WP Engine is a popular hosting service for WordPress. Unfortunately, popular doesn’t always mean the best. If you think it doesn’t meet your requirements anymore, maybe it’s time to switch away. Here the list of the best WP Engine alternatives to switch to.
WP Engine itself fall into the middle-up hosting service. It uses cloud infrastructure for its service.
When adding a new website, you can choose whether you want to use Google Cloud, AWS, or Microsoft Azure to power your server.
Despite being one of the most popular hosting services for WordPress, some people prefer not to use WP Engine due to some reasons. Everyone has a choice after all.
Shortcuts ⤵️
- Features to look in WP Engine alternative
- Why do people switch away from wp engine?
- Faster WP Engine alternatives
- Cheaper WP Engine alternatives
- Conclusion
Why do People Switch Away from WP Engine
I once tried WP Engine. It was a good enough experience. The performance of the websites I hosted on WP Engine were good. But there was a big issue I found. I was required to install an extra add-on to be able to automatically update my plugins. Extra cost was also involved.
Some other basic features, including site monitoring, also required an add-on to use. That was bad because on some managed WordPress hosting services, these features are available for free.
Price is another issue that most users complain about WP Engine. You need to spend at least $30 per month to use the WP Engine service. But remember again it doesn’t include site monitoring and plugin manager. You need to spend extra costs to use these basic features.
Features to Consider when Picking a WP Engine Alternative
WP Engine holds a status as one of the most popular WordPress hosting services as it has better performance compared to traditional, cPanel-based shared hosting services. Although the pricing is higher, but it can guarantee a faster site performance.
One of the main features that WP Engine offers — which contributes in speeding up site performance — is built-in CDN. Every website hosted on WP Engine has this feature enabled by default and you don’t need to make extra configuration.
WP Engine itself uses Cloudflare for its CDN feature — in which its data centers spread in 275 different locations around the globe. This is great if your website has a global audience.
In addition to CDN, WP Engine also comes with professional features like staging environment, scheduled backups, PHP manager, and team collaboration.
Hence, here are some key features you need to consider when looking for a WP Engine alternative.
- CDN
- Caching
- Scheduled backups
- PHP manager
- Automated updates for WordPress core and plugins
- Team collaboration
- Staging environment
Also conduct further research to learn technical aspects like web server, database software, PHP configuration, and so on.
Faster WP Engine Alternatives
As mentioned above, popular doesn’t always mean the best. Although WP Engine has a fairly good performance, it’s definitely not the best one. There are several WordPress hosting services that have a better performance (faster) than WP Engine.
I have tested several WordPress hosting services before writing this post and found that some of them were faster than WP Engine.
How Were These Faster WP Engine Alternatives Tested?
Well, testing the performance of a WordPress hosting service is not an easy job as there are many aspects affecting the performance of a website other than web hosting itself.
I tested WP Engine using Divi, without any plugin installed.
Why Divi?
Despite being one of the best WordPress themes, with a lot of features, Divi is slightly left behind in terms of performance. That’s because Divi comes with a built-in page builder.
Typically, a page created with Divi is heavier than the ones created with block editor (the default WordPress editor) because it contains more CSS files as well as JavaScript files. For that reason, Divi is the perfect theme to test the performance of a WordPress hosting.
I used Google’s PageSpeed Insights to test WP Engine and the following hosting services. Here are the results:
WP Engine Alternatives at a Glance
| Key highlights | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Kinsta | Intuitive control panel, controllable CDN, great performance. | From $35/month |
| Rocket.net | Integrated with Cloudflare Enterprise, great support. | From $30/month |
| Cloudways | More affordable solution to host multiple websites. Excellent support. | From $11/month |
| Pressable | Powered by WP Cloud, the same platform used by WordPress.com. | From $25/month |
| Elementor Hosting | Optimized for Elementor. Hosting is powered by Google Cloud. | From $8.99/month |
| Pressidium | Clean control panel, useful analytics features. | From $21/month |
| Nexcess | Large bandwidth, unlimited visits, | From $5/month |
| 20i | Includes email hosting. | From $10/99/month |
| Bluehost | An ideal option for beginners. Service includes domain registration. | From $3.95/month |
List of Faster WP Engine Alternatives
1. Kinsta
If you want to build a fast-loading website, Kinsta is a hosting you can consider. It has a great reputation on this matter thanks to its built-in CDN — which is powered by Cloudflare, a CDN service that has over 100 data centers around the globe.
