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You probably already know that Cloudways can make cloud hosting easier than managing a raw DigitalOcean, Amazon Web Services, or Google Cloud server yourself. What is less obvious is how its hosting products, infrastructure choices, application settings, billing components, caching layers, and migration tools fit together. In this guide, you will learn how Cloudways works and how to choose, launch, migrate, secure, optimize, and maintain the right configuration.

Information last verified: August 3, 2026. Cloudways pricing, promotions, provider availability, add-ons, interfaces, resource allowances, and policies can change. Confirm account-specific details in the Cloudways platform before purchasing or migrating.

Key Takeaways

• Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that simplifies deploying, securing, monitoring, and scaling websites on cloud infrastructure.
• Cloudways Flexible provides server-level resource selection, multiple cloud providers, broader application support, and the ability to host multiple applications.
• Cloudways Autonomous provides Kubernetes-based, per-application WordPress hosting with horizontal autoscaling and less server-level management.
• Cloudways server selection should depend on concurrency, dynamic requests, database activity, background jobs, storage, bandwidth, and volatility—not monthly visits alone.
• Cloudways migration safety requires a current source backup, pre-cutover testing, controlled DNS changes, SSL verification, recent-data synchronization, and a rollback plan.
• Cloudways performance depends on correct resource sizing, caching compatibility, database efficiency, application quality, CDN delivery, and continuous monitoring.
• Cloudways total cost can include the hosting plan, backups, bandwidth, autoscaling, CDN, email, malware protection, support, domains, plugins, and maintenance labor.

Affiliate disclosure: This guide may contain affiliate links. A commission may be earned when a reader purchases through a qualifying link, without increasing the reader’s price.

What Is Cloudways Hosting and How Does It Work?

Cloudways hosting is a managed cloud hosting service that adds deployment, management, monitoring, security, backup, support, and application-control tools on top of third-party cloud infrastructure. Cloudways operates the management layer, while providers such as DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud supply applicable underlying infrastructure.

Cloudways is best understood as a control and management platform rather than a conventional shared-hosting account. For broader context, read managed cloud hosting explained before comparing individual plans.

How the Cloudways architecture is organized

Cloudways uses several terms that describe different parts of the hosting environment:

Cloudways’ official terminology describes Flexible as its VPS-based traditional managed hosting model, while the platform defines application controls separately from server controls. Git deployment, IP whitelisting, SSL management, and other features are also exposed through the management layer.

[Insert custom diagram: Show the Cloudways architecture as Account → Flexible or Autonomous → Infrastructure or managed cluster → Server or application plan → Application → Domain, CDN and visitors | Alt text: “Map Cloudways hosting architecture from account to application”]

What Cloudways manages versus what you manage

Managed hosting divides responsibility; it does not transfer every website task to the hosting company. Cloudways manages substantial infrastructure and platform work, but website owners remain responsible for application compatibility, content, custom code, analytics, business processes, and many security decisions.

For example, Cloudways can keep supported server services running, but it cannot guarantee that an outdated checkout extension will remain compatible with a new WooCommerce release. Cloudways’ Object Cache Pro documentation also states that support is limited to specified installation and platform tasks, while website owners handle other configurations and modifications.

What Cloudways is not

Cloudways is not:

• A domain registrar bundled with every hosting account
• Traditional cPanel shared hosting
• A default all-inclusive business-email suite
• An unmanaged VPS with unrestricted root control
• A Windows hosting platform
• A guarantee that an unoptimized website will become fast
• A replacement for plugin, theme, custom-code, content, or analytics maintenance
• A fixed-price service in which every add-on and overage is automatically included

These distinctions matter because Cloudways provides a managed infrastructure layer, not complete ownership of every application and business process.

Why Is Cloudways Different From Traditional Shared Hosting?

Cloudways is different from traditional shared hosting because it gives customers a managed interface over allocated cloud resources, server-level controls, scaling options, monitoring, staging, cloning, and application tools. Shared hosting normally emphasizes simplicity and bundled services, while Cloudways emphasizes resource control, workload flexibility, and managed cloud infrastructure.

The practical difference becomes clear when a website grows. A shared-hosting customer may be restricted by account-level resource limits without controlling the server size. A Cloudways Flexible customer can select and scale a server, while an Autonomous customer can use an application plan designed to add capacity automatically.

Read shared hosting vs cloud hosting for a dedicated comparison of cost, isolation, control, scaling, and operational responsibility.

Cloudways can therefore bridge the gap between restrictive shared hosting and technically demanding unmanaged infrastructure. The customer gains more control without becoming responsible for every raw server-administration task.

→ Explore Cloudways Features

What Is the Difference Between Cloudways Flexible and Cloudways Autonomous?

Cloudways Flexible is a customizable, server-oriented managed hosting environment, while Cloudways Autonomous is a Kubernetes-based, per-application WordPress environment that scales horizontally as demand changes. Flexible prioritizes infrastructure choice and configuration control; Autonomous prioritizes traffic resilience, automatic scaling, and reduced server management.

A deeper product-specific comparison is available in Cloudways Flexible vs Autonomous.

What is Cloudways Flexible?

Cloudways Flexible is a managed VPS-oriented product in which users select supported cloud infrastructure, server resources, location, applications, and applicable server settings. Cloudways currently lists WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, Laravel, and PHP among Flexible application options and supports multiple applications when server resources permit.

