Cloudways Review

Cloudways Review: A Managed Cloud Hosting Solution for All in 2020

Are you searching for a cloud hosting platform that is not only affordable but also offers a variety of functionalities when it comes to managing your cloud server and hosted web application? 

Then look no further than Cloudways. 

It is a managed hosting platform preferably and more widely used for hosting web applications such as WordPress. One of the greatest benefits of hosting your website on a managed cloud server is that you won’t have to experience any slow WordPress websites. Just say all your hosting headaches bye. 

Cloudways had its humble beginning in 2009 under the supervision of Pere Hospital, Aaqib Gadit & Uzair Gadit. With a team of 30 staff members, they worked tirelessly to create a user-interactive platform that provided users to launch their desired servers on their preferred hosts. At the same time, it allowed them to choose their favourite web app and launch it on the chosen server without hassle. Today, they have grown themselves into a business of 300+ employees and are expanding more. 

These guys call themselves a platform-as-a-service hosting that is not only scalable but is also keenly optimized to deliver speed, security, and performance. Not sure whether choosing Cloudways as your preferred host is the best option? How about you try a 3-day free trial to test their platform first. 

The main objective of Cloudways is to deliver a seamless server interaction to their respective users. They want to make sure that their users can focus on their businesses rather than get themselves involved in unnecessary server hassles. Eager to learn what makes Cloudways more unique? Read on. 

What Makes Cloudways a Unique Cloud Hosting Solution? 

The Internet is full of options for hosting your website. Some of these options are quite remarkable than the other especially when it comes to cloud hosting. If you’re looking for a complete managed WordPress hosting in a cloud environment, then one option that stands a class apart from the rest is none other but Cloudways. What makes the platform unique for those searching for a cloud hosting? 

Cloudways replicates your WordPress website information and places them at different locations in the world. Just in case, if your website experiences data loss, this information can easily be pulled from another location. As a result, your website stays up and running even when the servers are down.

Cloudways have a supremely designed algorithm that it uses to replicate information and place them in different data centres. It’s what they call their ultimate stack which offers a variety of features. 

Some of the things that make Cloudways stand out among the rest of the cloud providers are: 

How to Launch a Server on Cloudways? 

Launching a server on Cloudways is very easy. You just have to select your configuration and done. Here’s a step by step guide on how to select your server on Cloudways. 

Choose your Desired Cloud Provider

Before you start with the configuration process, you will first have to choose your desired server. Cloudways offer 5 different service providers which are namely: 

Why is choosing a cloud provider important? They provide infrastructure on which you will host your server. Unlike other platforms who simply host your server on their desired infrastructures, Cloudways gives you the liberty to choose your very own infrastructure to launch your website server. 

Next Up is Configurations

After you select your desired cloud provider, your next step is to configure the server as per choice. There is a slider on every option such as the number of page views per month, core processing, RAM, storage and bandwidth of the server. Also, you will have to select your desired data centre which is mostly the one nearest to your location. 

Select Your Web Application

The third step is to choose the application on which you want to build your website. In our case, it’s WordPress. You can install WordPress on your Cloud account from the Application Management tab. 

Cloudways offers three different types of WordPress installation. 

Site speed and performance are not an issue at the time of your launch because every WordPress installation comes with the W3 Total Cache plugin pre-installed which ensures your website is fast. 

If you have set everything, just check the price and if it fits your monthly budget, create the server. 

It’s that simple. 

What Server Features Do We Get with Cloudways?

If you’re successful in launching your very first server on Cloudways, it is now time to check their features. What features make Cloudways a unique experience? For that, you’ve to visit the “Server Management” tab. Just scroll and check which of the features are available and how they work. 

Backup

You can set automatic backups for your cloud server at Cloudways. This option will automatically backup your server data every day, two days, three days, or up to a week depending on how regularly you want to back up information. If you don’t want to resort to automatic backup, you can always opt-in for the manual option. But for that, you will have to visit the dashboard and click the button. 

Security

You can access the log of whitelist IP addresses which provides you access to the server. 

Monitoring

Perhaps one of the most interactive server management features at Cloudways is none other but the impressive server monitoring. The interactive platform of Cloudways allows a user to track and monitor their server performance through a graph. There are more than 15 different attributes on which one can observe and monitor their server performance. Some of these common attributes are Idle CPU, Reads per second and Incoming Traffic to your website. Not only this monitoring method allows a person to track their server progress but it also equally helps them to observe and manage site traffic. 

