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This is the first Magento page in the series where the answer is not no. A managed server with SSH, Composer and memory you choose is the right shape, and shared plans are not. Our pages on Bluehost, a Newfold Digital brand, SiteGround and Hostinger all end in a recommendation against.
Two conditions decide whether Cloudways works for your store, and one of them is not in our tables at all.
Is Cloudways Right for Magento? The Short Answer
Architecturally yes, and only at a size you choose deliberately. Magento needs gigabytes of memory for a compile, and the entry configuration in our tables already recorded a 1.7% error rate under a lighter test. Confirm the search service in writing before you buy, because our tables do not record whether OpenSearch or Elasticsearch is available here. Then plan for transactional email elsewhere.
What Magento Needs, and What a Server Gives
Composer from a shell. Available, on every tier, which is the requirement that rules out shared hosting immediately.
Gigabytes of memory for a compile. Available if you buy them. This is a sizing decision rather than a feature.
Cron every minute. Yours to schedule on a server.
A search service. Magento 2.4 requires OpenSearch or Elasticsearch, and our tables do not record its availability at this host. Ask support in writing and keep the reply.
⚠️ That last line is the one to settle first. Everything else on this page assumes the answer is yes.
The Sizing Problem Is the Real Story
The benchmark figure in our tables belongs to the entry Vultr High Frequency configuration: 288 ms under load with a 1.7% error rate, and a WordPress score of 7.6 of 10. That test is lighter than a Magento store, not heavier.
So the entry price is not the Magento price. Size for the compile first and the checkout second, and remember that hourly billing makes trying two sizes in a week cheap rather than a commitment.
⚠️ Nothing in the panel will tell you the server is too small for a Magento compile. It will simply fail partway through, which our page on Cloudways for WooCommerce describes in the lighter case.
What the Uptime Range Says
Between 99.996% and 99.999% across five plans in the October 2025 to May 2026 window. That is a strong record, and for a store it matters as much as speed, because a checkout that is unreachable is worse than one that is slow.
Note that it is a range rather than a figure, because the answer depends on the cloud you pick. Our page on VPS against cloud hosting covers why that distinction is worth keeping.
| Host | Channel and response | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Liquid Web | Phone and chat, 59 seconds by contract | Published service commitment, 2026 |
| InMotion | Phone, chat and tickets, 24/7 from US staff | Several 2026 reviews; no timed measurement |
| HostGator | Phone, chat and tickets, 24/7 | Published channels, 2026 |
| GoDaddy | Phone in more countries than most, 24/7 | Published channels, 2026 |
| IONOS | Phone plus a named consultant per account | Company statement; one review disputes it |
| SiteGround | Phone, chat and tickets, 24/7 | Several 2026 reviews; no timed measurement |
| Rocket.net | Chat under a minute; phone from Business tier | Published accounts, 2026 |
| Hostwinds | Chat and tickets, 24/7 in house; 4.9 of 5 | Aggregate of 400+ business reviews, 2026 |
| ChemiCloud | Chat and tickets, 24/7; praised in every source | 2026 reviews; no timed measurement |
| Scala Hosting | Chat and tickets, 24/7 | 2026 reviews; no timed measurement |
| Hostinger | Chat and email, AI assistant first, no phone | Published channels, 2026 |
| Namecheap | Chat and tickets, 24/7, no phone | Published channels, 2026 |
| A2 Hosting | Disputed: one review lists 24/7 phone, customers say removed | Two 2026 sources in conflict |
| GreenGeeks | Chat and tickets 24/7; phone not around the clock | Published channels, 2026 |
| WP Engine | Chat and tickets 24/7; phone on higher tiers | Published channels, 2026 |
| InterServer | Chat, phone and tickets, 24/7 | Published channels, 2026 |
| DreamHost | Chat, email and tickets; no telephone line | Published channels, 2026 |
| Kinsta | Chat and tickets 24/7; no telephone line | Published channels, 2026 |
| Cloudways | Chat and tickets 24/7; phone on paid add-on | Published channels, 2026 |
| Bluehost | Phone and chat, 24/7 | Published channels, 2026 |
What You Still Have to Arrange
Transactional email. Cloudways hosts no mailboxes, so order confirmations and password resets need a mail service. For a store this is not optional.
