Cloudways vs StableHost: guide for 2024

Cloudways vs StableHost: Final verdict

Looking over Cloudways vs. StableHost, it’s clear why both hosts are so popular. They have both hosted millions of
websites that run on WordPress for decades, building up a loyal customer base.

• 
  Cloudways (Overall grade: 8.5)
  
  has garnered a solid reputation for its near-perfect uptime and advanced performance features. The platform supports multiple cloud infrastructures, offers SSD storage, advanced caching technologies like Memcached and Redis, and has seamless integration with CDN via Cloudflare Enterprise. Its extensive security measures, including dedicated firewalls, automated backups, and a robust vulnerability scanner, provide robust protection for businesses. The flexible scaling options and user-friendly control panel with one-click actions for various tasks make it apt for both novice and experienced users. Despite lacking domain registration and email hosting, the free migration service and premium support options make it a reliable choice for businesses seeking optimal performance and ease of use.
• 
  StableHost (Overall grade: 6.9)
  
  offers solid uptime, dependable performance, and excellent customer support, with an emphasis on affordability and ease of use. Its shared, VPS, and WordPress hosting plans come with a variety of features, including unlimited databases and SSD storage, which cater well to individual users and small businesses. The clustered hosting technology enhances availability and minimizes downtime risks. Security features include multiple SSL options, security audits, and comprehensive email hosting services at no additional cost. However, the lack of advanced caching solutions and specific scalability details makes it less suitable for high-traffic or performance-critical websites compared to Cloudways. While it’s a reliable option for simple hosting needs, its performance metrics and feature set do not quite match up to Cloudways.

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 offers superior uptime and performance, making it an excellent choice for businesses looking for high availability and responsive hosting solutions.

Cloudways demonstrated near-perfect uptime over the past few years, with 100% uptime in 2020 and 2021, and 99.99% in 2022. The platform leverages multiple cloud infrastructure options and advanced server technologies to deliver quick response times and enhanced performance. While it lacks domain registration and email hosting, its extensive support and robust security features make it a strong contender for businesses seeking reliable and efficient managed cloud hosting.

StableHost offers a reliable 99.9% uptime guarantee and quick response times with technicians available around the clock. The company’s clustered hosting technology ensures increased availability and minimizes the risk of downtime. However, while StableHost is a solid choice, Cloudways edges out with slightly better performance metrics and more advanced hosting features, making it the preferred option for users who prioritize uptime and speed.

🏆 Winner: Cloudways: Exceptional performance, advanced caching, and extensive features.

When comparing the general performance of Cloudways and StableHost, several factors stand out. Cloudways uses high-speed SSD drives, integrated advanced caches like Memcached, Varnish, Nginx, and Redis, along with an optimized stack, which significantly boosts load times. It also boasts a global CDN via Cloudflare Enterprise, providing multi-layered protection. In contrast, StableHost offers SSD storage as well but focuses on customized LiteSpeed for speed enhancements, and its CDN isn’t specified as part of the core package. Both have multiple data centers, but Cloudways takes the lead with advanced caching and CDN support.

Website Speed

Cloudways provides superior website speed thanks to its combination of SSD storage, advanced caching solutions, and optimized stack that includes NGINX, Apache, and PHP-FPM. The built-in WordPress cache plugin, Breeze, and free Object Cache Pro for database optimization make it a top choice for fast-loading websites. StableHost’s customized LiteSpeed and PHP configurations do improve speed, but it falls short compared to Cloudways’ extensive optimization features.

Scalability

Cloudways offers vertical scaling, allowing users to adjust server resources like RAM, CPU, and storage effortlessly, with options for dedicated servers. The 1-click actions and the overall flexible approach mean costs are kept low during scaling. On the other hand, StableHost’s scalability details are not fully specified, and it’s unclear if they offer elastic scaling or the costs involved, making Cloudways the clearer choice for efficient and cost-effective scaling.

🏆 Winner StableHost: Provides extensive security features and compliance measures suitable for diverse hosting needs.

