Cloudways review - managed cloud hosting without running the server

Cloudways is the sensible middle of this category. It is a management layer that provisions and runs a real cloud server for you, so you get most of a VPS’s price-performance without learning to be a sysadmin. It is now owned by DigitalOcean, which is also the cheapest provider you can launch through it.

Who it is for

Owners and agencies who want VPS pricing and speed but do not want to own the server. You bring the WordPress or Laravel app; Cloudways keeps the box patched, cached, and monitored. It is the honest middle ground between $35 managed WordPress and a raw $6 Linux box you administer yourself.

The real pricing math

$11/mo gets a DigitalOcean 2 GB server (1 vCPU, 50 GB storage, 2 TB bandwidth). You can base the server on Vultr, Linode/Akamai, AWS, or Google Cloud instead, with AWS and GCP costing more. Billing is pay-as-you-go hourly with a monthly cap, there is no contract, and the same management features - staging, one-click SSL, server monitoring, object cache - are on the $11 plan and the $300 AWS plan alike. The 3-day trial runs without a card. For hands-off WordPress that cannot fall over, Cloudways Autonomous is a separate autoscaling product from $99/mo.

What they don’t tell you

The $11 is the server. The things you assume are included are metered on top. Off-site backups are a paid add-on at $0.033/GB per month, not free daily backups. Email is not included at all - domain mailboxes run $1/mailbox/month via the Rackspace add-on, and transactional or SMTP email is its own paid add-on, roughly $0.10 to $1 per 1,000 emails. Bandwidth over your plan’s allowance bills at $0.02/GB on DigitalOcean, but the same overage is $0.12/GB on AWS and $0.10 to $0.17/GB on GCP, so the provider you pick changes your overage exposure a lot.

And know what “managed” means here. Cloudways manages the server, not your application. Plugin conflicts, site-level bugs, and your email deliverability are yours. Support is solid on the infrastructure and does not go as deep into your WordPress install as Kinsta will.

Who should skip it

Anyone who wants the WordPress application itself managed - go to Kinsta and pay for it. And anyone technical who already runs their own box: the Cloudways convenience fee is real, and a raw Hetzner or DigitalOcean VPS keeps more of the savings.

On the affiliate program

Cloudways offers a choice: a Slab plan paying $50 to $125 per sale by volume, or a Hybrid plan paying $30 up front plus 7% lifetime recurring, on a 90-day cookie with a $250 payout threshold. The lifetime-recurring option is why you see Cloudways recommended everywhere, ours included. We rate it on fit.

Bottom line

Green. For an owner or agency that wants near-VPS price-performance without running the box, Cloudways is the sensible default, and $11/mo makes it easy to try - just add backups and email to your real monthly number before you compare it to anything. Step up to Kinsta for a managed app, or down to raw Hetzner or DigitalOcean if you can run the server yourself.