Cloudways vs Fastcomet: guide for 2024

Cloudways vs Fastcomet: Final verdict

Looking over Cloudways vs. FastComet, both offer impressive features but cater to different user preferences.

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  Cloudways (Overall grade: 8.5)
  
  
  stands out with its robust performance and flexibility, making it an ideal choice for developers and high-traffic websites. The platform’s managed cloud hosting guarantees virtually perfect uptime, supported by advanced caching tools and fast server response times. Its highly customizable environment, integrated security features like Fail2Ban, and scalability options make it suitable for agencies and growing businesses. However, the absence of traditional hosting services like shared hosting and the lack of included email hosting may deter some users.
  
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  FastComet (Overall grade: 7.7)
  
  
  provides reliable hosting with a strong focus on ease of use and comprehensive support. The use of cPanel ensures a familiar interface for traditional hosting management, coupled with ample features like free SSL certificates, domain registration, and extensive security measures such as Imunify360. FastComet’s competitive pricing, especially in shared and cloud hosting plans, makes it a cost-effective option for small and medium-sized businesses. While it excels in support and operational security, limited disk space and higher costs compared to some competitors might be potential drawbacks for price-sensitive users.
  

Hosting types offered

Both platforms provide a variety of hosting types, each designed to meet the different needs of users.

Although both offer a variety of hosting plans tailored to different needs, in
certain cases, one platform may prove to be more suitable.

Detailed comparison

Winner Cloudways: Cloudways provides exceptional uptime and performance for managed cloud hosting users.

Cloudways stands out with impressive uptime results: 100% for both 2020 and 2021, and 99.99% for 2022. This near-perfect record outperforms many competitors, making it highly reliable. Their average server response time of 229ms and fully loaded time of 0.9s further signify strong performance, making it a solid option for managing servers across multiple cloud platforms and offering various advanced features.

FastComet offers a guaranteed uptime of 99.9%, backed by proactive monitoring and compensations for downtimes. While still reliable, it falls short compared to Cloudways’ consistency over recent years. FastComet shines with its wide network of data centers and CDN access points, providing good network uptime and public network speed. Both providers offer 24/7 support, but Cloudways’ higher performance metrics give it the edge.

🏆 Winner
FastComet: FastComet offers advanced server hardware, a network of global data centers, and comprehensive security features.

Both Cloudways and FastComet offer impressive hosting speeds with their SSD-based setups. Cloudways uses SSD drives which are three times faster than traditional HDDs, whereas FastComet leverages NVMe SSDs that are seven times faster in queries and file access. Cloudways incorporates advanced caching tools like Memcached, Varnish, Nginx, and Redis, while FastComet offers an all-in-one site acceleration plugin with LiteSpeed cache. Cloudways has Cloudflare Enterprise for global CDN coverage, while FastComet integrates free Cloudflare CDN with 200+ access points. Cloudways has several data centers; FastComet surpasses with 11 data centers across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Website Speed

Cloudways impresses with a range of caching options, including the WordPress Breeze plugin, boosting its speed capabilities. The built-in NGINX and Redis caches further contribute to swift load times. FastComet’s use of AMD EPYC servers and LiteSpeed Enterprise web server outpaces Cloudways’ NGINX and Apache combo, delivering 12x faster performance for WordPress. With HTTP/3 support and NVMe SSDs, FastComet’s setup ensures quicker connections and loading speeds.

Scalability

Cloudways offers vertical scaling, allowing customers to increase their server resources such as RAM, CPU, and storage with minimal costs. FastComet offers elastic scaling through a scalable cloud system, enabling seamless increases in resources with a 1-click purchase. While both provide dedicated server solutions, Cloudways’ focus on a flexible scaling approach makes it more user-centric. Unfortunately, specific cost details for scaling on either platform are not provided.

🏆 Winner FastComet: FastComet offers a comprehensive suite of security features for a safer and more robust hosting environment.

