Fastest WordPress Hosting in Kenya

But how do you decide which hosting provider offers the best speeds? By testing each hosting service and selecting the one that provides the fastest speeds without hefty price tags. And do you have time and money for that? The answer would probably be no. So let me make things easy for you.

Cloudways is one name that emerges when we think of the combination of speed, performance, uptime, and affordability. But is it really the fastest WordPress hosting provider? No shallow claims here. I’ve put up all the data after numerous tests, the factors that differentiate Cloudways from its competitors, and the features that make it the best performance-based hosting provider.

Why Do You Need the Fastest WordPress Hosting?

Users prioritize speed and performance over all other factors while choosing a WordPress hosting provider. Sure, other elements like cost, security, support, and backups also hold considerable importance, but speed can make or break any business.

You don’t want to irritate your customers with a slow-loading website and lagging pages. That’s why you need the fastest WordPress hosting provider to optimize your page loading times and give your visitors a positive user experience.

If you run a blogging site with high TTFB and loading times, visitors will likely jump from your site to another, resulting in higher bounce rates. Similarly, if a customer visits the product page of your WooCommerce store only to be welcomed by a lagging page, they’ll likely bounce.

Moreover, cart rates are also linked with page loading times. Therefore, a website optimized for speed will give you more conversions & sales than a slow site.

I tested a website on Think with Google’s site tester to see how speed affects your sales/conversions in numbers. The results showed annual revenues can be dramatically improved with an enhancement in the site’s speed.

Think with Google’s Site Tester

So regardless of your business size, compromised speed and performance means fewer conversions and more annoyed customers.

What Makes Cloudways the Fastest Hosting?

So which one is the fastest WordPress hosting provider? Well, Cloudways is a strong contender, and here’s why.

Cloudways Stack

WordPress recommends a hosting setup with Apache and/or Nginx, along with the latest stable PHP versions (7.4 or greater), and MySQL (version 5.7 or greater) OR MariaDB (version 10.3 or greater). You will have all the recommended software and versions on the Cloudways stack.

The Cloudways stack is composed of various technologies and software like Debian 10 (Linux OS), Apache, NGINX, MySQL/MariaDB, and PHP, which contribute to a faster WordPress hosting environment.

Instant Speed & Performance Boosts with Fastest WordPress Hosting

Cloudways’ managed WordPress hosting is specially optimized to break you free from the annoying loading times and performance issues. Try it free today, and experience the magic yourself.

3-Days Free Trial

Cloudways’ optimized “LAMP with NGINX” hybrid stack is specially designed to improve your site performance, with lower server load time so you can serve a larger audience instantly.

Moreover, you will have other performance-oriented packages like Varnish, Memcached, Object Cache Pro (Redis), and more.

Fast Server Response Time

The server response time is how long it takes the web hosting server to respond to the visitor’s request. When looking for the fastest web hosting for WordPress, server response time is an important metric to consider. The lower the server response time, the less time it would take to load a webpage.

– Loader.io

– K6.io

Test your website through K6.io and Loader.io or any other tool to figure out its server response time.

Smaller Distance Between The Server & Visitors

Make sure your WordPress hosting provider provides a data center that is nearest to your target audience. This will help reduce the latency and improve the server response time. As a result, your visitors will experience a faster website page load.

Most shared web hosting providers have data centers in the United States and Europe only. However, Cloudways offers you the choice of 65+ data centers distributed across the world.

Cloudharmony is a cloud comparison analysis tool that lists several top hosting providers and monitors their uptime with respect to the regions of each cloud provider. You can see which cloud provider has the maximum uptime in the region you are interested in.

Cloudways is partnered with Google, Amazon, DigitalOcean, Vultr, & Linode.

Easily Scale Hosting Resources

With the continuous growth of your business, an increase in traffic is an expected (and welcome) outcome.

For instance, if you own an online store and launch a special offer, the number of visitors can go up dramatically. The server will then have to respond to an increased number of visitors’ requests. But if the web hosting server fails to cater to all these requests, your visitors may see a “500 internal server error”. And that will cause both your expected revenue and the store’s reputation to suffer.

