Cloudways feature

Cloudways backups: what it changes in a real hosting workflow

Cloudways Flexible provides automated off-site backups with configurable frequency and retention plus on-demand backup options; a recovery plan still needs testing.

Last verified: September 14, 2026

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Quick answer

Cloudways Flexible provides automated off-site backups with configurable frequency and retention plus on-demand backup options; a recovery plan still needs testing.

Frequency should match change rate

Cloudways documents backup frequencies ranging from hourly to every seven days on Flexible, with a default daily schedule. A busy store may need a different recovery-point objective than a brochure site.

Retention is not recovery confidence

A longer retention window is useful only if you know which restore point to choose and what a restore will overwrite. Document the recovery procedure before an incident.

Large sites need practical schedules

Cloudways warns that very frequent backups can strain large servers. Backup cadence should reflect application size, data change rate and the maximum acceptable data loss.

Decision takeaway

Treat Cloudways backups as one layer of recovery, not permission to skip restore testing, external exports of irreplaceable data or pre-deployment on-demand backups.

Sources checked for current product details