Best WP Engine Alternatives of 2025

WP Engine is more expensive than typical WordPress web hosts, doesn’t work with all themes or plugins, and relies on upselling a bit too heavily. These downsides can be annoying, especially for small business users.

If you’re shopping for WordPress hosts, Kinsta is an enterprise-grade WordPress hosting service with equally good features and optimization. The upside is that Kinsta offers more flexibility at a lower price.

Moreover, both SiteGround and Bluehost make good WP Engine alternatives, depending on the circumstances. SiteGround promises the same category of performance at a much more reasonable price. Bluehost is not quite as premium on the service front, but it still offers everything beginners can ask for in a top web hosting service at very pocket-friendly rates.

We cover the best WP Engine alternatives, factoring in pricing, features, and performance based on our in-house testing.

Best WP Engine Alternatives of 2025

Compare the best WP Engine alternatives of 2025

Best for	Best for enterprises	Best for performance	Best for beginners
Star rating	4.4 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.	5.0 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.	4.8 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.
Starting price	Starts at $30/mo	Starts at $2.99/mo	Starts at $2.99/mo
Money-back guarantee	Yes — 30 days	Yes — 30 days	Yes — 30 days
Uptime guarantee	99.99%	99.99%	99.9%
Monthly visits	35K - unlimited	10K - 400K	Unmetered
Number of websites	1 - 60	1 - unlimited	10 - 100
Storage	10 GB - 100 GB	10 GB - 40 GB	10 GB - 250 GB
Free SSL certificate	On all plans	On all plans	On all plans
Free domain for a year		On all plans	On all plans
Learn more	Get Kinsta Read our Kinsta Review	Get SiteGround Read our SiteGround Review	Get Bluehost Read our Bluehost Review

Kinsta: Best for enterprises

What we liked

Google Cloud infrastructure: Kinsta relies on Google Cloud servers to power its cloud hosting infrastructure, benefiting from the best-in-class performance reserved for its premium-tier users.

Developer-friendly setup: With Kinsta, you get SSH access, Git integration, WP-CLI, etc., built directly into the MyKinsta dashboard. Its interface retains its smooth and accessible design, even for complex developer workflows, making life easier for those designing or deploying complex web apps.

WordPress-specific optimizations: Kinsta has features purpose-built for managed WordPress hosting, with many platform-specific optimizations to enable good performance even under pressure. You get built-in Cloudflare CDN, daily automated backups, and server-level caching for improved load times.

What we didn’t like

Still expensive: Similar to WP Engine’s entry-level Startup plan, Kinsta’s pricing is still higher than most competitors, with a starting price of $30/mo. Each plan lets you deploy multiple WordPress websites, which is great for agencies, but it offers far less utility for small businesses.

No domain registration: Since it doesn’t offer domain registration services, Kinsta forces you to buy your website domain from other vendors and complete a few additional verification steps to integrate it with your WordPress installation. That’s a shame, since most competitors offer at least 1 year of free domain registration with automatic integration with your hosting servers.

Test results

Our speed tests across Montreal, Dallas, and Strasbourg showed consistent results with a performance score of 98-99/100. With an average request rate of 4/second and peaking at 7/second, stress tests produced no HTTP errors with 250 virtual users. We also received a perfect uptime report of 100% during our entire test period with Uptime Robot.

Star rating summary

Kinsta gets top marks for performance and user experience. With its Google Cloud infrastructure and Git integration, it also appeals to developers who test and deploy multiple WordPress sites. While the pricing may be geared toward agencies rather than small businesses, it’s still quite a bit cheaper than WP Engine.

SiteGround: Best for performance

What we liked

Optimized servers: Like Kinsta, SiteGround runs on Google Cloud infrastructure and offers several server-level optimizations specifically designed for WordPress websites. You also get multi-level server caching, 1-click CDN configuration, and its proprietary “Ultrafast PHP” technology, which claims to boost website speeds by 30% through code optimizations.

Accessible UI: SiteGround’s interface design is extremely accessible, with most optimizations running under the hood with no configuration required. You can install WordPress with a single click using Softaculous and even benefit from its new AI Studio agents for site management.

Website builder: SiteGround offers a WordPress-specific website builder with performance optimizations, now powered by its custom AI Assistant. There’s also Coderick AI, a recently released web app builder that uses simple AI prompts to build complex internal tools such as CRMs, planners, and custom landing pages.

What we didn’t like

Steep renewal pricing: When you sign up for a SiteGround plan, your subscription starts at an introductory rate of $2.99/mo. But after the first billing cycle, prices jump to $17.99/mo. It’s a steep price hike even for the hosting industry, which catches many new users off guard.