Cloudways lets you scale server size and resources with a click of a button to match the growth of your store. So you are receiving heavy traffic/audience due to an event like Black Friday, a giveaway, or discount sales, you can scale to handle the traffic.

If you are not sure whether your current WordPress hosting provider can cater to all your expectations, contact them ASAP and explain your expectations so they can guide you accordingly. Cloudways lets you try out its services during a free 3-day trial before you invest in it.

Multiple PHP Versions

WordPress officially recommends PHP 7.4 or greater versions. Cloudways offers various PHP versions (5.6, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, and 8.0), and you can easily update or downgrade PHP versions with a few clicks.

Check out the performance of WordPress websites on the different PHP versions with Cloudways. We’ve found that PHP 8.0 is the fastest PHP version compared to the previous versions.

The Cloudflare Enterprise Add-on

When you activate Cloudflare Enterprise on Cloudways, it drastically improves your site’s performance. The tiered cache helps deliver your site’s content faster and reduces latency & loading times.

Moreover, advanced features like image optimization with Polish, Brotli compressions, and mobile optimization with Mirage optimize your site’s images and content to improve speeds and deliver an excellent user experience.

The usual Cloudflare plans can be expensive for some SMBs. But Cloudways resolves this by offering the Enterprise version for just $5 for a single domain that packs all the benefits of a premium version. So you get the Enterprise CDN, an intelligent firewall, HTTP/3 support, priory DDoS protections, and more in this plan. Quite a bargain.

Raúl González – WordPress Optimization Specialist at WPOptimizers says:

“You need a good CDN, to have a fast WordPress website for visitors from other countries. Cloudflare is the fastest CDN with the largest global network and Cloudways integrates it in a very simple way to configure.”

Advanced Caching Mechanism

When it comes to optimizing your WordPress website, caching can never be underestimated.

Caching creates static versions of your website’s content, negating the need to run heavy PHP scripts each time a visitor visits your site. As caching solutions cause the pages to load quickly, it improves your website’s speed and performance.

Cloudways offers built-in caching solutions, so there’s no need for manual website optimization. Among those solutions is the Varnish server caching, which expedites websites and decreases the load times substantially.

It also includes Object Cache Pro (Redis), a caching solution that uses its compression technologies to improve back-end performance and overall site speed. It is highly recommended for high-traffic websites and ecommerce stores. Typically, you’d have to pay $95 for OCP, but with Cloudways, you get it for FREE on all 2GB and higher servers.

Cloudways’ free caching optimization doesn’t end there. Another built-in caching optimization plugin called Breeze serves as a perfect replacement for complex caching plugins. With its simple user interface, virtually any non-tech-savvy user can get started without dealing with any coding lines.

All these caching solutions combined provide a comprehensive, non-manual solution for caching optimization and boosting your website.

Nat Miletic – WordPress Developer & SEO (Owner of Clio Websites) suggests:

We recommend selecting a plan with excellent server-side caching with Object Cache Pro and enabling and configuring the Breeze plugin for websites that need more horsepower. We have seen this combo improve our client website load times by as much as 86% (from 7 to 1 second fully loaded).

The Top 5 IaaS Providers for the Fastest WordPress Hosting Servers

Managed WordPress Hosting for Faster Speeds & Enhanced Performance

Host your WordPress site on a managed cloud platform to get speed & performance boosts with added security. Quick 1-click solutions to get rid of all hosting complexities.

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Cloudways users can pick a server from any of the five top IaaS options:

• DigitalOcean
• Vultr
• Linode
• AWS
• GCP

All Cloudways servers come with a fully optimized stack and different performance-oriented packages. I have detailed each of the servers so you may pick the one that suits your business requirements best.

DigitalOcean

Cloudways offers the benefits of DigitalOcean coupled with its remarkable server management. You can focus on scaling your businesses and leave flawless server performance to Cloudways.

