Introducing Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress: A New Way of Managing Updates on WordPress

Cloudways SafeUpdates has played a critical role in helping customers update WordPress with confidence, applying site updates successfully, minimizing false positives, and protecting thousands of sites in production from change-related breakages.

Most importantly, it’s helped our customers manage applications at scale. When you’re a developer or digital agency that manages dozens of WordPress applications concurrently, plugin updates, patches, and site maintenance are facts of life, essential to operating with speed and agility while securing maximum uptime for business-critical workflows.

That’s why today, we’re introducing Cloudways Site Manager For WordPress in Public Preview, a centralized WordPress management experience built specifically for teams who need to operate at scale. Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress has taken the best parts of SafeUpdates, enhanced its capabilities for more efficient WordPress management on Cloudways for a multi-site, multi-client world.

Why SafeUpdates Needs a Reboot

SafeUpdates earned its place doing one thing really well: protecting WordPress sites during updates. It proved that when it came to automated, safety-first updates, Cloudways’ managed layer was a trusted companion in production environments.

However, as more agencies and professional teams adopted SafeUpdates, a clear pattern began to emerge from the feedback. Scale was becoming an issue. Partners and customers simultaneously managing 20–25+ WordPress websites were telling us that while SafeUpdates worked, it no longer worked for them. As portfolios grew, operational friction increased. Tasks that were manageable for a few sites became time-consuming, disruptive, and increasingly difficult to standardize across clients.

When Updates Stopped your Entire Workflow

One of the most common pain points presented in the feedback was how updates were being executed.

All SafeUpdates operations ran via SSH. From a technical standpoint, this was effective. From a workflow standpoint, however, this often created immediate challenges for users with multi-site operations:

• No ability to monitor server performance
• No access to analytics or logs
• No way to handle urgent, concurrent client requests
• No parallel work during update windows

Updates for multiple websites typically had to be scheduled during off-hours—not because it was ideal, but because it was the only way to keep work moving during the day.

Managing at Scale Without a Centralized Dashboard

As site counts increased, another limitation became apparent: there was no centralized dashboard.

SafeUpdates had to be managed at the individual application level. For agencies managing dozens of websites, this approach did not scale. Productivity was impacted as team members tried to identify which sites needed immediate attention due to a lack of visibility across critical updates needed across the user’s portfolio.

Architecture that Grew with Customer Needs

Over time, the WordPress-CLI-based foundation of SafeUpdates became a constraint, because it limited deeper platform integration and real-time centralized visibility.

This left agencies with an uncomfortable choice: accept the SafeUpdates limitations or rely on external tools to fill the gaps. Both options added complexity, cost, and fragmentation to their workflows.

Visual Regression Testing That Fell Short 

SafeUpdates introduced visual regression testing, but your feedback was that its scope was limited to desktop-only testing, and to a maximum of three pages per site. Manual testing remained necessary and confidence in update safety was incomplete, especially for customer-facing production sites.

No Fast Path for Simple, Low-Risk Sites

SafeUpdates treated every site the same time-taking detailed upgrade process. For customers with variable and multiple customer SLAs to fulfil, this one-size-fits-all process replaced flexibility
due to update processes that took longer than necessary.

This was especially apparent in the case of simple websites, where the developer or site maintenance owner had to wait for full regression testing—even when applying minor, low-risk updates that could safely be completed in minutes.

Missing Performance Monitoring and Rigid Scheduling

Another recurring theme in the feedback was visibility around performance and scheduling.

SafeUpdates did not include Core Web Vitals monitoring or PageSpeed Insights score tracking options. As such, feedback from our agency customers was that they had to rely on external tools to meet performance commitments like maintaining “90+” PSI scores.

Scheduling was equally rigid. Updates could only run on a weekly schedule, a significant deal-breaker for many agencies that operate tiered care plans with daily, weekly, and monthly timelines. SafeUpdates forced all these users into the same cadence, regardless of business requirements.

Limited Visibility and Inadequate Activity Logs

With SafeUpdates, there’s no complete audit trail showing what changed, when, and by whom. Agencies turned to adding WordPress logging plugins to fill in this gap. However, these plugins introduced their own set of issues, such as logs being stored in the site database that would become bloated and slowed down performance.

For agencies, this made troubleshooting harder and client communication less precise, especially in regulated or compliance-sensitive environments.

Launching Cloudways Site Manager For WordPress

Cloudways Site Manager For WordPress is now available in Public Preview. Built in partnership with Blogvault, it introduces a modern, API-driven foundation designed specifically for scale, visibility, and flexibility. It creates a more responsive, extensible WordPress management experience on the Cloudways platform.

