Cloudways has not announced its 2026 Black Friday offer yet. Last year it gave 50% off the first three months on every plan and add-on, plus 50 free migrations, to new accounts. The four sales before that were each 40% off for four months. On today's prices, 50% off takes a DigitalOcean 1GB server from $11.00 to $5.50 a month and a Vultr High Frequency 4GB server from $60.00 to $30.00. Cloudways bills month to month, so after the sale you pay the normal price, with no renewal jump.
Every past offer on this page comes from Cloudways' own pages during the sale, and the rules come from its published terms. One of those rules decides how much you save: the month you sign up in counts as the first discounted month, even if only a few days are left. I have also tested four Cloudways servers on the same WordPress site I use for every host; their results are below, next to what each costs.
Cloudways Black Friday at a Glance
50% off, 3 months
- Every plan and add-on
- 50 free expert-led migrations
- New accounts only
Before that: 40% off for 4 months, four years running
See CloudwaysDigitalOcean 1GB tested
- $11.00/mo today, $5.50/mo at 50% off
- 98ms with 100 visitors at once
- 0 failed requests
CLOUDS2022's $30 credit is worth more here, and works today
See CloudwaysVultr HF 4GB tested
- $60.00/mo today, $30.00/mo at 50% off
- 48ms from New York
- 74ms with 100 visitors at once
Worth waiting for: 50% off saves up to $90.00
See CloudwaysEvery Cloudways Black Friday Offer Since 2021
These are the offers as Cloudways' own pricing and offer pages showed them during each sale. The "months saved" column turns each offer into one number: the discount times the months it lasts, so 40% off for four months equals 1.6 months of hosting free.
| Sale | Discount | How long | Code | Extras | Months saved |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 40% off | 4 months | BFCM2021 | 1.6 | |
| 2022 | 40% off | 4 months | BFCM4030 | Up to 30 free migrations | 1.6 |
| 2023 | 40% off | 4 months | BFCM4040 | 40 free migrations | 1.6 |
| 2024 | 40% off | 4 months | BFCM4040 | Up to 40 free migrations; an early-bird version added $75 of credit | 1.6 |
| 2025 | 50% off | 3 months | BFCM5050 | 50 free expert-led migrations; plans and add-ons | 1.5 |
Months saved = discount x months. It ignores the extras, which matter most if you are moving several sites.
The headline went up last year, from 40% to 50%, but the discount ran one month shorter, so it was worth slightly less in total: 1.5 months of hosting against 1.6. What did grow was the migration offer, from up to 30 free migrations to 50. If you are moving an agency's worth of sites, that is the part of the deal to plan around.
Cloudways runs smaller sales through the year as well. Its summer 2026 offer was 40% off for four months plus 40 free migrations, the same discount as the 2021 to 2024 Black Friday sales. In total that was worth slightly more than last year's Black Friday offer, 1.6 months of hosting against 1.5, with 40 free migrations against Black Friday's 50. November is not always the best time to buy.
Last Year's Terms, and the Signup-Date Rule
Cloudways published the rules of its 2025 offer as a terms document. The ones that matter to a buyer:
- New accounts only. An account counted as new if its email address was not known to Cloudways before the promotion. Closing an existing account to sign up again did not qualify.
- Signups closed at midnight Pacific time on Friday 5 December 2025. The offer was on Cloudways' site by mid-November.
- 50% off your first three calendar months, on the hosting plan and eligible add-ons. The discount arrived as a credit on each monthly invoice, which Cloudways raises in the first ten days of the next month.
- The signup month counts as month one, even when it is a partial month. Terms example: sign up on 20 November, and November is your first discounted month.
- The 50 free migrations had to be requested by 31 December 2025. Cloudways' team queued them and gave a timeline.
- Not included: Cloudways Copilot.
