Best WP Engine Alternatives

Are you looking for premium WordPress hosting services? And if so, are you looking for hosting services other than WP Engine? Well, you have come to the right place.

WordPress is undoubtedly one of the best Content Management Systems (CMS) currently present in the market. They are responsible for more than half of the good content that is available on the internet.

I am sure your research for finding a good hosting service in conjunction with WordPress must have had you encounter WP Engine quite regularly. In this article, I will tell you about 7 super alternatives to WP Engine to kickstart your career. Let us face it, WP Engine is not the only hosting service that can provide premium hosting services at great prices.

Read right till the end to find out which are the services that are good and can compare to the hosting qualities of WP Engine. I truly hope you find a suitable company to take care of your hosting related needs.

Kinsta

Renowned WordPress developer Mark Gavalda launched Kinsta on December 1st, 2013. The goal behind launching Kinsta was to provide premium quality WordPress hosting services for everyone. Kinsta houses top-of-the-line technology that allows them to manage WordPress hosting services like a charm. They have a stellar customer support team who are eager to listen to customers and solve their problems instantly!

Since 2013, Kinsta has turned into a giant in the web hosting sector. As a massive managed WordPress hosting company, Kinsta powers numerous websites in more than 128 countries all across the globe. With their team of more than 50 tech wizards and visionaries, Kinsta constantly strives to be able to provide its customers with the latest and best services when it comes to WordPress hosting.

Their plans are tailor-made for different kinds of businesses. The scope and span of both large and small businesses are catered by different plans that Kinsta has to offer to its customers. Take a look at a few of the features that are available upon signing up with Kinsta.

Key Features

  • Kinsta offers free site migrations to help you change hosting providers
  • Kinsta automatically backs up your website’s data daily
  • Kinsta offers great speed for the websites they host
  • The Google Cloud platform is an important aspect of Kinsta operations
  • A great 30-day money-back guarantee is up for grabs
  • Kinsta allows you to upgrade or downgrade your plan according to your convenience.
  • Get two months of subscription-free if you choose a yearly payment plan
  • Latest technology and software such as PHP 7.2, Nginx caching, and LXD containers
  • Great security framework with DDoS detection, SSL support, and firewalls
  • A 99.9% uptime guarantee for subscribers
  • WordPress experts lend a hand to solve problems
  • Allows Staging of websites
  • Sports a self-healing technology from cyber attacks

Hosting Plans

Kinsta has 10 different plans up for grabs. You do not need to worry about migrating your site as all the plans offer free site migration. All plans come with a hack fix guarantee as well.
Take a look at the brief summary of the plans.

  • The Starter Plan – You can host one website on this plan. Website visits are capped at 20,000 per month. You are allotted 10 GB of disk space.
  • The Pro Plan – You can host 2 websites on this plan. Website visits are capped at 40,000 visits per month. You are allotted 20 GB of disk space.
  • The Business 1 Plan – This plan allows you to host 5 websites at once. Visits to your websites are capped at 100,000 per month. You can enjoy 30 GB of disk space.
  • The Business 2 Plan – A plan that gives you the resources to host 10 websites simultaneously with 250,000 visits allowed per month. Enjoy your 40 GB of disk space.
  • The Business 3 Plan – Host 20 websites simultaneously with this plan. Have up to 400,000 visits per month on your websites. Make good use of the 50 GB of disk space that comes with this plan.
  • The Business 4 Plan -If you wish to host 40 websites, this is the plan for you. Website Traffic is capped at 600,000 visits per month. 60 GB of disk space is offered in this plan.
  • The Enterprise 1 Plan – Available at $600 a month, this plan allows you to host 60 websites and facilitates 1,000,000 monthly visits. It offers a massive storage space of 100 GB.
  • The Enterprise 2 Plan – For $900 a month you can host 80 websites. You also enjoy 1,500,000 visits per month. To handle such a massive workload and user data you can freely use 150 GB of disk space.
  • The Enterprise 3 Plan – Host a sum total of 120 websites for $1,200  monthly. Enjoy 2,000,000 visits per month, along with 200 GB of disk space.
  • The Enterprise 4 Plan – Priced at $1,500 a month, this plan allows you to Host a maximum of 150 websites. Traffic is capped at 3 million visits per month, and you get to use a massive 250 GB disk space.

