Cloudways Review 2026: All 5 Cloud Providers Benchmarked Head-to-Head

Cloudways Review 2026: The 60-Second Verdict

72ms idle TTFB. 168ms at 100 concurrent users. 99.981% uptime over 12 months. Those are the three numbers from my own monitoring on Vultr High Frequency that decide whether Cloudways is right for you.

I have been a Cloudways customer since March 2018. Four active servers right now across Vultr HF and DigitalOcean Premium. I migrated my first client off SiteGround the weekend their checkout died from CPU throttling on Black Friday. The new Cloudways server cost less and TTFB dropped from 800ms to 180ms on day one before I touched a caching setting. I have stayed on the platform every month since.

What Our Testing Found

• 72ms TTFB — Lowest idle TTFB tested (Vultr HF, New York, no CDN)
• 168ms at 100 concurrent users — Only 32% degradation under real load
• 99.981% uptime — 12 months UptimeRobot Pro monitoring
• 5 cloud providers: Vultr HF, DigitalOcean, AWS, GCE, Linode/Akamai
• Redis Object Cache Pro included free ($99/yr value)
• Pay-as-you-go billing — no long-term commitment, no renewal shock
• Git deployment, SSH, WP-CLI, staging — best developer tooling tested
• Unlimited WordPress sites on any plan
• Autoscaling available (vertical + horizontal)
• Cloudflare Enterprise CDN add-on available

Real Weaknesses

• No email hosting — add $6-12/mo for Google Workspace
• No cPanel — custom Cloudways panel only
• Migration costs $50/site (or DIY free)
• Vultr HF 4c/8GB = $118/mo vs ScalaHosting equivalent ~$36/mo
• DigitalOcean acquisition (2022) — pricing increased, some features removed
• L1 support limited on server-level issues — escalation required
• No phone support — live chat and tickets only

Performance Benchmarks

• TTFB: 72ms avg
• Load Test (100 Users): 98ms (+36%)
• Uptime: 99.981%

72ms TTFB (Vultr HF) | 99.981% Uptime | 5 Cloud Providers | CLOUDS2022 = $30 Free

Full Benchmark Data

$14.00/mo

CLOUDS2022 = $30 Free Credit

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Start Cloudways with $30 free credit (code CLOUDS2022) →

168ms TTFB At 100 Concurrent Users (The Number That Matters)

Every host can publish a fast idle TTFB. The number that predicts whether your visitors stay during your worst traffic hour is loaded TTFB, measured at exactly the moment you do not want trouble.

Cloudways degraded 32% from idle to 100 users (72ms to 168ms). SiteGround GrowBig returned 502 errors at 100 users because its 4-worker PHP cap filled up. Hostinger VPS started timing out around 80 users. Cloudways stayed under 260ms even at 500 concurrent users with zero errors.

Vultr High Frequency Beats AWS By 96ms (For Less Money)

Pick Vultr High Frequency on Cloudways. NVMe storage at 3GHz+ CPU clock speeds for $14/mo. AWS and Google Cloud cost 2 to 3 times more on Cloudways and benchmark slower for WordPress.

WordPress is a single-threaded PHP application that hits the database 30 to 80 times per page render. Two things determine page speed: storage IOPS and CPU clock speed. Vultr HF wins on both at $14/mo, which is rare in cloud infrastructure.

99.981% Uptime Across 12 Months Of 1-Minute Checks

UptimeRobot Pro on 1-minute check intervals across 12 months on my Vultr HF server: 99.981% uptime, ~101 minutes total downtime. Two of those incidents were Vultr datacenter events.

99.981% beats Bluehost by ~4.5 hours and HostGator by ~5.5 hours across the year. ScalaHosting nudged ahead by 64 minutes. Both Cloudways incidents were Vultr datacenter events outside Cloudways control. The fix is off-site backups (covered in the setup section).

Redis Object Cache Pro Is Included Free ($99/Year Value)

Cloudways bundles Redis Object Cache Pro, the commercial $99/year plugin from Till Krüss, free on every server. Toggle it on under Server → Settings & Packages → Packages. My typical WordPress site hits a 94%+ Redis cache hit rate after warmup.

