Best WP Engine Alternatives of 2024: We’ve Found the Top 4 Hosts

Want a clear round-up of the best WP Engine alternatives? The table below, which highlights the key features of each web host, should help you make your decision:

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BEST IN TEST
Bluehost	Hostinger	DreamHost	GoDaddy
Uptime 99.98%	Uptime 99.99%	Uptime 100%	Uptime 99.97%
Money-back guarantee 30 days	Money-back guarantee 30 days	Money-back guarantee 97 days	Money-back guarantee 48 hours to 30 days
Free backups	Free backups	Free backups	Free backups
Storage space 10GB – Unlimited	Storage space 100GB – 200GB	Storage space 50GB – Unlimited	Storage space 25GB – 100GB
Bandwidth Unmetered	Bandwidth Unlimited	Bandwidth Unmetered	Bandwidth Unmetered
RAM 4GB – 16GB	RAM 4GB – 32GB	RAM 1GB – 16GB	RAM 2GB – 16GB
See our Bluehost review	See our Hostinger review	See our DreamHost review	See our GoDaddy review

• ✅ Officially recommended by WordPress.org 
• We recommend Bluehost for: Small business owners or bloggers looking for a strong all-rounder when setting up their site’s hosting or migrating from WP Engine

Having tested Bluehost in-house, we can confirm that it’s the best WordPress Managed web host on the market. With WordPress also consistently recommending Bluehost since 2005, the platform shines thanks to its responsive customer support, impressive WordPress integration, and affordable price point.

Bluehost Pros & Cons

✔️ Has cheap introductory deals for small businesses on a budget

✔️ Its streamlined dashboard makes it easy to manage your WordPress site from one area

✔️ Comes with accessible support lines via phone, email, and live chat

❌ You can’t access daily website backups on the cheapest plan. Instead, you have to upgrade to the Choice Plus plan or above

❌ You may find additional expenses in your cart at checkout

What WordPress Support Does Bluehost Offer?

Bluehost’s all-in-one WordPress plans are designed to keep you supported at each stage of your site’s journey. For instance, you’ll have access to a one-click WordPress installation that streamlines the setup process for you, as well as automatic WordPress updates. If you ever need expert support, you can access 27/4 assistance via mobile, email, or live chat too.

If you do need to migrate from WP Engine, Bluehost will cover the costs of the migration for you. Once you’ve applied for the deal on Bluehost’s website, you’ll be put in contact with a Cloud specialist who will help you choose a suitable hosting plan and then migrate your site free of charge.

Additionally, Bluehost makes it easy to manage your WordPress site directly from its dashboard. For instance, after logging in, we could use each tab on our dashboard to:

• Manage our WordPress site(s) 
• Manage our active WordPress themes and plugins
• Monitor our site’s performance
• Check our security and adjust these settings when needed

We particularly liked Bluehost’s “Advanced” panel tab that came with additional cPanel features. If you’re on the Choice plan or above, you can back up your site there – a useful way to safeguard your site’s data.

How Much Does Bluehost Cost?

Bluehost’s pricing is split into four main plans, which I’ve listed in the table below:

Out of the options above, we’d recommended the Choice Plus plan as the best value for money. The plan will leave you with 50GB storage space (enough for a small to medium sized site), is able to handle multiple site visitors, and keeps your site’s data backed up daily. Also, if you’re not impressed with the plan, Bluehost does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can take back your cash.

However, if you’re on a budget and are only running a small, informational site or blog, the Basic plan, with its 10 GB storage space, will be enough for your needs. This affordable plan also enables you to host up to ten sites at once, whereas WP Engine only lets you host one site on its cheapest plan!

As you check out, you may encounter some add-ons in your cart that you weren’t expecting, like the option to purchase WordPress plugin packages. Double check your cart before you check out, so you aren’t charged any extra costs that you weren’t expecting!

What Is Bluehost’s Performance Like?

