I had lost my faith in web hosting systems. My blog of 3 years was dead-slow, constantly getting attacked and hemorrhaging my savings through maintenance & web-security charges. In my desperation to find something secure, I came to know about Cloudways & Cloudways SSL. And boy, was I glad I did!
The Cloud system was always deemed as faster and safer. But setting up a web hosting system with the cloud is a pain. You need to have the technical know-how and always be ready to fix a problem that can happen often.
This is where Cloudways come in. They will manage your cloud web hosting needs so that you can focus on your work. Cloudways is a boon for me as I didn’t wanna spend half my life trying to figure out how clouds work. All I needed to do was to pay an affordable premium for a seamless stress-free hosting experience.
But before we get into Cloudways SSL, Let’s know more about Cloudways with our Cloudways Review.
Here, I will share with you the benefits I made from shifting my web hosting to the cloud through Cloudways. Also, I will discuss the pros & cons and the pricing of the same.
About Cloudways
Cloudways was found in 2016 by 2 bloggers who were frustrated due to the constant up-keeping issues they faced. So they went ahead and created a solution that would manage all the tedious tasks.
Cloudways do not have their own cloud hosting platform. Instead, they link with the established cloud hosting providers. In other words, Cloudways is the manager and head of security of your rental property.
The cloud infrastructure is provided by:
- DigitalOcean
- Linode
- Vultr
- Amazon Web Service (AWS)
- Google Cloud
You would think that setting up a direct account with these providers is the best way. I thought that too. That is when the problems started.
After starting with DigitalOcean, I got barraged with technical questions I had no clue about. I kept seeing error messages with almost every click and that was just day one. It was a nightmarish scenario with no end in sight.
This was not working for me at all. I decided to throw in the towel and get my refund. I still wondered how the hell people used cloud platforms. After asking around in threads & forums, I got the answer. The solution was simple. Most of them did it through a managed hosting platform.
Doing some quick research on Google, Cloudways stood out for me as the best of the lot. Their flexible pricing & versatile support had me hooked.
My WordPress site got transferred to the cloud in under 5 minutes. The page load speed was mind-boggling. Even though I had a 3-day free trial, I signed up immediately.
What is SSL?
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. In layman’s terms, it is a technology for securing the data present over an internet connection. SSL is what separates https:// from http://
Having an SSL certificate is necessary to gain the trust of your visitors and clients. SSL certification ensures that the information they enter is secure & won’t leak out. This is especially important if you have an eCommerce store or an online business.
The presence of SSL makes the data transferred over HTTPS safe & encrypted. SSL offers authentication to ensure that the destination & data source is genuine. It also protects data integrity by ensuring that no data was lost or altered during data transportation.
SSL will also help you with SEO rankings as Google favors webpages having SSL in their address.
SSL works by exchanging a set of secret keys between the end-users. These keys encrypt and decrypt the data that is transferred. This process is called an SSL handshake. An SSL handshake is invisible to the user & it is established instantly.
SSL certificate is now completely replaced by a TLS certificate. However, it is still called an SSL certificate.
About Cloudways SSL
Cloudways SSL will provide you with a free SSL certificate from a third-party vendor named Let’s Encrypt.
There are 3 validation levels in SSL certificates
- Domain validation – The most basic level of SSL validation
- Organization validation – This is more complex than domain validation. Used by online businesses & eCommerce websites.
- Extended validation – This is the highest level of SSL certificate validation.
Let Encrypt provides domain validity certificates free of cost for 90 days.
How to Add Cloudways SSL to Your Website?
Here I will tell you how to add Cloudways to your WordPress site.
The first step is to sign up with Cloudways using your email id. Simply click on the Launch button after verifying your email.
Next, you will see an option for selecting your application and server. Choose WordPress and the version if you’re using a WordPress site.
After this step, you will see the option to choose a cloud infrastructure. The five options are DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform. I would recommend going with DigitalOcean if your requirements aren’t too large.
Now you will see the option to select your server size. The server size is selected based on your expected monthly traffic. You can always scale your server size any time you want. This means that if your website appears on CNN and a huge surge of traffic flows your way, you can scale up the server size to prevent your website from crashing.
The server location is also chosen along with the server size.
Finally, go to Access Details and click on the admin panel to see the URL & credentials of your WordPress dashboard.
How to Add Free SSL Certificates to Your Website?
First of all, launch your server with WordPress with the aforementioned steps.
