Name: Cloudways Review 2026
Item: Cloudways
Rating: 8.8
Author: Payless.Host

Providers › Cloudways

Cloudways

8.8/10

Editor score

Managed cloud hosting with full flexibility

Best for: Developers & agencies

Type: Managed Wordpress

From: $14/mo

Visit Cloudways ↗

*Affiliate link — see disclosure

Pricing & plans

Showing intro price AND renewal price — no surprises.

DO Basic

$14/mo

/ month intro

Renews at $14/mo

25GB storage

Unlimited website(s)

Best for: Developers

Get DO Basic

DO 2GB

$28/mo

/ month intro

Renews at $28/mo

50GB storage

Unlimited website(s)

Best for: Growing apps

Get DO 2GB

Vultr HF

$14/mo

/ month intro

Renews at $14/mo

25GB storage

Unlimited website(s)

Best for: Performance

Get Vultr HF

Visual

</p> <h1>Cloudways Review: Managed Cloud Hosting Done Right</h1> <h3>What Cloudways Does Best</h3> <p>Cloudways takes the complexity out of cloud hosting by offering a managed platform on top of providers like DigitalOcean, Vultr, AWS, and Google Cloud. You get dedicated server resources (not shared), pay-as-you-go pricing with no long-term contracts, and a clean dashboard. Performance is excellent thanks to built-in Varnish cache, Memcached, Redis, and Cloudflare CDN integration.</p> <h3>Pricing Breakdown</h3> <p><strong>DigitalOcean 1GB:</strong> Starting at $14/mo — 1 GB RAM, 1 core, 25 GB SSD, 1 TB bandwidth.</p> <p><strong>DigitalOcean 2GB:</strong> $28/mo — 2 GB RAM, 1 core, 50 GB SSD, 2 TB bandwidth.</p> <p><strong>Vultr High Frequency:</strong> Starting at $16/mo for 1 GB RAM with NVMe storage.</p> <p><strong>AWS/GCE:</strong> Starting at $38-46/mo for small instances.</p> <p>No intro vs. renewal pricing tricks — what you see is what you pay monthly.</p> <h3>Key Features</h3> <p>Free SSL, automated backups, staging environments, server cloning, team collaboration, and 24/7 support. Supports PHP, MySQL, WordPress, Magento, Laravel. Cloudflare Enterprise CDN add-on for DDoS protection and image optimization. Unlimited applications on any server.</p> <h3>Who Should Avoid Cloudways</h3> <p>Complete beginners may find it overwhelming. No email hosting or domain registration included. Starting at $14/mo is higher than shared hosting, so hobby bloggers on a tight budget should start elsewhere.</p> <h3>Verdict</h3> <p>Cloudways is the best option for growing businesses and developers who want cloud performance without managing servers. Transparent pricing, scalable resources, and choice of infrastructure providers make it a standout.</p> </div> <aside class="plh-review-sidebar"> <div class="plh-sidebar-card" style="border-color:rgba(237,107,14,.3)"> <h4>Current deal</h4> <div style="font-family:var(--font-h);font-size:28px;font-weight:900;color:var(--teal)">$14/mo</div> <div style="font-size:11px;color:var(--muted);margin-bottom:12px">Intro / month</div> <a class="plh-ph-btn-main" href="https://unified.cloudways.com/signup?id=1190380" target="_blank" rel="nofollow sponsored" style="display:block;text-align:center">Visit Cloudways ↗</a> </div> <div class="plh-sidebar-card"><h4>Our score</h4><div style="font-family:var(--font-h);font-size:40px;font-weight:900;color:var(--teal)">8.8</div><div style="font-size:11px;color:var(--muted)">out of 10</div></div> <div class="plh-sidebar-card"> <h4>Compare with</h4> <div style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:10px"> <a href="https://payless.host/hosting-providers/hostinger/" style="font-size:13px;color:var(--teal);text-decoration:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between"> Hostinger<span style="font-size:11px;color:var(--muted)">9.2/10</span> </a> <a href="https://payless.host/hosting-providers/dreamhost/" style="font-size:13px;color:var(--teal);text-decoration:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between"> DreamHost<span style="font-size:11px;color:var(--muted)">8.3/10</span> </a> <a href="https://payless.host/hosting-providers/liquidweb/" style="font-size:13px;color:var(--teal);text-decoration:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between"> Liquid Web<span style="font-size:11px;color:var(--muted)">9/10</span> </a> </div> </div> </aside> </div> </div> </div> </main> <footer class="site-footer"> <div class="site-footer-inner"> <div class="plh-footer-grid"> <div> <div class="plh-footer-brand"> <div class="plh-footer-brand-sq">PH</div> payless.host↗ </div> <div class="plh-footer-about">Independent hosting reviews. 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