Cloudways is the Flywheel alternative that lets you take back control of your websites
Flywheel limits what you can do with your sites. Cloudways lets you take the training wheels off to build websites that work faster and smoother for you and your visitors.
Cloudways users appreciate being in control
“It is really easy for you to set up a test environment and then merge your changes to production while keeping full control over what you are doing and paying for.”
John Heatz
General ManagerEntry-level features don’t give you room to grow
Flywheel is built to help beginner-level users launch their sites but can leave you hanging when it’s time to grow.
Cloudways’ cheapest plan gives you higher bandwidth and storage limits
- Lowest available plan
- Visit/month
- Storage
- Bandwidth
- Sites Included
- $15
- 5,000
- 5GB
- 20GB
- 1 site
- $14/mon
- Unlimited
- 25GB
- 1TB
- Unlimited
Flywheel users say they don’t have enough control over their sites
“I could use more control over the technical aspects of my hosting.”

Verified Flywheel review on G2
“I don’t like the fact that they don’t host straight HTML because I offer e-learning.”

Verified Flywheel review on G2
“A lot of the times we have to edit our website requires talking to Flywheel support instead of us changing from within.”

Verified Flywheel review on G2
“The staging environments they provide are slow and often needs its memory boosted to not run into memory errors.”

Verified Flywheel review on G2
“User-friendly for designers, but not developers. There is no phpMyAdmin and no access to wp-config.php”

Verified Flywheel review on Trustpilot
“They lack a few features that I think would be nice to have. Example: SSH, SSL on their staging sites, and some more technical things.”

Verified Flywheel review on WPKube
Cloudways gives you the freedom to build the site you want
Flywheel is built to help beginner-level users launch their sites but can leave you hanging when it’s time to grow.
All PHP apps supported
Build your sites on any PHP app you want — don’t limit yourself to WordPress.
Google Cloud and more
Cloudways offers 3 different providers: DigitalOcean, AWS, and Google Cloud.
Easy vertical scaling
Scale-up as your sites grow. Only pay for new features and limits as you need them.
Cloudways lets you manage every detail that affects your sites’ performance

1-Click Backup & Restore
Protect your sites with hourly backups. Rest assured you can easily restore your sites to any point back in time if anything breaks.

User-friendly interface to make any changes you need
Manage your server and optimize your sites’ performance from a visual panel. Control the details you need to without messing up the ones you don’t.
SSL on your staging sites
Fully pre-installed SSL certificates apply as standard on all staging applications. Cloudways is secure across the board.
Even more control for your sites
Schedule Cron jobs with a built-in Cron Job Manager
Use WP-CLI to control WordPress websites via commands
Control Varnish cache rules
“Even the smallest and cheapest of servers perform great with Cloudways for WordPress sites. Setting up Varnish cache, Redis or Memcached is a breeze.”
At Cloudways, there’s always someone ready to help
Cloudways customer support performance
Q3 2020 – Q1 2021
-
2.1 minutes
Initial response time
-
30 minutes
Average time to solve and close a support inquiry
-
90%
Percentage of support inquiries closed with a happy and satisfied customer

Dedicated Account Manager
Private Slack channel
Phone Support
Cloudways means performance — even on our lowest plans
Cloud servers |
Google Cloud only
|
Choose from DigitalOcean, AWS, and Google Cloud
|
---|---|---|
Cache |
Uses single FlyCache system
|
Advanced cache stack pre-installed on all sites
|
Vertical scaling |
Flexibility to grow as your business does
|
|
Supported PHP apps |
WordPress only
|
Drupal, Magento, Laravel, Joomla and WordPress
|
Data Centers |
Undisclosed
|
65+ Data Centers
Provide a faster user experience for your visitors
|
Leverage location hosting to provide a faster user experience for your visitors
See all available data centers when you choose Cloudways
Cloudways shines a spotlight on your agency and boosts your marketing
Flywheel Agency Partners (Silver) | Cloudways Agency Partner Program | |
---|---|---|
Entry Level | $0-99 per/month | As low as $100 |
Sites Included | Undisclosed | Unlimited sites on any plan (not just WordPress) |
Monthly visits | Undisclosed | Unlimited visits on any plan |
Dedicated Partnership Manager | For Gold members only | For Gold and Platinum partners |
Agency Perks | Undisclosed | Get 10% OFF for 6-12 months |
Co-marketing | Growth resource hub |
|
Swag Box | For Gold members only | For Gold and Platinum partners |
Freedom to those who know what they’re doing without overwhelming beginners
Whether you’re a novice or an expert site builder, with Cloudways you get a website that loads fast and wows your visitors.
Get Started FREE 3-day free trial, no CC required
Migrating from Flywheel to Cloudways is free and easy
Our experts handle your 1st site migration absolutely free, from Flywheel or any other provider. Move your site over to your new server quickly and with zero downtime.
We guarantee absolutely no bugs, errors, or lost data. Our migration pros will work with you to ensure that everything gets done smoothly and efficiently.
“Amazing feature of scaling server as per requirements, and support is awesome.”
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I be sure my business site is safe with Cloudways?
Security is a top priority at Cloudways. We take a proactive approach to keeping your servers safe and secure from malicious traffic, malware and attacks.
These measures are available on any plan you choose:
- Dedicated Firewalls
- 1-Click Free SSL Certificate
- IP Whitelisting
- Regular Security Patching
- Two-Factor Authentication
- Bot Protection
Is CDN available with Cloudways?
Yes — it’s included on any plan you choose. You can easily set up CDN from your dashboard, even if you’ve never done this kind of integration before. CloudwaysCDN delivers extremely fast experiences for your user, starting as low as $1 per 25GB.
What kind of support do I get with Cloudways?
At Cloudways, we believe no one should stress about their website being down or not working. We put a lot of effort and resources into making that a reality, with the help of our support team.
Standard Support: It’s free and includes 24/7/365 access to Live Chat assistance with trained Support Team members.
Advanced Support add-on: Speeds up Live Chat response times and includes deeper application troubleshooting, customization support, and proactive monitoring.
Premium Support add-on: For businesses running mission-critical sites where every minute matters. Advanced service with even quicker response times, a dedicated Account Manager, a private Slack channel, and direct phone support.
What is managed WordPress hosting?
Managed WordPress hosting is a form of web-hosting that makes installing and managing your WordPress site easier, where most technical and server-side issues are managed by the company you hire. Managed hosting means freeing up your time from having to handle security risks, backups, monitoring your sites’ uptime, and scaling your infrastructure when your site grows.
Cloudways provides managed WordPress services, but doesn’t stop at WordPress. You can also host other applications, such as Joomla, Magento, Drupal, and other PHP-based apps