If you are a business owner you need to have certain software tools that ensure the efficient running of your enterprise. Managed cloud hosting is a process that allows your business to access and share databases, software and hardware tools using a remote network through multiple servers in a different location. The service provider who provides your business with managed cloud hosting will provide the cloud servers. Moreover, they will be responsible for the management of this cloud-hosting environment. We have reviewed Cloudways to help you understand how managed cloud hosting can improve your business strategy. Read on to find out what our verdict is on this platform.
Cloudways Overview
Cloudways is a platform that simplifies the facilitation process and performance of managed cloud hosting. It offers business owners expert support that allows them to focus on running the business instead of the software platform. This innovative software platform is designed to enhance business growth by eliminating the complexities of setting up marketing tools such as websites. A team of professionals manages and builds such essential tools so that they collaborate efficiently. This allows for ease of scalability over a highly secure infrared in the case of inadvertent traffic surges.
How Does Cloudways Work?
Cloudways strikes the ideal balance between affordability and seamless functionality if your business is looking for cloud-based managed hosting. The hosting resources can be scaled according to the growth of your website because the platform offers secured cloud servers. The easy-to-use infrastructure is optimized for security, performance and speed. Moreover, if you are skeptical about choosing Cloudways as your trusted managed host, you can sign up for the 3-day free trial that it offers prospective users on its platform.
Cloudways vs Traditional Hosting
- Your website is stored on multiple server locations unlike with conventional hosting where it is stored in a single server that is usually backed up.
- Your website can be migrated effortlessly in the case of unexpected events.
- It can improve operating performance and times because it is much faster than traditional hosting. For instance, the server can detect various customer locations and transmit data from a server that is closest to a customer.
- It uses Solid State Drives (SSDs) to enhance the performance of your website.
- It provides prompt and efficient scalability in a highly secure cloud-based environment.
- The pay-as-you-go pricing options give you more control over your hosting bill compared to monthly subscription service fees from traditional hosting.
Cloudways Pros
- Cloudways offers a no strings attached free trial period.
- There is no limit on the number of websites that you host. So, you only pay for the resources that you utilize.
- The pay-as-you-go pricing system allows you to only pay for the resource that you use.
- The content management systems and apps are easy to install. It also provides you with an array of app integrations that you can use.
- The free automatic updates allow you to recover your website with just a single click.
- The server migration process is free unlike competitor hosting platforms.
Cloudways Cons
- It requires some technical knowledge to understand how to use it.
- There is no email or domain registration. As a result, you have to find a separate domain registrar to create a domain name for your website.
- You have to pay more to get a bigger server if you want to upgrade.
What are the best features of Cloudways?
Cloudways is commonly known as a WordPress hosting platform. Below is a detailed list of its key features.
Do they have Server Monitoring / Management?
This is one of the most practical features. It allows you to assess variables such as your CPU, traffic data and the number of reads per second from a simple drop down menu. You can control the services that are running on your server at any time, configure all the server-level settings and block conspicuous IP addresses from accessing your resources.
Can Cloudways stage websites easily?
This is ideal for making flexible changes without making them permanent on your website. You can test the changes in the designation staging area. With cloning, you can create various clone sites to change to new servers or present your website to potential clients.
Do they have advanced caching?
There are several caching methods that optimize servers. Cloudways uses an in-house caching plug-in that is easily set-up and enabled or disabled. This plug-in supports a unique content delivery network called CloudwaysCDN. The network is responsible for increasing speed and reliability by caching web pages on multiple servers across the world. You can only access this feature through the affordable pain plan on the platform.
What about Vertical Scaling?
This feature allows you to add or remove server resources at any time. So, if you need to upgrade your servers due to expected higher traffic surges, you can upgrade your plan accordingly without paying for extra resources that you don’t need.
Tell me about their customer support?
The 24/7 live support feature is similar to that of any other company. You can submit help desk tickets, send an email, call or use the live chat option to speak to a support team member. The CloudwaysBot monitors the servers to provide real-time notifications on any updates or issues with the servers.
What’s the Verdict on Cloudways?
- Ease of use
- Value for money
- Exceptional customer support
Cloudways offers well-equipped, cloud-based web hosting services. The plans are very flexible costs, so it is easy to make a qualified choice based on the demands of your business. If you are a small-scale business owner, and you have a limited budget, the pay-as-you-go pricing option offers you the right kind of balance between price and resource availability. It gives you the freedom from a complex, lengthy and costly subscription plan.
The key features ensure that it is easy to use for someone who is new to website building. Even though there are cons such as the lack of email or domain registration, there are more pros to try it out for your hosting needs. A business owner who is skeptical or lacks the basic knowledge required to use cloud hosting can test out the 3-day free trial to understand the technical details.
