Cloudways vs WP Engine: flexible cloud or enterprise polish?
Cloudways is a managed WordPress layer running on your choice of five clouds. WP Engine is opinionated managed WordPress on its own infrastructure. Both mature, different structural bets. Prices checked September 3, 2026.
The short answer
✓ Prices checked September 3, 2026
| Provider | What it is | Entry | Multi-site | Cloud choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudways | Managed WP layer on DO/Vultr/Linode/AWS/GCP | $14/mo (DO 1 GB, Standard) | Pay per droplet; multiple sites per droplet allowed | 5 underlying clouds | Pay-monthly, no annual lock; used by CloudPlans itself |
| WP Engine | Managed WP on WPE + Google Cloud | $30/mo (Startup, annual) | Growth $109/mo (10 sites); Scale $276/mo (30 sites) | Own infrastructure (some Google Cloud) | Enterprise-heavy; overage fees on traffic spikes |
Cloudways wins
Price and multi-cloud flexibility. $14/month for the entry tier undercuts WP Engine’s $30 Startup by a meaningful spread. You also pick the underlying cloud (DigitalOcean is the default, Vultr is cheaper, Linode is faster in some regions, AWS or Google Cloud if you have specific compliance needs). Cloudways is pay-monthly with no annual commitment. The site you are reading now runs on Cloudways.
WP Engine wins
Multi-site agency management under one bill, and the enterprise sales tier. Growth at $109/month includes 10 sites, Scale at $276/month includes 30. That is meaningfully cheaper per site than stacking Cloudways droplets if all your sites have similar traffic. WP Engine’s dev tooling (Local by Flywheel, staging via one click, headless integration) is also more polished than Cloudways.
Where they tie
Both handle SSL, backups, staging, and WordPress-specific optimization. Both have 24/7 support. Both are used by hundreds of thousands of production sites. Both offer decent migration tools.
The bottom line
One or two sites, budget-conscious, want cloud choice: Cloudways. Agency with 5+ WordPress sites under one account: WP Engine Growth or Scale. Enterprise WordPress with heavy traffic and complex dev workflow: WP Engine. Everyone else: Cloudways is usually the calmer buy.
Common questions
Is Cloudways cheaper than WP Engine?
At the entry tier, yes: $14/month vs $30/month is a meaningful spread. Once you scale to 10+ sites or high-traffic single sites, WP Engine’s Growth and Scale plans can price out better per site depending on your traffic pattern.
Which one has better WordPress-specific features?
WP Engine, slightly. Their dev tooling (Local by Flywheel, DevKit, headless plans) is more mature than Cloudways. Cloudways has caught up on the basics (staging, one-click Git, WP-CLI) but WP Engine is still the more opinionated WordPress specialist.
Can I migrate from Cloudways to WP Engine or vice versa?
Yes. Both offer free migration plugins that clone WordPress sites between hosts with no downtime beyond DNS TTL. Both compete for each other’s customers, so both make migration easy.
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