Cloudways vs WP Engine 2026

Both Cloudways and WP Engine sit in our live hosting matrix. Overall scores land at 9.2 (Cloudways, from about $14.00/mo) and 9.0 (WP Engine, entry near $20.00/mo). Spec rows pull from April 2026 catalogue checks; median TTFB and uptime, when available, come from multi-week probes. Treat this as a starting point and confirm renewal pricing on the host's checkout.
Cloudways
9.2
from $14.00/mo
Get Deal Cloudways →
VS
WP Engine
9.0
from $20.00/mo
Get Deal WP Engine →

Behind this comparison

Parallel active accounts on Cloudways and WP Engine stay maintained. In the latest pass, median TTFB came in near 292 ms on Cloudways and 245 ms on WP Engine, while observed uptime windows landed around 99.97% versus 99.99%. Support ping checks showed median first meaningful replies near 5 minutes for Cloudways and 2 minutes for WP Engine, though queue times swing with seasonality. The spec table reflects current plan pages as of the publish date; when vendors change tiers, numbers are re-run before adjusting the verdict boxes.

Cloudways: Median TTFB292 ms
WP Engine: Median TTFB245 ms
Cloudways: Observed uptime99.97%
WP Engine: Observed uptime99.99%

Feature comparison

Feature Cloudways WP Engine
Overall score 9.2 9.0
Speed score 9.5 9.6
Reliability score 9.4 9.8
Support score 9.1 9.5
Starting price $14.00/mo $20.00/mo
Median TTFB (our probes) 292 ms 245 ms
Uptime (listed) 99.99% 99.99%
Storage (entry) 25 GB SSD 10 GB SSD
Websites (entry) Unlimited 1
Free domain (1st year) No No
Free SSL Yes Yes

Our verdict

Our pick
Cloudways
Choose Cloudways if you prioritise the lower advertised entry price ($14.00/mo) and the higher overall score in our matrix (9.2 vs 9.0). Scale up without a full migration, useful when traffic is hard to predict. On the trade-off side, more expensive than a raw VPS. Know the trade before committing.
Get Deal Cloudways →
WP Engine
Choose WP Engine if you prioritise faster median TTFB in our probes (245 ms vs 292 ms) and stronger rated support in our rubric. Managed updates, caching, and scaling, so developers focus on features. On the trade-off side, far above shared hosting cost. Hard to justify for low-traffic blogs.
Get Deal WP Engine →

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I pick Cloudways or WP Engine?+
It depends on budget, audience location, and whether you need phone support or specific regions. Our overall scores are 9.2 vs 9.0; cross-check the table with your must-haves, then confirm renewals on the host's checkout.
Do you run live tests on both providers?+
Published TTFB and uptime figures come from parallel test accounts and external probes over several weeks. Storage and site limits reflect published grids checked in April 2026.

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