Sounds to me like you would need to hire someone to help get it set up which is another expense out of your pocket before seeing anything come in. 3 days is a horrible trial period, you would barely be able to see what it could do.
Maybe at some point down the road, I will pull this out of the back of my brain and say oh yea! I will for now stick to the free web hosting, maybe they will at some point increase the trial period to something that you can really have a chance to play with before being charged.
A site like WordPress always gives me pause because I have heard the SEO rating is poor and websites can go down without any notice! Combine those issues with the fact that there are proven website vulnerabilities and it makes it hard to trust your website in their hands. If Cloudways can provide security and consistency I might be more likely to give it a shot. The pay-as-you-go system intrigues me, and it seems to be very user-friendly for inexperienced users. I think I would be all in for Cloudways if there were email and website registration. For now, I think I will try it out and see how the trial period goes.
Cloudways Webhosting sounds good I like it when you accidentally delete something you need cloud ways can get it back for you. Thank you for the information.
Is it an opensource platform? How often do you upgrade the features?
Lee, Cloudways is a panel which makes it very easy to manage your web hosting. Cloudways offers 4 or 5 different actual hosting providers which are contracted into the panel, so you can choose based on your needs. I used Cpanel for a long time with SiteGround, and I was always frustrated with how clunky it was. When I switched to Cloudways, it actually became fun to manage accounts. It is so easy. The user interface is really quite brilliant.
Do you provide GIS apps along with the hosting?
Hello, Taylor,
This is interesting and something I have never thought of investing in. This would be beneficial for larger teams of workers, and I appreciate that security is at the forefront of cloudways hosting, as that is the number one concern I would have with using anything like this. Right now, I am using a different hosting service for my website right now, but I can see how beneficial it is to have multiple servers. There is nothing worse than having a server end up overloaded, and my website temporarily unavailable. I am not a very tech-savvy person. Are there tutorials available for learning how to navigate this well?
It was easy to set up & migrate. Thanks Taylor & the team.
Cloudways use multiple cloud hosting providers like digital ocean Linode, Vultr, and AWS. You also have a lot of data centers, and this brings you closer to your market. Cloudways is one of the most advanced cloud hosting servers there are. The only real downside of cloud ways is that you do not get an email account.
Fantastic and truly game changer for us with simpler management and quicker scaling for our CRM!
Thanks for this post, I have been looking for a new web hosting service, and after reading through this, it seems there are really a lot of positives in using Cloudways.
One of the most appealing things for me is the pay-as-you-go flexible plans. With my current web hosting service, I am stuck in yearly contracts (or even 3-year bundles in some cases!)
As far as some of the cons you describe in regards to Cloudways, in my experience, these attributes (technical knowledge, domain registration, etc.) are issues that you come across in a majority of hosting services.
We’ve been looking for better web hosting software than the one we currently use. To be honest, we’ve outgrown it and need something more extensive. I haven’t looked into Cloudways, but all the details you provided have intrigued me. I think I will have my business partner check it out and see if it is feasible for our needs and requirements.
Personally, it sounds like you need to be pretty tech savvy to know how to get this setup, which is something I lack. But okay, we’ll definitely give it a look and see what it can deliver on our level.
Tracy, Cloudways is the best! I was with Siteground Web Hosting before I switched to Cloudways, and it has been a night and day difference on so many levels, price, customer service, speed, etc.
Managing multiple sites can be very challenging especially on peak hours. Servers tend to slow down and in worst case scenarios it crashes down. What happens next is that we lose productivity for the next few hours and wait for IT to fix the bugs which can sometimes take forever. Quite frustrating scenario for SME’s. For me, web hosting is one way to get rid of glitches and get things up and running in no time. Great choice for BPO’s and call centres that handle high volume of voips and online transactions. Information are kept safe no matter what and it promotes faster collaboration among different departments. Products like Cloudways are essential to companies that has work from home setups. Guaranteed productivity, low cost and round the clock customer support so what more can you ask for.
Can you extend the free trial offer till 15 days?
Also please tell us about the data recovery options.
Cloudways is a Pay-as-You-Go service, so you pay only for the resources you consume. You will be invoiced for the services used in any given month at the start of the next month. In the event when you accidentally delete your critical application files, break your website’s functionality during development, or want to revert to a previous version of your website, an adequately configured backup can be your savior, so you can always restore your application. Cloudways offers automated off-site backup and on-demand backup features out-of-the-box. Automated backups are handy, so you don’t have to take manual backups regularly.
Spending less and getting the best!
Thanks Cloudways.
At over 90% decline on the hosting cost and running at best 25% of our capacity allowed us to scale quickly. We just couldn’t be happier.
Thanks Cloudways and the team!
Hey Taylor,
I already had an existing WordPress blog, I’ve read this article, so I decided to migrate my blog to Cloudways. Should I hire someone more knowledgeable in this web host?