Cloudways Vs WPEngine – Which Managed WordPress Hosting Is Right For You?

Are you struggling to choose the best managed cloud hosting? Cloudways Vs WPEngine – which hosting service is good for your business website?

To answer this question, I am going to draw a comparison between both hosting providers based on their performance, speed, customer support, and other factors. As we are using both Cloudways and WPEngine, I can compare their features in a better way! So you would get a clear idea about both hosting providers and choose the right one for yourself.

However, before I go ahead and continue with the Cloudways Vs WPEngine comparison, you should know that whatever I am going to share is my personal views and experiences. It might not match what is already available on the internet and what other people are saying.

If you don’t want to read the in-depth content and look for a quick comparison, then here you go!

Now, we head to the topic in detail

Cloudways Or WPEngine – Which Is Best Hosting For WordPress?

Both the managed hosting biggies offer exceptional service, and therefore, it would be the most challenging task for the site owners to pick between the two. I’m sharing my experiences with both the hosting giants to make things clear. Get into the war!

1. Speed

Loading speed is a significant factor in choosing a hosting service. Good loading speed is critical.

As it enhances the user experience, Google uses loading speed as one of its ranking factors. So, when you are serious about SEO, you better invest in super-fast web hosting.

Cloudways

When it comes to speed, Cloudways is offering you high performance. The company has implemented some of the industry-leading technologies, and they are backed by reliable yet robust servers. All this enables you to enjoy high speed.

Also, here is a quick look at what technologies you get with this managed cloud hosting:

• SSD Based Hosting: It comes with SSD based, 3x faster hosting. Also, it helps in reducing the page load times for your business site.
• Built-In Advanced Caches: It has built-in advanced caches like Memcached, Varnish, Nginx, and Redis. So it can deliver a faster response rate.
• PHP 7: It only has PHP7 related servers. Plus, as you probably know that PHP8 is fast when compared to all the older versions.
• HTTP/2 Enabled: The servers are HTTP/2 enabled, which reduces the communication time between the web servers and clients.

Check the speed performance of our blog, WPGlossy hosted on Cloudways

WPEngine

WPEngine also offers you great speed. Thanks to their WordPress digital experience platform; Enjoy the pleasant, reliable architecture that delivers excellent speed, scalability, and security for your online assets.

The servers of this managed cloud hosting provider are PHP 7.4 ready and come with a global CDN. Because of this, your business site will load faster from anywhere across the world. It also boasts SSD hosting, faster than HDD hosting, and backed by powerful servers.

And here is how the hosting service performed in our test:

Winner – Cloudways

Reason – Their servers are optimized for high-speed performance. They care more for site loading speed and offer the features mentioned above for their users. We are delighted with the speed achievements of Cloudways.

2. Performance (Uptime)

The site’s uptime is the essential thing that you need to look for. If hosting is not offering you excellent uptime, then your website is going to lose visitors. It can directly hurt your business.

So the question is Cloudways Vs WPEngine, which one offers you the best uptime out there? Let me share our experiences.

Cloudways

The best part of Cloudways is that they are supported by a reliable cloud-based system. And to deliver this, they have partnered with the leading cloud providers in the industry. Along with that, the company offers a 99.99% uptime, and the overall loading speed is about 400 to 600 milliseconds.

Moreover, to offer you ultimate uptime, they use a cluster of nodes powered by the Google Cloud Platform. If there is an issue, another cluster mode will get activated, and therefore the website will not face any downtime.

We bless to have an uptime score of 100% at all times! Have a look at the unfailing performance!

WPEngine

WPEngine guarantees to offer you an uptime rate of 99.95%. Our niche blog hosted on this cloud provider was down for a very few minutes. However, according to WPEngine, when you do not get the promised uptime, you could always apply for credit towards your monthly free.

Along with that, WP Engine does regularly looks for downtimes. They monitor the front end and the backend of your blog or business site for downtime. And if there is an issue, the company quickly takes action to fix it.

