SMB Hosting Built for Fast, Reliable Business Websites
Your business website stays fast and online without you having to manage a single server setting, with performance optimized out of the box, 99.99% uptime, and 24/7 expert support.
600,000+
WordPress Sites Hosted
99.99%
Uptime SLA
72
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Everything a Small Business Needs to Get Online and Stay Online
From launching your website in minutes to keeping it fast and secure as your business grows, Cloudways handles the technical side so you don’t have to.
Your Website Live in Minutes
Choose your cloud provider, deploy WordPress or your preferred app in one click, and your website is live on an optimized server with no technical setup required.
Manage With Confidence
Handle free SSL, automated backups, staging environments, and more from one clean dashboard, without needing a developer or IT team.
Scale Without the Stress
Adjust your server resources in a few clicks as your traffic grows, with no downtime, no migration, and no technical knowledge required.
Powerful Hosting for Every Type of Small Business
Whether you run an eCommerce store, a healthcare practice, a real estate business, or a growing startup, Cloudways gives you fast, reliable hosting that scales with your business.
The Hosting Features Small Businesses Actually Need
Purpose-built for business owners who want fast performance, reliable security, and simple management without the technical complexity.
Lightning Stack
Your website loads fast for every visitor, on a pre-configured Nginx, Varnish, and Redis stack benchmarked at up to 30% faster than traditional server stacks, right out of the box.
Built-in Caches
Built-in Memcached, Varnish, and Redis caching layers keep your website fast under real traffic conditions, with no manual configuration required.
Optimized Stack
Nginx, Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, and PHP-FPM pre-configured and optimized for WordPress, handling traffic spikes without slowing down your business website.
PHP 8 Ready
Run your business website on a PHP 8 ready server for faster page loading, better WordPress performance, and improved security over previous versions.
Cloudflare
Protect your website from DDoS attacks and malicious traffic while keeping it fast and available for customers, even during unexpected traffic spikes.
Breeze Plugin
Cloudways’ free, lightweight cache plugin comes pre-installed on every WordPress site, improving page speed and Core Web Vitals scores without any manual setup.
Dedicated Firewalls
Platform-level firewalls protect your business website against IP spoofing, phishing, and unauthorized access, keeping your site and customer data secure around the clock.
SSL Certificates
Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates keep your customers’ data encrypted, build trust with every visitor, and signal credibility to search engines.
Login Security
Your account is protected with two-factor authentication and instant notifications for any login attempts from unrecognized devices.
IP Whitelisting
Control who can access your server by whitelisting trusted IP addresses, adding an extra layer of protection against unauthorized access.
Application Isolation
Your business website runs in its own isolated server environment, fully protected from other applications and their vulnerabilities.
Database Security
Your business data is stored securely and only accessible remotely via whitelisted IP addresses, keeping sensitive customer information protected at all times.
IaaS Providers
Choose from 150+ data centers across DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, and Linode in 50+ countries, so your business website is always hosted close to your customers.
Block Storage
Expand your website’s storage independently as your business grows, without upgrading your entire server or disrupting your live site.
Vertical Scaling
Scale your server’s RAM, CPU, and storage up in a few clicks as your business traffic grows. Recommended during off-peak hours as the server may restart briefly.
No Contract
Only pay for the resources you actually use, with no fixed monthly fees or long-term commitments. Start small and scale up as your business grows.
1-Click Actions
Back up your website, restore a previous version, or clone your entire setup in one click, with no technical knowledge required.
PHP Versions
Switch between PHP versions up to the latest 8.x to keep your business website compatible and running on the most secure, up to date version available.
24/7 Expert Support
Round the clock access to Cloudways hosting specialists via live chat, ready to resolve any issue before it impacts your business or your customers.
Cloudways Copilot
Automatically detect and fix server issues using AI, so problems are resolved in minutes without you needing to raise a support ticket or understand the technical details.
Knowledge Base
Access a comprehensive library of guides, tutorials, and how-tos covering everything from launching your website to optimizing performance, written for non-technical business owners.
Ticketing System
Submit support tickets directly from your dashboard and get prompt responses from Cloudways engineers for any technical issues with your business website.
Advanced Support Addon
Get priority access to Cloudways specialists for hands-on help with performance optimization, plugin troubleshooting, and more.
Proactive Monitoring
Server and application monitoring tools watch your website around the clock, catching issues before they cause downtime and keeping your business running without interruption.
