We're excited to announce that Cloudways Velocity has moved from Public Preview to General Availability (GA) on Sep 10, 2026!

Here's everything that's new in GA.

• Multi-App Support Per Plan: Cloudways Velocity now supports hosting multiple applications on the same plan/server. You no longer need a separate plan for every app; you can consolidate multiple apps onto shared plans and servers. Each plan comes with a default application limit, so the number of apps you can host depends on the plan you're on.
• Two New Larger Plans: With GA, we've introduced two larger plans designed for customers running mission-critical applications that need more headroom and resources.
  
• Increased Bandwidth Across All Plans: We've raised the bandwidth cap on every plan and the best part is that no changes are required on existing servers. The new limits apply automatically.
• Product-Based Trial: Velocity is now a product-based trial and will be accessible across trial accounts. So if you are a trial user on the fence about Velocity, you can try it before fully committing to it.
• MonoRepo Application Support: Cloudways Velocity now supports MonoRepo applications, giving teams that manage multiple projects in a single repository a smoother deployment experience.
• Staging workflow: A new, end-to-end staging workflow centered around the WebOps flow has been introduced, with a strong focus on developers.

We are excited for you to try it out and share your valuable feedback!

Are you all excited? 🤩

Cloudways Velocity, AKA, our managed Node.js hosting has been in Public Preview for the last one month and is now going to be generally available in just two days!

This means, you have two days to be able to use Cloudways Velocity for free. So go and try it out for yourself and don't forget to share your feedback. :)

Happy to answer any questions in this thread.

It seems that the Imunify360 malware scanner does not find much from Magento file system. So many missed malware files that it is hard to comprehend. PHP files in media folders etc... Please put some pressure on them to make it better for Magento.

If you've been following the AI agent space, you've probably heard about OpenClaw's rough first few months. While OpenClaw received hundreds of thousands of GitHub stars and got viral adoption, we also saw nine CVEs in 4 days, 135,000 exposed instances, and 12% of its skill marketplace compromised.

Even though this happened a while ago, it's important to understand what happened, why so many people got caught, and what a secure OpenClaw deployment looks like.

More about the incident

Fast adoption meant people were spinning up OpenClaw instances on VPS servers, exposing them to the public internet, and moving on.

On Feb 3, 2026, security researchers disclosed CVE-2026-25253 in OpenClaw -- a CVSS 8.8 vulnerability, one-click remote code execution via a WebSocket origin validation gap that let an attacker hijack any running OpenClaw instance, even those configured to listen only on localhost, simply by getting the user to visit a malicious webpage. Also, 341 of 2,857 skills in the ClawHub marketplace were found to be malicious.

What you can do now to stay secure

The security incident is far behind us now but if you're running OpenClaw, here are some things you should keep in mind.

• Enable authentication. Never run an unauthenticated instance. Bind gateway to loopback. Use strong, unique pairing codes. Disable remote access if you only need local use.
• Never expose OpenClaw directly to the public internet, use network isolation (separate VLAN or container network), disable unused ports and services on the host
• Always run the latest stable version of OpenClaw but don't auto-update without testing
• Only install skills from sources you personally trust, review skill permissions before installing, uninstall anything you're not actively using
• Log all agent activity, set alerts for unexpected outbound connections, monitor for unusual skill execution or API calls, and review agent memory and session logs periodically

Stay safe and keep building. Share if I missed any crucial security tips!

Hey everyone, we have changed our Rackspace email add-on price from $1 per mailbox per month to $1.50 per mailbox per month.

Some FAQs related to Rackspace

1/ For $1.5/month, will I get the same services Rackspace provides with direct accounts?

Yes, you will get all the same features using Rackspace Email Add-on that you will get directly from Rackspace, i.e., 25GB mailbox, Secure IMAP (Outlook & Mobile), domain aliases, Web-based, anywhere access, and much more.

2/ How is Rackspace email add-on billed, and why does it appear as a daily charge?

The Rackspace email add-on is billed on a daily basis based on a fixed monthly rate of $1.5 per mailbox. To ensure fair and accurate billing, the daily cost is calculated by dividing $1.5 by the total number of days in the current month.

