5 “Top” Cheaper WP Engine Alternatives

WP Engine is a fantastic choice for WordPress hosting, albeit a pricey one. Their plans start at $20.00 per month, which is double – and in many cases even more than double – the entry level price of other quality WordPress hosts. Not everyone can afford to drop that kind of cash on a hosting service, meaning they’re often forced to look elsewhere for cheaper WP Engine alternatives.

The great news is that WordPress hosting is such a competitive field, a cheap price doesn’t necessarily equate to a lower quality service. There are plenty of cheaper WP Engine alternatives available that don’t scrimp on functionality, or the quality of customer support.

The good (and bad) about WP Engine

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat – WP Engine is a great WordPress host, and we don’t mean to imply otherwise here. However, their prices remain out of reach for a lot of users. In one of our previous WordPress hosting surveys, we found that WP Engine’s customers were spending $184 per month on average for their services. That number alone is enough to make our wallets whimper! It’s also worth noting that a staggering 30% of the surveyed users responded that they would love to move to WP Engine, but are deterred by the high cost.

Furthermore, WP Engine has a reputation for restricting the use of some plugins, which could potentially cause you hassle if your favorite picks are on that list.

That being said, let’s take a quick look at the many things that WP Engine does get right:

1. Round the clock support from dedicated WordPress experts
2. Solid security measures to keep your site safe
3. Optimized servers to decrease loading times
4. Detailed site performance reports available to customers
5. Daily site backups

As it stands, WP Engine is a solid choice for managed WordPress hosting – and regardless of the higher price, their service will be suitable for a lot of WordPress users.

When to use WP Engine

Use WP Engine if you’re a security-conscious WordPress user who is looking for a robust platform to host professional or business websites. While WP Engine will do just as well for small sites, their service could be a bit overkill – so your budget might serve you better elsewhere.

What are the cheaper WP Engine alternatives?

There are plenty of available hosts that have comparable features to WP Engine, often with cheaper packages to boot. Let’s take a look at the contenders.

• SiteGround (siteground.com)
• Cloudways (cloudways.com)
• HostGator (hostgator.com)
• GoDaddy (godaddy.com)
• DreamHost (dreamhost.com)

1. SiteGround (siteground.com)

SiteGround offers great all-around WordPress hosting, and the starter plan is at only $2.99 per month. In other words, you get one of the top cheaper WP Engine alternatives for one-fifth of the price. Furthermore, they offer very good site loading speeds (according to our tests) and a knowledgeable support team (said to be “unmatched” according to SiteGround’s client feedback). Those cheap prices come with a caveat, however you need to pay for your hosting plan yearly if you want to get the best possible deal – otherwise, you get prices that are more in line with its competitors.

As far as WordPress-specific features go, SiteGround delivers. They offer a great mix of features that both WordPress beginners and professionals will appreciate; some of the best are listed below.

Despite offering much lower prices, SiteGround still kept up with WP Engine in our most recent hosting survey ^[1]:

• SiteGround came in third overall, with a score of 8.1 out of 10 (WP Engine scored first, with a 9.21)
• You aren’t losing much reliability, as SiteGround still scored in third place in this category.
• You aren’t sacrificing support either. SiteGround’s overall support score put them in first place in this category.

Pricing 💳

• $2.99
• $4.99
• $7.99

The prices above are the monthly rate if you pay up front for the year. The prices are higher if you choose to pay month-to-month.

Features ⚙️

• Free WordPress migrations
• Set up WordPress staging sites with a single click
• Free in-house caching tool (SuperCacher)
• Enables users to install the Git for WordPress tool, which developers will appreciate

When to use SiteGround 🖱️

As far as we’re concerned, SiteGround is a great all-around pick among cheaper WP Engine alternatives for users that value a mix of solid performance, good support, and advanced WordPress-specific features. If you don’t mind paying for your hosting yearly, you won’t find better prices. If, on the other hand, you prefer to pay a monthly bill, you might prefer to look elsewhere.

2. Cloudways (cloudways.com)

Cloudways is a WordPress hosting service that promotes performance and security. It is meant for enterprises, agencies, and developers. Even though they address medium to large businesses, their pricing plans are affordable if you need hosting for your own website, too.

What’s great about this host is that it doesn’t come with any limits in terms of monthly visits and the number of websites in the most basic plan. Cloudways integrates five dedicated cloud servers, based on which you can choose your preferred pricing package.

Pricing 💳

• $11.00
• $14
• $24
• $28
• up to $285

Cloudways provides a wide range of pricing plans for all pockets. The first plan starts at $11.00, while the most expensive one costs $285. In between, though, you’ll get over 20 pricing options based on the performance and the cloud server you need.