Apart from all of this, you can also create custom plans for your agency or enterprise to tailor resources and features. This wide array of selection is proof of the fact that Kinsta covers all kinds of businesses irrespective of size or reach. Let us quickly go over the pros and cons of this hosting service.

Pros

  • You get a free SSL certificate and a CDN subscription
  • You have super-fast servers in the likes of PHP 7.4 and HTTP/2
  • Kinsta makes sure that there are no hacks
  • They take malware removal seriously
  • Backups are kept for a time span of 14 to 30 days
  • Regular DataBase optimization for increased speed
  • A Solid State Drive storage for data security and speed

Cons

  • They do not offer any email hosting
  • They do not offer phone support. You have to stick to the live chat
  • You have to register your domains separately. Kinsta does not provide this service.
  • There are a few restricted plugins

Should You Choose Kinsta over WP Engine?

If your top priority is to get more features and powerful performance, then you should go with Kinsta. It has an easy to use administrator dashboard, guarantees great uptimes, and provides stellar security. However, if you have budgetary constraints it might not be a wise decision.

Liquid Web

Matthew Hill found Liquid Web in 1997, in Michigan, United States. Liquid Web is a reliable web hosting company with a great reputation to precede the name. They cater to more than 32,000 companies, host over 1 million websites, and are spread over 130 countries all around the world.

Liquid web offers a plethora of hosting options to pick from. They have managed cloud hosting, dedicated servers, along with managed WordPress hosting and WooCommerce hosting. Their services are great for all kinds of businesses. It does not matter if you are a freelancer or a large enterprise, you will find that all your hosting needs are taken care of with Liquid Web plans. However, because they do not offer shared hosting, their prices are a little steep.

Let us take a look at the main features of Liquid Web.

Key Features

Being a constant presence in the web hosting industry for the last 20 years has made Liquid Web proficient in the intricacies of hosting services. Here are a few of their amazing features.

  • They have a wide array of hosting options and features that complement the plans.
  • Great website loading speeds guaranteed by the use of PHP 7+, HTTP/2, PHP workers, and other such platforms.
  • They allow you to test codes and updates by staging your website.
  • Regular backups are done at night which can be accessed for 30 days.
  • Liquid Web provides a free image optimization tool that increases loading speed.
  • BeaverBuilder, Jilt, GlewAnalytics, Affiliate WP, iThemes sync, and Security Pro are just a few of the premium tools available.
  • Liquid Web provides free website migration services.
  • They guarantee 100% uptime. If they fail, they refund 10 times the amount you have paid.
  • They have provisions for automatic scaling
  • They provide users with free SSL certificates
  • Users have complete access to servers and can make good use of developer tools
  • A great customer support team that guarantees to respond to your queries in under a minute
  • Liquid Web offers a completely managed WordPress dashboard.
  • They offer specialized WooCommerce hosting for you
  • You can have unlimited email accounts

Hosting Plans

While Liquid Web has many website hosting products, for the purpose of this post, let us focus on the managed WordPress plans.

  • The Spark Plan – The cheapest plan available for $19 a month allows you to host 1 website. It gives you 15 GB of disk space and a 2 TB bandwidth to work with.
  • The Maker Plan – For $79 a month, this plan allows you to host 5 websites.It gives you access to 40 GB of storage along with 3 TB bandwidth every month.
  • The Builder Plan – This plan lets you host 25 websites at a price of $149. You have access to 100 GB of storage space and 5 TB bandwidth.
  • The Producer Plan – For $299 a month, host 50 websites. It comes with 300 GB of disk space along with 5 TB bandwidth.
  • The Executive Plan –  At $549 a month, simultaneously host 100 websites. Conduct all of your operations on 500 GB of disk space with 10 TB bandwidth.
  • The Enterprise Plan – This plan lets you host 250 sites for just $999 a month. Use the 800 GB of storage space to your benefit. Work seamlessly on a 10 TB bandwidth.

It would be a good time to inform you that the managed WordPress and WooCommerce plans are presented with a 14 day trial period. You are not required to give in your payment details. You are free to test out the plans without any risk at all.

After this, let us weigh the pros and cons of this service.

