Best Cloudways Alternatives in 2025

Are you looking for the best Cloudways alternatives on the market? If yes, then you are in the right place.

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting provider that allows users to quickly deploy and manage web applications in the cloud. It provides users with managed web hosting services, such as shared hosting, VPS hosting, managed WordPress hosting, and more. The platform is popular among small and medium businesses thanks to its affordability and ease of use.

Cloudways

Unlike traditional WordPress hosting, it allows you to choose from five different cloud hosting providers for your hosting infrastructure. Afterward, they configure everything for you and let you manage your WordPress sites from a simple dashboard.

However, although there is a lot to appreciate about this approach, Cloudways isn’t for everyone. Some people might find it too complex, while others may feel it is too expensive for what it offers. In this article, I will discuss some of the current best Cloudways alternatives.

Why do people look for Cloudways alternatives?

Before we start looking at Cloudways alternatives, I’d like to discuss some disadvantages of using Cloudways. Below are the main reasons why people start looking for Cloudways alternatives.

1. A more straightforward experience

Cloudways more or fewer offers just a control panel to manage your cloud hosting. As a result, beginners tend to feel overwhelmed trying to configure everything and look for Cloudways alternatives that simplify hosting a WordPress site.

2. More comprehensive support

By default, Cloudways’ support scope is only for your hosting server — it does not include support for WordPress. Thus, it significantly differs from a managed WordPress host where the support staff consists of WordPress experts who can step in and help you with WordPress issues.

3. Lower prices

Cloudways is relatively cheap for people using a single, low-resource server. However, if you need to use multiple servers or high-resource servers, it can be costly. You can find much cheaper alternatives that charge a flat rate ($10 to $30 per month) regardless of the server you are using.

4. Better technology stack

Experienced users often complain that Cloudways’ tech stack isn’t as fast as possible because it uses a hybrid Apache/Nginx stack that some people dislike. They prefer to use a pure Nginx stack or the LiteSpeed server, which tends to perform better than Cloudways’ hybrid stack.

Best Cloudways Alternatives

Now that you know Cloudways’ drawbacks, let us go through my picks for the best Cloudways alternatives available today.

ScalaHosting

scala hosting

ScalaHosting is a top choice when looking for an alternative to Cloudways. It offers managed cloud VPS hosting that is both powerful and easy to use. Many users find that ScalaHosting provides a simpler experience with lower long-term costs compared to Cloudways.

What makes ScalaHosting stand out?

  • User-Friendly SPanel: ScalaHosting comes with its custom SPanel. This control panel is lightweight, intuitive, and packed with features. It lets you easily manage your sites without the extra bloat you may find in Cloudways’ dashboard.
  • Inclusive Email Hosting: Unlike Cloudways, which does not include email hosting by default, ScalaHosting offers free email hosting. This can save you money and simplify your overall setup.
  • Cost Efficiency: ScalaHosting tends to be 20–30% cheaper over the long run. Its upfront pricing and renewal plans make it a strong value proposition for small to medium-sized businesses.
  • Multi-PHP Support: ScalaHosting allows you to run different PHP versions on different applications. This feature is a big win for developers who need flexibility and is not available on Cloudways.
  • Performance and Reliability: With dedicated resources, ScalaHosting ensures your site stays fast and responsive. It uses high-speed NVMe storage and powerful processors, which means you get strong performance even under heavy traffic.

Cloudways vs ScalaHosting

Cloudways is known for its managed cloud hosting that connects you with multiple cloud providers. However, it may feel complex for beginners and lacks some built-in features such as email hosting and multi-PHP support. ScalaHosting simplifies these areas by offering an all-in-one solution. The SPanel provides essential tools like file management, PHP version control, and free email accounts—all without extra costs.

ScalaHosting’s NVMe clusters utilize AMD EPYC 7B13 (Milan) processors with 3.5GHz base clocks and All-Flash Storage Arrays, achieving:

  • Sub-200ms TTFB: Consistently recorded via Catchpoint monitoring across US/EU/APAC regions.
  • 4M IOPS: Measured via FIO benchmarks on RAID 10 NVMe pools, ensuring <1ms latency for database-heavy workloads.
  • LiteSpeed + LSCache Integration: Edge caching with ESI support, reducing WordPress load times by 58% (Pagely vs. ScalaHosting case study, 2024).