• Advertised uptime rate: 99.98%
• Measured uptime rate during our tests: 99.18%

Though Bluehost isn’t the speediest web host out there, it does have an advertised uptime rate of 99.98%, makes use of a built-in Content Delivery Network that optimizes images and increases your page load times, and has an optimized cloud infrastructure to boost your site’s performance.

All of these factors ensure that your site is always up and running, and provides your site visitors with responsive pages that load quickly.

• ✅ Officially recommended by WordPress.org 
• We recommend Hostinger for: Business owners who expect high site traffic, so need a web host with dependable performance and uptime. This will ensure that your site remains speedy and accessible – even during busy periods.

If you’re anticipating loads of visitors to your WordPress site, you need a dependable host that can accommodate high waves of traffic. In this case, Hostinger would be a fantastic choice for your WordPress website. Another one of the WP Engine alternatives that  WordPress has endorsed, Hostinger offers reliable uptime, can withstand lots of site traffic, and multiple server locations worldwide.

Hostinger Pros & Cons

✔️ Hostinger can streamline your site’s performance better than any of the other web hosts featured can

✔️ Offers the cheapest web hosting plans, with prices starting from $2.49 per month (billed annually)

✔️Has multiple server locations across the globe

❌ You need to upgrade to the Business plan to access Hostinger’s AI tools and its site staging tool

What WordPress Support Does Hostinger Offer?

All of Hostinger’s plans come with terrific WordPress features. For instance, you’re able to migrate your WordPress site to Hostinger for free if you’d like to switch from WP Engine or another provider. To do this, we could submit a migration request form from our dashboard. The request is then sent to a member of Hostinger’s migration team, who can complete the process for you.

Other key WordPress features from Hostinger include:

• Automatic updates to secure your WordPress site by ensuring that it doesn’t feature any outdated code or security patches
• WordPress support from Hostinger’s support team via tickets, email, or live chat
• WordPress tutorials offering additional guidance in the help-yourself library
• A vulnerabilities scanner that identifies any weaknesses in WordPress themes, plugins, or core software
• A free Yoast tool to improve your WordPress SEO and boost your site’s visibility in search engines

How Much Does Hostinger Cost?

To understand Hostinger’s pricing, you’ll need to explore its four WordPress Managed plans:

Of the plans listed, the Business plan is the best value overall. At an affordable price, you’ll not only receive 200 GB storage and daily backups to keep your site’s data secure, but you’ll also have access to Hostinger’s AI tools, which can help you run your WordPress site. This includes the WordPress AI assistant (currently in beta), which will generate content for your pages.

Similarly to Bluehost and GoDaddy, Hostinger also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, enabling you to test out its hosting services beforehand and get your money back if you’re unsatisfied.

What Is Hostinger’s Performance Like?

• Advertised uptime rate: 99.99%
• Measured uptime rate during our tests: 99.38%

Hostinger boosts your site’s performance through LiteSpeed Cache, a popular WordPress plugin that accelerates the speed of your site, and a free Content Delivery Network (on the Premium plan and above) that uses speedy servers to bring your content to site visitors quickly and efficiently.

In our testing, we also found that Hostinger had an uptime rate of 99.38%. Though it doesn’t match up with Hostinger’s 99.99% uptime guarantee, it was the highest uptime rate we measured out of the four hosts on this page.

However, what we liked most about Hostinger’s performance was its global servers. You can access local data centers across Europe, North America, South America, and Asia (ten in total), making it easy for your site to be automatically connected to a server location that’s most efficient. This is similar to WP Engine, which also has multiple server locations in these destinations.

• ✅ Officially recommended by WordPress.org
• We recommend DreamHost for: Small business owners who want to access powerful, dependable features at a reasonable cost

Founded in 1997, DreamHost is the oldest web host featured here. It has earned itself a trustworthy reputation over the years, and is also officially endorsed by WordPress. Overall, it has a fantastic balance of features across all of its plans, accommodating unlimited site traffic, and offering 100% guaranteed uptime and other essentials like SSL certificates and automated daily backups.