DigitalOcean Droplets are popular among bloggers, SMBs, and developers for their high-performance results. DigitalOcean has 12 data centers so you may choose the nearest location for ultra-fast performance. The list of its available data centers is as follows:

• New York City, the US: NYC1, NYC2, NYC3
• San Francisco, the US: SFO1, SFO2
• London, United Kingdom: LON1
• Toronto, Canada: TOR1
• Amsterdam, the Netherlands: AMS2, AMS3
• Frankfurt, Germany: FRA1
• Bangalore, India: BLR1
• Singapore: SGP1

Machine Specification & Details

Cloudways introduced the new premium machines back in December 2021; they’re faster, more robust, and more performance-oriented than the standard ones. The Cloudways team performed the benchmarking and highlighted the difference in terms of performance.

Cloudways offers two types of DigitalOcean servers; Standard and Premium. Their machine specifications are listed below:

1. DigitalOcean Standard Droplet (Fixed Server Specification)

• RAM Range: 1GB to 192GB
• Price Range: $10 to $1035
• Core Processor: 1 Core to 32 Core
• SSD Memory: 25GB to 3840GB
• Bandwidth: 1TB to 12TB

2. DigitalOcean Premium Droplet (Fixed Server Specification)

• RAM Range: 1GB to 16GB
• Price Range: $12 to $160
• Core Processor: 1 Core to 8 Core
• NVMe Memory: 25GB to 320GB
• Bandwidth: 1TB to 6TB

Vultr

Cloudways presents feature-packed managed Vultr dedicated web hosting to boost your sites. With Cloudways, you don’t have to worry about managing Vultr web hosting technicalities. Again, managed hosting handles all that as you focus on other business tasks.

WordPress users trust and choose Vultr due to its ultimate performance and speed-focused hosting. Cloudways offers 19 data centers for Vultr hosting so you may choose the nearest location for a boosted performance. The data centers are listed as follows:

• USA – Seattle
• USA – Silicon Valley
• USA – Los Angeles
• USA – Dallas
• USA – Chicago
• USA – Atlanta
• USA – Miami
• USA – New York
• Europe – London
• Europe – Amsterdam
• Europe – Paris
• Europe – Frankfurt
• Europe – Stockholm,
• Asia Pacific – Tokyo
• Asia Pacific – Seoul
• Asia Pacific – Sydney
• Asia Pacific – Singapore
• Canada – Toronto
• North America – Mexico

Machine Specification & Details

Cloudways offers two types of Vultr servers; Standard and High Frequency. Their machine specifications are listed below:

1. Vultr Standard (Fixed Server Specification):

• RAM Range: 1GB to 96GB
• Price Range: $11 to $735
• Core Processor: 1 Core to 16 Core
• Storage: 25GB to 1280GB
• Bandwidth: 1TB to 10TB

2. Vultr High Frequency (Fixed Server Specification):

• RAM Range :1GB to 48GB
• Price Range: $13 to $321
• Core Processor: 1 Core to 12 Core
• Storage: 32GB to 786GB
• Bandwidth: 1TB to 8TB

Linode

Popular for its robust feature set, Linode fits in perfectly with the Cloudways values as an uncomplicated, powerful, and reliable solution. Ideal for all business applications, you can opt for this hosting solution for easy scalability and fearlessly handle traffic spikes.

This developer-preferred hosting is powered by Linux and enjoys positive customer reviews thanks to its focus on performance, uptime, and speed.

Linode has data centers in 11 different cities, so you may connect with the nearest city and enjoy blazing-fast speeds. The list of the cities is as follows:

• USA – Newark
• USA- Dallas
• USA – Fremont
• USA- Atlanta
• Europe – London
• Europe – Frankfurt
• Asia Pacific – Singapore
• Asia Pacific – Tokyo
• Asia Pacific – Toronto
• Asia Pacific – Mumbai

Machine Specification & Details

Cloudways offers the following server specifications for Linode:

• RAM Range: 1GB to 192GB
• Price Range: $12 to $1205
• Core Processor: 1 Core to 32 Core
• Storage: 25GB to 3840GB
• Bandwidth: 1TB to 20TB

AWS

Cloudways’ managed AWS hosting is preferred by developers, agencies, and ecommerce businesses. The speed-focused hosting solution allows for easy scalability and helps businesses reach their full potential.

