How to Migrate Your WordPress Site to Cloudways | Cloudways 101
Published by CloudwaysWatch on YouTube
Updated Oct 5, 2026
Web Hosting
Cloudways
Managed hosting on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud
From $14/mofree trial
Cloudways at a glance
from our research
Managed cloud hosting from DigitalOcean for WordPress, Magento, Laravel and PHP apps
You pick the provider and server size; each server runs unlimited sites and is billed hourly in arrears
Email and, on Flexible servers, the Cloudflare CDN cost extra; the free trial lasts 3 days
A 1 GB DigitalOcean server costs $14 a month and a 2 GB server $28, billed by the hour in arrears
Overview
What is Cloudways?
Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting service founded in 2012 in Malta and part of DigitalOcean. It sells two products. Cloudways Flexible is managed hosting for WordPress, Magento, Laravel and PHP applications on a server from DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud. Cloudways Autonomous is managed WordPress hosting that scales automatically, built for high-traffic stores and learning sites.
On Flexible, a buyer picks a cloud provider and a server size, and Cloudways sets up and manages the server. Each server runs unlimited applications, and one account can mix providers and plans. Servers come with free SSL, an Imunify360 server firewall, automated and on-demand backups with one-click restore, server-level caching with Redis, staging environments that push live in one click, 24/7 support and a free migration of the first website. Object Cache Pro is included on servers with 4 GB of RAM or more. Email hosting isn't included, so mailboxes come from a Rackspace add-on, and the Cloudflare Enterprise CDN is an add-on as well. Each Autonomous plan hosts one website on autoscaling servers, with the Cloudflare CDN and Object Cache Pro included.
Billing is hourly and in arrears: Cloudways shows a monthly figure for each server and invoices in the first week of the following month. Prices exclude taxes and vary by region on AWS and Google Cloud. A 3-day free trial needs no credit card but isn't available on AWS or Google Cloud servers.
Our verdict on Cloudways
Updated Oct 5, 2026Pricing checked Oct 5, 2026
Cloudways suits developers, agencies and technically minded owners who want a managed server without administering it themselves. The server is the unit you buy: pick DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud, choose a size, run as many sites as it can hold, and mix providers within one account. Staging, backups, the firewall and Redis come with every server, and because billing is hourly and in arrears, there's no long term to prepay.
The server price leaves out things that shared hosts bundle. Email costs $1.50 per mailbox a month through Rackspace, the Cloudflare Enterprise CDN starts at $4.99 per domain a month on Flexible servers, and automated malware removal is an add-on from $4 per application. Bandwidth beyond the plan is billed per gigabyte, $0.02 on DigitalOcean and $0.12 on AWS, and offsite backup storage costs $0.033 per GB. Sizing the server is the buyer's call, and the free trial lasts only 3 days.
The entry server is DigitalOcean's 1 GB, at $14 a month with 25 GB of NVMe storage and 1 TB of bandwidth. The 2 GB server costs $28, and the 4 GB server, the first size with Object Cache Pro included, costs $54. Each figure is a full month at the hourly rate, invoiced after the month ends. AWS starts at $20.56 a month and Google Cloud at $37.33, with bandwidth billed on top and prices that vary by region. A realistic monthly bill is the server plus $1.50 for each mailbox and, if you want the Cloudflare CDN, $4.99 per domain.
Choose Cloudways when you want control over the server and are comfortable choosing its size. Buyers who'd rather pay by site and visits, with the CDN and backups included and nothing to size, are better served by WP Engine, whose Essential plan costs $35 a month for one site billed monthly. For hosting with mailboxes and a domain free for the first year, Hostinger's Cloud Startup costs $9.99 a month for the first 12 months and renews at $25.99.
Written by Lokesh Kapoor
Pros & cons
Cloudways pros and cons
What it does well
- Choice of DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud, set per server
- Each server runs unlimited sites, and staging pushes changes live in one click
- Free SSL, an Imunify360 firewall, automated backups and Redis on every server
- Object Cache Pro is included free on servers with 4 GB of RAM or more
Where it falls short
- Email isn't included: Rackspace mailboxes cost $1.50 each a month
- The Cloudflare Enterprise CDN is an add-on on Flexible, from $4.99 per domain a month
- AWS and Google Cloud bill bandwidth per GB beyond the plan and have no free trial
Editor's assessment from vendor documentation and published pricing
Pricing
Cloudways pricing
Cloudways's paid plans start at $14/month, above the $4.99 median across the 5 tools in our Web Hosting ranking. You can test it on a 3-day free trial.
