WP Engine vs Cloudways
A detailed comparison to help you choose between WP Engine and Cloudways.
Quick Verdict
3.6/5
WP Engine
0 reviews
3.9/5
Cloudways
0 reviews
Cloudways is rated higher (3.9 vs 3.6). Managed WordPress host with staging sites, built-in caching and CDN, automatic backups and 24/7 WordPress support. Plans from about $28 per month. Managed hosting layer that sits on top of DigitalOcean, AWS, GCP, Vultr, or Linode. You get managed control with one-click staging, Breeze caching, and 24/7 support.
WP Engine Enterprise WordPress platform | Cloudways Managed cloud hosting on your choice of provider | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.6 (0 reviews) | 3.9 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $28/mo | From $11/mo✓ |
| Best for | Agencies and businesses running revenue-critical WordPress sites that want managed updates, staging workflows and WordPress-expert support without running servers themselves | Agencies, freelancers and SMBs running WordPress/WooCommerce/Magento/Laravel who want managed cloud hosting with provider choice and no ops staff |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | — | 1 vCPU |
| RAM | — | 1 GB |
| Storage | 10 GB | 25 GB✓ |
| Bandwidth | 0 TB/mo | 1 TB/mo✓ |
| SLA uptime | 99.95% | 99.99%✓ |
| Data-center count | 22 | — |
| €/vCPU/mo | — | €11.00 |
| €/GB RAM/mo | — | €11.00 |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | United StatesUnited KingdomGermanyAustraliaJapan | United StatesUnited KingdomGermanyNetherlandsSingaporeAustralia+1 |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | managed optionddos protectionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenter | managed optionddos protectionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenter |
| Visit WP Engine → | Visit Cloudways → | |
WP Engine
Pros
- + Managed WordPress core, PHP and MySQL updates plus daily backups on every plan
- + WordPress-native 24/7 support and a coherent first-party tooling ecosystem (Genesis, ACF, WP Migrate, Local)
- + Real published uptime SLA: 99.95% on Essential, 99.99% on Core and Enterprise
- + 22 documented Google Cloud and AWS regions including EU, US and APAC
Cons
- - Expensive per workload versus managed VPS or commodity cloud, and renewals rise after the first year
- - No published CPU/RAM allocations — plan ceilings are visits, storage and bandwidth only
- - Advanced DDoS and managed WAF are an add-on below the Enterprise tier
- - Blocks caching/backup plugins that conflict with the platform, and carries ecosystem risk from the WordPress.org trademark dispute
Cloudways
Pros
- + Choose the underlying cloud (DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, GCP) and region per server
- + Entry pricing from $11/month on DigitalOcean with hourly billing and no contract
- + Managed stack with free migration, staging/cloning, automated backups, caching and 24/7 human support
- + Unlimited sites and visits per server on Flexible plans
- + Autonomous line adds real autoscaling, Cloudflare Enterprise CDN and a no-credit-card 3-day trial
Cons
- - Management markup of roughly $5-$35/month over buying the same server direct
- - No formal uptime SLA on the Flexible line
- - AWS/GCP plans include only 1-2 GB transfer; overage at $0.12/GB (AWS) adds up fast
- - Root-level control is limited — no custom kernels, bare metal, GPUs or own object storage
- - Owned by DigitalOcean since 2022 while reselling competing clouds — a roadmap consideration
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