7 Best WPEngine Alternatives | Which Host Is Right For You?
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Top 7 WPEngine Alternatives Revealed
WPEngine is a hosting provider that specializes in WordPress specific hosting. It caters for sites of all sizes, from fledgling blogs all the way up to enterprise level businesses.
This makes it popular with all sorts of WordPress users – however, it’s not right for everyone.
In our research, WPEngine did quite well for its WordPress hosting services, but overall it was one of the lowest scoring hosting providers that we tested, receiving only 3.5 stars out of 5. The main areas it fell down in were value for money and uptime.
If you’re looking to switch from WPEngine, or simply find out which providers we recommend you use instead, you’re in the right place. We’ve put together a list of the best WPEngine alternatives, based on how good their managed WordPress services are.
Top WPEngine Alternatives
Take a closer look at how we rated the top three WPEngine alternatives below:
Bluehost is the best WordPress provider on the market, and is the top alternative to WPEngine – it provides specific and first-rate WordPress hosting services. Next comes A2 Hosting, which has a strong focus on server speed and customer service, followed by InMotion, which received full marks for features in our testing.
Now you’ve seen a quick overview of our top recommendations, this article will dive into the details of each alternative provider to find the one that’s best for you. Let’s start with a helpful side-by-side comparison of the top providers.
Further Information
- Make sure you choose the best of the best – take a look at our review of the 11 Best Web Hosting Providers
- Want to compare providers side-by-side? Our Hosting Comparison Chart gives you a detailed breakdown
- Do you want to know the Best WordPress Hosting Providers? Our in-depth review reveals the best brands around
Side-by-Side Comparison
Here, you can compare the key features and starter prices of each WPEngine alternative’s managed WordPress hosting plans. We’ve compared their managed WordPress hosting plans because this is the type of hosting that WPEngine offers its users.
| Starter Price/month | Money-back Guarantee | Free Domain? | Uptime | Max no. of Websites | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bluehost | $19.95 | 30 days | ✔️ | 99.98% | Unlimited |
| A2 Hosting | $9.78 | Anytime | ❌ | 99.95% | Unlimited |
| InMotion | $3.99 | 90 days | ✔️ | 99.97% | 20 |
| SiteGround | $6.99 | 30 days | ❌ | 99.98% | Unlimited |
| 1&1 IONOS | $1 | 30 days | ✔️ | 99.98% | 5 |
| DreamHost | $16.95 | 97 days | ✔️ | 99.95% | 1 |
| GoDaddy Hosting | $6.99 | ❌ | ✔️ | 99.97% | 5 |
In case you were wondering, uptime is the amount of time your host’s servers (and consequently your website) is up and running. You want the number to be as close to 100% as possible, although realistically, it’s unlikely you’ll find a provider that can achieve that perfect score.
#1. Bluehost
Best WPEngine Alternative
Features
Bluehost is undoubtedly the best hosting provider for WordPress hosting, and is the strongest all-around WPEngine alternative on our list. It’s been officially recommended by WordPress since 2005, and comes with an impressive range of features to make your life as easy as possible.
These features include:
- Free domain name
- Daily backups
- Automatic WordPress install
- Automatic WordPress updates
- Built-in marketing center
- Malware detection and removal
- 100+ free WordPress themes
One of the best features is the automatic WordPress install, which saves you having to get technical and install everything manually yourself. Instead, you can simply let Bluehost do all the hard work for you!
Pricing
Bluehost’s managed WordPress hosting has three plans to choose from. The cheapest starts at $19.95 and renews at $29.99 per month, meaning you get better quality hosting for less money than WPEngine. Discounts last for your first term, and then renew at the regular price.
Here’s a quick breakdown of its full list of prices:
- Build plan: $19.95 per month, renews at $29.99 per month
- Grow plan: $29.95 per month, renews at $39.99 per month
- Scale plan: $49.95 per month, renews at $59.99 per month
These are the cheapest prices when you sign up for a 36-month contract – shorter subscriptions are available, but will cost you more. You can select your subscription length and any paid extras at checkout.
All Bluehost plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee, so that you can try it out totally risk-free.
Help and Support
Bluehost provides 24/7 help and support for its users, so that you can ask for help any time you need. It has in-house experts on hand to help you out, plus a range of other ways you can search for answers. These include:
- Knowledge center
- 24/7 live chat
- 24/7 phone support
- Tickets
You also have the option of receiving a 1-hour on-boarding call with Bluehost support to help get your WordPress site up and running – an especially appealing choice for beginners!