In addition, Kinsta also comes with a built-in cache and Early Hints — two features aimed at speeding up load speed of websites. Kinsta itself is a cloud hosting service that uses Google Cloud for its main hosting infrastructure.
The specifications of Kinsta are more than enough to run most WordPress themes and plugins. First, it has a default maximum file size of 128MB. Second, Kinsta has the default PHP memory limit of 256MB — which is higher than the one demanded by most plugins.
If you are an agency, Kinsta is a great fit as it offers several plans dedicated to agencies. Also, it offers directory listing feature which you can make use of to gain more exposure.
Testing Results of Kinsta on PageSpeed Insights:
Kinsta vs WP Engine Pricing
| Cheapest plan | Monthly expense for 5 websites | Monthly expense for 10 websites | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kinsta | $35/month | $115 | $225 |
| WP Engine (with Automated Plugin Updates add-on) | $53/month | $150 | $150 |
Kinsta Pros and Cons:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Excellent performance | A bit pricier |
| Second to none documentation | No file manager feature |
| Intuitive control panel | |
| No fixed term contracts |
2. Rocket.net
Rocket.net is another great option if you want to have a website that has a great performance (fast to load). Same as Kinsta above, Rocket.net also comes with a built-in CDN and caching features powered by Cloudflare.
Its intuitive custom-built control panel allows you to control the features. Rocket.net has a great PHP configuration. Especially PHP memory limit whereby it has the default PHP memory limit of 1GB.
Unlike other services which usually have limited PHP workers, Rocket.net comes with unlimited PHP workers.
You can use Rocket.net to create any type of website with WordPress. From e-commerce website, blog, membership website, to a more static website like a portfolio website. If you plan to build an e-commerce website with WooCommerce, Rocket.net has dedicated hosting plans for WooCommerce.
Testing Results of Rocket.net on PageSpeed Insights:
Rocket.net vs WP Engine Pricing
| Cheapest plan | Monthly expense for 5 websites | Monthly expense for 10 websites | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocket.net | $30/month | $100 | $100 |
| WP Engine (with Automated Plugin Updates add-on) | $53/month | $150 | $150 |
Rocket.net Pros and Cons:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Excellent performance | No email hosting |
| Excellent technical support | Lack of documentation |
| $1 price for the first month | |
| Built-in file manager | |
| Great for high-traffic sites |
Cheaper WP Engine Alternatives
WP Engine offers three main hosting plans you can choose from: Essential (the cheapest one), Core, and Enterprise.
To make the comparison fair, I use the Essential plan with the Automated Plugin Updates add-on enabled as the price comparison.
How Were the Items on the Following List Picked?
There are tons of managed WordPress hosting services available in the market. That’s why I created the list. I want to help you filter the options so that you can focus on things that matter more.
Not all hosting services are included, however. I only included hosting services that offer things that WP Engine offers.
Here are some criteria of the hosting services on the list:
- All hosting must offer plans for personals and agencies
- All hosting must offer basic managed WordPress hosting features like automated core updates, automated plugin updates, scheduled backups, and security
- All hosting must be transparent about the pricing plans
If you find a hosting service and turns out to be out of the list, then it doesn’t meet the above criteria.
List of Cheaper WP Engine Alternatives
3. Cloudways
Cloudways is specifically a great WP Engine alternative if you often create WordPress websites with Divi. The hosting service is one of the Elegant Themes’ partners in the Divi Hosting program. What is that?
Divi Hosting is a partnership program between Elegant Themes — the Divi developer — and several prominent WordPress hosting services. The program offers managed WordPress hosting services bundled with Divi.
When you subscribe to a certain Divi Hosting plan, you will get a WordPress hosting pre-installed with Divi. Thus, you don’t need to install Divi yourself.
