How do you think? What are the main stones that every great hosting stands on? When I think about this, there are four words that come to my mind. These are:
- speed;
- security;
- support;
- scalability.
Oh, how many hosting services that the Internet provides users with! For this reason, you need to be on the look-out. Compare all the hosts that you can find. Make certain the chosen one has all the features mentioned above.
Actually, I understand a problem that is connected with choosing a hosting solution for an online-store based on Magento. So many variants that are available… So many variants that do not match all the criteria that I speak about.
To cut a long story short, I decided to speak about the following things to make everything easier for you:
- Hosting Solutions Crafted for Magento
- In a Few Words About Cloudways
- For Starters
- Main Features to Keep in Mind
- One-click Installation
- Multiple Cloud Infrastructures
- Optimized Server Stack for Magento stores
- SSL Certificates powered by Let’s Encrypt
- Unlimited Apps, Unlimited Servers
- SSH, Access to CLI, Push code via GIT, Remote SQL, and More
- Unlimited Staging Domains
- Cloudways CDN for better performance
- The Fastest Magento Hosting Ever?
- How to Signup?
Hosting Solutions Crafted for Magento
Shared is shared among many websites. It wouldn’t be wrong to call it an entry-level hosting solution. In other words, it is capable of handling traffic up to 5000 visitors per day at max.
It is low-cost but slow and unreliable.
There are also dedicated hosting servers that are committed to each individual user, where each user has the choice to host any type of data they want to.
Great for ecommerce stores but the only drawback is that they have a high price and lack scalability.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) is built on a dedicated server (yet, it has a little bit different structure).
It is a virtual segment of the dedicated server having its separate resources, making it a lot cheaper, but at the same time unscalable.
Unmanaged cloud is an alternative to VPS solution because it is based on multiple servers across the data center. It spreads the data across the whole data center similar to a torrent that is seeded from many seeders. So that of a tragedy, data of the user stays safe. As well as the unmanaged cloud calls for a sys-admin that few businesses can afford.
The only drawback of an unmanaged cloud is time-consuming to install other software and apps.
Managed Cloud is an affordable and scalable variant that will be completely by the hosting company. The user gets a GUI panel to manage their own servers on the cloud. Yet, they don’t have to get into the nitty-gritty of server updates because all that is taken care of by the managed host.
As you can understand, I am speaking about the most suitable type of hosting for your future online-store.
But how can you find a good managed hosting solution?
Today, I’ll try to review one of them. I’ve been searching for managed cloud hosting solution out there and came across one that fits my checklist, ‘Cloudways.’
In a Few Words About Cloudways
Cloudways has managed hosting for Magento, Prestashop,WooCommerce and other PHP-based ecommerce stores. It is powered by a hosting stack that runs on Nginx, Varnish, and Redis cache layers to improve speed and decrease page load time. The end result is exceptional results, more orders, and higher engagement at the shopping store.
Currently, it is offering managed hosting with five partners including Vultr, Google Cloud, Linode, DigitalOcean, and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
For Starters
Magento is one of the most used e-commerce platforms in the ecommerce industry. It is fast, easy to use, and fully customizable. And, if your Magento store doesn’t load quickly, most of the users will leave it for good. Fast and reliable hosting is key to success for any Magento ecommerce store and that is where Cloudways Magento managed hosting comes in. This an authoritative hosting solution with exceptional features to ensure stable performance of ecommerce store throughout the year.