Resource isolation via KVM prevents noisy neighbor impacts, a common issue in Cloudways’ shared-tenancy environments.

For those who value ease of use, a straightforward control panel, and lower total cost over time, ScalaHosting is a great pick. It packs essential features that Cloudways users often request, making it a strong contender and, for many, the best alternative to Cloudways.

In short, if you want a managed hosting service that is cost-effective, user-friendly, and packed with handy features, ScalaHosting is definitely worth considering.

Rocket.net

rocket net home

Rocket.net represents a paradigm shift in managed WordPress hosting, distinguishing itself through deep integration with Cloudflare’s Enterprise-grade global edge network—a strategic advantage over traditional cloud providers like Cloudways.

Engineered for performance, security, and scalability, Rocket.net’s architecture leverages Cloudflare’s 310+ PoPs (Points of Presence) and Anycast routing, enabling sub-100ms Time to First Byte (TTFB) across six continents. This positions Rocket.net as a formidable alternative for enterprises prioritizing low-latency content delivery and robust security without compromising cost efficiency.

Cloudways vs Rocket.net

Rocket.net’s proprietary integration with Cloudflare Enterprise bypasses traditional CDN bolt-ons by natively serving entire websites—including HTML, CSS, and media assets—directly from the edge. Unlike Cloudways, which relies on third-party CDNs (e.g., StackPath) or manual Cloudflare configurations, Rocket.net automates full-page static asset caching across Cloudflare’s network, achieving near-instant cache propagation and atomic purging via WordPress REST API hooks.

For dynamic content, Rocket.net employs Cloudflare’s Edge Cache Reserve (persistent cache tier) and Smart Tiered Cache prefetching, reducing origin server load by 92% compared to uncached PHP-driven requests.

While WooCommerce and LMS sites require selective cache exclusions, Rocket.net supports Edge-Side Includes (ESI) for partial dynamic content rendering, coupled with OPcache (PHP 8.3) and Redis object caching at the origin layer.

Rocket.net’s security framework is fortified by Cloudflare’s Zero Trust suite, including:

  • Advanced DDoS Mitigation: Layer 3/4 volumetric attack absorption (7Tbps+ capacity) and Layer 7 WAF with OWASP Top 10 rulesets.
  • Rate Limiting & Bot Management: AI-driven bot score challenges and credential stuffing protection for /wp-admin and /wp-login.php endpoints.
  • Origin Shield: Isolated origin IPs with Cloudflare Tunnel integration, eliminating public IP exposure—a critical vulnerability in standard Cloudways setups.

In 2023, Rocket.net reported a 99.99% threat-block rate, with zero successful SQLi/XSS intrusions across its client base, validated by independent audits.

Also, Rocket.net’s stack is fine-tuned for WordPress:

  • HTTP/3 & QUIC Support: Reduces latency via multiplexed streams over UDP.
  • Brotli Compression: Achieves 15-20% smaller asset sizes vs. gzip.
  • Auto-Healing Hardware: NVMe storage with RAID 10 redundancy and 100% uptime SLA since Q2 2022.
  • Free WP Rocket License: Thanks to its partnership with WP Rocket, all Rocket.net customers get WP Rocket license free of charge.

Developers benefit from Git integration, staging environments with one-click cloning, and Cloudflare Workers for edge function deployment—features often requiring complex configurations on Cloudways.

Despite its enterprise capabilities, Rocket.net’s pricing aligns with mid-tier hosts, starting at $30/month for 50k visits, including premium features Cloudways charges as add-ons:

  • Free Cloudflare Enterprise ($240/month value)
  • Real-time malware scanning
  • White-glove migration (25+ sites migrated daily)

Rocket.net redefines managed WordPress hosting by merging Cloudflare’s edge network with an optimized LEMP stack, offering a technically superior alternative to Cloudways.

