Cloudways Autonomous Review 2024: Perfect Auto Scalable Hosting
Cloudways Autonomous is the new high-availability WordPress hosting launched in 2024. With this plan, Cloudways is directly competing with WP Engine and Kinsta, which offer auto-scalable hosting solutions at the same price.
Powered by Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), it offers features such as Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, Unlimited PHP workers, and Object Cache Pro.
As part of the Hostingstep testing methodology, we launched a test site on Cloudways Autonomous to measure performance. I collected the speed, uptime, and load testing data and compared it to the regular Cloudways flexible plan and other managed hosts like WP Engine.
Cloudways Autonomous Review Summary
Cloudways Autonomous is an excellent choice if you are looking for a high traffic wordpress hosting service. We sent 500 constant client loads, and it handled all the load without any errors and offered a 20 ms average response time (lower is faster).
The website didn’t struggle at any point during our test. The uptime is 100% all through the test. It scored an average TTFB of 348 ms, measured from 22 North American locations for every 1-minute interval (a total of 43800 tests a month). The TTFB performance is one of the best among other hosts we’ve tested so far. In total, it offers the best performance in load handling, TTFB, and uptime.
Cloudways Autonomous Pros
Cloudways Autonomous Cons
Starts at $35/month [get $30 off for 3 months here]
Pricing
The Cloudways Autonomous plan starts at $35/month. It has 1 WordPress application, 15 GB Disk space, 30k visitors, and 100 GB Bandwidth. There is a 30% OFF coupon code.
The pricing is on par with WP Engine and Kinsta, which have similar disk space and bandwidth limits. Cloudways slightly offers a higher 30k visitors compared to 25k visits on the other two managed hosts.
Cloudways Autonomous – Performance
The performance is measured by the following tests: Load handling, Speed (TTFB), and Uptime.
Load Handling:
The load handling performance is measured by sending 500 constant client loads to the test site for a minute. The recorded average response time is 20ms with no timeout, 400/500, or network errors. The max response time is 490 ms, and the minimum response time is 9 ms.
This indicates that it is an excellent, high-availability hosting service for WordPress. It can easily handle high traffic on your WordPress site.
Speed:
The Speed TTFB is measured with Pingdom from 22 North American locations for every 1-minute interval (a total of 43,800 monthly tests).
Based on three months of data, the average TTFB of Cloudways Autonomous is 338 ms.
Last 12 months average speed of Cloudways Autonomous:
- September 2024 average TTFB: 371 ms
- August 2024 average TTFB: 355 ms
- July 2024 average TTFB: 347 ms
- June 2024 average TTFB: 340 ms
- May 2024 average TTFB: 343 ms
- April 2024 average TTFB: 319 ms
- March 2024 average TTFB: 348 ms
In the same time period, Cloudways Flexible plan recorded an average TTFB of 388 ms.
Uptime:
The average uptime of the autonomous site for three months is 100%.
This is, again, a perfect score, as one can expect from a premium-priced hosting service. The uptime is measured from the same 22 North American regions.
Last 12 months average uptime of Cloudways Autonomous:
- September 2024 average uptime: 100%
- August 2024 average uptime: 100%
- July 2024 average uptime: 100%
- June 2024 average uptime: 100%
- May 2024 average uptime: 100%
- April 2024 average uptime: 100%
- March 2024 average uptime: 100%
Features:
Cloudflare Enterprise CDN:
The Cloudflare Enterprise CDN comes pre-installed with full-page caching enabled by default. Cloudways also utilizes Cloudflare Enterprise for DDoS mitigation.
If you check on the Cloudflare official site, the Enterprise pack costs more than $200/month, but with Cloudways, we have a cost-saving approach.
Though many companies now offer Cloudflare Enterprise on their hosting stack, Cloudways is the only player that can use it on top of Google Kubernetes, which is known for its reliable auto-scalable solution.
Object Cache Pro:
Object Cache Pro costs $79/month and helps optimize database queries. Cloudways includes this for free on all its plans. If you run a resource-hungry site, a powerful CDN like Cloudflare alone can’t help you at the front; powerful backend performance can only be offered with a service like Object Cache Pro.
Cloudways has a long history of working with Object Cache Pro on its previous plans, so the integration should speed up your backend performance. The data can be seen via the WordPress dashboard, and there is an option to manage it.
Staging:
The staging environment is easy to set up with a one-click push and pull option. That means whatever changes you make in staging can be moved to the production site at one click and vice versa from production to pull.
I created a staging site with one click. Selecting Manage Environment takes you to staging site settings, where Push and Pull options appear.
Backup and Restore:
Cloudways offers 14 days of backup and restore with an option to take manual backups when needed. I checked the logs and saw that the backups are created data-wise with an option to restore at a single click.
The process is simple: Hover over any of the dates, and the restore process starts after a few confirmations.
How to set up Cloudways Autonomous?
After purchasing your hosting plan, you can install the Cloudways Autonomous application by logging into the Cloudways control panel and clicking on Add Application.
The following screen will appear. Enter the application’s name and select your preferred data center region. Then, choose WordPress or Woocommerce and click on Add Application.
The setup is simple. In the next screen, you will get the Autonomous site with credentials, including login and password, auto-created. Click the Manage Access button, and the domain management will appear.
Enter the desired domain name, and a CNAME record will be generated. Enter the details in your DNS management tool, and the Autonomous site will be live.
There are four tabs to explore: Overview, Performance, Workflow/Tools, and Intelligence.
Overview: You can access site details like location and PHP version. Scroll down to see the option to create a staging environment. Below that, you will get logs such as Total visits, disk space usage, and bandwidth. There is also a quick settings menu with access to SSH/SFTP, domain management, and database access.
Performance: This tab gives access to Object Cache Pro and Cloudflare CDN settings.
Workflow/Tools: Access to most common features like Backup/restore, PHP settings and Staging environment setup. We have explained all these settings in the features section above.
Intelligence: This tab shows the logs and traffic analytics data.
Concluding
Cloudways Autonomous is a potential alternative to WP Engine and Kinsta. The earlier Flexible plan lacked features like auto-scaling; it comes with manual CDN integration and many technical aspects that must be managed properly.
Cloudways fixed all these issues and made this autonomous plan look like a plug-and-play thing. One can add a domain, choose a data center, and make the site live in seconds. It is definitely worth a try.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need to upgrade to Cloudways Autonomous plan?
Cloudways Autonomous comes with auto-scalable hosting solutions. Hence, upgrading to autonomous is a wise choice if your existing Cloudways server often hits 100% CPU usage. If there are no CPU issues, stay with your current flexible setup.
How to migrate to Cloudways Autonomous?
The company offers one free managed migration. You can also use their Cloudways Migrate WordPress plugin to migrate any number of sites.
Will my pricing go up in Cloudways Autonomous?
All the new plans offer 30% off for the first three months, after which regular pricing applies. The company is known for not increasing its prices so that you will stay on your pricing plan for a long.
Ask us about your hosting needs. We’ll match them to our performance data to find the best hosting for you.