The wide range of AWS server machines helps deliver performance results for WordPress LMS sites, large-scale WooCommerce stores, and other complex apps that need more server resources. Cloudways handles all your AWS WordPress hosting technicalities without a sys-admin and provides the ultimate convenience.

There are 20 AWS hosting data centers:

• USA – Northern Virginia
• USA – Northern California
• USA – Ohio
• USA – Oregon
• Canada – Montreal
• Europe – Ireland
• Europe – Frankfurt
• Europe – London
• Europe – Paris
• Europe – Milan
• Europe – Stockholm
• Asia Pacific – Singapore
• Asia Pacific – Sydney
• Asia Pacific – Tokyo
• Asia Pacific – Seoul
• Asia Pacific – Mumbai
• Asia Pacific – Hong Kong
• South America – Sao Paulo
• Middle East – Bahrain
• South Africa – Cape Town

Machine Specification & Details

Cloudways offers the following server specifications for AWS hosting:

• RAM Range: 75GB to 38GB
• Price Range: $36.51 to $3567.98
• Core Processor: 1 vCPU to 96 vCPU
• Storage: 20GB
• Bandwidth: 2GB

GCP

Cloudways makes hosting with Google a breeze with its managed Google cloud hosting platform. Digital agency owners, ecommerce stores, and developers trust Cloudways GCE hosting as it is famous for its performance-oriented results.

You can experience seamless hosting by eliminating all the Google web hosting hassles backed with Cloudways’ speed-focused platform.

GCP has data centers in 18 different cities, so you may connect with the nearest city and enjoy high-performance results:

• USA – Iowa
• USA – South Carolina
• USA – Oregon
• USA – North Virginia
• USA – Las Vegas
• Europe – Belgium
• Europe – London
• Europe – Netherlands
• Europe – Frankfurt
• Europe – Finland
• Canada – Montreal
• Asia Pacific – Mumbai
• Asia Pacific – Taiwan
• Asia Pacific – Hong Kong
• Asia Pacific – Singapore
• Asia Pacific – Tokyo
• Asia Pacific – Sydney
• Asia Pacific – Sao Paulo

Machine Specification & Details

Cloudways offers three types of cloud servers with GCP: E2, N1HC, and C2 machines.

1. E2 Machines (Variable Server Specification):

• RAM Range: 70GB to 120GB
• Price Range: $33 to $1290
• Core Processor: 1 Core to 32 Core
• Storage:
  • Web Files: 10GB
  • Database: 10GB
• Bandwidth: 2GB
• Data Centers: USA – Iowa, USA – South Carolina, USA – Oregon, USA – North Virginia, USA – Las Vegas, Europe – Belgium, Europe – London, Europe – Netherland, Europe – Frankfurt, Europe – Finland, Canada – Montreal, Asia Pacific – Mumbai, Asia Pacific – Taiwan, Asia Pacific – Hong Kong, Asia Pacific – Singapore, Asia Pacific – Tokyo, Asia Pacific – Sydney, South America – Sao Paulo

2. N1HC Machines (Variable Server Specification):

• RAM Range: 2GB to 64GB
• Price Range: $85 to $1593
• Core Processor: 2 Core to 64 Core
• Storage:
  • Web Files: 10GB
  • Database: 10GB
• Bandwidth: 2GB
• Data Centers: USA – Iowa, USA – South Carolina, USA – Oregon, USA – North Virginia, USA – Las Vegas, Europe – Belgium, Europe – London, Europe – Netherland, Europe – Frankfurt, Europe – Finland, Canada – Montreal, Asia Pacific – Taiwan, Asia Pacific – Hong Kong, Asia Pacific – Singapore, Asia Pacific – Tokyo, Asia Pacific – Sydney, South America – Sao Paulo

