Compare the key differences between General Purpose vs CPU-Optimized Servers on Cloudways. Dive deep into their performance benchmarks and ideal use cases to make the smart hosting decision:

If you are reading this article, then you were probably planning WordPress hosting on Cloudways only to find yourself at a crossroads. You’ll now need to decide whether to go with General-Purpose Servers or CPU-Optimized Servers.

Cloudways offers both options to its customers via several cloud providers, such as DigitalOcean and Linode, for instance.

General Purpose or CPU-Optimized Servers: Which Cloudways Server is the Best?

Both Cloudways server types can run WordPress with the utmost efficiency. That said, these servers react differently to each WordPress workload (task, demands, database operations, etc.)

As such, making this decision can become challenging. Making the right decision here involves understanding how specific WordPress workloads can benefit from each server type.

My goal with this article is to help you make that decision with ease. I’ll be covering what a General Purpose and CPU Optimized server entails, what distinguishes them from each other, and everything else you need to know to make an informed decision.

So, without much further ado, let’s dive in.

Top Cloudways Servers for WordPress Workload

The top Cloudways Servers for WordPress workload include General Purpose and CPU Optimized servers.

The image below depicts the Server Selection Guide to choose the right server:

Cloudways General Purpose Hosting Servers

Cloudways General Purpose servers are tailor-made to handle your day-to-day WordPress workloads. These servers feature a higher CPU-to-RAM ratio and are ideal if high-performance WordPress with consistent uptime is your top priority. The servers are best suited for WordPress websites that experience moderate to high traffic.

The image below shows the option to pick the General Purpose server:

The servers guarantee stable performance for resource-intensive WordPress workloads. As these servers strike the perfect balance between CPU and memory, they will handle both cached and uncached content effectively.

In hindsight, I would say that these servers are perfect for compute-intensive e-commerce websites, CMS platforms, SaaS platforms, and high-traffic forums.

Ideal Use Cases:

• Business blogs with moderate traffic
• News and media websites
• Real estate listings with moderate databases
• Small and medium-sized WooCommerce stores
• Small agencies host multiple client WordPress websites.

Pricing

Cloudways CPU Optimized Servers

Cloudways CPU Optimized Servers are best when it comes to handling WordPress workloads that demand high and stable CPU performance. Using a 1:2 CPU-to-RAM ratio, these servers come with faster CPUs. These servers also offer relatively more cores, thus making them capable of executing tasks faster and processing uncached content efficiently.

The CPU Optimized Server option is depicted in the image below:

These servers are best employed when managing websites with dynamic content and high concurrency. A perfect example of such sites would be LMS platforms and e-commerce stores.

Ideal Use-Cases:

• Websites with uncached content.
• LMS platforms that are resource-intensive.
• Large multi-site networks with busy subsites.
• Real-time reporting dashboards.
• High-volume lead-generation websites.
• E-commerce stores that witness huge traffic.

Pricing

List of the Best Cloudways Cloud Providers

This section helps you in making the right decision between Digital Ocean, Linode, and Vultr.

Choosing between Cloudways General Purpose and CPU-Optimized servers isn’t the only area where you’ll need to put your thinking cap on. Cloudways does not offer its own hardware. Instead, you’ll have to choose between three distinct but highly revered cloud providers

Of course, you’ll need to get your priorities straight to make the right decision from the options Cloudways lays out in front of you.

#1) Digital Ocean

Launched in 2012, Digital Ocean has made quite a name for itself as one of the most sought-after cloud infrastructure providers today. Developers usually gravitate towards this platform as it promises them user-friendliness.

The provider also offers a wide range of services, which include but aren’t limited to load balancers, app platforms, and managed databases. This provider is ideal for beginners, SMBs, and smaller development teams because of the user-friendliness and extensive documentation it promises.

#2) Linode

Launched way back in 2003, Linode is perhaps the oldest cloud provider that I am aware of. The cloud hosting solutions you get with Linode include block storage, managed Kubernetes, and managed databases. The provider also holds a spotless reputation when it comes to offering reliable service with consistent uptime.

#3) Vultr

Vultr is a personal favorite of e-Commerce developers, thanks in large part to its high-frequency CPU infrastructure. This also makes the cloud provider best suited for executing multiple WordPress tasks within a single thread. The provider also boasts a large number of data centers, which will benefit websites that wish to expand their reach globally.

In hindsight, I would suggest going with Digital Ocean if ease-of-use and better documentation are your priority. For better global reach, you will not find a better option than Vultr. If you seek reliable performance with consistent uptime, Linode should suffice.

Basic vs. General Purpose vs. CPU Optimized Servers: Performance Comparison

We don’t have to look any further than Cloudways’ performance benchmark tests to understand just how well their General Purpose and CPU-optimized servers fare. These performance tests were conducted on Digital Ocean.

Here’s what those tests found:

Benchmark Testing of General Purpose Servers: Single Page Load

Cloudways’ page speed benchmark test clearly depicts General Purpose Servers being faster than Digital Ocean’s basic servers when it comes to load times, despite having fewer cores. The tests also found that General Purpose servers exhibited:

• 25% faster First Contentful Paint (454 ms vs 607 ms)
• 25% faster Largest Contentful Paint (519 ms vs 664 ms)
• 25% faster Time to First Byte (235 ms vs 312 ms)

These results basically prove that General Purpose servers guarantee great performance when used for general browsing or mundane website interactions.

On the flipside, the benchmark tests also showed General-Purpose servers faltering due to fewer cores for managing CPU-heavy tasks with high concurrency. These tasks are better handled by CPU-optimized servers.

Benchmark Testing of CPU-Optimized Servers

Cloudways Benchmark Testing of CPU-Optimized Servers found that they could effortlessly handle 18% total requests with 59% lower overall response time. Even though CPU-Optimized Servers have specs identical to Digital Ocean’s basic plans, they still performed significantly better.