Speaking of website traffic… 

Vertical Scaling

If there is one feeling that’s really depressing for an entrepreneur is to see his/her website going down when it experiences a surge of traffic incoming on their website through an ad campaign. Usually, it happens when you haven’t allocated enough server space and eventually, you end up seeing your server crash. With adequate vertical scaling, you can automate your servers to upscale when needed. 

With Cloudways, you get the vertical scaling option where you can adjust the allocated server resources at any point in time using just a few handfuls of clicks. Cloudways follow a Pay-as-you-Go model which only lets you pay for your servers when needed. It is a very good server scaling option.

Multiple Tools

Cloudways further offers you a variety of tools through a separate tab called “Manage Services.” This tab will allow you to configure different services such as Apache, cache memory and MySQL as per your preferences. 

There’s a separate tab for WordPress migration under the Migration Tools option. This separate tool is specifically added by Cloudways at the backend of their dashboard to transfer WordPress from a separate host to their own platform. 

Also, when you will log into their dashboard, you will find a different section called “Application Add-on.” It will allow you to install different add-ons which will enable you to perform DNS management, send emails, and do a lot of similar tasks. You will also find a variety of other tools for managing your servers such as SSL certificate installation, GIT integration, backup restoration & more. 

What if I Want to Launch ECommerce on Cloudways? 

 If you want to launch an eCommerce website on WordPress, then Cloudways brings a dedicated WordPress installation with WooCommerce. And in case, you’re not much of a fan of the WordPress itself, then there are plenty of other options such as PrestaShop and Magento to name a few. It has a wide range of interesting features for all those who are seeking to build an e-commerce friendly website for their respective businesses. There are almost 10,000 eCommerce stores that are currently hosted on Cloudways and that’s because of its ability to vertically scale during traffic spikes. 

Besides, if you want to ask anything, their technical support team is always on the go to assist you. 

Highlights on Performance and Website Up-Time

Speed, performance, and uptime are the three major factors that every digital business looks for when they are searching for a reliable cloud hosting platform. To deliver that, Cloudways has partnered with some of the top cloud providers in the cloud industry and these are not just any names, but the most reliable cloud hosting services in the world. Names like Google (GCE) and Amazon (AWS) are quite popularly known for their amazing uptime and performance. Now you might be wondering why shouldn’t we go directly to these services and host our website on their respective cloud servers rather than pay a little extra and get a cloud hosting from Cloudways? 

Well, the answer is simple! Cloudways takes away not only your server management hassles, but at the same time also provides you with a user-friendly intuitive dashboard to manage everything. As far as the server up-time is concerned, they claim a 99% website up-time which is pretty much the same as that of the server service providers present on the platform. As far as the performance is concerned, it is known that websites hosted on WordPress can perform 40% faster compared to other WordPress websites on the Internet. The reason how websites are performing is better greatly depends on the VMAN technology which supports their entire infrastructure. It is a short abbreviation for Varnish, Memcached, Apache, and Nginx. All of these tools are oriented to optimize site speed.  

Plenty of Data Centers Around the World

Since Cloudways doesn’t have a server for itself but instead rents server space from various server providers, all of these service providers have data centers around the world. When you host a website on one of the servers on Cloudways, the CDN (content delivery network) utilizes a global network of 65+ PoPs (point of presence) or data center nodes to distribute information. These nodes create multiple copies of your website and when someone visits your website, the system automatically detects their location and redirects to the node nearest to their location so they can get a fast load. 

Here is a graphical representation of how Cloudways data centers are adequately placed. 

Will My Website Be Secure? 

Server security is a high priority and those businesses which put the security of servers behind usually suffer a massive hit. Cloudways is among many platforms that ensure your WordPress website is in good health. They have sophisticated firewalls in place and they apply “security hardening techniques” which ensure to safeguard your servers from all unnecessary hacking attempts. Cloudways also provides automated backups, and it allows you to choose how frequently you want to backup servers. 

In Conclusion

In the end, I would just like to add it all up here for you so you get the entire picture. Cloudways is unique because it offers a pay-as-you-go pricing plan. It offers a user interactive dashboard where everything can be done in just a few handfuls of clicks. The platform is remarkable if you’re running an e-commerce store and there’s a high chance that you will see an online website traffic surge. 

If you’re looking for a managed WordPress cloud hosting or just about any form of managed cloud hosting, Cloudways is no doubt a class apart and offers one of the best experiences on the Internet.