Click on the Applications Management button that you can find under the Applications tab.
When you click on the SSL certificate, a window will pop up. Enter your domain name & your registered email address. Choose Let’s Encrypt from the options and click on the Install Certificates button.
You can also add multiple domains to the list so that every domain will receive an SSL certificate.
A convenient feature of Cloudways SSL is that you can utilize an auto-renewal option. Enabling this option will renew your SSL certificate automatically when it expires.
How to Install Paid SSL Certificates to Your Website?
Follow all the steps as before until you reach the SSL certificate tab.
Choose the option – “I do not have a certificate” from the list of choices.
Then you should click on the option Create CSR. CSR stands for certificate signing request.
A form will pop up where you can submit the details and then download the CSR.
Your WordPress SSL certificate vendor will give you an SSL certificate in exchange for this CSR file.
Finally, click on the Install certificate and your SSL will be good to go.
Key Features of Cloudways
- 24/7 Support – There is Live Chat support & ticket raising option.
- Managed Backups – Automatic backups can be set up at an offsite location as per your needs.
- Free SSL – An in-built Let’s Encrypt SSL will cover all your web security requirements.
- Dedicated firewalls – Firewalls will protect your hosted servers from malicious intruders.
- Multiple Databases – Choose between MySQL and MariaDB as per your convenience.
- Seamless Scaling – Scale up your ram and storage capacities any time you receive a surge in traffic.
- Auto-healing Servers – Do not worry about the website crashing with the auto-healing servers.
- Account Management Dashboard – A stop and user-friendly place for all your controls.
Cloudways Pricing
You can’t put a price on your peace of mind. That is what Cloudways provide. You will get the peace of mind for a little extra fee by letting Cloudways manage your hosting needs.
The pricing of Cloudways depends upon the cloud platform you select.
DigitalOcean:
This is a four-tier pricing system that is further split into monthly & hourly rates. It comes with a free trial.
- $10 per month or $0.0139 per hour plan – This plan will give you 1 GB ram with a 1 core processor. You will have a storage space of 25 GB and a 1 TB bandwidth.
- $22 per month or $0.0306 per hour plan – This plan will give you 2 GB ram with a 1 core processor. You will have a storage space of 50 GB and a 2 TB bandwidth.
- $42 per month or $0.0583 per hour plan – This plan will give you 4 GB ram with a 2 core processor. You will have a storage space of 80 GB and a 4 TB bandwidth.
- $80 per month or $0.1111 per hour plan – This plan will give you 8 GB ram with a 4 core processor. You will have a storage space of 160 GB and a 5 TB bandwidth.
Linode:
This is also a four-tier pricing system that is further split into monthly & hourly rates. It comes with a free trial.
- $12 per month or $0.0167 per hour plan – This plan will give you 1 GB ram with a 1 core processor. You will have a storage space of 25 GB and a 1 TB bandwidth.
- $24 per month or $0.0333 per hour plan – This plan will give you 2 GB ram with a 1 core processor. You will have a storage space of 50 GB and a 2 TB bandwidth.
- $50 per month or $0.0694 per hour plan – This plan will give you 4 GB ram with a 2 core processor. You will have a storage space of 80 GB and a 4 TB bandwidth.
- $90 per month or $0.1250 per hour plan – This plan will give you 8 GB ram with a 4 core processor. You will have a storage space of 160 GB and a 5 TB bandwidth.
Vultr:
Vultr also has a four-tier pricing system that is split into monthly & hourly rates and is further split into Standard & High-frequency sections. You can choose the server location in the High-frequency pack. It comes with a free trial.
Standard Pack:
- $11 per month or $0.0153 per hour plan – This plan will give you 1 GB ram with a 1 core processor. You will have a storage space of 25 GB and a 1 TB bandwidth.
- $23 per month or $0.0319 per hour plan – This plan will give you 2 GB ram with a 1 core processor. You will have a storage space of 55 GB and a 2 TB bandwidth.
- $44 per month or $0.0611 per hour plan – This plan will give you 4 GB ram with a 2 core processor. You will have a storage space of 80 GB and a 3 TB bandwidth.
- $84 per month or $0.1167 per hour plan – This plan will give you 8 GB ram with a 4 core processor. You will have a storage space of 160 GB and a 4 TB bandwidth.
