Cloudways is the best-value serious hosting for people who want control without server administration.
Where it wins. Choosing your own provider is genuinely useful: a small DigitalOcean droplet costs a fraction of managed WordPress while performing better than shared hosting, and you can scale vertically in a click. The stack is well tuned — Varnish, Redis, and their Breeze cache produce fast WordPress out of the box. Unlimited sites per server means an agency can host many clients on one instance, which changes the per-site economics completely. Staging, free migration, and 24/7 chat are included.
Where it falls short. It is a step more technical than managed WordPress — you are picking server sizes and thinking about RAM. There is no email hosting or domain registration, so those are separate. Support quality became less consistent after the DigitalOcean acquisition, and the pricing now leans harder on paid add-ons. Backups cost extra per server.
Our call. The sweet spot for technically comfortable owners and agencies. Non-technical users should pay more for Kinsta and think about none of it.
Best for
Agencies and technically comfortable owners who want VPS performance and unlimited sites without running servers.
Key takeaways
- 1Choose DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, or Linode
- 2Unlimited sites per server transforms per-site cost
- 3Well-tuned Varnish, Redis, and Breeze caching
- 4More technical than managed WordPress
- 5No email hosting or domain registration
- 6Backups and several features are paid add-ons
Cloudways sits between doing it yourself and paying for managed WordPress. You choose the underlying cloud, Cloudways runs the server — provisioning, patching, caching, backups — and you pay for the instance plus a management fee. It is the pragmatic option for anyone who wants VPS performance without becoming a sysadmin.
What we like
- Excellent price for the performance
- Provider choice and no lock-in
- Unlimited sites per server
- One-click vertical scaling
- Free migration and staging
Worth noting
- Requires some technical comfort
- No email or domains
- Add-on pricing has crept up
- Support less consistent than it was
Plans
Pricing
DigitalOcean 1GB
per server, per month
- 1 GB RAM, 25 GB storage
- Unlimited websites per server
- Free SSL and staging
- Varnish, Redis, and Breeze caching
- 24/7 chat support
- Free migration
DigitalOcean 2GB
per server, per month
- 2 GB RAM, 50 GB storage
- Everything in the 1GB plan
- More headroom for traffic
- Vertical scaling in one click
- Choice of cloud provider
Pricing verified Aug 14, 2026. Prices shown are billed annually where available and may change — always confirm on the vendor site.
From real users
Reviews
No verified reviews yet
We publish a user score only once real, verified reviews exist — so this tool is rated on our hands-on testing alone for now. Used it? Your review would be the first.
Write the first reviewGood to know
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to be technical to use Cloudways?＋
More than for managed WordPress, less than for a raw VPS. You choose a server size and provider; Cloudways handles provisioning, patching, and caching. If picking between 1GB and 2GB RAM feels unfamiliar, pay more for Kinsta.
Can I host multiple sites on one server?＋
Yes, unlimited applications per server, which is the main economic argument. An agency can host many client sites on a single instance rather than paying per site.
Does Cloudways include email?＋
No. There is no email hosting or domain registration — you supply both separately, typically via Google Workspace and a registrar.
Cloudways
From $14/mo