Cloudways Free Trial: Length, What’s Included & How To Extend

When looking for a service that provides managed hosting for a server, it’s important to vet what’s out there and find which service supports your specific web needs.

Part of that process is utilizing free trials.

The Cloudways free trial allows users access to its high-performance system for a short period.

This post offers a comprehensive breakdown of the Cloudways free trial and its benefits and limitations.

Is Cloudways Free or Paid?

Cloudways is a paid managed web hosting service and one of the fastest web hosting sites, with four tiers of service options ranging in price from $12/month up to $96/month.

The higher the plan price, the more in-depth the services reach.

Cloudways also has pay-by-the-hour pricing tiers so that users can determine the most cost-effective option for their needs.

Does Cloudways Have a Free Trial?

Yes, Cloudways gives users the option to try the service for free before signing up for consistent use.

This is a way for users to know in good faith that the services Cloudways provides sufficiently meet their needs, and become familiar with the software system that makes it one of the best managed hosting for WordPress sites.

How Long Is the Cloudways Free Trial?

The free trial lasts for three days (a full 72 hours) from the initial launch of a server through their system.

Does Cloudways Require a Credit Card to Activate a Free Trial?

No, users can sign up for a free trial without submitting any credit card information.

How Much Is Cloudways After the Free Trial?

Cloudways has multiple levels of managed hosting service options that each come with pricing that relates to its software capacity.

Managed hosting is a type of web hosting that offers up-to-date maintenance of the software that keeps it backed up and secure.

The lowest level monthly option costs $12 per month and offers small amounts of bandwidth, storage, RAM, and processing.

The highest monthly option costs $96 per month and has the largest storage, RAM, bandwidth, and processing.

The in-between rates are the most popular and the website has a total cost breakdown that details each tier from an overall service and support standpoint and a technological standpoint.

There are also transparent breakdowns of the hourly rates and what each one offers to users.

What Comes With the Cloudways Free Trial?

The free trial gives users unrestricted access to a designated server.

Cloudways pairs with five major cloud providers that the user can choose from Amazon, Google, Linode, Digital Ocean, and Vultr.

Features You Can Test With a Free Trial

No matter the service plan tier users choose, the range of services is extensive.

Here are some significantly notable features available.

1. Operating from the easy-to-navigate dashboard

The control hub of the dashboard reflects real-time usage, storage space, and traffic data, among others.

2. Managing WordPress hosting

WordPress hosting is web hosting with a specific design for WordPress websites.

WordPress hosting improves the overall security and speed of the website.

Check out the best managed hosting for WordPress sites.

3. Creating website staging environments

Users can construct copies of live websites where they can still make changes and adjustments before becoming publicly operational.

4. Hosting limitless websites on just one server

Web hosting provides all of the codings and creating and storing of files associated with making a website visible to the public.

The bandwidth option a user selects is critical here because it defines what kind of websites a single server can host.

5. Building, uploading, and launching apps

Developers can use Cloudways single-click installation for applications.

Cloudways Free Trial Limitations

Users get completely unrestricted access to Cloudways during the free trial period.

Is Cloudways Customer Support Included With Free Trials?

Yes, all users gain access to 24/7 live online chat support with the Cloudways customer care team, consisting of technical experts.

The standard customer support package comes free with both the trial and the paid versions.

There are premium support packages for higher-level subscriptions that offer additional means of customer service.

How to Claim a Cloudways Free Trial

Users can visit the Cloudways website directly and click on the “Start Free” tab visible on the homepage.

Users can sign up with a personal email address, name, and password or bypass these steps by using an existing Google, LinkedIn, or GitHub account.

Cloudways has a section during sign-up to describe yourself where users can identify their exact online function or simply choose the “other businesses” option.

It then asks users to disclose what area of their online space needs the most improvement and the range of their monthly hosting spending.

Agree to Cloudways Terms and Services before moving forward by clicking “Start Free.”

Naturally, as a hosting service that prides itself on its rock-solid security measures, Cloudways requires a two-step verification process before launching a new account.

Users have to complete all of the phone number, email, and identification verifications before their accounts will activate.

Cloudways discloses that these extensive measures prevent spammers or bots from creating Cloudways accounts which protects the online security of its authentic users.  

Users can then direct themselves to the “Servers” tab and click “Launch Now.”

Then, they have to install one of the compatible applications (Laravel, WordPress, Magento, or PHP) to name along with the server itself and the user’s “project” within Cloudways.

The next step is selecting one of the five cloud providers (Google, Amazon, Digital Ocean, Vultr, and Linode) which all have their costs, before selecting a starting server size.

One of the many benefits of using Cloudways is that users can scale up their server size at any point in time should their needs change.

Small server sizes work well for beginner websites with low traffic amounts.

After users make these selections, they click “Launch Now” and the trial is officially in progress.

How Do I Get The Most From My Cloudways Free Trial?

With the free trial offering full access to the service, the best way to get the most out of it is to explore all available features extensively.

Take advantage of the live chat support with technical experts and ask as many questions as possible.