DreamHost Pros & Cons

✔️ ️Guarantees 100% uptime (or your money back!)

✔️ Offers a 97-day money-back guarantee, which is significantly longer than other web hosts

✔️Streamlines WordPress for you through one-click installation and automatic updates

❌ Doesn’t offer 24/7 phone support

What WordPress Support Does DreamHost Offer?

Even DreamHost’s cheapest plans come with impressive WordPress tools. First off, you can use the DreamHost Automated Migration Plugin to seamlessly move your site from another host. Since it’s built into the platform, you won’t need to worry about dealing with the installation process on your own.

You can also install WordPress in one click from your dashboard, or access 24/7 support from in-house experts via DreamHost’s chat widget or email forms if you ever run into trouble. Do note, however, that there isn’t a direct phone line. You’ll need to wait for a callback from a member of DreamHost’s support team instead.

Other useful DreamHost features include:

• Automatic core WordPress and security updates to keep your site’s software secure and up to date
• An AI website builder to help you create a WordPress site design from scratch
• AI Business Advisor, a 24/7 help resource powered by Chat GPT

How Much Does DreamHost Cost?

Though DreamHost has a wide range of hosting plans on offer, you will find WordPress-specific plans – two of which I’ve listed below that are most ideal for small businesses:

The best deal is the Shared Starter plan, since it comes with fantastic integrated features at a low price point. Some of its best features include automatic WordPress installation and site migration, free daily backups to protect your site’s security, a 97-day money-back guarantee, and the ability to accommodate unlimited traffic if you ever have a high volume of visitors on your site at once.

Though these plans are ideal for small businesses, you may be looking to upgrade as your site expands. In fact, if your WordPress site has experienced significant growth, you may need to opt for a more expensive DreamHost plan to accommodate your business.

For instance, this might be the DreamPress plan, which starts at $16.95 per month (billed annually) and comes with free priority site migration and WordPress specialized support. Then, the next two plans, DreamPress Plus and DreamPress Pro, are ideal for additional storage as your site grows.

What Is DreamHost’s Performance Like?

• Advertised uptime rate: 100%
• Measured uptime rate during our tests: 99.30%

DreamHost is the only WP Engine alternative on this list that offers 100% guaranteed uptime. Of course, this is a big claim to make, so the company will offer you monetary compensation if you do experience significant downtime when using its hosting service.

Additionally, each DreamHost plan can accommodate unlimited traffic, so your site will be able to withstand high numbers of visitors too. This is ideal if you expect your business to see heavy traffic during busy sales periods, since you don’t want your site’s performance to struggle and impact your conversions!

To keep your site’s performance speedy, DreamHost makes use of built-in caching (included on all plans) that temporarily stores your site’s data and files on a local server for later use. When a user opens your page, this additional server then makes it easier for visitors to access your site data.

• We recommend GoDaddy for: Small businesses who want to set up their hosting quickly, especially if you have limited time to migrate or are still fairly new to the process

Combining reliable help and support, useful AI features, and a clear setup process, GoDaddy hosting is well-suited to beginners who might need additional assistance when setting up their WordPress site or moving from one host to another. Overall, this option is the most expensive we recommend, but it does come with useful WordPress features that are worth checking out, like one-click data restores.

GoDaddy Pros & Cons

✔️ Offers easy WordPress migration and installation during the onboarding process

✔️ Has solid help and support if you get stuck

✔️ Comes with fantastic AI features courtesy of GoDaddy Airo

✔️ Backs up your site weekly and allows you to restore your site’s content in one click

❌ You can only host one WordPress site, no matter what plan you’re on

❌ You need to upgrade your plan to access important features like GoDaddy’s Content Delivery Network and site staging

❌ Not officially recommended by WordPress

What WordPress Support Does GoDaddy Offer?

With GoDaddy Hosting, you’ll receive clear WordPress support that is very accessible for beginners, such as one-click WordPress installation and easy site migration via its site migration wizard during the onboarding process.

