In 2020, site performance is going to be one of the most important factors for your website. Google ranks websites that are faster, and it has done it time and time again.
If you are launching a website for the first time, you should know that Google has developed a page speed tool that lets you check the speed of your website. The websites that are slower – take more than 3 seconds to load – are considered ‘poor’ according to Google bots.
So, what makes a website slow?
Many factors can lead to poor site performance, but the main reason is the hosting infrastructure it uses.
On a shared host, multiple sites are crammed on a single server. This triggers a “war” for resources between them, resulting in slow performance and increased downtime of websites.
Cloudways to the Rescue
To tackle the problem of shared resources, one can get a managed hosting platform like Cloudways since it offers super-fast browsing speeds to its users. As a site owner, you can expect faster performance, complete scalability, and ultimately complete peace of mind.
Why Choose Cloudways for WordPress?
Source: Cloudways Website Tests
The image above is of a website hosted on Cloudways WordPress managed hosting platform. The Pingdom results show that the website loaded in just under 80ms. This WordPress website had the pre-installed theme available. At the time of the test, it wasn’t using any plugins.
This is just one example. There are many websites hosted on Cloudways WordPress hosting platform that experience faster page performance. The cloud hosting platform offers five infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers, including DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, AWS, Linode, and Vultr. These cloud servers are responsible for making websites load at lightning speeds. How do they do that?
- Cloud servers provide specific resources to servers
- They isolate them so that other apps/servers don’t override their resources
- They allow them to scale (or add new resources when necessary)
However, these cloud servers are too complex to manage by the end-users. That’s where Cloudways managed platform comes to your rescue. Unlike other cloud server management control panels that need to be linked with the server through lengthy coding, Cloudways lets you launch a server of your choice with the click of a button.
WordPress Users Love Cloudways Hosting… why?
Cloudways is so easy to use, most of the WordPress users love it. The image below is a testimony that Cloudways is better than most other server management platforms in the market.
Source: WordPress Hosting group
Most WordPress users prefer Cloudways because of its active community, instant server support, freedom of choice, affordability, and scalability. Whether you want to launch a business website, a blog, an affiliate website, or an eCommerce store, Cloudways has a hosting package available to best suit your needs.
Source: WordPress Hosting
Comparing Cloudways & Other Hosting Control Panels
In comparison to other cloud hosting platforms, Cloudways wins because of the level of service it offers and the price at which it offers that service.
For example, a hosting control panel lets users launch a cloud server through a GUI interface.
Source: Cpanel hosting panel
Let’s say the server costs $10/month. The hosting control panel alone will cost $30/month, with a basic level of support. Now add these two prices, and the total cost of hosting a single website is $40/month, and sometimes even more.
However, with Cloudways, a person can launch a server for as low as $10/month – no gimmicks involved. Moreover, Cloudways follows a pay-as-you-go model, thereby charging the user for the server resources consumed.
Features of Cloudways Hosting Platform
Let’s learn more about Cloudways platform features.
1-Click Server Launch
Launch your server on Cloudways with just one click. The platform has made it easy for anyone to create their first website. They only have to…
- Launch the server.
- Point their domain to the server.
- Customize the website. That’s it.
59 Server Locations
Cloudways offers 59 server locations. No matter where your audience resides, you can launch a server that is near to that location with Cloudways. No other WordPress hosting platform/control panel offers this kind of flexibility. For example, If your target market is Australia, you can launch a server from Sydney.
Superior Security
The hackers and spammers are ever-ready to attack your website. To counter online attacks, Cloudways offers features like two-factor authentication, application isolation, IP Whitelisting, Cloudways firewall, SSL certificates, user role management, and end-to-end encryption. Learn more about Cloudways store security.
Impressive Performance
Cloudways optimizes each server with three-layers of cache on a single stack, called ‘ThunderStack’. It adds Redis, Varnish, and Memcached server-level caches to each server you launch and increases your site speed.
Source: Cloudways ThunderStack platform
Speed of a website launched on Cloudways. Source: Faster website hosting blog
Customer Support
Site not working? Server issues? No worries! Cloudways Support Team is an active 24/7/3655 to address user queries. Click on the Live Chat icon on the Cloudways website, and the engineers will be ready to help. You can even get premium support for $500 (this is a premium support addon) to help resolve application-level issues.
Free SSL Certificate
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate is now essential for all websites. Even Google shows a ‘Not Secure’ tag on the Chrome browser for websites that do not have SSL certificates. However, when you host with Cloudways, your problem is automatically solved because Cloudways offers SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt for FREE.
CloudwaysCDN
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) lets you deliver content to multiple users without compromising on server performance. It also reduces the risk of DDoS attacks on your website. With Cloudways, you can get a CloudwaysCDN for as low as $1. Read more about CloudwaysCDN.
Staging URLs
Cloudways allows users to test new features, apps, and websites in a staging environment. You can test your websites/apps before you take them to live on a running server.
What hosting options does Cloudways offer?
Cloudways allows you to launch your server on any one of the five IaaS providers, including DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, AWS, Vultr, and Linode. You can launch a 1GB server or a 384GB server (currently, the latter is only supported on AWS cloud server).
Screengrab of Cloudways Platform
1. Create an account on Cloudways. Cloudways offers a free 3-day trial on DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode.
2. Select your desired application. I am using WordPress with WooCommerce for the purpose of this review.
3. Select an IaaS provider. I have used AWS as it is the most used cloud provider.
4. I have selected a ‘small’ server on AWS. It offers both small and large servers, and you can choose one that fulfills your website’s requirements.
5. Select a location that is nearest to your target audience.
6. It is time to launch your server. Hit ‘Launch Now’ to get started.
7. Your server will be created in just a few minutes.
Conclusion
Cloudways is one of the fastest managed WordPress cloud hosting platforms. It caters to eCommerce, blogs, affiliate websites, and web apps. Whether you are starting a digital business and looking for a reliable host or are frustrated with your current web hosting service, Cloudways is the right solution for your needs. You can compare it to other hosting services, so for example, check this 2020 Hostinger review.
Get started for FREE with Cloudways by launching your first web application today.
Note: Free trial is only available on DigitalOcean, Linode, and Vultr. Empowering people to move their dreams forward.