Canada’s Leading Digital Agency iWEBAPP Achieves 25-30% Cost Savings & 40% Faster Server Response Times With Cloudways

About iWEBAPP

Roberto M. Filho is the founder and CEO of iWEBAPP Agency Inc., with over 20 years of experience in digital innovation and creative direction.

His journey in digital technology began in Montreal, where he collaborated with major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Novartis, and Sanofi, developing cutting-edge digital solutions and marketing strategies.

With a diverse educational background, including studies in Architecture at the University of Brasília and Digital Communications at the International Academy of Design and Technology, Roberto brings a unique blend of creative vision and technical expertise to his role.

Under his leadership, iWEBAPP has grown from a local Montreal agency to a prominent digital solutions provider serving clients across Canada and Brazil. Read this case study to learn why he chose Cloudways and what results he achieved.

Cloudways: Please tell us about the beginnings of iWEBAPP. When did you decide to start your agency? What’s the niche of your agency? Who are your top customers, and what services have you provided them? 

Roberto M. Filho: iWEBAPP’s foundation stems from over two decades of digital innovation and expertise. What began as Cygnus Enterprise Solutions in Montreal back in 2002 has evolved into one of Canada’s leading digital agencies.

In 2018, we underwent a strategic transformation, incorporating iWEBAPP Agency Inc. in Ontario and expanding our operations across Canada and into international markets, particularly Brazil.

Our evolution has been driven by a deep understanding of the digital landscape and a commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions that drive real business results.

Our expertise has been built through years of collaboration with major brands across various sectors. During our early years, we worked with pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer and Novartis, which helped establish our reputation for handling complex, enterprise-level projects.

Today, iWEBAPP specializes in creating high-converting digital experiences through custom web development, ecommerce solutions, and results-driven digital marketing strategies. We’ve maintained a remarkable 98% client retention rate by delivering exceptional results across various industries.

Our team excels in developing solutions on major platforms, including WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, and other leading CMS platforms. We always focus on creating pixel-perfect, conversion-optimized websites.

Our expertise spans enterprise-level ecommerce development to sophisticated web applications, and we serve hundreds of clients across Canada and Brazil.

What sets us apart is our ability to seamlessly integrate design excellence with technical innovation — whether creating custom WordPress solutions, developing Shopify stores, or implementing complex marketing automation systems.

Cloudways: Given your extensive experience in web design and digital marketing, what factors led you to choose Cloudways as your web hosting provider?

Roberto M. Filho: Before 2019, we faced significant challenges with traditional hosting providers that hindered our ability to deliver optimal client performance.

As a leading digital agency serving clients across Canada and expanding into the Brazilian market, we needed a hosting solution to match our commitment to excellence and support our growth trajectory.

We chose Cloudways in May 2019 after extensively searching for a hosting partner that could meet our demanding requirements.

What immediately set Cloudways apart was its unique approach to managed hosting. They had successfully bridged the gap between high-performance cloud infrastructure and user-friendly management tools.

This was crucial for our agency as it allowed us to leverage enterprise-level hosting solutions without requiring dedicated IT personnel for server management.

Three key factors ultimately convinced us that Cloudways was the right choice for iWEBAPP:

1. Enterprise-Grade Infrastructure with Simplified Management: Cloudways provides access to premium cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and DigitalOcean through an intuitive interface that our entire team can navigate effectively. This democratization of high-end hosting technology has been transformative for our operations.

2. Performance and Reliability: After experiencing frustrating downtimes and slow load speeds with previous providers, Cloudways’ exceptional uptime and performance metrics were a revelation. This reliability is crucial for maintaining our clients’ trust and their businesses’ success.

3. Professional Support Infrastructure: The 24/7 expert support team became an extension of our team, providing rapid, knowledgeable assistance whenever needed. This level of support was notably absent from our previous hosting experiences.

Cloudways: How did Cloudways’ infrastructure and features align with iWEBAPP’s specific requirements for delivering high-performance and scalable websites to clients?

Roberto M. Filho: As an agency that delivers conversion-driven websites and ecommerce solutions, we have specific technical requirements that directly impact our clients’ success. Cloudways’ managed cloud platform aligns perfectly with these needs in several crucial ways.

First, the platform provides seamless integration with leading content management systems, particularly WordPress and WooCommerce, which are core to many of our client projects.

The built-in staging environments and one-click cloning features have dramatically streamlined our development workflow. This allows our team to develop, test, and deploy updates more efficiently while minimizing potential client downtime.

Second, Cloudways’ built-in server stack, including Nginx, Redis, and Varnish, provides enterprise-level performance optimization out of the box.

This technical infrastructure ensures our clients’ websites maintain optimal loading speeds and performance metrics, which is crucial for both user experience and search engine rankings.

Third, the platform’s flexibility in resource allocation has been invaluable for our diverse client portfolio.

