We can’t deny the fact that WPEngine is an excellent choice if you are looking for WordPress hosting, though quite expensive. Following their recent increase in price, WPEngine users now have to pay $30 every month as the lowest package.
Honestly, not everyone will be happy with the increase in price. A ton of people will look into other hosting platforms to find cheaper deals as they cannot continue paying the $30 every month.
Luckily, WordPress hosting is a battlefield of many hosting providers, and it also doesn’t mean that cheap hosting results in lower quality services. There are a ton of affordable WP Engine substitutes out there that compromise on the quality service to their users.
In this post, we will be looking at some of the five WP Engine alternatives you can opt for, especially when you can’t stay committed to their plans after the sudden increase in hosting fees. Let’s get started.
But before that do not forget to read a full WP Engine review.
5 WP Engine Alternatives
1. Kinsta
Kinsta is one of the popular WordPress hosting platforms that recently lowered its price. After slashing their hosting rates, their plans start at $30 every month, which means that it’s now one of the top WordPress hosting platforms to make it to any top list.
There are a couple of things that make Kinsta great. To start with, it offers users a custom dashboard that simplifies the functionalities such as automatic updates and easy installation of staging sites.
Apart from the dashboard, Kinsta also takes pride in an excellent performance. Rest assured that your website will be hosted on the top tier of Google Cloud Platform. This is the same feature that the world’s most popular search engine uses to host their products.
Among their perks include NGINX, PHP 7.2, server-level caching, as well as other performance-related technologies. When you choose to use Kinsta, you’ll get a free premium DNS, as well as a free CDN.
When we did our last survey, these are the results that Kinsta gave us:
- Kinsta got an average rating of 4.8 out of the possible 5, while WP Engine got an average rating of 4.4 out of the possible 5.
- The hosting service provider garnered good marks for customer support, as well as general WordPress support. It got a rating of 4.9 out of the possible 5.
- Kinsta tied with WP Engine, each getting a rating of 4.8 out of the possible 5.
Pricing
As we mentioned earlier, the packages for Kinsta after they reduced their prices begin at $30 every month.
Features
- Kinsta provides a custom dashboard that users find easy to work with.
- You can easily set up staging sites with just one click.
- Kinsta offers its users daily backup perks, as well as one-click restores in case you messed something up.
- It leverages the premium tier of Google Cloud Platform.
- You’ll get a free SSL certificate, a free CDN, as well as a premium DNS.
When to use Kinsta
Kinsta may not be the cheapest WordPress hosting alternative, but you can be assured of top-notch performance, though it is still more affordable as compared to WP Engine.
Kinsta also ensures that its users find it easy to use its hosting services by offering them a user-friendly dashboard.
So if top-notch performance, as well as ease of use, is at the top of your priorities, the Kinsta should be your best bet.
2. SiteGround
SiteGround is also one of the best WordPress hosting providers. Their starter package kicks off at $3.95 every month. In other words, SiteGround offers its users a cheaper WordPress hosting slashing one-fifth of the regular pricing. Honestly, how cool is that?
Even more, SiteGround offers its users excellent loading speeds, as well as a knowledgeable team of experts to provide you excellent customer support.
Sadly, you’ll need to commit to a longer-term to enjoy the benefits of free discounts SiteGround offers its users. That means that you will have to pay for up to one year upfront to unlock the vast discounts SiteGround presents to its first-time customers.
If we try to argue in line with WordPress-specific functionalities, we can comfortably say that SiteGround scores well. SiteGround offers its users features that both WordPress savvies, as well as WordPress beginners can relate to
In our survey, SiteGround managed to score the following in different categories. Have a look:
- SiteGround scored higher points as compared to WP Engine. SiteGround was able to get a rating of 4.6 out of the possible 5 against WP Engine’s 4.4.
- Reliability is something that’s key in SiteGround, and they garnered a rating of 4.6 out of the possible 5 ratings.
- Customer support is also excellent at SiteGround. SiteGround proved us wrong with an average rating of 4.7 out of the possible 5-star rating. It’s WordPress-specific customer support didn’t do bad either – 4.5 out of 5.
Pricing
All in monthly payment plans:
- Startup – $3.95
- Grow big – $5.95
- GoGeek – $11.95
Features
- You’ll not pay a penny when migrating your site.
- You can easily install WordPress staging sites in just a matter of seconds.
- SiteGround provides its users with a free in-house caching tool.
- SiteGround users have the freedom to install the Git for WordPress.