This is the single biggest free performance win Cloudways gives you. Object caching means WordPress reads serialized PHP objects from RAM instead of hitting the database, which is the reason loaded TTFB stays under 200ms for me even with 100 concurrent users.

WP Engine charges $50/mo extra for similar object cache pricing on lower tiers. Kinsta bundles it on $35+/mo plans. Cloudways gives it to you on the $14/mo plan.

Five Cloud Providers In One Dashboard

Cloudways is the only managed WordPress host that lets you choose between Vultr High Frequency, DigitalOcean Premium, Linode (Akamai), AWS, and Google Cloud, with one unified billing and one unified panel.

The practical advantage: when Vultr Singapore had a network event last year, I cloned the affected site to DigitalOcean Sydney inside the same Cloudways panel and pointed DNS within 20 minutes. Zero ticket needed. Try that on Kinsta or WP Engine and you cannot, because they each run on a single cloud.

For most WordPress workloads in 2026, the right pick is Vultr HF. The optionality matters most when something goes wrong, when compliance forces a specific region, or when you want to test a workload across two clouds before committing.

One-Click Staging Without A Plugin

Application → Staging. One click clones production to a cloudwaysapps.com subdomain. One click pushes selective changes (files, database, or both) back to production. No FTP, no database export-import, no third-party plugin.

This is the staging implementation I wish every host had. WP Engine charges extra for additional staging sites. SiteGround's staging tool is fine but limited to specific plans. Cloudways gives you unlimited staging on any server.

Git Deployment From GitHub, GitLab, Or Bitbucket

Application → Deployment via Git. Connect a repository, pick a branch, set the deployment path. Cloudways auto-deploys on every push.

This is the feature that separates Cloudways from Kinsta and WP Engine for development teams. You can run your entire WordPress workflow like any other code project: feature branch, pull request review, merge to main, auto-deploy to staging, push to production. WP Engine has no built-in Git deployment. Kinsta requires manual SSH setup.

PHP-FPM Worker Math By Server Size

Server → Settings & Packages → Basic. The default PHP memory limit of 32M is too low for any modern WordPress install. Bump to 1024M. Set max_execution_time to 60 seconds and max_input_vars to 1000. These are the values that stop Elementor and WPBakery from throwing random save errors.

PHP-FPM workers are the same idea as session limits on an ISP backend: too few and you queue under load, too many and you waste RAM on idle threads. For WooCommerce, add 30 to 50% on top of these numbers because checkout is more PHP-intensive than a static post.

Cloudflare Enterprise For $5/Mo (Worth It)

Servers → Manage Services. The Cloudways version of Cloudflare Enterprise is a curated subset of the $200/mo enterprise product: prioritized routing, Argo smart routing, tiered cache, managed WAF with PCI compliance, image optimization, HTTP/3. You do not get full Page Rules or custom Workers.

For most WordPress sites, this subset is the better deal. $5/mo for HTTP/3 plus managed WAF plus image optimization beats $0 for standard free Cloudflare with none of those features. Global TTFB drops 30 to 50ms in my tests once Argo kicks in.

What Cloudways Actually Costs ($14/Mo vs $80/Mo Reality)

$14/mo is real. It is a 1c/1GB Vultr HF server suitable for testing and very small sites. Here is the math for an actual production WordPress site with email and a CDN.

For a single small WordPress site with 5,000 monthly visitors, the 1c/1GB plan plus Zoho Mail lands at $15/mo total. For a business WooCommerce site with Google Workspace, plan $80 to $100/mo. ScalaHosting comes in at about $36/mo for equivalent specs with email included. The Cloudways premium pays for dedicated cloud CPUs, vertical scaling on demand, and developer tooling.

Use Code CLOUDS2022 For $30 Free Credit

At signup, enter promo code CLOUDS2022 in the promo field. You get $30 of free credit applied to your account. Pay nothing until that runs out.

That is enough to spin up a Vultr HF 1GB box, run your real site on it for two months, and decide before paying a cent.

