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Most buyers should pick Flywheel.
Choose Flywheel if you want published USD pricing, free WordPress migrations, and a dashboard for freelancers and agencies: plans start at $25/month and cap sites, visits, storage, and bandwidth. Choose WP Engine if performance, publishing controls, store tools, or its Business-tier 99.99% uptime SLA matter more. Its provided pricing is in euros, not USD, and optional add-on prices are mostly unpublished, so compare a written quote against your traffic and storage needs before switching.
01Side by side
| Flywheel | WP Engine | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $25/month; $300 annual total | USD price not published; €25.60/month annually |
| Free plan | No free plan | No free plan |
| Best for | Freelancers, agencies, and creative teams | Agencies, online stores, and content teams |
| Core strength | Managed WordPress, migrations, dashboard, and nightly backups | Performance, security, publishing governance, and Business-tier uptime SLA |
| Learning curve | Not published in provided materials | Not published in provided materials |
| Integrations/data | Not published in provided materials | Not published in provided materials |
| Team/seat costs | Seat price not published; extra sites cost $20/month each | Seat price not published; Enterprise includes a dedicated account team |
| Support | 24/7 WordPress experts | 24/7 support; Essential includes chat |
Flywheel Choose Flywheel if
- Choose Flywheel if you want published USD pricing from $25/month.
- Choose Flywheel if free migrations and nightly backups matter.
- Choose Flywheel if your work fits the 1–30-site tiers.
WP Engine Choose WP Engine if
- Choose WP Engine if you need publishing approvals and permissions.
- Choose WP Engine if you want the Business plan's 99.99% uptime SLA.
- Choose WP Engine if your store needs checkout and search tools.
02Pricing compared
Flywheel has published USD prices; the WP Engine pricing details provided here are in euros, so they are not a like-for-like currency comparison. According to Flywheel’s pricing page, Starter is $25/month for one site, 25,000 monthly visits, 10GB of storage, and 50GB of bandwidth. Freelance is $96/month for up to 10 sites, and Agency is $242/month for up to 30. Annual billing is listed with two months free. Extra sites cost $20/month each, and visits above plan limits cost $1 per 1,000; storage overages are $1 per GB.
WP Engine lists Essential at €25.60/month and Business at €370.92/month, billed annually, but the published pricing does not show USD prices. Several optional add-ons have no published prices. Get a quote that includes your expected traffic, storage, and extras before comparing totals.
03Features and depth
Both products host WordPress sites, but their listed strengths differ. Flywheel covers practical site operations: a dashboard for managing sites, collaborating, and updating DNS; nightly backups; free WordPress migrations; and billing transfer to a client. Its plans publish site, visit, storage, and bandwidth limits, which makes it easier to see where a group of client sites might hit a cap.
WP Engine emphasizes performance, protection, and publishing tools. Its listed features include publishing approvals and permissions, a store growth suite for checkout, search, and store operations, and an agency partner program. The Business plan includes a 99.99% uptime SLA; that guarantee is not listed for every plan. WP Engine’s Essential plan includes daily automated backups, while plugin and theme updates are optional and their prices are not published on the vendor's site. Both can suit managed WordPress workloads, but the right fit depends on whether your priority is Flywheel’s explicit site-management and migration features or WP Engine’s publishing controls and store tools.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Flywheel’s custom dashboard is listed for site management, collaboration, and DNS updates. Billing transfer can also help when a freelancer or agency hands a site’s bill to its client. Its plans and limits are published in USD, though you still need to account for add-ons and overages as a client portfolio grows.
WP Engine lists publishing approvals, permissions, and governance tools for teams, plus 24/7 chat support on Essential and priority 24/7 support on Enterprise. The published details do not describe its setup workflow or publish prices for most optional add-ons, so check those points before switching. For a solo operator or small agency, Flywheel’s visible limits may make planning simpler; teams with publishing governance needs may prefer to evaluate WP Engine’s controls.
Questions people ask
Which is cheaper, Flywheel or WP Engine?
Flywheel publishes USD plans from $25/month, with higher listed tiers at $96 and $242/month. WP Engine’s published pricing is in euros: Essential is €25.60/month and Business is €370.92/month, billed annually. Since USD prices and several add-on costs are not published here, compare written totals in the same currency.
Which is better for an agency?
Flywheel lists plans for up to 10 or 30 sites, free migrations, collaboration tools, and client billing transfer. WP Engine lists an agency partner program, publishing governance, and 24/7 support. The better fit depends on site count, traffic, and whether client handoff or publishing controls matter more.
Does Flywheel offer free WordPress migrations?
Yes. Flywheel says it will move WordPress sites for free. The published WP Engine details do not state whether migrations are free, so confirm migration scope and any charges with WP Engine before switching.
Which host has an uptime guarantee?
WP Engine lists a 99.99% uptime SLA on its Business plan. The published Flywheel details do not list an uptime guarantee. Check the applicable contract and plan terms before treating the SLA as coverage for every site or plan.