If you have outgrown cheap shared hosting but do not want to babysit a raw server, managed cloud hosting is the sweet spot — and Cloudways is one of the most popular ways to get it. The big question people ask before switching is simple: what can Cloudways actually host? The short answer is almost any PHP-based site or app, running on top of premium cloud servers, without you touching the command line.

Here is the full rundown of the platforms Cloudways manages, and who each one is best for.

The cloud underneath: pick your provider

Before the platforms, it helps to know what Cloudways is. It is a managed layer that sits on top of five best-in-class cloud providers. You pick the raw power; Cloudways handles the server management, security patches, caching, and scaling.

• DigitalOcean — the developer favorite, fast and affordable
• Vultr — high-frequency compute for speed-sensitive sites
• Linode (Akamai) — reliable, globally distributed
• AWS — enterprise-grade with the biggest region footprint
• Google Cloud — premium network and performance

You get the muscle of these clouds with none of the DevOps homework. Spin up a server in a few clicks here.

Platforms Cloudways can host

WordPress

This is the headliner. Cloudways is purpose-built for fast, secure WordPress — with its own Breeze caching plugin, server-level Redis and Varnish, free SSL, staging environments, and one-click cloning. If you run a blog, a business site, or a portfolio and speed matters, this is the flagship use case.

WooCommerce

Because WooCommerce is WordPress under the hood, Cloudways is a natural fit for online stores. Dedicated resources mean your checkout does not crawl during a traffic spike, and the auto-healing servers keep the cart online. For anyone selling products, the performance headroom pays for itself.

Laravel

Cloudways offers a one-click Laravel stack with Composer, Git deployment, cron jobs, and SSH access already wired up. It is a genuinely great home for Laravel apps and APIs — you get a production-ready PHP 8 environment without configuring Nginx and PHP-FPM by hand.

Magento

Magento is resource-hungry, and shared hosting chokes on it. Cloudways gives it the dedicated CPU and RAM it needs, plus full-page caching, making it a solid pick for larger ecommerce catalogs.

Drupal, Joomla, PrestaShop and more

Cloudways ships one-click installers for Drupal, Joomla, PrestaShop, and other popular CMS and ecommerce platforms — so agencies and site builders can standardize on a single dashboard.

Custom PHP applications

Have a custom-coded PHP app, a framework we did not list, or a legacy project? Cloudways provides a plain custom PHP stack with full server access. If it runs on PHP and MySQL, it runs on Cloudways.

Who should use Cloudways

Cloudways is the managed middle ground. It is ideal if you:

• Have outgrown slow, cramped shared hosting
• Want cloud performance without learning server administration
• Run WordPress, WooCommerce, or Laravel and care about speed
• Manage multiple client sites and want one clean dashboard

You get free SSL, automated backups, staging, 24/7 support, and a free trial with no credit card, so you can kick the tires before committing. Start your free Cloudways trial here.

Prefer someone else to handle it?

The DIY route is great, and Cloudways makes it about as painless as managed cloud gets. But if you would rather not touch a dashboard at all, GTStudios offers done-for-you managed hosting and site care — we run everything on the same premium cloud so you can focus on your business. Either way, you win: launch it yourself, or let us launch it for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Cloudways good for beginners?

Yes. While it runs on serious cloud infrastructure, the dashboard is built for non-technical users — one-click installs, managed updates, and a free trial with no credit card required mean you can launch a site without any server knowledge.

Can Cloudways host more than one website?

Absolutely. A single Cloudways server can host multiple applications and sites, and you can add more servers as you grow. This makes it especially popular with freelancers and agencies managing many client sites from one dashboard.

Does Cloudways include a free trial?

Yes, Cloudways offers a free trial that lets you launch and test a server before paying, with no credit card required to start. It is the easiest way to see if the performance fits your project.

What is the difference between Cloudways and shared hosting?

Shared hosting puts hundreds of sites on one server competing for resources, which is why it slows down. Cloudways gives each account dedicated cloud resources on providers like DigitalOcean and AWS, with managed caching and security, for much better speed and reliability.