SiteGround vs WP Engine 2023: Which One is Worth the HYPE?

SiteGround and WP Engine are two pioneer web-hosting providers specializing in managed WordPress hosting.

While SiteGround comes with affordable pricing that starts at $6.99/month, WP Engine charges $25/month for managed WordPress hosting.

What’s the key takeaway here? SiteGround is affordable, while WP Engine is costly. If you are in a rush and need to know in a sentence who wins the crown over here.

It is SiteGround because of their unmatched speed and security, along with award-winning customer support, and because they are loaded with premium features and freebies.

While SiteGround offers various hosting services, WP Engine provides only WordPress hosting, and it is dedicated and committed to building your WordPress website better.

To take a step towards growth, it is crucial to pick one host to stick with, rather than going back and forth between them.

To make the process easy, in this post, we have featured an in-depth, side by side comparison of SiteGround vs WP Engine.

Here in this comparison, we have analyzed various parameters, such as speed & performance, security, hosting pricing plans, customer support, ease of use, and so on.

Read on to learn which one is the best option available to you, SiteGround or WP Engine.

Here’s a quick index to help you navigate this article:

The Overview
Performance
Safety and Security
User Interface
Feature Comparison
Pricing Plans
Support and Documentation
The Final Winner

So let’s dive in.

SiteGround vs WP Engine: The Overview

SiteGround Overview

SiteGround is a popular web host that is recommended by WordPress. SiteGround offers some of the latest technologies to build and manage your website with its top-speed servers.

They are one of those web hosting providers who take pride in their customer support; they’re available 24/7 and let you choose among their six data centers.

SiteGround has been the number one choice for thousands of WordPress site owners because of the excellent downtime and flexibility that comes with it.

Even if your website goes through sudden traffic, it will ensure that there is no disturbance caused on your site. Some of the features include:

Free, Let’s Encrypt SSL certification.
99.9% uptime guarantee
Free migration within 24 hours.
CDN and built-in caching system.
24/7, excellent customer support.
One-Click WordPress Installation

SiteGround does not limit its features. It offers all essential and advanced features to help you start and grow your online venture over time.

Check out our SiteGround Coupon to get an exclusive discount on SiteGround hosting.

WP Engine Overview

WP Engine, as the name suggests, is a complete WordPress managed web hosting provider. WP Engine is fully optimized for WordPress and it allows you to experience a digital platform for your web hosting experience.

Your website is secure and safe in the hands of WP Engine, along with the robust servers that ensure your website works super fast.

WP Engine offers a fully managed web hosting service that is perfect if you do not like to handle your website’s technical side.

They will feel your site while you continue to experience growth and secure websites. As a bonus, you get beautiful StudioPress themes and Genesis framework. Some of the features include:

Comfortable and super quick site migration from the previous host to WP Engine.
Free SSL certification.
24/7 customer support.
Numerous analytic tools to track the progress of your website.
Secured and lightning-fast servers.

Check out our WP Engine coupon to get 20% OFF + 2 Months of Free Hosting.

SiteGround vs WP Engine: Performance

Speed is directly proportional to your website’s success. The speed and performance of a web hosting provider influence your website’s Google ranking a lot. For a reasonable conversion rate, you need a fast web hosting provider.

Other than that, the time your page takes to load also affects overall performance. Users do not like waiting to load the page. Most people will leave your page if it does not load quickly. Therefore, you need to have blazing fast performance.

Both SiteGround and WP Engine offer excellent speed and uptime. Let us have a detailed look at the performance of SiteGround vs. WP Engine.

Data Centers

SiteGround has data centers in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States, Italy, and Singapore. You can choose where your website should be hosted with any of these data center locations when you sign up for the GoGeek Hosting plan.

WP Engine has several data centers around the world. You can host your website with their data centers scattered in the United Kingdom, United States, Belgium, Canada, Tokyo, Ireland, and Taiwan.

Hosting your website over these locations ensures faster page loading times. However, if you go for the startup plan, you are restricted from choosing data centers, and you can only host in the USA, Belgium, United Kingdom, and Taiwan.

Uptime

SiteGround provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee, while WP Engine offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee as well. Both hosts offer equal uptime, which results in the fast performance of your website.

Page Loading Time and Downtime

The page loading time of the WP Engine has been a bit faster than SiteGround. The page loading time of SiteGround is less than half a second, while the downtime is, on average, 10 minutes a month.

WP Engine loads pages in less than one minute, which is a reasonable speed according to Google’s requirement of page loading time to rank at the top in search engines.

No matter where your location is based, both SiteGround and WP Engine page load in less than two seconds.

CDN

SiteGround offers free CDN on all of its plans to ensure fast page loading time and high performance.

WP Engine uses Cloudflare global CDN to connect local requests to the nearest servers to give maximum speed to your website and other benefits from Cloudflare.

Automatic Updates

Automatic updates are promoted by SiteGround and WP Engine, both of which remove all the bugs and offer a smooth hosting experience.