Add-on reliance: SiteGround’s pricing structure relies too heavily on add-ons, which can quickly increase subscription costs above base-plan pricing if you need advanced features.

Test results

SiteGround received similar performance scores to Kinsta during speed testing, averaging 98.33/100. However, server response times were a fair bit slower, with an average of 634 ms and a peak of 820 ms during load testing. Still, there were no major HTTP failures with over 250 virtual users within 1 minute.

Star rating summary

If you’re looking for a premium hosting service with a more balanced pricing structure than Kinsta or WP Engine, SiteGround is a good choice. Its pricing, despite the renewal hikes, is more affordable than either provider's and accessible to small businesses that rely on top-notch performance.

Bluehost: Best for beginners

What we liked

Endorsed by WordPress.org: Bluehost has received an official seal of approval from the WordPress team for several years in a row, making it a dependable choice for most entry-level users who don’t expect developer features or cutting-edge performance.

Very beginner-friendly: Between its AI website builder for WordPress, Yoast SEO, and WooCommerce integration, and security tools like SiteLock and CodeGuard, Bluehost can take a load off your IT team’s shoulders with most essential functions preconfigured and built in. While some of these features are available only as paid add-ons, it’s still nice to have the option if you run into trouble setting it up yourself.

Affordable entry point: With plans starting at $2.99/mo for the first billing cycle and renewing at just $9.99/mo, Bluehost is the most affordable WordPress host on this list that still has all the features most business users need.

What we didn’t like

Feature exclusions: With Bluehost, things like automated malware removal and domain privacy protection require separate purchases. It keeps the base plan costs low, but expect to pay more if you don’t have all the technical expertise in-house.

Mediocre service: Bluehost has racked up several complaints about its customer service over recent years, mostly due to poor handling of customer queries and refund requests by its agents. While support remains accessible 24/7 through live chat, the quality of interactions can vary a lot depending on which agent you’re paired with.

Test results

Bluehost received a 100/100 performance score across Montreal, Strasbourg, and Dallas. Oddly enough, it outperformed both Kinsta and SiteGround in terms of server response times during our most recent tests. That said, other people may have different experiences. Uptime Robot reported zero downtime during our tests.

Star rating summary

If you’re a new user looking for an affordable entry point to WordPress-optimized hosting, Bluehost is a good place to start. It’s not as premium as WP Engine, Kinsta, or even SiteGround, with its server-level WordPress optimizations. But in terms of covering the basics well and offering tools to make setup and maintenance easier for your WordPress website, Bluehost does a pretty good job.

When should you consider a WP Engine alternative?

Among many WordPress pros, WP Engine is the go-to choice for premium managed hosting. While it doesn’t offer anything particularly impressive in terms of raw hardware specs or resource limits, WP Engine excels at server optimization to get the best performance out of your WordPress site.

That said, WP Engine can be expensive and sometimes restrictive. Let’s take a look at some pros and cons:

If you’re thinking of switching away from WP Engine, chances are that you’ve found yourself in one of the following situations:

• You’re outgrowing shared hosting. WP Engine offers excellent managed hosting for small to medium websites, but it doesn't offer virtual or dedicated servers unless you’re willing to shell out at least $400/mo. Competitors like Bluehost offer managed VPS servers for far less.
• You need more flexibility. If you’re looking for full root access to your server, along with custom configurations and plugins, WP Engine may feel severely limiting. Kinsta and SiteGround both have far fewer restrictions despite being managed hosting providers.
• You have WordPress expertise in-house. WP Engine’s biggest selling point is the quality of support its agents offer. They are WordPress pros who will happily tweak your code and even offer to solve website issues unrelated to its service. But it doesn’t mean much if you already have the required IT expertise in-house. At that point, it’s just an avoidable expense.

Depending on your situation, there are several hosting providers you could look at. Beyond expensive managed WordPress providers, you can also choose standard web hosts as long as they have basic installation support for WordPress, and your IT team can handle the rest.

Bottom line: The best WP Engine alternatives of 2025

Kinsta is our pick for the best WP Engine alternative. It offers a similar category of managed WordPress experience, with excellent support and server optimization. But it does so for a lower price and doesn’t force you to contend with plugin and theme restrictions.

However, Kinsta is still more expensive than other web hosts. Apart from Kinsta, you can look to performance-focused managed hosts like SiteGround or a more typical entry-level hosting service like Bluehost. They’re each fully optimized for WordPress use, with plenty of features to help you take care of maintenance and security without doing it all yourself.

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