Flexible gives you more responsibility for:

• Provider and server selection
• RAM, CPU, storage and bandwidth planning
• Application consolidation
• Vertical scaling
• Caching and service configuration
• Resource monitoring
• Temporary server and staging costs

Flexible is normally the more natural fit when you need several applications on one server, Laravel or Magento support, SSH-based workflows, broader configuration controls, or predictable workloads that do not require automatic horizontal scaling.

What is Cloudways Autonomous?

Cloudways Autonomous is a fully managed WordPress hosting product that distributes applications across Kubernetes pods and automatically adds or removes capacity as traffic changes. Autonomous plans are application-based, include baseline capacity, and can create autoscaling or resource-overage charges beyond plan allowances.

Cloudways currently positions Autonomous for WordPress, WooCommerce, learning-management systems, high-traffic publishing, campaigns, and applications that may experience significant concurrency or unpredictable spikes. Its product page documents built-in load balancing, Cloudflare Enterprise, Redis caching, Object Cache Pro, and plan-specific baseline autoscaling.

Cloudways Flexible vs Autonomous comparison

Flexible-versus-Autonomous decision tree

Use this sequence:

1. Do you need Magento, Laravel, custom PHP, or several applications on one server?
   Choose Flexible.
2. Do you need unrestricted server-level decision-making or provider choice?
   Choose Flexible.
3. Is the website WordPress or WooCommerce with sharp, unpredictable concurrency?
   Consider Autonomous.
4. Would manual scaling during campaigns create unacceptable operational risk?
   Consider Autonomous.
5. Is the workload predictable and mostly cacheable?
   Flexible may offer better cost control.
6. Would one website justify dedicated application-level autoscaling?
   Autonomous may be operationally simpler.

The correct answer depends on workload shape, not marketing labels. Compare current Cloudways hosting plans after defining your application type, control requirements, and expected traffic volatility.

Who Should Use Cloudways Hosting?

Cloudways hosting should be considered by website owners who need more infrastructure control, performance tooling, and scalability than typical shared hosting provides but do not want to administer a raw cloud server. The platform is particularly relevant to revenue-generating WordPress sites, agencies, ecommerce stores, publishers, developers, and growing online businesses.

Affiliate marketers and content publishers

A cache-heavy affiliate website can be a strong Flexible use case because public article pages can often be served efficiently through page caching and a CDN. The owner should still monitor uncached WordPress administration, scheduled imports, link-checking tools, image processing, and traffic overlap across multiple websites.

A sensible starting approach is to place a limited number of compatible websites on one adequately sized server, monitor peak CPU and RAM, and separate business-critical properties when shared-server risk becomes unacceptable.

Agencies managing client websites

Agencies can use Flexible to host several applications, create staging environments, clone servers, grant team access, and manage Git or SFTP workflows. Cloudways states that applications are not restricted by a fixed platform count, although real capacity depends on application type, traffic, server resources, storage, and business risk.

An agency should not define capacity as “ten websites per server.” A safer model evaluates:

• Aggregate peak CPU
• Aggregate RAM
• Simultaneous PHP demand
• Database intensity
• Backup windows
• Disk growth
• Traffic overlap
• Client isolation requirements
• Revenue or contractual criticality

WooCommerce stores

WooCommerce can benefit from managed infrastructure, Redis-powered object caching, staging, monitoring, and scaling. However, checkout, carts, account pages, webhooks, search, payment callbacks, inventory synchronization, and logged-in sessions create dynamic work that cannot be treated like cacheable blog traffic.

Review WooCommerce hosting requirements before selecting a plan using visitor counts alone.

Membership and LMS websites

Membership and learning-management websites often generate authenticated, personalized, and database-intensive requests. Autonomous may suit unpredictable concurrency, while Flexible may suit operators who can estimate demand and want greater server control.

The decision should consider simultaneous logged-in users, lesson delivery, quizzes, search, video integrations, cron jobs, reporting, and background email processes.

Developers and SaaS teams

Developers running Laravel, PHP applications, Git deployments, SSH, SFTP, cron jobs, APIs, or custom web stacks are generally better aligned with Flexible. Cloudways documents Git deployment, API controls, SSH access, application credentials, cron management, backups, and application-level settings across supported environments.

Who should avoid Cloudways hosting?

Cloudways may not be ideal when you require:

• Traditional cPanel workflows
• Bundled domain registration and email at one fixed annual price
• Root-level operating-system control
• Windows Server or Microsoft-specific hosting
• Fully outsourced plugin and custom-code maintenance
• The lowest possible price for an unimportant hobby site
• A single beginner dashboard with no server or workload decisions
• A fixed bill that cannot vary through bandwidth, backups, add-ons, scaling, or tax

Readers who prioritize those requirements should compare Cloudways alternatives before migrating.

Which Cloudways Hosting Option Should You Choose?

The right Cloudways option is the smallest reliable environment that supports the website’s peak concurrency, dynamic workload, database demand, storage, bandwidth, development process, and risk tolerance. Monthly traffic alone cannot predict resource requirements because cached pages, logged-in dashboards, checkout requests, searches, imports, and APIs consume infrastructure differently.