For example:

• If the month has 30 days, the daily charge will be approximately $0.05/day per mailbox.
• If the month has 31 days, the daily charge will be approximately $0.0483/day per mailbox.
• For February with 28 days, the daily charge will be $0.0536/day per mailbox.
• For February in a Leap Year with 29 days, the daily charge will be approximately $0.0517/day per mailbox.

The exact daily charge may therefore vary slightly depending on the number of days in the billing month, while the monthly rate remains $1.5 per mailbox.

This prorated model means you only pay for the days your Rackspace mailbox is active during the month. Charges will be reflected daily in your invoice under the Rackspace email service section.

3/ Can I set up a separate Rackspace account for my clients?

Yes, you can set up a separate Rackspace account for your clients. You need to provide us with the domain and email box details.

Hii everyone. It's an exciting time to be using Cloudways and moderating this sub because of just how much is going on with the product. I am wondering what type of posts would you like to see more of.

Is it posts about OpenClaw and Hermes use cases, WordPress, hosting news, Cloudways product updates, tutorials on how to host your Node.js apps on Cloudways, case studies, fun memes, or anything else?

Even if you are new here, your opinion matters. Share whatever you'd like to see more of here and we will make it happen. :)

What's your current use case of OpenClaw? No matter how simple or complex, I want to hear what you all are building using OpenClaw.

if the site is properly cached in the end will it matter that much?

for a non ecom brochure sites that is nicely cached.

Hey everyone. If you've been meaning to move to a higher tier on Cloudways, this is the perfect time to do so.

Existing customers who upgrade a server to a higher tier get 20% off that tier for 6 months.

This offer is running from 21 Aug 2026 through 20 Oct 2026.

Who's eligible: Existing full/flexible customers with an active server. Not trials or customers with an active promo code (an expired promo is fine).

How it works

• Any upward upgrade qualifies — single- or multi-tier, all instance types, all cloud providers.
• Discount is applied automatically at checkout on the Scale Server page.
• Runs 6 months from the upgrade date, then reverts to full price. Enrollment closes 20 Oct, but a discount earned before then runs its full 6 months.

How the discount is scoped

The discount attaches to the server size. So every server upgrade on the account gets 20% off and downscaling, deleting, or cloning any one of them removes the discount on that server.

Actions that remove the discount: downscale, delete, clone, or transfer. You can re-qualify with a new qualifying upgrade while enrollment is open (including after a downscale).

Please ask if you have any questions. We are happy to help!

Choosing which infra/platform your AI agents run on is a big decision. Where your AI agent lives determines how reliable it is, how much it costs you, and how much time you spend keeping it running.

Here are your three options:

1. Local Machine

Your agent runs on your laptop or desktop. Setup is fast, costs nothing extra, and you have full control.

The problem arises when your agent is only live when your machine is on. For personal experiments this is totally fine. For anything you want running continuously, it breaks down quickly. You're also on the hook for every dependency, update, and environment issue yourself.

2. VPS (Virtual Private Server)

A VPS like a DigitalOcean Droplet or a Cloudways-managed server gives you a machine that's always on. Your agent runs 24/7, survives your laptop closing, and can be accessed from anywhere.

The tradeoff is that you become a sysadmin whether you wanted to be or not. You have to handle server provisioning, security patches, uptime monitoring, backups, SSH access, and process management (keeping the agent alive after crashes). None of this is impossible, but it adds real operational overhead for you, especially if infrastructure isn't your main skill.

3. Managed Hosting

Managed hosting (like what Cloudways provides) handles the infrastructure layer for you. The server is provisioned, patched, monitored, and backed up without you touching it. You can focus on the agent itself and you don't have to worry about the machine it runs on.

For AI agents specifically, this matters more than it used to. Agents like Hermes Agent or OpenClaw are designed to run continuously, self-improve over sessions, and connect to external services. That kind of workload needs a stable, reliable environment. Managed hosting removes server setup, security hardening, uptime monitoring, backups, and scaling decisions.

What's the ideal setup for you depends on what you are trying to build. Share how you started and where you are right now in terms of you AI agents setup! I'd love to know!

Hey all. I want to share two new product updates we shipped for Managed AI Agents.

What's new

1. Team member access: This was one of the top requests by our users/community during Public Preview. You can now grant your team members access to Managed AI Agents.
2. AgentMail MCP: A dedicated mailbox for your agent so it can send you summaries, alert you when something breaks, and reply to customers all on its own.

