Fast WordPress hosting is important for good user experience and SEO. I spent the past two years testing several platforms trying to figure out what worked best and settled on Vultr or Digital Ocean through the Cloudways platform. Sure, you can sign up directly with Digital Ocean or Vultr but the Cloudways platform provides an assortment of useful tools for managing servers and applications that make complex tasks easy.
My Hosting Test Requirements:
- WordPress must be easy install – Cloudways has an integrated installer
- WordPress must be fast, even wit larger plugins like WooCommerce or LearnDash
- Easy to scale up as a site grows
- Automatic backups and easy site restoration
- Predictable fees
- Good customer service and thorough help documentation
- Good user reviews and consistent performance over multiple years
What is Cloudways?
Cloudways is a platform that sits between you and the hosting environment. It provides an extensive collection of sever and application management and monitoring tools in a pleasant un-intimidating graphical interface.
I’ve used Digital Ocean on numerous projects with great results but maintenance tasks required technical knowledge that most clients don’t have and that I don’t like to mess with via command line. The Cloudways interface makes these tasks easy.
Digital Ocean and Vultr Are NOT The Only Cloudways Hosting Options
Vultr and Digital Ocean worked out best for my site needs but they are not the only options on Cloudways. You can also host on Linode, AWS or Google Cloud through Cloudways all of which are solid environments. Linode is relatively low cost and similar to Digital Ocean and Vultr but AWS and Google Cloud can be much more expensive. The only reason I haven’t used Linode is lack of experience with it.
Video Tour of Cloudways Platform:
Here are three videos I made about Cloudways:
If you have questions about Cloudways or the platforms available on it, get in contact with me HERE. I have a lot of experience with it.
You can learn more about Cloudways and sign up here (this is an affiliate link): https://www.cloudways.com/en/?id=933852