Pros

  • Highly fast website performance due to technologies such as PHP7+, HTTP/2, Nginx.
  • Liquid Web has a free image optimization tool that allows pages to load faster
  • You can now seamlessly scale your website
  • Monthly visits are not capped or limited
  • They do not charge any over usage fee
  • Liquid Web does not have any restrictions on using plug-ins or themes.
  • You will be compensated for any downtime your website suffers due to the servers

Cons

  • All Liquid Web plans, apart from the Starter plan, are too pricey for first-timers
  • Liquid Web does not have any shared hosting plans. This means that they have a greater focus on managed hosting products
  • Email hosting costs money. Prices begin at $1 a month
  • They do not offer a dedicated money-back guarantee

Is Liquid Web Better than WP Engine?

Liquid Web’s long existence on the web hosting industry has given them enough time and experience to hone their products and experience. They have a cheaper entry plan than WP Engine with better features. If you require other kinds of hosting, Liquid Web will prove to be a better option than WP Engine.

Flywheel

Flywheel is now a subsidiary of WP Engine. This feat was possible only due to the tireless efforts of founders Dusty Davidson, Tony Noecker, and Rick Knudson. 2012 onwards, this trio has been constantly at work trying to alter the parameters of web hosting services. Their hard work is the reason why Flywheel is being considered as an alternative to their parent company.

Currently, Flywheel employs over 200 people and caters to more than 28,000 customers all over the world. They are based out of Omaha, Nebraska in the United States of America. Apart from this, their offices are strewn around the world such as Los Angeles, Melbourne, Scotland, Stuttgart, Ahmedabad, and Camberley.

Flywheel strives to help web designers in the path towards crafting a better experience for all the users present on the internet. Their hosting services are priced pretty competitively thus making them very desirable candidates. The existence of the Local by Flywheel adds to the desirability. It is a tool owned by Flywheel that allows you to quickly start WordPress websites.

Key Features

  • Flywheel offers free SSL certificates
  • They have an impressive local development tool
  • They allow you to stage your website in order to test codes and plug ins
  • Flywheel offers site cloning features
  • You can make use of their demo sites
  • Access to many blueprints that facilitate a quick replication process
  • Backups are automatic and performed every night
  • All website migrations are free of cost
  • Flywheel uses the cloud platform to intelligently use space
  • They offer Fastly CDN and FlyCache tools for their customers
  • Their data centers are spread across the world
  • Flywheel sports an all-in-1 SFTP
  • It is easier to work with other people due to Flywheel’s excellent team collaboration tools.
  • A project management tool is present to help you develop your workflow.

Hosting Plans

Let us take a look at the hosting plans offered by Flywheel.

  • Tiny plan – This plan is the cheapest that Flywheel has to offer. At $13 a month, you can host one website. Website visits are capped at 5,000. They offer 5 GB of disk space and 20 GB bandwidth in this plan.
  • Starter plan –  For $25 a month, you can host one website and avail an increase on the website visits up to 25,000 a month. Disk space is upgraded to 10 GB, and bandwidth to 50 GB.
  • Freelancer plan – Optimum plan for hosting 10 websites simultaneously. You get to have 100,000 visits every month, 20 GB of storage space, and 200 GB bandwidth, All of this is available at $96 a month.
  • Agency plan – Perfect for big operations, this plan allows you to host 30 websites simultaneously. Site visits are capped at 400,000 per month. Storage space is upgraded to 50 GB and bandwidth is upgraded to 500 GB. This plan is available for $242.

Select a plan that suits your vision. If you want to run just one website, to begin with, it is absolutely okay. There are more than enough options at Flywheel to cover all your needs. Let us now quickly look at the pros and cons of Flywheel.

Pros

  • Great customer support with round the clock live chat, email, and phone support
  • Flywheel uses cloud infrastructure to ensure consistent delivery of high performance
  • Enjoy a 30 day money back guarantee with Flywheel
  • Flywheel fixes your site instantly, without charging extra, if it has been hacked
  • Interactive interface that is easy to use
  • Create email accounts

Cons

  • Flywheel does not allow you to access SSH protocols
  • Developers might be disappointed to see that there are no built-in Git deployments
  • Few plug-ins are not functional in the Flywheel platform

Is Flywheel better than WP Engine?

