Cloudways WordPress Hosting Review 2026: Is It the Best Choice for Your Website?

Looking for a WordPress experience without the technical headache? Managed WordPress hosting promises to take that weight off your shoulders. Today, many providers offer dedicated WordPress platforms, with Cloudways being a prominent contender.

In this review, we examine how Cloudways compares to top alternatives across key metrics like speed, security, and daily usability.

Signing up with Cloudways is quick and easy. Choosing the right "Flexible" hosting setup is where things get more involved. Instead of picking a standard plan, you build your hosting environment from the ground up.

Cloudways advertises pre-configured starter packages on its website, but you’ll still need to tweak them to fit your needs.

Don’t rush through these choices. You’re making several important technical decisions that affect your costs, performance, and available features.

Here’s what you’ll need to choose with Flexible hosting:

That’s just the first step. Next, you’ll configure your actual server resources. These determine your server’s performance and account for most of your costs. If your needs change later, you can scale your resources up or down anytime.

You'll have the following options for server resources:

Click "Launch Now" and Cloudways sets up your "Flexible" hosting plan. In our test, this took 7 minutes. After that, the server was ready to go, complete with a WordPress instance.

To create another WordPress instance, open the "Flexible" section in the main menu and select "Add Application". Every Cloudways plan supports unlimited application installs, allowing you to host multiple WordPress websites on a single server instance without purchasing extra hosting plans.

First, choose the server where the new website should run. This can be either an existing server or a brand-new one.

There isn't much left to do: just select WordPress as the application type, give it a name, and start the installation.

A few minutes later, your new website is ready. If you chose Cloudways' optimized version of WordPress, an Object Cache plugin and the host's own "Breeze" plugin come preinstalled (more on this later in the caching chapter).

Other than that, the WordPress backend looks just like a standard installation.

Already have a WordPress website but aren't happy with your current provider? To migrate to Cloudways, you have two options:

Cloudways isn't entirely clear on one important detail, though. According to its website, only one migration by the Cloudways team is free. When we asked support, we got a different answer: they told us additional migrations are handled for free too. Either way, migrating through the plugin is always free.

The managed migration service starts with choosing your target app.

For the migration, you’ll need to provide details about your current website: your WordPress login credentials, along with SSH, (S)FTP, cPanel, or similar access details. That’s more than other hosts in our comparison require, since they only ask for your WordPress login and the admin area URL.

In our test, we got a notification after just three hours that the site had been transferred and was undergoing a final quality check. Less than an hour later, Cloudways confirmed the migration was complete.

Alternatively, you may migrate your site using the Cloudways WordPress Migrator, a plugin developed by Cloudways and BlogVault. First, install the plugin on your current WordPress site.

The plugin then asks for some details about your new server, including the server IP address and database name. You’ll find all the required information in your Cloudways hosting panel.

Once that’s done, your migration is ready to go.

Once started, the migration runs quickly. In our test, the move finished in just three minutes, faster than any other provider we tried.

Once you finish setting up or migrating your WordPress site, Cloudways redirects you straight to its main control panel. From here, you manage your servers, WordPress instances, and core hosting configurations in one place.

The main overview panel delivers an instant snapshot of your active servers, applications, system notifications, and billing details.

The dashboard stands out for its exceptional speed. Menus open instantly, pages switch without lag, and even heavy management panels load quickly, making Cloudways one of the fastest hosting control panels we have tested.

However, the prominent self-promotion detracts from the experience. Cloudways heavily advertises paid add-ons right on the primary dashboard, occupying valuable screen space and occasionally crowding out essential management tools.

Further down the page, you will find a clean list of your installed applications alongside quick-start guides to help you navigate setup.

When you open a WordPress installation, you land on the “Access Details” screen. It shows everything you need to know about your website at a glance: the URL, login credentials for the WordPress backend (with a direct link), and database access.

The Site Manager is a new addition that brings various WordPress management tasks together in one place. The basic version is free (for details on what the paid version adds, check out the Security section later).

Another standout feature is dashboard customization. Cloudways provides two interface themes that function identically but offer distinct visual styles.

The “Modern” theme features a sleek, minimalist aesthetic with ample whitespace, while the “Classic” theme utilizes sharper contrast to make distinct navigation sections easier to spot.

