You must have heard someone say – every good thing comes at a price. The same is the case with WP Engine. It is one of the best managed WordPress hosting services available in the market. Its performance is top-notch and backed up by expert customer support. Consequently, it charges extremely high fees for its hosting service which, to be honest, isn’t easily affordable by new bloggers, freelancers, or small businesses. Apart from this, there are other drawbacks (more on this later) that have caused its users to start searching for a reliable alternative to WP Engine. Lucky for you, your search is going to end after checking out all the available WP Engine competitors mentioned in this blog. But before going any further, let’s know more about –
What Is WP Engine & What Is WP Engine Used For?
WP Engine is a hosting service that specializes in hosting WordPress websites. It has been widely recommended, awarded, and featured by many blogs and marketers. As a result of this, it has managed to grow its clientele to 500,000+ users. One of the most liked characteristics of WP Engine is its performance. According to recent tests, it has recorded 425 ms in minimum response time test with 100% uptime. Along with this, there are other – Pros Of Using WP Engine
Performance stats are off the roofUses and optimizes servers regularly for best load timesExtremely knowledgeable customer support and in-depth documentationDaily backups and easy restorationsFree access to 35+ premium StudioPress WordPress themes & access to the Genesis framework
And, a lot more than these… Since every coin has two sides, here are some drawbacks that are causing its users to look for WP Engine alternatives – Cons Of Using WP Engine
Extremely expensive pricing plansRestriction on the use of some WordPress pluginsThere is no provision of creating professional email accountsHefty charges on additional services
And, I am quite sure that you might have some personal reasons too. So, without wasting any more time, let’s explore all the cheaper WP Engine alternatives –
1. Bluehost – Most Recommended WP Engine Alternative
Bluehost was the first hosting service that was officially recommended by WordPress. Hence it was logical to mention it in the first spot of the WP Engine alternatives list. Apart from this, one of the other reasons behind mentioning Bluehost on top is its performance. The latest test results have concluded that it has 99.99% uptime with 405 ms minimum response time. Moreover, you are also entitled to get free domain registration, free SSL certificates, etc. if you migrate to Bluehost from WP Engine.
Feature Highlights Of Bluehost
Bluehost has a prolific history in providing one of the best managed WordPress hosting services.It automatically installs and updates WordPress for you at no extra costs.You would be also getting a WordPress staging area for testing out new changes on your site.This alternative to WP Engine also offers several free and premium WordPress themes upon signup.And, if you get stuck or require any assistance, the Bluehost support team is available 24×7.
Pricing
When we talk about the pricing of Bluehost and compare it with WP Engine, you’d find that it is relatively affordable. Furthermore, Bluehost offers long term plans (2-3 years) too, unlike WP Engine.
Basic – $3.95/month for hosting 1 website with 50 GB storage, 25 subdomains, etc.Plus – $5.95/month for hosting unlimited websites with unlimited storage, unlimited subdomains, etc.Choice Plus – $5.95/month for hosting unlimited websites with unlimited storage, unlimited subdomains, CodeGuard Basic backup, and other features.
2. WPX Hosting – Fastest WP Engine Alternative
If we are talking about managed WordPress hosting then it is customary to mention WPX Hosting. It is one of the fastest and well-optimized WP Engine alternatives. You’d be amazed to know that it manages to maintain uptime of 99.95% with 317 ms minimum response time. Due to this, WPX Hosting has become a “Go-To” hosting service for many businesses, bloggers, and marketers. Also, WPX Hosting some free utilities like custom CDN, free unlimited SSL certificates, WordPress installation, etc.
Feature Highlights Of WPX Hosting
Your website will be supported by the DDoS protection module, malware removal, staging area, etc.This is one of the rarest hosting services that offers its own custom CDN called WP CDN to improve your site’s loading time by 3 folds.WPX Hosting team will professionally migrate your site from WP Engine to their servers with no extra costs.It offers not one but unlimited SSL certificates for your websites.This WP Engine competitor does not increase its pricing upon your plan renewal.
