Pros
ConsThe details
Founded in 2011, Cloudways is your ultimate choice if looking for servers offering cloud hosting exclusively. It is an intermediary between cloud hosting companies and end-users as it doesn’t have stand-alone data centers.
This model gives them access to more data centres than any other web hosting provider in the market, with locations throughout Europe, Asia (few), Australia, and North America.
What’s more, users their desired servers based on their locations instead of the service provider assigning a data center automatically. Here’s more about Cloudways DigitalOcean:
Speed
Cloudways users are unlikely to experience any issues when it comes to speed.
Several tests using our speed testing tool showed that the website loads in less than 2.37 seconds. Note that this speed differs depending on the plan and the provider.
However, the flexible hourly billing rates and free trial allow users to determine what they need and how much they are willing to pay.
Since the company is just a conduit to data centers from other providers, it avoids making any uptime promises on the website. But our two-week-long test hardly recorded any downtime.
Uptime reliability
A review of the data for the past 30 days showed a pretty stable web host service. Its uptime is pretty similar to other web hosting services we have tested.
We hardly experienced any downtime, and when we did, we received an email notification alerting us if the server couldn’t contact the site for more than a minute.
Customer support
This is another feature that Cloudways excels.
Not only does it provide a 24/7 support system 365 days, but it provides proactive investigation and private Slack channel and phone support.
In addition, end-users using the Advanced Plans enjoy customized support at $100 p.m. more and $500 p.m. for the Pro Plan.
And while you can contact support via the live chat platform any time, you can also schedule a meeting with customer representatives via Skype.
Also, its FAQ section provides lots of information, including explaining technical terms.
Value
Cloudways provides excellent value for your money. Of course, it’s more expensive than making direct subscriptions to individual cloud server companies, but you enjoy the benefits of having a support platform.
Essentially, a direct subscription to the cheapest DigitalOcean plan, for example, costs $5 while Cloudways charges $10 to host a website on the same platform. You may wonder why there’s a vast difference in the plans.
Hosting on the cloud server company directly grants access to the stand-alone server only without any support. This means you’d need to solve any technical issues you experience when using the server.
What’s more, Cloudways keeps on adding handy features to its customer support platform and offers hourly cloud hosting packages that charge you for the amount of time used. You won’t enjoy such benefits on a direct subscription.
This means if you want to cancel the plan after using it 15 days into the month, you’re charged for 15-days’ worth of hosting.
By comparison, web hosting services from WP Engine, DreamHost, SiteGround and others charge users for the entire month even if you cancel after a week.
Since Cloudways is just an intermediary between end-users and cloud server companies, it allows them to select a provider from five companies- DigitalOcean, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Vultr, Linode, and Stackpath. Its plans are as follows:
- Basic plan: It costs $10 per month and offers 25 GB of storage, 1 GB of RAM, 1TB of monthly data transfers, and a single-core processor
- Standard plan: For $22 per month you get 2 GB of RAM, 50 GB of storage, 2TB of data transfers, and one-core processor
- Advanced plan: Costs $42 per month and you get 4 GB of RAM, 80 GB storage, 4 TB of bandwidth, and comes with a 2-core processor
- Pro plan: It costs $80 per month and offers 8GB RAM, a four-core processor, 5 TB of bandwidth, and 160 GB of storage
Cloudways also has a refund policy. However, unlike the typical 30, 60, and 90-day money-back guarantee found on most web host providers, the provider only reimburses the money you haven’t used.
As such, if you had a one-month subscription and decided to cancel after ten days, Cloudways refunds the remaining 20-day’s worth of subscription. Note that you must request a refund within three months of payment.
Safety
In terms of security, Cloudways engineers ensure your subscription is safe from attacks by releasing firmware and operating system upgrades.
As if that’s not enough, the recommended Rackspace email comes with DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF) authentication technology for additional security.
The company also offers free Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates, which are handy for users who sell products.
Final verdict
Overall, Cloudways is a solid buy for tech-savvy business owners looking for reliable cloud hosting solutions. The kind that understands their traffic cycles, where they need to deliver content, and the type of performance they need.
While its performance varies based on the cloud server you subscribe to, they all offer pretty standard performance. You’re confident about great speed, safety, and uptime reliability regardless of the plan you choose.
