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Contents
- 1 Byte & Beak Talk Hosting Reviews #07: Cloudways – Cloud Castle or Just Vapor?
- 2 ☁️ What Is Cloudways?
- 3 🚀 Why Use Cloudways?
- 4 🛠️ Features Breakdown
- 5 💸 Cloudways Pricing (2025 Edition)
- 6 🧰 Hosting Types Available
- 7 🟢 Pros & 🔴 Cons
- 8 🔒 Security & 🔧 Support
- 9 🐦 Real-Life Use Case
- 10 🧠 Byte’s Takeaways
- 11 🦉 Beak’s Final Hoot
Byte & Beak Talk Hosting Reviews #07: Cloudways – Cloud Castle or Just Vapor?
🎬 Scene Opener
Thunder cracks above the Tech Treehouse as Byte and Beak gaze at the swirling storm clouds on their monitor.
🦉 Beak: Byte! Our hosting skies are cloudy again! Should we grab an umbrella… or deploy a scalable server?
👨💻 Byte: No need to panic, featherbrain. This isn’t a thunderstorm – it’s Cloudways! Time to climb this cumulus of performance and see if it’s a silver-lining solution… or just vaporware.
🦉 Beak: gulp I hope it doesn’t vaporize my bookmarks…
Say Hi to Byte & Beak — and find out which hosting services deserve five stars and which ones deserve five facepalms.
☁️ What Is Cloudways?
Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that acts as the middle layer between you and the big cloud infrastructure providers like:
- DigitalOcean
- Vultr
- Linode
- AWS (Amazon Web Services)
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
In plain English: Cloudways takes the complexity of setting up servers on these cloud giants and makes it as simple as ordering a pizza (without the anchovies).
👨💻 Byte: You get the power of the cloud without having to learn sysadmin voodoo.
🦉 Beak: So it’s like putting my brain on autopilot… but for servers?
👨💻 Byte: Exactly. You fly, it drives.
🚀 Why Use Cloudways?
- 💨 Performance without Pain: Blazing-fast site speeds thanks to cloud-native infrastructure.
- 🧠 No DevOps Degree Required: Managed environment with intuitive dashboards.
- 🔄 Free Migrations: Cloudways moves your site for you.
- 🛡️ Security Built-In: Dedicated firewalls, two-factor auth, SSL in one click.
- 💰 Pay-as-You-Go Pricing: Scale up or down anytime.
- 💬 24/7 Support: Live chat that doesn’t ghost you.
- 🧪 Staging Environments: Test your wildest WordPress plugins before they crash your live site.
🦉 Beak: Wait… it has a test site zone? Can I launch my top-secret Beakbook there?
👨💻 Byte: As long as it doesn’t involve beak selfies again.
🛠️ Features Breakdown
Here’s what makes Cloudways stand out in the feather-flapping flock:
⚙️ Easy Server Management
- Launch servers in minutes
- Vertical scaling with a click
- Monitor CPU, RAM, bandwidth usage live
🧩 App Flexibility
- Host multiple apps (WordPress, Magento, Laravel, etc.) on one server
- Clone apps or whole servers with a click
- Git integration
🔐 Security & Backups
- Automated backups (daily to weekly)
- Firewalls + IP whitelisting
- Bot protection via Cloudflare (beta)
⚡ Speed Boosting Tech
- Built-in caching with Breeze or Redis
- PHP 8.x support
- Free CloudwaysCDN
👥 Team Collaboration Tools
- Role-based access
- Workflow separation for dev/staging/live
💬 Real Support
- 24/7 via chat or ticket
- Knowledge base with tons of how-to guides
💸 Cloudways Pricing (2025 Edition)
Unlike traditional hosts, Cloudways lets you choose a plan based on the cloud provider.
🔵 DigitalOcean (most popular)
- $14/mo (1 GB RAM, 25 GB SSD)
- $28/mo (2 GB RAM, 50 GB SSD)
- $54/mo (4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD)
⚫ AWS & GCP
- Starts around $36/mo (variable depending on server specs)
🔵 Linode & Vultr
- Similar to DO pricing with more datacenter options
🦉 Beak: Do I need a cloud degree to budget this?
👨💻 Byte: Nope. Just pick your provider, pick your power, and go.
💡 Try Cloudways risk-free: Start Free Trial Now
🧰 Hosting Types Available
- Managed WordPress Hosting
- Magento Hosting
- WooCommerce Hosting
- PHP & Laravel Hosting
- Custom Apps
You get full cloud flexibility without needing to configure Apache by hand.
🟢 Pros & 🔴 Cons
✅ Pros
- Excellent speed and uptime
- Flexible cloud infrastructure
- Great developer tools (Git, SSH, Staging)
- Transparent pricing
- Global datacenter options
- Killer for eCommerce + agency work
❌ Cons
- No domain registration or email hosting
- Interface can be overwhelming at first
- Not for total beginners
- Support isn’t always super fast on lower-tier plans
🦉 Beak: So you can soar high… if you know how to flap right.
👨💻 Byte: Think of it like flying a drone instead of a pigeon.
🔒 Security & 🔧 Support
Security
- 1-click SSL installation
- Isolated server environments
- Two-factor authentication
- Free Let’s Encrypt support
- Cloudflare integration (beta)
Support
- 24/7 live chat and tickets
- Premium add-ons available
- Helpful onboarding for new users
🐦 Real-Life Use Case
Client: High-traffic WooCommerce store (customized with 30+ plugins)
Moved From: Shared host with daily crashes
After Cloudways:
- Page load dropped from 5s to under 1.5s
- Traffic spikes handled with ease
- Peace of mind restored
🦉 Beak: That site went from limping to lifting off like a rocket!
👨💻 Byte: That’s the cloud done right.
🧠 Byte’s Takeaways
- Cloudways is not your grandma’s cPanel host.
- It hits the sweet spot between raw power and ease-of-use.
- If you want speed, uptime, and flexibility without hiring a full-time sysadmin, it delivers.
👉 Perfect for:
- Dev teams
- SaaS startups
- eCommerce shops
- WordPress pros
🙅 Not ideal for:
- Total beginners
- Folks who want email hosting or domain services bundled
🦉 Beak’s Final Hoot
“Cloudways felt like flying first class after flapping coach. Sure, I had to read the safety manual (aka docs), but once we took off, whoosh! Turbo feathers!”
➡️ Next Up: Byte & Beak Talk Hosting Reviews #08: Contabo.com – Budget Hosting with Brawn or Hidden Costs?