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When it comes to hosting your WordPress website, cloud hosting is a reliable choice that provides outstanding performance, scalability, and flexibility. Below I will explain what cloud hosting is, its numerous advantages, and why it’s an excellent option for hosting WordPress sites.
I’ll also detail the benefits of cloud hosting for WordPress, key factors to consider when choosing a provider and provide a detailed comparison of the best cloud hosting for WordPress options in 2024.
Note that the below recommendations/insights are from my own personal experience; both with my own websites and also helping clients find the best cloud hosting to suit their WordPress website.
3 Best Cloud Hosting Providers for WordPress
Here is a detailed comparison of the top four cloud hosting providers for WordPress in 2024.
- Fasted WordPress hosting
- Unlimited WordPress websites

1. Rocket.net
While Rocket.net doesn’t technically use cloud servers, they are considered a cloud platform because of their CloudFlare Enterprise integration. Instead of a cloud server, you get a bare metal server (physical server) with 32 cores, 128GB RAM, and NVME storage. This is amazing value; 10x more than most other good cloud hosts.
I have several clients using Rocket.net + my own sites hosted on Rocket.net including this one.
✅ Use Rocket.net IF:
- Use Rocket.net if you have a global audience
- Use Rocket.net if you want the fastest possible website
- Use Rocket.net if you want the best value for server resources like CPU cores and RAM.
❌ DON’T Use Rocket.net IF:
- You don’t need to use Rocket.net if your website doesn’t get much traffic. Use Cloudways.
- You don’t need to use Rocket.net if your website is not resource-intensive. Use Cloudways.
Key features of Rocket.net include:
- Server = All host nodes use a bare metal server with 32 cores, 128GB RAM, and NVMe storage
- Caching = Full page caching via CloudFlare Enterprise + Redis Object Cache. Rocket.net also recommends using WP Rocket for page/browser caching as a backup to CloudFlare.
- PHP Processing = NGINX as a reverse proxy to Apache for server-side handling
- PHP Workers = Unlimited
- Limits = Most importantly, there are no CPU or IO limits. The starter plan has a visitor limit of 250,000 per month, disk usage of 10GB, and a bandwidth limit of 50 GB. You pay an overage fee if you exceed these.
- CDN = CloudFlare Enterprise
- Uptime = 99.99% guarantee
- Malware Scanning = Yes, real-time malware scanning and protection using Immunify360
- Malware Removal = Yes
- Web Application Firewall (WAF) = Yes, through CloudFlare Enterprise
- DDOS Mitigation = Yes, through CloudFlare Enterprise
- Scalability = Yes, higher plans allow more WordPress installs, website visitors, storage, and bandwidth
- Customer Support = 24/7 live chat + email
- Pricing = First month is ONLY $1. Then plans start from $30 USD/month.
2. Kinsta
Kinsta is a premium managed cloud host for WordPress powered by the Google Cloud Platform. You’ll get a Google Cloud compute-optimised C2 server with 12 cores and 8GB RAM. Kinsta also offers edge caching through their CloudFlare Enterprise integration for faster load times around the world.
✅ Use Kinsta IF:
- Use Kinsta if you have a global audience
- Use Kinsta if you want higher performance (but don’t need the absolute highest)
- Use Kinsta if you want the best customer support. Rocket.net support is good, but I think Kinsta’s better.
❌ DON’T Use Kinsta IF:
- Don’t use Kinsta if you have a website with lots of traffic
- Don’t use Kinsta if you have a resource-intensive website (e.g. WooCommerce site). You can, but you’ll need a much higher plan, which significantly increases ongoing costs. You are better off using Rocket.net.
Key features of Kinsta include:
- Server = Google Cloud compute-optimised C2 machines with 12 cores, 8GB RAM, and SATA storage
- Caching = Full page caching via CloudFlare Enterprise + page/browser caching via Kinsta Cache.
- PHP Processing = NGINX
- PHP Workers = Only 2 for Starter and Pro Plans
- Limits = The biggest limit is low PHP workers. The starter plan has a visitor limit of 25,000 per month, disk usage of 10GB, and a bandwidth limit of 100 GB per month.