Technical security measures:

Cloudways offers a variety of advanced security features including free 1-Click SSL certificates, dedicated server-level firewalls, fail2ban, and Cloudflare Enterprise for DDoS mitigation. Additionally, Cloudways supports PHP versions from 5.6 to 8.2, which ensures compatibility and performance improvements. On the other hand, StableHost provides a range of SSL certificates, security audits, and VPN services, along with PHP 7.x and 8.x support. Both hosting services offer solid protection, but Cloudways excels in automated protection and firewalls, whereas StableHost shines with comprehensive SSL certificate options and security audits.

Operational security measures:

Both Cloudways and StableHost ensure operational security through automated protection and monitoring features. Cloudways utilizes bot protection powered by MalCare, auto-healing servers, and patchstack vulnerability scanner integrated with their platform. StableHost, meanwhile, offers R1Soft daily backups, 24/7 server monitoring, virus/spam filtering, and WAF. While Cloudways focuses on maintaining real-time security with automated systems, StableHost provides regular security audits and daily backup solutions, offering a more comprehensive approach to operational security.

Compliance and certifications:

Cloudways uses PCI-DSS compliant hardware from its cloud infrastructure providers but is not PCI-DSS compliant itself. They also likely align with GDPR requirements due to their emphasis on security. StableHost ensures GDPR compliance with a Personal Data Assistance Agreement and encryption requirements. Both hosts offer strong GDPR compliance, but Cloudways lacks explicit PCI compliance, which StableHost compensates for with overall data protection measures.

🏆 Winner
Cloudways: The platform edges out as the winner due to its provision of a free domain for the first year.

Cloudways and StableHost both offer attractive features for website hosting, but with distinct differences that cater to different user needs. For new site owners, Cloudways is more appealing as it includes a free domain for the first year with most hosting packages, although any domain valued over $17.99 will incur an extra fee. In contrast, StableHost requires users to purchase a domain at registration, which might complicate cost bundling for some customers.

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 Cloudways and StableHost 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:

Email services at Cloudways are provided through a partnership with Microsoft 365, offering a professional email and access to Outlook on a trial basis before transitioning to a paid service. Conversely, StableHost provides unlimited free professional email accounts, which is particularly beneficial for users requiring multiple email accounts without incurring additional costs.

🏆 Winner Cloudways: Flexible and versatile hosting options with a wide range of performance tiers for various needs.

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.

When comparing Cloudways and StableHost, Cloudways offers various hosting types, including WordPress, ecommerce, AWS, GCE, Vultr, and Linode hosting, which vary in both performance and price, catering to different user needs. StableHost provides simplified options for web hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, and WordPress-specific plans, often at lower introductory prices. Despite the lower cost of some StableHost plans, Cloudways delivers a broad spectrum of performance options making it an optimal choice for users requiring more specialized services.

Enterprise plans

Cloudways provides extensive scalability options, ranging from smaller plans like DO4GB to larger, high-performance plans such as those featuring 192GB RAM and 32 Core processors, catering to enterprise needs. StableHost, while offering versatile VPS plans up to VZ 8GB, doesn’t match the upper echelon of Cloudways in providing comprehensive, specialized configurations better suited for high-demand enterprise requirements.

🏆 Winner Cloudways: Superior in ease of setup with intuitive, user-friendly controls and one-click actions for various tasks.

Cloudways offers an intuitive control panel that simplifies server and application management for both technical and non-technical users. The panel includes 1-click actions for backups, restores, and launching applications such as WordPress, Magento, and PHP. Features like pre-installed Git, staging URLs, and easy vertical scaling make it approachable and efficient. SSH and SFTP access are available for secure file updates. Users benefit from the 1-click cloning of entire servers or specific applications like WooCommerce.

StableHost uses more conventional control panels such as cPanel for shared and reseller servers and SolusVM for VPS hosting. These are well-known and user-friendly, catering to a diverse user base. The Site.Pro web builder provides a drag-and-drop interface, making it easier for users without technical know-how to build websites. The control panels come with various built-in features like MySQL databases, FTP accounts, and script installers, which simplify many administrative tasks.