When to use SiteGround
SiteGround scores well in all categories we can think of if we compare it with other WordPress hosting service providers. It offers its users excellent customer support, top-notch performance, as well as the popular WordPress-specific features.
If you don’t mind committing yourself to a yearly plan, then you’ll find that SiteGround is a good deal. If monthly plans are your best options, SiteGround might not just be your cup of tea. You’ll have to look elsewhere.
3. Hostgator
Hostgator makes it on our list of WPEngine alternatives. Hostgator hosts more than 9 million domains with over 400k customers, which makes it one of the most popular hosting service providers in the world.
Its popularity comes from the low pricing it offers its aspiring users, as well as their eye-catching Cloud Hosting Starter Package that begins at $5.95 every month. If you are a WordPress savvy, you’ll attest that this is quite affordable.
However, when we conducted our survey, we found out that Hostgator scored quite averagely, which means you’ll have to make your choice depending on your top priorities.
Pricing
All in monthly payment plans:
- Hatching plan – $2.75
- Baby plan – $3.95
- Business plan – $5.95
Features
- The basic plan that Hostgator offers is said to accommodate the traffic of 100,000 visitors every month.
- Hostgator offers its users 24/7 customer support through emails, phone support, as well as live chat sessions.
- You’ll be entitled to a free website migration as a Hostgator customer.
- If you go for either Hostgator’s standard or business packages, you will get free tutorials.
- Hostgator offers its users a free shared SSL certificate.
- The hosting service provider also offers free CDN.
When to use HostGator
If you are a WordPress beginner, Hostgator will be a good option for you. You’ll benefit from its low pricing, step-by-step tutorials, as well as an easy-to-use interface.
4. GoDaddy
GoDaddy is popularly known across the world as a domain registrar, though they also offer hosting services. They offer WordPress managed hosting way cheaper plans, and the best all is that they don’t compromise on their quality.
GoDaddy offers its users free daily backups, a migration tool to help them migrate their websites easily, a one-click restore in case you messed something from your site, 24/7 customer support, as well as automatic WordPress updates.
If we can stop there, then you’ll agree with us that those are way better deals, but what about the pricing? GoDaddy cheapest WordPress hosting package begins at $9.99 every month, but they have discounts that may pull this down as low as $5 or even $1.
However, you need to know that you’ll pay way more when the renewal date comes. Sometimes, you will have to pay even double what you paid at first sign up.
Pricing
All in monthly payment plans:
- Basic plan – $6.99
- Standard plan – $9.99
- Premium plan – $14.99
- E-commerce plan – $19.99
Features
- GoDaddy offers its users a free daily backup, as well as a one-click restore functionality.
- It has an uptime of ninety-nine point nine percent.
- The popular domain registrar offers its users a free migration tool to simplify their work.
- Opting for the yearly plans means that you’ll secure a free domain name.
- Exceptional customer support.
When to use GoDaddy
To make it simpler, let’s put it this way: GoDaddy is one of the most affordable WordPress hosting service providers and a better substitute for WPEngine.
They only managed to get a rating of 3.5 out of the possible 5, but the fact remains that they have a pricing plan that must cause its competitors sleepless nights.
If your top priority is price, GoDaddy is the perfect WordPress hosting for you.
5. Dreamhost
The final WordPress hosting service provider on our list is Dreamhost. Dreamhost is just another giant hosting service provider that offers its users dedicated WordPress hosting services.
Dreamhost has been providing hosting services since 1996 and takes pride in customer satisfaction. From our survey, we realized that 96 percent of Dreamhost’s customers would be happy to renew their subscriptions with Dreamhost.
Dreamhost also provides users with excellent uptime and loading speeds. Additionally, this hosting giant is popular because of the knowledgeable support it offers its users.
Pricing
All in monthly payment plans:
- Shared – $4.95
- DreamPress – $19.95
- VPS – $15.0
- Dedicated – from $169 to $249
Features
- Dreamhost offers users a caching system responsible for handling traffic spikes.
- Users get WP-CLI pre-installed, which helps you to update your plugins.
- One-click SSL certificate
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 24/7 customer support.
When to use DreamHost
If security and performance is your top priority, then Dreamhost will be your perfect WordPress hosting service provider.
Over to You
WP Engine is one of the best hosting service providers offering dedicated WordPress hosting, though its price is way much for most people.
Luckily, you can still get the same services you’d get at WP Engine at a fair price. The alternatives above have different advantages and disadvantages.
Review them carefully and choose your alternative WordPress hosting service provider, depending on your preferences.