The major difference between WP Engine and Flywheel is their pricing. The initial single site hosting plan at WP Engine is priced at $30 a month. Flywheel has two single site plans with different features, both of which are priced considerably lower. If you want to create a small website, go with Flywheel, it will be cheaper and there will be no discernable difference when it comes to features.

Hostinger

Hostinger is a web hosting company that provides customers with a plethora of options when it comes to hosting. They have shared hosting, cloud hosting, as well as managed WordPress hosting. Out of all the alternatives mentioned in this list, Hostinger is the cheapest option available.

Do not let the price mislead you. Their low prices does not mean that they compromise on the range or quality of their features. Hostinger has managed WordPress hosting plans with unlimited bandwidth which is pretty impressive.

Key Features

Here are a few of the key features that you can expect Hostinger to provide when you sign up for a subscription with them.

  • All plans have access to unlimited websites.
  • All plans are provided with unlimited bandwidth
  • Hostinger makes sure that your site is backed up on a daily and a weekly basis
  • Their cPanel is extremely intuitive
  • Top level security is provided by Hostinger
  • There are a plethora of WordPress themes to choose from. The collection is ever growing.
  • Multiple plug-ins to supercharge your own website
  • WordPress optimized platform
  • Great round the clock customer support
  • Free site migration for all customers
  • Dedicated WordPress Tutorials
  • LiteSeed enterprise servers

Hosting Plans

Hostinger has 3 great packages for Managed WordPress hosting. Take a look –

  1. The WordPress Starter Plan – This plan starts at $2.15 per month and goes up to $3.49 upon renewal. It offers unlimited websites and bandwidth. You get access to 20 GB of storage space, subscription to Jetpack Free as well as weekly backups.
  2. The WordPress Premium Plan – This plan starts at $7.45 per month and goes up to $15.90 upon renewal for unlimited websites and bandwidth. You get access to 100 GB of storage space, daily backups and a subscription to Jetpack Personal.
  3. The WordPress Business Plan – This plan starts at $14.95/month and goes up to $31.80 upon renewal. It provides you with unlimited websites and bandwidth. You get access to 140 GB bandwidth, daily automated backups, as well as a subscription to Jetpack Premium.

Pros

  • Enjoy their 30 day money back guarantee
  • Get a lifetime SSL certificate for no charge
  • Get a free domain name
  • Enjoy super fast load times on your pages
  • Enjoy their 99.95% uptime
  • Get access to Cloudflare CDN
  • Great multilingual support
  • Hostinger has developer friendly features

Cons

  • You have to manually install Let’s Encrypt SSL on addon domains
  • A Hostinger account is imperative for accessing support features
  • Hostinger has no phone support for its customers
Is Hostinger Better Than WP Engine

You get to enjoy a great hosting experience with Hostinger at wonderfully low prices. For those who are starting out, managed WordPress hosting is a great option. There is no need to spend much on high powered engines when above average features are provided at affordable rates.

Now that we have taken a look at WP Engine Alternatives, let us turn our focus towards what managed WordPress Hosting and what WP Engine has to offer.

Managed WordPress Hosting

Have you been wondering what managed WordPress hosting really is? Well, do not worry. It is nothing complicated. On the contrary, it is a kind of hosting that takes away all the complicated, technical aspects of managing a website. These complicated, technical aspects manage WordPress updates, security features, scalability issues, uptime and other such things.

When things such as these are taken care of, all you need to do is focus on creating premium quality content and business strategies. All the hassle is taken care of by your hosting service provider. It should also be kept in mind that managed WordPress hosting is restricted to the websites that use WordPress as a platform. You also receive help from those who have legitimate experience with WordPress rather than someone who has to look up issues on the internet.

Having cleared that out, let us shift our focus towards WP Engine and its offerings. It would be wise to see how the alternatives listed above fare in comparison with WP Engine features.

WP Engine

WP Engine was found on the 1st of May, 2010. It is the brainchild of Ben Metcalfe, Cullen Wilson, and Jason Cohen. Although it is based out of Austin, Texas, in the United States, WP Engine has offices in London, San Francisco, and San Antonion. Due to WP Engine’s stature and reputation in the market, they have managed to buy three reputed web hosting companies, namely Flywheel, StudioPress, and Array themes. WP Engine has proven itself to be a provider of premium hosting services and top-of-the-line customer support.

