High Performance. Effortlessly Delivered.
Cloudways vs WPEngine isn’t just a showdown – it’s a clear win. Choose Cloudways for:
Half the Price
More Features
Flexible Control
5X Coverage
Auto Scaling
Actual Support
WP Engine VS Cloudways
Cloudways is more than a WP Engine alternative. It’s faster, more flexible, and built to help your site grow without limits.
Choose Cloudways for all the features you need while keeping your wallet happy. Who says you can’t have it all?.
ExploreCloudway boasts 5 times the number of data centers as WP Engine, distributed across 3 times as many locations.
ExploreCloudways offers total freedom without plugin restrictions or hidden controls, unlike WP Engine’s rigid, limited setup.
ExploreWhile WP Engine doesn’t even make it to the top 5, G2 has recognized Cloudways as the #1 hosting outshining WP Engine and all other alternatives to WP Engine.
ExploreWith Cloudways Autonomous™, your website can handle traffic spikes with seamless autoscaling and pay-as-you-go flexibility.
ExplorePeople claim WPEngine’s support is like a ghost – there, but not really. At Cloudways, we’re hauntingly reliable.
ExploreOur customers value our service almost just as much as we value them. Cloudways is the people’s choice of quality hosting.
ExploreThe WPEngine alternative that is
Cloudways offers more power, speed, and no traffic limits – at a price that WP Engine can’t match. Check out the comparison table below and make the smart move .
| Price | ||
| Price per month | Starting From $11 | Starting From $25 |
| Free Trial | 3-day trial without credit card | |
| Features | ||
| No. of websites | Unmetered on all plans | Starting from 1 |
| Monthly Visits | Unlimited on all plans | Starting from 25,000 |
| Bandwidth | Starting from 1 TB | Starting from 50 GB |
| Disk Storage | Starting from 25 GB SSD | Starting from 10 GB |
| Scaling | Instant • 1-Click | Overages at $2/1000 visitors |
| Support | ||
| 24/7 support | ||
| Slack Channel (Paid add-ons) | ||
| Customization Support (Paid add-ons) | ||
| Performance | ||
| Global Data Center Coverage | 55 Unique Locations, 116 Data Centers | 18 Unique Locations, 26 Data Centers |
| Infrastructure | GCP, AWS, DO, Vultr, Linode | GCP, AWS (Premium), Azure (Premium) |
| Security | ||
| Malware Scanning | Proactive | Not proactive |
| Free SSL | ||
| DDoS Protection (Paid Cloudflare Enterprise) | ||
| Backups & 1-Click Restore | ||
| WAF (Anti-Hack System) Add-on | ||
| Add-ons | ||
| Add-ons |
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Cloudways is the WPEngine alternative that gives you
Cloudways, with 5X the data centers in 3X as many locations compared to WP Engine, means faster load times & lower latency. With WP Engine’s handful of data centers, let’s just say their idea of ‘global’ is a bit more regional.
Cloudways
WP Engine
While WP Engine doesn’t even make it to the top 5, Cloudways sets the standard above WP Engine and WP Engine alternatives as the top-rated cloud web hosting provider. Consider the bar officially raised.
Plugin
Freedom
True Server
Control
No Force
Updates
Full Developer
Access
Cloudways puts you in the driver’s seat with flexible plugin control and no hidden limitations. While WP Engine imposes plugin bans and shields you from real server control, Cloudways hands you the reins.
Sign Up Now 3-Day Trial Without Credit CardWhile WP Engine users may be worried about traffic limits, Cloudways Autonomous scales your site automatically, charging only for what you use without compromising performance. We’ll handle all the heavy lifting – you just keep growing.
Try Now
Cloudways support acts like a true partner. You get fast, expert help any time. Unlike WP Engine, support here feels responsive and involved.
24/7/365 priority Live Chat and ticketing support from our Senior Engineers, with improved SLAs.
Our Support Engineers will help you troubleshoot errors and conflicts with plugins and themes.
On-demand optimization tweaks to ensure your application is performing well.
With Cloudways Autonomous™, your website can handle traffic spikes with seamless autoscaling and pay-as-you-go flexibility.
We’ll collaborate with your team for deeper investigation of common server errors (500, 502, 503, etc).
If your server or stack is down, we will go beyond sending you alert and proactively start investigating.
Customization of your stack/server, e.g. deploying additional packages, specific configurations etc.
Your primary contact at Cloudways is here to help and guide you, whatever you want to achieve.
24/7/365 private Slack channel connects your team directly with our Senior Support Engineers. We partner with your team to help you grow.
Call our Senior Support Engineers any time for in-person support.
Cloudways stands out with faster speed, better support, and full control. It’s the smarter choice for users looking to move beyond WP Engine.
