Liquid Web vs. WP Engine

Last verified 35 days ago · 28 sources · Updated automatically

Liquid Web and WP Engine compared across Company facts, Pricing, Performance & infrastructure, WordPress management, Support & security and Platform & integrations — every fact sourced and re-verified from each vendor's public material.

Liquid Web

Managed WordPress and ecommerce hosting (formerly Nexcess), on Liquid Web's own datacenters with Cloudflare Enterprise and a 100% uptime SLA.

HQ Lansing, MI

Visit Liquid Web Full profile

WP Engine

Managed WordPress platform for businesses and agencies, with staging, CDN, and developer tooling.

HQ Austin, TX

Visit WP Engine Full profile

Attribute

Liquid Web

WP Engine

Company facts

Headquarters

Lansing, MI Lansing, Michigan (Liquid Web HQ; Nexcess consolidated under the Liquid Web brand)

Austin, TX Founded 2010 in Austin, Texas

Employees

750 Approx. company headcount (LinkedIn 500–1,000 range, midpoint)

1k 1,000+ globally distributed employees (lower bound)

Pricing

Starting Monthly Price (USD)

$6 Spark – Launch plan, the entry managed WordPress tier (1 site, 15 GB), billed monthly

$30 Startup plan, billed annually ($30/mo)

Entry Plan WordPress Sites

1 sites 1 WordPress site on the entry Spark – Launch plan

1 sites Startup plan: 1 WordPress install

Entry Plan Monthly Visits

—

25k Startup plan: 25,000 monthly visits

Entry Plan Storage (GB)

15 GB 15 GB storage on the entry Spark – Launch plan

10 GB Startup plan: 10 GB local storage

Free Trial Length (Days)

0 days No free trial offered on managed WordPress plans

0 days No free trial; 60-day money-back guarantee instead

Money-Back Guarantee (Days)

0 days No money-back guarantee; the current Terms of Service state fees are non-refundable

60 days 60-day money-back guarantee (annual plans)

Performance & infrastructure

Underlying Cloud

own datacenters Runs on Liquid Web-owned, staffed Tier-4 datacenters

Google Cloud, AWS Google Cloud on all plans; AWS (and Azure) on Premium

Datacenter Locations

9 9 Liquid Web datacenter locations across the US, UK, EU, and Australia

28 across Google Cloud, AWS & Azure; AWS and Azure regions plus 3 GCP regions are Premium-tier only

Free CDN

Cloudflare Enterprise CDN included on every managed WordPress plan

Global CDN included on all plans

Web Server

Apache Apache application server (with a Cloudflare Enterprise / NGINX edge-cache layer in front)

NGINX NGINX-based stack

Built-in Object Cache

Redis object caching (Object Cache Pro) enabled by default on all new sites

Object caching enabled by default; dedicated Redis on higher tiers

Latest PHP Version

8.3 PHP 8.3 selectable via the Client Portal (newer releases may also be available)

8.4 PHP 8.4 (beta; requires WordPress 6.7+)

Free SSL Certificate

Free SSL certificate included on all plans

Auto-renewing SSL included on all plans

WordPress management

Automatic WordPress Updates

Host-managed automatic WordPress core (and security) updates

Managed WP, PHP & MySQL updates included

Staging Environments

Free staging site included on every plan

1-click staging & dev environments on all plans

Automatic Daily Backups

Automatic daily backups on every plan

Daily & on-demand automatic backups

Backup Retention (Days)

7 days 7-day backup retention on the entry Spark – Launch plan (30 days on Thrive/Elevate)

40 days Revert to any backup up to 40 days

Free Site Migration

Free self-serve migration on the entry plan (assisted migration on higher tiers)

Free automated migration plugin (WP Migrate)

SSH & WP-CLI Access

SSH (Secure Shell) access with WP-CLI on managed WordPress plans

SSH gateway with WP-CLI and Git on all plans

WordPress Multisite Support

WordPress Multisite supported (subdomain or subdirectory networks)

Multisite supported as add-on (Growth+); not on Startup

Support & security

Uptime SLA (%)

100% 100% uptime SLA (network and power), with service credits

99.99% 99.99% uptime SLA

24/7 Support

24/7/365 support on all plans

24/7/365 chat support on all plans

Malware Removal / Hack Fix

Malware remediation is a paid one-time service ($200/incident), not an included guarantee

Free hack fix / malware cleaning for infections on-platform

WAF / DDoS Protection

Web application firewall + DDoS protection (Cloudflare Enterprise) included on every plan

Basic network DDoS included; managed WAF + advanced DDoS via paid Global Edge Security

Platform & integrations

Control Panel

custom Custom Sites & Stores portal (sites-portal.liquidweb.com), not cPanel/Plesk

custom Custom dashboard (WP Engine User Portal / my.wpengine.com)

White-Label / Agency Features

Reseller / white-label hosting and client management for partners

Agency plans, partner program, multi-site client management

Email Hosting Included

Email hosting not included; mailboxes require a paid add-on or third-party provider

No email hosting; recommends a dedicated provider (e.g. Google Workspace)

The verdict

Liquid Web

Best for budget buyers wanting bundled security

Entry pricing is $6/mo versus WP Engine's $30, with 15 GB storage to its 10 GB. A Cloudflare Enterprise WAF and DDoS protection are included on every plan, where WP Engine bills those as a paid add-on. Backs a 100% uptime SLA versus 99.99%, and supports Multisite on the entry plan, which WP Engine reserves for higher tiers.

Full profile

WP Engine

Best for managed security and try-before-you-commit

Offers a 60-day money-back guarantee where Liquid Web's terms make fees non-refundable, and includes free malware/hack-fix remediation versus Liquid Web's $200-per-incident charge. Backup retention runs 40 days to Liquid Web's 7, and it spans 28 datacenter locations across Google Cloud and AWS versus Liquid Web's 9 owned sites.

Full profile

Sources · 28 verified references

liquidweb.com wpengine.com linkedin.com medium.com

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