Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform for WordPress, WooCommerce, and PHP apps. Compare pricing plans, features, and how it compares to rivals.
Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that provisions and manages virtual servers on top of major cloud providers — AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, Linode, and Vultr — so users get enterprise-grade infrastructure performance without needing to configure or maintain servers themselves. It is widely used for WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, and other PHP applications by agencies, freelancers, and e-commerce merchants.
Founded in Malta in 2011, Cloudways was acquired by DigitalOcean in September 2022 for approximately $350 million and continues to operate as a distinct brand, still supporting multiple non-DigitalOcean cloud providers as underlying infrastructure options.
Cloudways bundles an NGINX-based 'Lightning Stack' with Varnish, Redis, and Memcached caching, free Let's Encrypt SSL, one-click staging environments, and automated backups on top of whichever underlying cloud provider a customer selects. Its dashboard provides one-click application installs, team collaboration and access controls, and 24/7 support.
For high-traffic sites, Cloudways Autonomous adds true Kubernetes-based autoscaling, Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, unmetered PHP workers, and free managed migrations, targeting stores and sites that experience unpredictable traffic spikes.
Standard Cloudways plans are billed hourly on a pay-as-you-go basis with no long-term contract, starting at $11/month (about $8.25/month with an introductory discount) on DigitalOcean infrastructure for a 1 GB RAM/1 vCPU/25 GB SSD server, and scaling up in price as RAM, vCPU, storage, and bandwidth increase, with equivalent tiers priced differently on AWS, Google Cloud, Linode, and Vultr.
Cloudways Autonomous, the autoscaling product line, uses flat monthly pricing instead: Growth (~$99/month), Scale (~$199/month), and Plus (~$399/month), plus custom Enterprise pricing, with optional add-ons like Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, malware protection, and premium support available on any plan.
Yes, DigitalOcean acquired Cloudways for approximately $350 million in a deal announced in August 2022 and completed in September 2022. Cloudways continues to operate as a separate brand and still supports non-DigitalOcean cloud providers.
Standard Cloudways plans start at $11/month (around $8.25/month with an introductory discount) on DigitalOcean infrastructure, billed hourly with no long-term contract. Prices scale with server RAM, vCPU, storage, and bandwidth, and vary by chosen cloud provider.
Cloudways supports AWS, Google Cloud Platform, DigitalOcean, Linode, and Vultr as underlying infrastructure providers, all managed through a single Cloudways dashboard.
Cloudways Autonomous is a higher-tier product line offering true Kubernetes-based autoscaling for high-traffic WordPress, WooCommerce, and LMS sites, with flat monthly pricing starting around $99/month and Cloudflare Enterprise CDN included.
Yes, Cloudways offers free managed migrations to help customers move existing websites onto its platform, particularly on its Autonomous plans.
Cloudways offers a short free trial period (a few days) for its Autonomous plans, and its standard hourly-billed plans allow low-commitment testing since there are no long-term contracts.