Features ⚙️

• Free migration and SSL.
• Cloudflare Enterprise CDN.
• 24/7 support.
• Advanced caches.
• Unlimited application installation.
• Automated WordPress updates and backups.
• Advanced security features.

When to use Cloudways 🖱️

Use Cloudways if you work with big amounts of sensitive data because it delivers on performance and security. If you have an agency or large business, you might want to look into Cloudways. At the same time, this host’s pricing plans are affordable for the average website owner, so you can give it a try for your individual website as well.

3. HostGator (hostgator.com)

HostGator is the proud host of millions of domains and countless customers. Suffice to say, they’re rather well known in the hosting world. Much of their popularity is down to their below average pricing, and their basic WordPress Cloud Hosting Starter plan starts at a mere $5.95 per month, which is cheap as far as managed WordPress hosting is concerned.

In previous years, HostGator’s scores in our surveys were decidedly average across the board, but they really made a strong come up last year – coming in at fourth place overall (7.83 out of 10) ^[1]. This means that their cheap packages are certainly worthy of your consideration, since quality isn’t being sacrificed for cost.

Pricing 💳

• $5.95
• $7.95
• $9.95

All prices are reflective of the monthly cost if you purchase three years of hosting up front. The lower your length of time commitment, the higher the per month rate is. For example, the $5.95 options looks like this, depending on how long you commit to:

Features ⚙️

• Their most basic plan claims to be enough to handle up to 100,000 visitors per month
• 24/7 support via phone, live chat, and email
• Free migration services
• Standard and Business plans include a tutorial session for WordPress beginners, taught by a WordPress expert
• Free shared SSL certificate
• Free Content Delivery Network (CDN) service

When to use HostGator 🖱️

Use HostGator if you’re a beginner WordPress user who could benefit from an easy to use interface, low pricing, and one-to-one tutorials to get you up and running.

4. GoDaddy (godaddy.com)

GoDaddy is best known as a domain registrar, but they also offer all kinds of hosting services. Their WordPress managed hosting plans are the cheapest all-around, and they don’t scrimp on features. All of their packages include free daily backups, a one-click restore function, a migration tool, automatic WordPress updates, and round the clock support.

All of that sounds pretty good, but what about the cost? GoDaddy’s cheapest managed WordPress hosting package usually costs $9.99 per month, but they often run promotions with heavily discounted prices (you can get your hosting plan for as low as $5 or even $1). However, bear in mind that come renewal time, you’ll revert back to the regular pricing.

GoDaddy didn’t perform exceptionally well in our survey, though.

Pricing 💳

• $3.68
• $11.99
• $18.99
• $21.99

Prices reflect the per month price if you purchase one year up front. Prices for month-to-month plans are higher.

Features ⚙️

• Free daily backups and a simple restore function
• A 99.9% uptime promise
• Free migration tool
• Annual plans come with a free domain
• Full-time support for WordPress users

When to use GoDaddy 🖱️

Quite simply, GoDaddy is one of the cheapest WP Engine alternatives available. While they only received an overall rating of 6.31 out of 10 in our survey ^[1], their prices are almost unbeatable – and they also provide decent support to their users.

If budget is your primary concern, GoDaddy might just be the platform for you.

5. DreamHost (dreamhost.com)

Last but not least, DreamHost is another well-known name offering dedicated WordPress hosting. They’ve been in business since 1996, and boast a high level of customer satisfaction – in our survey, they had an overall score of 7.58 out of 10 ^[1].

DreamHost offers one of the most competitive services when it comes to uptime and loading speeds, and they also provide their customers with knowledgeable support. Their managed WordPress plan is called DreamPress, and it comes with all the bells and whistles you’ve come to expect from a managed hosting service, such as automatic updates and robust security features.

Pricing 💳

• $16.95
• $24.95
• $71.95

Prices reflect the per month price if you purchase one year up front. Prices for month-to-month plans are structured differently. For the first two tiers, you get a slightly cheaper rate for the initial three months, but then it jumps up from there. If you stay with them for the full year, then the average per month price ends up being higher than if you purchased the year up front.

Features ⚙️

• A multi-layered caching system to handle traffic spikes and deliver fast speeds
• WP-CLI comes pre-installed, which enables you to update plugins and configure multisite installs without a web browser
• One-click SSL certificate
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Round the clock support from knowledgeable staff

When to use DreamHost 🖱️

If you’re looking for a no-nonsense WordPress hosting provider that takes security and performance seriously, consider DreamHost.

Summing it all up 🏁

Fortunately, it’s still possible for WordPress users to find plenty of cheaper WP Engine alternatives that can compete on service. It’s simply a matter of analyzing the competition, and seeing which host offers the features you need for your website to flourish.

Which host is right for you? Let’s recap:

In case you missed it, here’s our comparison table again:

Which of these cheaper WP Engine alternatives do you think is best? Share your picks with us in the comments section below!

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