Main Features to Keep in Mind
Let’s learn a little about the exclusive features of this hosting:
One-click Installation
It offers all CMS, apps, and ecommerce platforms on a single click. It will take you nothing to install the platform of your choice in under 5 minutes.Multiple Cloud Infrastructures
It also allows users to host on five different cloud infrastructure partners including Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), DigitalOcean, Linode, and Vultr. No other cloud hosting company is offering these options for ecommerce store owners as of now.Optimized Server Stack for Magento stores
It only takes 3 seconds for a person to leave your website if he/she doesn’t find it interesting. That’s where Cloudways ThunderStack hosting stack comes in. It has layers of built-in caches to improve your website performance.SSL Certificates powered by Let’s Encrypt
The Secure Security Layer (SSL) certificates have become an essential part of any website. Unfortunately, SSL certificates still cost a couple of dollars on most ecommerce hosting websites. But that is not the case with Cloudways as it offers free SSL certificate for each domain.Unlimited Apps, Unlimited Servers
The leading issue is that you are not limited to a single app. You can launch as many apps as you want on it and get a server of your choice. This means you can be running multiple stores and have own domains with SSL and Cloudways CDN.SSH, Access to CLI, Push code via GIT, Remote SQL, and More
If you run a Magento based ecommerce store, having SSH terminal and access through CLI command is essential. Cloudways offers many more features including push code via GIT, and Remote SQL integration as well.Unlimited Staging Domains
Ecommerce store owners often have to test new functionalities & pages on their website. Doing all this while the website is live can decrease user experience. But thanks to the unlimited staging feature, you can test all these websites for free. Actually, this is a must-have feature for Magento store owners who are always testing new landing pages for their to attract more customers.Cloudways CDN for better performance
It also offers its CDN service that is available for $1 per month. Users can opt for this service if they aren’t getting the type of load time they always wanted.
A few more exclusive features to help ecommerce store owners with their growth journey include:
- Server transfer
- Server and application cloning
- Application staging environment for development purpose
- CloudwaysBot
- Elasticsearch
- Server resource monitoring
- Backups scheduling
The Fastest Magento Hosting?
I decided to test it myself by launching a Magento ecommerce store on Cloudways. The results are stunning.
It took me less than 4 seconds to load a website on Cloudways.
In my tests, the website loaded in less than a single second. The page size was around 700kbs. I also tested the same website with 500 Requests & 50 Concurrent Users.
What about the load time? Exactly 1.3 seconds in total. This is what a fast Magento hosting solution actually looks like.
How to Signup?
Let’s go through the signup process and see how you can easily create your account on the platform in a few clicks.
#1 Signing up
First of all, I’ve created an account on Cloudways hosting platform using Coupon Code BOOSTMAG to avail $20 Free hosting credit. Then verified my email address.
#2 Creating My First Server
After creating an account, you can start working on the first server. Click the ‘Launch’ button to launch the server.
Note: I’ve selected the latest version of Magento for this test. However, you can also run old versions available on Cloudways from the dropdown menu.
Then, I should choose a cloud hosting infrastructure from the available ones. ‘Digital Ocean’ will be my choice this time.
Next, I selected a location from where I would like to launch my server.
Easy, isn’t it? You have absolutely cut down the Magento server installation time by almost 99%. The best part is that Cloudways is fully automated. So, instead of running each command independently in the SSH, you can launch the server with the click of a single button.
#3 Monitoring My Store
Cloudways server monitoring feature offers 15+ metrics to give you an in-depth look at how you maintain & manage my server. Thanks to the monitoring feature, you can easily get statistics showing the bandwidth consumption (including both incoming and outgoing traffic) recorded every 30 minutes.
A Fortune with Cloudways: Earn with Up to $6000
Without a doubt, this solution is considered to be a great hosting solution for the ecommerce store. But the best part is that you can earn from Cloudways affiliate program as well. The largest recorded earnings for the program are $6000/month.
Most of the Cloudways customers have successfully become its affiliates by signing up for the cloud hosting affiliate program.
Should You Try It?
There aren’t many managed cloud hosting options available online. When your core motive is to make ecommerce store profitable, then Cloudways can become reliable partner.
Ask yourself the question: Why even pay for server management when Cloudways can do it all for you?
My Thoughts
Some people say that it is not right to judge a book by its cover. When it comes to hosting solutions, they are not considered to be an exception. You should try to understand the difference. Fortunately, there is a free trial available on Cloudways that you can use to test the platform by launching your ecommerce store.
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