3. C2 Machines (Variable Server Specification):

• RAM Range: 16GB to 240GB
• Price Range: $255 to $2132
• Core Processor: 4 Core to 48 Core
• Storage:
  • Web Files: 10GB
  • Database: 10GB
• Bandwidth: 2GB
• Data Centers: USA – Iowa, USA – South Carolina, USA – Oregon, USA – North Virginia, USA – Las Vegas, Europe – Belgium, Europe – London, Europe – Netherland, Europe – Frankfurt, Europe – Finland, Canada – Montreal, Asia Pacific – Taiwan, Asia Pacific – Hong Kong, Asia Pacific – Singapore, Asia Pacific – Tokyo, Asia Pacific – Sydney, South America – Sao Paulo

Initiating Performance Benchmarking

To run speed testing on the Cloudways platform, I launched a WordPress website on a Cloudways managed DigitalOcean (Premium) server.

Note: If you wish to replicate the results, get a 3-days free trial account (no need to provide a credit card).

Server Environment

For the purpose of this article, I have launched a 4GB DigitalOcean server located in Toronto, Canada. The 1-click server launch process creates a server that comes pre-configured with:

Cloudways Server Configurations

Name	Specification
Cloudways Server	Vultr – High Frequency
Datacenter location	Toronto
RAM	4GB
SSD Disk	80GB
Bandwidth Transfer	4TB

Delving Deeper into the Installed WordPress Application

After logging in to the Cloudways Platform, navigate to the Applications tab from the top menu bar. If you are already a Cloudways customer and have multiple applications on your server then, you will see a list of installed applications (in this case, you will only see a single application). Then you will see the following screen:

Visit the WordPress staging URL under the Admin Panel, use the Admin Panel credentials, and go to the WordPress Dashboard. Navigate to Plugins >Installed Plugins tab, and you will see Breeze, a pre-installed cache plugin.

Note: I’ve removed Cloudways promotional images from the default WordPress post to reduce external requests.

Breeze is a free WordPress cache plugin by Cloudways. All WordPress-based applications (except default WordPress) launched on Cloudways come pre-installed with Breeze.

How Did We Perform the Benchmark?

GTMetrix

This considers the overall performance score and three Core Web Vital scores: LCP (Largest Content Paint), TBT (Time Blocking Time), & CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift).

PageSpeed Insight

This free website testing tool lets users check Core Web Vital scores on Desktop and Mobile. We considered six parameters in our test: FCP (First Content Paint), SI (Speed Index), LCP (Largest Content Paint), TTI (Time to Interactive), TBT (Time Blocking Time), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift).

Loader.io

We performed Maintain Client Load to send 100 users for 1 min (maintain client load). We counted two performance parameters for our results: Average Response Time and Success Response Counts.

K6.io

We used the K6.io browser recorder to record the session, and performed backend testing. The scenario was: the users would fill their admin credentials > all posts > add new post.

There would be 50 concurrent users for 3.30 mins and 2 load zones (Ashburn US and Montreal CA)

Read this piece for the full breakdown of our performance benchmarking.

Speed Test On a Fresh WordPress Install

Now it’s time to put things into action.

Let’s test the WordPress site without any efforts on optimization. The test environment comprises of:

• Cloud Infrastructure: DigitalOcean
• Server Size (RAM): 4 GB
• Location of Data Center: Toronto, CA
• WordPress Version : 6.0 (with Twenty Twenty-OneTheme)
• Pre-configured with: Varnish, NGINX, Object Cache Pro (Redis), and Breeze installed

For testing purposes, I used GTMetrix, Pingdom, PageSpeed Insights, Loader, and K6.io Tools.

GTmetrix Performance Analysis

Test Results

• Performance: 99%
• Structure: 99%
• LCP: 592ms
• TBT: 0ms
• CLS: 0.07

Pingdom Performance Analysis

Test Results

• Performance Grade: 97
• Page Size: 562.9 KB
• Load Time: 623 ms
• Requests: 9

PageSpeed Insight Performance Analysis

• Performance: 99
• FCP: 0.3s
• Speed Index: 0.6s
• LCP: 0.4s
• TTI: 0.3s
• TBT: 0ms
• CLS: 0.087

Loader.io Performance Analysis

Test Results

• Average Response Time: 24 ms
• Success Response Counts: 126197

K6.io Performance Analysis

Test Results

• Counts: 4442
• Average Response Time: 497ms
• Average Request Rate: 20 req/sec

Speed Test On a Live WordPress Site

The default settings of Cloudways hosting environment and Breeze are optimized, but there is always room for improvement, of course.