Further Information
- Read our in-depth Bluehost Review to learn more about its features, hosting plans, and more
- Learn more about Bluehost’s costs in our Bluehost Pricing Review
#2. A2 Hosting
Best for customer service
Features
A2 Hosting has a strong focus on speed – in fact, it promises up to 20x faster loading speeds compared to its competitors, thanks to it Turbo Servers. But what else does it offer? Here are just a few of its managed WordPress features:
- Free and easy site migration
- Automated backups
- Turbo optimized servers
- Automatic WordPress updates
- Pre-installed WordPress
Reading between the lines of these features, you can see that A2 Hosting really values customer experience. It promises speed and ease most of all, with its automated services, free migration, and automated backups.
The main drawback to A2 Hosting’s features is that, like WPEngine, it doesn’t offer a free domain. Its uptime score is also lower than providers like Bluehost, at 99.95% – still, that’s only around four hours of downtime per year.
However, A2 Hosting does provide automatic updates to both WordPress software and plugins, which will make your site more secure – and your life even easier!
Pricing
A2 Hosting has three managed WordPress plans, ranging from $9.78 to $30.19 per month. Here’s a breakdown of its plans, including renewal prices:
- 1-Site plan: $9.78 per month, renews at $24.46 per month
- 3-Sites plan: $15.50 per month, renews at $38.75 per month
- Unlimited plan: $30.19 per month, renews at $75.48 per month
A2 Hosting’s most popular plan is its 3-Sites plan, which makes sense – it gives you room to grow, without asking you to overpay for features you don’t need. The main difference between plans is the amount of storage you get, and the number of sites you can host – you should let these factors decide your plan for you!
These plans come with a generous anytime money-back guarantee, so you can enjoy trying out A2 Hosting without having to worry.
Help and Support
When we tested A2 Hosting, we were wowed by its customer service. Fast, reliable, and always helpful, A2 Hosting’s customer service team are pretty on it when it comes to keeping you in the loop.
With a special focus on one-to-one support, A2 Hosting offers a full range of help and support options:
- Knowledge center
- 24/7 live chat
- 24/7 phone support
- Tickets
In addition to this, A2 Hosting proudly offers expert WordPress management through its 24/7/365 Guru Crew Support team.
This makes A2 Hosting a great alternative to WPEngine’s first-rate customer support – if you value strong service, this host is a top choice.
Further Information
- Check out our A2 Hosting Review for a full look at how it performed in our research
#3. InMotion
Best features
Features
InMotion isn’t as good an all-rounder as Bluehost, but based on features alone, it’s unbeatable. It ticked almost every box in our research, scoring 5 stars out of 5 for its features. Why did it do so well? Let’s take a quick look at what it provides:
- Free domain
- WordPress pre-installed
- Free site transfer
- Automatic WordPress updates
- Automatic plugin and theme updates
- Free backups
Combining a free domain with updates to plugins and themes, InMotion stands out amongst its competitors – it blew WPEngine’s features out the water!
InMotion also provides a host of other features, including unlimited email accounts, hack and malware protection, and over 200 free WordPress themes.
Pricing
InMotion’s three managed WordPress plans range in price from $4.99 to $10.99 per month. Like most hosting providers, InMotion runs discounts for new users. Take a closer look at its prices below:
- WP-1000S plan: $4.99 per month, renews at $7.99 per month
- WP-2000S plan: $7.99 per month, renews at $10.99 per month
- WP-3000S plan: $10.99 per month, renews at $13.99 per month
All plans come with a huge 90-day money-back guarantee, so you can give InMotion a try completely risk-free.
The WP-1000S plan comes packed with features, making it a good starting point. You don’t get automatic offsite backups or a dedicated IP address on this plan, and it only supports one website. Other than that, it’s a pretty generous starter plan!
Help and Support
InMotion is another host that provides a full range of help channels to support its users. On top of the usual knowledge center, email, and 24/7 live chat and phone support, your WordPress platform is also pre-installed by a technical expert.
Further Information
- Discover whether InMotion is your perfect provider in our full InMotion Hosting Review
- Torn between providers? Read our InMotion vs Bluehost comparison to find out which is best for you
#4. SiteGround
Best for Reliability
Features
SiteGround received similar scores to A2 Hosting and Bluehost for its managed WordPress features, making it another strong choice. Here are its main highlights:
- Free backups
- Automatic updates to both software and plugins
- Free, automated WordPress installation
- Free WordPress migrator plugin
- WordPress advanced security
All of these are available on the cheapest plan – you get more advanced features as you upgrade, including free professional transfers carried out by an expert.
It’s worth mentioning that SiteGround is another host that’s officially recommended by WordPress itself, making it a safe choice for your website.
