Cloudways

At a glance

• Editor score
  6.3 / 10
• Pricing
  3-day trial
• Best for
  Users wanting provider choice and scaling
• Free plan
  No
• Paid from
  $35/mo
• Staging environment
  Yes
• Founded
  2011
• Facts checked
  20 Sep 2026

• Where it wins

  • Staging, backups, cloning, and vertical scaling are built in
  • DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, and other provider integrations
  • 24/7 support through chat, email, and ticketing

• Where it doesn't

  • No free plan; the free trial lasts 3 days
  • Automated malware removal is a paid add-on
  • Scale and Plus plans each support one website

Our verdict on Cloudways

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform for WordPress websites and other PHP applications. It lets small and medium-sized businesses, agencies, developers, ecommerce operators, bloggers, and publishers manage sites from a dashboard while choosing infrastructure from DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, or Google Cloud. The service includes staging, backups, cloning, scaling, caching, firewall and DDoS protection, SSL certificates, malware scanning, and 24/7 support through chat, email, and ticketing.

Pricing starts at $35 per month for Small, which includes 1 WordPress application, 15GB of disk space, 30k unique visits, and 100GB of bandwidth. Medium costs $240 per month and includes 3 WordPress applications, 25GB of disk space, 70k unique visits, and 200GB of bandwidth. Scale costs $199 per month for 1 website, 2 baseline autoscale servers, 50GB of disk space, 250GB of bandwidth, and unmetered visits. Plus costs $399 per month for 1 website, 3 baseline autoscale servers, 100GB of disk space, 1000GB of bandwidth, and unmetered visits. There is no free plan, but a 3-day free trial is available.

Its strongest fit is for teams that want managed WordPress operations without being tied to one cloud provider. One-click staging pushes, automated and on-demand backups, cloning, built-in Memcached, Varnish, and Redis caching, and vertical resource scaling cover common deployment and growth needs. Cloudflare Enterprise, Object Cache Pro, and Redis expand the platform ecosystem. Cloudways is less suitable for buyers who need a free tier or automated malware removal included in the base service; malware scanning and protection are included, while automated removal is a paid add-on.

Your product? Our editors can test Cloudways in depth and publish a review, labelled as paid · from $149/mo →

Cloudways pricing

All 4 Cloudways plans and prices →

Cloudways fact sheet

Cloudways integrations

Cloudways lists 8 integrations on its own site.

• DigitalOcean
• Vultr
• Linode
• AWS
• Google Cloud
• Cloudflare Enterprise
• Object Cache Pro
• Redis

Alternatives to Cloudways

• PressableA managed WordPress host with strong security, staging, backups, and engineer support.9.4
• WP EngineA focused managed WordPress host with staging, backups, CDN, and security tools.9.2
• Rocket.netA security-focused WordPress host with staging, backups, CDN, WAF, and malware protection.9.0

See all Cloudways alternatives →

Featured on iTechGuides

Cloudways is listed in our Managed WordPress Hosting directory. Add the badge to your site — it links back to this page.

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Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

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Last updated 7 Oct 2026 · How we research and update