Design Your Website

We will edit our WordPress theme and add four landing pages; Home, About, Contact, and Blog.

Here, you can see how I designed my WordPress site. I added multiple folds, images, text sections, and more, to make it look like a live website. If you are looking for a lightweight theme, read this article to find out which one is the fastest WordPress theme.

Now, let’s import data to check the real impact of any lightweight theme. Let’s put this claim to the test as well!

Import Blog Posts From FakerPress

Note: Before importing a demo content remove the existing posts, pages, and media.

The FakerPress plugin allows you to import templates. So, I installed the plugin from the WordPress repository and generated numerous posts.

I’ve generated more than 100 blog posts on my WordPress website.

Upgrade Your PHP Version

We have noticed that the latest PHP version performs better in terms of speed, so let’s go for PHP 8.0 (a stable and higher version). Upgrade your PHP version for better speed, but first, create a backup of your entire WordPress site. If something goes wrong, you should always be able to roll back.

Average Response Count

Cloudways offers a one-click PHP upgrade option. Go to Cloudways Server Management panel > Settings & Packages > Packages and upgrade your PHP version.

Point Your Domain and Install SSL

For full optimization, point your domain before integrating Cloudflare. Go to Cloudways Application panel > Domain Management and add your primary & additional domains.

Add your Server IP as A Record as you can see in the image below I’ve added 2 A Records.

Next, go to Cloudways Platform > Application Management panel > SSL Certificate > Add your Domain & Email. This installs the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate.

Integrate Your Website with Cloudflare (Cloudways) For Better Performance

Go to the Cloudways Platform > Application Management panel > Enable Cloudflare.
Then, validate your domain by adding Cloudflare TXT records in your Domain Registrar.
After validation, add Cloudflare’s IP address to your domain registrar.

Here’s the detailed guide that will help you set up Cloudways Cloudflare via a computer.

Optimizing Breeze – Cloudways WordPress Cache Plugin

Let’s configure and fully optimize Breeze settings to see how well it performs for a WordPress website. Go to WP Dashboard > Settings and click Breeze.

Now go to the File Optimization option in Breeze and enable the HTML, CSS, and JS minification and other settings.

Breeze is easy to configure. You can see that I clicked a bit for minification, grouping, and browser caching. It will help us achieve good performance results for GTMetrix, Pingdom, PageSpeed Insight, K6.io and Loader.io.

Performance Analysis

GTmetrix

• Performance: 100%
• Structure: 100 %
• LCP: 585ms
• TBT: 0ms
• CLS: 0

Pingdom Performance Analysis

Test Results

• Performance Grade: 97
• Page Size: 562.9 KB
• Load Time: 623 ms
• Requests: 9

PageSpeed Insight Performance Analysis

• Performance: 99
• FCP: 0.6s
• Speed Index: 0.7s
• LCP: 1.0s
• TTI: 0.6s
• TBT: 0ms
• CLS: 0.001

Loader.io Performance Analysis

Test Results

• Average Response Time: 29 ms
• Success Response Counts: 102447

K6.io Performance Analysis

Test Results

• Counts: 4360
• Average Response Time: 88ms
• Average Request Rate: 19 req/sec

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Cloudways vs. Other Hosting Providers

Is Cloudways really the ideal managed hosting solution for SMBs, individuals, and agencies, or are those claims invalid? Let’s compare Cloudways with all the leading hosting providers.

Cloudways vs. WPEngine

Cloudways is a speed and performance-based hosting platform that offers impeccable services for unlimited sites even on its starting plans. At the same time, WPEngine limits its customers to using only 1 site on its starter plan.

While Cloudways offers flexibility to its customers to opt from any of the five IaaS providers, WPEngine limits its customers to using only AWS and GCP. And it doesn’t end there. To make the comparison fair for WPEngine, let’s compare both on the same IaaS offerings.

