Cloudways vs WP Engine: Complete 2026 Comparison
Cloudways is a vps hosting provider while WP Engine sits in the managed wordpress category, so the right pick depends on what you're building. The two are closely matched in our 7-category breakdown, each taking a share of the wins, so your decision comes down to which factors matter most to you.
Data last updated June 2026
Result
It's a Tie!
- Both hosts are evenly matched
- Choose based on your specific needs
Cloudways vs WP Engine: Overview
WP Engine starts at $30.00/mo. WP Engine also gives you a longer 60-day money-back window to test risk-free.
Cloudways's standout is managed cloud hosting across 5 providers (AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode) with pay-as-you-go flexibility — a natural fit for developer or agency wanting managed cloud power without server administration complexity. WP Engine, by contrast, leans on PCI-compliant managed WordPress with proprietary EverCache technology and 60-day money-back guarantee, ideal for business needing PCI-compliant WordPress hosting with phone support and enterprise features.
Category Winners
Best Price
WP Engine
$30.00/mo vs $Infinity/mo
Best Value
Tie
Similar renewal pricing
Best Performance
Cloudways
99.99% uptime, 4.2/5 rating
Best Support
Tie
Similar support options
Best for WordPress
Tie
Similar WordPress features
Best for Developers
Cloudways
SSH, Git, Staging, Node.js
Best for Beginners
WP Engine
Higher ease of use score (7.0/10)
Feature Comparison
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Essential Info | ||
| Hosting Type | VPS Hosting | Managed WordPress |
| Monthly Price | — | $30.00/mo |
| Renewal Price | — | $30.00 |
| Renewal Markup | 0% | 0% |
| Overall Rating | 4.2/5 | 4.0/5 |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.99% | 99.95% |
| Trustpilot Rating | 4.6/5 | 3.5/5 |
| Trustpilot Reviews | 3,600 | 1,670 |
| Free SSL | ||
| Free Domain | ||
| Free Migration | ||
| Pricing Details | ||
| First Year Cost | $168.00 | $360.00 |
| Second Year Cost | $168.00 | $360.00 |
| Money Back Guarantee | 0 days | 60 days |
| Setup Fee | Free | Free |
| Monthly Billing | ||
| Minimum Contract | — | 1 months |
| Technical Specs | ||
| Storage | 25 GB | 10 GB |
| Storage Type | NVME SSD | SSD |
| Bandwidth | 1000 GB | 75 GB |
| Max Websites | Unlimited | 1 |
| Max Databases | Unlimited | — |
| PHP Versions | 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 | 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 |
| SSH Access | ||
| Git Deployment | ||
| Staging Environment | ||
| Cron Jobs | ||
| Redis Available | ||
| Programming Languages | ||
| Node.js Support | ||
| Python Support | ||
| Ruby Support | ||
| WordPress Features | ||
| WordPress Optimized | ||
| WordPress Auto-Install | ||
| WordPress Auto-Updates | ||
| WordPress Staging | ||
| WooCommerce Optimized | ||
| LiteSpeed Cache | ||
| Object Caching | ||
| WP Multisite | ||
| WP-CLI Access | ||
| Security | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| DDoS Protection Level | Bot Protection and Firewall via Cloudflare | Enterprise DDoS protection |
| Malware Scanning | ||
| Malware Removal | ||
| Firewall Included | ||
| Backup Frequency | Hourly to Daily (configurable: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, daily) | Daily (automatic) |
| Backup Retention | 14 days | 30 days |
| Backup Restore Fee | Free | Free |
| On-Demand Backup | ||
| Two-Factor Auth | ||
| Wildcard SSL | ||
| Dedicated IP | ||
| Support | ||
| Support Channels | Live Chat, Ticket, Knowledge Base, Phone (Premium add-on), Slack (Premium add-on) | Live Chat, Phone, Ticket, Knowledge Base |
| Live Chat | ||
| Live Chat Hours | 24/7/365 | 24/7/365 |
| Phone Support | ||
| Phone Support Hours | Premium Support add-on only | 24/7/365 |
| Ticket Support | ||
| Priority Support | ||
| Support Languages | English | English |
| Knowledge Base Quality | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Avg Support Wait | 2 min | — |
| Email Accounts | ||
| Email Account Limit | — | 0 |
| Mailbox Size | — | — |
| Webmail Access | ||
| Spam Filter | ||
| Email Forwarding | ||
| Performance | ||
| CDN Included | ||
| CDN Provider | Cloudflare Enterprise CDN | Global CDN included |
| Server Locations | US (Multiple), Canada, UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Singapore, Australia, Japan, India, Brazil | Iowa (US), South Carolina (US), Virginia (US), Oregon (US), Montreal (Canada), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Belgium, London (UK), Netherlands, Frankfurt (Germany), Taiwan, Tokyo (Japan), Singapore, Sydney (Australia) |