Pricing
Despite offering top-quality managed WordPress hosting, WPX Hosting has kept its pricing lower than that of WP Engine. There are 3 plans available for purchase at monthly and yearly billing cycles.
Business – At $24.99/month, you can host 5 websites with 10 GB storage and 100 GB bandwidth.Professional – $49.99/month will enable you to host 15 websites with 20 GB storage and 200 GB bandwidth.Elite – Lastly, the $99.99/month plan increases your website hosting limit to 35 with 40 GB storage and unlimited bandwidth.
3. SiteGround – Best WP Engine Alternative
It would be negligible of me to miss out on SiteGround in this list of WP Engine alternatives. One of the reasons behind featuring SiteGround is that it has also been officially recommended by WordPress. The other reason would be its performance. I have researched and found out that it has a respectable record of 99.99% uptime with 673 ms minimum response time. Besides this, there are several performance, security & collaboration amenities offered by SiteGround like staging area, unlimited email accounts, free SSL certificate, security checks, etc.
Feature Highlights Of SiteGround
As soon as you sign up on SiteGround, you will be presented with the automatic installation of WordPress.It uses Google Cloud Platform in order to boost your site’s performance.SiteGround offers a unique and dedicated WordPress cache plugin that enhances your load time even more.This WP Engine competitor will also offer you an easy migration option in the form of a WordPress plugin.If you are a website development agency then you can use SiteGround’s collaboration tools for easy site handover to your clients.
Pricing
SiteGround is also known for offering different types of hosting services. But the common factor in each of those services is its affordability. SiteGround provides tons of free and premium features at a reasonable cost such as CDN, SSL certificates, email accounts, and other advanced stuff.
StartUp – The plan is chargeable at $3.95/month and provides hosting for 1 website, 10 GB web space, and other features.GrowBig – This plan comes with a price tag of $5.95/month and allows you to host unlimited websites with 20 GB web space. Advanced features like Speed-boosting caching, collaboration tools, staging are introduced in this plan.GoGeek – By paying $11.95/month, you have the liberty to host unlimited websites with 40 GB web space. Other than this, technical features, white labeling, priority support is included in this plan.
4. Cloudways – Cloud-Based Alternative to WP Engine
If you are considering hosting your WordPress sites on cloud servers then you should definitely try Cloudways. It is one of the best WP Engine alternatives that offer managed cloud hosting services for WordPress (and other platforms too). Since it uses cloud servers, your websites would be blasted with extremely fast speed. The latest test results found out that it has 100% uptime and 547 ms minimum response time. Other than this, you’d be relieved to know that it provides an in-built CDN at no extra cost. Your site’s servers will also be infused with auto-healing technology that would come handy in case of hacking or malware attacks.
Feature Highlights Of Cloudways
Cloudways uses DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, AWS, VULTR, etc. as their cloud partners.The team at Cloudways will provide a free migration service if you have made up your mind about switching from WP Engine.CloudwaysCDN, an exclusive in-built CDN service is also provided for superior site performance.It also provides a pre-installed cache plugin called Breeze for cutting-edge site caching.Also, to keep your website’s progress intact, Cloudways provides automatic backup and 1 click restoration option.
Pricing
After checking out its feature set, you would be feeling that you’d have to pay a hefty sum of money to use it. No, that’s not the case with Cloudways. The pricing is cheaper than WP Engine and allows you to host unlimited websites with monthly and hourly billing cycles.
$10/month for utilizing 1 GB RAM, 1 core processor, 25 GB worth of storage, 1 TB bandwidth, and other features.At $22/month, you’d get to use 2 GB RAM, 1 core processor, 50 GB worth of storage, 2 TB bandwidth, etc.Similarly, the $42/month plan will offer you 4 GB RAM, 2 core processor, 80 GB worth of storage, 4 TB bandwidth with other advanced features.At last, by paying $80/month, you will get 8 GB RAM, 4 core processor, 160 GB worth of storage, 5 TB bandwidth, and all the other features.