The signup-date rule changes what the offer is worth. Cloudways bills by usage, so a server you start on 28 November costs only three days in November, and 50% off three days is almost nothing. Here is what last year's rules would save on two of today's servers, by signup date:
| Sign up on | Discounted time | DigitalOcean 1GB ($11.00/mo) | Vultr HF 4GB ($60.00/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 November | 16 days + 2 months | $13.93 | $76.00 |
| 28 November | 3 days + 2 months | $11.55 | $63.00 |
| 1 December | 3 full months | $16.50 | $90.00 |
| 5 December | 27 days + 2 months | $15.79 | $86.13 |
Computed from today's prices under last year's terms. If the 2026 terms change, so will these numbers.
So under last year's rules the best day to sign up was the first day of December, not Black Friday itself. Signing up on 28 November instead cost $4.95 of discount on the smallest server and $27.00 on the 4GB one. Check the 2026 terms for the same clause before you pick a date.
Last Year's Offer on Today's Prices
Here is 50% off applied to today's Cloudways prices. These are not announced 2026 prices; they show what last year's offer would be worth if it returns unchanged.
Vultr High Frequency
| Server | Today | At 50% off | Saved over 3 full months | From month 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1GB | $16.00/mo | $8.00/mo | $24.00 | $16.00/mo |
| 2GB | $30.00/mo | $15.00/mo | $45.00 | $30.00/mo |
| 4GB | $60.00/mo | $30.00/mo | $90.00 | $60.00/mo |
| 8GB | $118.00/mo | $59.00/mo | $177.00 | $118.00/mo |
DigitalOcean Standard and Premium
| Server | Today | At 50% off | Saved over 3 full months | From month 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard 1GB | $11.00/mo | $5.50/mo | $16.50 | $11.00/mo |
| Standard 2GB | $24.00/mo | $12.00/mo | $36.00 | $24.00/mo |
| Standard 4GB | $46.00/mo | $23.00/mo | $69.00 | $46.00/mo |
| Premium 2GB | $28.00/mo | $14.00/mo | $42.00 | $28.00/mo |
| Premium 4GB | $54.00/mo | $27.00/mo | $81.00 | $54.00/mo |
| Premium 8GB | $99.00/mo | $49.50/mo | $148.50 | $99.00/mo |
Cloudways Autonomous
| Plan (one website) | Today | At 50% off | Saved over 3 full months | From month 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Growth | $99.00/mo | $49.50/mo | $148.50 | $99.00/mo |
| Scale | $199.00/mo | $99.50/mo | $298.50 | $199.00/mo |
| Plus | $399.00/mo | $199.50/mo | $598.50 | $399.00/mo |
US dollars before tax. Last year Cloudways listed Autonomous at 50% off for three months alongside Flexible.
Which server to pick in the sale: 1GB or 2GB for a blog or brochure site, 4GB for WooCommerce or a few busy sites, 8GB for an agency hosting many client sites. On Flexible you can resize later without moving the site, so start one size smaller rather than one size bigger.
How Cloudways Held Up in Our Tests
Each server ran the same WordPress test site. We measured response time (TTFB) from 10 locations at the origin server, with no CDN in front, a load ramp from 0 to 250 clients at once, and uptime over 54 days. Full method: How We Test.
| Server | TTFB New York | 10-location average | 100 visitors | Failed requests | Uptime |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean 1GB $11.00/mo | 59ms | 132ms | 98ms | 0 | 99.981% |
| DigitalOcean Premium 2GB $28.00/mo | 54ms | 121ms | 86ms | 0 | 99.985% |
| Linode 2GB $28.00/mo | 62ms | 139ms | 106ms | 0 | 99.979% |
| Vultr High Frequency 4GB $60.00/mo | 48ms | 106ms | 74ms | 0 | 99.99% |
Lower is better for response times. Failed requests are out of 8,250 on each server's full load ramp. The price under each server is today's normal monthly price.
What this means for a buyer: all four servers finished the full load ramp without a failed request, including the $11.00 DigitalOcean 1GB server, which answered 100 visitors at once in 98ms. The Vultr High Frequency server was the quickest on every measure. For comparison, the shared plans in our Black Friday hosting comparison took from 240ms to 1400ms with the same 100 visitors. The full test write-up is in the Cloudways review.