At its core, Cloudways Site Manager For WordPress is designed to remove friction at scale. Operations run independently, allowing teams to continue monitoring servers, responding to client requests, and managing their infrastructure while WordPress tasks execute in the background.

The best part, the price remains the same as SafeUpdates. You get a comprehensive WordPress site management experience, without running over your budget.

Built for Scale, Not Just Safety

Cloudways Site Manager For WordPress retains the safety principles that made SafeUpdates valuable, expanding the capabilities.

With a centralized dashboard, bulk operations, and flexible update strategies, Cloudways Site Manager For WordPress supports workflows that grow alongside agency and developer portfolios. Whether you are managing 20 or 200 sites, the experience is designed to remain predictable and manageable.

Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress enables:

• Real-time, centralized visibility across all WordPress applications
• Faster feature delivery without major constraints
• An integrated solution that supports advanced monitoring, compliance, and WordPress site maintenance use cases

Freemium Model that Scales

Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress introduces a two-tier model designed to meet user needs.

The Basic plan (Free) provides a strong foundation for everyday WordPress management, including; centralized visibility, easy-to-use operational tools, and essential controls, making it ideal for SMBs, solo developers, and teams managing simpler sites.

For digital agencies and teams managing complex sites, the Pro plan unlocks advanced capabilities such as; safe operations with visual regression testing, performance monitoring, activity logs, and enhanced automation, billed at the same price as SafeUpdates. The best part? There’s no charge to use the full capabilities of the add-on during Public Preview.

Key Benefits and Capabilities

Let’s quickly run through the major product highlights:

Performance Monitoring & Core Web Vitals

For agencies managing multiple sites, keeping tabs on performance across all websites under their care has historically required juggling multiple tools and dashboards. Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress simplifies this with built-in performance monitoring and Core Web Vitals tracking, right inside the platform.

Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress automatically tracks PageSpeed Insights (PSI) scores for all connected WordPress applications. The daily PSI score is displayed in the Overview tab for instant visibility. This integrated approach eliminates the need for third-party monitoring tools while giving teams real-time performance intelligence.

Beyond PSI scores, Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress monitors Core Web Vitals to ensure sites consistently meet the “90 plus” performance threshold. Metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) are tracked and surfaced directly in the platform.

 

Complete WordPress Management from your Cloudways Platform

Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress brings core WordPress management capabilities directly into the Cloudways platform. The result is a workflow that feels integrated, deliberate, and designed for user needs.

From within the Cloudways platform, you can manage the full lifecycle of WordPress components across all your applications:

• Install plugins/themes directly from the WordPress repository
• Activate, deactivate, update, or delete plugins/themes individually or in bulk
• Upload custom or premium plugin/themes from your local system
• Apply WordPress core updates without leaving the Cloudways platform

All routine management actions are available in one place, using a consistent interface that mirrors how teams already work inside Cloudways. For agencies, this eliminates a significant amount of operational friction. For developers, it removes repetitive admin work that adds no real value.

Integrated Automatic Cache Management

Every WordPress operation performed through Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress automatically triggers cache purging across the relevant layers, including:

• WordPress cache generated by plugins, such as Breeze.
• Redis or Memcached (object cache)
• Cloudflare CDN cache

This automation reduces the risk of post-update inconsistencies and removes another manual step from the process.

One Centralized WordPress Command Center

Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress introduces a centralized dashboard that provides a single, unified view of all your WordPress applications. This is the operational core of Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress: a command center designed to help teams manage a handful or hundreds of sites with clarity and control.

The centralized dashboard consolidates critical information across all connected WordPress sites, including:

• Available WordPress core updates
• Plugin and theme update status
• Application-level health indicators
• Recent actions and operations
• Sites that require immediate attention

Powerful filtering and sorting options allow you to organize this data by application, update type, or status. Teams can use the dashboard to identify high-priority updates in seconds, plan maintenance windows more effectively, and scale operations without increasing administrative overhead

Bulk Update Applications to Scale Your Operations

Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress addresses the need for efficient website portfolio management with bulk operations designed for real-world agency and developer workflows.

You can select multiple WordPress applications and apply the same action across all of them in a single operation. Whether you’re handling routine maintenance or responding to a security advisory, bulk operations dramatically reduce the time and effort required.

Supported bulk actions include:

• WordPress core updates
• Plugin and theme updates
• Plugin activations
• Plugin deactivations

Each bulk operation can be executed using either Quick or Safe modes, allowing you to balance speed and risk depending on the type of site and the nature of the change.

Bulk operations also make it easier to support tiered maintenance plans. For instance, agencies can apply Quick updates across simple brochure sites on a basic plan, run Safe operations with full regression testing on premium ecommerce sites, and generally segment actions by client, site type, or risk profile.

