Cloudways
Worth it
Confidence: High
Buy if you run multiple WordPress/PHP sites and want managed cloud without hiring a sysadmin.
Comparison
Cloudways vs FlyWP
Cloudways lands on Worth it, and FlyWP lands on Depends.
FlyWP
Depends
Confidence: Medium
A strong fit if you manage multiple WordPress sites and want server-level control without hiring a sysadmin.
| Compare | Cloudways | FlyWP |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Worth it | Depends |
| Best for | Agencies hosting many client WordPress sites | Agencies managing many client sites |
| Who it's not for | Single low-traffic hobby sites . shared hosting is far cheaper | Single-site owners who never want to touch a server |
| Privacy | One CVE found in Cloudways' Breeze plugin (authorization bypass); malware scanning sold as a paid add-on.⁹ | Good tooling (auto vuln scanner, Patchstack), but FlyWP disclosed a large-scale security incident in August 2026. |
| Support quality | G2 users praise top-notch technical support | No support evidence found |
| Public sentiment | Users mostly rate it highly for support and value, with a minority complaining about learning curve and add-on costs.¹ | AppSumo buyers rate FlyWP 4.53/5 and praise easy setup, while Reddit threads comparing it to RunCloud and SpinupWP are more mixed.12 |
| Biggest gotcha | Malware scanning costs extra; some users call its upsell tactics a 'scare tactic' | Large-scale security incident disclosed Aug 6, 2026; read FlyWP's own postmortem before hosting production sites. |
Pick Cloudways when
- Agencies hosting many client WordPress sites
- Freelancers wanting managed cloud without sysadmin work
- Small businesses needing scalable WP/e-commerce hosting
- Teams wanting cloud provider choice (DO, AWS, Vultr)
When Cloudways is not a fit
- Single low-traffic hobby sites . shared hosting is far cheaper
- Devs comfortable managing raw DigitalOcean directly
- Anyone needing root-level server control or custom stacks
- Budget hunters unwilling to pay markup over raw cloud prices
Pick FlyWP when
- Agencies managing many client sites
- Devs wanting control of their own servers
- Multi-site owners fleeing expensive managed hosts
- WordPress-plus-Laravel stacks
When FlyWP is not a fit
- Single-site owners who never want to touch a server
- Non-technical buyers wanting fully hands-off hosting with SLAs
- Enterprises needing compliance certifications and dedicated account support
- Buyers demanding an incident-free vendor record
Sources
review
- Companies Using Cloudways in 2026technologychecker.ioreview
- Cloudways customer reviews on Trustpilottrustpilot.comreview
- Cloudways Review 2026: Managed Cloud Hosting Testedcatswhocode.comreview
review
- Cloudways Review 2026: Caveats You Should Be Aware Ofonlinemediamasters.comreview
- Cloudways Pricing & Planscloudways.comofficial
- Ultimate Malware Security Add-oncloudways.comofficial
- CVE-2025-69364: Cloudways Breeze Auth Bypass Vulnerabilitysentinelone.comsecurity
- Cloudways Alternative . ServerAvatarserveravatar.comreview
- Cloudways . Crunchbase Company Profilecrunchbase.comnews
- FlyWP Reviews 2026 . AppSumoappsumo.comreview
- FlyWP Pros and Cons . G2g2.comreview
- FlyWP Customer Reviews . Trustpilottrustpilot.comreview
- SpinupWP vs LaunchWP vs FlyWP . Redditreddit.comreview
- FlyWP Review 2025: Why I Switched from GridPanefeaturedwp.comreview
