The actual staging feature was a big step forward to deal with business related WordPress sites.

But for now only the entire database could be pushed/pulled between staging <> live environment.

For more complex WordPress sites with WooCommerce or membership systems the actual staging feature is not enough. While in staging mode the live site changes permantly and new orders/users are created. When pushing back the entire datebase all changes would be overwritten!

A selective database sync (select which tables should be copied) would really improve the staging feature. With that in place Cloudways would be a very good host even for these complex WordPress sites.

PS: A similar feedback was already posted but with bad explanation:
http://feedback.cloudways.com/forums/203824-service-improvement/suggestions/34850656-ecommerce-staging-enviroment-enhanchment

I would like to suggest that Cloudways publishes an article or other document that describes how Cloudways maintains, patches, updates servers and secures them.

The intent is not to disclose details that puts security at risk but instead demonstrates the value Cloudways is providing in the area of helping its customers maintain a secure server and application environment.

Information should include frequency of update / patch deployment, frequency of security scans for malware / unauthorized access, firewall ports and services that are open especially those for inbound traffic from the Internet, intrusion protection mechanisms, transparency reports for government information requests and legal processes, etc..

This kind of information will help Cloudways demonstrate value being provided. And, it would be helpful for devs, webmasters, and agencies too ... especially when evaluating Cloudways or building solutions / offerings on servers managed via the Cloudways service.

It will also be helpful to those who strive to document our own security practices.

I am a Cloudways customer, and right now what Cloudways provides and does in the realm of security is a big "black box" that offers no details or documentation of such to its customers or prospective customers.

Like I said, a suggestion ... which I believe is a good one.

Hello Team,

As of now there's only one full backup / restore option (Server Management > Backups > Take Backup Now)

Can you please provide some option where the user can take backup as per their requirement, Sometime developer just want to take a backup of the database or hosting files not both all the time.

If you're providing some option where the user can take backup/restore accordingly as of now if we're taking full backup and restoring the full backup it's super time consuming for the bigger websites while they just want to take database backup.

Suggested Backup Process

1) Database Backup Only
2) Hosting Files Backup Only
3) Full Backup (Database + Hosting)

Suggested Restore Process

1) Database Restore Only
2) Hosting Files Restore Only
3) Full Restore (Database + Hosting)

Vote up everyone if you want this feature on priority.

Thanks,
Prince | Technology Alchemist

I have found a problem with the Staging deployment for my wordpress sites.
Some plugins and themes store serialised arrays in the wordpress options. This is a valid technique that results in less DB calls.
However, if you simply do a find and replace on URLs in the database, the serialisation of the array will break. This means that the Staging site will lose the settings in the plug-ins and themes.
If you don't realise this, and push the changes back to Live, the Live website will break.

A related problem is with premium plugins and themes that are licensed to a specific domain. Of course, the Staging site is on a different domain, and so some plug-ins may require a different license key.
Again, this is a find and replace challenge when migrating to and from Staging and Production.

I have got around this problem by using WP Migrate Pro plug-in, which performs and intelligent and WordPress optimised migration. Of course, it would have been better to have this functionality in Cloudways.

I don't know if it's just me, but the support quality and speed has been degraded fast lately..

When I just became customer @Cloudways (like a year ago) support was fast and helpful. They took time and really looked into my issues.

Now it's a whole different story. Today for example, I have been on the chat for OVER 2 HOURS. Literally. All this time waiting, following up what the status was, if they weredoing anything. Very little replies. After an hour the first real reply came in which totally missed the boat, wasn't even related to my question.

I pointed this out on the chat and I was transfered to another agent which took a little time for like 2 minutes and then stopped replying too. Also messages are only read half, I need to point out things multiple times which I already mentioned.

When I pointed out this on the chat I received: "actually i am dealing with multiple customers which is wy it got delayed in the response"

We pay a serious extra for the 'managed service and support'. I mean, the prices of DigitalOcean servers are more than doubled. Which is totally find, but please keep your support and service in check..!

More staff maybe?

Oh, and my issue isn't resolved yet. Has been transfered to a ticket, so after 2 hours chatting with really not that much helpful feedback, I now have to wait for a reply on the ticket.