Black Friday vs the Codes You Can Use Today
Cloudways takes one code per signup, so the right choice depends on what your server costs. Here is what each is worth over the first three full months, with 50% off standing in for the Black Friday offer:
| Server | THATMY30 30% off, 3 months | CLOUDS2022 $30 credit | Black Friday 50% off, 3 months | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean 1GB $11.00/mo | $9.90 | $30.00 | $16.50 | CLOUDS2022 |
| Vultr HF 1GB $16.00/mo | $14.40 | $30.00 | $24.00 | CLOUDS2022 |
| Vultr HF 2GB $30.00/mo | $27.00 | $30.00 | $45.00 | Black Friday |
| Vultr HF 4GB $60.00/mo | $54.00 | $30.00 | $90.00 | Black Friday |
| Vultr HF 8GB $118.00/mo | $106.20 | $30.00 | $177.00 | Black Friday |
- THATMY30: 30% off for three months on Cloudways Flexible. The best year-round code once a server costs more than $33 a month.
- THATMYCLOUD: our code for Cloudways Autonomous.
- CLOUDS2022: $30 of credit, about 2.7 months of the $11.00 server. Best for small servers.
How to enter each one, with screenshots of the signup, is on our Cloudways promo code page. The rule of thumb: if your server will cost more than $20 a month, a repeat of last year's 50% off beats every code; below that, CLOUDS2022 is worth more and you do not have to wait for November.
Add-On Prices, Normal and at 50% Off
Last year's discount covered eligible add-ons too. Cloudways shows most add-on prices only inside a running server, not on its pricing page. These are the prices in the console of our test account, and what they would be at 50% off:
| Add-on | Normal price | At 50% off | Worth it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Enterprise | $4.99 per domain a month | $2.50 per domain | Yes for WooCommerce and busy sites |
| Malware Protection | $4 per app a month (1 to 5 apps), $3 (6 to 15), $2 (over 15) | $2, $1.50 or $1 per app | If you run plugins you do not audit |
| Site Manager Pro | $3 per app a month | $1.50 per app | For agencies doing many plugin updates |
| Advance support | $25 a month, already 75% off $100 for life | Check on the day | If you want help inside your application |
Two things are free and never need a discount: the Patchstack vulnerability scanner, which Cloudways support confirmed in chat, and managed WordPress migration. Email is not included in any plan, so budget for Google Workspace, Zoho Mail or the Rackspace add-on.
How to Claim It, Step by Step
- Wait for the offer page. Last year Cloudways put the offer on its homepage and pricing page, and signing up through the offer page applied the code automatically. This page gets the 2026 details when they are out.
- Pick your signup date. Under last year's terms the signup month is month one, so the first days of a month give you three full discounted months.
- Check the code is on the form. If you type a code yourself, it goes behind the small "I have a promo code" link under the signup form, and it has to go in at signup.
The promo field hides behind the 'I have a promo code' link. - Launch your server. Pick the stack, the cloud and the size. On the free trial, our account could launch only a 4GB DigitalOcean Premium server, with AWS and Google Cloud locked until a card was added.
The launch wizard on a trial account. - Add a card. Cloudways charges $1 to verify it and reverses the charge once the check passes.
The $1 card check. - Request the free migrations early. Last year they had to be requested by 31 December, and Cloudways queued them.
- Check your first invoice. The discount arrives as a credit on each monthly invoice. A credit code like CLOUDS2022 shows as a funds balance instead.
What a credit code looks like once applied.
What You Pay After the Three Months
The normal monthly price, the same price a new customer pays. There is no renewal rate. That is the real difference from shared hosting Black Friday deals, which lock you into one to four years at a low price and then renew at two to four times as much.
| Vultr HF 4GB | Months 1 to 3 | Month 4 onward | First year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50% off | $30.00/mo | $60.00/mo | $630.00 |
| THATMY30 | $42.00/mo | $60.00/mo | $666.00 |
| No code | $60.00/mo | $60.00/mo | $720.00 |
Because billing follows usage, you can resize the server at any time: down if the site turned out smaller than planned, up if it grew. Cloudways also runs offers inside the console for existing accounts; on our test server it offered 20% off vertical scaling, the move up a size:
How Agencies Should Use the Sale
- Buy one bigger server, not many small ones. A Vultr HF 8GB server at 50% off is $59.00 a month for three months ($177.00 saved over three full months) and hosts many client sites; Cloudways charges per server, not per site.