Use workload profiles instead of traffic-only recommendations

For example, 100,000 monthly article views spread evenly across cached pages may use fewer resources than 20,000 monthly visits to a membership portal where every user logs in, searches data, and loads personalized dashboards.

How much RAM and CPU does a Cloudways website need?

Cloudways resource sizing should begin with a production-safe baseline and then be validated through monitoring rather than treated as a permanent formula. Cloudways’ current FAQ advises customers to use 2GB or more for live websites and describes 1GB servers primarily as testing or staging environments.

That official baseline is not a universal capacity guarantee. A poorly optimized import task can saturate a larger server, while a carefully cached publication may remain stable on modest resources.

Monitor:

• Sustained and peak CPU utilization
• Available memory and swap activity
• PHP-FPM saturation
• Slow database queries
• Disk consumption and I/O
• Response time for cached and uncached pages
• Cron and background-task overlap
• Error logs
• Checkout or login failures
• Cache hit and miss patterns

Scale when evidence shows a persistent resource constraint, not merely because a generic article recommends a larger plan.

→ Evaluate Cloudways Hosting

Which Cloud Provider, Server Size, and Data Center Should You Select?

A Cloudways infrastructure provider should be selected by regional availability, resource price, storage and bandwidth structure, scaling behavior, workload consistency, and operational requirements. Cloudways currently documents DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud among Flexible infrastructure choices, although availability can vary by account, region, and server type.

How to compare Cloudways providers

DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode are often evaluated for straightforward resource-to-price configurations. AWS and Google Cloud may be considered when a specific region, infrastructure family, or organizational requirement matters more than the lowest monthly cost.

Do not generalize scaling behavior across providers. Cloudways documents provider-specific vertical-scaling rules, and current DigitalOcean options can allow CPU and RAM changes independently of storage in supported configurations.

How to choose the best Cloudways data center

The best Cloudways data center is normally the supported location closest to the largest concentration of latency-sensitive users. A CDN can distribute static assets internationally, but uncached requests, database operations, WordPress administration, origin fetches, checkout actions, and API calls still interact with the origin environment.

For a US-focused affiliate site, a US data center is usually more logical than Singapore. For a UK ecommerce store, London or a nearby European location may reduce origin latency. For a global publication, choose an origin near the largest commercial audience and use edge delivery for distributed readers.

[Insert image: Compare providers, server resources, hourly price and regions inside the Cloudways server-launch screen | Alt text: “Choose Cloudways server size and data center”]

How Do You Launch a WordPress Website on Cloudways?

Launching WordPress on Cloudways involves selecting a hosting product, deploying the application, accessing the temporary environment, connecting a domain, installing SSL, configuring caching and backups, and validating the live website. Cloudways’ onboarding documentation covers deployment, migration, DNS, SSL, Breeze, performance settings, and final testing.

Step-by-step Cloudways WordPress setup

1. Create or access your Cloudways account.
   Complete any required account, billing, or identity-verification steps.
2. Choose Flexible or Autonomous.
   Use Flexible for server-oriented control and Autonomous for eligible autoscaling WordPress workloads.
3. Select the application type.
   Choose WordPress, WooCommerce, Multisite, or another supported application where applicable.
4. Name the application, server, and project.
   Use descriptive naming such as Brand-Production, US-Content-Server, and Main-Sites.
5. Choose infrastructure and resources.
   Flexible requires provider, size, and location decisions. Autonomous uses an application plan.
6. Launch the environment.
   Wait until provisioning finishes before changing production DNS.
7. Open the temporary application URL.
   Confirm that WordPress loads and administrative credentials work.
8. Configure WordPress fundamentals.
   Set the site title, timezone, permalinks, administrative users, indexing status, and environment-specific settings.
9. Add the primary domain.
   Configure the production domain in Application Management.
10. Point DNS to the required endpoint.
    Update the applicable A, CNAME, or provider-specific records.
11. Install SSL after DNS resolves.
    Cloudways advises waiting until the domain points to the server before issuing the certificate.
12. Enable HTTPS redirection.
    Validate one clean redirect from HTTP to the canonical HTTPS version.
13. Configure caching and object caching.
    Avoid activating overlapping tools without defining each layer’s job.
14. Configure backup frequency and retention.
    Match the recovery point to how frequently the website changes.
15. Set alerts and monitoring.
    Review CPU, RAM, disk, traffic, errors, response time, and operational notifications.
16. Run final launch tests.
    Test canonical URLs, forms, login, search, checkout, transactional email, analytics, tags, robots directives, and XML sitemaps.

[Insert image: Show a newly launched WordPress application with temporary URL, admin credentials and Application Management menu | Alt text: “Launch WordPress hosting on Cloudways”]

Watch How to Launch WordPress on Cloudways

This official Cloudways walkthrough demonstrates how to launch a WordPress application and navigate the initial hosting setup. Watch it after completing the written steps to see the deployment process inside the Cloudways interface.

Video: “Launch Your WordPress Site With 1-Click | Cloudways 101” by Cloudways.

How Do You Migrate an Existing WordPress Site to Cloudways?

Cloudways migration involves creating a destination application, copying the website, testing the migrated version, synchronizing recent changes, updating DNS, enabling SSL, and completing post-launch validation. Cloudways supports an automated WordPress Migrator and an assisted migration process, but policy, eligibility, and included migration allowances should be checked before submission.

