Choosing the best hosting for your website is more crucial than ever. Managed cloud hosting is becoming a top choice over shared hosting. The former offers superior performance, security, and the ability to grow alongside your website’s needs. Cloud hosting, unlike shared hosting, gives you access to dedicated resources, allowing your website to handle traffic spikes with ease. For WordPress users, managed cloud hosting provider Cloudways offers a library of special features, including automatic backups and optimized server settings specifically designed for WordPress performance. So, when picking between cloud and shared hosting, think about speed, safety, and scalability. Shared hosting can be a suitable option for small websites. However, for businesses with ambitions to grow, or those already experiencing significant traffic, choosing a managed cloud hosting on Cloudways is the smarter move. In today’s article, let’s look at Cloudways hosting and explore how it can contribute to your business growth.
Managed Cloud Hosting vs. Shared Hosting
Choosing the right hosting is key for your website to thrive. Let’s take a look at how managed cloud hosting and shared hosting compare. It’ll help you pick the best choice.
Performance Comparison
Managed cloud hosting wins over shared hosting in speed and dependability. It can cut down server response times for WordPress sites, making them more enjoyable for visitors. The design of cloud hosting spreads resources better, making pages load faster.
Security Features
Both hosting options take security seriously but managed cloud hosting offers stronger defenses. It comes with top-notch firewalls, steady security updates, and teams dedicated to fighting off threats. This is key when you depend on WordPress auto-updates to protect your site.
Scalability and Flexibility
Cloud hosting is known for its ability to grow with your website. This flexibility is great, especially when moving a WordPress site. It ensures the move happens smoothly without any downtimes.
Pricing Structures
Shared hosting is often more affordable, but managed cloud hosting can be the most efficient option in a long run. Here’s a look at what you might find for different prices.
| Feature | Shared Hosting | Managed Cloud Hosting |
| Starting Price | $3-$10/month | $10-$30/month |
| Resource Allocation | Limited | Flexible |
| Performance | Variable | Consistent |
| Scalability | Limited | Highly Scalable |
| Security | Basic | Advanced |
If you care most about fast, secure websites, managed cloud hosting provides top-notch service. It cuts down on server wait times for WordPress pages and keeps everything running smoothly.
Cloudways’ Approach to Managed Cloud Hosting
Cloudways is a popular choice among WordPress users. It uses an innovative method that boosts your website’s speed. Let’s dig into what sets Cloudways apart.
Cloudways cares about making WordPress hosting easy for you. They have lots of cool features:
- One-click WordPress installation
- Built-in caching solutions
- Free SSL certificates
- 24/7 support
Plus, they automatically update WordPress for you. This keeps your site safe and current without any work on your end.
Cloudways Flexible or Cloudways Autonomous?
Cloudways offers two distinct managed cloud hosting plans: Flexible and Autonomous. Choosing the right option depends on your specific needs and level of technical expertise.
Cloudways Flexible
A customizable and cost-effective managed hosting solution.
Key Benefits:
- Scalability on Demand: Easily adjust server resources (CPU, RAM) up or down as your website traffic fluctuates.
- Managed Expertise: Cloudways takes care of server maintenance and security, freeing you to focus on your website.
- Cost-Effective: Pay-as-you-go billing ensures you only pay for the resources you use.
- Choice of Cloud Providers: Select the cloud provider that best suits your needs (DigitalOcean, Vultr, etc.).
Ideal for:
- Websites with predictable traffic patterns may experience occasional spikes.
- Users are comfortable with managing basic server settings (e.g., PHP version).
- Agencies are managing multiple client websites with varying resource needs.
Cloudways Autonomous
A fully-managed, hands-off solution for automatic scaling.
Key Benefits:
- Effortless Autoscaling: Autonomous automatically scales your resources based on real-time traffic, ensuring optimal performance during surges.
- Zero Server Management: Forget server configuration and maintenance – Cloudways takes care of everything.
- Built-in Security & Performance: Cloudflare Enterprise integration provides robust security and lightning-fast loading times.
- Focus on Growth: Forget about server worries and concentrate on content creation.
Ideal for:
- E-commerce stores anticipating seasonal traffic spikes.
- Websites with unpredictable traffic patterns.
- Users who prefer a completely hands-off hosting experience.
- Businesses prioritizing growth and scaling without technical complexities.
Choosing Between Flexible and Autonomous
Need control and customization? Choose Flexible.
Prioritize effortless scaling and a hands-off approach? Choose Autonomous.
Still unsure? Cloudways offers a free trial for both plans, allowing you to test-drive each option and see which best suits your needs.
Cloudways Built-in Plugins – Breeze
Cloudways goes beyond just managed cloud hosting. They offer a suite of built-in tools and plugins specifically designed to simplify WordPress website management.
One such tool is the Cloudways Breeze plugin. Breeze is a free WordPress cache plugin. Caching essentially stores copies of static website elements like images and scripts, allowing them to load faster for returning visitors. This can significantly improve website performance and user experience.
What sets Breeze apart is its user-friendly interface. Unlike some complex caching plugins, Breeze requires no coding knowledge and offers an easy setup. With a few clicks, you can activate caching and enjoy the results.
Here’s a closer look at what Breeze offers:
- Simplified Caching: Breeze automatically manages the caching of static files, streamlining the process for beginners.
- Performance Optimization: By caching frequently accessed content, Breeze reduces server load times, leading to faster website loading speeds.