DigitalOcean 1GB
$14/mo
per server, per month, billed hourly
- 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU
- 25 GB NVMe storage
- 1 TB bandwidth
- Unlimited websites and visits
- Free SSL, staging and migration
Usage: Billed hourly in arrears and shown as a monthly figure; invoices go out in the first week of the next month. Bandwidth beyond the plan costs $0.02/GB on DigitalOcean, and offsite backup storage is $0.033/GB per server.
DigitalOcean 2GB
$28/mo
per server, per month, billed hourly
- 2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU
- 50 GB NVMe storage
- 2 TB bandwidth
- Unlimited websites and visits
- Free SSL, staging and migration
Usage: Billed hourly in arrears and shown as a monthly figure; invoices go out in the first week of the next month. Bandwidth beyond the plan costs $0.02/GB on DigitalOcean, and offsite backup storage is $0.033/GB per server.
DigitalOcean 4GB
$54/mo
per server, per month, billed hourly
- 4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU
- 80 GB NVMe storage
- 4 TB bandwidth
- Object Cache Pro included
Usage: Billed hourly in arrears and shown as a monthly figure; invoices go out in the first week of the next month. Bandwidth beyond the plan costs $0.02/GB on DigitalOcean, and offsite backup storage is $0.033/GB per server.
DigitalOcean 8GB
$99/mo
per server, per month, billed hourly
- 8 GB RAM, 4 vCPU
- 160 GB NVMe storage
- 5 TB bandwidth
- Object Cache Pro included
Usage: Billed hourly in arrears and shown as a monthly figure; invoices go out in the first week of the next month. Bandwidth beyond the plan costs $0.02/GB on DigitalOcean, and offsite backup storage is $0.033/GB per server.
Vultr High Frequency 2GB
$30/mo
per server, per month, billed hourly
- 2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU
- 64 GB NVMe storage
- 2 TB bandwidth
- Unlimited websites and visits
- Free SSL, staging and migration
Usage: Billed hourly in arrears. Vultr High Frequency starts at $16 for 1 GB; Vultr Standard servers are priced like DigitalOcean's ($14 for 1 GB, $28 for 2 GB).
Linode 1GB
$14/mo
per server, per month, billed hourly
- 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU
- 25 GB SSD storage
- 1 TB bandwidth
- Unlimited websites and visits
- Free SSL, staging and migration
Usage: Billed hourly in arrears. Linode's 4 GB and 8 GB servers cost $59 and $105 a month.
AWS 1GB
$20.56/mo
per server, per month, billed hourly
- 1 GB RAM, 2 vCPU
- 20 GB storage
- Bandwidth billed pay as you go
- Unlimited websites and visits
Usage: Billed hourly; bandwidth is $0.12/GB beyond the plan, extra disk is $0.10/GB, and prices vary by region. There is no free trial on AWS servers.
Google Cloud 1.7GB
$37.33/mo
per server, per month, billed hourly
- 1.7 GB RAM, shared CPU
- 20 GB storage
- 1 GB transfer bandwidth
- Unlimited websites and visits
Usage: Billed hourly; bandwidth is $0.14/GB beyond the plan, extra disk is $0.17/GB, and prices vary by region. There is no free trial on Google Cloud servers.
Autonomous Growth
$99/mo
per month, plus usage
- 1 website, 1 baseline autoscale server
- 150 GB bandwidth, 20 GB disk
- Unmetered visits
- Cloudflare Enterprise CDN included
Usage: Extra disk space is $1/GB and extra bandwidth $0.04/GB; autoscaling beyond the baseline server costs $0.07 an hour per server.
Autonomous Scale
$199/mo
per month, plus usage
- 1 website, 2 baseline autoscale servers
- 250 GB bandwidth, 50 GB disk
- Unmetered visits
- Cloudflare Enterprise CDN included
Usage: Extra disk space is $1/GB and extra bandwidth $0.04/GB; autoscaling beyond the baseline servers costs $0.10 an hour per server.
Autonomous Plus
$399/mo
per month, plus usage
- 1 website, 3 baseline autoscale servers
- 1000 GB bandwidth, 100 GB disk
- Unmetered visits
- Cloudflare Enterprise CDN included
Usage: Extra disk space is $1/GB and extra bandwidth $0.04/GB; autoscaling beyond the baseline servers costs $0.12 an hour per server.
Autonomous Enterprise
Custom
Tailored pricing for larger teams
- Custom resource allocation
- Custom baseline capacity
- Expert consultation on sizing
Checked against Cloudways (DigitalOcean)'s pricing page on October 5, 2026 · see the full breakdown
Capabilities
Cloudways features
Checked against the same feature list as every other tool in its category.
Platform
- Not included:Agency & white-label toolsClient billing, transferable sites and branded reporting for agencies.
