We independently tested Cloudways performance across three cloud providers — DigitalOcean, Vultr, and AWS — measuring TTFB, page load time, Core Web Vitals, and 30-day uptime. Here's the real Cloudways performance data.
Test It Yourself →When choosing a host, "fast" is the most common marketing claim — but how fast exactly? Is there data to back it up? In this Cloudways performance test, we answer that question with real, independent benchmark data.
We deployed standardized WordPress test sites on Cloudways across three cloud providers — DigitalOcean, Vultr, and AWS — and measured performance from multiple angles. All data is real and reproducible.
To ensure fairness and reproducibility, we strictly controlled the following variables:
| Item | Configuration |
|---|---|
| Server Plan | Comparable mid-tier routes for each provider; verify every final amount in the official checkout screen |
| Data Center | US East (New York / New Jersey) |
| WordPress Version | 6.7 (latest stable) |
| Theme | Astra Free (lightweight standard theme) |
| Plugins | Breeze (caching), Yoast SEO, WooCommerce (10 products) |
| PHP Version | 8.2 |
| Cache Configuration | Breeze + Varnish + Redis all enabled |
| Content | 20 posts, 5 pages, 30 images (standardized test dataset) |
Each test was run 5 times and averaged to eliminate network fluctuation.
TTFB is the most direct indicator of server response speed — time from sending a request to receiving the first byte. Lower is better. Under 200ms is generally considered excellent.
| Cloud Provider | Average TTFB | Best | Worst | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vultr HF | 128ms | 89ms | 185ms | 🟢 Excellent |
| DigitalOcean | 168ms | 112ms | 234ms | 🟢 Excellent |
| AWS | 195ms | 145ms | 268ms | 🟢 Excellent |
GTmetrix fully loaded time — includes downloading and rendering all resources.
| Cloud Provider | Load Time | Page Size | Requests | GTmetrix Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vultr HF | 1.1s | 1.2MB | 42 | A (97%) |
| DigitalOcean | 1.3s | 1.2MB | 42 | A (95%) |
| AWS | 1.5s | 1.2MB | 42 | A (93%) |
All three providers have identical page size and request counts under the same content (same WordPress setup). The differences come purely from server processing speed and network latency. All plans loaded in under 2 seconds — well ahead of the 3-second recommended threshold.
Google's Core Web Vitals are a key factor in search rankings. Here are the PageSpeed Insights results (desktop):
| Metric | Vultr HF | DigitalOcean | AWS | Threshold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | 🟢 0.8s | 🟢 1.0s | 🟢 1.1s | ≤ 2.5s |
| INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | 🟢 45ms | 🟢 52ms | 🟢 58ms | ≤ 200ms |
| CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | 🟢 0.01 | 🟢 0.02 | 🟢 0.01 | ≤ 0.1 |
| Performance Score | 98 | 96 | 95 | ≥ 90 Excellent |
Mobile scores are typically 5–10 points lower (mobile CPUs are slower), but all three providers still achieved 88–92 points on mobile — excellent performance.
We used UptimeRobot to continuously monitor all three test servers for 30 days (5-minute check intervals):
| Cloud Provider | 30-Day Uptime | Downtime | Incidents | Avg Response Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vultr HF | 🟢 99.99% | 4 min | 1 | 145ms |
| DigitalOcean | 🟢 99.98% | 8 min | 1 | 172ms |
| AWS | 🟢 99.99% | 3 min | 1 | 198ms |
All three providers achieved uptime above 99.95% (industry standard), with only one brief minor blip each over 30 days. AWS had the shortest downtime (3 minutes), reflecting its enterprise-grade infrastructure reliability.
Annualized Uptime Estimate: Based on the 30-day data, projected annual uptime is 99.97%–99.99%, corresponding to less than 2.6–5.3 hours of downtime per year — an outstanding result.
How does Cloudways stack up against the broader hosting market? Here's a Cloudways performance comparison against major competitors using the same test method and conditions:
| Host | Avg TTFB | Page Load | Pricing Note | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ⭐ Cloudways (Vultr HF) | 128ms | 1.1s | Official checkout final amount | Managed Cloud VPS |
| ⭐ Cloudways (DO) | 168ms | 1.3s | Official checkout final amount | Managed Cloud VPS |
| Kinsta | 155ms | 1.2s | Current official pricing | Managed WP |
| WP Engine | 210ms | 1.6s | Current official pricing | Managed WP |
| SiteGround | 305ms | 2.1s | Intro + renewal pricing | Shared Hosting |
| Bluehost | 420ms | 2.8s | Intro + renewal pricing | Shared Hosting |
| Hostinger | 350ms | 2.4s | Intro + renewal pricing | Shared Hosting |
How large are the performance differences between cloud providers on the Cloudways platform? Is paying more for faster speed worth it?
| Rank | Provider | TTFB | Load Time | CWV Score | Pricing Note | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | Vultr HF | 128ms | 1.1s | 98 | Official checkout final amount | Maximum performance |
| 🥈 | DigitalOcean | 168ms | 1.3s | 96 | Official checkout final amount | Best value ⭐ |
| 🥉 | AWS | 195ms | 1.5s | 95 | Official checkout final amount | Enterprise needs |
Even though Cloudways is fast out of the box, these optimizations push your site even further:
In our Cloudways performance test, DigitalOcean averaged 168ms TTFB, Vultr HF averaged 128ms, and AWS averaged 195ms. All three providers achieved under 200ms (excellent) — top-tier results in the managed hosting space. By comparison, shared hosts (SiteGround 305ms, Bluehost 420ms) are significantly slower.
Noticeably faster. Our tests show Cloudways (DigitalOcean) beats SiteGround by about 45% on TTFB (168ms vs 305ms) and about 38% on full page load (1.3s vs 2.1s). This is because Cloudways uses dedicated cloud VPS resources while SiteGround is shared hosting. See Cloudways vs SiteGround for more.
Vultr High Frequency was the fastest in our tests with a TTFB of just 128ms. But DigitalOcean offers better value — 168ms TTFB is also excellent, and it often has a lower final checkout amount. For most sites, a 40ms TTFB difference is imperceptible to real users. Unless your site has heavy dynamic requests (e.g., WooCommerce), DigitalOcean is the better deal.
Outstanding. Our 30-day continuous monitoring data shows: Vultr 99.99%, DigitalOcean 99.98%, AWS 99.99%. All exceed the 99.95% industry standard. In 30 days, each provider experienced only one brief blip (3–8 minutes) — negligible impact on real visitors.
Core optimization checklist: ① Enable Breeze + Varnish caching ② Enable Redis object cache ③ Use PHP 8.2+ ④ Configure Cloudflare CDN (free tier) ⑤ Convert images to WebP + lazy loading ⑥ Use a lightweight theme (Astra/GeneratePress) ⑦ Remove unnecessary plugins ⑧ Regular database cleanup. After implementing all the above, our test site's PageSpeed score went from 96 to 99.
📖 More Resources: Full Review · Pricing Plans · vs SiteGround · vs Kinsta