Technical security measures:

FastComet provides unlimited free SSL certificates with ACMEv2 support and a one-click installation. Cloudways also offers free SSL certificates through Let’s Encrypt. Both providers support multiple PHP versions, though Cloudways includes the very latest, PHP 8.2. For firewall protection, Cloudways uses both server-level and platform-level firewalls, while FastComet employs a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to guard against numerous web-based threats. Cloudways offers automated protection mechanisms such as Fail2ban and bot protection, and FastComet uses Imunify360 for comprehensive traffic monitoring and protection. FastComet further integrates DNS and DDoS protection via Cloudflare, similar to Cloudways’ Cloudflare Enterprise integration for DDoS mitigation.

Operational security measures:

Cloudways has automated protection features including regular security patches and updates, Fail2ban, and bot protection powered by MalCare. FastComet performs daily and on-demand malware scans and has automatic application updates. FastComet also isolates accounts within a CloudLinux environment to prevent cross-account vulnerabilities. Both hosts offer two-factor authentication, though FastComet additionally uses CageFS security for enhanced account isolation. For account monitoring, FastComet’s automated monitoring system evaluates performance to preemptively handle resource spikes, whereas Cloudways focuses more on regular updates and patches for server integrity.

Compliance and certifications:

For GDPR compliance, FastComet provides GDPR Protection by default, masking WHOIS information for EEA customers. Cloudways likely aligns with GDPR due to its security and data protection practices but does not explicitly state compliance. Neither Cloudways nor FastComet claims HIPAA compliance. Cloudways is not PCI-DSS compliant, though it uses hardware that is. Similarly, FastComet does not explicitly mention PCI compliance but showcases significant security measures.

🏆 Winner
Example hosting one: Offers a comprehensive suite of hosting features and superior support services.

Both Example hosting one and Example hosting two provide robust hosting solutions, but they cater to different user needs. Example hosting one excels in performance with its SSD hosting, built-in caches, optimized stack, and advanced security features like dedicated firewalls and IP whitelisting. It’s particularly user-friendly for developers with its 1-Click actions, team collaboration tools, and comprehensive support. Example hosting one streamlines complex processes such as server and website cloning, making it ideal for those who need a highly customisable environment without compromising on ease of use.

Example hosting two, on the other hand, offers more straightforward web hosting management through its cPanel control panel and includes a free domain name registration with every hosting account. Its Imunify360 security suite and multiple data centers enhance reliability and security. Example hosting two also provides unlimited FTP accounts and free SSL certificates for extra value. Notable perks include their WordPress Toolkit for mass management and off-site backups up to 30 days, which makes it appealing for users who prefer a more traditional web hosting setup with extensive support and easier upgrade options.

Both providers support a range of users from beginners to experts with user-friendly website builders and WordPress staging areas. However, in terms of developer tools, both Example hosting one and Example hosting two offer robust options including SSH access, support for multiple programming languages, and Git for version control, thus appealing to developers looking for advanced capabilities.

Email services:

Example hosting one offers Rackspace Email Add-on and Elastic Email for transactional emails and email hosting, providing options for integrating email campaigns. Example hosting two includes free email hosting and offers more integrated email services, suitable for users seeking to manage their own email activities comprehensively.

🏆 Winner
Example hosting two: FastComet scores slightly higher overall, mainly due to the robust features included in their plans and the transparency of what’s included.

Evaluating the pricing of plans among various hosting providers can be complex due to their differing pricing and renewal strategies. Additionally, certain plans require annual commitments, which adds to the difficulty of making comparisons. The prices listed are based on monthly commitments; plans requiring annual commitments are indicated. Additionally, although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.

Comparing the pricing plans of Cloudways and FastComet reveals key differences in their offerings. Cloudways provides a variety of WordPress hosting plans, eCommerce hosting plans, and infrastructure-focused hosting options such as AWS, GCE, Vultr, and Linode with detailed hardware specifications and higher price points. FastComet, on the other hand, offers competitively priced shared hosting plans with substantial features like free domain registration, secure off-site backups, and CDN integration, making it attractive to small and medium-sized businesses. Both providers offer cloud VPS hosting options, but FastComet’s pricing includes broader features like unlimited websites and enhanced security, making it a cost-effective choice for users requiring more resources and support.