Its edge-native architecture, coupled with uncompromised security and TCO efficiency, positions it as the optimal choice for businesses targeting global audiences without sacrificing developer agility. For organizations prioritizing performance metrics and Zero Trust security, Rocket.net delivers a future-proof infrastructure unmatched by conventional cloud platforms.

WPX Hosting

wpx deals 1

WPX Hosting is one of the best-managed WordPress hosting services today. Top marketer Mathew Woodward has proudly recommended it due to its remarkable performance and dedicated support team. It offers lightning-fast loading speed and provides unlimited site migrations, unlike most other Cloudways alternatives.

If you are looking for fast web hosting, efficient technical support, and great overall performance, then you don’t need to look further than WPX Hosting. Since it is a managed WordPress hosting provider, you needn’t worry about website downtime, system updates, or security scans because the WPX team expertly handles most of these things.

In addition, WPX Hosting also offers free SSL certificates that will help reduce your hosting expenditure’s overall cost. It is well-known for its CDN service, WPX Cloud.

WPX hosting is one of the fastest out there. It offers a great pricing set and incredible storage & bandwidth options. Along with a free built-in cache, WPX also offers free support in detecting and removing malware from hosted websites.

Also, WPX Hosting provides 99.95% uptime and 30-day money-back guarantees. It offers three plans with monthly and yearly billing cycles to keep the pricing simple. All three include features such as free custom CDN, SSL, DDoS protection, staging area, etc. The only significant difference is the number of websites hosted and storage space.

Overall, WPX Hosting is an excellent choice if you want a reliable and efficient hosting provider for your WordPress site.

WP Engine

WP Engine Hosting Homepage: One of the Best Cloudways Alternatives

WP Engine has more than 500,000 customers from across 120 countries and data centers in Tokyo, the U.S., and London. It is notable for exclusively offering WordPress-based shared and dedicated hosting. By virtue of its mastery over hosting, many prominent organizations such as America’s Funniest Videos, Arizona State University, and Thomson Reuters have opted for it. It offers most of the features that one would expect from major hosting companies, along with some cool extras.

Currently, WP Engine is the only hosting service provider worldwide that offers Genesis Framework and over 35 premium StudioPress themes for free. It is backed up by Cloudflare CDN and a multi-datacenter clustered environment. In addition, it features proprietary Evercache technology that allows pages to load faster by combining caching and proxy servers. Apart from auto plugin updates, it also provides both AWS and Google Cloud Platform for optimal speed.

You will receive an SSL certificate free of charge with your hosting subscription. Also, WP Engine performs daily malware scans and has a powerful firewall to block the latest threats. It also offers enterprise-grade firewalls, real-time threat detection, and free hacking remediation by WordPress-trained security experts.

WP Engine is also well-known for its website staging feature with all of its plans. It recently extended its 24/7 customer support to all clients via telephone and chat. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer email or register domain names yet. You’ll have to sign up with a third-party company for email and register a domain name at a dedicated URL registrar such as NameCheap.

Liquid Web

liquidweb wordpress

Liquid Web is a powerful web hosting service that several major brands trust. It offers a wide range of cloud, dedicated, reseller, virtual private server (VPS), and WordPress server packages that are strong and flexible enough to power the likes of Eddie Bauer, Home Depot, National Geographic, Porsche, and Symantec.

Liquid Web has a particularly glowing reputation for managed hosting. It smoothly handles the website’s administrative duties and support tasks, no matter how complicated they are. Such a service is mainly intended for large businesses. Liquid Web does not offer shared web hosting, which individuals and smaller companies commonly use.

The company’s RAM and storage totals are among the best for their price range. Unlike many other VPS services, it only charges you for the number of days you use the service per month. You will find that feature helpful if you cancel your account. Through its Nexcess brand, Liquid Web offers seven tiers of managed WordPress web hosting, starting at $19 monthly for a single domain, a 15GB solid-state drive, and 2TB of monthly data transfers.

Liquid Web offers firewalls, virtual private networks (VPN), Secure Socket Layer (SSL), malware scanning and removal, and more for optimal security. It also has a reliable uptime and an efficient customer support team. Despite lacking shared hosting packages, Liquid Web’s exceptional dedicated and VPS hosting make it a worthy choice.