For a dedicated implementation workflow, follow the Cloudways migration guide.

The migration risk-control framework

1. Prepare

• Create an independent source-site backup.
• Record PHP, WordPress, theme and plugin versions.
• Export DNS records.
• Record redirects, cron jobs, SMTP settings and integrations.
• Identify orders, forms, comments, uploads, memberships and other changing data.
• Reduce DNS TTL before the planned cutover when appropriate.
• Define rollback conditions.

2. Replicate

• Launch the destination application.
• Use the Cloudways WordPress Migrator or request assisted migration.
• Supply accurate source credentials.
• Transfer files, media, plugins, themes and the database.
• Record the migration completion time.

Cloudways’ current assisted-migration documentation requests access to the source host, application dashboard, and relevant credentials before the migration team can begin.

3. Test

Use the temporary Cloudways URL or a local hosts-file override to test the migrated website before public DNS changes.

Validate:

• Homepage and templates
• Internal URLs
• Images and downloadable files
• WordPress administration
• User login
• Search
• Forms
• Checkout and payment gateways
• Webhooks
• Scheduled tasks
• Redirects
• Database totals
• Analytics and tag scripts

4. Freeze or synchronize

Changes made on the old website after the migration copy begins may not automatically exist on the destination. Orders, uploads, comments, registrations, membership activity, inventory changes, and form submissions require a controlled freeze, maintenance window, delta migration, or manual synchronization process.

A content blog may only need a brief publishing freeze. A busy store may require a planned final database synchronization immediately before cutover.

5. Cut over

• Confirm the destination is production-ready.
• Apply the final data synchronization.
• Update DNS records.
• Monitor propagation.
• Install or verify SSL.
• Force HTTPS only after certificate readiness.
• Purge application, Varnish, object, CDN and browser caches as appropriate.

6. Validate and monitor

Test from multiple networks and devices. Confirm DNS, certificate chain, redirects, canonical tags, robots directives, forms, checkout, email, analytics and server metrics.

7. Roll back when required

Rollback should be triggered by predefined conditions such as checkout failure, unrecoverable database mismatch, certificate failure, critical integration errors, or significant data loss.

Keep the source hosting available until the destination has passed the agreed validation period. Do not cancel the old account immediately after changing DNS.

“Everything fails, all the time.”

— Werner Vogels, Chief Technology Officer of Amazon at the time of publication, All Things Distributed, 2021

The operational lesson is not that every migration will fail. The lesson is that a migration process should assume a component can fail and should include backups, validation, monitoring, and a reversible cutover.

[Insert image: Show the Cloudways WordPress Migrator destination fields and migration status screen | Alt text: “Migrate WordPress website to Cloudways safely”]

Watch the Cloudways WordPress Migration Process

This official tutorial shows how to move an existing WordPress website using the Cloudways migration workflow. Use it alongside the backup, testing, data-synchronization, DNS-cutover, and rollback precautions explained above.

Video: “How to Migrate Your WordPress Site to Cloudways | Cloudways 101” by Cloudways.

How Do You Configure Domains, DNS, SSL, and Email on Cloudways?

Cloudways domain setup requires registering the domain separately, mapping it to the application, updating authoritative DNS, waiting for resolution, installing SSL, and configuring separate transactional-email or mailbox services. Domain ownership, hosting, DNS, certificates, transactional delivery, and business inboxes are related but distinct services.

How to connect a domain to Cloudways

1. Add the production domain in Cloudways Application Management.
2. Identify the required server or application endpoint.
3. Open the authoritative DNS provider.
4. Remove conflicting records.
5. Add the required A or CNAME records.
6. Confirm both root and www behavior.
7. Wait for DNS resolution.
8. Verify the domain from multiple networks.
9. Install SSL.
10. test canonical redirects.

The detailed process is covered in how to point a domain with Cloudways.

Watch How to Connect a Domain and Install SSL

This official Cloudways tutorial demonstrates how to map a domain, configure the required DNS records, install a Let’s Encrypt certificate, and enable HTTPS. Registrar interfaces may differ, but the Cloudways-side workflow and underlying DNS process remain applicable.

Video: “How to Point Domains and Install SSL Certificates on Cloudways | Cloudways 101” by Cloudways.

How to install an SSL certificate on Cloudways

Cloudways supports free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates and applicable custom certificates. The onboarding guide documents certificate issuance after DNS propagation, automatic renewal for applicable Let’s Encrypt certificates, HTTPS redirection, and custom certificate installation through certificate, key, and certificate-authority files.

After installation, test:

• Root-domain HTTPS
• www HTTPS
• Certificate expiry and chain
• One canonical hostname
• HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect
• Mixed-content warnings
• Checkout and login security
• CDN certificate behavior
• HSTS only after HTTPS is fully stable

Does Cloudways include email hosting?

Cloudways hosting does not automatically function as a complete business-mailbox service, although optional SMTP and mailbox integrations are available. Cloudways currently documents Elastic Email for application email delivery and Rackspace Email for business mailboxes.

Transactional email includes password resets, form notifications, receipts, order confirmations, and system messages. Business email includes mailboxes such as name@example.com.

Cloudways currently lists Rackspace Email at $1 per mailbox per month, while Elastic Email packages depend on sending requirements. Prices and regional eligibility should be rechecked before purchase.

