Is migration from Cloudways really free?

Yes. Our team moves your site off Cloudways for you at no cost. We handle the files, the database, and the DNS, and we check that everything works before you go live. There is no per-site migration fee.

How fast can I reach a real person?

Our promise is human support in under five minutes. You reach a real person, by message or phone, not a bot or a scripted upsell.

What does UpperLevel cost compared to Cloudways?

UpperLevel keeps pricing simple, with NVMe speed, free SSL, daily backups, and security included rather than billed as add-ons or usage overages. The price you sign up at is the real price, not an introductory offer that jumps at renewal.

Can you move my email and domain too?

If your mailboxes live with Cloudways we copy them across with your site. Your domain can stay registered wherever it is now: we simply update the DNS records (or, if you prefer, walk you through pointing the nameservers), so there is no risky registrar transfer required just to change hosts.

Do you handle WooCommerce stores and custom builds?

Yes. WooCommerce stores, membership sites, multilingual setups, page-builder sites, and heavily customized themes are everyday work for our migration team, and store cutovers are scheduled deliberately so orders are not lost in the switch.

What if UpperLevel is not the right fit?

You are covered by our 45-day money-back guarantee. If hosting with us is not right for you, tell us within 45 days and we refund you.

Switch from Cloudways

The UpperLevel alternative to Cloudways

If you are leaving Cloudways because the post-acquisition support got slow and impersonal, the bill kept growing through paid add-ons and the post-promo jump, and the migration felt like your problem, UpperLevel maps directly onto every one of those frustrations: free hands-on migration, sub-5-minute human support, honest no-bait-and-switch pricing with no surprise add-on creep, and a stable independent team that has been at it since 2016 with 111 5.0-star reviews.

Get Started See how the move works

We move you off Cloudways for free. You do not lift a finger, and there is nothing to figure out.

111 5.0-star reviews
Since 2016
Human support in under five minutes

UpperLevel Hosting at a glance

Founded: 2016
Headquarters: United States
Support: <5 min response · 24/7/365 · Level 3 experts
Storage: NVMe SSD
Backups: Daily · 30-day retention (managed) · 15-day (shared)
Malware removal: Unlimited, included
Pricing: Shared from $11/mo · managed WordPress from $24/mo, billed annually · no bait-and-switch pricing
Guarantee: 45-day money-back guarantee
Uptime: 99.9% uptime
Reviews: 111 five-star reviews across Google, Trustpilot, HostAdvice, G2

The Cloudways problem

Why people leave Cloudways

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform (DIY-leaning, provisions on DigitalOcean/Vultr/Linode/AWS/Google Cloud; owned by DigitalOcean since 2022). These are the reasons customers tell us they are looking for something better.

Support quality is widely reported to have declined after DigitalOcean acquired Cloudways in 2022. Trustpilot and Capterra reviews cite slow responses during peak hours, critical tickets left unresolved for days to weeks, and a sense that first-line replies feel scripted or bot-driven.

Billing complaints are a recurring theme: unauthorized or duplicate charges, unexpected server shut-offs on paid accounts, and disputes that are hard to escalate (no phone line, no clear complaints channel).

Aggressive upsells. Features many rivals bundle for free are paid add-ons here: premium and advanced support ($100 to $500/mo), Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, paid Safe Updates, Imunify360 malware scans, and offsite backups, which reviewers describe as nickel-and-diming or scare-tactic upselling.

Roughly 220 percent markup over the underlying DigitalOcean or Vultr retail price for the same hardware, so you pay a large premium for the management layer and then pay again for the add-ons.

Migration friction. Free expert migrations are not always actually free anymore (customers report being billed after being promised a free transfer), and onboarding or migration can stall, leaving sites in limbo.

The real cost

What Cloudways actually costs

How Cloudways prices it

Usage-based managed cloud hosting that starts around $11/mo (entry DigitalOcean Standard: 1GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 25GB SSD, 1TB bandwidth) and scales up by underlying provider, roughly $14/mo on Vultr or Linode, about $20 or more per month on AWS, and about $37 or more per month on Google Cloud, with hourly billing and no long-term contract. Current promo is 30 percent off for 3 months (some campaigns run 5 months) plus a discount for paying annually. The headline rate is bare infrastructure. Real-world bills climb with paid add-ons: Advanced and Premium support ($100/mo and $500/mo respectively), Cloudflare Enterprise CDN at $4.99 per domain per month, offsite backups at $0.033/GB, bandwidth overages, and no native email (you bring Google Workspace or Rackspace). Independent reviews put Cloudways’ managed-hosting markup at roughly 220 percent over the raw DigitalOcean or Vultr retail price for the same server.

The pricing catch

Cloudways markets itself as keeping its sticker rate flat year over year, and that is largely accurate. Unlike traditional cPanel hosts, the standard monthly price does not inflate year-over-year. The catch is the intro discount: the 30-percent-off promo applies only to the first 3 (sometimes 5) months, so once it lapses the bill jumps to the full standard rate (a roughly 43 percent effective increase) even though Cloudways will not call that a renewal hike. Historically, the base plan prices themselves were raised fleet-wide in 2023 (the first increase since 2017) following the DigitalOcean acquisition.