- CDN = CloudFlare Enterprise
- Uptime = 99.9% guarantee
- Malware Scanning = Yes, real-time malware scanning and protection
- Malware Removal = Free malware removal if your site is already hosted at Kinsta. $100 if migrating.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF) = Yes, through CloudFlare Enterprise
- DDOS Mitigation = Yes, through CloudFlare Enterprise
- Scalability = Yes, higher plans allow more WordPress installs, website visitors, storage, and bandwidth. However, the higher plans are much more expensive compared to Rocket.net.
- Customer Support = 24/7 live chat and email support (phone support is only for sales)
- Pricing = Plans start from $35 USD/month.
3. Cloudways
Cloudways is another good cloud hosting provider that is best suited to website owners on a budget, who have multiple low-traffic WordPress websites. I recommend using a Digital Ocean Premium server for $14/month, which gives you 1GB RAM, 1 Core, 25GB storage, and 1 TB of bandwidth. The premium option gives you a high throughput server with NVME storage.
I personally use Cloudways for testing and low-traffic websites. I also have many clients using Cloudways. The Digital Ocean Premium server option is fast, reliable, and relatively cheap compared to Rocket.net and Kinsta.
✅ Use Cloudways IF:
- Use Cloudways if you have a website with minimal traffic
- Use Cloudways if you want to host many WordPress websites on the same server. I have a 1GB Digital Ocean Premium server on Cloudways that currently has 15 WordPress websites on it.
❌ DON’T Use Cloudways IF:
- Don’t use Cloudways if you have a website with lots of traffic. If you do have lots of traffic, then you’ll likely need to upgrade to a higher plan. At this point, you are better off using Rocket.net. Better value for money!
Key features of Cloudways include:
- Server = Multiple server options from Digital Ocean, AWS, and Google Cloud. I recommend using the Digital Ocean Premium server option that comes with 1 Core, and 1 GB RAM on NVME storage. As you can see, your server won’t have anywhere near the power of Rocket.net or Kinsta. However, this doesn’t mean your website won’t be super fast, it just means that your website can only handle traffic up to a point. So, it will be fast, as long as your website doesn’t get a sudden spike in traffic that overloads the server. Note that Cloudways recommends at least 2GB servers for live websites. Not all live websites need this though. I have many clients with low-traffic websites that are perfectly fine on 1GB servers.
- Caching = Full page caching via CloudFlare Enterprise CDN, server-side page caching via Varnish, object caching via Memcached and Redis, and browser caching via their Breeze plugin. The Breeze caching plugin also extends the server-side caching with a range of optimisation settings.
- PHP Processing = NGINX as a reverse proxy to Apache for server-side handling
- PHP Workers = Unlimited
- Limits = The biggest limit is the 1GB RAM on starter plans using a Digital Ocean server. By comparison, Kinsta allows 8GB RAM for starter plans and Rocket.net allows 128GB RAM. Starter plans using a Digital Ocean server also have a disk usage limit of 25GB and a bandwidth limit of 1000 GB per month.
- CDN = CloudFlare Enterprise
- Uptime = 99.99% guarantee
- Malware Scanning = No
- Malware Removal = No
- Web Application Firewall (WAF) = Yes, through CloudFlare Enterprise
- DDOS Mitigation = Yes, through CloudFlare Enterprise
- Scalability = Yes, higher plans allow more RAM, storage, and bandwidth.
- Customer Support = 24/7 live chat, email, and phone support (premium add-on)
- Pricing = Plans start from $11 USD/month
- I recommend using premium Digital Ocean servers though, which start from $14 USD/month
What Is Cloud Hosting?
Cloud hosting, in simple terms, is a hosting model that relies on a network of interconnected virtual servers rather than a single physical server. This network of servers shares resources and spreads the workload, making websites hosted on the cloud highly available and reliable.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Cloud Host for WordPress
The important factors to consider when choosing a cloud hosting provider for WordPress are similar to factors when considering any host for WordPress.
Server Location
Choosing a hosting provider with a server location in your target audience’s country (ideally the same city) is very important. This ensures lower latency and faster load times for your target audience.
Content Delivery Network aka CDN
If you want to provide the best user experience for website visitors from different countries, it’s important to ensure your cloud hosting provider has a good CDN integration. I use Rocket.net, which comes integrated with CloudFlare Enterprise out of the box, which would normally be $200+ per month.
