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Cloudways and WP Engine both remove much of the work involved in hosting WordPress, but they begin from different ideas. Cloudways manages servers from selected cloud-infrastructure providers and lets customers choose capacity. WP Engine delivers a tightly standardized WordPress platform priced mainly by sites, visits, storage, and bandwidth.
The quick answer: choose Cloudways when infrastructure choice, server resources, and the ability to host several applications on one server matter most. Choose WP Engine when a polished WordPress-only workflow, included development environments, transferable client sites, and specialist platform support matter more.
Pricing and plan structure
WP Engine’s Essential WordPress plans list clear allowances across Startup, Professional, Growth, and Scale tiers. Each tier carries its own published annual-commitment rate and a higher standard month-to-month rate that rises with site count and capacity. Confirm the current published figures directly, since both promotional and standard pricing shift.
| WP Engine plan | Sites | Visits/month | Storage | Bandwidth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Startup | 1 | 25,000 | 10GB | 75GB |
| Professional | 3 | 75,000 | 15GB | 150GB |
| Growth | 10 | 100,000 | 20GB | 240GB |
| Scale | 30 | 400,000 | 50GB | 550GB |
WP Engine charges a published per-visit overage fee above the included allowance on applicable Essential plans. Additional storage may also be purchased. Verify checkout pricing, commitment, and promotions for the account.
Cloudways pricing depends on the chosen infrastructure provider, server size, premium options, backups, support level, and add-ons. Rather than buying a fixed number of WordPress installs, customers rent managed server capacity and can place multiple applications on it. The useful comparison is therefore a configured monthly server total, not a temporary starting banner.
Cloudways can be economical for several modest sites sharing one adequately sized server. Those sites also share its CPU, memory, storage, and failure domain. WP Engine isolates the commercial allowances more clearly and makes portfolio costs easier to forecast, though visit overages require attention.
Infrastructure control
Cloudways lets customers select among supported cloud providers and regions, then choose a server size. The platform manages operating-system and application-stack tasks while exposing controls for services, backups, scaling, caching, and application deployment.
This provides more freedom than WP Engine. A technical owner can size RAM and CPU, select a nearby data center, and scale the server vertically. The customer still does not receive the same unrestricted control as a raw VPS, and some infrastructure changes require cloning or coordination.
WP Engine intentionally hides most server decisions. Customers choose a plan and region, then use a consistent WordPress environment. That reduces flexibility but also reduces architectural choices a marketing team must understand.
WordPress workflow
WP Engine includes development, staging, and production environments, daily and on-demand backups, SSH, SSL, EverCache, security scanning, and automated deployment options. Transferable sites help agencies build a project before handing billing and ownership to a client.
Cloudways offers application staging, cloning, backups, SSH/SFTP, Git deployment support, cron controls, and its WordPress caching stack. It accommodates WordPress alongside other supported PHP applications, which is useful for agencies with mixed portfolios.
WP Engine’s workflow is more prescriptive and consistent across accounts. Cloudways offers more knobs and exposes more server context. Developers may appreciate either approach; nontechnical customers generally find WP Engine’s WordPress-only model easier to reason about.
Performance
Both platforms can produce fast sites. Cloudways performance varies with the selected provider, server size, region, cache setup, and the number of colocated applications. WP Engine standardizes more of the stack and uses EverCache and edge services, but application quality and plan capacity still matter.
Do not compare hosts using two unrelated demo sites. Clone the same site, align CDN and image optimization, warm caches consistently, and measure cached pages, search, forms, logged-in requests, and WordPress administration.
Cloudways gives owners more direct capacity signals and scaling choices. WP Engine’s visit allowance is not a performance ceiling; dynamic sites may need consultation even below it. In both cases, slow database queries and third-party scripts require application work.
Backups and recovery
WP Engine includes daily automated and on-demand backups and makes environment restore points central to its portal. Cloudways lets customers configure backup frequency and retention, with off-site backup storage billed according to current policy.
Each can support sound recovery, but settings matter. A store may need more frequent database protection than a brochure site. Maintain an independent copy for critical workloads and rehearse restoration. Confirm whether files and the database can be recovered separately and what happens to backups after account closure.
Security
WP Engine’s standardized platform includes SSL, DDoS protection, security patching, plugin-risk scanning, activity logs, and managed WordPress protections. Its tighter boundaries can simplify governance for organizations that want one vendor’s platform rules.
Cloudways manages server patching and provides platform firewalls, SSL, bot and application protections, with some security capabilities or Cloudflare services available as add-ons. Customers make more configuration decisions and should review which protections apply at server, application, and edge levels.
Neither host assumes responsibility for unsafe custom code, excessive administrator access, stolen credentials, or every plugin vulnerability. Maintain WordPress security practices regardless of platform.
Support
WP Engine includes 24/7 WordPress-specific support, with channels and escalation depending on plan. Its team is focused on WordPress and the WP Engine environment.
Cloudways provides platform support and sells enhanced support tiers. Its scope often ends where custom application code begins. Because customers choose more infrastructure variables, advanced troubleshooting may require a technical owner who can interpret resource metrics and logs.
Test both teams with the same realistic issue. Ask who owns an incident involving a slow database query, a cache conflict, or a traffic spike, and what assistance is included at the quoted tier.
Agency use
Cloudways is attractive to agencies that want to group sites on servers, select regions, clone applications, and build their own care-plan margins. Careful capacity management is essential: one noisy client can affect others sharing a server.
WP Engine makes client handoff and standardized environments easier. Its site allowances are clear, but portfolio plans may cost more and aggregate traffic limits can shape plan selection. Agencies should compare collaborator access, billing transfer, backups, staging, and offboarding rather than only cost per install.
WooCommerce
WP Engine offers dedicated eCommerce plan variants and performance add-ons. Cloudways lets a store choose larger server resources and scale vertically. Neither choice removes the need to test uncached checkout, scheduled actions, search, payment webhooks, and database growth.
For a single important store, compare a Cloudways server sized with headroom against the appropriate WP Engine eCommerce package. Include support level, CDN, backup frequency, security extras, and expected overages in the total.
Which host should you choose?
Choose Cloudways if you want:
- a choice of cloud infrastructure and regions;
- server-resource pricing rather than visit-based packages;
- several applications on one managed server;
- more control over services and scaling;
- a platform suitable for WordPress and other supported PHP apps.
Choose WP Engine if you want:
- a WordPress-only managed experience;
- standardized Dev, Stage, and Production environments;
- strong agency handoff and collaboration tools;
- included on-demand backups and WordPress security features;
- simpler plan allowances and specialist support.
Editor’s pick: Cloudways
Related reading: Cloudways Review 2026: Managed Cloud Hosting Tested
Final verdict
Cloudways wins on infrastructure flexibility and potential portfolio economics. WP Engine wins on WordPress standardization, polished workflow, and reduced operational choice. Neither is universally cheaper because they meter different things.
Price a real configuration for twelve months. Then migrate a representative site and test both cached and dynamic behavior, restoration, deployment, and support. The better host is the one whose operating model matches the person actually responsible for the site.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cloudways fully managed?
It manages the server and hosting stack, but customers still own their applications, plugins, code, and many configuration decisions.
Does WP Engine charge visitor overages?
Applicable Essential plans currently charge a published per-visit overage fee above the included allowance.
Can Cloudways host more than WordPress?
Yes. It supports selected PHP applications, while WP Engine’s Essential hosting is WordPress-focused.
Which is easier for beginners?
WP Engine’s standardized WordPress-only experience is generally easier; Cloudways rewards greater infrastructure awareness.