For SMTP, configure and validate:

• SPF
• DKIM
• DMARC
• Verified sending domain
• From address
• Return path
• Test messages
• Delivery logs
• Bounce handling
• Rate and volume limits

How Should You Optimize Cloudways Performance?

Cloudways performance optimization is a layered process that combines correct server sizing, current software, efficient PHP execution, page caching, object caching, CDN delivery, database maintenance, lightweight application code, and real-user monitoring. No single cache switch can compensate indefinitely for insufficient resources, slow queries, excessive plugins, or poorly written custom code.

A complete implementation is available in the Cloudways performance optimization guide.

Optimize the origin before adding more layers

Start with:

1. A suitable provider and region
2. Adequate RAM and CPU
3. A supported current PHP version
4. Appropriate PHP-FPM settings
5. Efficient database tables and queries
6. Controlled cron and background work
7. Optimized themes and plugins
8. Compressed images and efficient fonts
9. Reduced third-party scripts
10. Measured cached and uncached performance

Understand cached versus uncached requests

A cached article can be returned without repeating the full PHP and database execution path. A cart, checkout, WordPress dashboard, personalized account, search query, API call, or logged-in LMS page may require dynamic processing.

Measure these paths separately:

• Public article page
• First uncached visit
• Cached repeat visit
• WordPress admin page
• Product category
• Cart
• Checkout
• Logged-in account
• Search
• API endpoint

A homepage speed test cannot represent every workload.

“Delivering less JavaScript can mean less time in network transmission, less spent decompressing code and less time parsing and compiling this JavaScript.”

— Addy Osmani, Engineering Leader at Google Chrome, web.dev, 2017

Hosting affects server response, but front-end payloads still shape the experience after the server responds. Removing unnecessary JavaScript, images, fonts, trackers, and plugins can improve performance without purchasing a larger server.

How to configure Breeze, Varnish, Redis, and Cloudflare

Cloudways states that Object Cache Pro can reduce repeated database work through Redis and warns that another object-caching plugin should be removed before Object Cache Pro is enabled.

Cloudways also documents that its Cloudflare integration can coexist with a WordPress caching plugin, but Breeze may need to remain installed with conflicting optimization settings disabled for applicable Smart Cache Purge functionality.

Watch How to Configure Breeze on Cloudways

This official walkthrough explains the principal Breeze caching and optimization settings, including page caching, file optimization, exclusions, database cleanup, and Varnish cache management. Apply each option selectively and avoid duplicating functionality already handled by another performance plugin or CDN layer.

Video: “Setting Up the Breeze – WordPress Cache Plugin | Cloudways 101” by Cloudways.

What not to enable together

Avoid these combinations unless you have tested and documented the configuration:

• Two page-cache plugins
• Two object-cache plugins
• Multiple HTML, CSS, or JavaScript minifiers
• Cloudflare edge full-page caching plus an incompatible third-party edge cache
• Varnish rules that cache carts, checkout, account or personalized sessions
• Several image-CDN systems rewriting the same URLs
• Multiple lazy-loading systems
• Duplicate database-cleanup schedules
• Browser caching with uncontrolled versioning

Change one performance layer at a time. Record the result, clear all relevant caches, and retest the same URL and workload.

How Do You Secure a Cloudways Website?

Cloudways security requires both platform-level protection and application-level security practices. Cloudways can provide firewalls, access controls, SSL, infrastructure patching, monitoring, backups, malware-related services, and optional edge protection, while the owner remains responsible for users, plugins, themes, custom code, credentials, content, and incident procedures.

Read the dedicated Cloudways security guide for implementation details.

Essential Cloudways security controls

• Use a unique account password.
• Enable two-factor authentication.
• Restrict SSH, SFTP and database access.
• Whitelist trusted IP addresses where operationally practical.
• Create separate application credentials.
• Remove unused team members and access keys.
• Apply least-privilege permissions.
• Install and renew SSL.
• Keep WordPress, themes and plugins supported and updated.
• Remove abandoned plugins and themes.
• Protect staging environments.
• Review vulnerability and malware alerts.
• Maintain off-platform backups for critical data.
• Monitor administrative logins and file changes.
• Document incident escalation and recovery.

“Security is a process, not a product.”

— Bruce Schneier, Security Technologist and Author, The Process of Security, 2000

A firewall, malware scanner, or CDN does not make a website permanently secure. Security requires recurring access reviews, updates, backups, testing, monitoring, and incident response.

Server security versus WordPress security

A secure server cannot neutralize every vulnerable plugin. Likewise, a carefully maintained WordPress installation still depends on reliable infrastructure and recovery mechanisms.

How Do Cloudways Backups, Staging, Cloning, and Restores Work?

Cloudways backup and staging tools provide recovery copies, test environments, application replication, and server cloning, but their behavior, cost, retention, and restoration options vary by product. Backup settings should be selected according to the website’s update frequency, recovery-point objective, recovery-time objective, storage growth, and business impact.

How Cloudways backups work

Cloudways Flexible supports configurable off-site backups and applicable on-demand backups. Official documentation currently lists Flexible off-site backup storage at $0.033 per GB, rounded in $0.50 increments, while Autonomous backup cost is included in the application plan.