Automated Backups
Schedule automated daily backups of your website and restore any previous version in one click, so a bad update never becomes a permanent problem.
Instant WordPress Setup
Launch a fully configured WordPress website in minutes, with your server stack pre-optimized and ready to perform from day one, no technical setup required.
Site Cloning
Clone your entire website safely to test a new design, plugin, or update before making any changes to your live site.
Cloudways Site Manager
Manage updates, monitor performance, and keep your WordPress website running smoothly from one centralized dashboard, without needing any technical expertise.
1-Click Staging
Test changes, plugins, and design updates on a staging version before pushing anything live, so your customers never see a half-finished change.
SafeUpdates
Automatically test and apply WordPress core, plugin, and theme updates with rollback built in if anything breaks, keeping your website secure and up to date.
Pay Only for What Your Business Actually Uses
No fixed fees, no long-term contracts. Choose from 5 cloud providers, get Lightning Stack performance on every plan, and scale your resources as your business grows.
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Cloudways Flexible
Customizable managed hosting for WordPress, Magento, Laravel & PHP apps. Full control over server resources and cloud choice.
Lightning Stack - Now Available
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Cloudways Autonomous
Fully managed hosting for WordPress for dynamic high traffic eCom and LMS sites — built to autoscale for thousands of concurrent users.
Select Cloud Provider
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Fastest growing & affordable cloud provider with high-performance SSD standard and NVMe storage premium servers across 9 locations. Select the perfect fit from their Basic, General Purpose, and CPU Optimized server lineup.
DigitalOcean
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Across 30 locations, Vultr provides standard servers featuring SSD storage and high frequency servers with NVMe storage powered by the fastest architecture available in the Vultr product lineup.
Vultr
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Popular cloud emphasizing consistent performance across 25 datacenters. Choose Linode if you wish top quality performance at a pocket—friendly budget.
Linode
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Flexible Amazon cloud compute (EC2) with configurable storage/bandwidth across 28 datacenters. AWS supports dynamic vertical scaling with options to both upgrade and downgrade server resources. Select the perfect fit from their Standard and Compute Optimized server lineup.
AWS
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Google Compute Engine (GCE) is an extremely powerful cloud hosting infrastructure with the efficient performance that comes with Google's brand name. With 28 datacenters, GCE supports dynamic vertical scaling with options to both upgrade and downgrade server resources. Select the perfect fit from their Standard, Compute Optimized and High Compute server lineup.
GoogleCloud
Select Server Type
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Basic
DigitalOcean is the fastest growing cloud provider.
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General Purpose
DigitalOcean is the fastest growing cloud provider.
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CPU Optimized
DigitalOcean is the fastest growing cloud provider.
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Standard
DigitalOcean is the fastest growing cloud provider.
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Standard
DigitalOcean Standard Droplets, powered by 2nd generation or earlier Intel CPUs and standard SSD, are perfect for general-purpose workloads and all your applications, offering networking speeds up to 2 Gbps.
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Premium
DigitalOcean Premium Droplets are powered by 2nd or 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors and faster NVME storage delivering higher network throughput up to 10 Gbps for your most demanding applications.
Micro
Suitable for personal websites and simple blogs.
$11
$11
USD per month
You pay $0.0357 hourly
- 2GB RAM
- 1 vCPU
- 50GB Storage
- 2TB Transfer Bandwidth
- 5 Free AI Copilot Credits
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Lightning Stack
- Unlimited Visits
- Unlimited Websites
Small
Suitable for growing businesses & moderate traffic.
$11
$11
USD per month
You pay $0.0357 hourly
- 2GB RAM
- 1 vCPU
- 50GB Storage
- 2TB Transfer Bandwidth
- 5 Free AI Copilot Credits
-
Lightning Stack
- Unlimited Visits
- Unlimited Websites
Most Popular
Medium
Supports more demanding websites with higher traffic.
$11
$88
USD per month
You pay $0.1310 hourly
- 8GB RAM
- 4 vCPU
- 160GB Storage
- 5TB Transfer Bandwidth
- 5 Free AI Copilot Credits
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Lightning Stack
- Unlimited Visits
- Unlimited Websites
8XL
Ideal for e-com stores and resource-intensive applications.
$11
USD per month
You pay $1.0848 hourly
- 128GB RAM
- 24 vCPU
- 2560GB Storage
- 11TB Transfer Bandwidth
- 5 Free AI Copilot Credits
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Lightning Stack
- Unlimited Visits
- Unlimited Websites
$0.033/GB per server will be applied for offsite backup storage.