High-frequency pack:
- $13 per month or $0.0180 per hour plan – This plan will give you 1 GB ram with a 1 core processor. You will have a storage space of 32 GB and a 1 TB bandwidth.
- $26 per month or $0.0361 per hour plan – This plan will give you 2 GB ram with a 1 core processor. You will have a storage space of 64 GB and a 2 TB bandwidth.
- $50 per month or $0.0694 per hour plan – This plan will give you 4 GB ram with a 2 core processor. You will have a storage space of 128 GB and a 3 TB bandwidth.
- $100 per month or $0.1388 per hour plan – This plan will give you 8 GB ram with a 3 core processor. You will have a storage space of 256 GB and a 4 TB bandwidth.
Amazon Web Service (AWS):
AWS has a four-tier pricing system that is split into monthly and hourly rates. There is no free trial.
- $36.51 per month or $0.0507 per hour plan – This plan will give you a 1.75 GB ram with 1 vCPU. You will have a storage space of 20 GB and a 2 GB bandwidth.
- $86.77 per month or $0.1205 per hour plan – This plan will give you 3.75 GB ram with 1 vCPU. You will have a storage space of 20 GB and a 2 GB bandwidth.
- $176.26 per month or $0.2448 per hour plan – This plan will give you 8 GB ram with 2 vCPUs. You will have a storage space of 20 GB and a 2 GB bandwidth.
- $274.33 per month or $0.3810 per hour plan – This plan will give you 16 GB ram with 4 vCPUs. You will have a storage space of 20 GB and a 2 GB bandwidth.
Google Cloud:
This plan has a four-tier pricing system that is split into monthly and hourly rates. There is no free trial.
- $33.30 per month or $0.0463 per hour plan – This plan will give you 1.70 GB ram with 1 vCPU. You will have a storage space of 20 GB and a 2 GB bandwidth.
- $73.62 per month or $0.1023 per hour plan – This plan will give you 3.75 GB ram with 1 vCPU. You will have a storage space of 20 GB and a 2 GB bandwidth.
- $138.64 per month or $0.1926 per hour plan – This plan will give you 7.5 GB ram with 2 vCPUs. You will have a storage space of 20 GB and a 2 GB bandwidth.
- $226.05 per month or $0.3140 per hour plan – This plan will give you 15 GB ram with 4 vCPUs. You will have a storage space of 20 GB and a 2 GB bandwidth.
All the fees are inclusive of the separate cloud platform fees. You will not have to pay anything extra.
Cloudways: Pros & Cons
Pros
- 24/7 support. A friendly and capable support team always at your disposal.
- Free migration service. Shift your existing website to Cloudways for free.
- A dependable solution. One of the few hosting solutions that are reliable & which won’t let you down.
- Flexible pricing. Pay as you go. Scale-up and down as per your requirements
- Free SSL. Don’t compromise on security with their free SSL certificates.
- Versatility in selection. Choose from 5 different cloud platforms – DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS & Google Cloud.
- Lighting speed. A huge improvement in page load speed will be felt straight away.
Cons
- No email hosting. Will have to rely on external tools for email hosting.
- No cPanel. You will have to get used to their own consoles.
Quick Links:
- Cloudways Staging | The Ultimate Guide Cloudways Staging
- Cloudways Stress Test | Everything You Need To Know?
- How to Use Cloudways API | Is It Really Worth It?
FAQs
✅Do Cloudways have their own cloud platform?
Cloudways do not have their own cloud hosting platform. Instead, they link with the established cloud hosting providers. In other words, Cloudways is the manager and head of security of your rental property.
✅Is an SSL certificate necessary?
Absolutely! Having an SSL certificate is necessary to gain the trust of your visitors and clients. SSL certification ensures that the information they enter is secure & won’t leak out. This is especially important if you have an eCommerce store or an online business.
✅Can I set up my website on Google Cloud through Cloudways?
You can. Apart from Google Cloud, you can also use DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode & AWS.
Conclusion
Cloudways is truly a savior if you are lost in a sea of clouds that make no sense. Their 24/7 support center is a boon for people like me who aren’t cloud-nerds. They offer a very good service for their premium services. You can always scale up in a pay as you go manner.
There aren’t many negative points to speak. I am very much content with using Cloudways. The Cloudways SSL that is available for free is another big plus point. All your security needs are taken care of with SSL.
There is also a 3 day free trial period. Don’t waste time searching for a cloud hosting solution. Head on over to Cloudways and start your free trial today.
