Managed VPS hosting on DigitalOcean, AWS, and Google Cloud — without the sysadmin tax.
Cloudways is a managed cloud-hosting platform launched in 2011 by Aaqib Gadit, Uzair Gadit, and Pere Hospital, headquartered in Malta. Instead of running its own data centers, it partners with five major IaaS providers — DigitalOcean, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Vultr, and Linode (the last now part of Akamai) — and layers a custom control panel, security stack, and 24/7 support team on top.
The pitch is simple: you pick the cloud, the size, and the location; Cloudways provisions the server, hardens it, keeps the OS patched, monitors uptime, and steps in when something breaks. You bring the site, the app, and the traffic.
In October 2022, Cloudways was acquired by DigitalOcean, and the two product lines have been gradually converging — most notably with shared authentication, the DigitalOcean Marketplace, and tighter integration with DO's droplet ecosystem. For customers, that meant a more reliable product roadmap without losing the multi-cloud option.
Spin up the same stack on DigitalOcean for cost, AWS for global regions, or Google Cloud for premium networking — without learning five different consoles.
Pre-tuned NGINX + Apache, Varnish, Memcached, Redis, and MariaDB, so PHP apps ship with a sane performance baseline on day one.
Their in-house caching plugin pairs with an integrated CDN to push static assets to edge POPs and dramatically cut TTFB for global visitors.
Clone the live server to a staging subdomain, push changes, and roll back in a few clicks — no more "we'll just deploy Friday afternoon" anxiety.
Servers self-restart on failure, OS-level firewalls are pre-configured, and you get free Let's Encrypt SSL renewal plus optional paid add-ons like Sitelock.
Real engineers on live chat around the clock, with paid add-ons for advanced support tiers and migration help.
Cloudways uses a pay-as-you-go, hourly-billed model with no long-term contract. Pricing varies by IaaS provider and server size; as a rough guide for 2026, entry-level servers on DigitalOcean and Vultr typically start in the low double-digits per month, while AWS and Google Cloud plans start higher because of the underlying cloud cost. Cloudways adds a flat management fee on top of the infrastructure bill.
Always verify the live pricing on Cloudways.com — provider rates and tier sizes shift frequently, and add-ons (CloudwaysCDN, Elastic Email, Sitelock) are billed separately.
| Feature | Cloudways | Kinsta | WP Engine | DigitalOcean (raw) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Underlying cloud | DO, AWS, GCP, Vultr, Linode | Google Cloud only | AWS only | DigitalOcean only |
| Control panel | Custom Cloudways panel | Custom MyKinsta | Custom WP Engine portal | DigitalOcean dashboard + cPanel/DO 1-click |
| WordPress-only? | No — also Magento, PHP, Laravel, etc. | Yes | Yes | No |
| Pricing model | Hourly, pay-as-you-go | Annual plans only | Annual plans only | Hourly/monthly |
| Entry price (rough) | Low double-digits/mo on DO | ~$35/mo and up | ~$20/mo and up | ~$6/mo droplet + your time |
| Sysadmin work | Handled by Cloudways | Handled by Kinsta | Handled by WP Engine | You handle it |
| Email hosting | Not included (paid add-on) | Not included | Not included | Not included |
Head to cloudways.com, sign up, and you get a 3-day trial (no credit card needed) so you can poke around the panel and launch your first server.
Choose DigitalOcean for value, Vultr for global POPs, or AWS/GCP for premium networking. Pick a region close to your audience — e.g., Frankfurt for EU traffic.
Select WordPress (or Magento, PHP, Laravel, custom) and let Cloudways provision the VM, install the LAMP/LEMP stack, and apply ThunderStack optimizations.
Update your DNS A record, then enable the free Let's Encrypt certificate in one click. Turn on CloudwaysCDN and Breeze for an instant performance bump.
Schedule automated off-site backups (1–7 day retention), clone to a staging app, and add the Slack/Email alert integrations so you know the moment something drifts.
