WP Engine vs Cloudways
WP Engine vs Cloudways compared side by side on price, plans and features. Cheapest paid option for one person: Cloudways $14/mo on DigitalOcean 1GB, against WP Engine $28/mo on Essential 1 site. Cheapest paid option for a team of 10: Cloudways $14/mo on DigitalOcean 1GB, against WP Engine $28/mo on Essential 1 site.
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Our verdict
The deciding difference is what you pay for. WP Engine sells managed WordPress by sites and estimated monthly visits: Essential costs $35 a month billed monthly for 1 site and 25,000 visits, or $28 a month for the first year billed annually, with no published renewal price, and its plans page says overages may apply. Staging, automatic and on-demand backups, a global CDN and automated WordPress and PHP updates come with every plan. Cloudways sells a managed server you size on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud, billed hourly in arrears from $14 a month for 1 GB on DigitalOcean, with unlimited sites and no visit limit. It also runs Magento, Laravel and PHP apps, but email and, on Flexible servers, the Cloudflare CDN are paid add-ons. Choose WP Engine when WordPress upkeep is the problem and traffic is predictable. Choose Cloudways when you'd rather size and pay for resources yourself, or host more than WordPress.
The numbers
At a glance
How WP Engine and Cloudways stack up on price and plans. The highlighted cell wins the row; costs are monthly, at the yearly rate where one is published.
| Metric |  WP Engine |  Cloudways |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest for 1 person | $28/moEssential 1 site | $14/mo + usageDigitalOcean 1GB |
| Cheapest for 10 people | $28/moEssential 1 site | $14/mo + usageDigitalOcean 1GB |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Free trial | No | Yes (3 days) |
| Best for | Best for businesses that want WordPress updates, backups and staging handled for them | Best for developers and agencies that want managed servers on a cloud provider they pick |
Pricing
Pricing compared
Per month, at the yearly rate where one is published. Checked against both vendors' pricing pages (WP Engine Oct 5, 2026, Cloudways Oct 5, 2026).
WP Engine
From $28/mo
- Essential 1 siteper month, 1 site, 25,000 visits$28/mo
- Essential 3 sitesper month, up to 3 sites, 75,000 visits$52/mo
- Essential 10 sitesper month, up to 10 sites, 100,000 visits$104/mo
- Essential 30 sitesper month, up to 30 sites, 400,000 visits$264/mo
- Coreper month, starting price$400/mo
- Enterprisecustom pricingCustom
Cloudways
From $14/mo
- DigitalOcean 1GBper server, per month, billed hourly$14/mo
- DigitalOcean 2GBper server, per month, billed hourly$28/mo
- DigitalOcean 4GBper server, per month, billed hourly$54/mo
- DigitalOcean 8GBper server, per month, billed hourly$99/mo
- Vultr High Frequency 2GBper server, per month, billed hourly$30/mo
- Linode 1GBper server, per month, billed hourly$14/mo
- AWS 1GBper server, per month, billed hourly$20.56/mo
- Google Cloud 1.7GBper server, per month, billed hourly$37.33/mo
- Autonomous Growthper month, plus usage$99/mo
- Autonomous Scaleper month, plus usage$199/mo
- Autonomous Plusper month, plus usage$399/mo
- Autonomous Enterprisecustom pricingCustom
| Team size | WP Engine | Cloudways |
|---|---|---|
| 1 person | $28/moEssential 1 site | $14/mo + usageDigitalOcean 1GB |
| 5 people | $28/moEssential 1 site | $14/mo + usageDigitalOcean 1GB |
| 10 people | $28/moEssential 1 site | $14/mo + usageDigitalOcean 1GB |
| 25 people | $28/moEssential 1 site | $14/mo + usageDigitalOcean 1GB |
Feature by feature
WP Engine vs Cloudways features
Every feature either tool lists, grouped by area. A check means it's included.
Agency & white-label tools
Choice of cloud provider
Platform1 feature
| Feature | WP Engine | Cloudways |
|---|---|---|
| Agency & white-label tools | Included | Not included |
Performance5 features
| Feature | WP Engine | Cloudways |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in CDN | Included | Included |
| Free SSL certificates | Included | Included |
| HTTP/3 and modern PHP | Included | Included |
| NVMe SSD storage | Included | Included |
| Server-level caching | Included | Included |
Management5 features
| Feature | WP Engine | Cloudways |
|---|---|---|
| Automated daily backups | Included | Included |
| Choice of cloud provider | Not included | Included |
| Free site migration | Included | Included |
| Git deployment & SSH | Included | Included |
| Staging environments | Included | Included |
Support & Reliability3 features
| Feature | WP Engine | Cloudways |
|---|---|---|
| 24/7 human support | Included | Included |
| Managed security & WAF | Included | Included |
| Uptime SLA | Included | Included |
Bottom line
Which should you choose?
Choose WP Engine if…
Best for businesses that want WordPress updates, backups and staging handled for them
WP Engine pros and consChoose Cloudways if…
Best for developers and agencies that want managed servers on a cloud provider they pick
Cloudways pros and consKeep exploring
Related comparisons & guides
Try WP Engine
Managed WordPress hosting priced by sites and monthly visits
Try Cloudways
Managed hosting on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud