Has anyone used Cloudways for Xenforo?
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Arantor
Well-known member
So Cloudways has optimisations directly for WordPress and Laravel based apps, and has a generic support for 'PHP apps'. I don't run XF specifically but I do run other PHP apps (including forums) on Cloudways and I've not seen any issues.
I see no reason to believe that Cloudways wouldn't be a solid enough host for XF, but few hosts optimise for what is - relatively speaking - a niche platform. (It may be the most popular paid forum platform in PHP but it's a rounding error compared to WP installs.)
EDIT: They do offer ElasticSearch out of the box. I haven't tried it though, as nothing I have currently supports it. The option I have to install is version 7.17 which should be sufficient to at least try out the XFES plugin (I think, again haven't tried)
I see no reason to believe that Cloudways wouldn't be a solid enough host for XF, but few hosts optimise for what is - relatively speaking - a niche platform. (It may be the most popular paid forum platform in PHP but it's a rounding error compared to WP installs.)
EDIT: They do offer ElasticSearch out of the box. I haven't tried it though, as nothing I have currently supports it. The option I have to install is version 7.17 which should be sufficient to at least try out the XFES plugin (I think, again haven't tried)
Suzanne O
Well-known member
It kind of sounds a bit like cloudaccess.net.
It won't have a CPanel and it won't have much.
You're better off going with something that is better.
I've been with Namecheap and that has a really good premium hosting system.
It never used to until it asked everyone on what it needed.
Now that it's got a great CPanel it means that i don't have to FTP everything.
Seems to be a bit of marketing.
Everything they offer, every place else does too. and if they don't, if you have root access, you can install it yourself.
Nearly everything is a cloud/virtual box these days, likely hosted at a big-3 cloud provider or other teri1 data center. upload is upload.
caching? redis, memcache, zend, xcache, etc are all available to anyway. cloudflare too
cdn, same, put your static files on s3 or r2 or maxcdn, etc etc or anywhere else.
Perhaps it makes it 'easier' out of the box, but nothing i mentioned is hard - just needs root access and some linux commands.
Everything they offer, every place else does too. and if they don't, if you have root access, you can install it yourself.
Nearly everything is a cloud/virtual box these days, likely hosted at a big-3 cloud provider or other teri1 data center. upload is upload.
caching? redis, memcache, zend, xcache, etc are all available to anyway. cloudflare too
cdn, same, put your static files on s3 or r2 or maxcdn, etc etc or anywhere else.
Perhaps it makes it 'easier' out of the box, but nothing i mentioned is hard - just needs root access and some linux commands.
I'm a newbie and using Vultr. Their tech support is lacking when my website experiences downtime. I'd appreciate it if someone who uses Cloudways could share their experience. Cloudways is more expensive, so I want more reviews
Arantor
Well-known member
Cloudways is managed hosting - you do not get root access, you do not get access to half the stuff that cPanel would typically offer you either.
That's the reason for the cost, they're charging you for their expertise and setup in managing the server.
Specifically, you can run Cloudways as a management layer on top of either DO, AWS or GCP (they also used to offer Linode and Vultr but pulled the Linode offering after Akamai bought them and hiked the prices - I really need to migrate my sites off the Linodes I have and move them to DO droplets inside Cloudways at some point)
Redis is available as is ElasticSearch. SupervisorD is also available for being a watchdog for queue applications (this is primarily beneficial for Laravel but you should be able to hook that up to XF's queue runner, not tried but the theory is sound)
If you're expecting the power and flexibility of cPanel, Cloudways is not for you because it doesn't give you all the levers, but that's literally the point. It gives you a number of options and curates what options you have so you don't have to do it yourself.
It is OK if this platform isn't right for you - it is for me personally, and I run a bunch of stuff (including mission critical business apps) on it with no major drama.
That's the reason for the cost, they're charging you for their expertise and setup in managing the server.
Specifically, you can run Cloudways as a management layer on top of either DO, AWS or GCP (they also used to offer Linode and Vultr but pulled the Linode offering after Akamai bought them and hiked the prices - I really need to migrate my sites off the Linodes I have and move them to DO droplets inside Cloudways at some point)
Redis is available as is ElasticSearch. SupervisorD is also available for being a watchdog for queue applications (this is primarily beneficial for Laravel but you should be able to hook that up to XF's queue runner, not tried but the theory is sound)
If you're expecting the power and flexibility of cPanel, Cloudways is not for you because it doesn't give you all the levers, but that's literally the point. It gives you a number of options and curates what options you have so you don't have to do it yourself.
It is OK if this platform isn't right for you - it is for me personally, and I run a bunch of stuff (including mission critical business apps) on it with no major drama.
bluegreyshoes
New member
I've just set up an XF install on a Cloudways server and not experiencing any problems. I don't think there's a simple answer to the question, for me Cloudways is good for a. spinning a server up to try something out then delete a few days later and b. setting up servers for other people (so I don't have to maintain them). For my own servers, I prefer an unmanaged VPS running a simple LAMP stack at less than half the cost.
Cons - Cloudways servers feel kinda sluggish to me. You can't edit (say) Apache config files so you're limited to what can be done in .htaccess. I haven't been terribly impressed with their support, they're very responsive but seem to just pick from canned answers without reading the question.
Pros - I mentioned the price but otoh some of the add-ons are good value, like the elastic email. SSL certs are really easy and auto renew. As mentioned above there's stuff already ready to go so you don't have to figure it out. In general I think if you do it "their way" and fit into the box of what they seem to think people want a server for it can save a lot of time. I'll keep using them in particular for scenario (b) above.
Cons - Cloudways servers feel kinda sluggish to me. You can't edit (say) Apache config files so you're limited to what can be done in .htaccess. I haven't been terribly impressed with their support, they're very responsive but seem to just pick from canned answers without reading the question.
Pros - I mentioned the price but otoh some of the add-ons are good value, like the elastic email. SSL certs are really easy and auto renew. As mentioned above there's stuff already ready to go so you don't have to figure it out. In general I think if you do it "their way" and fit into the box of what they seem to think people want a server for it can save a lot of time. I'll keep using them in particular for scenario (b) above.
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