Last month, we had faced the downtime issue, and look at the report!

Winner – Cloudways

Reason – You can see the steadfast uptime score of this cloud provider, and we are glad about it! They are executing marvelous tasks for the site availability, and hence you don’t need to both about your site performance. Go with this best managed hosting without any second thought!

3. WordPress Optimized Features

WordPress is not a CMS for blogging, but it powers 33% of the websites. Thanks to its functionalities and easy-to-use nature. Digital entrepreneurs, online marketers, and bloggers use WordPress to build websites.

WordPress is more likely to build everything from a blog to a full-fledged website. And if you, too, are using WordPress or planning to use it, then let’s go ahead and have a look at the WordPress Optimized Features:

Cloudways

• Free WordPress Cache Plugin: Here, you will get a Breeze, a free WordPress cache plugin. It can increase the performance of your WordPress website better than any other plugin. Also, the plugin comes preinstalled with your WordPress installation.
• Auto-Healing Managed Cloud Servers: It has auto-healing servers. So if the server faces any issues, it will get automatically healed, and the site will not get crashed.
• Launch 10+ Apps Through 1-Click: This feature is useful for an agency. through this remarkable feature, you can deploy several WordPress sites on a single server with just one click.
• WP Migrator Plugin: You also get access to the WP Migrator Plugin. So when you decide to migrate from another hosting server, this plugin can be used to migrate your blog or site with no hassle.

WP Engine

• 35+ StudioPress Themes: With WP Engine, 35+ StudioPress premium themes are available. So, give your website a great look.
• Automated SSL Certificates: It offers automated SSL certificates, so you don’t need to install SSL manually or purchase an SSL certificate at all.
• Global CDN: With Global CDN, the website will be made to load faster.

Champion – Both

Verdict – WP Engine hosting is meant for WordPress, and Cloudways also provides optimized servers for WordPress websites. Both are managed cloud hosting services to help you grow your business with WordPress CMS.

4. CDN

CDN is nothing but the Content Delivery Network, which helps you load your site faster. Your blog or website is going to have visitors all around the globe. And if the server location is far away from their area, they will face a slow loading time.

And this is where CDN helps you a lot. CDN creates a copy of your website and stores it on its server. So whenever a visitor is coming to your website, it simply delivers the copied page from its nearest server. So the visitor will experience a faster loading speed.

Cloudways

CloudwaysCDN is a powerful yet straightforward server that offers you excellent performance. It is simple to get started and implemented with just a few clicks. However, it costs you $1 per 25GB, which is pretty affordable.

WP Engine

The excellent part of WPEngine is that it does not charge you anything for SS, so it will be easier for you to make your website load fast. For all the plans, CDN is included by default for all environments. And for premium & enterprise plans, the first 1000 GB/mo is free.

Note: Apart from these two CDN programs, you are free to try out other CDN networks too. Like Cloudflare, Google Cloud CDN, and so on.

Winner – Cloudways

Verdict – You might wonder why I’m picking this cloud provider as the winner as it charges for CDN. Because its pricing plans are cheap and you need to pay just a dollar for 25GB CDN usage. Moreover, the integration is simple, and it can be done by yourself. WP Engine has expensive plans, and hence they offer the CDN for free.

5. Backup & Security

Cloudways

Backup

With this cloud hosting provider, automated or on-demand backups will be provided. The backups are created at an offshore location, and you may restore them at any time with just one click. Also, it is possible to take automated hourly and timely backup free of cost. However, to keep your backup to an offshore location, you would have to pay $0.50 per GB.

Security

In Cloudways, you get a managed cloud server. Also, they regularly do security patching, and they have implemented the OS-level firewall. So it can prevent malicious traffic. Also, you get other features like two-factor authentication, 1-click free SSL, IP whitelisting, and so on.

WPEngine

Backup

WPEngine also performs daily backups on your digital experience; stay relaxed if your site faces any issues. Also, the backups are available free of cost.