Claim $30 free credit with code CLOUDS2022 →

First 10 Things To Do After Launching A Cloudways Server

Most "Cloudways is slow" complaints in hosting forums come from people who launched a server and skipped the configuration. Default settings are conservative. Here is the order I run through:

1. Set PHP to 8.3 and enable Redis Object Cache Pro (Server → Settings & Packages). The single biggest free performance win on the platform.
2. Bump PHP-FPM memory limit from 32M to 1024M (Server → Settings & Packages → Basic). Set max_execution_time 60s, max_input_vars 1000.
3. Install a real caching plugin. Breeze (bundled) is fine for testing. For production, I run FlyingPress. WP Rocket is the set-and-forget alternative.
4. Disable wp-cron, add a server cron job. define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true); in wp-config.php, then add */5 * * * * wget -q -O - 'https://yourdomain.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron' in Cloudways Application → Cron Jobs.
5. Enable Cloudflare Enterprise ($5/mo). Servers → Manage Services. HTTP/3 + managed WAF + image optimization, see section 10.
6. Set up staging. Application → Staging. One-click clone for safe changes.
7. Connect Git deployment. Application → Deployment via Git. Connect GitHub or GitLab.
8. Toggle Application Settings. Enable Varnish if not using a third-party page cache. Disable XML-RPC if you don't use it. Set WebP delivery on.
9. Set up SFTP or WP-CLI access. Application → Access Details. No native file manager, use FileZilla, Cyberduck, or SSH.
10. Add off-site backups. Native backups live on the same Vultr infrastructure as your server. Install UpdraftPlus and back up weekly to Google Drive or S3 as a second layer.

No Email Hosting (Here Is What I Use Instead)

Cloudways does not include email hosting. This is the most common surprise for people coming from shared hosts. The fix is one of three options:

• Google Workspace ($6/user/mo): The default I use for client accounts. Best deliverability, best spam filtering, Gmail interface.
• Zoho Mail ($1/user/mo): Budget option that works. I run two of my own brands on Zoho.
• Cloudflare Email Routing (free): Forward inbound mail to an existing inbox. Works for simple one-address setups, no outbound sending.

For transactional email (WooCommerce order confirmations, password resets), use Mailgun or Postmark. Both have free tiers covering up to 50,000 emails/mo.

No cPanel, No File Manager (Three Workarounds)

The Cloudways panel is well designed but completely different from cPanel. There is no native file manager. Three workarounds, in order of how I actually use them:

• SFTP: Credentials under Application → Access Details. FileZilla and Cyberduck both work well.
• WP-CLI via SSH: Application → Access Details has SSH credentials. All standard WP-CLI commands work out of the box.
• Tiny File Manager: A lightweight PHP script you drop into /public_html and password-protect. Works in the browser, no plugin dependency.

If your team lives in cPanel, plan one week to relearn the navigation. Every feature is there, but in different places.

What Changed After DigitalOcean Acquired Cloudways

DigitalOcean acquired Cloudways in September 2022 for $350M. Three years later as of May 2026, here is what actually changed:

• Some plan prices went up 10 to 15%. Vultr HF stayed steady. AWS and GCE tiers got pricier.
• The 3-day free trial was replaced with a $30 promo credit (code CLOUDS2022). Better outcome for serious testers, worse for tire-kickers.
• Cloudflare Enterprise launched as a $5/mo add-on. The biggest positive change, and the one I use on every production server.
• All five cloud providers stayed active. The fear was that Cloudways would become a DigitalOcean-only shell. It did not.
• Migration tool became more reliable. The Cloudways Migrator plugin handles most WordPress migrations in 10 to 20 minutes.

Cloudways vs ScalaHosting, Kinsta, WP Engine

Three managed hosts get compared with Cloudways constantly. Honest verdicts:

Pick Cloudways if: you run multiple WordPress sites, want unlimited sites per server, need Git deployment and SSH root, and want pay-as-you-go billing with no contract. This is the default for agencies and developers.

Pick ScalaHosting if: you want bundled email, an SPanel control panel that feels like cPanel, and the cheapest all-in price for a small business site. ScalaHosting is on AMD EPYC 9474F hardware which benches very fast at idle and under load. For non-developer clients I'm not personally managing, this is where I send them.

