Premium managed WordPress hosting providers have become more popular in the last few years. As WordPress grew in popularity, the same growth happened with those types of hosting providers. They provide tailor-made platforms for WordPress websites only. They are built to offer exactly what a WordPress website needs for high security and performance.
This is an unbiased comparison of the three main Premium managed WordPress hosting providers: WP Engine, Flywheel, Kinsta. At the end of the page, you can see which hosting provider we suggest depending on what is important for you or click on Which one should you choose IF in the top navigation.
WP Engine Pros and Cons
- Most popular and renowned premium WordPress host
- Fast and helpful support with 24/7 live chat
- Free Genesis framework and themes included
- Trusted by large companies
- Easy and intuitive control panel
- Most expensive provider in this comparison
Flywheel Pros and Cons
- Cheapest premium WordPress host in this comparison
- Blueprints feature: save a theme and plugin as a pre-installed package
- Billing transfer: Make your client pays for their host plan directly
- High-security standards and daily backups
- Doesn't include a free CDN for all plans
- No phpMyAdmin (proprietary tool for database management)
Kinsta Pros and Cons
- Tailor-made for speed and security
- Developer-friendly with all the latest technologies
- Built on Google Cloud Platform with choice of datacenter
- Helpful 24/7 support with live chat and emails
- Not the cheapest option listed in this page
- No phone support
Feature comparison
WP Engine
|
Flywheel
|
Kinsta
|
|
| Stage, Prod Environments | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free SSL certificates | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free CDN | Yes | Only for certain plans | Yes |
| Backups | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Access logs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Disallowed plugins | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multisite | As a paid ad-on | Only for certain plans | Only for certain plans |
| One-click cloning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Choice of server location | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Site Migration | Yes with a plugin | Yes as a free service | Yes as a free service |
| phpMyAdmin | Yes | No | Yes |
| Free WP themes | Yes | No | No |
| Email Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 24/7 Chat Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Phone Support | Only for certain plans | No | No |
| Learn more about WP Engine | Learn more about Flywheel | Learn more about Kinsta |
Pricing comparison
|
WP Engine
|
Flywheel
|
Kinsta
|
|
| For 1 site (20,000 - 25,000 visits) | $35 | $30 | $30 |
| For 5 sites | $115 ($23 per site) | $100 ($20 per site) | |
| For 10 sites | $100 ($10 per site) | $200 ($20 per site) | |
| For 15 sites | $290 ($19 per site) | ||
| For 20 sites | $300 ($15 per site) | ||
| For 30 sites | $250 ($8 per site) | ||
| For 30+ sites | Custom | Custom | $400 for 40 sites ($10 per site) |
| Learn more about WP Engine | Learn more about Flywheel | Learn more about Kinsta |
Popularity comparison
|
WP Engine
|
Flywheel
|
Kinsta
|
|
| Visits with Similarweb | 6.19M / Month | 732K / Month | 2.38M / Month |
| Alexa Traffic Rank | 3,642 | 31,207 | 14,974 |
| Domain authority | 61 | 64 | 57 |
| Facebook followers | 38,057 | 22,567 | 19,104 |
| Twitter followers | 38,273 | 14,400 | 10,946 |
| LinkedIn followers | 10,763 | 2,187 | 831 |
| Learn more about WP Engine | Learn more about Flywheel | Learn more about Kinsta |
* The popularity comparison was created to give a quick overview of publicly available data. It is not a direct sign of which hosting company is better.
Which One Should You Choose If...
If the price is important for you
If the price is important for you, we suggest going with Flywheel as they are the most affordable in this comparison. Flywheel is more oriented for designers than developers. It offers many features to manage your WordPress websites but could be limited for advanced developers. If you are a developer and want more control on your websites, we would suggest Kinsta which is a bit more expensive than Flywheel but still less than WP Engine.
If the support is important for you
WP Engine is the king here followed closed by Kinsta. WP Engine is first here because of the phone support which is not included in their Startup plan. If you need a quick change or there is a problem with your website, simply call their support and they will make the change right away. WP Engine is the most expensive host listed in this comparison but you get what you pay for.
If the reliability is important for you
All hosts listed here offer great reliability but for this point, we would choose Kinsta. They check the status of all the websites they host every 2 minutes. They have extensive technical knowledge of WordPress and hosting.
If you want the best hosting provider overall
Our favorite hosting provider listed on this page is Kinsta. Their prices are between WP Engine and Flywheel and offer all features needed to host a WordPress website. On Trustpilot.com, an unbiased review platform, Kinsta has almost a perfect rating and most users say that Kinsta is the best hosting provider they ever had.
Some reviews of Kinsta on Trustpilot:Nov 12, 2018 - 5/5: Kinsta has been nothing short of fantastic. Very knowledgeable support that responds quickly and goes above and beyond of what's expected to solve your problem.
Oct 1, 2018 - 5/5: Absolutely the best Wordpress hosting out there.
Sep 25, 2018 - 5/5: Outstanding service and customer experience. Good value for money. Looking forward to seeing the next feature.