No. Cloudways is an independent managed-hosting platform that uses DigitalOcean (and AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, Linode) as the underlying infrastructure. DigitalOcean acquired Cloudways in 2022, so they share ownership, but Cloudways still offers a multi-cloud panel and a distinct product.
You get SSH access and substantial control over your server, but you don't get full root — the OS-level security baseline, kernel patches, and core packages are managed by Cloudways. For most users, that's exactly the right trade-off.
No. Like most modern managed cloud hosts, Cloudways doesn't bundle email. You can add Elastic Email as a paid add-on for transactional mail, or pair it with Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 for inbox hosting.
Yes — Cloudways supports custom PHP apps, Laravel, Magento, and any stack that runs on the LAMP/LEMP combination. The platform is app-agnostic; the WordPress workflow is just the most common one.
It's hourly and pay-as-you-go. You're billed for the infrastructure you consume (passed through from the IaaS provider) plus a Cloudways management fee. There's no long-term contract, and you can stop a server at any time to stop the bill.
Yes — WooCommerce stores are one of its strongest use cases, because you can size a server for real CPU/RAM headroom, isolate the database on its own instance, and use Breeze + CloudwaysCDN to keep checkout snappy. Just budget for a tier with enough RAM for the catalog and order processing.
Cloudways' 24/7 live chat is included on every plan and is staffed by in-house engineers who can SSH into your server. Kinsta and WP Engine offer more premium, WordPress-specialist support tiers, but those come with annual contracts and higher entry prices.
You can shut down servers at any time. Cloudways keeps your data for a short grace period, and you can spin the same image back up on raw DigitalOcean droplets if you decide to leave the platform — a useful exit ramp.
Cloudways isn't trying to be the cheapest host, and it isn't trying to be the most managed. It carves out a real category: managed VPS that respects your time and your wallet. For an agency running a portfolio of client sites, a WooCommerce store hitting the limits of shared hosting, or a WordPress publisher who needs real CPU headroom, it remains one of the most defensible recommendations in 2026. The post-acquisition polish from DigitalOcean has only made the product more reliable.
If you need cPanel, email, or a fully white-glove WordPress-only experience with edge caching, look at WP Engine or Kinsta instead. For everyone else in the "I'm too busy for sysadmin but I want cloud performance" middle — Cloudways still earns a Buy.
Pick your cloud (DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, or Linode), pick a region, and launch a fully managed server in under 2 minutes. No credit card required for the trial.
Get started with Cloudways →Agencies managing multiple client websites value the ability to choose a cost-effective or performant cloud provider while maintaining a single management interface for updates, scaling, and security.
Online stores with peak sales periods benefit from the WordPress Autonomous plan's autoscaling, which automatically adds resources during traffic spikes to maintain uptime.
Developer teams building with Laravel, Magento, or custom PHP applications use Cloudways to deploy and scale without deep expertise in each cloud provider's native portal.
Quarterly access to product leadership.
Bonus credits redeemable on partner tooling.
We re-verify the offer every quarter so it never goes stale.
Hit the button on this page — opens the partner site in a new tab.
Check your investor or accelerator benefits portal for the Cloudways partner code. Y Combinator, Sequoia, and most Tier 1 VCs have codes available.
Renewals stay at the same rate — verified by us, not the vendor.
| Feature | Cloudways |
|---|---|
| Free trial | 14 days |
| Cheapest paid plan | $0/mo |
| Annual discount | Up to 25% |
| Refund window | 30 days |
| Setup time | < 1 hour |
| Best for | Founders |
“Best managed hosting for developers who know a bit of server management”
“Autonomous plan handled our Black Friday traffic spike without incident”
“Runs 12 client sites on one DigitalOcean server for $88/month”
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Up to 25% off annual plans — 4 vCPU + 8GB RAM from $4.95/mo, no setup fee, unlimited traffic
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