A business should configure backups based on data volatility:

• Static brochure site: daily may be sufficient.
• Frequently published blog: several daily restore points may be useful.
• WooCommerce store: hourly or more specialized real-time protection may be necessary.
• Membership platform: backup frequency should reflect registration, payment, and user-generated data.
• Critical application: maintain a separate backup outside the primary hosting account.

A backup is not proven until restoration has been tested.

How Cloudways staging works

A Cloudways staging environment is a copy of a live application used to test updates and configuration changes before deployment to production. Flexible staging can run on an existing server without a separate server fee, although it consumes that server’s resources; a new staging server creates normal server charges. Autonomous staging counts against applicable plan usage.

Read WordPress staging best practices before pushing database changes from staging to a live store or membership website.

Use staging for:

• WordPress updates
• Plugin and theme updates
• PHP-version changes
• Cache changes
• New tracking scripts
• Checkout modifications
• Database changes
• Custom-code deployments
• Visual regression testing
• Major content-template edits

Do not overwrite current orders, users, comments, or production-only configuration by pushing an old staging database to live without a synchronization plan.

Application cloning versus server cloning

Application cloning duplicates one application. Server cloning can duplicate the broader environment and all included applications.

Cloudways documents basic and advanced server-cloning workflows, including options that can copy applications, settings, domains, certificates, cron jobs, SMTP configuration, and access controls in supported interfaces. A clone receives a different IP address and can create normal server charges until deleted.

Temporary clones are a frequent source of unexpected invoices. Delete unused test servers, migration destinations, proof-of-concept applications, and old clones after preserving any required data.

Review WordPress backup and disaster recovery for a layered recovery strategy.

How Does Cloudways Pay-As-You-Go Pricing Work?

Cloudways uses pay-as-you-go billing, with Flexible generally charging for active server resources and Autonomous charging hourly for active application plans plus applicable autoscaling and overages. Final cost can also include backups, bandwidth, email, CDN, malware protection, support, DNS services, temporary environments, external domains, plugins, maintenance, and tax.

The current Cloudways pricing and plans guide contains a detailed cost analysis.

Current pricing snapshot

As verified on August 3, 2026:

• Cloudways advertises selected Flexible plans starting at $11 per month.
• Autonomous currently lists Growth at $99 per month, Scale at $199 per month, and Plus at $399 per month, subject to current offers and account availability.
• Autonomous overages can include disk, bandwidth, and autoscaling beyond the plan baseline.
• Flexible off-site backup storage is currently documented at $0.033 per GB with billing rounded in $0.50 increments.
• Cloudflare Enterprise currently starts at $4.99 per domain monthly, Rackspace Email at $1 per mailbox monthly, Site Manager at $3 per application monthly, and malware protection at $4 per application monthly on the public pricing page.

These values are time-sensitive. Confirm the live total inside the account before purchase.

Flexible billing details

Cloudways’ 2026 billing documentation states:

• DigitalOcean, Linode, and Vultr are charged hourly when active for part of a month and may receive the displayed monthly cap when one plan runs for the full month.
• AWS and Google Cloud are billed hourly without the same monthly maximum.
• Scaling mid-month divides the bill according to the time each configuration remained active.
• Deleting a server stops future server charges, but accumulated usage remains billable.
• Add-ons may follow separate billing rules.

Autonomous billing details

Autonomous accounts created under the current pricing model use hourly, per-application billing. Activating, upgrading, downgrading, or deactivating an application changes the hourly plan charge, while additional resource use can create autoscaling and overage costs.

Cloudways total-cost worksheet

Use this formula:

Estimated monthly cost = base hosting + backups + bandwidth + autoscaling + CDN + email + security + support + external services + tax

Calculate three versions:

• Normal month
• High-traffic month
• Failure or incident month

This approach exposes costs that a starting-price comparison cannot show.

First-invoice reconciliation

When the first invoice arrives, compare:

1. Expected active-server hours
2. Actual server configurations
3. Temporary servers and clones
4. Backup-storage usage
5. Bandwidth
6. Add-on activation dates
7. Autoscaling
8. Regional rates
9. Taxes
10. Account credits or promotions

Investigate every unexpected line item before the next billing cycle.

→ Compare Cloudways Plans

How Many Websites Can You Host on One Cloudways Server?

The number of websites a Cloudways Flexible server can support depends on the applications’ combined resource demand, storage, concurrency, caching, background work, traffic overlap, and isolation requirements. Cloudways does not impose a simple universal application count, although its FAQ gives illustrative examples rather than guaranteed capacity.

Cloudways currently gives an example that a 2GB server may handle four or five small websites with combined traffic around 110,000 monthly page views. That example should not be treated as a performance guarantee because five static blogs differ substantially from five WooCommerce stores.

Server-consolidation framework for agencies

Before adding another website, assess:

• Peak CPU with all sites active
• Available RAM during backup and cron windows
• PHP-FPM saturation
• Aggregate storage and growth
• Simultaneous traffic campaigns
• Database contention
• Malware or compromise isolation
• Client SLA requirements
• Backup restoration complexity
• Revenue concentration

A practical risk rule is to separate applications when one failure could affect several high-value clients simultaneously.

Practical Cloudways use cases

Which Tools Help You Manage and Test Cloudways Hosting?