If you have a global audience but can’t afford Rocket.net or Kinsta, I recommend using Cloudways. Cloudways uses CloudFlare Enterprise similar to Rocket.net and Kinsta.
Another option is to set up Fastly yourself, which is currently free for websites using less than 500GB per month. This is a good option for those who can’t afford Cloudways.
Caching
Make sure the cloud hosting provider supports multiple levels of caching.
Examples include:
- Page caching (ideally at the server level)
- CDN caching (ideally full page caching)
- Object caching (important for dynamic websites like WooCommerce websites)
For example, Cloudways has full page caching done through their CloudFlare Enterprise CDN integration, page caching done at the server level with Varnish, and Object caching done with Memcached and Redis. Cloudways also preinstalls their Breeze caching plugin that extends its server-side caching, enables browser caching and gives you further optimisation settings.
Security Features
Keeping your WordPress website secure is important to protect your website from hackers and malware.
The best cloud hosting providers offer:
- Malware Scanning and Removal
- Web Application Firewall (WAF)
- Protection against distributed denial of server (DDOS) attacks
Rocket.net, Kinsta and Cloudways have excellent security in place via their CloudFlare integration.
Scalability and Flexibility
As your website grows in traffic, size and resource demands, you’ll want a cloud hosting provider that makes it easy to scale up your server size without having to migrate everything to a new server.
Customer Support and Assistance
I personally wouldn’t use or recommend a cloud hosting provider that doesn’t provide great 24/7 live chat support. Having immediate support when things go wrong can prevent nightmare situations. Also, having great support can be very helpful when working on your WordPress website. It’s like having an expert on call to answer any questions you have, all part of the managed Cloud hosting service.
Pricing and Value for Money
If you have the budget, I recommend using Rocket.net or Kinsta.
If not, I recommend using Cloudways. Cloudways is significantly cheaper and doesn’t limit WordPress installs.
Is Cloud Hosting Good for WordPress?
Yes, cloud hosting is great for WordPress! However, not all cloud hosting providers are created equal.
Benefits of Cloud Hosting for WordPress Websites
Cloud hosting offers a wide range of benefits, making it a popular choice for hosting websites and applications. Here are some of the key advantages of cloud hosting:
- Scalability: One of the most significant advantages of cloud hosting is its scalability. Cloud providers allow you to easily scale your resources up or down based on your needs. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for websites and applications that experience fluctuating traffic or have growing resource demands. You can add more computing power, storage, and bandwidth as required without the need for physical hardware upgrades.
- High Availability: Cloud hosting is known for its high availability. Cloud providers use redundant hardware and data centres, which means your data and applications are distributed across multiple servers. This redundancy reduces the risk of downtime due to hardware failures. In case one server or data centre experiences an issue, traffic is automatically redirected to available resources.
- Reliability: Cloud hosting providers invest heavily in infrastructure, ensuring reliability and data protection. They offer features like automated backups, failover mechanisms, and disaster recovery solutions to minimize data loss and downtime. This reliability is crucial for businesses and websites that require constant accessibility.
- Improved Performance: Cloud hosting often provides better performance than traditional hosting solutions. The use of load balancers distributes incoming traffic evenly across multiple servers, preventing overloads and maintaining optimal performance. Additionally, many cloud providers offer content delivery networks (CDNs) to further enhance website speed by caching content closer to end-users. ⚡️
- Security: Cloud hosting providers typically offer robust security measures, including firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) protection, and encryption. They invest in keeping their infrastructure secure, and customers can often take advantage of these security features to protect their data and applications.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Cloud hosting offers cost-efficiency through its pay-as-you-go pricing model. Often you’ll only pay for the resources you use, which can be more cost-effective than traditional hosting where you pay for fixed server configurations. This makes cloud hosting a budget-friendly option for businesses of all sizes.
- Resource Efficiency: Cloud hosting allows efficient resource utilisation. Resources are allocated dynamically based on demand, preventing underutilization or over-provisioning of server resources. This efficiency helps reduce operational costs and environmental impact. ✅
- Easy Management: Cloud hosting platforms typically offer user-friendly dashboards and management tools, making it easy for users to deploy, monitor, and manage their resources. This simplicity is especially valuable for businesses and individuals with limited technical expertise.