Pricing details are sourced from public, dated references and are reviewed before publishing. Figures change, so confirm current rates on Cloudways’s own site.

And what we cost

UpperLevel pricing, with nothing hidden

Managed WordPress hosting in three flat tiers, billed annually. The price you sign up at is the real price: no intro teaser, no usage meter, and no add-on checklist at checkout. If pricing ever changes, existing customers get 30 days’ notice first.

Starter

$24/mo

For one WordPress site that needs to be fast, secure, and fully managed.

Business

$36/mo

For a growing business running a couple of sites that cannot afford downtime.

Pro

$48/mo

For freelancers and small agencies managing up to three client sites.

Every tier includes the migration off Cloudways, NVMe storage, free SSL, daily backups, malware removal, and the 45-day guarantee. There are no setup fees, no metered visitor counts, and no surcharge to keep your SSL certificate renewing.

Head to head

UpperLevel vs Cloudways

The same things customers leave Cloudways over are the things we built UpperLevel to do well.

With UpperLevel

Free hands-on migration. Our team moves your whole site for you, with no per-site fee and no plugin that stalls at 3 percent.
Human support in under five minutes. A real person, by message or phone, not a bot loop or a scripted upsell.
No bait-and-switch pricing. The price you sign up at is the real price, not an intro teaser that doubles in year two.
Everything included. NVMe speed, free SSL, daily backups, and security come standard, not as paid add-ons.
A 45-day money-back guarantee, backed by 111 verified 5.0-star reviews since 2016.

Staying on Cloudways

Support quality is widely reported to have declined after DigitalOcean acquired Cloudways in 2022. Trustpilot and Capterra reviews cite slow responses during peak hours, critical tickets left unresolved for days to weeks, and a sense that first-line replies feel scripted or bot-driven.
Billing complaints are a recurring theme: unauthorized or duplicate charges, unexpected server shut-offs on paid accounts, and disputes that are hard to escalate (no phone line, no clear complaints channel).
Aggressive upsells. Features many rivals bundle for free are paid add-ons here: premium and advanced support ($100 to $500/mo), Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, paid Safe Updates, Imunify360 malware scans, and offsite backups, which reviewers describe as nickel-and-diming or scare-tactic upselling.
Roughly 220 percent markup over the underlying DigitalOcean or Vultr retail price for the same hardware, so you pay a large premium for the management layer and then pay again for the add-ons.
Migration friction. Free expert migrations are not always actually free anymore (customers report being billed after being promised a free transfer), and onboarding or migration can stall, leaving sites in limbo.

Free white-glove migration

We move you off Cloudways for free

Our team handles the whole move from Cloudways: files, database, email where it applies, and DNS. No downtime, no per-site fee, and nothing for you to figure out. And if a question comes up mid-move, a real person answers in under five minutes.

Moves are scheduled around your timezone and traffic patterns. Overnight cutovers and weekend launches are normal requests here, not special favors.

Get Started Talk to a real person

Want the play-by-play first? Read the step-by-step Cloudways migration guide

The proof

111 verified 5.0-star reviews

Since 2016, businesses across every industry have rated UpperLevel a perfect 5.0 out of 5. Read every one on the verified profiles.

111 5.0-star reviews
Since 2016
Human support in under five minutes

Questions

Switching from Cloudways, answered

Is migration from Cloudways really free?: Yes. Our team moves your site off Cloudways for you at no cost. We handle the files, the database, and the DNS, and we check that everything works before you go live. There is no per-site migration fee.
How fast can I reach a real person?: Our promise is human support in under five minutes. You reach a real person, by message or phone, not a bot or a scripted upsell.
What does UpperLevel cost compared to Cloudways?: UpperLevel keeps pricing simple, with NVMe speed, free SSL, daily backups, and security included rather than billed as add-ons or usage overages. The price you sign up at is the real price, not an introductory offer that jumps at renewal.
Can you move my email and domain too?: If your mailboxes live with Cloudways we copy them across with your site. Your domain can stay registered wherever it is now: we simply update the DNS records (or, if you prefer, walk you through pointing the nameservers), so there is no risky registrar transfer required just to change hosts.
Do you handle WooCommerce stores and custom builds?: Yes. WooCommerce stores, membership sites, multilingual setups, page-builder sites, and heavily customized themes are everyday work for our migration team, and store cutovers are scheduled deliberately so orders are not lost in the switch.
What if UpperLevel is not the right fit?: You are covered by our 45-day money-back guarantee. If hosting with us is not right for you, tell us within 45 days and we refund you.

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Sources & references

Where the Cloudways details come from

Every pricing, renewal, and support claim above traces to independently published reviews, consumer-complaint registries, or Cloudways’s own pricing pages and documentation, all reviewed before publishing:

Ready to leave Cloudways?

Free migration, human support in under five minutes, and a 45-day money-back guarantee. No teaser rates, no bait-and-switch pricing.

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