The hosting panel, all management tools, and even the support and knowledge base are available only in English. If you’re not comfortable with technical terms in English, Cloudways might not be the best fit.

Managed WordPress hosting is engineered specifically for WordPress performance, giving you out-of-the-box access to advanced features that would otherwise require manual configuration or extra plugins.

Cloudways is so confident in its custom PHP tech stack that it dubbed it “ThunderStack.” According to the company, this specialized technology blend delivers “shockingly good” performance. Here is a look at what is under the hood:

Let's take a closer look at ThunderStack.

Apache and NGINX are the two most popular web servers for WordPress. Since each has its own strengths, Cloudways uses both open-source web servers together.

Cloudways also lets you choose your database. ThunderStack supports both MySQL and MariaDB.

With Cloudways, your server location depends on the infrastructure provider you choose. If you go with DigitalOcean, you can pick from ten data centers across eight countries.

New PHP versions usually bring performance and security improvements, so WordPress hosts should upgrade as soon as possible. At the time of our review, Cloudways supported PHP 8.4, one of the latest versions.

However, after setup, our server still ran an older PHP version by default. Switching is easy, though. Just open the "Settings & Packages" section under "Server Management," select the "Packages" tab, and pick your preferred PHP version.

The "Settings & Packages" menu also provides you with access to many other server settings. For example, you can adjust the PHP memory limit or free up disk space.

In practice, this means fewer problems with large file uploads, big WordPress imports, or resource-heavy plugins. Cloudways simply gives you a lot more breathing room.

Here's how Cloudways' PHP features stack up against other providers:

Good caching is one of the most important factors for fast load times. It eases the load on your server and delivers frequently requested content faster. Cloudways uses a multi-layer, server-side caching setup with Varnish, Redis, and Memcached:

You can turn all three caching services on or off or restart them right from the server settings. Several configuration options are available, too. The "Advanced" tab, for example, lets you set the cache lifetime.

Caching extends beyond your server-level Cloudways settings. Selecting the optimized WordPress setup automatically installs Cloudways' custom Breeze plugin, allowing you to fine-tune optimizations specifically for your WordPress site rather than the entire server.

If you prefer not to configure caching, compression, and media optimization settings manually, you can simply activate one of three preconfigured optimization profiles instead.

Cloudways isn't quite as generous in every area as it is with caching. A content delivery network (CDN), which delivers static content through servers around the globe to cut load times, isn't part of the standard package.

Instead, Cloudways offers a CDN through Cloudflare as a paid add-on. For a hosting service that's otherwise so technically strong, we would have liked to see at least a basic CDN included at no extra cost.

The missing CDN is the biggest flaw in an otherwise well-equipped hosting platform.

That covers the theory, but how does it hold up in practice? To see how these features affect Cloudways' performance, check out the performance chapter.

Cloudways offers a long list of features. Here are a few highlights we haven't covered yet:

Many WordPress hosts include a free domain and some email features, but with Cloudways, you'll handle domains and email hosting on your own. For email, you can use integrations like Google Workspace.

Security is a critical factor in managed WordPress hosting. Automatic protection, reliable backups, and robust defenses against attacks directly dictate how much effort you'll have to invest when issues arise.

Cloudways includes a solid set of security features out of the box, but locks others behind paid add-ons. It is worth carefully reviewing what is included natively versus what requires an extra fee—especially since Cloudways occasionally presents conflicting details regarding these inclusions.

Regardless, Cloudways covers the standard essentials: all plans include unlimited free SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt.

Cloudways protects its servers against DDoS attacks at the network level. According to the provider, it detects and filters out suspicious traffic early, before it can reach your website.

The server-side firewall Imunify360 adds another layer of security. It blocks malicious access, filters suspicious traffic, and protects services like SSH and HTTP from common attacks.

Cloudways also automatically blocks brute-force attacks on WordPress logins, a feature that isn't standard with all managed WordPress hosts. It uses Fail2ban to detect repeated login attempts and block suspicious IP addresses.

The new Vulnerability Scanner checks WordPress and your installed themes and plugins for known security flaws. If it finds any, you'll get clear instructions on how to fix them.