Pricing
SiteGround’s price plans range from just $6.99 per month to $14.99 per month. In our testing, it scored an impressive 4.2 stars out of 5 for value for money, putting it way ahead of WPEngine in terms of value. Here’s a closer look at its plans:
- StartUp plan: $6.99 per month, renews at $14.99 per month
- GrowBig plan: $9.99 per month, renews at $24.99 per month
- GoGeek plan: $14.99 per month, renews at $39.99 per month
As we’ve already mentioned, you get a ton of useful features on the cheapest StartUp plan, so it’s a good starting point if you only need to host one website. The GrowBig plan is the next step up if you need to grow your site, while the GoGeek plan comes with much more technical and specialized features – it can even handle up to 100,000 monthly visits.
SiteGround plans come with a standard 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it for yourself, risk free. They’re also celebrating their birthday with an offer of up to 86% off and prices starting at $1.99 per month until March 31!
Help and Support
SiteGround proudly provides a 24/7 WordPress hosting support team, which has been highly rated for customer satisfaction. It stands up well next to its competitors, offering a similar range of phone, chat, ticket, and email support.
Further Information
- Find out more about SiteGround in our detailed SiteGround Review
- Read out SiteGround vs InMotion comarison if you want a closer look at these two hosts
#5. 1&1 IONOS
Best Value for Money
Features
1&1 IONOS scored slightly lower for its features than Bluehost, A2 Hosting, and SiteGround, but it wasn’t too far behind. The main reason it didn’t do as well was the fact it doesn’t offer plugin updates. It also has a limited number of websites you can host, even on its most advanced plan.
Here’s a quick look at the features it does provide:
- Up to 5 free domains
- Automatic WordPress updates
- DDoS protection (against cyber attacks)
- 99.98% uptime
- Free backups
1&1 IONOS matches both Bluehost and SiteGround’s uptime guarantees, with an impressive score of 99.98%. Unfortunately, you can only host up to five WordPress websites on 1&1 IONOS’ most expensive plan. This is less than ideal for those looking to grow their online presence beyond a handful of sites.
Pricing
1&1 IONOS is renowned for offering huge discounts, and you can get any of its three managed WordPress plans for just $1! This low price lasts for one year – after that, it renews at the regular rate:
- Essential plan: $1 per month, renews at $9 per month
- Business plan: $1 per month, renews at $11 per month
- Pro plan: $1 per month, renews at $15 per month
The Essential plan lets you host one website, while the Pro plan increases this limit to five sites. Luckily, the renewal prices aren’t too high, and these plans offer great value for money because of all the other features included – you get two free domains on the Business plan, and five on the Pro plan.
As well as offering the best value for money, 1&1 IONOS comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Help and Support
1&1 IONOS is the first provider on our list that doesn’t get full marks for its help and support features. It provides a Help Center, tickets, and 24/7 phone support, and does advertise a live chat feature on its website.
However, there’s rarely any support agents available on the live chat, and you usually end up directed to the phone support instead.
Considering WPEngine offers excellent customer support, this is a big drawback to 1&1 IONOS as an alternative!
Further Information
- Wondering if 1&1 IONOS is the right provider for you? Find out in our 1&1 IONOS Hosting Review
- If you’re looking for cheap hosting, look no further than our review of the Best Cheap Web Hosts to compare over 50 of the lowest plans!
#6. DreamHost
Best for Single WordPress Sites
Features
DreamHost isn’t the flashiest WPEngine alternative, but it comes with a solid range of features. Its main drawback is the fact you can only host one website across all its plans. It also has a slightly lower uptime guarantee than some of its competitors, at 99.95%.
That said, it’s the third hosting provider on our list that’s officially recommended by WordPress, so if you’ve only got one website and want to keep things simple, it’s an excellent choice!
Here are some of the features that make DreamHost a WordPress favorite:
- Free domain
- Automatic WordPress updates
- Daily backups
- Free professional site migration
- 200+ themes
- WordPress pre-installed
- Free domain privacy
Pricing
DreamHost is different from its competitors because it doesn’t offer discounts for new users. This upfront pricing is refreshing, but it does mean you have to pay a higher starting cost – its three plans range from $19.95 to $79.95 when billed monthly.
You can save money by choosing an annual plan, as you can see below:
- DreamPress plan: $19.95 per month, ($16.95 per month when billed annually)
- DreamPress Plus plan: $29.95 per month, ($24.95 per month when billed annually)
- DreamPress Pro plan: $79.95 per month, ($71.95 per month when billed annually)
These plans offer pretty good value for money – and look even more appealing when you factor in that DreamHost comes with a huge 97-day money-back guarantee!
Help and Support
DreamHost didn’t wow us with its help and support like Bluehost and A2 Hosting did, but it still offers a pretty good range of channels to choose from if you get stuck. It provides all the usual phone, email, and ticket support, plus a chat support – although the live chat is a less reliable option.
