SiteGround vs. WP Engine

Last verified 34 days ago · 28 sources · Updated automatically

SiteGround 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.

SiteGround

Popular managed WordPress and shared hosting with in-house performance and security tooling, on Google Cloud.

HQ Sofia, Bulgaria

Visit SiteGround 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

SiteGround

WP Engine

Company facts

Headquarters

Sofia, Bulgaria Headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria

Austin, TX Founded 2010 in Austin, Texas

Employees

600 Roughly 600+ employees

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

Pricing

Starting Monthly Price (USD)

$17.99 StartUp plan regular renewal rate; intro promo $2.99/mo on first term

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

Entry Plan WordPress Sites

1 sites StartUp hosts 1 website

1 sites Startup plan: 1 WordPress install

Entry Plan Monthly Visits

—

25k Startup plan: 25,000 monthly visits

Entry Plan Storage (GB)

10 GB 10 GB Premium Google storage on StartUp

10 GB Startup plan: 10 GB local storage

Free Trial Length (Days)

0 days No free trial; 30-day money-back guarantee instead

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

Money-Back Guarantee (Days)

30 days 30-day money-back guarantee on shared/WordPress hosting

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

Performance & infrastructure

Underlying Cloud

Google Cloud Runs on Google Cloud

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

Datacenter Locations

11 11 hosting datacenter regions across 4 continents (CDN edge network is separate and larger)

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

Free CDN

Built-in CDN included free on all plans

Global CDN included on all plans

Web Server

NGINX NGINX front-ends Apache (NGINX Direct Delivery enabled by default)

NGINX NGINX-based stack

Built-in Object Cache

Persistent object cache (Memcached) available on all plans incl. entry, via Site Tools / Speed Optimizer

Object caching enabled by default; dedicated Redis on higher tiers

Latest PHP Version

8.4 PHP 8.4 generally available

8.4 PHP 8.4 (beta; requires WordPress 6.7+)

Free SSL Certificate

Free SSL included on all plans, auto-renewed

Auto-renewing SSL included on all plans

WordPress management

Automatic WordPress Updates

Managed automatic WordPress core/plugin updates

Managed WP, PHP & MySQL updates included

Staging Environments

Staging not on entry StartUp plan; unlocks on GrowBig and above (GoGeek adds Git)

1-click staging & dev environments on all plans

Automatic Daily Backups

Free automatic daily backups on all plans, one-click restore

Daily & on-demand automatic backups

Backup Retention (Days)

30 days 30 days of backup history retained

40 days Revert to any backup up to 40 days

Free Site Migration

Free site migrations (Migrator plugin self-serve; free expert migrations on higher tiers)

Free automated migration plugin (WP Migrate)

SSH & WP-CLI Access

SSH and WP-CLI on all plans including entry StartUp

SSH gateway with WP-CLI and Git on all plans

WordPress Multisite Support

WordPress Multisite officially supported (subdomain and subdirectory), documented setup

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

Support & security

Uptime SLA (%)

99.9% Marketed 99.9% (no contractual SLA)

99.99% 99.99% uptime SLA

24/7 Support

24/7 expert support on all plans (live chat, tickets, phone); GoGeek adds priority support

24/7/365 chat support on all plans

Malware Removal / Hack Fix

Malware cleanup is a paid service, not a free hack-fix guarantee

Free hack fix / malware cleaning for infections on-platform

WAF / DDoS Protection

Custom in-house WAF + DDoS protection on every server, included free on all plans

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

Platform & integrations

Control Panel

custom Custom Site Tools control panel (SiteGround's own, not cPanel)

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

White-Label / Agency Features

White-label access (GoGeek), collaborator/client roles, custom client packages, reseller program

Agency plans, partner program, multi-site client management

Email Hosting Included

Free unlimited email accounts at your domain on all plans

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

The verdict

SiteGround

Best for lower cost with bundled email and free WAF

Starts at $17.99/mo versus WP Engine's $30, and bundles things WP Engine charges for or omits: free unlimited email at your domain, an in-house WAF plus DDoS on every plan, object cache, and SSH/WP-CLI and Multisite on the entry plan. Trade-offs: no staging until GrowBig, paid malware cleanup, and a marketed 99.9% with no contractual SLA.

Full profile

WP Engine

Best for a contractual SLA, entry staging, and hack-fix

Backs uptime with a contractual 99.99% SLA versus SiteGround's marketed 99.9%, includes 1-click staging and free malware/hack-fix on every plan (both paid or tier-locked at SiteGround), and offers 28 datacenters, 40-day backups, and a 60-day money-back window. Trade-offs: $30/mo entry, no bundled email, and WAF only via paid Global Edge Security.

Full profile

Sources · 28 verified references

careers.siteground.com wpengine.com siteground.com medium.com

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