Cloudways
By Cloudways (a DigitalOcean company)
Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that lets users deploy and manage websites and applications on top of underlying infrastructure from providers like DigitalOcean, AWS, and Google Cloud, without needing to manage servers…
Definition
Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that lets users deploy and manage websites and applications on top of underlying infrastructure from providers like DigitalOcean, AWS, and Google Cloud, without needing to manage servers directly.
Overview
Cloudways sits between raw cloud infrastructure and traditional shared hosting: customers pick an underlying cloud provider and server size, and Cloudways handles server provisioning, security hardening, caching, and a unified dashboard for managing multiple applications across providers. It was acquired by DigitalOcean in 2022, though it continues to support deployments across several infrastructure partners. The platform is popular for hosting WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, and PHP-based applications where teams want cloud-level performance and scalability without directly configuring servers, load balancers, or firewalls themselves. Cloudways provides built-in features such as automated backups, staging environments, a content delivery network add-on, and one-click application cloning, aimed at agencies and developers managing many client sites. Because Cloudways is a management layer rather than the underlying infrastructure itself, pricing combines a Cloudways platform fee with the cost of the chosen cloud provider's compute resources, giving customers more transparency into what they are paying for compared to bundled traditional hosting plans.
Key Features
- Choice of underlying infrastructure: DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, and others
- Unified dashboard for managing multiple servers and applications across providers
- Built-in caching stack (Varnish, Redis, Memcached) for performance
- One-click staging environments and application cloning
- Automated and on-demand backups with configurable retention
- Team collaboration tools for agencies managing many client sites
- Optional add-on CDN and dedicated firewall service
- 24/7 managed server monitoring and security patching