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Cloudways scores 4.1 in our review and sells a shape rather than a speed. It runs a managed server on the cloud you choose, from $14.00 a month, billed by the hour. There is no promotional term and no visit cap. The figure worth knowing before you buy is the awkward one. On the Vultr High Frequency plan the benchmark recorded 288 ms under load with a 1.7% error rate, and a WordPress score of 7.6 of 10. Several shared plans in the same test finished faster, without dropping a request.
Is Cloudways Right for WordPress? The Short Answer
Yes if you want capacity that follows traffic, staging and Git on every tier, and no allowance to exceed. No if you want the cheapest WordPress hosting, need mailboxes, or expect the word cloud to guarantee performance. Choose the cloud and the size deliberately, because the entry configuration in our tables trails cheaper shared plans on the same test.
What You Are Actually Buying
A server, managed. Cloudways runs the operating system, the web server and the updates, and you run the application. Ownership moved to DigitalOcean in 2022.
Hourly billing. Three years at the entry size come to $504.00 with no step, and an experiment that fails costs the hours it ran.
No visit allowance. Growth means a bigger server rather than a higher tier, which our page on VPS against cloud hosting puts in context.
Tooling on every tier. Staging, Git deployment, SSH and PHP version selection from the first plan, which our list of hosting for developers covers.
The Measurements, Including the Unflattering One
Uptime. Between 99.996% and 99.999% across five plans in the October 2025 to May 2026 window. That is a strong range, and a range rather than a single number because the answer depends on which cloud you pick.
Load. 288 ms with a 1.7% error rate on the Vultr High Frequency plan, with a WordPress score of 7.6 of 10. From the same project: GreenGeeks finished at 26 ms and Kinsta at 40 ms. Bluehost, a Newfold Digital brand, finished at 41 ms, all without dropping a request.
⚠️ Read that as a statement about configuration rather than about the company. A server is only as good as its size and its cloud, which is exactly the trade you take on when you buy one. Our guide to testing your site speed properly covers measuring your own.
| Host | Refund window | What's excluded |
|---|---|---|
| DreamHost | 97 days by four sources, 30 by another | Disputed; confirm at checkout |
| InMotion | 90 days on 6-month terms and longer | 30 days monthly, VPS and reseller; no monthly billing on shared |
| ChemiCloud | 45 days | Domains and add-ons |
| HostGator | 45 days, all plans | Domains and add-ons |
| Hostinger | 30 days | Domain registration |
| SiteGround | 30 days on shared, 14 on cloud; renewals within 30 days of payment | Domains and third-party services; monthly plans reported excluded |
| Bluehost | 30 days | Add-ons, domains and professional services; $15.99 deducted for the free domain |
| Scala Hosting | 30 days, then a pro-rated refund of unused term | Domains and licenses |
| Namecheap | 30 days; EasyWP adds a 30-day trial with no card | Domains |
| InterServer | 30 days | Domains |
| GreenGeeks | 30 days | Domains and add-ons |
| IONOS | 30 days | Domains |
| Rocket.net | 30 days | Domains |
| GoDaddy | 30 days | Domains and some services |
| Kinsta | 30 days | Domains |
| WP Engine | Monthly billing; cancel before the next cycle | Not a refund window in the usual sense |
| Liquid Web | Monthly billing, no contract | Not a refund window in the usual sense |
| Cloudways | Pay-as-you-go; stop and the billing stops | Not a refund window in the usual sense |
| A2 Hosting | Disputed: anytime guarantee, or standard terms | Two 2026 sources in conflict |
| Hostwinds | Disputed: 30 days by one source, 3 by two others | Confirm in writing before paying |
Where It Earns Its Price for WordPress
Traffic that arrives in bursts. Resize for the day, shrink afterward, pay for the hours. Our guide to handling a traffic spike covers the rest of that plan.
Several sites on one server. No per-site tier and no allowance, so a small portfolio shares the capacity, which our list of hosting for multiple sites covers.