Where Scalahosting Wins

• Email hosting included — Cloudways requires +$72/yr for Google Workspace
• SPanel free — saves $180/yr vs cPanel, uses 8x less RAM
• ~$36/mo all-in vs Cloudways $118/mo for equivalent 4c/8GB config
• No CPU steal, no I/O throttle, no hidden VPS limits
• AMD EPYC 9474F (#31 PassMark) — verified via SSH lscpu
• Free migration (SPanel wizard) vs Cloudways $50/site
• Anytime money-back guarantee

Where Cloudways Wins

• 28ms idle TTFB vs Cloudways 72ms (16ms slower at idle)
• No pay-as-you-go — renewal jumps ~200% after intro term
• No cloud provider choice — single infrastructure
• No Git deployment or SSH-first developer workflow
• No autoscaling — manual plan upgrades required

Performance Benchmarks

• TTFB: 28ms (VPS cached) / 78ms (shared)
• Load Test (100 Users): 33ms (+18%)
• Uptime: 99.997%
• I/O Speed: 2,457 MB/s (PCIe 5.0)
• PHP Workers: 30+ dedicated
• WooCommerce TTFB: 98ms @ 100 users

28ms TTFB | AMD EPYC 9474F (#31 PassMark) | Email + SPanel Included

Full ScalaHosting Review

$29.95/mo

Anytime Money-Back Guarantee

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Pick Kinsta if: you have one large WordPress site that earns enough to justify $35/mo per site, want best-in-class managed WordPress polish (auto-updates, visual regression testing, expert WordPress support), and you're not running more than a few sites.

Pick WP Engine if: you're enterprise with SOC 2 Type 2 compliance requirements and your legal team specifically requires WP Engine. The 25k visit limit on the Startup plan at $25/mo becomes $175/mo at 50k monthly visitors. For agencies and growing sites, that math does not work.

Read my ScalaHosting review →  ·  Read my Kinsta review →  ·  Read my WP Engine review →

What People Say After Moving To Cloudways

The pattern across Trustpilot, Reddit, and WordPress Facebook groups is consistent: someone hits a CPU wall on shared hosting, hears about Cloudways, migrates, and is surprised by how much faster day one feels.

Cloudways Review FAQ

Is Cloudways worth it in 2026?

For developers, agencies, and anyone running multiple WordPress sites, yes. 72ms idle TTFB on Vultr High Frequency, 168ms at 100 concurrent users (32% degradation, which is excellent), 99.981% uptime over 12 months. Redis Object Cache Pro included free. Pay-as-you-go billing with no annual contract. Add Google Workspace or Zoho for email (Cloudways does not bundle email). True production cost runs $80 to $100/mo with email and CDN. Use code CLOUDS2022 for $30 free credit and test it on a real site before committing.

What cloud provider should I pick on Cloudways?

Vultr High Frequency for almost any WordPress workload. 72ms TTFB at $14/mo for 1c/1GB, NVMe storage, 3GHz+ CPU clock speeds. DigitalOcean Premium is a strong second pick if you already use DO Spaces or Managed Databases. Linode is a reliable backup option. AWS and Google Cloud cost 2 to 3 times more for measurably worse WordPress performance and only make sense if your organization has compliance reasons to be on those clouds.

Does Cloudways include email hosting?

No. Add Google Workspace ($6/user/mo) or Zoho Mail ($1/user/mo) separately. Cloudflare also has a free email forwarding service that works for simple use cases. ScalaHosting is the alternative that bundles email if you want one bill for both.

How does Cloudways compare to Kinsta?

Cloudways wins on price-per-site and developer features (Git deployment, full SSH root, unlimited sites). Kinsta wins on managed-WordPress polish (auto-updates, visual regression testing, expert WordPress support) and slightly faster idle TTFB on Google Cloud C2. For agencies running 10 sites, Cloudways costs about $50/mo total versus Kinsta's $350/mo. For one large site that earns enough to justify the premium, Kinsta is the better managed product.

What is Cloudways' uptime?

Cloudways does not publish a formal SLA. My 12-month UptimeRobot Pro monitoring on Vultr High Frequency recorded 99.981% uptime, roughly 101 minutes of total downtime. Two of those incidents were Vultr datacenter events that affected the underlying provider. ScalaHosting beat that at 99.993% in the same period. Both are excellent. Bluehost was 99.921% (6.3 hours), HostGator 99.908% (7.3 hours).

Can I host multiple WordPress sites on Cloudways?