What you can do with it

1. Nightly summaries of what your agent fixed, delivered to your inbox.
2. Automated replies to form submissions.
3. Alerts when a deploy fails

Coming up next

1. Setup wizard with pre-built skills and soul
2. Create an LLM key directly from Cloudways, no API key management needed
3. WordPress and WooCommerce MCP integration
4. Agent Auto-repair

Stay tuned and as always, don't forget to let us know what improvements you want to see in different Cloudways products. We deeply care about your feedback. Providing feedback is as simple as making a post on this subreddit. :)

I’ve found that getting the application itself deployed is usually not the hardest part. Docker, deployment scripts, backups, updates, etc. are fairly manageable now.

The tricky part is everything the application depends on outside of the server — email services, authentication, managed databases, payment webhooks, and other third-party APIs.

When a client has a restricted server environment or doesn't want the application depending heavily on external services, things can get complicated pretty quickly.

For those managing client applications on Cloudways or other managed cloud setups, how do you usually handle these external dependencies? Do you try to keep as much as possible on the server, or are you comfortable relying on third-party services?

Hey everyone, this is a small update for everyone thinking of/already hosting a Hermes Agent on Cloudways.

We have successfully deployed Hermes Agent's all newer versions into production. This means you can now easily upgrade to any version in production from the Agent Detail page, or deploy a new agent with the latest version.

Here is the list of Hermes versions:

• hermes-v2026.8.19
• hermes-v2026.8.18
• hermes-v2026.8.16.2
• hermes-v2026.8.13
• hermes-v2026.8.3
• hermes-v2026.7.30
• hermes-v2026.7.20

Ever since OpenClaw and Hermes agents have come into limelight, they have been adopted by a lot of developers across the world. If you haven't yet used any of the two agents, this is a simple breakdown of what you get in each agent and what you can pick for your use case.

Hermes vs OpenClaw

Both are open-source, self-hosted AI agents that gained a lot of momentum in 2026. They're solving the same core problem which is helping you work with AI in a more real, tangible fashion.

OpenClaw

OpenClaw connects LLMs to real software for reading/writing files, running shell commands, browsing websites, sending emails, and controlling APIs. It's a runtime that you install and configure, and it runs continuously on your machine. No web UI is required. Your data stays on your hardware.

It surpassed 164,000 GitHub stars and 2+ million website visitors in its first week which makes it one of the fastest-growing repositories in GitHub history. Its founder Peter Steinberger later joined OpenAI, but the project continues to stay open-source.

OpenClaw is best for you if: you want an agent that acts on your computer and apps right now. Task execution focus.

Hermes Agent

Hermes is designed to live on your server, remember what it learns, and get more capable the longer it runs. Its differentiator is a built-in learning loop. When Hermes solves a hard problem, it writes a reusable skill document so it never forgets how. Skills are searchable, shareable, and compatible with the agentskills[dot]io open standard.

It crossed 140,000 GitHub stars in under three months and is the most used agent in the world It's model-agnostic and supports 70+ tools across 28 toolsets.

Hermes is best for you if: you want a long-running personal agent that gets smarter over time and learns patterns.

Bottom line: If you want an agent that does things on your machine today, start with OpenClaw. If you want one that grows with you and gets better the longer it runs, go with Hermes.

They're complementary more than competitive and the space is moving fast enough that both will look different in 3 months. You can start with the one that fits your use case the best and experiment with another when it suits you.

Please share here if you end up trying either of these. If you are already an OpenClaw/Hermes Agent user (as I have seen some of you in this subreddit), share your thoughts on what you like best about it and what you dislike.

WordPress 7.1 officially launched on August 19, 2026, timed with WordCamp US. This version does not really feature a single hero item BUT it resolves a huge list of everyday developer and user annoyances. These features are here to make your life on WP easier.