Performance
- Included:Built-in CDNGlobal content delivery included rather than bought separately.Paid add-on on Flexible plans
- Included:Free SSL certificatesAutomatic HTTPS certificates issued and renewed at no cost.
- Included:HTTP/3 and modern PHPCurrent protocol and runtime versions rather than legacy defaults.
- Included:NVMe SSD storageFast NVMe drives rather than older SATA SSDs or spinning disks.
- Included:Server-level cachingCaching at the server rather than relying on a plugin.
Management
- Included:Automated daily backupsAutomatic daily backups with self-service restore.
- Included:Choice of cloud providerPick the underlying infrastructure, such as AWS, Google Cloud or DigitalOcean.
- Included:Free site migrationThe host moves your existing site across at no charge.
- Included:Git deployment & SSHDeploy from a repository and access the server over SSH.
- Included:Staging environmentsOne-click copy of the live site for safe testing, with a push to production.
Support & Reliability
- Included:24/7 human supportRound-the-clock access to a person rather than a documentation search.
- Included:Managed security & WAFFirewall, malware scanning and patching handled by the host.
- Included:Uptime SLAA contractual uptime guarantee with credits when it is missed.
Ecosystem
Cloudways integrations
- WordPress
- WooCommerce
- Magento
- Laravel
- Cloudflare
- Git
Videos
Watch Cloudways in action
Product walkthroughs from Cloudways's own YouTube channel.
How to Launch a WordPress Site on Cloudways | A Beginner's Guide 🎤
Published by CloudwaysWatch on YouTube
Alternatives
Top Cloudways alternatives
Tools that do the same job, from the same category.
WP Engine
Best for businesses that want WordPress updates, backups and staging handled for them
From $28/mo
SiteGround
Best for small businesses that want daily backups and email on every shared plan
From $3.99/mo
Hostinger
Best for bloggers and small businesses running several WordPress sites on a small budget
From $3.99/mo
Fit check
Will Cloudways fit your team?
Support
- Email support
- Live chat
- Knowledge base
Training
- Documentation
- Video tutorials
- Webinars
Deployment
- Web
Typical users
- Small businesses
- Mid-size companies
- Enterprises
FAQs
Cloudways FAQs
Written by our editorial team.
How does Cloudways billing work?
Cloudways bills each server by the hour, in arrears. The pricing page shows every server as a monthly figure, such as $14 for a 1 GB DigitalOcean server, next to its hourly rate, and invoices go out in the first week of the following month. Bandwidth beyond the plan's allowance and offsite backup storage, at $0.033 per GB, are added on top. Prices exclude taxes, and no annual billing option is shown. See Cloudways pricing.
Does Cloudways have a free trial?
Yes, for 3 days, and it doesn't need a credit card. The trial isn't available on AWS or Google Cloud servers, so a trial server has to be on DigitalOcean, Vultr or Linode. Paid servers are billed by the hour, from $14 a month for DigitalOcean's 1 GB server. Every server includes a free migration of the first website, along with free SSL, staging and automated backups.
Does Cloudways include email hosting?
No. Email hosting isn't included with a Cloudways server. Mailboxes come from a Rackspace email add-on at $1.50 per mailbox a month, on top of the server price. The Cloudflare Enterprise CDN is another add-on on Flexible servers, from $4.99 per domain a month, while the Autonomous plans include it. Budget for both when comparing Cloudways with shared hosts that bundle email.
Which cloud providers does Cloudways support?
Five: DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS and Google Cloud, chosen per server, and one account can mix them. Entry prices differ: a 1 GB server costs $14 a month on DigitalOcean or Linode, Vultr High Frequency starts at $16, AWS at $20.56 and Google Cloud at $37.33. AWS and Google Cloud bill bandwidth beyond the plan per gigabyte, vary by region and aren't covered by the free trial. For a managed host priced by site instead, see WP Engine vs Cloudways.
What is Cloudways Autonomous?
It's Cloudways' autoscaling managed WordPress hosting, aimed at high-traffic stores and learning sites. Each plan hosts one website, with the Cloudflare Enterprise CDN and Object Cache Pro included and 100 PHP workers per server. Growth costs $99 a month, Scale $199 and Plus $399, with 1, 2 or 3 baseline servers. Extra disk costs $1 per GB, extra bandwidth $0.04 per GB, and autoscaling beyond the baseline is billed per server hour, from $0.07.
Sources & methodology
Product details come from Cloudways (DigitalOcean)'s public website and documentation (Malta). Every plan and price was checked against the vendor's pricing page on October 5, 2026. We haven't tested this product hands-on; the verdict is a desk assessment. How we research and rank tools
- Founded 2012
- 1 language supported
- cloudways.com
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