- Global Reach: Cloud hosting providers have data centres in various regions, allowing you to deploy your services close to your target audience. This reduces latency and improves the overall user experience for visitors in different geographical locations.
- Innovation and Up-to-date Technology: Cloud hosting providers continually invest in the latest technology and infrastructure improvements. This means you can take advantage of new features, services, and hardware without the burden of maintaining and upgrading your own servers.
- Backup and Disaster Recovery: Cloud hosting typically includes backup and disaster recovery options, which can protect your data and applications in case of unexpected issues or data loss. These features help businesses maintain business continuity.
- Collaboration and Accessibility: Cloud hosting often provides collaboration tools and cloud-based productivity software, facilitating remote work and collaboration among team members from anywhere with an internet connection.
Overall, cloud hosting’s flexibility, reliability, and cost-effectiveness make it an excellent choice for businesses, websites, and applications looking to leverage the benefits of cloud computing while focusing on growth and innovation.
Scalability and Flexibility of Cloud Hosting for WordPress
Cloud hosting provides an unparalleled level of scalability. Traditional hosting options like shared or VPS have limitations, but with cloud hosting, you can easily adjust your resources as your site’s traffic and demands grow. This means you won’t need to migrate your website to a new server when it outgrows its current one, saving time and hassle.
Improved Website Performance and Speed with Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting leverages the power of multiple servers working in unison. Your website’s data is distributed across these servers, reducing the load on any single server. This architecture results in faster loading times, reduced server response times, and a more enjoyable user experience. Faster-loading websites also tend to rank higher in search engines, driving more organic traffic.
Enhanced Security and Reliability of Cloud Hosting for WordPress
Leading cloud hosting providers invest heavily in security measures. They offer features like automatic backups, distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection, and robust firewalls. Additionally, your website’s data is distributed across multiple servers, enhancing redundancy and reducing the risk of data loss due to server failure.
Why Is Cloud Hosting Important for WordPress Websites?
Handling High Traffic and Resource Demands
WordPress sites can experience sudden traffic spikes due to various factors, such as viral content, marketing campaigns, or seasonal trends. Cloud hosting’s scalability ensures that your site can handle these fluctuations without slowdowns or downtime.
Ensuring Website Uptime and Availability
Downtime can be detrimental to any online business. Cloud hosting minimises downtime through redundancy and failover mechanisms. If one server experiences an issue, traffic is automatically routed to another available server, ensuring your site remains accessible.
Easy Scalability
As your WordPress site grows, cloud hosting allows you to easily scale your resources. Whether you need more server resources, storage, or additional services, cloud providers offer a wide range of options to accommodate your growth.
Cost-Effectiveness and Pay-As-You-Go Pricing
Cloud hosting’s pay-as-you-go pricing model is a significant advantage. You only pay for the resources you use, making it cost-effective for businesses of all sizes. This flexibility means you can start small and scale up as your site’s needs evolve without committing to fixed costs.
Note that the definition of Pay-As-You-Go can differ between cloud hosting providers. e.g. Cloudways’ pay-as-you-go pricing is for the usage of the server(s) per day, not the bandwidth consumed by your website on the server. So you still pay a fixed $11/month for a single Digital Ocean server, but you could technically remove the server halfway through the month and only have to pay $5.50. This is a little deceiving IMO. What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.
How Do I Host WordPress on the Cloud?
You don’t need to know how to host WordPress on the cloud if you choose a managed cloud hosting provider like Rocket.net, Kinsta, or Cloudways. They manage all of this for you. However, if you are a developer and prefer an unmanaged cloud hosting provider (usually cheaper), you’ll need to consider the below.
Choosing a Reliable Cloud Hosting Provider for WordPress
Selecting the right cloud hosting provider is critical to the success of your WordPress website. Consider the following factors when making your choice:
- Provider Reputation: Look for well-established cloud hosting providers with a good track record of reliability and performance. Providers like Rocket.net, Kinsta, and Cloudways are trusted by many businesses worldwide.
- Pricing: Compare pricing structures, taking into account not only the base rates but also potential additional costs for data transfer, storage, and additional services.
- Data Center Locations: Choose a provider with data centres in locations that match your target audience. This can improve website speed and latency for visitors.