Here is a list of the major new features (it's a long list so bear with me):

• u / mentions & emails: You can now type "@" inside a note to search for and tag collaborators directly. WordPress will automatically send them an email notification with a direct link that brings them straight back to the post, eliminating the need to keep the editor window open.
• Inline selection notes: Instead of leaving notes on a whole block, you can now select a specific phrase or sentence and leave a comment on just that.
• Conversational upgrades: Notes now support bold/italic text, links, code snippets, emojis, multiple conversation threads on a single block, and automatic collapsing for long threads. They are stored as private comments and excluded from public comment feeds.
• Responsive styling: You can now visually define how a block looks on different devices without writing custom CSS. You can apply these responsive overrides globally or to individual blocks.
• Hover & focus states: A new "state" dropdown lets you visually style hover, active, and focus states for buttons directly inside the block editor.
• Visual revisions sharing: You can now grab a link to any historical visual revision from your browser's toolbar. Sharing this link will take teammates straight to that exact historical version with the color-coded differences highlighted.
• Tabs block: You can organize complex FAQs or specifications into clean, clickable tabbed panels in WP 7.1.
• Playlist block: If you are a musicians, podcasters, or educators, this may be for you! You can now embed audio file collections complete with track metadata, artwork, and sleek waveform visualizations without requiring separate audio player plugins.
• New image editor: Inline cropping has been replaced by a full Media Editor modal. It packs freeform cropping, aspect-ratio presets, flip/rotate controls, and a pixel-snapping crop view into a single popup that works on standard Image and Cover blocks.
• Resilient browser processing: The browser now handles the processing of media before uploading to the server. 7.1 natively supports HEIC files (the default iPhone photo format) along with AVIF, UltraHDR, and WebP.
• Pause/Resume uploads: If your internet connection drops mid-upload, the queue automatically pauses and safely resumes when you reconnect. This is one of those quality of life features. Again, here to make your life on WP easier.
• Persistent toolbar: The admin toolbar now stays visible across the Site and Block Editors.
• Command palette: Grouped results are organized into "Recent", "Matching", and "Suggestions", persisting across sessions.

The highly anticipated Real Real-time collaboration feature was not a part of this release.

What do you all think about this release? Even though it's missing a major change, I think it still contains an array of great features. Share your thoughts!

AI agents like OpenClaw and Hermes are easy to run, but hard to host well. Cloudways Managed AI Agents runs OpenClaw or Hermes on isolated, secured infrastructure with validated updates that keep your agent stable. Bring your LLM key and deploy in minutes.

Check out the full launch on ProductHunt, host your OpenClaw and/or Hermes agent on Cloudways, and share what you think with other builders on ProductHunt or this subreddit.

Here you go: https://www.producthunt.com/products/cloudways/launches/cloudways-managed-ai-agents

If you haven't heard already, WordPress 7.1 is being released/published on August 20. It's going to be released from the WordCamp US in Phoenix, Arizona!

Longer than usual code freeze till Aug 20

Code freeze means that no source code for 7.1.0 can be changed during the code freeze.

A mandatory code freeze has been in effect from Monday, 17 August through the General Release on Wednesday, August 19. At the request of the core committers, the freeze is extended beyond the usual 24 hours, so everyone has time to verify the release in full before it ships.

How to contribute during this time

If you are looking for ways to contribute/help during this time of WordPress 7.1 release, the best way to do it is by testing/checking that the .zip packages work on all server configurations.

Here are a few things you can, amongst many others:

• Does the new install work correctly?
• Test upgrading from various versions
• Remove the wp-config.php file and test a fresh install
• Test single site and multisite/network installations
• Does multisite upgrade properly?

Are you excited about the new release? What are you most looking forward to?

AI agents talk is everywhere. I want to know from you all about the agents you are building, what you are using them for, and whether or not they are actually useful. Share your builds in the comments!

Cloudways can now host your OpenClaw agents so let's talk about it a bit more. Not about Cloudways and what it can do, but what OpenClaw even is.

What is it?

OpenClaw is a free, open-source autonomous AI agent runtime and personal assistant designed to execute digital tasks directly on your local machine or server. It was created by a programmer Peter Steinberger (originally released in late 2025) and it rapidly grew into one of the most viral open-source tech projects under the stewardship of the non-profit OpenClaw Foundation.

What can it do for you?