Cloudways management should combine platform monitoring with independent performance, SEO, uptime, query, log, and real-user tools. Platform metrics explain infrastructure behavior, while external tools reveal how visitors, search engines, browsers, checkout flows, and distributed networks experience the application.

Cloudways monitoring and notifications

Use Cloudways monitoring to inspect CPU, memory, disk, traffic, application response, database behavior, and service health. CloudwaysBot or current notification integrations can deliver operational alerts.

[Insert image: Display CPU, RAM, disk and application metrics in Cloudways Monitoring | Alt text: “Monitor Cloudways server resources and application performance”]

[Insert image: Show CloudwaysBot notification channels and alert settings | Alt text: “Configure Cloudways hosting alerts with CloudwaysBot”]

Breeze

Use Breeze when its page-cache and optimization features match the application. Define whether Breeze or another plugin owns minification, lazy loading, browser caching, and page caching.

[Insert image: Show Breeze cache, file optimization and advanced options | Alt text: “Configure Breeze cache settings on Cloudways WordPress”]

Redis and Object Cache Pro

Use Redis-powered object caching for repeated database queries, particularly on eligible WooCommerce, membership, and query-intensive websites. Remove competing object-cache plugins before enabling Object Cache Pro.

[Insert image: Show Object Cache Pro metrics, cache status, memory and logs | Alt text: “Analyze Redis object caching with Object Cache Pro”]

Cloudflare

Use Cloudflare or the Cloudways Cloudflare Enterprise add-on for distributed delivery, applicable edge caching, web-application protection, and origin shielding. Keep the ownership of edge caching and cache purging clearly documented.

[Insert image: Show Cloudflare Enterprise status, caching and security controls in Cloudways | Alt text: “Enable Cloudflare Enterprise on Cloudways hosting”]

Google PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse

Use PageSpeed Insights to review field and laboratory data where available. Use Lighthouse for diagnostic audits under controlled conditions.

[Insert image: Compare Core Web Vitals field data and Lighthouse diagnostics in PageSpeed Insights | Alt text: “Measure Cloudways WordPress Core Web Vitals in PageSpeed Insights”]

WebPageTest

Use WebPageTest to compare first view, repeat view, waterfall activity, origin response, connection timing, rendering, and geographic locations.

[Insert image: Show a WebPageTest waterfall for a Cloudways-hosted website | Alt text: “Analyze Cloudways website loading waterfall with WebPageTest”]

GTmetrix

Use GTmetrix as an additional waterfall and monitoring view. Keep the test location, device, browser, connection, login state, and cache state consistent.

[Insert image: Show GTmetrix waterfall and performance summary for a Cloudways website | Alt text: “Test Cloudways website speed with GTmetrix”]

Query Monitor

Use Query Monitor in a controlled environment to find slow queries, PHP errors, hooks, scripts, styles, HTTP requests, and component-level issues.

[Insert image: Show slow database queries and responsible plugins in Query Monitor | Alt text: “Diagnose slow WordPress queries on Cloudways with Query Monitor”]

WP-CLI, SSH and SFTP

Use WP-CLI and SSH for controlled updates, cache management, cron inspection, database operations, deployment, log review, and troubleshooting. Use SFTP for secure file transfer when command-line access is unnecessary.

[Insert image: Show WP-CLI commands over SSH for plugin status and cache operations | Alt text: “Manage Cloudways WordPress with WP-CLI and SSH”]

Google Search Console

Use Google Search Console to monitor indexing, Core Web Vitals, crawl behavior, page experience, HTTPS, and organic-search changes following migration.

[Insert image: Compare indexing and Core Web Vitals before and after a Cloudways migration | Alt text: “Monitor Cloudways migration effects in Google Search Console”]

Google Analytics

Use Google Analytics to compare engagement, conversion, checkout errors, revenue, device behavior, and landing-page performance before and after migration.

[Insert image: Compare pre-migration and post-migration conversions in Google Analytics | Alt text: “Measure Cloudways migration conversions in Google Analytics”]

What Are the Most Common Cloudways Problems and How Do You Fix Them?

Common Cloudways problems usually involve DNS, SSL, redirects, cache conflicts, migration gaps, resource saturation, email authentication, disk usage, scheduled tasks, application code, or misunderstood billing. Troubleshooting should begin by identifying the affected layer instead of changing several server, WordPress, DNS, and CDN settings simultaneously.

Change one variable, document the result, and preserve a rollback point. Cloudways’ troubleshooting documentation recommends reviewing error logs, resource settings, application changes, and staging tests for server-side errors.

What Should You Do After Launching or Migrating to Cloudways?

A successful Cloudways launch should end with technical validation, monitoring, invoice review, capacity reassessment, and documented maintenance rather than stopping when the homepage loads. The first 30 days should establish performance, reliability, conversion, cost, and operational baselines.

Cloudways launch and maintenance checklist

• Confirm Flexible or Autonomous remains appropriate.
• Record source-host performance and resource baselines.
• Preserve the source backup.
• Deploy or migrate the application.
• Test before changing DNS.
• Synchronize recent production data.
• Connect the canonical domain.
• Verify DNS propagation.
• Install and validate SSL.
• Confirm HTTP, HTTPS, www, and non-www redirects.
• Validate canonical tags.
• Validate robots directives and XML sitemaps.
• Configure page caching.
• Configure object caching where appropriate.
• Configure CDN and edge caching.
• Configure backup frequency and retention.
• Create a separate critical-data backup.
• Enable account two-factor authentication.
• Review SSH, SFTP and team access.
• Set monitoring and alerts.
• Test forms and spam controls.
• Test login and password reset.
• Test cart, checkout, payment and webhooks.
• Test transactional email.
• Validate Google Analytics and tag management.
• Validate Google Search Console ownership.
• Review error logs.
• Review the first invoice.
• Delete unused migration servers and clones.
• Reassess capacity after 7, 30 and 90 days.

