How much does WP Engine cost? Is it worth the prices they charge? In this article on WP Engine Pricing, we take an in-depth look at their managed WordPress hosting plans and services.
Although you might think Managed WordPress Hosting is only appropriate for enterprise and large business applications, WP Engine has hosting plans suited for all levels of WordPress sites from their single site Startup Plan all the way up to custom enterprise solutions.
WP Engine currently offers three different Managed WordPress Hosting plans: Startup, Growth, and Scale. They also provide custom plans for large businesses and mission-critical websites.
The WP Engine Startup Plan is their entry level hosting plan that is designed for new websites or personal blogs. While the plan lets you host one site, you also get development and staging environments to work on website changes and test them out before pushing them out to your live site.
Click Here to Get the WP Engine Startup Plan for Only $22.50 mo.
With the WP Engine Startup Plan, you get 10 GB of Storage and 50 GB of Bandwidth. You can also have 25,000 visits per month.
The WP Engine Startup Plan is the least expensive way to experience the premium managed WordPress hosting experience. While you do have to pay more than a standard shared web hosting plan, the website speed and performance you get along with expert WordPress hosting support, definitely make it worth the cost.
With WP Engine, you get free SSL and Global CDN, but that’s only a fraction of what’s included in your managed WordPress hosting plan. WP Engine’s proprietary EverCache technology along with the Google Cloud Platform, provide some of the fastest website performance you’ll experience.
I mentioned earlier that you get Development, Staging, and Production environments with your WP Engine hosting plan. You also get transferable installs if you’re developing a website for a client and you need to push it out to their account. This feature is probably more useful for customers that purchase the Growth or Scale plans, but it’s good to know that it’s also included with the Startup plan.
WordPress users will also appreciate that you now get free StudioPress themes built on the Genesis Framework included with your WP Engine hosting plans. Currently, there are over 35 WordPress themes included and they are some of the most efficiently coded themes available.
Let’s see how WP Engine compares in price, features, and performance with the three web hosts that are recommended by WordPress.org. These three other hosts also offer quality WordPress hosting for single sites.
| $30 mo. | $14.99 mo. ($6.99 mo. at signup) |
| 1 Website | 1 Website |
| 25,000 Visits per Month | 10,000 Visits per Month |
| 10 GB Storage | 10 GB Storage |
| 50 GB Bandwidth | Unmetered Bandwidth |
While SiteGround started as more of a general cPanel hosting provider with an emphasis on WordPress, they have now moved toward being a managed WordPress host aimed at a similar customer base as WP Engine.
While SiteGround is the most impressive of the three WordPress recommended hosts and will cost you less money, WP Engine is still superior if you need the best premium managed WordPress hosting.
| $30 mo. | $16.95 mo. |
| 1 Website | 1 Website |
| 25,000 Visits per Month | 100,000 Visits per Month |
| 10 GB Storage | 30 GB Storage |
| 50 GB Bandwidth | Unmetered Bandwidth |
DreamHost has definitely made improvements to their DreamPress optimized WordPress hosting plans. All of the advanced features you need in a managed hosting plan are included such as website staging and automated data backups.
DreamHost is less expensive than WP Engine and they are better suited for WordPress beginners as the offer their WP Website Builder. However, my experience has been that WP Engine still offers better website speed and performance as well as more responsive expert customer support—though at a higher price.
| $30 mo. | $29.99 mo. ($19.95 mo. at signup) |
| 1 Website | Unlimited Websites |
| 25,000 Visits per Month | Unlimited Visits |
| 10 GB Storage | Unlimited Storage |
| 50 GB Bandwidth | Unmetered Bandwidth |
Bluehost offers the advantage of allowing you to host an unlimited number of websites with all of their WP Pro Optimized WordPress Hosting plans. And while they include premium WordPress features, they aren’t on the level of WP Engine when it comes to website speed, performance on the frontend and backend, as well as expert customer support.
While Bluehost, DreamHost, and SiteGround are all recommended by WordPress.org, in my opinion WP Engine definitely tops all of them in features, website performance, and expert WordPress support.
The WP Engine Growth Plan is ideal for WordPress developers and consultants, or for those businesses that need multiple WordPress site hosting. With the Growth Plan, you can have up to 10 WordPress sites hosted.