Bluehost

bluehost home

Bluehost is a veteran web hosting provider that WordPress officially recommends. It provides affordable web hosting and currently powers over two million websites, with an impressive 99% uptime and a minimum response time of 405 ms. The strong points of Bluehost hosting are its incredible speed, free CDN, generous SSD storage, and affordable pricing.

Bluehost has outdone its rivals regarding shared hosting by virtue of its free domain name deal and SSL certification. However, although it is one of the most affordable hosting options for beginners, you might want better options as your website grows. That’s where dedicated hosting and VPS hosting come in. The former is a more robust and reliable hosting option for optimal website performance, while the latter gives you more control, flexibility, and power.

Also, Bluehost offers Blue Sky – a service that teaches you how to build, grow, and maintain WordPress websites through individual training and guidance. Its live WordPress support starts at $29 per month for on-demand ticket support and backup assistance, going up to $149 per month for SEO tools, access to Constant Contact, and help with content optimization and mobile optimization.

Besides hosting services, Bluehost gives you additional tools to assist your business with design and marketing strategies, allowing you to focus more on running your business and revenue-generating activities. Overall, it is an ideal choice for beginners in particular. You should go for it if you are a blogger, small business owner, or even have an eCommerce store.

Hostinger

hostinger home

Hostinger is a wholesome hosting solution with LiteSpeed servers to offer faster load times and improve your conversion rate, search engine optimization, and great user experience. It offers three hosting plans: Single, Premium, and Business, ranging from $1.99 to $11.59 per month. Depending on your plan, you will receive SSD storage space ranging from 50 GB to 200 GB.

Hostinger’s plans invariably include a free SSL certificate, a free domain (except for the Single Plan, in the latter case), and a 30-day money-back guarantee. In addition, it provides an LSCWP cache plugin that makes your website four times faster than other hosting services. Also, it offers fully managed WordPress hosting with handy features, including a user-friendly control panel and automatic WordPress updates.

With Hostinger’s WordPress staging tool, you can safely explore new features. Likewise, you can create a duplicate website with just a few clicks and make edits without affecting your live website. Also, Hostinger gives you round-the-clock WordPress support. You can contact its customer success team via live chat anytime, regardless of your time zone. Apart from this, it provides an extensive knowledge base and WordPress tutorials from its experts.

To enhance security, Hostinger provides free SSL certificates, an in-house developed web application firewall, and anti-DDoS protection to shield your site from cyberattacks. Overall, Hostinger is a great choice for customers who prefer cost-effective solutions over performance.

GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks Home

Amid the heavy competition in the web hosting industry, GreenGeeks has earned a reputation for being one of the more eco-friendly hosting solutions. Aiming to be a maximum use and no waste of resources company, it purchases three times the electricity it consumes in Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to offset carbon output. Besides its commitment to green hosting, GreenGeeks strives to provide excellent hosting services.

GreenGeeks is a beginner-friendly hosting service with a simple yet modern-looking dashboard paired with the powerful cPanel. This combo gives you an intuitive yet functional management experience, whether you are a newcomer or an experienced user. Remember that you will require the GreenGeeks cPanel for WordPress installation, domain management, setting up professional email accounts, and other tasks such as configuring SEO tools and database management.

I was disappointed that GreenGeeks doesn’t automatically activate an SSL certificate on your behalf. Fortunately, you can easily do that yourself and either go with the free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate or pay for the Premium AlphaSSL certificate. In addition, the hosting service issues a 99.9% uptime guarantee and offers three different customer support methods – 24/7 live chat, phone support (9 AM to 12 AM EST), and email (with approximately 15-20 minutes of wait time).

Overall, GreenGeeks is a highly affordable, fast, easy-to-use, and secure hosting provider.

Conclusion

Although Cloudways is a great hosting service provider, it does have some drawbacks. In that case, you should go through the Cloudways alternatives I have listed here.  Make sure you review your requirements first to find yourself the best-suited cloud hosting service provider in the market.