To sum it up, benchmark testing of CPU Optimized Servers showed:

• 60% faster page loads
• 67% faster user logins

In hindsight, the performance improvements depicted by General Purpose premiums make them perfect for your average SMB website, as you are promised super-fast load speeds. On the other hand, CPU-optimized servers prove to be an ideal option for the processing of CPU-intensive applications with concurrent users.

When it comes to sheer server speed comparison, both General Purpose and CPU-optimized alternatives have Cloudways’ basic servers beat.

How Cloudways Helps with WordPress Optimization

With Cloudways, WordPress optimization is considerably excellent, as the platform arms you with a ton of features. All of these combined can help you improve a WordPress website’s performance and user experience.

Here’s just a hint of what you can expect when employing Cloudways to manage a WordPress website.

1. Performance Optimization

First and foremost, you’ll find that Cloudways makes very good use of a highly optimized server stack. This stack includes Redis, Memcached, Varnish, Apache, and Nginx, each configured to ensure maximized WordPress speed.

It also offers its own caching plugin, called Breeze, which facilitates browser and file-level caching. As a user, you are also provided with ample guidance and tools to optimize images on a WordPress website, thus further enhancing its performance. Another thing that ensures considerable performance improvement is Cloudways’ support for the latest PHP versions.

2. Impeccable Security Features

Cloudways leaves no stone unturned to ensure your WordPress website is safe 24/7 from all sorts of threats. It offers free SSL certificates to keep your WordPress sites secure. It also has robust security measures in place that ensure malware and viruses are detected and removed proactively before they can cause any harm to your WordPress site.

3. WordPress Management

It is also a breeze to manage servers and applications through Cloudways’ control panel, regardless of your technical proficiency. You also get to choose from some of the most prominent cloud providers out there as Digital Ocean, Linode, Vultr, AWS, and Google Cloud.

Cloudways has also made significant improvements to its vertical scaling to offer a more flexible experience to its users. It is now much easier to scale up and down to accommodate your WordPress site’s oscillating traffic demands.

Making the Right Choice: General Purpose and CPU-Optimized Servers

Making the right decision between a General Purpose and CPU-Optimized server ultimately boils down to the WordPress workloads you need managed.

If you are running a general website that features blogs and forums, then a server that offers a balance of CPU and memory should suffice. That is what General Purpose servers offer, making them suitable for most websites out there.

On the other hand, if you are running a dynamic site, which requires visitors to interact with various elements on the interface, you’ll need a server that offers higher processing power. This makes CPU-optimized servers a better choice. These servers are perfect for LMS and e-commerce websites with uncached content.

When you opt for Cloudways as your hosting platform, you’ll also have the privilege of choosing from a variety of prominent cloud providers. I’ve already introduced each of them above. The table below will help you choose the right provider, based on your needs.

All three cloud providers are partners with Cloudways and come with General Purpose and CPU-Optimized premiums. They are far more cost-effective than cloud providers like AWS and Google Cloud. All three are ideal choices for bandwidth-heavy apps.

I would recommend going with Digital Ocean for its ease of use and extensive documentation. Go for Vultr if you wish to expand your reach globally. Opt for Linode for consistent uptime with reliable performance.

Decoding Cloudways’ Reputation: Customer Success Stories

I wouldn’t have bothered to write this article if it weren’t for Cloudways’ solid reputation. Founded in 2012, this managed hosting provider has only grown by leaps and bounds.

If you are even a tad skeptical about Cloudways’ capability in optimizing WordPress workloads, perhaps the following client testimonies can put your concerns to rest.

How Cloudways Helped Squarebird Streamline Its Processes

Squarebird is an agency that has worked with small startups and global organizations for the past 5 years. Although they provide a wide range of services, their core business revolves around WordPress website development and maintenance.

Squarebird was a growing business that needed a hosting partner that would help it scale smoothly. That’s when they came across Cloudways.

On Cloudways, Squarebird’s founders had this to say:

“Cloudways has provided us with a simple, reliable, and scalable hosting solution for our growing website.”

How Cloudways Helped Lucid Media Deliver Great Customer Support

Lucid Media is another Cloudways client that has only great things to say about their experience with the hosting provider.

The company credits Cloudways’ support team for helping them scale their servers depending on the client’s needs instead of creating new servers from scratch.

On Cloudways, Lucid Media’s founder had this to say:

“Cloudways’ support team has always been amazing. They’ve constantly helped us through difficult times where we thought our server might have crashed or we messed up something with our website. Their backup and multi-location option has made our lives easier when it comes to setting up new client websites.”

The above stories serve as a testament to Cloudways’ formidable reputation and reliability as one of the best managed cloud hosting platforms of today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here is a video on how Cloudways succeeded through redefined web hosting:

Conclusion

The decision between Cloudways General Purpose and CPU-Optimized servers isn’t about which one is superior or inferior to the other. You are going to find both to be highly reliable. They do, however, serve different purposes. You need a server that can handle your WordPress workloads without hassle.

If your WordPress site experiences fewer visitors, features static pages, and requires minor updates occasionally, then go with General Purpose servers. Its balanced offering of memory and CPU will be enough to handle your WordPress website.

If you are running a dynamic WordPress website like an LMS platform or e-Commerce store, then you’ll need higher processing power, which CPU-optimized servers offer.

Ultimately, by choosing the right server, you’ll be able to offer your visitors the best experience on your website.

For more WordPress & Hosting-related guides, you can explore our range of tutorials below:

• Migrate a WordPress Site to Cloudways Lightning Stack
• Best WordPress Hosting Services
• Top Website Hosting and Domain Services
• Cloud Migration Service Provider Companies