- Move every client site inside the window. Last year's 50 free migrations let an agency move its whole book at no cost.
- Switch on per-app add-ons while they are discounted. Malware Protection is $3 per app at 6 to 15 apps, $1.50 at 50% off.
- Skip Autonomous for client work. Each Autonomous plan hosts one website, so ten clients means ten plans.
Who Should Buy It
What This Page Does Not Cover
- The 2026 offer. Not announced; the prices above apply last year's offer to today's prices.
- How fast the free migrations are done. We did not use them, so we cannot say how long the queue takes in the sale.
- AWS and Google Cloud servers. We benchmarked DigitalOcean, Linode and Vultr servers only.
What I Would Do
If my server will cost more than $20 a month, I would wait for the sale and sign up on the first days of a month inside the window, so all three discounted months are full ones. On a Vultr High Frequency 4GB server, the fastest we tested, that was worth $90.00 under last year's rules. For a single small site I would not wait: CLOUDS2022's $30 credit covers about 2.7 months of the $11.00 DigitalOcean server, which held 100 visitors at once in 98ms without a failed request, and it works today.
See every Black Friday hosting deal we track → · Cloudways review · Cloudways promo code · Cloudways pricing guide
Cloudways Black Friday FAQ
What is the Cloudways Black Friday 2026 deal?
Cloudways has not announced it yet. Last year's offer was 50% off the first three months on every hosting plan and add-on, plus 50 free expert-led migrations, for new accounts. The four sales before that, 2021 to 2024, were each 40% off for four months. Black Friday 2026 is 27 November.
When does Cloudways Black Friday 2026 start?
Not announced. Last year the offer was on Cloudways' site by mid-November, and its terms closed signups at midnight Pacific time on Friday 5 December 2025. Under those terms the month you sign up in counts as your first discounted month, so an early-December signup got three full months at 50% off.
What is the Cloudways Black Friday promo code?
Last year's offer page applied BFCM5050 automatically when you signed up through it. The codes change with the offer: BFCM2021 in 2021, BFCM4030 in 2022 and BFCM4040 in 2023 and 2024. Until the 2026 offer is out, the codes that work are THATMY30 (30% off for 3 months), THATMYCLOUD (for Autonomous) and CLOUDS2022 ($30 of credit).
How much does a Cloudways server cost at 50% off?
On today's prices, a DigitalOcean 1GB server would drop from $11.00 to $5.50 a month, and a Vultr High Frequency 4GB server from $60.00 to $30.00. The discount covers three months, then the normal price returns.
Is Black Friday better than THATMY30 or CLOUDS2022?
For most servers, yes. Over three months, 50% off beats THATMY30's 30% off on every size, and beats CLOUDS2022's $30 credit once the server costs more than $20 a month. On the $11.00 DigitalOcean 1GB server, CLOUDS2022 is worth more than the whole Black Friday discount, and it works today.
Can existing Cloudways customers get the Black Friday deal?
Not under last year's terms: the offer was for new accounts only, meaning an email address Cloudways had not seen before, and customers who closed an account to sign up again were excluded. Existing customers could still take in-console offers, such as the Advance support add-on at 75% off for life.
Does the Black Friday deal cover Cloudways Autonomous?
Last year it did: Cloudways listed Flexible and Autonomous at 50% off for three months. The terms excluded Cloudways Copilot. Autonomous starts at $99.00 a month today, for one website.
What happens to my price after the three months?
It goes back to the normal monthly price, the same price a new customer pays. Cloudways has no renewal rate: a $60.00 server is $60.00 in month four and in year three. There is no contract, so you can resize or delete the server at any time.
Can I try Cloudways before Black Friday?
Yes. The 3-day free trial needs no card. On our trial account it launched one server size in practice, a 4GB DigitalOcean Premium server, with AWS and Google Cloud locked until a card was added, which is enough to see the dashboard and test a site before the sale.