[Compare · Managed Cloud]

Cloudways vs WP Engine

Higher score
CloudwaysIndie
9.2/ 10
WP EngineIndie
8.2/ 10
Across 4 measured dimensions: Cloudways wins 2, WP Engine wins 0 (2 tie / n/a)
[01]

Side by side.

8 dimensions
MetricCloudwaysWP Engine
Score
Winner: left
9.28.2
Δ 90 days
0.10.1
Parent & badge
DigitalOceanIndie
IndependentIndie
Founded
20122010
Best for
Scaling WP / WooCommerceAgencies / enterprise
Year-1 price
Winner: left
$132$300
Renewal multiplier
Tagline
Managed cloud · DO/Vultr/AWSEnterprise managed WP
[02]

What works, what doesn't.

Per provider
Cloudways4 pros · 3 cons
+ Pros
  • Choice of underlying cloud (DO/Vultr/AWS/Linode)
  • Hourly billing
  • Excellent WP-specific caching
  • Lifetime 7% revshare on affiliates
– Cons
  • Email is a paid add-on (Rackspace)
  • Backup add-on costs extra
  • Owned by DigitalOcean since 2022
WP Engine4 pros · 3 cons
+ Pros
  • Local dev environment is excellent
  • Git push deploys
  • Atlas (headless WP) is genuinely good
  • Agency portal + multisite support
– Cons
  • Expensive for small sites
  • ACF/WP Engine fallout in 2024 leaves long-term uncertainty
  • No email hosting
Make the call

Pick one and go.

Both links are affiliate. Score doesn't move because of it.