Cloudways facilitates free website migration for the first site, eliminating cost-related barriers for newcomers. The platform’s migration tools are comprehensive and designed to make the transition seamless. StableHost does not explicitly mention free migration services but offers SSH access for more advanced users willing to handle migrations manually. In terms of tool availability, Cloudways is more straightforward and budget-friendly.

The platforms provide extensive knowledge bases filled with guides, how-to articles, and instructional content. Cloudways Help Center is a centralized resource offering articles, guides, and a ticketing system, complemented by 24/7 live chat support and a strong community of experts. StableHost similarly features a thorough help center with various articles and guides to assist users. 24/7 support is also available, boasting an average response time of less than 20 minutes. Both platforms provide useful resources, but Cloudways’ extensive documentation and active community give it an edge.

Winner Cloudways: Offers detailed user management and flexible role assignments suitable for team collaboration.

Cloudways excels in user management with its integration with the WordPress admin panel, allowing for precise creation and definition of user roles and permissions. Users can easily be added, updated, deleted, or have their roles changed through a straightforward interface. This integration provides granular control over user capabilities, including Super Admin, Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber roles. These predefined roles help streamline workflows by delegating responsibilities efficiently. In contrast, StableHost’s user management capabilities are not specified, limiting the ability to evaluate their flexibility in creating and defining roles and permissions.

The user interface for managing users on Cloudways is highly intuitive, leveraging the familiar WordPress admin panel. Users can access the admin panel directly or through the Cloudways platform, making it straightforward for administrators to manage user roles and permissions. The streamlined interface offers clear navigation, with options to view all users, add new users, and modify user details. Without information on StableHost’s user interface, it’s difficult to compare, but the lack of detail suggests potential limitations in ease of use and tool availability.

Cloudways demonstrates effective access control measures, essential for maintaining security and managing a growing number of users. The platform supports team collaboration by allowing different levels of access depending on user roles. These measures ensure that users only access what they need, reducing the risk of unauthorized actions. Cloudways’ capability to handle an expanding user base through its scalable user management features makes it a reliable choice. Information on StableHost’s access control and scalability is unavailable, thus making it challenging to assess their effectiveness in managing a large user base.

Cloudways User Roles Table:

🏆 Winner
Cloudways: Cloudways excels with its extensive customer support options available around the clock.

Cloudways and StableHost both offer 24/7 customer support, but their services differ in several ways. Cloudways provides chat and phone support for general inquiries, with designated hours for account verification, renewals, and cancellations. Technical assistance is available from 7 a.m. to midnight EST, via phone or a Help Ticket for email support. They have separate contact numbers for US and international customers. However, some users have reported issues such as slow response times and communication difficulties, often attributed to outsourcing.

On the other hand, StableHost also offers round-the-clock support via live chat, phone, and tickets, with a notable emphasis on providing comprehensive tech support across all plans. On higher-tier plans, StableHost offers advanced technical support, assisting with significant hosting changes like server configurations and software installations. While StableHost generally receives positive feedback, some complaints highlight longer wait times for resolving complex issues, a challenge common in the hosting industry.

Cloudways vs StableHost: User feedback

User feedback for this hosting provider is predominantly positive, highlighting easy-to-use interface and robust customer support as key strengths. Users appreciate the intuitive platform, simplified server management, and various performance-boosting features, making it ideal for both personal and client projects. However, some users noted challenges for those with limited technical knowledge and expressed concerns about pricing, lack of email hosting, and occasional user interface issues. Overall, the strong support and fast, reliable performance make it a favored choice despite minor drawbacks.

StableHost receives high praise for its reliable performance and excellent customer support, often described as prompt and helpful. Users appreciate its ease of integration, comprehensive setup guides, and rich feature set, making it an ideal choice for both novice and advanced users. While some advanced users find certain functionalities lacking and note higher pricing compared to budget-friendly options, the overall consensus is positive due to its strong uptime and user-friendly interface. The plans are seen as reasonably priced, especially with available discounts, though some users miss the immediate tech support response times of the past.

Cloudways vs StableHost: FAQ