Whether we’re launching a small business website or scaling an enterprise-level ecommerce solution, we can easily adjust server resources to match each project’s specific needs.

This scalability ensures our clients only pay for the resources they need while maintaining the ability to scale up instantly during high-traffic periods.

Combining these features allows us to maintain our high service delivery standards while focusing on what we do best – creating exceptional digital experiences that drive business growth for our clients.

Cloudways: Can you share specific examples of how Cloudways has helped iWEBAPP improve website load times and overall performance?

Roberto M. Filho: Since migrating our clients’ websites to Cloudways in 2019, we’ve seen remarkable improvements in performance metrics across the board. Let me share some concrete examples of the impact this has had on our client projects.

One of our ecommerce clients in Toronto was struggling with page load times averaging 4-5 seconds on its previous hosting solution, which was significantly impacting the conversion rates.

After migrating to Cloudways and implementing its optimized server stack, we reduced load times to under 2 seconds. This improvement led to a 35% increase in the conversion rates and a significant reduction in cart abandonment.

For another client, a busy real estate agency in Montreal, its website frequently crashed during peak traffic periods, particularly when new property listings went live.

After using auto-scaling features, the site effortlessly handles traffic spikes. The average page load time has improved by 60%, and they’ve maintained 99.9% uptime even during its busiest periods.

Additionally, across our entire client portfolio, we’ve observed:

• Average page load times reduced by 50-60%
• Server response times improved by over 40%
• Mobile performance scores increased by an average of 25 points
• Core Web Vitals metrics consistently in the green

These improvements aren’t just technical metrics – they translate directly to better user experience and improved business outcomes for our clients, which is central to iWEBAPP’s mission.

Want to Improve 2x Speed of Your Clients’ Websites?

Join the thousands of satisfied agencies who trust Cloudways for lightning-fast performance, unmatched reliability, and effortless scalability.

Start Free Now

Cloudways: How has Cloudways’ ability to scale resources on demand benefited iWEBAPP in handling peak traffic or sudden growth in client projects?

Roberto M. Filho: Cloudways’ ability to scale resources dynamically has been a game-changer for managing our client’s digital presence.

Before Cloudways, scaling up resources for traffic spikes often required lengthy discussions with hosting providers, leading to potential downtime during crucial business moments. Now, we can adjust resources instantly through Cloudways’ intuitive dashboard.

A perfect example is our experience with seasonal ecommerce clients. During Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, one of our major retail clients typically sees traffic increase by 500%.

With Cloudways’ vertical scaling capabilities, we can temporarily increase server resources to handle these traffic surges and then scale back down afterward.

This flexibility ensures our clients only pay for their needed resources while maintaining optimal performance during peak periods.

The platform’s monitoring tools have also proven invaluable. We can proactively identify when a client’s website approaches resource limits and scale up before it impacts performance.

This proactive approach has helped us maintain our commitment to 99.9% uptime for our clients, even during unexpected traffic spikes.

What’s particularly valuable is that this scalability doesn’t require deep technical expertise.

Our entire team can monitor and adjust resources as needed through Cloudways’ user-friendly interface, allowing us to respond quickly to our clients’ needs without involving specialized IT personnel.

Cloudways: How do Cloudways’ security measures and practices contribute to iWEBAPP’s confidence in protecting client data and website integrity?

Roberto M. Filho: As a digital agency handling numerous business-critical websites and ecommerce platforms, security is paramount for iWEBAPP.

Cloudways’ security features have been instrumental in maintaining our high standards of data protection and site integrity.

What particularly impresses us about Cloudways’ security approach is its layered defense strategy.

Cloudways includes essential security features like dedicated firewalls, regular security patching, built-in SSL management, and automated backups—all managed through a single dashboard.

This integrated approach has streamlined our security protocols while enhancing protection for our clients’ digital assets.

We’ve found tremendous value in its automated backup system, which allows us to maintain multiple restore points for each client’s website.

This feature has proven invaluable during development phases and provides peace of mind knowing we can quickly restore a site if needed.

The Bot Protection and IP whitelisting features have also significantly reduced unauthorized access attempts on our clients’ websites.

Furthermore, Cloudways’ compliance with international security standards and regular security updates ensure our clients’ websites remain protected against emerging threats.

Cloudways’ proactive approach to security updates means we don’t have to worry about missing critical patches or updates.

Cloudways: What has been your experience with the Cloudways Platform and its ease of use for non-technical team members?

Roberto M. Filho: One of the most impressive aspects of Cloudways is making enterprise-level cloud hosting accessible to our entire team.

As a creative agency, many of our team members are designers and digital marketers rather than server administrators. Cloudways’ intuitive platform has eliminated the traditional barriers between our creative team and advanced hosting management.