For 200GB bandwidth and 20GB storage, Cloudways charges around $60/month for a GCP server. With WPEngine, $115/month gets you the same features, and restrictions like limited visits remain intact. Also, on this server configuration, WPEngine includes 10 sites, while Cloudways offers unlimited sites on all its plans.

HostingStep conducted a test to check the server response time of Cloudways and WPEngine and concluded that Cloudways won in server response time, TTFB, and load testing.

See how Cloudways and WPEngine compare:

Cloudways vs. Kinsta

Like other hosting providers, and unlike Cloudways, Kinsta limits its customers to using only one infrastructure, GCP in this case. Cloudways believes in giving selection control of the IaaS platform to the user.

Next, Kinsta does not offer a free trial, but a 30-day refund. Cloudways offers a risk-free 3-day trial without requiring any credit card details, which speaks volumes of its confidence in its services. Cloudways is also more affordable than Kinsta overall; see this head-to-head Cloudways VS Kinsta comparison.

G2 compared both Cloudways and Kinsta on various metrics and its “at a glance” section is enough to conclude the winner.

Cloudways vs. SiteGround

It is already a well-established fact among WordPress enthusiasts that shared hosting holds no ground compared to managed hosting. SiteGround is a shared hosting provider, while Cloudways offers dedicated servers to its users as it mainly focuses on speed and performance. Users typically complain of SiteGround’s inability to handle bigger sites.

Is shared hosting dragging your WordPress site down?

Siteground can’t offer the high-performance hosting we can.

Learn to turbo-charge your site

In terms of pricing, Siteground’s cheapest plan starts at $19.99/month, whereas Cloudways’ begins at $10/month. It’s a lot to shell out for shared hosting. SiteGround does not offer any free trial and, like other hosting providers, offers a 30-day payback. Again, this is in contrast to Cloudways’ 3-day free trial.

G2 compared Cloudways and SiteGround’s hosting, and Cloudways emerged as a clear winner in all feature comparisons.

Cloudways vs. Flywheel

WordPress site owners require control over their sites. They want fast speeds and high performance. They want constant availability.

And you just can’t get that with Flywheel and its limited features. Flywheel doesn’t offer features like vertical scaling, sticks you with just Google Cloud, and does not even support PHP apps.

On the other hand, with features like SSL staging, 1-click backup & restore, MySQL and MariaDB support, Elasticsearch, and more, Cloudways offers control over the essential details that impact site performance.

Flywheel’s lowest monthly plan starts at $13/month (one site only), while Cloudways’ lowest plan costs $10/month (unlimited sites). Other than that, there are many limitations on Flywheel’s other plans, making it an unworthy competitor of Cloudways.

To quickly see how Cloudways and Flywheel compare against one another, here’s the G2 comparison of both hosting providers:

Cloudways User Reviews

No matter how aggressively you advertise your product, you can’t outrun word-of-mouth. Cloudways enjoys favorable reviews from individuals and businesses due to its exemplary services, as you can see below:

 

Here’s what entrepreneur Robert Theodorow – CEO at SFP has to say about Cloudways:

“We are grateful to have found an ideal managed cloud hosting platform for our customers and look to grow our hosting business through Cloudways.”

Dennis Dornon, the co-founder of MainWP, complimented Cloudways’ performance, support, and ease of use.

“We tested many hosts to find the best performing solution for the MainWP Dashboard and in the end, the ability to utilize the inexpensive yet powerful cloud platforms without needing to be a system administrator led us to select Cloudways. Its simple setup, excellent support, and impressive server options make me happy to fully recommend them to all MainWP users.”

Another happy customer that benefitted from Cloudways’ easy scaling:

 

Summary

With faster WordPress hosting, you can easily achieve high website performance and excellent Core Web Vitals scores.

As you can see from the benchmarking tests, the results look impressive! Give Cloudways a try and then migrate your existing WordPress website to Cloudways. Configure the Breeze plugin, and witness the improved results of your WordPress website yourself!

And of course, don’t forget to share your testing results in the comment section below.

Frequently Asked Questions