5. Kinsta – Top WP Engine Competitor
Cometh the hour, cometh Kinsta. If you don’t know it yet, Kinsta has established itself as a superior WordPress hosting service. Therefore, many reputable companies like TripAdvisor, Buffer, Intuit, etc. have hosted their website on Kinsta. This reputation is achieved with the help of its performance. That is, the test results conclude that it has 99.99% uptime and 396 ms minimum response time. To top this off, Kinsta also offers some free features like self-healing technology, automatic database management, daily backups, CDN, etc.
Feature Highlights Of Kinsta
It uses technologies like Nginx, PHP 7.4, LXD software containers, MariaDB, etc. to provide quick website load time.Kinsta is also secured with DDoS protection, hardware firewalls, and SSL support.Just like some of the other WP Engine alternatives, Kinsta also uses Google Cloud Platform for its servers.This service also provides you free website migration from WP Engine.You’d be relieved to know that Kinsta is capable of handling traffic surges.
Pricing
All great things have their own price. The same is the case with Kinsta. Having said that, it is still cheaper than WP Engine and offers multiple flexible pricing plans. Also, all the features are included in each of the plans but with certain restrictions.
Starter – $30/month for 1 WordPress install & 10 GB storage.Pro – $30/month for 2 WordPress install & 20 GB storage.Business 1 – $30/month for 5 WordPress install & 30 GB storage.Business 2 – $30/month for 10 WordPress install & 40 GB storage.Business 3 – $30/month for 20 WordPress install & 50 GB storage.Business 4 – $30/month for 40 WordPress install & 60 GB storage.Enterprise 1 – $30/month for 60 WordPress install & 100 GB storage.Enterprise 2 – $30/month for 80 WordPress install & 150 GB storage.Enterprise 3 – $30/month for 120 WordPress install & 200 GB storage.Enterprise 4 – $30/month for 150 WordPress install & 250 GB storage.
6. A2 Hosting – Fastest Alternative to WP Engine
Over the years, the team behind A2 Hosting has developed and improved its servers. This improvement has resulted in A2 Hosting becoming the fastest hosting provider for shared WordPress hosting. You would be amazed to know that the performance stats of A2 Hosting were off the charts. The uptime recorded was 99.93% with 317 ms minimum response time. A2 Hosting doesn’t fail to impress with its free feature set. It includes a free SSL certificate, SSD speed boost, multiple server location options, Cloudflare CDN, etc.
Feature Highlights Of A2 Hosting
The servers of A2 Hosting are optimized to host WordPress sites with ease. Also, WordPress comes preinstalled with every plan.A2 Hosting offers Turbo Servers to provide an additional speed boost of 20 times.It is one of the only WP Engine alternatives that is perfectly compatible with the LiteSpeed Cache plugin. This plugin statically caches your WordPress site for more speed boost.This service also provides a free and easy professional site migration service.If you opt for A2 Hosting, your site will be infused with HackScan protection, brute force defense, and a dual firewall for better security.
Pricing
In spite of offering the fastest WordPress hosting experience, A2 Hosting has kept its pricing so low that it is the cheapest among all the alternatives to WP Engine. The pricing that I am going to mention is for Shared WordPress hosting. While the managed WordPress hosting is relatively expensive.
Startup – This plan starts at $2.99/month and offers 1 website hosting with 100 GB storage and other key features.Drive – The plan starts at $4.99/month and allows you to host unlimited websites with unlimited storage. This plan also provides you 2X resources.Turbo – In this plan (starts at $9.99/month), you are also allowed to host unlimited websites with unlimited NVMe storage. But Turbo Severs are included in this plan with A2 Site Accelerator, and more features.Turbo Max – If you opt for this plan that starts at $14.99/month, you will be allotted unlimited hosting limits, NVMe storage, and other features. Moreover, the resource limit is increased to 5X.
