Web Hosting

I've hosted probably 10 or so different servers with Cloudways over the years. My experience with them is good, and I would recommend them to someone looking to host in the cloud easily.

My Hosting Story

I started out with web development in 2007 as a way to try and make money online with affiliate programs. Knowing nothing about the subject, other than being a PC enthusiast, I've tried and failed a lot. This includes trying lots of hosts.

Hosts I've Tried

• ANHosting
• Hostgator
• Hostwinds
• Bluehost
• Namecheap
• Cloudways
• LiquidWeb

I remember starting out with an unknown host called ANHosting which probably was just a white label hosting company on someone else's servers. Then moving on to the popular Hostgator host for a while, which I had mixed experiences with. First of all their plans start cheap the first year or so, but after the initial discounted billing the monthly price 5x'ed or so. This is common practice amongst the biggest web hosts. They probably know that people won't change hosts once their all set up even at higher prices. Don't get me wrong I do appreciate the initial discount, I just want you to be aware of this so you can plan accordingly.

The last few years I've just been hosting with Cloudways and LiquidWeb. This is because I now host like 10 websites and need something stronger than one of the cheapest web hosts. I also have a cheap hosting account with Namecheap for a personal website.

Easy Cloud Hosting

The main benefit of hosting with Cloudways is the ease of use. You can spin up a new server with just a few clicks, and it will be online in like 5 minutes. It also features one-click installation of WordPress. It is a bit more expensive than using an unmanaged cloud web hosting provider, but that is just for the more proficient of us. For most of us, that does not have the IT skills or an IT expert on staff, going with a managed solution is probably the best choice.

Cloudways uses a custom control panel where you can manage most aspects of your website and server. It is easy to use, but does not allow for certain advanced features like you would get with WHM and cPanel. The ease and convenience of the custom Cloudways control panel leaves most jobs most of us need to do to the server and web server easy to do though. Note that you won't get root access with Cloudways, so some advanced web server configuration might be a drawback for some.

Some cool features that you get with Cloudways cloud hosting is the ability to scale up servers - but you can't scale servers down - which is a drawback. You can also create staging sites easily.

The Support

The live chat support is decent, but they are not on the same level as the live chat support team of LiquidWeb, unfortunately. Cloudways support will sometimes answer that I need to have my IT guy look into the problem, as it is outside their support scope to be hands-on and help out fixing the problem.

Usually, though, the support is sufficient, and they will point me to a knowledge-base article for how to fix my problem, set up my email, or whatever else.

One of the benefits of the Cloudways support is actually the well-written and easy-to-use knowledge base articles that will sort out most common issues and probably answer the most common questions you might have.

Migration

Cloudways does not offer free white-glove migrations of your websites to their servers. But they do offer a free WordPress plugin that makes it easy to migrate WordPress sites to their servers. It might require a bit of MySQL edits after migration though. At least it did for me, so be aware of that and check that everything works after your migration.

Pricing

Cloudways has transparent pricing, where you pay for each month of your server being online - or less if you host for less than a month.

Note that Cloudways does not include email, unlike most other web hosts. Instead, you have to pay $1/mo for each email. The email service is provided my another company called RackSpace, but it is easy to use and integrates well with the Cloudways system.

Note that Cloudways is now owned by DigitalOcean, which is one of the server providers part of the system. You'll get the most bang for your buck if you go with a DigitalOcean server on Cloudways.

Conclusion

All in all, I will give Cloudways 4.5 out of 5.0 score. I think this is one of the top 3 best web host around and will be perfect for most people looking for a scalable cloud web hosting solution.

You might also want to check out my 5.0 out of 5.0 score LiquidWeb review. That host is different as it offers more traditional VPS and dedicated servers in addition to cloud hosting solutions. They've also have more hands-on support and they offer initial price discounts.

LiquidWeb is my current web hosting company, after being with 5+ other web hosts over the years, I've settled with this company. At least for as long as they continue to perform and being very helpful via their live chat support, I see no reason to change web host at the moment.

My Hosting Story

I started out with web development in 2007 as a way to try and make money online with affiliate programs. Knowing nothing about the subject, other than being a PC enthusiast, I've tried and failed a lot. This includes trying lots of hosts.

Hosts I've Tried

• ANHosting
• Hostgator
• Hostwinds
• Bluehost
• Namecheap
• Cloudways
• LiquidWeb

I rememember starting out with an unknown host called ANHosting which probably was just a whitelabel hosting company on someone else's servers. Then moving on to the popular Hostgator host for a while which I had mixed experiences with. First of all their plans start cheap the first year or so, but after the initial discounted billing the monthly price 5x'ed or so. This is common practice amongst the biggest web hosts. They probably know that people won't change hosts once their all set up even at higher prices. Don't get me wrong I do appreciate the initial discount, I just want you to be aware of this so you can plan accordingly.

The last few years I've just been hosting with Cloudways and LiquidWeb. This is because I now host like 10 websites and need something stronger than one of the cheapest web hosts. I also have a cheap hosting account with Namecheap for a personal website.

Pricing

I am very happy with the LiquidWeb pricing and find it decently affordable, transparent, and good value for the size of the servers compared with other web hosts.

The Support

LiquidWeb offers both live chat support and ticket support for more complicated issues. I've found that the live chat support is very technically skilled and can help out almost always. If they can't, which has happened to me once or twice, they'll post a ticket to higher level technicians.

The live chat support replies in like 10 seconds. They are hands-on and don't mind fixing the issues on your servers, instead of just pointing you to a help guide like Cloudways support usually does.

Control Panels

I have always used WHM & cPanel with LiquidWeb. They also offer a lower cost alternative called Interworx but I can't recommend it as I have not tried it and I think it does lack some features that you get with the WHM & cPanel combo.

Conclusion

All in all I give LiquidWeb the best rating with 5 out of 5 stars. If you can afford a $20/mo host with 24 month pre pay, this is the host to choose!

On the other hand, if you're just starting out and do not require the best web host, going with a cheap host like Bluehost or Namecheap is more reasonable. Just keep LiquidWeb in the back of your mind, in case you want to upgrade after your initial cheap billing at another host is up for renewal at a higher price.