Security

To offer you ultimate security, WPEngine also takes strong security measures. It will give you the freedom to develop and operate your websites through a secured environment. It also offers you different features like disk write protection and limitation, proprietary firewall, user enumeration, and so on.

Winner – WPEngine

Verdict – WPEngine is doing great when it comes to data protection and file storage. Since they are well aware of the importance of saving the files safely from intruders, they boast tight security features and flexible backup options. However, Cloudways charges you for offering the backup.

6. User Interface (How Easy The Settings Are)

Cloudways

Cloudways provides an advanced control panel and does not have a traditional dashboard. So, you will easily be able to manage your web hosting and website. All the features are available under a single dashboard only, and it is pretty easy to use.

WPEngine

WPEngine also has an advanced dashboard filled with features. Over here, your SFTP login details can be viewed, accessed your database, created new sites and environments. As well as, you will discover and manage other information and settings.

Champion – Both

Verdict – The dashboard preferences of the two giants are precise and self-explanatory. Even a newbie can play settings like a Pro. Both interfaces give you great comfort in setting up things.

7. Free Trial

Cloudways

Cloudways offers you a free trial without a credit card. However, the only drawback is that the trial is available only for three days. I would say that this managed cloud hosting is worth trying!

WPEngine

WPEngine does not offer you any trial. But it provides you 60-day money-back guarantee. So if you don’t like their service, ask for a refund.

Winner – Cloudways

Reason – Free trial allows you to start using the service through the user interface, and you could evaluate the comfortability in utilizing the settings preferences. When fulfilled with the ease of use and features, you may upgrade the service.

8. Customer Support

Customer support is the most critical part of any hosting provider out there. Whenever you have trouble, technical support will help you fix the problems.

So before you purchase any web hosting plan from any company, you better check their tech support.

Cloudways

Cloudways support is exceptional! Their service is available 24/7, and they respond to your support tickets as quickly as possible. There are three types of support available: standard help, advanced support, and premium support.

And among them, standard support is free to use and accessible through live chat and ticket systems. However, the other two comes with a price tag, and the premium plan only supports 24/7/365 Private Slack channel & phone support.

WPEngine

WPEngine also offers you 24/7/365 customer support. And they are upheld by an award-winning support team. You may reach them via phone support and ticket system. However, phone support is only available for specific hosting plans. And the basic version only includes 24/7 chat support.

Champion – Both

Verdict – When we faced a difficult situation, we were assisted well by the tech support. They never let us down and made us wait for long to fix the issues. Both customer support teams are responsive and knowledgeable as well.

9. Pricing

Cloudways Vs WPEngine – How much does this hosting cost? Let me talk about both hosting’s prices in detail:

Cloudways

This best cloud provider charges you based on a monthly and yearly rate. And they have four different plans. And all the plans include the same features. It’s just that you are paying for the RAM, Processor, storage, and bandwidth limit.

WPEngine

WPEngine has four different plans: startup, growth, scale, and custom. While the first three plan has pretty much the same features. But through the expensive plans, access to some extra features will be provided.

Also, the custom plan is for those who have millions of visitors each month. And to get that plan, you have to talk to a sales specialist.

Winner – Cloudways

Reason – Cloudways has inexpensive plans when compared to WPEngine. Even the startup business can afford the basic plan ($10/mo); however, it would not be easy to pay $25 every month.

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Cloudways Vs WPEngine – Which Hosting Should You Buy?

Managed cloud hosting is the recent trend! I appreciate your interest in buying the best managed cloud hosting service for your WordPress business site.

Well, both hosting companies have their pros and cons, and they both are the top names in the hosting industry. Both companies have quite similar features.

But when we dig deeper, you will find Cloudways to be the clear winner. It has more features and is highly affordable.

I hope that this Cloudways Vs WPEngine comparison is clear and helpful for you to pick the right one for your blog or site. You tell, which managed WordPress hosting service would you prefer buying? Cloudways or WPEngine?

Now, let me consolidate the things for better understanding!