Liquid Web vs. WP Engine (2024)

Alexandra Anderson

By: Alexandra Anderson

Alexandra Anderson

Alexandra is a web marketer, Agile Product Owner, and die-hard wordsmith who's contributed to HostingAdvice, InMotion Hosting, HostGator, and other prominent hosting and technology blogs, as well as Forbes. She has a master's degree in information technology from Virginia Tech and more than 10 years of experience building websites, advising on web and mobile app design, and crafting content that engages and converts. Her primary subject matter expertise spans WordPress, UX design, Agile project management, and, of course, web hosting.

See full bio »

Editor: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian brings more than 30 years of editing and journalism experience to our team. She has written and edited for major news organizations, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times, and she previously served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Florida. Today, she edits HostingAdvice content for clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement.

See full bio »

Laura Bernheim Alexandra Anderson Hosting Expert
“We tested Liquid Web & WP Engine — The winner is Liquid Web!”

When it comes to WordPress hosting, few can compete with WP Engine. This web host excels in its niche of offering affordable, robust WordPress hosting to optimize your blog, small business site, or online store. Liquid Webs VPS and dedicated server hosting plans pack enough power to ensure lightning-fast page loads and 100% uptime for larger websites that require a great deal of speed and performance. It’s clear these providers shine in their own respective ways, but check out our comparison to why we’ve named our winner.

Overall Rating
4.8/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit Liquid Web »
Overall Rating
4.5/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit WP Engine »

Disclosure: When you sign up through links on our site, we often earn referral fees from partners. For more information, see our ad disclosure and review policy.

Overall Hosting Comparison

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

We've gotten to know a few key members of the Liquid Web team personally, and let us tell you: The passion they put into talking about their products hints that this is a company worth checking out.

Liquid Web boasts supreme uptime, always-there-for-you support, and a constant commitment to building out more functionality for the customer. Liquid Web has a redundantly built, multi-tiered network with four datacenters in the United States, plus one more in Amsterdam.

The company takes advantage of all the latest technologies on the market and owns all of its hardware, giving Liquid Web more control over the options it can offer clients.

Liquid Web has three main tracks for managed hosting, not including managed WordPress and WooCommerce solutions. You pay a small monthly premium for managed hosting, but the peace of mind you get in exchange is priceless.

With Liquid Web taking over the infrastructure management, you're free to focus on what really matters: your content and/or your customers. Customers can easily install popular blogging software and eCommerce tools through the ever-popular and easy-to-use cPanel.

Users get unlimited email accounts, secure access with SSH, and really fast page loads thanks to SSD storage. Should disaster strike or questions come up, you are never alone.

Within minutes, you can be on the line with a highly trained technician who will be well-equipped to walk you through any hosting dilemma. Liquid Web's best-effort support policy means the company will try to help any way possible, even if it requires work outside of traditional services.

The bottom line: If you're ready for the real deal in web hosting — high-powered hardware and a team you can count on — you should consider Liquid Web. Based on our experience, it's really no surprise customers consistently vouch for Liquid Web managed hosting.

  • Heroic Support® and fully managed hosting
  • Linux or Windows options with cPanel, InterWorx, or Plesk
  • Industry leader in customer loyalty and NPS score
  • Servers proven faster than AWS and Rackspace
  • 100% uptime guarantee plus built-in backups
  • Get started on Liquid Web now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
40 GB SSD - 200 GB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

We absolutely adore WP Engine as a hosting company, but there's one huge reason we can't recommend it to everyone: It's exclusively built for WordPress users. If you are a WordPress fan, then read on!

If not, you'll want to try one of our other recommendations. If you care enough about your WordPress site — its security, scalability, load time, and uptime — to spend upward of $15 per month on it, then WP Engine is an ideal choice for you. It'd be tough to make a strong case arguing otherwise.

Although WP Engine's price tag may scare off newbies, those who know WordPress will attest to the impressiveness of WP Engine's proprietary platform.

Always updated with the latest hardware to maximize server performance, WP Engine boasts a market-leading software layer built exclusively for WordPress users. This includes the company's own caching system to ensure your site loads super quickly for visitors, a one-click staging area, and constant security monitoring to ward off online threats.

For beginners, installing a WordPress theme and getting a site up and running couldn't be easier. For more experienced folks, WP Engine's advanced features, such as single-click development staging areas, Git integration, multiple server locations, CDN compatibility, and a ton of other niceties, can't be beat.

These features make the monthly price worthwhile, compared to what the more economically competitive hosts offer.

