How to Migrate WordPress to Cloudways

Why Migrate to Cloudways?

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that sits between traditional shared hosting and raw cloud infrastructure. Instead of managing a DigitalOcean or AWS server yourself, Cloudways handles server maintenance, security patches, and backups while giving you near-full control over your hosting environment. It is the single biggest performance upgrade most WordPress users can make.

Performance That Shared Hosting Cannot Match

Our benchmarks show Cloudways delivering 120-180ms TTFB on the DigitalOcean Premium plan — compared to 350-700ms on typical shared hosting. This difference comes from dedicated resources (your server is not shared with hundreds of other sites), built-in Varnish caching, Redis object caching, and PHP-FPM with OPcache. For a WordPress site, switching from shared hosting to Cloudways typically improves Largest Contentful Paint by 40-60%.

Pricing That Makes Sense

Cloudways starts at $14/mo for the DigitalOcean 1GB plan — more than shared hosting, but you get what you pay for. There are no renewal surprises: the price you see is the price you pay every month. Compare that to Bluehost ($2.95/mo intro → $10.99/mo renewal) or GoDaddy ($5.99/mo intro → $14.99/mo renewal). Over 3 years, Cloudways often costs less than shared hosting at renewal rates while delivering 3-5x better performance.

Who Should Migrate to Cloudways?

Cloudways is ideal if: your site gets 30K+ monthly visitors, you run WooCommerce or membership plugins, your current TTFB exceeds 400ms, you need staging environments, or you want SSH access and WP-CLI. If your site is a simple blog with under 10K visitors/month, Hostinger at $2.99/mo is a more cost-effective choice.

Server & Application Setup

Before migrating your site, you need to create a server and application on Cloudways. This takes about 5 minutes and is completely separate from the migration itself.

Step 1: Choose Your Cloud Provider

Cloudways offers 5 cloud infrastructure providers. For most WordPress sites, here is how they compare:

• DigitalOcean (Recommended for most users): $14/mo for 1GB RAM. Best price-to-performance ratio. Data centers in New York, San Francisco, London, Singapore, and more. Premium droplets ($16.20/mo) add NVMe storage for faster disk I/O.
• Vultr: $14/mo for 1GB RAM. Similar to DigitalOcean with slightly different data center locations. High-frequency instances ($16/mo) offer faster CPUs.
• AWS: Starting at $38.56/mo. Enterprise-grade, but overkill for most WordPress sites. Choose only if you need AWS-specific services or compliance.
• Google Cloud: Starting at $37.45/mo. Same rationale as AWS — only worth it for specific requirements.
• Linode (Akamai): $14/mo for 1GB RAM. Strong network performance, good for sites serving global audiences.

Step 2: Configure Server Settings

When creating your server:

• Server size: Start with 1GB RAM ($14/mo) for sites under 50K monthly visitors. Scale to 2GB ($28/mo) for WooCommerce or 50-100K visitor sites. You can resize later without migration.
• Data center: Choose the location closest to your primary audience. For US audiences, New York or San Francisco. For European audiences, London or Frankfurt.
• PHP version: Select PHP 8.2 or 8.3 (latest stable). Cloudways makes it easy to switch PHP versions later from the dashboard.

Step 3: Create a WordPress Application

1. After the server launches (takes 2-3 minutes), go to Applications → Add Application
2. Select "WordPress" (not "WordPress + WooCommerce" unless you need it — you can add WooCommerce later)
3. Enter your application name and project name
4. Click "Add Application" — Cloudways installs a fresh WordPress instance

Note the temporary URL Cloudways assigns (e.g., wordpress-123456.cloudwaysapps.com). You will use this to test the migration before switching DNS.

Step-by-Step Migration

Method 1: Cloudways WordPress Migrator Plugin (Recommended)

This is the easiest method and works for 95% of WordPress sites. Cloudways provides a free migration plugin that handles everything automatically.

1. Get your Cloudways SFTP credentials: Go to your Cloudways application → Access Details. Note the Public IP, Username, Password, and Database name.
2. Install the migration plugin on your current host: Log into your existing WordPress dashboard → Plugins → Add New → search for "Cloudways WordPress Migrator" → Install → Activate.
3. Configure the migrator: Go to Cloudways Migrate in your WordPress sidebar. Enter your email address, then fill in the destination details:
   • Destination Site URL: your Cloudways temporary URL (e.g., https://wordpress-123456.cloudwaysapps.com)
   • SFTP Host: your server's public IP
   • SFTP Username: from Access Details
   • SFTP Password: from Access Details
   • Database Name: from Access Details
4. Start the migration: Click "Migrate." The plugin packages your entire site (files, database, plugins, themes, uploads) and transfers it to Cloudways. Progress is shown in real-time.
5. Wait for completion: Migration time depends on your site size. A 1GB site typically takes 15-25 minutes. A 5GB WooCommerce store may take 45-90 minutes. Do not close the browser tab.
6. Verify on the temporary URL: After migration completes, visit your Cloudways temporary URL. Check the homepage, 5-10 posts, admin login, and key functionality. The site should look identical to your current host.