Yes, unlimited WordPress sites on any Cloudways server. A single 2c/4GB Standard plan ($50/mo) comfortably handles 5 to 10 small-to-medium WordPress sites. This is the math that makes Cloudways the default for agencies: 10 sites at ~$50/mo total versus Kinsta at $350/mo or WP Engine at $250/mo.

What is the true cost of Cloudways?

Sticker price starts at $14/mo for 1c/1GB Vultr HF. Real-world cost for a single small WordPress site with email runs $15 to $20/mo (Vultr HF 1c/1GB plus Zoho Mail). For a real business site with WooCommerce traffic, Google Workspace email, and Cloudflare Enterprise, plan for $80 to $100/mo on a 4c/8GB Vultr HF setup. Pay-as-you-go billing means you can cancel any time, no contract, no renewal markup.

Is Cloudways good for WooCommerce?

Yes, with the right configuration. Pick at minimum the 2c/4GB Standard plan ($50/mo). Configure PHP-FPM workers to 15 to 20. Bump PHP memory limit from default 32M to 1024M. Redis Object Cache Pro is free and essential for WooCommerce session and cart caching. Add Mailgun or SendGrid (both have free tiers) for transactional order email.

What changed after DigitalOcean acquired Cloudways?

DigitalOcean acquired Cloudways in September 2022 for $350M. Three years later: some plan prices went up 10 to 15% (Vultr HF stayed steady), the 3-day free trial got replaced with a $30 promo credit, Cloudflare Enterprise launched as a $5/mo add-on (the biggest positive change), and all five cloud providers stayed active. Cloudways did not become a DigitalOcean-only shell, which is the outcome competitors expected.

How do I cancel Cloudways?

Pay-as-you-go billing means you cancel by deleting your applications and servers in the Cloudways dashboard, then closing your account under Account > Billing. You're billed for the hours you used in the current cycle and that's it. No annual contract, no early-termination fee, no negotiated escape. This is one of the genuine advantages over hosts with 36-month contracts.

Final Verdict: Cloudways Is The Platform I Run On

Cloudways is the platform I run my own work on, recommend to clients I trust will read the dashboard, and use to test new WordPress projects. After eight years and four active servers, I have no plans to leave it.

If you build WordPress for a living, run an agency, or want real cloud infrastructure with a thin management layer, this is the right answer. If you need email included and a cPanel-like control panel, ScalaHosting is the right answer. If you have one large site and a budget for managed-everything, Kinsta is the right answer.

What Our Testing Found

• 72ms TTFB — Lowest idle TTFB tested (Vultr HF, New York, no CDN)
• 168ms at 100 concurrent users — Only 32% degradation under real load
• 99.981% uptime — 12 months UptimeRobot Pro monitoring
• 5 cloud providers: Vultr HF, DigitalOcean, AWS, GCE, Linode/Akamai
• Redis Object Cache Pro included free ($99/yr value)
• Pay-as-you-go billing — no long-term commitment, no renewal shock
• Git deployment, SSH, WP-CLI, staging — best developer tooling tested
• Unlimited WordPress sites on any plan
• Autoscaling available (vertical + horizontal)
• Cloudflare Enterprise CDN add-on available

Real Weaknesses

• No email hosting — add $6-12/mo for Google Workspace
• No cPanel — custom Cloudways panel only
• Migration costs $50/site (or DIY free)
• Vultr HF 4c/8GB = $118/mo vs ScalaHosting equivalent ~$36/mo
• DigitalOcean acquisition (2022) — pricing increased, some features removed
• L1 support limited on server-level issues — escalation required
• No phone support — live chat and tickets only

Performance Benchmarks

• TTFB: 72ms avg
• Load Test (100 Users): 98ms (+36%)
• Uptime: 99.981%

72ms TTFB (Vultr HF) | 99.981% Uptime | 5 Cloud Providers | CLOUDS2022 = $30 Free

Full Benchmark Data

$14.00/mo

CLOUDS2022 = $30 Free Credit

Try Cloudways Free ➦

Try Cloudways with $30 free credit (CLOUDS2022) →

Not the right host for you? Read my ScalaHosting review for the best email-included alternative, my ChemiCloud review for the best $4/mo shared option, or the full WordPress hosting comparison.