7. Flywheel – WP Engine Alternative For Agencies
If you are a website development freelancer or a member of an agency then you’d love Flywheel. This hosting service has attained a good reputation in providing superior managed WordPress hosting services to agencies. The reason behind its popularity is its collaboration tools and performance. The recent number shows that it has an uptime of 99.99% with less than 400 ms minimum response time. Apart from this, Flywheel will completely blow your mind with its free amenities. It includes a free SSL certificate, daily backups, free CDN, and many more.
Feature Highlights Of Flywheel
Flywheel, just like other WP Engine alternatives provide a free website migration service.This is one of the rarest hosting providers that have collaboration tools in its dashboard.Since you represent an agency, you can easily create & transfer the site to your client. Moreover, you can also transfer the bill to your client.Flywheel too is backed up by Google Cloud Platform and hence, fast load time is achieved.Along with developer tools and website staging area, you would also get the highest level of security.
Pricing
As I have said, the Flywheel hosting service is ideal for agencies, its pricing plans are built specifically for them. You have the option to subscribe to monthly or yearly billing cycles. If you opt for annual plans, you’d get 2 months of hosting free.
Tiny – You’d be charged $15/month for 1 WordPress site with 5 GB storage.Starter – This plan increases the storage limit to 10 GB for 1 website at the cost of $30/month.Freelance – by paying $115/month, you’d be able to host 10 WordPress sites with 20 GB disc space.Agency – Lastly, this plan permits you to host 30 sites with 50 GB storage at $290/month.
8. GoDaddy – Popular WP Engine Competitor
GoDaddy has grown from just a domain registrar to one of the finest hosting service provider. Among its array of services, the hosting service that catches everyone’s attention is its managed WordPress hosting service. Not only this..!! The performance has also left an everlasting impression on its users. The recent test shows that it has 99.97% uptime and 554 ms load time. Also, if you are looking to start a new website then GoDaddy will extend its services by providing you free domain registration, backups, and free WordPress updates. Besides this, if you dream about starting an eCommerce store, GoDaddy has got your back.
Feature Highlights Of GoDaddy
GoDaddy has recently introduced a one-click site migration tool.You will be provided free CDN servers for even faster website loading.This hosting service also provides a plethora of free and premium WordPress themes for your site.If you are a beginner, GoDaddy gives you its custom-made drag & drop builder for your website.Automatic malware checks, daily backups, and a professional email account are also included with each plan.
Pricing
GoDaddy pricing is significantly more expensive than other WP Engine alternatives. But if you want a better hosting experience, you should be ready to pay for it. Although, one of the drawbacks of using GoDaddy is that it only allows hosting for 1 website.
Basic – It will be chargeable at the rate of $6.99/month for 1 site, 30 GB storage, and more basic features.Deluxe – This plan would cost you $9.99/month and provide 1 website hosting, 75 GB storage, SEO optimizer, staging area, etc.Ultimate – At the cost of $12.99/month, you unlimited storage for hosting 1 website. Along with this, you’d also get unlimited malware removal and hack repair modules.Ecommerce – Lastly, this plan is ideal for hosting 1 eCommerce site with unlimited storage. One of the greatest characteristics of this plan is that it offers many eCommerce-oriented features like bookings & appointment scheduling, free access to premium WooCommerce extensions, etc.
What’s The Next Step?
The next logical step for you is to choose the best alternative to WP Engine from the above-mentioned options. I assure you that all the WP Engine alternatives mentioned above offer the best (in their own terms and also as per your requirements) WordPress hosting experience. All you’ve got to do now is analyze your needs and lock-in your ideal replacement. As always, if you have any queries or need my personal assistance in choosing the ideal alternative, feel free to drop it in the comments section.
Alternatives to CloudwaysBest Alternatives to BluehostSiteGround Competitors
