Cloudways Discount Code: $100 off first 3 months

Deal Highlights

What Is Cloudways?

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that sits between DIY cloud hosting (AWS, DigitalOcean, Google Cloud) and expensive shared hosting — giving startups the performance and flexibility of cloud infrastructure with the simplicity of a managed hosting platform. Rather than configuring Nginx, managing server security patches, and monitoring uptime yourself, Cloudways handles all server management while you control what matters: your application.

In 2026, Cloudways powers over 100,000 websites and applications across five underlying cloud providers: DigitalOcean, Linode (Akamai), Vultr, AWS, and Google Cloud. You choose the cloud provider and server size; Cloudways manages the stack — web server, PHP-FPM, Redis, Elasticsearch, MySQL, security patches, monitoring, and backups.

Why This Deal Matters for Startup Teams

Most early-stage startups face an infrastructure dilemma: shared hosting is too slow and inflexible, but self-managed cloud requires dedicated DevOps time that small teams can't afford. Cloudways solves this by providing cloud-grade hosting that a non-DevOps engineer can manage without SSH commands or server administration knowledge.

The Cloudways startup deal gives teams professional managed hosting — with automatic backups, one-click staging environments, SSL certificates, and 24/7 monitoring — at significantly reduced cost during the critical early scaling phase.

What's Included in the Cloudways Startup Deal

Through SaaSOffers, qualifying startups receive:

• $50 in free hosting credits: Enough for 1–2 months of entry-level cloud server hosting
• Full Cloudways feature access: Server management, application deployment, team collaboration
• One-click staging: Clone your production environment for safe testing
• Automated daily backups: With one-click restore capability
• Free SSL certificates: Via Let's Encrypt, managed automatically
• 24/7 support: Live chat with Cloudways technical support team
• Server monitoring: Uptime, CPU, RAM, and disk alerts
• PHP version management: Switch PHP versions without server SSH access

Eligibility Requirements

The Cloudways startup credit is available to:

• New Cloudways accounts (not existing paid customers)
• Any startup or small business launching a web application
• No funding stage requirement — available to pre-revenue teams

Apply through SaaSOffers to access the current credit offer and any promotional pricing available to referred startups.

How to Claim This Cloudways Deal — Step by Step

Step 1: Create a free account on SaaSOffers at saasoffers.tech to access the verified Cloudways referral link.

Step 2: Click "Get Deal" on the Cloudways offer page and sign up through the referral link to ensure credits are applied correctly.

Step 3: Create your first server. Choose your cloud provider (DigitalOcean is the most popular starting point for cost-efficiency) and server size. For most early-stage applications, a 2GB RAM / 2 vCPU server ($14–$22/month) is the right starting point.

Step 4: Add your application. Cloudways supports PHP applications, WordPress, WooCommerce, Laravel, Magento, and custom application stacks. For custom apps, use the PHP application template and configure your deployment workflow.

Step 5: Point your domain to your Cloudways application. Update your DNS A record to the Cloudways server IP, or use Cloudflare (highly recommended) in front of Cloudways for additional CDN and security benefits.

Step 6: Enable SSL. In the Cloudways control panel, go to SSL Management and install a Let's Encrypt certificate for your domain with one click. Force HTTPS to ensure all traffic is encrypted.

Step 7: Set up automated backups and a staging environment. Enable daily automated backups with 7-day retention in the Backups tab. Clone your server to create a staging environment for testing before deploying changes to production.

Key Features That Make Cloudways Worth Using

Multi-Cloud Flexibility

Cloudways lets you deploy on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, or Google Cloud from a single control panel. You can start on DigitalOcean for cost efficiency and migrate to AWS for enterprise compliance requirements — without reconfiguring your entire deployment setup. The Cloudways management layer is provider-agnostic.

One-Click Staging Environments

Creating a staging environment on Cloudways takes two clicks: clone server → create staging app. The staging environment mirrors production exactly — same PHP version, same database structure, same server configuration. Test changes safely before pushing to production, then use the "push to live" feature to synchronize changes.