When it comes to performance, SiteGround is ahead of WP Engine; therefore, SiteGround earns the point of the winner here.

Related Reading: Speed Up WordPress Site.

SiteGround vs WP Engine: Safety and Security

Cyber attacks and hacking are an on-going issue that most website owners face. No matter the size of your website, you are equally in danger of all the threats that come.

What is scarier is that these threats are unwarned and come suddenly and leave your site in despair. Therefore, your web host should always be prepared and alert you whenever you are about to welcome an unwanted server or audience.

SiteGround and WP Engine are well-known web hosts because they do not leave a single complaint about security by their users, but let us find out what makes users say that and what options they offer.

SiteGround has offered some of the top security options and continuously works on making your website secure and safe for you and your audience.

SiteGround provides daily backup to keep your data safe with them. With their proactive protection, your site is safe from hacking and threats that can disrupt your traffic and performance.

Free SSL certification on all hosting plans is provided to make the internet safe for you. Thousands of threats are blocked by their unique solution known as the Al Anti-Bot system.

Unlike WP Engine, SiteGround does not depend on third parties for creating security rules. With Custom WAF, they continuously maintain the WAF that prevents numerous unidentified applications and servers.

SiteGround manages your security with its first-class options while you relax and create innovations for your website.

WP Engine offers premium security options for your website. Your WordPress core is updated automatically to the latest version.

Still, before suggesting you update, WP Engine goes through the new update thoroughly to ensure it is safe from all risks. They conduct regular code analysis and security audits by partnering with a third-party for better safety measures.

WP Engine is continuously working on improving the rules to prevent attacks on its user’s website. Along with that, WP Engine also claims to stop 200 million wrong requests that could be threats, to ensure safety.

All the attacks are terminated before happening so that they do not reach you. They also alert you by monitoring your plugins that are at high risk.

You get a free Let’s Encrypt certificate on all the plans, with automatic backups to keep your data stored and safe.

With WP Engine, your website is always secure and away from hackers, and even if your site gets hacked, WP Engine will clean it up for you for free.

SiteGround and WP Engine both do not lack in security. SiteGround offers equal solutions for protection, just like WP Engine, so over here, it’s a tie.

Related Reading: The Ultimate WordPress Security Guide.

SiteGround vs WP Engine: User Interface

When you are starting your website, things are pretty new for everyone, and not everyone is aware of all the technical aspects and terms.

When the web hosting service offers robust manageable hosting, people often switch to the one that provides an easy-to-use interface that a beginner can easily understand.

SiteGround and WP Engine both offer a beginner-friendly interface.

You can manage everything from the dashboard on both SiteGround and WP Engine. SiteGround uses the popular cPanel that gives you complete control over managing your account.

SiteGround provides all kinds of hosting services, unlike WP Engine, which is dedicated to WordPress hosting.

Since it serves various types of hosting, managing your account can be a bit confusing, even if It gives you better access to your account.

With SiteGround’s control panel, you get access to restore and create backups any time, easy management of billing details, easy access to webmail to create various email accounts, management of domains and subdomains, management of multiple websites, and more.

WP Engine, on the other side, uses a custom dashboard. You can manage the bandwidth you have consumed from your dashboard. You can also quickly analyze the storage you are utilizing and the traffic you are receiving.

Even if WP Engine comes with automatic backups, you can also enable manual backup any time right from the dashboard.

You can also enable the page testing tool to check the performance of your page.

Other than that, the dashboard lets you directly contact customer support, correct errors, add logs, manage the billing of your account, manage WordPress installations, and more.

The dashboard is pretty easy to use, as it is only optimized for WordPress hosting. It never leaves you confused regarding any issue on your website.

While SiteGround gives you more control over the dashboard and gives more access, WP Engine does well here too. Both of them provide an easy to use interface.

If you are someone who likes to take control of the dashboard and requires all the access at a click of a button, SiteGround is a perfect choice.

SiteGround vs WP Engine: Feature Comparison

Considering key features when comparing these hosts is an essential factor that you do not want to miss out on.

To create a highly functional website, the features that the host provides contribute a lot. We have broken down the list of the highlights below.

SiteGround

You can transfer your WordPress website to SiteGround for free. If you do not want to go through the hassle, the hosting provider will migrate your site for free within 24 hours.
One-click installation of all the applications.
Automatic WordPress installation if you are a new user.
Free domain registration service.
Free staging area to analyze the website before going live on GrowBig and GoGeek hosting plans.
Quick Git integration on GoGeek plan.
Create an unlimited number of accounts with your domain name without any restrictions.
Free Wizard page builder for the accessible building of the website.
Unmetered bandwidth on all the plans.
30 days money-back guarantee and remaining period money-back if you ask for a refund after 30 days.