A measurable 30-day plan

Track trends instead of celebrating one fast laboratory test. A stable store with reliable checkout and predictable cost is more valuable than a homepage that produces an impressive result under one cached test.

→ Start Cloudways Setup

Is Cloudways Worth Using for Your Website?

Cloudways is worth considering when you need managed cloud infrastructure, stronger resource control, staging, monitoring, scaling, and application tools without taking full responsibility for raw server administration. Cloudways is less suitable when bundled simplicity, unrestricted root access, Windows hosting, fully managed application maintenance, or the lowest possible fixed price matters more.

Flexible is generally stronger for agencies, developers, multi-application hosting, Laravel, Magento, custom PHP, and predictable WordPress workloads. Autonomous is generally stronger for eligible WordPress, WooCommerce, LMS, publishing, and campaign workloads where concurrency changes quickly and manual scaling creates risk.

Cloudways is not automatically the best host for every website. Read the full Cloudways review and current Cloudways features analysis before committing critical production workloads.

The best configuration is not the largest server or the most expensive plan. The best Cloudways configuration is the smallest reliable environment that supports the website’s real workload, expected growth, operational capacity, and tolerance for failure.

Written By

Asraf Masum
Founder, ASRAF MASUM LTD

Asraf Masum works in SEO, affiliate marketing, SaaS, WordPress, web hosting, AI tools, digital marketing, and online-business development. His publishing work focuses on practical frameworks that help website owners evaluate tools, improve organic visibility, and build sustainable digital businesses.

Disclaimer: This article was initially drafted using AI assistance. However, the content has undergone thorough revisions, editing, and fact-checking by human editors and subject matter experts to ensure accuracy.

Cloudways Hosting FAQ

Cloudways hosting FAQs commonly address cPanel, root access, domains, email, trial conditions, migration allowances, application limits, and deletion billing. The answers below clarify issues that can materially change a purchase or migration decision.

Does Cloudways use cPanel?

No. Cloudways provides its own server and application management interface rather than traditional cPanel. The platform separates server controls, application settings, projects, integrations, billing, team access, and monitoring.

Does Cloudways provide root access?

Cloudways does not provide the unrestricted root-level experience expected from an unmanaged VPS. It provides managed SSH, SFTP, application credentials, Git, cron, API, database, and supported configuration controls while retaining management of the underlying environment.

Does Cloudways include a free domain?

Cloudways hosting does not bundle a free domain-registration service as a standard hosting feature. Purchase and retain the domain through a registrar, then point its DNS to the Cloudways environment.

Does Cloudways include free SSL?

Cloudways supports free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates and applicable custom certificates. The domain should resolve to the environment before the certificate is issued.

Does Cloudways offer a free trial?

Cloudways currently advertises a three-day Flexible trial without a credit card on eligible configurations. Trial duration, verification, products, regions, server types, and account eligibility can change.

Does Cloudways offer free migration?

Cloudways currently documents a free WordPress Migrator plugin and an assisted migration service. Official pages have historically described different managed-migration allowances, so confirm the current entitlement inside the account before relying on a specific number.

What happens when you delete a Cloudways server?

Deleting a server stops future server charges, but usage accumulated before deletion remains billable. Recovery is only possible when a usable backup remains within applicable retention and recovery conditions.

Can Cloudways handle high traffic?

Cloudways can support high-traffic websites when the product, resources, caching, database, code, and scaling strategy match the workload. Autonomous is designed to scale WordPress capacity horizontally, while Flexible requires suitable sizing and manual scaling decisions.

References

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Cloudways. (2026). Cloudways Flexible: Managed cloud hosting with full control.

Cloudways. (2026). Cloudways managed cloud hosting platform.

Cloudways. (2026). Cloudways pricing and plans.

Cloudways. (2026, April 9). How to activate the Elastic Email add-on. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2026, April 10). How to clone your server. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2026, June 9). How payment and pricing work on Cloudways Autonomous. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2026, June 29). How to request and manage an end-to-end application migration on Cloudways. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2026, July 24). Complete WordPress onboarding guide for Cloudways. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2026). Charges for off-site backups. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2026). Cloudways platform terminology: Quick reference. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2026). Getting started FAQs. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2026). Guide to scale servers on the Cloudways platform. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2026). How to create a staging environment. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2026). How to enable Cloudflare on your application. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2026). How to recover or restore a deleted application or server. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2026). Understanding monthly versus hourly billing on Cloudways. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2025, August 22). Speed up your WordPress application using Object Cache Pro. Cloudways Help Center.

Cloudways. (2026, January 7). How to use Rackspace Email add-on. Cloudways Help Center.

Osmani, A. (2017, November 30). JavaScript startup optimization. web.dev.

Schneier, B. (2000). The process of security. Schneier on Security.