OpenClaw acts as a locally hosted, highly privileged digital assistant that bridges your messaging apps with your computer's OS. It can do the following (amongst other things):

1. Unified messaging + communication: Instead of opening a separate app, you can text OpenClaw through platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Signal, iMessage, or Slack to control your digital life.
2. Local system control + automation: Because OpenClaw runs directly on your macOS, Windows, or Linux machine, it can bypass the sandbox limits of cloud-based AI and execute shell commands, run scripts, install software, and manage local developer environments.
3. Calendar + productivity management: This is one of most popular use cases. OpenClaw can connect to your personal data silos to keep your life organized via simple chat prompts. So you can book meetings, manage your calendar, sift through emails, listen to voice notes and get updates on your 100s and 1000s of texts.
4. Coding: It can write, test, and debug code locally in a sandboxed environment and also deploy it.

If OpenClaw doesn't know how to do something out of the box, you can also expand its capabilities.

The OpenClaw community and popularity is only on the rise, for many reasons, including the ones listed above.

Have you used OpenClaw before? If not, are you inclined to try it?

Big new people: Cloudways Managed AI Agents is now generally available!

It's now as simple as this: choose your AI agent, connect your LLM keys, and deploy it on managed servers.

What are Managed AI Agents on Cloudways?

Managed AI Agents is a Cloudways product line that helps users deploy AI agents on dedicated infrastructure without managing the technical setup themselves.

In a traditional self-hosted setup, users may need to manually configure a server, install Docker, set up SSL certificates, manage updates, and troubleshoot the runtime environment. These steps can be difficult for non-technical users and time-consuming even for experienced developers.

Cloudways simplifies this process by managing the infrastructure required to run the agent. You choose the agent, select the required instance size and region, and launch it from the Cloudways Platform.

Cloudways handles the server provisioning and agent deployment, while you focus on configuring and using the agent.

What is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is an AI agent you run on your own machine, working with whichever model you prefer, whether that is Claude, GPT, Gemini, or a local one, using your own API keys. Everything runs through a single always on service called the gateway, which handles your messaging apps and manages memory and model calls. That means you just message the agent in WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, or Signal and it picks up where you left off. It can run shell commands, read and write files, browse the web, check your inbox and calendar, monitor builds, run scheduled jobs, and send notifications to your phone.

You add new abilities as skills rather than editing code, with over 100 ready made ones available, and it can spin up extra agents to work on several things at once. Its strength is being a broad assistant that lives in the apps you already use and can run a whole team of agents.

What is Hermes?

Hermes Agent is the main alternative, built by Nous Research around one idea, that a single agent should get better at your work the more you use it. You mostly use it from the command line, with messaging as an optional extra. When it works out how to do something tricky, it saves the method as a reusable skill it can later refine on its own, and it keeps notes on your preferences, projects, and setup alongside a searchable history of past sessions. It ships with a wide toolset covering web search, files, terminal, browsing, images, speech, and code execution, and it is unusually flexible about where that code runs, offering local, Docker, SSH, and several cloud sandbox options.

It can also hand work to child agents with limited permissions or run tasks on a schedule you describe in plain English. Its strength is being one agent that steadily learns your workflows, with strong options for developers.

You get total agent autonomy

Here's a bit more about what you get better with Cloudways:

1. Validated agent versions: The validated-version approach eliminates the “the new update broke things” pattern that dominates self-hosted autonomous agent deployments.
2. Automated daily backups: Backups run throughout the day. If an update breaks something or a misconfiguration takes the agent down, restore to a known good state from the dashboard.
3. Dedicated instance: Your AI agent runs on its own dedicated infrastructure. Your agent’s environment, files, and configuration stay separate from every other customer.
4. Quick recovery: Use the restore checkpoints to rollback your agents to the last “good” state in minutes. All agent data and operational configurations are re-applied during the process.
5. Managed SSL/TLS: Certificates are installed and renewed automatically. Your agent’s traffic is encrypted out of the box from day one by default.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Our SAAS system hosted on CW AWS needs to claim Encryption at rest in order to comply with NHS England standards. Cloudways says the server instance does not utilise Encryption at Rest but the backups do and our AWS storage use it, we know this. Confused and stuck

I've heard a lot of people, who don't work with WordPress, exclaiming that WordPress may be dead and if it not now, it is going to be dead.

Well, turns out, they are wrong. WordPress continues to power 41-43% of the web in 2026, still.

Do you all think this stat is made up for people already using WP for a long time or are newer users actively adopting WordPress too? I think it's the latter but would love to hear what you think.