Free Trial
Best for growing businesses that need autoscaling.
$100
$0For 3 Days
Plan Includes
Website: 01
Baseline Autoscale Servers: 01
Bandwidth: 150 GB
Disk space: 20 GB
Visits: Unmetered
PHP Workers: 100/server
Features Included
True Autoscaling
Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
Redis Caching
Object Cache Pro + Relay
Free Managed Migration
Growth
Best for growing businesses that need autoscaling.
$100
$99/Month
Plan Includes
Website: 01
Baseline Autoscale Servers: 01
Bandwidth: 150 GB
Disk space: 20 GB
Visits: Unmetered
PHP Workers: 100/server
Features Included
True Autoscaling
Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
Redis Caching
Object Cache Pro + Relay
Free Managed Migration
Additional Charges
- Disk Space: $1/GB
- Bandwidth: $0.04/GB
- Autoscaling: $0.07/hr/server beyond baseline
Most Popular
Scale
Best For Woocommerce
$100
$199/Month
Plan Includes
Website: 01
Baseline Autoscale Servers: 02
Bandwidth: 250 GB
Disk space: 50 GB
Visits: Unmetered
PHP Workers: 100/server
Features Included
True Autoscaling
Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
Redis Caching
Object Cache Pro + Relay
Free Managed Migration
Additional Charges
- Disk Space: $1/GB
- Bandwidth: $0.04/GB
- Autoscaling: $0.10/hr/server beyond baseline
Plus
Best For LMS platforms & large WooCommerce stores
$100
$399/Month
Plan Includes
Website: 01
Baseline Autoscale Servers: 03
Bandwidth: 1000 GB
Disk space: 100 GB
Visits: Unmetered
PHP Workers: 100/server
Features Included
True Autoscaling
Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
Redis Caching
Object Cache Pro + Relay
Free Managed Migration
Additional Charges
- Disk Space: $1/GB
- Bandwidth: $0.04/GB
- Autoscaling: $0.12/hr/server beyond baseline
Enterprise
Beyond standard plans? We’ll create a plan that fits your needs.
Custom
Optimized resources for your traffic and usage patterns.
Custom resource allocation and baseline capacity.
Expert consultation to match plan to requirements.
Support That Resolves Issues Before They Cost You Business
Get round the clock access to Cloudways hosting specialists via live chat, ready to resolve any issue before it impacts your customers.
For more hands-on assistance, the Advanced Support Addon connects you directly with senior engineers who work as an extension of your team.
Launch Your Business Website in Minutes
Get your WordPress website live instantly on a pre-optimized server, with everything configured and ready to go from day one.
Launch My Site Now
Move Your Business Website to Cloudways for Free
We’ll move your website to Cloudways from any host, handled by our team from start to finish, with no disruption to your live site and no risk to your business.
Migrate My Website.Real Success Stories. Powered By Cloudways.
Read real-life case studies of companies that used our managed cloud server hosting to take their online businesses to the next level!
Improved site speed by 40% and increased course bookings across AU.
Mo Soltany
Business Development Manager
Cut hosting cost 80% while serving 17M+ users across 160+ countries.
Bryan Feinberg
Founder and CEO
Saw 600% growth, and our homepage achieved a perfect 100% score.
Stephan Eijer
Owner
Managed over $1M in sales and a 200% traffic spike seamlessly.
Sol Lee
Co-founder
Doubled site speed, 20% traffic growth & 50% faster load times.
Great Opomu
Chief WordPress Officer
Scaled to 140+ client sites & hit $1M ARR as performance soared.
Andrew Jackson
Founder & CEO
Streamlined operations for 60+ businesses with reliable performance.
Michelle Coe
President and Senior Creative Director
Saved 25–30% on hosting costs with 40% faster server response time.
Roberto M. Filho
Founder and CEO
30% faster, 280+ sites scaled, $10M+ revenue growth, this year.
Tristan Gatellier
CEO
Achieved 99 PageSpeed score, zero downtime and scalable growth.
Joost Rust
Director
Reduced server costs by 50% and homepage load time dropped to 1.2s.
Florence Luo
Owner and CEO
Grew monthly readership 3x from 3M to 9M after moving to Cloudways.
Simon Treulle
CEO
Improved store speed by 30%, which led to a 22% increase in conversions.