Built-in Server Monitoring and Alerts

Cloudways monitors server uptime, CPU usage, RAM consumption, disk space, and application response time. You configure alert thresholds and receive notifications via email or Slack when metrics exceed those thresholds. For startups without a dedicated DevOps engineer, this monitoring replaces what would otherwise require Datadog or New Relic setup.

Team Collaboration and Access Control

Cloudways supports team accounts with role-based access: project managers get read-only access; developers get application deployment access; admins get full server control. This access separation is critical for security — developers don't need (and shouldn't have) SSH root access just to deploy their application.

Automated Backups with Point-in-Time Restore

Cloudways takes daily backups of both your application files and MySQL databases. Backups are retained for 7 days on standard plans. Restoring to any backup point takes one click in the control panel — no command-line database import required. This protection is essential for any production application.

Cloudways vs. Hosting Alternatives

Cloudways wins for teams running PHP/WordPress/Laravel stacks who want cloud performance without DevOps overhead. Render and Heroku are better for containerized Node.js/Python apps. Raw AWS is better when you need complete infrastructure control.

Who Is the Cloudways Startup Deal For?

Non-technical founders running PHP applications: If your product is built on WordPress, WooCommerce, or Laravel and you don't have a dedicated server administrator, Cloudways is the right platform. You get cloud performance without needing to know what Nginx configuration syntax looks like.

Marketing and content teams outgrowing shared hosting: If your startup's website or content platform is slow on shared hosting, Cloudways provides a direct upgrade path to cloud performance with a management interface that non-engineers can use without help.

Small engineering teams managing multiple client sites: Agencies and service startups managing multiple web applications for clients use Cloudways to centralize server management, apply updates across sites from one panel, and grant clients read-only access to their own application stats.

Real Startup Use Cases

ContentCraft (SaaS content platform, 12,000 monthly visitors): ContentCraft moved from Bluehost shared hosting to Cloudways DigitalOcean after their blog regularly hit resource limits during traffic spikes. On Cloudways, the same traffic spike that crashed their Bluehost server caused zero degradation. Their page load time dropped from 4.2 seconds to 1.1 seconds — directly improving their Google Search ranking.

AgencyOS (marketing agency SaaS, managing 40 client sites): AgencyOS used Cloudways to consolidate all 40 client WordPress sites onto three managed cloud servers. The Cloudways team collaboration feature allowed each client to view their site's analytics without accessing the underlying server. Server management time dropped from 15 hours/week to under 2 hours/week.

LaunchKit (SaaS for early-stage founders, WordPress + WooCommerce): LaunchKit's checkout page was taking 6 seconds to load on their shared host. After migrating to Cloudways with a 4GB DigitalOcean server and enabling Redis object caching, checkout load time dropped to 1.3 seconds. Conversion rate on the checkout page improved by 31% within the first month.

Tips to Maximize Your Cloudways Deal

1. Put Cloudflare in front of Cloudways — Cloudways handles your server; Cloudflare handles your CDN, DDoS protection, and WAF. Together, they provide an excellent security and performance stack. Configure Cloudflare's nameservers for your domain and set SSL mode to "Full (Strict)" to encrypt traffic between Cloudflare and your Cloudways server.
2. Enable Redis object caching immediately — For PHP applications, Redis object caching dramatically reduces database queries. Cloudways includes Redis and enables it with one toggle in the application settings. For WordPress sites, combined with a caching plugin like WP Rocket, Redis typically reduces server response time by 40–70%.
3. Start smaller than you think you need — New Cloudways accounts often overprovision. Start with a 2GB server and monitor CPU/RAM usage in the Cloudways dashboard. Scale up only when you consistently exceed 60–70% RAM usage. Cloudways scaling takes under a minute and requires no downtime.
4. Test all changes on staging before production — Cloudways makes staging trivially easy. Use it for every significant change: plugin updates, PHP version upgrades, theme modifications, database migrations. The cost of a staging-caused outage to production is always higher than the 5 minutes it takes to test on staging first.
5. Set up backup notifications — Configure Cloudways to email you when automated backups complete or fail. Silent backup failures are surprisingly common across all hosting platforms. Knowing your backups are running successfully is worth the 2-minute notification setup.

Who Is This Deal For?

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about this startup deal.