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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 catering primarily to SMBs, agencies, developers, and ecommerce businesses. It offers customizable managed hosting solutions for popular applications such as WordPress, Magento, Laravel, and PHP apps, with full control over server and cloud provider choice. The company positions itself as a market leader in SMB hosting, trusted by over 100,000 businesses globally and rated #1 on G2. Key services include Cloudways Flexible hosting, Cloudways Autonomous hosting for high traffic sites, client billing and reporting automation, and various add-ons including Cloudflare CDN and malware protection. The platform also integrates AI-powered troubleshooting via Cloudways AI Copilot.

Scanned

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 17 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.

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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
77
Security headers
55
Email security
95
DNS health
80
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 a B2B SaaS model focused on managed cloud hosting with a strong emphasis on performance, scalability, and ease of use. The company targets agencies, developers, and SMBs needing reliable hosting with minimal complexity. Its partnership ecosystem includes major cloud providers such as DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud. The presence of an affiliate program and agency partner program indicates a growth strategy leveraging partnerships and referrals. The company demonstrates strong branding consistency and trust signals through client testimonials and industry ratings. However, the absence of publicly available WHOIS data introduces some uncertainty in domain registration transparency.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses security add-ons like malware protection, indicating a good baseline security posture. However, no explicit security headers were detected in the HTML, and there is no published security policy or incident response contact information. The lack of a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file suggests room for improvement in transparency and proactive security communication. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found in the content. Overall, the security posture is solid but could be enhanced by publishing formal security policies and implementing recommended HTTP security headers.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  2. Implement and enforce HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  3. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and integrations to minimize risk from external dependencies.
  5. Enhance WHOIS domain registration transparency or provide justification for privacy protection to improve domain trustworthiness.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Cloudways
Description
Managed hosting platform trusted by 100,000+ businesses offering customizable managed hosting for WordPress, Magento, Laravel & PHP apps with full control over server and cloud choice.
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, SVG graphics, Google Tag Manager (commented out), Intercom chat widget
Frameworks
WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin), All in One SEO (AIOSEO)
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of security add-ons like Malware Protection
  • No exposed sensitive data found in HTML
  • Use of Intercom with async loading

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

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

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. Strong focus on managed cloud hosting services for SMBs and agencies.
  3. Use of modern web technologies and SEO best practices.
  4. No direct company contact emails or phone numbers found in HTML; contact via form.
  5. WHOIS data unavailable, which impacts domain trust assessment.
  6. No explicit security policy or incident response info published.
  7. Privacy and cookie policies present with consent mechanisms.
  8. Affiliate program clearly advertised.
  9. No adult or questionable content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress with modern plugins such as WPML for multilingual support and All in One SEO for search engine optimization. It uses SVG graphics extensively for icons and branding, and integrates third-party services like Intercom for customer support. The site is mobile-optimized, fast-loading, and well-structured with clear navigation. Hosting is managed by Cloudways itself, leveraging multiple cloud providers. The technical stack is modern and well-maintained, supporting a high-quality user experience and strong SEO performance. Opportunities exist to improve security headers and formalize security policies.
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 +3Medium24 findingsView report
  2. 71/100Medium19 findingsView report
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