Alin-Lonel Banut
Verified Trust Pilot User
I’ve been a loyal Cloudways customer for over 6 years, and my experience has been nothing short of exceptional. What truly sets Cloudways apart is their outstanding customer support. The live chat team is incredibly professional, always quick to respond, and goes above and beyond to resolve any issues. Their dedication to customer care is truly impressive. If you’re looking for a hosting provider that combines top-notch performance with excellent support, I highly recommend Cloudways!
Shane Boring
@shaneboring
@wpengine has to have some of the WORST customer service on earth. WHY? HQ in Austin, TX, where BARE MINIMUM effort is challenged daily by sloths occupying human bodies. ….thanks for continuing to bill an account that I have ZERO access to, and that has been inactive for 12 mo+++.
Paul D
Creative Director & OwnerYou pay for what you get. Instead of paying a low introductory fee and then getting high prices a year or two later, you just pay for what you need now. It’s easy to scale up and down. Cloudways makes cloud hosting easy to start. The process of setting up your websites and server is simple and quick. The UI/UX design is great too. Very intuitive and simple. It’s also fast and reliable which is something you don’t want to mess with for websites. Also their support team has been great. They’ve been quick to respond to any issues I’ve experienced.
it-guy
@johnffrenemy@wpengine makes millions and try to gaslight when it could of just help the community is it time to boycott overpriced hosting. #boycottwpengine
Ant Ekşiler
@anteksilerPhpMyAdmin access at @wpengine is always awfully slow. I can’t even list the tables.
Emil Andersen
@EmilAndersenUnfortunately we’ve experienced a very slow server even though we are paying around 700 USD per month. I wouldn’t recommend WP Engine to anyone that are looking for a quick server. Furthermore it’s almost impossible to get to know you server details. Even the most basic information like RAM they wont tell you. Probably because they are putting your site on a shared hosting.
Jonathan Bailey
@PlagirismtodayI want to give a quick shoutout to @Cloudways, the host of my site.With the events taking place this week, I’ve received nearly a month’s worth of traffic in three days. Their server is going strong, never slowed down and remains fast despite the pressure.Thank you!
Diana Urban
@DianaUrbanGah I wish @wpengine didn’t have traffic caps for their web hosting plans. Anyone have great web hosting with 99.9% uptime and fast support?
Managed hosting for WordPress is a form of web-hosting that makes installing and managing your WordPress site easier, where most technical and server-side issues are managed by the company you hire. Managed hosting means freeing up your time from having to handle security risks, backups, monitoring your sites’ uptime, and scaling your infrastructure when your site grows.
Cloudways provides managed WordPress services, but doesn’t stop at WordPress. You can also host other applications, such as Joomla, Magento, Drupal, and other PHP-based apps.
The main difference between WP Engine and Cloudways is that WP Engine offers plans based on core feature limitations and number of sites you can host.
With Cloudways, you can launch unlimited websites on any plan, ensuring you get full access to all features regardless of the plan you choose. This flexible approach makes Cloudways one of the best alternatives to WP Engine, especially for growing businesses that need scalability.
WP Engine’s lowest plan starts at $30/month for just one site, while Cloudways allows you to start for as low as $11/month with unlimited sites, offering a much more cost-effective solution.
At Cloudways, we believe no one should stress about their website being down or not working. We put a lot of effort and resources into making that a reality, with the help of our support team.
Standard Support: It’s free and includes 24/7/365 access to Live Chat assistance with trained Support Team members.
Advanced Support add-on: Speeds up Live Chat response times and includes deeper application troubleshooting, customization support, and proactive monitoring.
Premium Support add-on: For businesses running mission-critical sites where every minute matters. Advanced service with even quicker response times, a dedicated Account Manager, a private Slack channel, and direct phone support.
Yes! You can read our in-depth articles comparing Cloudways vs WP Engine, including overall performance and speed tests, or read this 3rd party review of Cloudways vs. WP Engine (with speed tests)
Cloudways offers an out-of-the-box caching stack which includes Memcached, Varnish, Nginx, and Redis to deliver fast responses. WP Engine forces you to install an Advanced Caching plugin to match this level of performance.
WP Engine also disallows plugins like WP Super Cache, WP File Cache, and W3 Total Cache, preventing you to apply further optimizations that can’t be done server-side.
Yes — it’s included on any plan you choose. You can easily set up CDN from your dashboard, even if you’ve never done this kind of integration before. Cloudflare Enterprise delivers extremely fast experiences for your user, starting as low as $5/app/month.
Security is a top priority at Cloudways. We take a proactive approach to keeping your servers safe and secure from malicious traffic, malware and attacks.
These measures are available on any plan you choose:
1. All information regarding WP Engine has been sourced from their official website and is accurate as of 2026.
2. The information in this section has been procured from G2 as of 2026 and may be subject to change.