The Cloudways Platform is remarkably user-friendly and provides deep functionality

 Our project managers and designers can easily handle tasks that previously required technical expertise – from deploying new sites and managing SSL certificates to monitoring performance metrics and handling backups.

This democratization of hosting management has significantly improved our workflow efficiency and reduced dependencies on technical specialists.

A perfect example is Cloudways’ staging environment feature. Our designers can create staging sites with a single click, implement and test changes, and confidently push updates to live sites.

This has dramatically streamlined our development process and reduced the potential for errors during site updates.

The platform’s clear visual indicators for server health, resource usage, and performance metrics help our team make informed decisions without understanding complex server terminology.

This has empowered our project managers to be more proactive in managing client websites and responding to their needs.

Cloudways: How has Cloudways’ integration with popular CMS (e.g., WordPress, Magento) streamlined iWEBAPP’s workflow and development processes?

Roberto M. Filho: Our development workflow has improved dramatically since adopting Cloudways, particularly in handling CMS-based projects.

The platform’s optimized stack for WordPress, WooCommerce, and other popular CMS platforms aligns perfectly with iWEBAPP’s development needs and has significantly enhanced our ability to deliver high-performance websites efficiently.

One of the platform’s most valuable features is its one-click installation and cloning capabilities. We can deploy optimized WordPress instances in minutes rather than hours.

The built-in Git integration has also revolutionized how our developers collaborate on projects, allowing us to maintain better version control and streamline our deployment process.

The platform’s specialized caching solutions and server-level optimizations for different CMS platforms have particularly benefited our ecommerce projects.

Whether we’re building a WordPress site with WooCommerce or deploying a custom solution, Cloudways ensures optimal performance without requiring extensive server-side configurations.

Moreover, their application-specific performance optimization tools have helped us maintain consistently high performance across our entire client portfolio, regardless of the CMS platform they’re using.

This consistency has been crucial in maintaining our reputation for delivering exceptional digital experiences.

Cloudways: How has Cloudways helped iWEBAPP achieve cost savings or optimize its hosting expenses compared to previous hosting providers?

Roberto M. Filho: The switch to Cloudways has resulted in significant cost optimizations for our agency and clients.

Previously, we had to commit to fixed resource packages that often meant paying for unused capacity or scrambling to upgrade during peak periods. Cloudways’ pay-as-you-go model and flexible resource scaling have enabled us to optimize costs while improving service quality.

The cost benefits manifest in several ways.

First, we’ve eliminated the need for dedicated server management personnel, as Cloudways’ platform handles the complex technical aspects we previously needed specialized staff to manage.

Second, the ability to precisely adjust resources means our clients only pay for what they need, typically resulting in 25-30% cost savings compared to traditional hosting solutions.

Perhaps most importantly, we’ve seen reduced indirect costs associated with technical issues.

The improved reliability and performance mean our team spends less time troubleshooting hosting-related problems and focusing more on creative development and client success.

This efficiency has directly impacted our bottom line and improved our service delivery capabilities.

Cloudways: How has Cloudways’ Agency Partnership Program provided additional value or benefits to iWEBAPP, such as increased revenue or marketing support?

Roberto M. Filho: The Agency Partnership Program has been a valuable addition to our service offering, enabling us to provide comprehensive hosting solutions while creating a new revenue stream.

As a Cloudways Partner, we can offer our clients enterprise-level hosting solutions at competitive rates by integrating hosting services into our existing packages, strengthening our position as a full-service digital agency.

Moreover, the partnership resources and marketing support have enhanced our agency’s credibility. Access to specialized training, priority support, and co-marketing opportunities has helped us better serve our clients while growing our hosting service portfolio.

The ability to manage all our clients’ hosting needs through a single dashboard has significantly improved our operational efficiency.

Join the Agency Partnership Program!

Achieve the growth, reach, and support your agency deserves.

Apply Now

Cloudways: Based on your experience with Cloudways, would you recommend it to other digital agencies in the same industry as iWEBAPP? If so, please tell us your reasons.

Roberto M. Filho: Absolutely, and I do so frequently. Digital agencies face unique challenges in managing multiple client websites while maintaining high performance and reliability standards.

Cloudways addresses these challenges exceptionally well by providing a platform that combines enterprise-level hosting capabilities with practical agency needs.

Three key reasons I recommend Cloudways to fellow agencies:

First, their platform eliminates the complexity of cloud hosting management without sacrificing performance or features.

Second, the scalability and flexible pricing model align perfectly with agency operations, allowing for growth without overwhelming technical or financial commitments.

Third, their support team truly understands agency needs – they’re responsive, knowledgeable, and solution-oriented.

For agencies looking to scale their operations and improve service delivery, Cloudways offers a compelling solution. The platform has consistently proven its value in helping us deliver better results for our clients while streamlining our internal operations.

When combined with their Agency Partnership Program, these benefits become a powerful tool for agency growth and client satisfaction.