Cloudways Review 2026: The Best Value Cloud Hosting?
Cloudways sits in an interesting position in the hosting market — it’s not a traditional hosting company, but a managed cloud platform that sits on top of infrastructure providers like DigitalOcean, AWS, and Google Cloud. The result is enterprise-grade performance at prices that won’t make you wince.
After testing it across multiple sites, here’s our honest take.
Cloudways at a Glance
| Starting price | $14/month (DigitalOcean 1GB) |
| Cloud providers | DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, Linode |
| Free trial | 3 days (no credit card) |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| CDN | Yes (Cloudflare-powered, add-on) |
| Daily backups | Yes |
| CMS support | WordPress, WooCommerce, Laravel, Magento, PHP |
| Email hosting | No (need separate provider) |
How Cloudways Works
Traditional hosts own their own servers. Cloudways rents infrastructure from major cloud providers and adds a management layer on top — giving you the power and reliability of AWS or Google Cloud without needing to know what a command line is.
You pick your cloud provider and server size when you sign up, then Cloudways handles all the server management: security patches, performance optimisation, backups, and scaling. It’s cloud hosting for people who want the performance but not the complexity.
Performance
Cloudways performs well above its price point. With DigitalOcean (their most popular option), you get SSD storage, full root access to your server, and server-level caching via Breeze (their own caching plugin) or Varnish.
On their Google Cloud option, performance approaches Kinsta territory at a lower price — though you lose some of Kinsta’s polish and WordPress-specific optimisation.
Pricing
Cloudways pricing is based on server size rather than plan tiers:
| Server | RAM | Storage | Price/month | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DO 1GB | 1GB | 25GB | $14 | 1-2 low-traffic sites |
| DO 2GB | 2GB | 50GB | $28 | 3-5 small sites |
| DO 4GB | 4GB | 80GB | $50 | Growing sites, small agencies |
| GCP Small | 1.7GB | 20GB | $37.45 | Performance on a budget |
| AWS Small | 1.75GB | 20GB | $36.51 | AWS reliability |
One server can host unlimited sites — which makes Cloudways excellent value for agencies or anyone managing multiple websites.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Choice of 5 cloud providers — pick the right one for your needs and budget
- One server hosts unlimited sites
- Pay-as-you-go — scale up or down anytime
- Excellent performance for the price
- Free SSL, daily backups, staging environments
- Supports WordPress, WooCommerce, and other PHP apps
- 3-day free trial, no credit card required
Cons
- No email hosting — need to use Mailgun, Google Workspace, etc.
- No cPanel — Cloudways has its own dashboard (takes some getting used to)
- Slightly steeper learning curve than shared hosting
- Not ideal for total beginners who want hand-holding
Who Is Cloudways Best For?
Cloudways hits the sweet spot for:
- Web designers and agencies managing multiple client sites — the unlimited sites per server model is extremely cost-effective
- WooCommerce stores — cloud infrastructure handles traffic spikes better than shared hosting
- WordPress sites that have outgrown shared hosting but don’t need full managed hosting like Kinsta
- Developers who want flexibility without managing their own servers
Cloudways vs Kinsta
The main comparison people make. Kinsta is more polished, more WordPress-specific, and has better support — but starts at $35/month for one site. Cloudways at $14/month can host multiple sites with comparable performance on the right server configuration.
For agencies: Cloudways wins on economics. For single high-traffic sites where support quality matters: Kinsta wins.
Verdict: 4.5/5
Cloudways is one of the best value hosting options available in 2026. If you need more than basic shared hosting but don’t want to pay Kinsta or WP Engine prices, Cloudways is the move. The 3-day free trial makes it easy to test with zero risk.
Try Cloudways free for 3 days → No credit card required.
Affiliate disclosure: This review contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you sign up through our links, at no additional cost to you.