| Server Location Count | 65 | 20 |
| Choose Server Location | ||
| HTTP/2 Support | ||
| Brotli Compression | ||
| Uptime SLA Credit | ||
| Platform Support | ||
| Drupal Support | ||
| Joomla Support | ||
| Magento Support | ||
| Laravel Support | ||
| Django Support | ||
| Next.js Support | ||
| Rails Support | ||
| Static Site Support | ||
| Control Panel | ||
| cPanel Included | ||
| Control Panel | Cloudways Platform | WP Engine Portal |
| Softaculous | ||
| Website Builder | ||
| Builder Name | — | — |
| Migration | ||
| Migration Websites Limit | 1 | 1 |
| Migration Turnaround | 2 days | 2 days |
| Paid Migration Cost | — | Free |
| Migration Quality | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Compliance | ||
| GDPR Compliant | ||
| PCI Compliant | ||
| HIPAA Compliant | ||
| Data Center Certs | SOC 2, ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 |
| Ratings | ||
| Value for Money | 3.5/10 | 3.0/10 |
| Performance Rating | 5.0/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Support Quality | 4.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Security Rating | 4.5/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Features Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Ease of Use | 3.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Transparency Rating | 4.0/10 | 3.5/10 |
| Suitability Scores | ||
| For Bloggers | 3.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| For E-commerce | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| For Agencies | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| For Developers | 5.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| For Beginners | 2.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| For Enterprise | 4.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Policies | ||
| Bandwidth Overage | Pay-as-you-go; bandwidth included varies by plan (1TB base); overage charged at provider rates | 50GB included on Startup; $1-2 per 1,000 extra visitors; CDN overage $0.12/GB after 1,000GB |
| Storage Overage | Pay-as-you-go; can upgrade server size or add block storage | $1/GB for additional storage add-on |
| Adult Content Allowed | ||
| Gambling Sites Allowed | ||
| Crypto Sites Allowed | ||
| Reseller Hosting | ||
| White Label | ||
| API Access | ||
| Company Info | ||
| Year Founded | 2011 | 2010 |
| Headquarters | Malta | United States |
| Parent Company | DigitalOcean (acquired September 2022 for $350M) | Independent (privately held; founded by Jason Cohen and Ben Metcalfe; backed by Silver Lake Partners) |
| Green Hosting | — | — |
| Instant Activation | ||
| Managed WordPress | ||
| Managed WP Available | ||
| Pricing Model | — | visits |
| Monthly Visit Limit | — | 25,000 |
| Visit Overage Cost | — | $2.00 |
| PHP Workers | — | — |
| Plugin Restrictions | — | WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, Broken Link Checker, certain backup plugins |
| Dev Environment | — | |
| Dev Env Name | — | Local |
| Regional Info | ||
| Best Countries | United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, Australia | United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Japan |
| Local Currencies | USD, EUR, GBP | USD, EUR, GBP, AUD |
| Support Languages | English | English |
| Data Sovereignty | GDPR, SOC 2 | GDPR, PCI-DSS, SOC 2 |
| External Ratings | ||
| G2 Rating | 4.7/5 | 4.4/5 |
| BBB Rating | N/A (Malta-based, no US BBB listing) | A+ |
| Advanced Technical | ||
| Inode Limit | — | — |
| Max DB Size | — | — |
| Max Upload Size | — | — |
| Database Type | MySQL/MariaDB | MySQL |
| Elasticsearch | ||
| Image Optimization | — | |
| PHP Switching | ||
| Subdomains | Unlimited | — |
| FTP Accounts | Unlimited | — |
| Additional Pricing | ||
| Free Domain Duration | — | — |
| Money Back Exclusions | No money-back guarantee; pay-as-you-go model means you only pay for resources used; unused prepaid funds can be refunded within 3 months of adding funds | 60-day money-back guarantee; Custom enterprise plans may have different terms |
| Payment Methods | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal | Credit Card, Debit Card |
| Auto Renewal Default | ||
| Domain Privacy Included | — | — |
| Domain Privacy Cost | — | — |
| SSL Provider | Let's Encrypt | Let's Encrypt (auto-renewed) |
| Dedicated IP Cost | — | — |
| Additional Support | ||