Quick vs. Safe Operations: Ultimate Flexibility with Confidence

 

With Quick and Safe update operations, installing, deleting, or deactivating plugins and themes can all be performed safely, with built-in protection against breakages.

Quick Operations: Speed for Low-Risk Scenarios

Quick operations are designed for situations where speed matters and risk is minimal.

They are ideal for:

• Minor version updates
• Well-tested plugins and themes
• Simple brochure websites built with Gutenberg
• Low-risk changes on staging environments
• Maintenance tasks where immediate execution is required

With Quick operations, changes are applied directly to production. Once completed, all relevant caches are automatically purged. This ensures that updates take effect immediately without stale content or manual intervention.

Safe Operations: Confidence for High-Stakes Changes

Safe operations are built for scenarios where failure is not an option.

They are best suited for:

• Major WordPress or plugin version upgrades
• First-time plugin installations
• WooCommerce and membership sites
• Production environments with strict uptime requirements
• Any change where visual or functional breakage could impact revenue

Safe operations follow a structured, automated process designed to catch issues before they reach production.

How Safe Operations Work

1. Staging Environment Creation
   A full staging website is created, providing a realistic testing environment.
2. Operation Applied to Staging
   Updates or changes are applied to the staging site first.
3. Visual Regression Testing
   Visual regression tests are run across up to five user-defined pages per application, expanding significantly beyond the previous limitations.
4. Validation and Decision
   • If tests pass, changes are deployed to production.
   • If tests fail, the production site remains untouched.

This process provides a safety net and enables teams to:

• Move fast where it is safe to do so
• Apply rigorous protection where it matters most
• Align update strategies with client SLAs and care plans
• Reduce manual testing and late-night maintenance windows

User Management Without WordPress Admin

Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress removes the friction in user management by bringing WordPress user management directly into the Cloudways platform. You can manage WordPress users without accessing the WordPress admin interface at all. From a single, centralized view, you can:

• Add new WordPress users to an application
• Assign roles using the five native WordPress roles (Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, Subscriber)
• Automatically generate secure passwords
• View all existing users and their current roles

Similarly, when deleting a user, you can:

• Permanently remove the user and all associated content, or
• Transfer ownership of posts and content to another selected user

This ensures contentwhile giving teams the flexibility to meet different client requirements.

Transparency and Compliance with Comprehensive Activity Logs

For agencies and professional teams, knowing who did what, when, and where across multiple WordPress sites is critical for troubleshooting, client reporting, and compliance.

Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress addresses this need with comprehensive activity logs that provide a secure, auditable record of all operations without relying on WordPress database storage, which can be bloated, tampered with, or insufficient for agency-scale operations.

It captures a broad set of WordPress actions, including:

• Plugin and theme updates
• Plugin and theme activations/deactivations
• Core WordPress updates
• User actions (registrations, role changes, email updates)
• WooCommerce product edits
• IP addresses and timestamps for every action

Note: Logs do not include post revision content, only that an action occurred. This maintains security while keeping storage requirements manageable.

 

In addition, you can filter logs by site, user, action type, date range, status (success/failure), or category (e.g., plugin updates, user changes)

• Compliance requirements for regulated industries are easier to meet
• Security is enhanced with tamper-resistant tracking
• Teams can scale operations without losing visibility

What’s Included in the Public Preview Release?

Cloudways Site Manager for WordPress Public Preview gives you access to a robust core feature set. Here’s a quick summary:

Core Management

• Centralized dashboard for all applications
• Quick and Safe operations for updates and changes
• Bulk operations: updates, activations, deactivations
• Plugin management: install, update, activate, deactivate, delete
• Theme management: install, update, upload custom/premium themes
• User management: add/delete users, assign roles
• WordPress admin access via SSO

Update & Testing

• Desktop visual regression testing for up to 5 pages per application
• Safe operations with staging environment
• Critical updates feature for vulnerability-based updates
• Weekly auto-update scheduling

Monitoring & Logs

• Activity logs (opt-in, 90-day retention)
• Performance monitoring with daily PSI scores
• Core Web Vitals tracking
• Detailed notifications with outcome reporting

Your Feedback Shapes the Roadmap

Public Preview* is your opportunity to influence Cloudways Site Manager For WordPress. Feedback from users directly impacts feature priorities, functionality, and delivery, ensuring the platform evolves with real-world workflows. Join the Public Preview and experience firsthand how this add-on transforms your WordPress site management by making updates faster, safer, and more efficient across all your sites.

*Please note, that features are subject to change. Public Previews are subject to the DigitalOcean Terms of Service. We expect but do not guarantee that Public Previews perform for production-level workload on Public Preview products. We recommend using simulated test data and not running sensitive workloads on Public Preview products.