  • Enterprise-level WordPress hosting
  • Built-in caching and staging
  • Unlimited data transfer
  • Daily backups and 1-click restore
  • 33% discount for HostingAdvice users (was $30/month)
  • Get started on WP Engine now.
Money Back Guarantee
60 days
Disk Space
10 GB - 50 GB
Domain Name
New or Transfer

Cheap Hosting Comparison

Cheap Rating

N/A

Cheap Rating

N/A

Neither host currently offers this type of hosting. While we do not recommend choosing these hosts for this web hosting category, we do recommend our expert's top pick for 2024's Best Cheap Hosting. See 2024's Best Cheap Hosting »

Dedicated Hosting Comparison

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

#3 out of 8 in Dedicated Hosting reviews

Liquid Web's strong suit is managed dedicated server hosting. The company owns and operates five state-of-the-art datacenters in the US and Europe works tirelessly to build and maintain custom solutions for added performance and security.

Liquid Web offers single- and dual-processor servers with fully, core-, or self-managed plans. Each machine comes with at least 250 GB of high-performance solid-state drive storage and a 1TB SATA drive for backup.

The company's allocated RAM and bandwidth outpace competitors and give customers luxurious environments primed for speed. Site owners can further upgrade RAM and disk size, as well as capitalize on add-ons for a cPanel Premier 100 control panel, advanced DDoS protection, and enhanced security.

Featuring top-of-the-line Cisco equipment, the Liquid Web n+1 network is redundantly built to allow routing devices to quickly self-heal. They're designed to bounce back and correct system failures without interrupting the customer's connection.

With the integration of premier providers, Level 3, Verizon, Comcast, Cogent, and Equinix, the Liquid Web network is optimized for rapid and fault-resistant performance.

If you want feature-rich dedicated resources and relentlessly reliable technical support, Liquid Web should be on your shortlist.

The company is known for strong managed service offerings, but the drawback to managed hosting is usually the cost, but Liquid Web's monthly rate for managed services is quoted as low as $20, which is a steal. Plus, a 24/7 support team and in-house solutions keep the cloud-level flexibility and performance up and the cost down.

  • Linux or Windows with choice of 3 control panels
  • 100% network and power uptime guarantees
  • Custom configurations and instant provisioning
  • Auto-migrations, backups, and real-time monitoring
  • Block/object storage and load balancer add-ons
  • Get started on Liquid Web now.
Money Back Guarantee
N/A
Disk Space
480 GB SSD - 960 GB SSD (+ 2 TB SATA)
Domain Name
New or Transfer

Dedicated Rating

N/A

WP Engine does not currently offer this type of hosting. We would not recommend choosing this host for this hosting category.

VPS Hosting Comparison

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

#9 out of 9 in VPS Hosting reviews

It's no secret by now that Liquid Web is known for best-in-class technology and reliability that exceeds expectations. The company's cloud VPS environments embody that reputation to its fullest — including managed WordPress and WooCommerce products.

Liquid Web offers a high-powered cloud VPS solution backed by the company's popular SLAs promising high uptime rates and highly reliable help from the Heroic Support® experts.

With high-powered SSDs and, of course, the Heroic Support® team, the VPS platform shines among the managed services offered at Liquid Web.

You'll pay a bit of a premium for managed hosting, but there's a reason customers rave about Liquid Web's hands-free management, incredible SLAs, and excellent uptime rates.

RAID-protected SSD storage, which decreases latency and keeps your page loads fast and secure, comes standard for Liquid Web VPS users. The company offers a range of management plans, as well as the choice of popular control panels and API access, so you get the perfect level of infrastructural management support for you and your site.

The Liquid Web VPS infrastructure was engineered with customer priorities in mind. These solutions are ideal for users who want cloud-like flexibility. Customers can instantly provision and deploy their virtual server, then easily upgrade, downgrade, clone, or resize.

If you want easy scaling, screaming-fast speed, custom functionalities, and unparalleled support, look no further than Liquid Web for your VPS. The company owns all the hardware and boasts large development team, so the technological possibilities are pretty much limitless.

  • High-speed hosting that's faster than AWS, Rackspace, and Digital Ocean
  • FREE backups, CDN, and DDoS protection
  • Up to 16 processors with all-SSD storage
  • Choice between cPanel, Plesk, or InterWorx
  • Real-time monitoring and 100% uptime guarantee
  • Get started on Liquid Web now.
Money Back Guarantee
N/A
Disk Space
40 GB SSD - 200 GB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer

VPS Rating

N/A

WP Engine does not currently offer this type of hosting. We would not recommend choosing this host for this hosting category.

WordPress Hosting Comparison

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

Among the latest additions to the company's product portfolio, Liquid Web's managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting solutions is delivered by the WordPress specialists at Nexcess.

The fully managed support rids site owners of the responsibility of maintaining core installs and updates, as well as monitoring the server infrastructure. You run your WordPress blog or business, Liquid Web and Nexcess will run the rest.

Unlike other premium WordPress hosts like WP Engine or Flywheel, Liquid Web does not build packages around bandwidth usage or monthly visitors. Each package is allocated ample SSD storage and bandwidth to more than power the number of sites allowed.