- Optimized Database: Breeze helps keep your WordPress database clean and optimized, further enhancing website performance.
- Easy Integration: Breeze integrates seamlessly with Cloudways’ built-in Varnish Cache for an extra layer of caching power.
Cloudways Backups and Staging
Cloudways staging environments provide a safe space to test website changes without affecting your live site. Here’s what they offer:
- Secure Staging Environment: Staging environments come with htpasswd authentication for secure access (option to disable).
- Advanced Management with SSH and SFTP Access: Gain SSH & SFTP access for direct management and whitelist IP addresses for additional security.
- Flexibility: Choose from 5 cloud providers (AWS, GCE, DigitalOcean, etc.) with 60+ global data centers.
- SSL-Enabled Staging: All staging environments come pre-installed with SSL certificates, ensuring secure communication between your staging site and users.
Cloudways SafeUpdates
In addition to secure testing environments, Cloudways offers SafeUpdates, a powerful tool that automates WordPress updates. Here’s how it works:
- Automated Detection & Backup: SafeUpdates automatically detects updates for your WordPress core, themes, and plugins. It also creates a fresh backup before initiating the update process, ensuring a safety net in case of any issues.
- Automated Testing: SafeUpdates doesn’t just install updates. It thoroughly tests them on a temporary staging environment, using various checks like Visual Regression, Performance, Logs, and HTML checks to ensure compatibility and functionality.
- Auto-Deployment: After successful testing, SafeUpdates deploys the updates to your live site. If any issues arise during testing, SafeUpdates automatically notifies you, keeping your website safe.
Cloudways Client Billing
Cloudways recently presented a new feature, which is the all-in-one billing and payments solution. This is a single platform purposely built to automate and handle your recurring invoices and payments to help you avoid handling all these processes manually. By activating this all-inclusive billing solution, you will be able to save time and enhance productivity.
How Does Client Billing Work?
Using the Client Billing feature, you can automate invoice generation and bill collection systems. This will significantly reduce complexity and minimize billing errors. You are able to easily connect your Stripe account to accept payments from anywhere you want. After connecting your payment method, you need to set up your company profile including such details as your logo, brand colors, etc. Lastly, you should create client profiles, assign services, and establish billing cycles for automating recurring invoices. This, in turn, ensures quicker and more consistent payment.
Key Features
- White Label Solution: This enables you to have your invoices customized with your firm’s logo and brand colors to make them professional.
- Unlimited Invoices: You can transmit unlimited invoices, even under the free plan, and handle them easily.
- Subscription Billing: You are able to automate ongoing invoicing for subscriptions to facilitate regular and timely payments.
- Online and Offline Payments: Stripe or any other popular payment method is highly acceptable.
- Multi-Currency Support: Client Billing globally supports 135+ currencies. So, you can bill your clients in their native currency.
Use Cases
- Freelancers: If you are a freelancer who is exhausted from billing clients manually, Client Billing will save your time and reduce the possible errors. It automates your invoicing process by smoothing out cash flow issues. Through the collection simplification, one can maintain a healthy income without resorting to follow-ups.
- Small Agencies: In the case of small agencies, recurring invoice management across many clients can become easier with the help of Client Billing. You can customize invoices with your agency’s branding using this system which creates a professional look to strengthen your brand image.
- Large-Scale Agencies: Managing extensive client lists can be difficult especially when dealing with various services and billing cycles. Cloudways Client Billing allows agencies to automate their invoicing process whether they have a few clients or hundreds of them. The white-label feature ensures that your brand image remains consistent while enabling all receipts to remain professional.
Pricing
The Client Billing feature is available absolutely for free for 1 client with an unlimited invoice generation option. For more clients and services, you need to activate one of the pro packages at this pricing:
- Growth – $4.99 per month
- Scale – $13.99 per month
Malware Protection
Cloudways’ Malware Protection add-on allows you to carefully look after your website security. This solution automatically detects and cleans malware on your website for safety purposes.
Key Features
- Automated Malware Detection and Cleanup: The feature protects your site by scanning and removing any existing malware.
- Proactive Defense: The tool detects and removes malicious code in real time by blocking most threats from taking root.
- On-Demand Scanning: For extra assurance, it does full system scans.
- Scan History: You can keep track of previous scans and receive reports with detailed information about previous results.
- Restore Files: To ensure that the integrity of the website is maintained, one can easily restore cleaned files individually or in bulk.
- Seamless Integration: All security management tasks are directly handled via the Cloudways platform without using other plugins.
Use Cases
- Prevent Financial and Reputational Losses: With the Cloudways Malware Protection add-on, you will prevent brand damage and potential financial losses caused by malware infections.
- Secure Any CMS: This add-on works across different platforms including WordPress, Magento, custom PHP, etc.
- Effortless Security Management: You are able to manage all aspects of security from one place.
Pricing
By securing more websites, you will spend less money due to the add-on’s flexible pricing plans:
- 1-5 apps – $4 per month
- 6-15 apps – $3 per month
- 15+ apps – $2 per month
Conclusion
Shared hosting might seem like a good starting point, but it can quickly limit your website growth. Cloudways managed cloud hosting offers a powerful alternative. Experience reliable speed even during traffic spikes, robust security features to protect your website, and the ability to easily adjust resources as your needs grow. Cloudways simplifies website management with automated backups, secure testing environments, and built-in WordPress optimization tools. If you’re ready to unlock your website’s potential, start your 3-day free trial on Cloudways now!
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