Skip to main content

Security report for cloudways.com

Cloudways · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

74/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform targeting SMBs, agencies, developers, and ecommerce businesses. It offers customizable hosting solutions integrating multiple cloud providers such as DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Compute Engine. The company positions itself as a market leader in SMB hosting, boasting a #1 rating on G2 and serving over 100,000 businesses. Key services include Cloudways Flexible and Autonomous hosting, client billing automation, and add-ons like Cloudflare CDN and malware protection. The website is professionally designed, mobile-optimized, and SEO-friendly, reflecting a mature digital presence. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with modern plugins like WPML and All in One SEO. It uses HTTPS and integrates third-party services such as Intercom for support and Google Tag Manager (though commented out). Performance is fast, and accessibility is good. However, explicit privacy, cookie, and terms of service policies are not found in the provided content, which is a compliance gap. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Security headers are not explicitly detected, and no incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is published. The WHOIS data is missing or unavailable, which reduces trust slightly but does not negate the legitimacy indicated by the website content and market presence. Overall, Cloudways presents a professional and trustworthy hosting platform with strong business credibility and technical maturity. Strategic improvements in privacy compliance and security transparency are recommended to enhance trust and regulatory adherence.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of cloudways.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching cloudways.com

This scan found 16 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
72
Security headers
55
Email security
95
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
74

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Cloudways operates in the competitive managed cloud hosting market, focusing on SMBs and agencies requiring scalable, high-performance hosting solutions. Its integration with multiple cloud providers allows flexibility and customization, appealing to a broad customer base. The company leverages customer testimonials and high ratings on G2 to build trust and market authority. Revenue streams likely include subscription hosting plans, add-ons, and affiliate programs. The presence of AI-powered tools like Cloudways AI Copilot indicates innovation focus. The lack of visible registrant data in WHOIS is a minor concern but does not overshadow the company's evident market footprint and professional operations.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses secure third-party services for support and analytics. No exposed credentials or vulnerable libraries are detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of explicit security headers and published security policies or incident response contacts suggests room for improvement in security transparency and defense-in-depth. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure program is evident. GDPR compliance indicators are minimal due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by formalizing policies and publishing security contact information.

Recommendations

  1. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  2. Implement and configure security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection.
  3. Provide explicit contact information for security incidents and consider publishing a security.txt file.
  4. Enhance cookie consent mechanisms to ensure user consent and compliance with privacy regulations.
  5. Verify and update WHOIS domain registration information to improve trust and transparency.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Cloudways
Description
#1 SMB Hosting Provider on G2. Supercharge your websites with managed hosting trusted by 100,000+ businesses that demand high performance and reliability.
Key services
Managed cloud hosting, Cloudways Flexible hosting, Cloudways Autonomous hosting, Client billing & reporting automation, Add-ons like Cloudflare CDN, SafeUpdates, Malware Protection, AI Copilot for troubleshooting
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, PHP, JavaScript, Google Tag Manager (commented out), Intercom chat widget
Frameworks
WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin), All in One SEO
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Intercom for support
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager (commented out)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Intercom
Marketing tools
Google Tag Manager (commented out), Intercom
Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and professional design.
  2. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service pages found in provided content.
  3. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found in HTML content.
  4. Strong branding and clear business focus on managed cloud hosting.
  5. Use of modern web technologies and SEO best practices.
  6. No signs of adult or questionable content.
  7. WHOIS data missing, which is unusual and warrants caution.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress with multilingual support and SEO optimization plugins, indicating a modern and maintainable CMS infrastructure. Integration with multiple cloud providers suggests a flexible hosting backend. The site uses asynchronous loading for third-party scripts like Intercom, improving performance. The design is responsive and accessible, with clear navigation and structured content. Some scripts like Google Tag Manager are present but commented out, possibly for staged deployment. Overall, the technical implementation is robust with good performance and user experience, though security header implementation and privacy compliance require attention.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 74/100 +3Medium25 findingsView report
  2. 71/100Medium19 findingsView report
Reviews of this site

Share your experience with cloudways.com. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review cloudways.com.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.