Yogita Khasturi
Co-Founder
Managed over $1M in sales and a 200% traffic spike seamlessly.
Sol Lee
Co-founder
Posted 2.6M views and earned $600K in commissions so rewarding.
Adam Connell
Founder
Handled 20x traffic spikes on 18-year-old site with 5,484 articles.
Jonathan Bailey
Founder
Resulted in a perfect 100% PageSpeed score and 600K page views.
Michael Donovan
Co-founder
Boosted monthly pageviews to 200K, leading to a 6-figure valuation.
Daniel Shuttleworth
Founder
Experienced a 3x increase in traffic and revenue, with 100% speed.
Keith Mint
Founder
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Lightning Stack and why does it matter for my business?
The Lightning Stack is Cloudways' pre-configured server stack built for WordPress performance. It combines Nginx, Varnish, Redis Object Cache Pro, PHP-FPM, and MariaDB into an optimized setup that delivers fast load times under real traffic conditions.
Third-party benchmarks show it delivers up to 30% better performance than traditional LAMP stacks. For small business owners, this means a faster website, better search rankings, and a better experience for every customer who visits.
Third-party benchmarks show it delivers up to 30% better performance than traditional LAMP stacks. For small business owners, this means a faster website, better search rankings, and a better experience for every customer who visits.
Do I need technical knowledge to use Cloudways?
No. Cloudways is built for business owners who want powerful hosting without the technical complexity. Your server stack is pre-configured and optimized from day one, and the intuitive dashboard lets you manage backups, SSL, staging, and scaling in a few clicks without needing a developer or IT team.
Why should I switch from shared hosting to Cloudways?
Shared hosting puts your website on a server shared with hundreds of other sites, meaning their traffic spikes and issues can slow your site down or take it offline.
Cloudways gives your business website dedicated server resources, performance optimized out of the box, and 99.99% uptime, so your site stays fast and reliable regardless of what other sites are doing.
Cloudways gives your business website dedicated server resources, performance optimized out of the box, and 99.99% uptime, so your site stays fast and reliable regardless of what other sites are doing.
What is SMB hosting?
SMB hosting is managed cloud hosting designed specifically for small and medium sized businesses. With Cloudways, your website runs on a pre-configured Lightning Stack optimized for speed and reliability, with automated backups, free SSL, and 24/7 expert support included.
You get enterprise-grade infrastructure without needing any technical knowledge to manage it.
You get enterprise-grade infrastructure without needing any technical knowledge to manage it.
What is the cost of SMB hosting on Cloudways?
Cloudways uses pay-as-you-go pricing with no fixed monthly fees or long-term contracts. You only pay for the server resources you actually use, billed hourly. For example, if you launch an $11 per month server on DigitalOcean and use it for one day, you pay approximately $0.37 for that day.
You can scale resources up or down at any time, so your hosting costs grow with your business rather than ahead of it.
You can scale resources up or down at any time, so your hosting costs grow with your business rather than ahead of it.
How can I migrate my website to Cloudways managed cloud hosting?
Cloudways migrates your website from any existing host for free. Our team handles the entire process, keeping your live site running throughout with no disruption to your business.
You can also use the free Cloudways migration plugin to automate the process yourself and have your site moved within minutes.
You can also use the free Cloudways migration plugin to automate the process yourself and have your site moved within minutes.
Will I get free SSL with Cloudways?
Yes, with SMB cloud hosting, you will get a free SSL certificate to secure your website and sub-domains linked to it. Cloudways uses Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates to improve data security and encryption.
How fast is Cloudways SMB managed cloud hosting?
Every Cloudways server runs on the Lightning Stack, a pre-configured Nginx, Varnish, and Redis stack benchmarked at up to 30% faster than traditional LAMP stacks. Performance is optimized out of the box with no manual tuning required.
Customers migrating from shared hosting have seen page load times drop from over 5 seconds to under 1 second after switching to Cloudways.
Customers migrating from shared hosting have seen page load times drop from over 5 seconds to under 1 second after switching to Cloudways.
Can I add more than one app to my Cloudways SMB hosting server?
You can add as many apps as you want to your Cloudways SMB web hosting server. However, make sure that your server has enough resources to handle all the apps you add to it.
Do you offer backups for my business website?
Yes, Cloudways allows you to set a backup frequency as per your need for your SMB web hosting server. You can set the backup frequency from 1 hour to 1 week.