Click Here to Get the WP Engine Growth Plan for Only $86.25 mo.
With the WP Engine Growth Plan, you can have up to 10 WordPress installs, so you can develop multiple websites for your clients. And, with the transferable installs feature, you can easily push these sites out to your client accounts when they are ready. Additionally, WP Engine’s billing transfer feature simplifies the task of having to charge your clients.
Along with all of the excellent features in WP Engine’s Startup plan, with the Growth Plan you also get 24/7 access to phone support in addition to live chat.
| $115 mo. | $109 mo. |
| 10 Websites | 10 Websites |
| 100,000 Visits per Month | Unlimited Visits |
| 20 GB Storage | 60 GB Storage |
| 200 GB Bandwidth | 4 TB Bandwidth |
Liquid Web has moved their managed WordPress hosting over to their related company Nexcess. Liquid Web/Nexcess is another quality managed WordPress host that is ideally suited for mission-critical applications.
Liquid Web/Nexcess is definitely a viable alternative to WP Engine and their prices are currently lower. While Liquid Web’s features rival those offered by WP Engine, I’ve experienced slightly better website performance and support with the latter.
| $115 mo. | $32.99 mo. ($19.99 mo. at signup) |
| 10 Websites | 6 Websites |
| 100,000 Visits per Month | 300,000 Visits per Month |
| 20 GB Storage | 200 GB Storage |
| 200 GB Bandwidth | Unlimited Bandwidth |
InMotion Hosting is another outstanding web host that offers their own line of managed WordPress hosting. Their features, website performance, and customer support are excellent.
For individual users and small to medium sized business owners that need multiple WordPress site hosting, I would definitely recommend InMotion as a lower cost alternative to WP Engine. However, for WordPress developers and consultants I would go with WP Engine.
The WP Engine Scale Plan is designed for WordPress agencies that are building WordPress websites for their clients. With the Scale Plan, you can have up to 30 WordPress sites hosted.
Click Here to Get the WP Engine Scale Plan for Only $217.50 mo.
If you have a WordPress agency, you can build up to 30 websites for your clients. And, like the Growth Plan, you can utilize the development and staging environments along with transferable installs and billing transfer to greatly simplify the process of working with your clients.
| $290 mo. | $155 mo. |
| 30 Websites | 20 Websites |
| 400,000 Visits per Month | 400,000 Visits per Month |
| 50 GB Storage | 50 GB Storage |
| 500 GB Bandwidth | Unlimited Bandwidth |
Pressable offers some very impressive managed WordPress hosting plans that are ideally suited for agencies. Their features are generally on par with those of WP Engine. However, I find website performance and customer support a little better at WP Engine.
If your WordPress agency is on a tighter budget, then Pressable is a good fit. On the other hand, if you need the best possible speed, performance, and support (and you have the budget), I would recommend WP Engine.
| $290 mo. | $300 mo. |
| 30 Websites | 20 Websites |
| 400,000 Visits per Month | 400,000 Visits per Month |
| 50 GB Storage | 50 GB Storage |
| 500 GB Bandwidth | Unmetered Bandwidth |
Kinsta is supposedly one of the best managed WordPress hosting providers. However, hosting features aren’t as impressive to me. I would certainly choose WP Engine over Kinsta.
If you need enterprise-wide managed WordPress hosting or have special resource requirements, WP Engine will work with you to develop a custom hosting plan for your business.
Customer Support is another area where WP Engine truly shines. First of all, because WP Engine focuses completely on WordPress, you get true expert support for this platform. Response times are outstanding with WP Engine’s customer support team. And, the support agents at WP Engine really go above and beyond even what other managed hosting companies offer.
You really get the feeling that the support staff wants to help you with any questions or issues you may have. Unlike other hosting support where you might just be given a link to find a solution (Believe me, even other managed hosting providers have done this to me.), the WP Engine support agents will walk through the solution for you—or they’ll just go ahead and handle your issue themselves!
To sum it up, WP Engine provides the type of support you would expect from a Managed Hosting provider.
Although WP Engine’s prices may seem high at first. I can report through testing as well as my own personal experience, that the cost is well worth the hosting services they provide. If you have a mission-critical WordPress site or you’re just looking for the best premium WordPress hosting option for your website, then you should definitely check out WP Engine.
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