| Phone Support Countries | United States | United States, United Kingdom, Australia |
| Priority Support Cost | — | — |
| Community Forum | ||
| Support Outsourced | ||
| Object Cache Type | Redis/Memcached | EverCache (proprietary) |
| Business & Affiliate | ||
| Affiliate Program | ||
| Commission Type | Recurring | Per sale |
| Commission Amount | Up to $125 per referral or lifetime 7% recurring; 90-day cookie | $200 per sale or 100% of first month; 60-day cookie |
| Additional Policies | ||
| File Hosting Allowed | ||
| Proxy/VPN Allowed | ||
| Bandwidth Overage Cost | — | $0.12 |
| Account Suspension Policy | Account suspended for TOS violations; servers still billed until deleted; fraud prevention enforcement active | Violation of ToS; non-payment; excessive resource usage |
| Malware Removal Cost | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Downloadable Backups | ||
| Additional Platforms | ||
| PrestaShop | ||
| Ghost | ||
| Shopify Migration | ||
| Wix Migration | ||
| Squarespace Migration | ||
| Webflow Export | ||
| Editorial Info | ||
| Best For | Developers and agencies needing managed cloud hosting; WordPress/WooCommerce sites needing scalable performance; Users wanting flexibility across AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode; Teams needing staging environments and Git deployment; Growing businesses that need to scale quickly; Users who want cloud power without server management | Businesses needing PCI compliance for WordPress; Agencies with client sites; WooCommerce stores needing optimized performance; Sites needing phone support 24/7; Users wanting 60-day money-back guarantee; Enterprise WordPress deployments |
| Avoid If | Need email hosting included; Want traditional shared hosting pricing; Prefer cPanel; Need domain registration; Budget-conscious with predictable monthly costs; New to web hosting (steeper learning curve) | Budget-conscious users; Need specific plugins that may be blocked; Want email hosting included; Prefer Kinsta's higher ratings; Need general web hosting |
| Known Issues | Email hosting not included (requires third-party add-on at extra cost); No domain registration; Backup storage charged separately at $0.033/GB; DNS hosting is paid add-on; Premium Support with phone/Slack costs extra; Pay-as-you-go billing can be confusing; Charged in arrears for previous month; Some users report billing issues and being charged after cancellation; No cPanel (proprietary panel); Post-DigitalOcean acquisition some users report declining support quality | Premium pricing starts $25/month; Many plugins blocked for security; No email hosting; Some users report cancellation issues; Technical support quality reportedly declined; Mixed Trustpilot (3.5); Some 500 errors reported; Strict plugin restrictions frustrating for some |
| Unique Selling Point | Managed cloud hosting across 5 providers (AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode) with pay-as-you-go flexibility | PCI-compliant managed WordPress with proprietary EverCache technology and 60-day money-back guarantee |
| Ideal Customer | Developer or agency wanting managed cloud power without server administration complexity | Business needing PCI-compliant WordPress hosting with phone support and enterprise features |
| Best Alternative To | WP Engine | Kinsta |
| Primary Competitors | Kinsta, WP Engine, Flywheel | Kinsta, Flywheel, Cloudways |
We strive for accuracy, but pricing and features change frequently. Some data may be outdated. Report an error and we'll update it promptly.
Our Verdict
Choose Cloudways if you...
- Want higher-rated hosting (4.2/5)
- Want to run Node.js applications
- Want more server locations (65 available)
Choose WP Engine if you...
- Are new to web hosting
- Need enterprise-grade features
Cloudways vs WP Engine: Frequently Asked Questions
Does Cloudways or WP Engine have better uptime?
Cloudways edges out WP Engine on performance with a 99.99% uptime guarantee and a 4.2/5 overall rating. For uptime-sensitive sites, it's the more dependable choice.
Is Cloudways or WP Engine better for beginners?
WP Engine is friendlier for beginners, scoring higher on ease of use in our assessment. New users will generally find it quicker to get started.
Should I choose Cloudways or WP Engine?
Cloudways and WP Engine are evenly matched overall, so the best choice depends on your priorities. Use the category winners and feature table above to weigh the factors that matter most for your project.