Quick answer
Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform owned by DigitalOcean. It lets you run WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, Laravel and PHP apps on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud servers that it manages for you. Flexible plans start at $14 a month, billed hourly, with a free trial.
What is Cloudways?
Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that sits on top of major cloud providers. Instead of shared servers, you get your own cloud server that Cloudways sets up, secures and maintains, with unlimited websites on each server.
It offers two products: Cloudways Flexible, where you choose the cloud provider and server size, and Cloudways Autonomous, a fully managed, autoscaling WordPress platform for busy stores and LMS sites.
Cloudways key features
01
Choice of cloud
DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud.
02
Pay as you go
Billed hourly, with no long-term contract.
03
Unlimited websites
Host as many sites as your server can handle.
04
Lightning Stack
Optimised server stack for fast WordPress sites.
05
Object Cache Pro
Free Object Cache Pro on 4 GB servers and above.
06
Staging and cloning
Free advanced staging and cloning tools.
07
Autoscaling
Autonomous plans scale servers up for traffic spikes.
08
Free migration
Managed migration on Autonomous plans.
09
24/7 support
Round-the-clock support for your servers.
Cloudways pricing plans (2026)
Cloudways prices are monthly and billed hourly for the resources you use, with no long-term contract. Flexible prices below are for DigitalOcean Premium servers; other cloud providers cost more. Offsite backup storage is charged at $0.033 per GB.
Cloudways Flexible (DigitalOcean Premium)
Micro
$0.0208 per hour
- 1 GB RAM
- 1 vCPU
- 25 GB NVMe storage
- 1 TB bandwidth
Small
$0.0417 per hour
- 2 GB RAM
- 1 vCPU
- 50 GB NVMe storage
- 2 TB bandwidth
Most popular
Medium
$0.0804 per hour
- 4 GB RAM
- 2 vCPU
- 80 GB NVMe storage
- 4 TB bandwidth
Large
$0.1473 per hour
- 8 GB RAM
- 4 vCPU
- 160 GB NVMe storage
- 5 TB bandwidth
Flexible plans compared
| Feature | Micro | Small | Medium | Large |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $14/mo | $28/mo | $54/mo | $99/mo |
| Hourly rate | $0.0208 | $0.0417 | $0.0804 | $0.1473 |
| RAM | 1 GB | 2 GB | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| vCPU | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| NVMe storage | 25 GB | 50 GB | 80 GB | 160 GB |
| Bandwidth | 1 TB | 2 TB | 4 TB | 5 TB |
| Websites | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Object Cache Pro | No | No | Free | Free |
Cloudways Autonomous (managed WordPress)
Fully managed, autoscaling WordPress hosting with Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, Object Cache Pro and free managed migration. Extra disk space costs $1/GB and extra bandwidth $0.04/GB. A 3-day free trial is available.
Growth
Billed monthly
- 150 GB bandwidth
- Unmetered visits
- Autoscaling from $0.07/hr per extra server
Recommended
Scale
Billed monthly
- 250 GB bandwidth
- Unmetered visits
- Autoscaling from $0.10/hr per extra server
Plus
Billed monthly
- 1,000 GB bandwidth
- Unmetered visits
- Autoscaling from $0.12/hr per extra server
What every plan includes
- Managed cloud servers with security and updates
- Unlimited websites on Flexible servers
- Free SSL certificates
- Free advanced staging and cloning
- 24/7 support
- Free trial
Prices are in USD, exclude taxes and were checked on 28 October 2026. Check the latest prices on the official Cloudways pricing page.
How to use Cloudways
- 1
Go to cloudways.com and start a free trial.
- 2
Choose Flexible or Autonomous.
- 3
Pick a cloud provider, server size and data center.
- 4
Launch WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, Laravel or a PHP app.
- 5
Point your domain, add SSL and manage everything from the Cloudways dashboard.
Who should use Cloudways?
Agencies
Host many client sites on one managed server.
Growing businesses
Get dedicated cloud resources without managing servers.
WooCommerce stores
Run busy stores with autoscaling on Autonomous.
Developers
Deploy Laravel and PHP apps on your choice of cloud.
Pros and cons
What we like
- Choice of five major cloud providers
- Pay-as-you-go hourly billing
- Unlimited websites per server
- Strong performance tools like Object Cache Pro
Watch out for
- More expensive than shared hosting
- No email hosting included
- Backups and bandwidth over limits cost extra
- More technical than beginner hosts
Best Cloudways alternatives
Our verdict
Cloudways is a great middle ground between shared hosting and running your own cloud server. It suits agencies, developers and growing sites that want real cloud performance without server admin, but beginners on a tight budget will find shared hosting cheaper.
Cloudways FAQs
Is Cloudways free?
Cloudways is a paid service, but it offers a free trial so you can test it before you pay.
How much does Cloudways cost?
Flexible plans on DigitalOcean Premium cost $14, $28, $54 and $99 a month, billed hourly. Autonomous plans cost $99, $199 and $399 a month.
Which cloud providers does Cloudways support?
DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS and Google Cloud.
Is Cloudways good for WordPress?
Yes. Cloudways has an optimised Lightning Stack, Object Cache Pro, staging and an autoscaling Autonomous plan built for WordPress.
Can I host multiple websites on Cloudways?
Yes. Flexible servers allow unlimited websites, limited only by the server resources.
Does Cloudways include email hosting?
No. Cloudways does not include email hosting, so you need a separate email service.