You receive specialized, 24/7 WordPress support with the managed WordPress plans, and can choose to have DreamHost’s experts migrate your existing site for free.
Further Information
- Need more details before deciding if DreamHost is right for you? We get it – read our DreamHost Review to get the full picture
- Find out the details of DreamHost’s various price plans in our thorough DreamHost Pricing Review
#7. GoDaddy Hosting
Best for Extra Services
Features
GoDaddy received the lowest feature score out of all the providers on this list, so if you’re after amazing WordPress features, GoDaddy shouldn’t be your top choice. Its real strengths lie in the amount of extras you can purchase, such as domains, email accounts, or online marketing.
Here’s a quick look at GoDaddy’s core WordPress features:
- Free domain
- Automatic WordPress updates
- Free backups
- Automatic daily malware scans
- One-click migration tool
The main thing to be aware of with GoDaddy is that it doesn’t provide free SSL certificates on all its plans.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates encrypt information passing between the user and your website, and show visitors that your site is safe. It’s an essential feature to have, and all other providers on our list include it for free with all their plans.
However, GoDaddy only includes free SSL on its $12.99 per month Ultimate plan – on cheaper plans, you’d have to purchase it separately. You can get a free basic Let’s Encrypt SSL to install, or buy SSL from GoDaddy, with prices starting from $63.99 per year.
Pricing
GoDaddy has four plans, ranging from $6.99 to $15.99 per month:
- Basic plan: $6.99 per month, renews at $9.99 per month
- Deluxe plan: $9.99 per month, renews at $14.99 per month
- Ultimate plan: $12.99 per month, renews at $19.99 per month
- Ecommerce plan: $15.99 per month, renews at $24.99 per month
These prices are very reasonable compared to other providers on the market, making GoDaddy an affordable, if not super powerful choice. The Ultimate plan allows you to host one to two sites, while all the others only let you host one website per plan.
An important thing to know before you sign up is that GoDaddy doesn’t offer a money-back guarantee.
This means you need to be totally sure GoDaddy is right for you before signing up, as while GoDaddy does grant refunds within 30 days, it may not be a guaranteed option.
Help and Support
GoDaddy has a helpful live chat feature (available Monday to Friday), plus 24/7 phone and email support, tickets, and a Help Center. There, you can find articles, guides, community forums, online courses, and a system status tracker.
Further Information
- Read more about GoDaddy, its strengths and weaknesses, prices, features and more in our GoDaddy Hosting Review
- See who wins out in our Bluehost vs GoDaddy comparison and learn which one is better for you
WPEngine Alternatives: Summary
This article has guided you through the best WPEngine alternatives you can enlist to host your WordPress website. We based this list on the results of our own in-house research – we tested each provider, and picked out the ones that best matched the needs of typical WPEngine users.
Here’s a quick recap of each WPEngine alternative, in order of best to worst:
Top 7 WPEngine Alternatives
Overall, our top recommendation is Bluehost – it’s a strong all-round provider, and the best WordPress host. It outperformed all its competitors in our testing, including WPEngine, and is a great place to start if you’re unsure which provider is best for you.
A2 Hosting is a smart choice if you value speed and customer service, providing a good replacement for WPEngine’s stellar support. And if you’re looking for a provider with better tools than WPEngine, InMotion is a total powerhouse that deserves its 5 star score for features.
Whichever provider you choose, it should address your individual needs, giving your site the superior service it deserves!
WPEngine Alternatives: FAQs
I liked WPEngine, but don’t think I need managed WordPress hosting – what should I do?
If you’re after a WPEngine alternative for a small WordPress site, you should look for shared WordPress hosting instead. Luckily, a few of the providers on our list also offer shared WordPress hosting. These are:
- Bluehost
- A2 Hosting
- DreamHost
Shared WordPress hosting is more basic than managed WordPress hosting, but it still comes with specially tailored features to make your life easier. You can read about the Best WordPress Hosts in our in-depth review.
I’m looking for a cheaper option than WPEngine – which host should I choose?
Every provider we’ve listed has a cheaper starting price than WPEngine – even when you look at renewal prices!
1&1 IONOS offers the cheapest plans with its $1 discount price, so if you’re looking to save money, then it’s worth checking out. However, Bluehost is the best quality provider, and comes with a starter price of $19.95 per month.
Take a look at our review of the Cheapest Hosting Providers to compare over 50 plans.
We take great care to ensure the information we publish is reliable and accurate. However, WBE takes no responsibility for any inaccuracy in information supplied to us by users, research participants, or other entities.
Please note the insight contained within this article is for general information purposes only. We’re glad to answer any questions you may have about this article and its supporting research. For further information, please contact Website Builder Expert directly via email at info@websitebuilderexpert.com.
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