Cloudways is a model that probably anybody who needs a WordPress web site can have come throughout. Their idea is simple: make highly effective cloud-based website hosting as straightforward to handle as potential. Cloudways can also be well-known as one of many best WordPress hosting suppliers, because of sturdy infrastructure, specialised apps, and glorious tech stacks.
I take advantage of Cloudways for a number of of my web sites and have by no means been upset. However, I made a decision to method them with recent eyes. Starting anew, I needed to see what I may obtain in 60 minutes with Cloudways for this text.
Start the clock 0:00
Signing up
Signing up with Cloudways is pretty simple. Their main page is highly simplified, with a “Try Now Free” button immediately drawing my eyes. To reinforce the point, Cloudways also gently reminded me that I didn’t need a credit card for the three-day trial.
Creating an account is also simple, and all I had to do was provide some basic details such as name, email address, and phone number. The latter two are necessary for them to verify the account, since Cloudways uses multifactor authentication.
02:23
Once registration was over, I had to make my first major decision. Would I be using Cloudway Autonomous or Cloudways Flexible? The choice included details for each category, and I decided to go with the cheaper option, Cloudways Flexible, which starts at $12.
For those who aren’t used to cloud hosting, the next step might be a bit more daunting. I had to choose from a range of infrastructure providers, server types, and configurations. Most service providers were priced similarly, except for AWS and Google Cloud, that are persistently costly.
Since DigitalOcean owns Cloudways, I made a decision to go together with that choice and chosen a primary server with minimal configuration. Note that the default configuration Cloudways affords units the bar fairly excessive with a premium server on 4GB of RAM. If you are not certain what you want, drag the slider down all the way in which and select an ordinary server for simply $12 per thirty days.
With that, I hit the launch button and was instantly dumped into my server administration display screen. A counter subsequent to the server I had simply specified indicated it could take 7 minutes to create the server.
The one draw back was that not one of the Cloudways plans included e-mail. For that, you want the Rackspace add-on, which prices an additional greenback per thirty days per e-mail handle.
09:02
Once the server was ready, I clicked it and saw a “Upgrade Flexible Plan” notice. Cloudways wanted me to start my payments to access the server. However, this notice is misleading because you can access your server and apps via the sidebar options.
After jumping through a few clicks, I finally came to the application management screen. Finally, I reached a location where I could access the WordPress app I had requested during setup. From here, it was simply a matter of using the WordPress admin panel as usual. There’s no need to fiddle with any server or application settings at the beginning.
Meanwhile, I received an onboarding email from Cloudways explaining how to migrate my WordPress website to their platform. This, of course, I happily ignored.
15:46
Attempting to log in to the WordPress admin panel started another short drama. For some reason, WordPress kept rejecting the default password. It was only after I changed the WordPress admin password that I was able to log in.
WordPress comes as standard on Cloudways, except for two plugin additions. You get Breeze, Cloudways’ native WordPress cache plugin, and Object Cache Pro, a Redis object cache for WordPress.
From here on, working with your WordPress website won’t be any different from working with any other website but you don’t get those beginner tools like you do with Hostinger and Bluehost. If you need extra newbie pleasant WordPress choices there are higher selections however for WordPress internet hosting particularly Cloudways come out on prime.
I uploaded our normal pattern web site to Cloudways in lower than 10 minutes, together with plugins, configuration, themes, and the database. After one other 5 minutes spent updating the plugins and themes, I used to be able to go.
This success was one thing that I do not all the time expertise. When testing internet hosting suppliers, I sometimes face various levels of battle simply to get this far in not less than 50 p.c of my makes an attempt.
31:43
With the pattern web site in place, I could not resist working a fast benchmark to see how Cloudways performs. The benchmark supplied me with a chook’s-eye view of Cloudways’ efficiency throughout key WordPress metrics.
Interestingly, regardless of being managed Cloud internet hosting and having devoted assets, Cloudways did not precisely ace the benchmarks. Its efficiency was about common however we did solely use the most cost effective choice.
Regardless, I made a decision to maneuver on and discover what else Cloudways needed to provide. After all, I didn’t doubt that efficiency would enhance as soon as I’d hooked up a Content Distribution Network (CDN) and fine-tuned a caching plugin.
42:01
One of the issues that struck me essentially the most was how straightforward it was to do many issues with Cloudways. For those that are used to shared internet hosting, unmanaged Cloud or VPS plans are usually a nightmare to configure, safe, and preserve.
Cloudways, by comparability, helps you deal with virtually every thing, both with a couple of easy clicks or a devoted plugin. Think of it as having the luxurious of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) the place command-line operations are the norm.
Application Settings
With just some clicks, you possibly can configure every thing in regards to the purposes you are working. This consists of file entry, caching, Cron optimization, PHP variations, and extra. You may even entry superior PHP configurations like reminiscence limits, execution instances, and file sizes.
Server Monitoring
Cloudways offers complete monitoring choices in your software, together with visitors analytics, disk utilization, database connections, and extra. This data may help you establish software bottlenecks, corresponding to which database queries are working slowly or which Cron jobs are working.
Security
Security is without doubt one of the extra contentious elements I’ve encountered with Cloudways. While it affords a built-in malware scanner, it solely informs you whether or not you are affected. If you need Cloudways to scrub malware for you, it will likely be an extra add-on subscription that prices $4/mo and covers one to 4 web sites.
Web Stack
One of the extra distinctive elements of Cloudways is the choice to decide on between two internet stacks, both hybrid or Lightning. The latter is utilized by default and affords a sooner server configuration that is primarily targeted on Nginx.
The Hybrid stack makes use of a mixture of Apache and Nginx. This is an older stack that different hosts primarily use, but it surely affords higher compatibility for those who’re working extra complicated deployments, corresponding to WordPress multisite.
Cloudways Autonomous
Cloudways Autonomous is without doubt one of the “big things” Cloudways affords for big or enterprise-scale websites. Starting at $100/mo, Cloudways affords high-availability internet hosting that mechanically scales along with your internet visitors. These plans additionally include further options corresponding to Cloudflare Enterprise, load balancing, and limitless PHP employees.
55:14
One factor that hit me on the finish was how little intervention Cloudways supplied as I explored the platform. That made me surprise what would occur if I wanted some assist. Clicking the help button, I used to be given the choice to start out a stay chat, open a help ticket, or take a extra DIY method by way of help articles.
There’s additionally a neighborhood help choice, however this simply took me to their Facebook web page. Not precisely what I name a conventional help neighborhood. The help articles are fairly good, although, and provide perception on every thing from billing to technical issues like PHP compatibility.
60:00
Overall impressions
Looking at Cloudways with recent eyes, this service supplier genuinely focuses on offering customers with a clean journey into cloud internet hosting. While it is true that there’s terminology that newbies could battle with, it is rather a lot higher than being dumped right into a command line when accessing a bare-bones cloud or VPS account.
The common feeling I get is that there is a concentrate on getting what’s mandatory out of the way in which first, so you possibly can deploy a WordPress web site with minimal fuss. That comfort is prolonged to web site migration with a custom-made migration plugin.
Once you get all of that out of the way in which, you possibly can take your candy time exploring the a number of configuration choices Cloudways affords.