Setting up a Cloud Hosting Account for WordPress
Setting up a cloud hosting account involves a few key steps:
- Account Creation: Register for an account with your chosen provider. This typically includes providing payment information and creating login credentials.
- Data Center Selection: Choose the data centre region where your website’s data will be stored. Consider the location of your target audience for optimal performance.
- Server Configuration: If you don’t choose a managed cloud hosting platform like Rocket.net, Kinsta, or Cloudways, you’ll need to configure your virtual server instance, specify the server type, operating system, and resource allocation (CPU, RAM, storage).
- Domain and DNS Configuration: Connect your domain to your cloud hosting environment by configuring the domain’s DNS settings. You can use the provider’s DNS or third-party services like Cloudflare for additional benefits. I use CloudFlare for free DNS management for all of my websites and client sites.
Installing WordPress on the Cloud Hosting Platform
The process of configuring WordPress on a cloud hosting platform is usually done for you if you choose a managed cloud hosting platform. If you choose Rocket.net, Kinsta, or Cloudways, you only need to install WordPress (usually a one-click install). But if you choose an unmanaged cloud hosting platform like GridPane, RunCloud, ServerPilot or SpinupWP, you’ll need to follow the below steps.
- Launching a Virtual Server Instance: Create a virtual machine (VM) within your cloud hosting account. You’ll need to choose an operating system and configure resources.
- Installing a Web Server: Set up a web server software such as Apache, Nginx, or LiteSpeed. This software is responsible for serving your WordPress files to visitors.
- Configuring a Database Server: Install and configure a database server like MySQL or PostgreSQL to store and manage your site’s data.
- Uploading and Configuring WordPress Files: Upload the WordPress core files to your server and configure them. You’ll need to create a database, configure the wp-config.php file, and complete the WordPress installation.
Recommendation
In 2024, cloud hosting remains a top choice for hosting WordPress websites, offering improved speed, scalability, and reliability. The cloud hosting providers mentioned in this guide are excellent options, each with its unique features and advantages. By considering your specific needs and budget, you should be able to find the best cloud hosting for YOUR WordPress website.
However, I believe the overall best cloud hosting for WordPress is Rocket.net.
Need help speeding up your website? Check out my WordPress Speed Optimisation Service.
Further reading:
FAQ
What is the best cloud hosting for WordPress?
There are many hosting providers that offer excellent cloud hosting services for WordPress. Some of the best managed cloud hosting providers are Rocket.net, Kinsta, and Cloudways.
What is WordPress cloud hosting?
WordPress cloud hosting refers to a hosting service that is specifically designed to host WordPress websites. It combines the scalability and reliability of cloud hosting with the features and functionality of WordPress.
What are the benefits of using cloud hosting for WordPress?
Cloud hosting offers several benefits for WordPress users. It provides high scalability, allowing your website to easily handle traffic spikes. It also offers better security and reliability compared to shared hosting.
What should I look for in a WordPress cloud hosting provider?
When choosing a WordPress cloud hosting provider, it is important to consider factors such as performance, scalability, security, reliability, customer support, and pricing. You should also check if the provider offers specific optimisations for WordPress websites and if they have a good reputation in the industry.
Is shared hosting suitable for WordPress websites?
Shared hosting can be suitable for small WordPress websites with low to moderate traffic. However, as your website grows, it is recommended to switch to a more scalable and reliable hosting solution such as cloud hosting or VPS hosting.
What is managed WordPress hosting?
Managed WordPress hosting is a hosting service where the hosting provider takes care of all the technical aspects of managing and maintaining a WordPress website. This includes automatic updates, backups, security, performance optimisations, and more. I use managed WordPress hosting providers and recommend them to almost all of my clients.
Can I host a WordPress site on a cloud VPS?
Yes, you can host a WordPress site on a cloud VPS (Virtual Private Server). A cloud VPS provides more control and resources compared to shared hosting, making it a good option for hosting WordPress websites.
What is the difference between managed hosting and unmanaged cloud hosting?
Managed hosting refers to a hosting service where the hosting provider takes care of all the technical aspects of managing and maintaining a website. Unmanaged cloud hosting, on the other hand, requires you to handle the technical aspects yourself. I prefer managed cloud hosting.