Method 2: Manual Migration (For Sites Over 5GB)

For very large sites or if the plugin fails:

1. Export your database: On your current host, use phpMyAdmin → Export → Quick → SQL, or via SSH: wp db export backup.sql
2. Download all files: Via SFTP, download wp-content/ (themes, plugins, uploads). For large sites, use SSH: tar -czf wp-content.tar.gz wp-content/
3. Upload to Cloudways: Connect to Cloudways via SFTP (credentials in Access Details). Upload files to public_html/wp-content/. For archives: SSH into Cloudways (ssh user@ip) and extract.
4. Import the database: In Cloudways dashboard → Database Manager (Adminer) → Import → upload your .sql file. Or via SSH: mysql -u username -p database_name < backup.sql
5. Update wp-config.php: Cloudways auto-generates wp-config.php. Ensure the database credentials match. Add any custom constants from your old wp-config (Redis, custom table prefix, etc.).
6. Search and replace: Use WP-CLI via SSH: wp search-replace 'oldsite.com' 'temp-url.cloudwaysapps.com' --dry-run then execute without --dry-run.

Method 3: Request Free Migration from Cloudways

Cloudways offers one free expert migration with every new account. Submit a request through the Cloudways dashboard → Migration → Request Migration. Provide your current host's credentials and Cloudways handles everything within 24-48 hours. This is ideal for complex multi-site setups or if you prefer a hands-off approach.

DNS & SSL Configuration

Adding Your Domain to Cloudways

1. Go to your Cloudways application → Domain Management
2. Add your primary domain (e.g., example.com) and the www variant
3. Set your primary domain — Cloudways will redirect the other variant to it

Switching DNS

Cloudways uses an IP-based system (no nameservers). You point your domain's A record to the Cloudways server IP:

1. Lower TTL: 24 hours before switching, change your DNS TTL to 300 seconds at your current DNS provider
2. Update A record: At your domain registrar (or DNS provider like Cloudflare), change the A record for @ (root domain) to your Cloudways server IP
3. Update www: Add a CNAME record for www pointing to example.com, or an A record pointing to the same IP
4. Wait for propagation: Check progress at whatsmydns.net. Usually complete within 2-4 hours

Using Cloudflare as DNS (Recommended)

For best performance, use Cloudflare as your DNS provider (free plan):

1. Create a free Cloudflare account and add your domain
2. Point your domain's nameservers to Cloudflare's assigned nameservers
3. In Cloudflare, create an A record pointing to your Cloudways IP
4. Enable the orange cloud (proxy) for CDN and DDoS protection
5. Set SSL mode to "Full (Strict)" in Cloudflare → SSL/TLS

This gives you Cloudflare's CDN + Cloudways' server performance — the best of both worlds.

SSL Certificate Setup

Cloudways provides free Let's Encrypt SSL certificates:

1. Go to your application → SSL Certificate
2. Select Let's Encrypt
3. Enter your email and domain(s)
4. Click Install — certificate auto-renews every 90 days

If using Cloudflare proxy, install the SSL on Cloudways first, then set Cloudflare SSL mode to Full (Strict). This ensures end-to-end encryption.

Performance Tuning

Migrating to Cloudways gives you a performance foundation, but proper tuning unlocks the full potential. These settings typically improve TTFB by an additional 30-50% beyond the baseline migration improvement.

Enable Varnish Cache

Varnish is a server-level HTTP cache that serves pages from memory instead of processing PHP on every request. It is the single biggest performance lever on Cloudways.

1. Go to your application → Varnish Settings → toggle ON
2. Install the "Breeze" plugin (Cloudways' free caching plugin) on your WordPress site — it automatically purges Varnish when you update content
3. Exclude dynamic pages from Varnish: WooCommerce cart/checkout, member-only pages, and any page with personalized content

With Varnish enabled, repeat visitors see TTFB under 50ms for cached pages. First-time visitors see 120-180ms — still dramatically faster than shared hosting.

Enable Redis Object Caching

Redis caches database queries in memory, reducing database load by 50-80%:

1. Go to Server → Settings & Packages → Packages → Redis → toggle ON
2. In your WordPress dashboard, install the "Redis Object Cache" plugin by Till Kruss
3. Go to Settings → Redis → Enable Object Cache
4. Verify it shows "Connected" status

Redis matters most for WooCommerce, BuddyPress, and sites with complex queries. For simple blogs, the improvement is modest but still measurable.

PHP and Server Optimization

• PHP version: Use PHP 8.2 or 8.3. Each major PHP version is 10-20% faster than the previous one. Change in Application → Settings → PHP Version.
• PHP memory limit: Increase to 256MB or 512MB for WooCommerce. Application → Settings → PHP Settings → memory_limit.
• PHP workers: Default is 1 PHP-FPM worker per 512MB RAM. For traffic-heavy sites, increase to 2-3 workers. Server → Settings → PHP-FPM Settings.
• OPcache: Enabled by default on Cloudways. Verify in PHP Settings → opcache.enable = 1.
• MySQL tuning: Cloudways auto-tunes MySQL for your server size. For WooCommerce, consider increasing innodb_buffer_pool_size to 50-70% of RAM via support ticket.

CDN Configuration

Cloudways offers a built-in CDN (Cloudways CDN powered by StackPath) at $1/25GB. However, for most users, Cloudflare's free CDN is superior:

• Free plan includes unlimited bandwidth, DDoS protection, and 200+ edge locations
• Enable Auto Minify for HTML, CSS, and JS in Cloudflare
• Enable Brotli compression
• Set Browser Cache TTL to 1 month for static assets

Expected Performance Results

After migration and tuning, typical benchmarks from our tested sites:

• TTFB: 120-180ms (cached: under 50ms) — down from 350-700ms on shared hosting
• LCP: 1.2-1.8s — down from 2.5-4.5s
• Concurrent visitors: 200-500+ without degradation on the 1GB plan — up from 30-50 on shared
• Uptime: 99.99%+ measured over 12 months

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

More guides: Cloudways Review 2026 • Cloudways vs Hostinger • Best WordPress Hosting 2026 • Migrate from Bluehost Guide