There are no upcharges for increases in traffic, and site owners can quickly add resources with just a call. Instead of WP MultiSite, Liquid Web partnered with iThemes to provide site owners with iThemes Sync Pro.

Site administrators can oversee multiple sites from one intuitive dashboard, gaining insights from uptime and downtime, Google Analytics, and SEO performance. WordPress is a favorite recommendation of ours for both personal and professional websites.

When you combine the flexibility and intuitiveness of WordPress with the best-in-class infrastructure and support of Liquid Web and Nexcess, you've got a match made in hosting heaven. The company's managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting plans are going to give you all the performance and customization you want without the frustration.

If you're thinking of building a WordPress site, you should consider letting Liquid Web and Nexcess help you do it.

  • Speedy WP-optimized hosting delivered by Nexcess
  • FREE Object Cache Pro, image compression, and CDN
  • Unlimited page views and no overage charges
  • Automatic plugin updates and performance monitoring
  • FREE premium plugins and advanced PHP support
  • Get started on Liquid Web now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
15 GB - 800 GB
Domain Name
New or Transfer

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

With prices much higher than many WordPress users are accustomed to seeing, we understand that WP Engine may not be for everybody. But for those developers, designers, agencies, and growing businesses passionate about website performance, stability, and cutting-edge WordPress features, WP Engine will be a godsend.

Installing WordPress, setting up a theme, and moving a site from development to staging to production is simple for beginners.

The company's 2018 acquisition of StudioPress, the makers of the ultra-popular Genesis theme framework, further solidified customers' design options and WP Engine's involvement in the WordPress community.

More experienced users will appreciate the single-click staging areas, Git integration, choice of server locations, CDN compatibility, and other niceties. Plus, don't forget available add-ons for WordPress Multisite, geotargeting, and edge security.

These luxurious features make the higher-end monthly price exceedingly worthwhile. Plus, the built-in caching system allows WP Engine sites to outperform almost all other WordPress sites without the use of plugins, meaning you can focus more on your content and design and let the experts at WP Engine focus on maintaining your site's ridiculously great performance.

  • 0% OFF your first payment for our readers
  • FREE Genesis Framework & StudioPress themes
  • Fast, scalable, and secure WordPress
  • FREE SSL certificate and CDN ready
  • Upgrade for geotargeting and edge security
  • Get started on WP Engine now.
Money Back Guarantee
60 days
Disk Space
10 GB - 50 GB
Domain Name
New or Transfer

Site Builder Hosting Comparison

Website Builder Rating

N/A

Website Builder Rating

N/A

Neither host currently offers this type of hosting. While we do not recommend choosing these hosts for this web hosting category, we do recommend our expert's top pick for 2024's Best Site Builder Hosting. See 2024's Best Site Builder Hosting »

Advertiser Disclosure

HostingAdvice.com is a free online resource that offers valuable content and comparison services to users. To keep this resource 100% free for users, we receive advertising compensation from the hosts listed on this page. Along with key review factors, this compensation may impact how and where hosts appear on the page (including, for example, the order in which they appear). HostingAdvice.com does not include listings for all web hosts.

Our Editorial Review Policy

Our site is committed to publishing independent, accurate content guided by strict editorial guidelines. Before articles and reviews are published on our site, they undergo a thorough review process performed by a team of independent editors and subject-matter experts to ensure the content’s accuracy, timeliness, and impartiality. Our editorial team is separate and independent of our site’s advertisers, and the opinions they express on our site are their own. To read more about our team members and their editorial backgrounds, please visit our site’s About page.

Liquid Web vs. WP Engine - Our Conclusion

Laura Bernheim Alexandra Anderson Hosting Expert
“We tested Liquid Web & WP Engine — The winner is Liquid Web!”

We’ve named our winner this round. But ultimately, the host you choose should depend on the size of your website and budget. If you’re looking for WordPress hosting, look no further than WP Engine. But for large organizations that need supreme power and resources, Liquid Web’s VPS and Dedicated servers have no competition. At the end of the day, if you select a provider that suits your needs, your website will thrive.

Overall Rating
4.8/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit Liquid Web »
Overall Rating
4.5/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit WP Engine »

About The Author

Alexandra Anderson’s interest in website administration was sparked in her teens, priming her for a fast-paced career in managing, building, and contributing to online brands, including HostingAdvice, Forbes, and the blogs of prominent hosting providers. She brings firsthand experience reviewing web hosts, perfecting website design, optimizing content, and walking site owners through the steps that add up to a successful online presence. With a master's degree in information technology from Virginia Tech, she combines her extensive writing experience and technical understanding to unpack some of the most complex topics that daunt novice website owners, as well as the subjects that excite veteran technologists within the HostingAdvice readership.
Laura Bernheim