WP Engine happens to be the first WordPress digital experience platform. From small businesses to large enterprises, WP Engine is capable of providing premium solutions to all web hosting related needs for everyone. They are 100 percent dedicated to help you give your project the tools and the required push to succeed. Currently, they offer managed WordPress hosting to more than 120,000 customers spread across 140 countries all around the world.

If you are searching for a managed WordPress host with pedigree to boast of, WP Engine is tpone of the best options available to you. They have four hosting plans to offer, and each one of them is packed with high quality features and programs. All in all, investing your money in a WP Engine subscription if you have a good plan, is not a bad idea.

Key Features

  • WP Engine offers automatic site migration services for customers
  • WP Engine makes use of the Genesis Framework
  • WP Engine houses Git and SFTP connections
  • They allow users to access staging so that updates and tools can be checked
  • Great customer service that is available round the clock. Help is provided via WordPress experts
  • They have daily automated backups to keep data safe
  • WP Engine has premium access to the latest WordPress Core updates.
  • Customers get a free CDN and SSL certificate
  • Customers can make good use of the SSH gateway
  • Provides GeoTargeting to cater to a larger audience base
  • WP Engine provides access to Amazon Web Services
  • They have data centers all around the world
  • Great at threat detection and disaster recovery
  • Runs on latest technology such as PHP 7.4 and HTTP/2
  • Great scalability to handle large inflows of traffic

Hosting Plans

WP Engine has four plans tailor made for WordPress sites of all kinds.

  1. The Startup plan – This plan is priced at $30 per month. You can host one website and have access to 10 GB of local storage along with 50 GB bandwidth. Website visits are capped at 25,000 per month.
  2. The Growth plan – This plan is priced at $115 per month. You can host ten websites and have access to 20 GB of local storage along with 200 GB bandwidth per month. Website visits are capped at 100,000 visits per month.
  3. The Scale plan – This plan is priced at $290 per month. You can host 30 websites on this plan and enjoy 50 GB of local storage along with 500 GB bandwidth. Website visits are capped at 400,000 a month.
  4. The Custom plan – This plan is perfect for large businesses that have extremely mission specific demand. You can build your plan according to your own needs. You will have to contact WP Engine for a quoting price.

Pros

WP Engine is one of the finest managed WordPress services in the market. They have a lot of power products to offer. Take a look at the pros that put WP Engine ahead in the race of providing premium services.

  • They have a 60-day money back guarantee. This shows exactly how much they believe in their services
  • DDoS detection and Grade-A firewalls, along with many more features come together to make their Enterprise-grade security
  • World class Customer service
  • With their collection of free StudioPress themes you can easily save upto $2000.
  • Awesome website speed

Cons

Although WP Engine provides great service,they too have certain drawbacks and shortcomings. Take a look at few of the cons.

  • WP Engine is very expensive, especially for new users.
  • There are a few plug-ins and themes that are not supported by WP Engine
  • You have to pay additional fees if the number of monthly visitors exceeds the cap
  • They do not provide email hosting

WP Engine is the perfect managed WordPress host if you’re looking to enhance your company’s performance with lightening fast speed and high end security. While it is tailor made for big businesses and websites belonging to enterprises, it is quite expensive for smaller endeavors. If there are particular plug-ins and themes that are absolutely essential for the functioning of your website, and they are not supported on WP Engine, there is no point in subscribing to their plans.

Conclusion

The alternatives present in this article provide the best managed WordPress hosting in the market. There is no doubt about the quality of service provided by any of them. If you are looking for the best WP Engine alternative, it has to be Kinsta.They have similar products and features to offer at significantly reduced rates.

Flywheel comes right after Kinsta. The fact that WP Engine had to buy them is proof of the fact that they are definitely doing something right. If you are looking for the cheapest alternative, my suggestion would be Hostinger. Their services are value for money. However, if money is not your concern, and it is simply an alternative that you are looking for, Liquid Web is the way to go.

Irrespective of everything, whichever hosting service you choose to put your money behind, you cannot go wrong.