.75 |
AWS includes a very small initial transfer allowance (the Standard entry-level plan lists 2 GB); bandwidth beyond allowance and configurable resources are billed separately. Verify exact region pricing during launch.
Cloudways Flexible — Google Cloud Servers
Google Cloud offers Standard, High Compute, and Compute Optimized instances. Prices vary by region, and several CPU allocations are shared rather than dedicated.
| Server series | Size | RAM | vCPU | Storage | USD / month* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Small | 1.7 GB | Shared | 20 GB | $37.33 |
| Standard | Medium | 3.75 GB | 1 | 20 GB | $84.00 |
| Standard | Large | 7.5 GB | 2 | 20 GB | $152.02 |
| Standard | XL | 15 GB | 4 | 20 GB | $241.50 |
| High Compute | Large | 2 GB | 2 | 20 GB | $89.37 |
| High Compute | XL | 4 GB | 4 | 20 GB | $202.20 |
| High Compute | 2XL | 8 GB | 8 | 20 GB | $366.33 |
| Compute Optimized | XL | 16 GB | 4 | 20 GB | $255.37 |
| Compute Optimized | 2XL | 32 GB | 8 | 20 GB | $397.72 |
The Standard entry-level plan lists 1 GB included transfer. Bandwidth beyond allowance is billed by region; do not treat these values as universal worldwide prices.
Cloudways Autonomous — Managed WordPress with Autoscaling
| Plan | Sites | Baseline servers | Storage | Bandwidth | Price (USD/month) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Growth | 1 | 1 | 20 GB | 150 GB | $99 |
| Scale | 1 | 2 | 50 GB | 250 GB | $199 |
| Plus | 1 | 3 | 100 GB | 1,000 GB | $399 |
Autonomous bills active application time on an hourly basis. Beyond the baseline, autoscaling costs $0.07, $0.10, and $0.12 per additional server-hour on Growth, Scale, and Plus, respectively. Disk overage is listed at $1 per GB/month (prorated), and bandwidth overage at $0.04 per GB.
The AI Website Builder is documented as a public-preview product with trial and Pro access. A current, unambiguous public Pro subscription rate was not verified, so it is not presented as a priced hosting plan. Temporary discount banners were not applied to the standard rates in these tables.
Features
What Are Cloudways' Main Features?
- Multiple infrastructure partners: DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud on Flexible.
- Managed platform: tools to configure and administer applications and cloud servers.
- Staging and cloning: create copies of applications or servers to test updates.
- Backups and restores: scheduled protection and recovery with applicable storage charges.
- Vertical scaling: change Flexible server resources as supported by the cloud provider.
- WordPress optimization: caching options including Redis and Object Cache Pro.
- Autonomous autoscaling: Kubernetes-based high availability, load balancing, and Cloudflare Enterprise.
- SSL and security: certificate management, built-in firewalls, and product-dependent protection.
- WordPress migration: plugin-based and managed migration options.
- AI Website Builder: AI-assisted WordPress site generation during public preview.
Technical Support
What Are Cloudways' Main Customer Support Channels?
Cloudways describes round-the-clock technical assistance through live chat and support tickets, complemented by a self-service help center. The coverage of application-level issues and paid advanced support can differ by plan. A complete guaranteed list of support languages was not independently confirmed.
- Live chat: 24/7/365 technical help for the platform.
- Support tickets: 24/7/365 assistance for hosting issues.
- Knowledge base: guides at Cloudways Support Center.
- Optional advanced support: additional paid support tiers with separate conditions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions About Cloudways
What is Cloudways?
Who owns Cloudways?
What is the difference between Flexible and Autonomous?
Which cloud providers can I select?
Does Cloudways offer shared hosting?
Does Cloudways offer VPS hosting?
Is Cloudways suitable for WordPress?
Does Cloudways support WooCommerce and other PHP apps?
What is the cheapest verified Flexible plan?
Does Cloudways require annual payment?
How much do Autonomous plans cost?
Is there a free trial?
Are backups, SSL certificates, and staging available?
Does Cloudways help migrate websites?
What support channels are available?
User and Expert Opinions