Cloudways itself is a cloud hosting service owned by DigitalOcean. Unfortunately, Cloudways doesn’t offer CDN as the core feature like the Kinsta and Rocket.net above. CDN feature is available, though. However, it’s available as an add-on instead of a built-in feature.
If you often work with Git, then Cloudways is a great option. It comes with a feature that allows you to deploy your project via Git. You can integrate your website with Git platforms like GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket.
If you want migrate to Cloudways, you can use the Cloudways WordPress Migrator plugin. It is a plugin developed by Cloudways to make it easy for its customers to migrate to its hosting service.
Cloudways vs WP Engine Pricing
| Cheapest plan | Monthly expense for 5 websites | Monthly expense for 10 websites | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudways | $11/month | $11* | $11* |
| WP Engine (with Automated Plugin Updates add-on) | $53/month | $150 | $150 |
Cloudways Pros and Cons:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Unlimited websites | No file manager feature |
| No plugin restrictions | No email hosting |
| Dedicated cloud servers | |
| Offers trial without credit card |
FYI. You can use the following promotion code to get a 10% discount for three months on Cloudways (first three invoices). Code: WPBDEAL
4. Pressable
Looking to create a WooCommerce website with WordPress? Pressable might be the best option. WooCommerce and Pressable are both the products of Automattic. So, the people behind Pressable might have better knowledge over WooCommerce to deliver a WooCommerce-optimized hosting service.
Regardless of the type of website you plan to build, Pressable is another option I recommend if you plan to create a high-speed WordPress website. It also has great specifications to run most plugins and themes.
Before you subscribe to a hosting plan offered by Pressable, you can try the experience of managing your websites on Pressable as it allows you to try its control panel for free. You can play around with the panel to figure out the offered features.
Pressable vs WP Engine pricing
| Cheapest plan | Monthly expense for 5 websites | Monthly expense for 10 websites | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pressable | $25/month | $60 | $90 |
| WP Engine (with Automated Plugin Updates add-on) | $53/month | $150 | $150 |
Pressable Pros and Cons:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Excellent performance | No native email hosting (requires external service) |
| Built exclusively for WordPress | No file manager |
| Great PHP configuration |
5. Elementor Hosting
WP Engine owns a plugin called Genesis. The plugin makes it easy for you to build WordPress websites thanks to its custom blocks for Gutenberg. Elementor, meanwhile, is the most popular page builder plugin for WordPress.
Some users still don’t know that Elementor offers a cloud hosting service, which is officially called Elementor Hosting (previously known as Elementor Cloud).
Elementor Hosting is pretty similar to WordPress.com whereby it offers WordPress bundled with a hosting service. The difference is that in Elementor Hosting you have Elementor (Free and Pro) installed.
What about the hosting features?
Elementor Hosting is a managed WordPress hosting service powered by Google Cloud. Some key features offered by the service include off-site scheduled backups, malware scanning, and free migration.
Elementor Hosting vs WP Engine Pricing
| Cheapest plan | Monthly expense for 5 websites | Monthly expense for 10 websites | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elementor Hosting | $11.99/month | $59.99 | $119.99 |
| WP Engine (with Automated Plugin Updates add-on) | $53/month | $150 | $150 |
Elementor Hosting Pros and Cons:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Great hosting for Elementor page builder | No monthly payment option |
| Offers free domain for one year | No file manager |
| Enterprise Cloudflare CDN |
6. Pressidium
Pressidium is a WordPress hosting service that has four main data centers in North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. In addition, it also has 73 strategic edge locations. Unlike other hosting services mentioned earlier above, Pressidium builds its own hosting infrastructure from the ground.
Currently, its CDN service is powered by StackPath, but it is building its own CDN infrastructure. The hosting service comes with an intuitive custom-built control panel which you can use to control the features.
Pressidium vs WP Engine Pricing
| Cheapest plan | Monthly expense for 5 websites | Monthly expense for 10 websites | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pressidium | $24.99/month | $79.9 | $140 |
| WP Engine (with Automated Plugin Updates add-on) | $53/month | $150 | $150 |
Pressidium Pros and Cons:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Designed exclusively for WordPress | No file manager feature |
| Offers free trial | No email hosting |
| Clean control panel |
7. Nexcess
Unlike WP Engine, Nexcess is not a WordPress-only hosting service. Instead, it also offers hosting services for Magento.
