Cloudways
Managed cloud hosting platform that runs on top of DigitalOcean, Linode, AWS, GCP, and Vultr. Cloudways handles server management, security patches, backups, and WordPress optimisation, while you choose the underlying cloud provider and region. Plans from $11/mo.
Pricing Plans
| Plan | Price/mo | CPU | RAM | Storage | Bandwidth | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DO-1 (DigitalOcean 1GB) | $11.00 | 1 vCPU | 1GB | 25GB SSD | 1TB | Entry managed cloud, DigitalOcean backend, free SSL, CDN addon |
| DO-2 (DigitalOcean 2GB) | $22.00 | 1 vCPU | 2GB | 50GB SSD | 2TB | 2GB RAM, recommended for WordPress production sites |
| DO-4 (DigitalOcean 4GB) | $40.00 | 2 vCPU | 4GB | 80GB SSD | 4TB | 2 cores, WooCommerce and mid-traffic applications |
| Vultr HF 4GB | $40.00 | 2 vCPU (High Frequency) | 4GB | 128GB NVMe | 3TB | Vultr High Frequency backend, better CPU for intensive workloads |
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Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that abstracts away server management complexity. Instead of provisioning and managing cloud VMs directly, you interact with Cloudways’ panel, which automates OS setup, security hardening, PHP stack configuration, backups, and monitoring, while the actual compute runs on your choice of underlying cloud provider.
Supported Cloud Providers
Cloudways currently supports five cloud backends: DigitalOcean (most popular, best price), Linode/Akamai (strong Linux ecosystem), Vultr (High Frequency NVMe option), AWS (largest region selection), and Google Cloud (premium global network). You can run servers across multiple providers simultaneously under a single Cloudways account.
Managed Stack
Every Cloudways server includes: automated OS security patches, Apache/Nginx web server configuration, PHP-FPM, Redis, Varnish, Memcached, MySQL/MariaDB, Let’s Encrypt SSL, Git deployment, and SSH access. This is more than a control panel, it’s a fully managed LAMP/LEMP stack that eliminates most routine server administration.
WordPress Optimisation
Cloudways is particularly popular in the WordPress community. Breeze (their free WordPress caching plugin), one-click staging, cloning, Cloudflare CDN integration, and per-site PHP version management make it one of the most streamlined managed WordPress platforms available at this price point.
Cloudways Autonomous
Cloudways Autonomous is a next-generation auto-scaling product that adjusts server resources based on traffic demand, adding compute during spikes and scaling down during quiet periods. It removes the need to pre-provision for peak traffic.
Verdict
Best for developers and agencies who want managed VPS convenience without managed VPS prices. The platform overhead (~$11/mo at the entry tier) is justified if it eliminates sysadmin time. The multi-cloud backend choice is a genuine differentiator vs. single-provider managed hosting.