WP Engine

35+ beautiful studio press themes that make your website shine by giving you a unique look.
Access to Genesis FrameWork on all plans.
For location-specific content, WP Engine offers GeoTargeting.
Smooth migration with an automated migration plugin by WP Engine.
If you are hosting a WooCommerce store, a WooCommerce plugin is offered that comes with crucial tweaks.
Page performance tool comes in handy to analyze your page’s performance over time.
Staging environment to get a front-end view of your website.
Continuous monitoring of your website to detect vulnerabilities.
Completely WordPress optimized hosting.
No agreement and 60 days money-back guarantee.

Both SiteGround and WP Engine offer vast features that will keep your website running and improve over time. It is a tie between both web hosting providers.

SiteGround vs WP Engine: Pricing Plans

The attractive features and performance will not be useful if the price is way too much.

Pricing is considered one of the most important factors when choosing a host. Coming to SiteGround vs WP Engine, let us dive through the pricing that they both offer to determine your pick.

SiteGround offers affordable pricing plans that start from $6.99/month:

StartUp – $6.99/month: This plan is perfect for small website owners who are looking for a fully managed web hosting plan. You get 10GB web space and 10,000 monthly visits.
GrowBig – $9.99/month: This plan includes all the features that a small to medium website would need. This plan comes with 20GB of webspace and 25,000 visits.
GoGeek – $14.99/month: This plan is a combination of all the plans that work for large website owners who need all the luxurious features to boost their website. This plan includes 40GB web space along with 100,000 visits a month.

The pricing plan is divided based on the web storage that it offers and the number of visitors. In all three plans, you will get free SSL, CDN, free backups, free migration, and more.

On the other hand, WP Engine offers slightly more expensive hosting plans than SiteGround because it is a fully managed web hosting provider with complete WordPress optimization.

There are three major pricing packages that WP Engine offers:

StartUp – $25/month: This plan comes with 10GB Storage, 50GB bandwidth, and is perfect for small websites.
Growth – $95/month: In this plan, you get 20GB storage along with ten websites that can be hosted. This is suitable for midsized website owners.
Scale – $241/month: With 50 GB storage, you can also host 30 websites. A perfect plan for high-level business owners who want to host multiple sites.

Which One is More Affordable?

Although both offer the same storage options on all of their plans, many aspects put SiteGround ahead of WP Engine. SiteGround offers affordable managed hosting for WordPress.

If you are interested in spending a significant amount on themes and Genesis Framework, WP Engine is the right choice.

Additionally, the amount of traffic that the plan can handle is more on WP Engine than SiteGround. Other than that, SiteGround offers similar features at reasonable pricing, making it difficult to justify the pricing plans of WP Engine.

SiteGround vs WP Engine: Support and Documentation

Assistance is crucial in every aspect. No matter how much of a tech genius you are, there are many new issues with websites that come up every day, and sometimes, it is difficult to understand them without actual support from humans.

No matter what web hosting provider you go for, you should always look for the hosting provider that offers ultimate customer support.

SiteGround offers some of the best support experts who have you covered for everything.

Whether it is just a standard pricing plan issue or major technical problem, you will receive plenty of support through their 24/7 live chat, phone, and email services.

You get a response in less than 10 minutes for email and instant reply through live chat. If you are going for the higher plans, you will receive priority customer support from the team.

WP Engine offers top-grade customer support. They offer 24/7 live chat support for all the plans, while if you go for the higher plans, you can also get in touch with the team of experts via call and a ticketing system.

Apart from that, you can directly talk to the sales expert to get the plan that is right for you and a clear vision for your website.

Both of them offer sufficient support. However, for personal plans, you cannot directly get in touch via phone. SiteGround provides phone support even for their cheapest plan. It is easier due to flexible options to get in contact with them.

SiteGround vs WP Engine: The Final Winner

SiteGround beats WP Engine in various aspects. One of the most important factors is that with SiteGround, you can host more websites on site builders other than WordPress with the same attractive features.

WP Engine does not provide any other hosting services, which is a boon and bane at the same time. WP Engine also costs $25 per month for managed WordPress hosting while SIteGround costs $6.99 a month.

What’s more, SiteGround lets you have control over the dashboard and offers a friendly user interface.

Whenever you stumble, you can get in touch with the award-winning customer support team of WordPress experts who provide a quick solution to all your problems via email and phone, which is lacking in WP Engine’s startup plan.

The restriction of customer support by WP Engine on their cheapest plan is a big drawback that you do not want to face.

Every user has their expectations and requirements for a web hosting provider. However, we have listed the basic needs as a starting place for comparing SiteGround vs WP Engine.

With the current discount by SiteGround, you can grab the plans at a lower price. SiteGround is our recommended web hosting for any kind of website you own. You will experience a smooth, safe, and fast web hosting experience.

If you want a dedicated WordPress host and you are ready to sacrifice some of the features, WP Engine is your go-to-solution.

We hope you have found the best choice for your business with our in-depth SiteGround vs WP Engine comparison.

Which one are you going to pick, SiteGround or WP Engine? Feel free to share your choice in the comments section below.

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SiteGround vs WP Engine 2023: Which One is Worth the HYPE?