This three-day commitment-free Cloudways experience can show you if the service meets all of your needs as long as you put those needs into practice.

Get familiar with the tools and see if the system is compatible with your user style and capability.

How Can I Make My Cloudways Free Trial Longer?

Cloudways has a pay-as-you-go payment system, meaning that users only pay for the services they utilize.

You can upgrade your account from a free trial account into a full account by entering valid credit card information, but you won’t be charged right away as Cloudways doesn’t charge in arrears.

Does Cloudways Automatically Charge After the Free Trial Ends?

No, there is a manual process that users have to go through to upgrade their account from a free trial to a full account.

You have to log into your Cloudways account, open the Profile tab, select “Account,” and click “Credit Card,” then “Authorize Credit Card,” input your billing information, then click “Authorize,” and wait for the system to process.

There is a one-dollar activation charge that goes through for payment verification purposes and the charge reverses once the payment clears.

After this, your account is active as a full account.

Can You Cancel Cloudways After the Free Trial?

You can cancel a Cloudways subscription at any time since Cloudways is a no long-term commitment, pay-as-you-go service.

This cancellation policy also applies to those enrolled in the free trial version.

How To Cancel a Cloudways Free Trial

Start by examining why you are canceling the service.

If it’s due to a technical or service issue, contact customer support and see if Cloudways can correct the problem.

To move forward with account cancellation, start with downloading a full backup of the application through the Cloudways platform.

Then, open the Servers tab and manually delete all of your active servers.

Indicate the reason for deleting each server and continue with the prompts.

Next, open the Grid from the menu bar and select “Add-ons” and select “edit” to deactivate all of the add-on subscriptions in the platform by clicking “Remove Subscription” for each one.

Once these steps are complete, go to the Profile tab and select “Account” to scroll to the final option.

Read through all of the cancellation information, click “Agree” and finish by selecting “Cancel My Account” at the bottom of the page.

It’s important to note that Cloudways cannot restore accounts after cancellation, nor can it access any data related to websites under any canceled accounts once a user closes them, due to security regulations.

How to Remove Card Details From Cloudways

To edit all billing information, navigate to the Profile tab and select “Account” to scroll through to “Credit Card.”

There is an edit tab where users can update or remove billing information.

Be sure to click “Update Credit Card” after inputting the adjustments.

Is Cloudways Worth Paying For?

Cloudways is one of the fastest, most secure cloud hosting platforms currently available.

It offers the opportunity for users to operate on their server, removing the slow-down impact that sharing resources with others presents.

The Cloudways system optimizes website speed and efficiency at a level that holds incredible value to an online space.

The ability to scale without upgrading physical hardware also makes this worth the money.

It’s very cost-effective in comparison to traditional web hosting platforms since cloud-based platforms take less storage to accomplish the same thing.

For further detail on this platform, you can read through our Cloudways review. 

What to Expect From a Cloudways Subscription

As a Cloudways user, you can expect phenomenal customer support from expertly-trained agents.

Cloudways also has a pristine reputation in terms of reliability and security features.

Your account comes with safety components like automatic backups, Tier 3 data centers, and bulletproof firewall protection.

Pairing with five of the top leading cloud providers like Google and Amazon further secures its data legitimacy.

What Is a Free Alternative to Cloudways?

Wix has a 97% approval rating by its users. Its hosting services are free and it still comes with premium user support, extra storage and bandwidth, hundreds of website templates, and Google Analytics.

Other Ways to Save on Cloudways Pricing

• Cloudways Promo Codes: check online regularly to find promotional codes for a percentage off of the subscription fee for new customers
• Cloudways Discounts: new customers can also find coupons, bundling deals with other processors like WordPress, and an additional discount on Cloudways. 
• Cloudways Black Friday & Cyber Monday Specials: Cloudways offers steep savings for these special sale holidays directly from their website
• Is There a Cloudways Student Plan? Cloudways doesn’t offer a student-specific discount

Other Free Trials to Check Out

Among the managed WordPress hosting categegory, Cloudways stands above the rest.

However, there are still alternatives to check out.

• Hostinger Free Trial Overview: The Hostinger Free Trial comes in the form of a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee to try its Ecommerce Optimization, LiteSpeed WordPress Module, Auto Script Installer, and other features.
• WP Engine Free Trial Overview: The WP Engine Free Trial is a 60-Day Risk-Free Money Back Guarantee that allows users access to studio press themes, auto-migration, and standard elements like a free CDN and SSL certificate.
• Flywheel Free Trial Overview: The Flywheel Free Trial is a 14-day trial that gives users access to demo sites that mimic how their live website would function.This platform also integrates with WordPress.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here’s the answer to a couple of the most-asked questions about Cloudways.

Wrapping Up

The Cloudways free trial gives new users three days from launching a server to have full, unrestricted access to its paid features.

It offers the perfect opportunity to test out the tools and navigate the system so that you can confidently move forward with a subscription, knowing that it will meet the specific needs of your online space.