Malware protection is somewhat confusing. The Cloudways website implies that malware detection is strictly a paid add-on, and their documentation offers little extra clarity—making it difficult to discern what is actually included.

In reality, Cloudways scans websites for malware even on standard plans without the add-on. However, when queried, support could not clarify the frequency of these scans.

While Cloudways alerts you immediately upon detecting malware, features like automated malware removal and advanced security tools require the paid Malware Protection add-on.

Cloudways includes a web application firewall (WAF) by default. You can manage it directly from the hosting panel to allow or block specific IP addresses.

You can even block entire countries if necessary. This provides significantly more direct control than most managed WordPress hosts, which typically handle firewall rules behind the scenes.

Automatic backups come with every Cloudways plan, and you get far more control over them than most managed WordPress hosts offer.

You can set how often backups run, from hourly to weekly, and how long they’re kept (1 to 4 weeks). You can also pick the exact time for automatic backups.

Need a backup right away? No problem. You can create manual backups anytime, and Cloudways even stores a local copy on your server.

Need to back up just your WordPress files and database? You can do that too. Find the option in the WordPress management section under "Backup and Restore". There, you can also restore existing backups or run an on-demand backup of your WordPress site.

Automatic WordPress updates are another paid feature. If you want Cloudways to handle plugin, theme, and WordPress updates for you, you’ll need the paid Pro version of the new Site Manager.

That’s a letdown because the Site Manager only really shines with the add-on. The free version omits key WordPress management features. Without the premium upgrade, the new management area feels more like a stripped-down version than a full tool.

Without the add-on, you’ll still need to update WordPress, plugins, and themes manually. You can do this through the Site Manager or directly in the WordPress dashboard, just like before.

Here’s how Cloudways’ security features stack up against other providers:

To get a realistic picture of Cloudways’ performance, we ran a WordPress website on the platform for six weeks. We used a typical setup with the resource-heavy Elementor page builder to see how the platform handles real-world demands.

We tested the site both with and without performance optimizations enabled. That let us evaluate not just how well the optimization tools work, but also the raw speed of the underlying servers. For more on our testing methods, check out our comparison of the fastest WordPress hosting providers.

Our results show how quickly Cloudways delivers content, how stable the platform is, and how reliably the site stayed online during our tests. We tracked these key metrics:

The Time to First Byte (TTFB) measures how long it takes for a server to respond after a website is requested. It tells you how quickly a site starts loading. The lower the number, the faster and more responsive the site feels.

At 0.266 seconds, Cloudways ranks 5th out of the 14 providers we tested, a solid result.

We count any request that takes the server longer than one second to answer as a slow response. The lower this percentage, the more consistently the server performs under varying loads.

Cloudways has 0.54% slow responses, placing it 8th out of 14. That’s a weaker showing than the rest of its performance results would suggest.

The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how long it takes for the main content of a page to appear. The faster this happens, the quicker the page feels to visitors. LCP is also one of Google’s Core Web Vitals, so it’s a key factor for ease of use.

Cloudways scores an average of 0.573 seconds, earning 3rd place. That’s an excellent result.

Uptime shows how reliably a website stays online. The closer the value is to 100%, the fewer outages you'll experience.

Cloudways achieved 100% uptime in our test, tying for first place with Bluehost, DreamHost, SiteGround, and WordPress.com. There wasn't a single outage during the entire testing period.

Even the best hosting platform will run into the occasional technical issue or question. That is why reliable support is so critical: you need assistance that is fast to access and technically capable.

Beyond its knowledge base, Cloudways offers live chat support and a ticketing system. However, its AI assistant, Cloudways Copilot, is only accessible as a paid add-on.

The knowledge base—available strictly in English—contains over 300 detailed articles covering Cloudways platform operations, server configuration, and general hosting. That said, WordPress-specific tutorials make up only a small fraction of the available documentation.

The content quality is solid. Guides walk you through tasks step by step, include helpful screenshots, and go into far more depth than those from many competing hosts.

That said, Cloudways writes primarily for a technical audience. If you lack a basic grasp of hosting concepts, some explanations can be difficult to follow.

Every support interaction begins with Cloudways' AI assistant. In our testing, it answered most queries accurately and reliably.

A key advantage is that the bot recognizes its own limits: the moment a inquiry grows too complex, it offers to transfer you to a human support agent. You can also request a handoff manually at any point.