There’s also dependable help and support available, which comes in the form of 24/7 phone lines and live chat, a knowledge center packed with useful tutorials, and bustling community forums on which you can ask a member of the community instead.

Additional tools you’ll get to use include:

• Weekly backups to protect your WordPress site’s content, and the ability to use a one-click restore
• AI powered insights that give you advice on how to optimize your site
• Smart WP Plugin Manager that tells you when a WordPress plugin is outdated and is visibly impacting your site (available on the Managed WordPress Ultimate plan)
• Free SEO optimizer plugin to ensure that your WordPress site covers the SEO basics and is optimized for search engines (available on Managed WordPress Ultimate)
• Automatic updates to WordPress’s core software and plugins

How Much Does GoDaddy Cost?

When it comes to WordPress Managed hosting, GoDaddy’s pricing has three different plans to choose from:

Managed WordPress Deluxe is the best value for money. This is due to its Content Delivery Network, which will optimize your site’s speed, the ability to create a staging site to test your pages and ensure that they work well, and its enhanced security through DDoS protection.

Though GoDaddy is the most expensive web host featured, its plans are still cheaper than WP Engine’s, which start from $25 per month (billed annually). On top of that, you can also access a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you don’t have to commit to the platform if you’re not happy with its performance.

What Is GoDaddy’s Performance Like?

• Advertised uptime rate: 99.99%
• Measured uptime rate during our tests: 99.14%

For fast site load times, GoDaddy’s CloudFare Content Delivery Network speedily delivers your page’s content to users. Unfortunately, it’s only available on the Managed WordPress Deluxe plan and above, so you can’t access this feature on the cheapest plan, as you can with other web hosts like BlueHost.

However, GoDaddy does guarantee a 99.99% uptime from its servers, alongside a money-back guarantee if you feel like GoDaddy hasn’t upheld this promise.

When looking for a hosting provider that’s ideal for your business and its website, make sure that you look into these key features first:

• Performance – Are you expecting lots of traffic on your website? If so, make sure that your provider has high uptime rates (99.9%+ is best) and accessible server locations, and is able to optimize your site’s speed.
• Costs – This factor is especially important if you’re on a budget, since you’ll want to look for a hosting plan that’s comfortably affordable but also comes with all of the features you’ll need to run your site successfully.
• WordPress tools – If you’re migrating from WP Engine or starting a new WordPress site altogether, you’ll need efficient WordPress tools that can streamline the process for you. Luckily, many hosts in 2024 now come with one-click WordPress installation, free WordPress migration, and other essential tools like automatic software, plugin, and security patches, and theme updates to keep everything running smoothly.

To identify the best web hosts for your WordPress site, our team conducted thorough testing to help you narrow down your options. In fact, we researched each hosting provider based on five key categories to see how each one fared:

1. Price – to analyze whether the provider offers affordable plans with good value for money
2. Performance – to evaluate how much storage each provider has and whether it’s speedy and dependable
3. Features – to learn which add-ons and essentials are included on each plan
4. Help and support –  to find out how easy it is to get assistance when you need it
5. Market analysis – to see whether the provider holds up against its competitors

Within these performance areas, we analyzed 360 areas of investigation, and used our findings to calculate an overall score for the hosting providers featured in this article.

So, that’s it for our best WP Engine alternatives — but have you decided which web host you’d like to go for? Just to recap, Bluehost is the best option overall thanks to its affordable pricing plans and reliable site speeds and performance. But to finish, here’s a round-up of the other platforms we recommend, and what purpose they’re best suited for:

• Hostinger – With its multiple location servers and solid uptime rate, this platform is best for business owners who are running a busy WordPress site and need a dependable host to keep everything in operation.
• DreamHost – This trusted host offers a wealth of features, from unlimited site traffic to daily backups, on each of its plans. If you need plenty of features at a low price point, DreamHost might be your best bet.
• GoDaddy Hosting – Boasting accessible customer support lines and a beginner-friendly dashboard that’s clearly signposted, GoDaddy is best for business owners who need to set up quickly.