Phone support, if you want it. Chat and tickets are included around the clock; a phone line is a paid add-on. Liquid Web is the provider in our tables with a written response commitment instead.
The application side. Managed covers the server, not Magento: patches, upgrades on a copy and indexers stay yours, which our page on managed against unmanaged hosting works through.
A staging copy in the workflow. Included on every tier, and for Magento it is the difference between a routine upgrade and a bad evening: our guide to setting up a staging site covers the habit.
Against the Alternatives
Scala Hosting’s VPS. Root access with resources priced per unit, which is the clearest way to buy the memory a compile needs and adjust it later. Cheaper for a known workload, and more of the administration is yours.
Liquid Web. Managed VPS from $33.00 a month on annual billing with dedicated resources on every managed tier, a 59-second response commitment and 100% network uptime backed by credits. Reviews this year dispute the response promise, and no benchmark project we cite measures its servers.
A cloud platform. Outside what we review, as our list of hosting for SaaS startups says plainly. For a large Magento deployment that is often the honest destination.
Which Stores Fit
A mid-sized catalog with a developer. SSH, Composer and staging make the workflow normal rather than heroic.
A store with seasonal peaks. Hourly resizing suits Magento’s appetite during a campaign.
A store moving off a shared plan that half-worked. The symptoms were a slow admin, timed-out indexers and a dragging checkout, none of them Magento bugs.
An agency running several Magento stores. One provider, several servers, sized independently.
Which Should Look Elsewhere
A store with fifty products. Magento is a platform tax at that size, and WooCommerce on a cheap plan does the job, as our list of hosting for ecommerce covers.
An owner who will not size a server. The entry configuration is not a Magento configuration.
A team with compliance paperwork. Written commitments live at Liquid Web rather than here.
A deployment needing containers and horizontal scaling. That is a platform question rather than a hosting one.
One Number Worth Asking For
The per-process memory limit on the size you are considering. Ask for it in writing, then compare it against Adobe’s own guidance for a compile, which is measured in gigabytes rather than megabytes.
That question settles more Magento hosting arguments than any benchmark, and it works on any provider. Our guide to moving from shared to VPS covers the sizing method.
And our guide to fixing a slow database covers what a year of orders does to the other half of the workload.
How We Research
We run no tests. The load result, WordPress score and uptime range come from Hostingstep: the load and score from its Cloudways review of 2026, and the uptime range from its October 2025 to May 2026 window. Magento’s requirements come from Adobe’s documentation for version 2.4.
Prices, billing terms, inclusions and support channels come from Cloudways’ own pages, read on 20 September 2026, and sit in our tables. Our tables do not record whether a search service is provided here, and we say so rather than assume. Ownership moved to DigitalOcean in 2022 by acquisition reporting. The criteria are on our about page, and the full workings are in our Cloudways review.
Cloudways for Magento FAQ
Architecturally yes, unlike the shared plans we price: you get SSH, Composer, cron and memory you choose. Confirm the search service in writing first, because our tables do not record its availability here.
Not the entry configuration. Magento needs gigabytes of memory for a compile, and the entry Vultr High Frequency plan already recorded a 1.7% error rate on a lighter test. Hourly billing makes trying two sizes cheap.
The compile fails partway through, and nothing in the panel warns you in advance. That is why sizing for the compile comes before sizing for traffic.
No. Cloudways hosts no mailboxes, so transactional email needs a separate service. For a store, arrange that before launch rather than after the first confirmation goes missing.
Cloudways for hourly flexibility and staging on every tier. Liquid Web for dedicated resources and written commitments, with the caveat that no benchmark project we cite measures its servers.
The Verdict
For Magento this is the right category of product, which is more than the shared plans in this series could claim. SSH, Composer, cron and a size you choose remove the structural blockers, and the uptime range across five plans is strong.
Two things decide it in practice: confirm the search service in writing, and buy a size that fits a compile rather than a brochure site. Arrange transactional email elsewhere, keep staging in the workflow, and remember that managed covers the server while Magento stays yours. Our page on what web hosting costs prices the alternatives across three years.