However, Nexcess has a managed hosting service for WordPress with the cheapest plan costs you $21 per month. The plan is called Spark.
The Nexcess’ Spark hosting plan comes with some handy features to make it easy for you to manage a WordPress website. Those features include automated updates for WordPress core, themes, and plugins.
The Nexcess hosting service is integrated with Cloudflare for CDN and TinyPNG for image optimization.
Nexcess vs WP Engine Pricing:
| Cheapest plan | Monthly expense for 5 websites | Monthly expense for 10 websites | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nexcess | $21/month | $87 | $120 |
| WP Engine (with Automated Plugin Updates add-on) | $53/month | $150 | $150 |
Nexcess Pros and Cons:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| All basic features are available on the cheapest plan | Some features require extra plugins |
| Offers 30-day money-back guarantee | No domain registration |
8. 20i
20i is a web hosting service that offers several hosting service types. From VPS to cloud hosting. The company also has a managed WordPress hosting service which you can use to replace WP Engine.
Same as WP Engine, in 20i, you can also select a cloud hosting infrastructure to power your hosting. There are three cloud hosting infrastructure options currently available: 20iCloud, AWS, and Google Cloud.
The managed WordPress hosting service from 20i is a great fit for agencies and freelancers for one main reason: you can install unlimited websites, regardless of the plan you choose. But, the actual number of websites you can install will depend on the plan you choose.
The higher the plan, the higher the storage. You can definitely install more websites on a higher plan.
If you want to migrate from WP Engine, 20i offers a free migration feature to make it easy for you to migrate from WP Engine.
20i vs WP Engine Pricing
| Cheapest plan | Monthly expense for 5 websites | Monthly expense for 10 websites | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20i | $10.99/month | $10.99* | $10.99* |
| WP Engine (with Automated Plugin Updates add-on) | $53/month | $150 | $150 |
20i Pros and Cons:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Unlimited WordPress installs | Not designed specifically for WordPress |
| Built-in file manager for easier file access | |
| Useful email hosting |
9. Bluehost
Bluehost is a great hosting service for those who are new to WordPress. It is easy to use. You don’t need to make the DNS settings as Bluehost offers a domain registration service as well.
Bluehost itself offers several hosting service types. If you aim to use it to replace WP Engine, you can use its managed WordPress hosting service. The managed WordPress hosting service from Bluehost comes with all necessary features you need to automate the update process.
You don’t need to update the WordPress core and plugins manually. Bluehost will handle the job for you. It also comes with a built-in CDN feature powered by Cloudflare.
Bluehost vs WP Engine:
| Cheapest plan | Monthly expense for 5 websites | Monthly expense for 10 websites | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluehost | $11.99/month | $11.99/month | $21.99* |
| WP Engine (with Automated Plugin Updates add-on) | $53/month | $150 | $150 |
Key Features of Bluehost:
- Auto updates for WordPress core
- SFTP
- Firewall
- CDN
- Team collaboration
- Staging environment
- Traffic stats and error logs
- PHP manager
Bluehost Pros and Cons:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Affordable hosting solution | Some features require add-ons to work |
| Useful file manager and email hosting | No daily backups (requires add-ons) |
| Beginner friendly |
Conclusion
Picking a hosting service to run your WordPress website is a challenging job. Many people end up being a hosting hopper because they don’t conduct decent research upfront. WP Engine is a great hosting service.
At least when compared to Hostinger and Bluehost, WP Engine has better performance.
But if you compare it with other hosting services in the same segment as mentioned on the list, the claim is still debatable.
Which WP Engine Alternative Should You Use?
If CDN is the feature you prioritize, Kinsta could be the option to go. While Kinsta uses the same CDN service as WP Engine (Cloudflare), it offers higher bandwidth and has better analytics feature to monitor the CDN usage.
If you prefer managed VPN, there is no better alternative on the list than Cloudways.
Rocket.net, meanwhile, is great to replace WP Engine if you own a high-traffic website and are looking for a cheaper solution.