Once a human rep takes over, initial responses typically arrive in under a minute—making Cloudways one of the fastest support options we tested, regardless of the time of day.

The agents demonstrate genuine technical expertise. However, we occasionally noted that initial replies rely on boilerplate templates, requiring a follow-up question to get a tailor-made solution. If an issue remains unresolved after 15 minutes, Cloudways automatically escalates the chat into a support ticket.

When you submit a support ticket, Cloudways automatically suggests relevant knowledge base articles based on your input. As a result, many common issues get resolved before the ticket is even created.

During our testing, we received a thorough, helpful resolution within approximately two hours.

Direct phone support is available exclusively through Cloudways' Premium Support tier. With this add-on, phone assistance is accessible around the clock, and subscribers can also collaborate directly with engineers via a dedicated Slack channel.

Cloudways also offers Cloudways Copilot, an AI assistant available as a paid add-on. It continuously monitors server and application health, alerts you to potential issues, and—upon your confirmation—can automatically execute basic fixes and configuration adjustments.

Currently, Cloudways Copilot functions strictly at the server level and lacks write permissions for individual applications like WordPress. As a result, it can suggest performance optimizations, but it cannot (yet) execute plugin updates or manage internal site tasks directly.

Customers praise Cloudways for its fast live chat and knowledgeable support team. They also appreciate when reps walk them through fixes step by step, whether that means migrating a site or troubleshooting server errors.

The complaints tend to surface when issues get complicated. Some users report generic responses and endless back-and-forth on tickets without resolution. Others point out that phone support isn't included in standard plans.

Due to its modular setup, Cloudways' pricing is a bit more complex than that of most managed WordPress hosts.

Instead of picking a pre-set package, you first choose an infrastructure provider like DigitalOcean, AWS, or Google Cloud. Then you build your own server by selecting the resources you need. Your cost depends on the provider and the server specs you choose.

You also pick a server type:

Cloudways plans differ mainly in storage space, CPU cores, and available RAM. When it comes to features, though, every plan includes the same set.

Here’s an overview of the basic plans Cloudways offers through DigitalOcean:

Comparing managed WordPress hosting providers isn’t straightforward. Plans vary in both technical specs and features. Cloudways adds another layer: the cost also depends on which cloud provider you choose. The same server setup can carry different price tags depending on the infrastructure.

To make a fair comparison, we looked at the monthly costs in three common scenarios:

For this comparison, we evaluated Cloudways plans hosted on DigitalOcean. Below is how Cloudways’ DigitalOcean plans stack up against competing providers:

If you only need hosting for a single WordPress site, Cloudways’ DigitalOcean plans are rarely the most budget-friendly choice. Even the entry-level server provides performance headroom that a single, standard project won't fully utilize—meaning you could end up paying for resources and flexibility you don't actually need.

However, the value proposition changes dramatically once you host multiple websites on the same server. Because costs are spread across several projects while performance and core features remain uncompromised, multi-site management is where Cloudways truly shines.

That said, if your primary requirement is large amounts of raw storage for a single site, competing managed WordPress hosts often offer more cost-effective entry points.

Even though Cloudways doesn’t lock you into long-term contracts, it’s still worth checking the fine print to understand exactly what you’re getting.

Bottom line: Cloudways is a top-tier choice for site owners who need more than basic shared WordPress hosting. The platform delivers exceptional environment control, letting you tailor server resources to your project's exact technical demands.

Its architecture excels when managing growing platforms or running multiple WordPress installations. Transparent pay-as-you-go pricing, isolated cloud resources, and instant vertical scaling offer a clear edge for agencies and expanding sites.

However, Cloudways is likely unnecessary for simple personal blogs or low-traffic portfolio sites. Absolute beginners may also find its deep configuration options and lack of a traditional cPanel overwhelming, making it a poor choice for a first-time hosting environment.

Across major review platforms, most users are happy with Cloudways. They praise its performance and customer service, though there’s some criticism too. Here’s what keeps coming up on Trustpilot and similar sites:

See a full overview of Cloudways customer reviews here:

Not sold on Cloudways? Here are some other WordPress hosting providers that might be a better fit:

Want more Cloudways alternatives? Check these out: