Cloudways Review 2026: The Best Managed Hosting for Agencies?

Cloudways is the managed WordPress host I recommend to most agencies managing 5+ client sites. Not because it's the fastest — Rocket.net's edge caching beats it for cached TTFB. Not because it has the best support — Kinsta's engineers are stronger. But because Cloudways gives you more control over your infrastructure than any other managed host, at a price point that makes per-site economics work at scale.

This review is based on direct experience running client sites on Cloudways for over three years, across multiple server options and regions.

What Cloudways actually is

Cloudways is a managed hosting platform layered on top of major cloud providers. You choose the infrastructure; Cloudways manages the server setup, security patching, and software stack. Current infrastructure options:

• DigitalOcean — the most popular option, good price/performance
• Linode (Akamai) — solid alternative to DigitalOcean
• Vultr — includes Vultr High Frequency (NVMe SSD), the performance option
• AWS — for clients who need AWS infrastructure
• Google Cloud Platform — for clients who need GCP

This infrastructure choice is Cloudways' biggest differentiator from Kinsta, Rocket.net, and WP Engine. You can pick DigitalOcean for budget client sites, Vultr HF for performance-sensitive sites, and AWS for enterprise clients — all from the same dashboard.

The managed stack on every server:

• Nginx web server
• Varnish Cache (full-page caching)
• Redis object cache (€14/month add-on, not included)
• PHP-FPM (multiple versions, switchable per app)
• MariaDB
• Let's Encrypt SSL, auto-renewed
• Automated daily backups

One important clarification: Redis is not included in Cloudways' standard pricing. It is a €14/month add-on. This is a meaningful cost difference from Hetzner + CloudPanel (where Redis is included free) and should factor into your total cost calculation for WooCommerce stores with heavy session usage.

Performance benchmarks

Results from the WordPress Hosting Speed Test 2026:

Cloudways Vultr High Frequency 2GB (NVMe):

Cloudways DigitalOcean Premium (NVMe):

The Varnish Cache on Cloudways produces strong cached TTFB — 32ms on Vultr HF is competitive with most managed hosts. Uncached performance at 165ms is solid. Rocket.net's edge caching beats it on cached TTFB (18ms), but Cloudways beats Rocket.net on uncached performance for WooCommerce stores.

Pricing

Cloudways pricing is based on server size and provider — you pay for the underlying cloud server, plus Cloudways' management fee. Multiple WordPress sites can run on a single server (no per-site cost within a server tier).

DigitalOcean servers:

Vultr High Frequency (recommended for performance):

For agency use — practical server recommendations:

• 1–3 low-traffic sites: Vultr HF 1GB (€13/mo)
• 5–10 mixed sites: Vultr HF 2GB (€25/mo) — this is my standard recommendation
• 10–20 sites with some WooCommerce: Vultr HF 4GB (€49/mo)
• High-traffic WooCommerce or busy client portfolios: Vultr HF 8GB (€96/mo)

Add Redis for WooCommerce stores (€14/mo per server). This applies to the whole server, not per site — so if you have 5 sites on one server and need Redis for one WooCommerce store, that's €14/mo total, not €14 per site.

Features

Multi-cloud infrastructure is Cloudways' strongest feature for agencies. You can have:

• Budget client sites on DigitalOcean 1GB
• A performance-focused e-commerce client on Vultr HF 4GB
• An enterprise client who specifically requires AWS All managed through the same Cloudways dashboard.

Team access and permissions. Cloudways has team member access controls with role-based permissions. Add developers to specific applications without giving them server-level access. Essential for agencies delegating work.

Per-application staging. Every application (WordPress site) gets a staging environment at one click. Clone production to staging, test, push changes. Staging uses the same infrastructure as production — no surprises.

Application-level settings. PHP version, PHP memory limits, file size limits, and caching settings are configurable per application from the UI — not via SSH. Useful for managing mixed environments where one plugin requires PHP 8.1 and another needs 8.3.

Cloudways Bot — automated vulnerability detection that flags outdated plugins with known CVEs across your server. Useful for agencies doing maintenance retainers.

Cloudways CDN — available as an add-on (Cloudflare-powered), not as included Cloudflare Enterprise like Rocket.net. Fine for static assets; does not provide edge HTML caching.

What Cloudways doesn't do well

Redis is an add-on, not included. €14/month on top of server cost. For WooCommerce stores, Redis object cache is important for session management and performance under load. You should budget for it.

Varnish Cache requires WooCommerce exclusion configuration. Out of the box, Varnish will cache WooCommerce pages it shouldn't (cart, checkout, logged-in users). Cloudways provides exclusion settings but you need to configure them correctly. Misconfiguration causes cart/checkout bugs. For a full breakdown of caching options and WooCommerce edge cases, see best WordPress caching plugins.

No phone support. Support is chat and ticket-based. Chat response is typically 5–15 minutes. For agencies managing client sites on SLA, this matters — Kinsta's support is more responsive for complex WordPress issues.

Pricing isn't always cheaper. At the high end of the server range, Cloudways can approach or exceed Kinsta pricing per site, without Kinsta's isolation guarantees (Cloudways puts multiple apps on one server). The economics are best in the €25–€50/month server range for 5–15 sites.

Cloudways vs Kinsta

The most common comparison for agencies:

Pick Cloudways if: you want infrastructure control, manage a mix of site types, or are cost-sensitive at scale. Pick Kinsta if: you need site isolation guarantees, GCP infrastructure, or the best WordPress-expert support.

See Cloudways vs Kinsta for the full comparison.

Verdict

Cloudways is the best value managed WordPress host for agencies in 2026. The Vultr HF 2GB server at €25/month handles 8–12 WordPress sites with Nginx + Varnish caching, and the per-app staging and team access controls are better than most premium hosts.

The €14/month Redis add-on is the main cost surprise — budget for it on any server hosting WooCommerce stores. And note that cached TTFB (32ms) is good but not Rocket.net-level (18ms) for global audiences.

For agencies where server economics matter, Cloudways runs 10 sites at roughly a quarter the cost of Kinsta, with comparable performance in most real-world scenarios.

Rating: 4.4/5

Related reading

• Best Managed WordPress Hosting 2026
• Cloudways vs Kinsta
• Rocket.net Review 2026
• WordPress Hosting Speed Test 2026