Agency work. Staging and Git on every tier, and a client site can be moved between servers, as our list of hosting for agencies covers.
Sites that outgrew shared hosting. The natural next step when faults appear at peak, which our page on shared against VPS hosting explains.
What to Watch
No email. Cloudways hosts no mailboxes, so a business needs a separate provider, which our guide to setting up email on your domain covers.
Phone support costs extra. Chat and tickets are included around the clock; a phone line is a paid add-on.
There is no refund window. Billing is pay-as-you-go: stop the server and the billing stops. That suits most buyers better than a window, and it is worth understanding before comparing the two.
Sizing is your decision. The cheapest configuration is not the fastest, and nothing in the panel will tell you that your plan is too small.
Against the Alternatives
Against managed WordPress. Kinsta charges $35.00 a month flat with 25,000 monthly visits and answered every request at 40 ms. You pay more per site and get a visit ceiling; Cloudways costs less and gives you the sizing problem.
Against cheap shared hosting. InterServer holds $2.50 a month with the price locked and GreenGeeks finished the load test at 26 ms. A single small WordPress site rarely needs a server, and our roundup of cheap web hosting ranks those.
Against a plain VPS. Scala prices resources per unit at $36.00 a year per processor core, with root access. That is cheaper for a known workload, and more work.
Which WordPress Sites Fit
A publication with unpredictable traffic. Hourly billing is the whole argument.
A small portfolio of client sites. One server, no per-site tiers.
A store outgrowing a shared plan. Provided you size the server for the checkout, as our list of hosting for ecommerce covers.
A developer who wants staging and Git. Included from the first plan.
The First Month
Size from your busiest hour. Concurrent visitors, not monthly totals, and test on a staging copy before you rely on it.
Pick the cloud deliberately. The uptime range and the load figure both vary by provider, so this is a decision rather than a default.
Set up backups off the server. Platform snapshots restore quickly and live beside the instance, which our guide to setting up automatic backups covers.
Arrange email elsewhere. Before the site goes live rather than after the first contact form fails.
How We Research
We run no tests. The load result, WordPress benchmark score and uptime range come from Hostingstep. The load and benchmark figures are from its Cloudways review of 2026, and the uptime range from its October 2025 to May 2026 window. Figures quoted for other hosts come from the same project.
Prices, billing terms, support channels and inclusions come from Cloudways’ own pages, read on 20 September 2026, and sit in our tables. Ownership comes from acquisition reporting in 2022. Individual cloud providers are not rated separately here, because our tables record Cloudways rather than the clouds underneath. The criteria are on our about page, and the full workings are in our Cloudways review.
Cloudways for WordPress FAQ
For spiky traffic, several sites or agency work, yes: hourly billing, no visit caps and staging with Git on every tier. For one small site it is more product than the site needs.
That depends on the cloud and the size you choose. Its entry Vultr High Frequency configuration recorded 288 ms under load with a 1.7% error rate, behind several shared plans in the same test. Its uptime range is 99.996% to 99.999%.
By the hour, with no promotional term, from $14.00 a month. Three years at the entry size come to $504.00. There is no refund window because stopping the server stops the billing.
No. Cloudways hosts no mailboxes, so a business needs a separate mail provider. Phone support is also a paid add-on, while chat and tickets are included.
Kinsta if you want a flat $35.00 a month, a completed load test at 40 ms and someone else deciding the capacity. Cloudways if you would rather pay $14.00 and choose the server yourself, with no visit ceiling.
The Verdict
Cloudways is the right answer to a specific question: how do I get capacity that follows traffic, with developer tooling, without an allowance? Hourly billing, no visit caps and staging on every tier answer it well, and the uptime range across five plans is strong.
It is the wrong answer to “which host is fastest”, because its entry configuration trails cheaper shared plans on the same load test. Choose the cloud and the size on purpose, arrange email elsewhere, and treat the sizing as your job rather than the host’s. Our page on what web hosting costs prices the alternatives across three years.