Liquid Web vs. WP Engine (2020)

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

We know Liquid Web and WP Engine are two of the best premium hosting providers out there — but which one is the best? As you might imagine, the answer to that question revolves around your dedication to using WordPress. WP Engine builds its business around high-class managed WordPress hosting, while Liquid Web concentrates on high-powered infrastructure across a variety of cloud, VPS, and dedicated options. Liquid Web has made a big push into the managed WordPress and WooCommerce markets, though, so let’s see how the two providers stack up.

Liquid Web review
Overall Rating
4.8/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit Liquid Web »
WP Engine review
Overall Rating
4.5/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit WP Engine »
Advertiser Disclosure
Compare: Overall | Cheap Hosting | Dedicated | VPS | WordPress | Site Builder | Conclusion

Overall Hosting Comparison

Liquid Web review

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... read more +

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 US 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 bit of a 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 is that 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 that customers consistently vouch for Liquid Web managed hosting.

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  • Heroic Support® and fully managed hosting services
  • Linux or Windows options available with Plesk or cPanel
  • Industry leader in customer loyalty and NPS score
  • Optimized virtual servers proven faster than AWS and Rackspace
  • 100% uptime guarantee, plus backups and security tools
  • Get started on Liquid Web now.
Money Back Guarantee
N/A
Disk Space
40 GB SSD - 200 GB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
WP Engine review

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... read more +

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 $20 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, such as myself, 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.

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  • Enterprise-level WordPress hosting
  • Built-in caching and staging
  • Unlimited data transfer
  • Daily backups and 1-click restore
  • 20% discount for HostingAdvice users (was $24.20/month)
  • Get started on WP Engine now.
Money Back Guarantee
60 days
Disk Space
10 GB - 30 GB
Domain Name
New or Transfer

Cheap Hosting Comparison

Liquid Web review

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ N/A
WP Engine review

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 2020's Best Cheap Hosting. See 2020's Best Cheap Hosting »

Dedicated Hosting Comparison

Liquid Web review

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

#1 out of 10 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... read more +

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 500 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 or Plesk Onyx 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 short list. The company is known for strong managed service offerings, but the drawback to managed hosting is usually the cost. Liquid Web doesn't leave you hanging there though — in-house solutions keep the cloud-level flexibility and performance up and the cost down.

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  • 100% network and power uptime guarantees
  • Custom configurations, SSDs, and instant provisioning
  • Auto-migrations, backups, and real-time monitoring
  • Block/object storage and load balancer add-ons
  • Windows or Linux servers with 100% uptime guarantee
  • Get started on Liquid Web now.
Money Back Guarantee
N/A
Disk Space
480 GB - 2 TB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
WP Engine review

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

Liquid Web review

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

#3 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 —... read more +

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 comes standard for Liquid Web VPS users, which decreases latency and keeps your page loads fast and secure. The company offers a range of management plans, as well as cPanel control 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 that want cloud-like flexibility. Customers can instantly provision and deploy their virtual server, 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.

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  • High-speed hosting that's faster than AWS, Rackspace, and Digital Ocean
  • FREE backups, CDN, root access, and DDoS protection
  • Up to 16 processors with all-SSD storage
  • Choice between cPanel or Plesk Onyx control panel
  • Real-time monitoring and 100% uptime guarantee
  • Get started on Liquid Web now.
Money Back Guarantee
N/A
Disk Space
30 GB SSD - 150 GB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
WP Engine review

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

Liquid Web review

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

#8 out of 10 in WordPress Hosting reviews

Among the latest additions to the company's product portfolio, Liquid Web's managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting solutions was built on the VPS infrastructure and Heroic Support® that Liquid Web... read more +

Among the latest additions to the company's product portfolio, Liquid Web's managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting solutions was built on the VPS infrastructure and Heroic Support® that Liquid Web customers already love. 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 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, 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 help you do it.

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  • Managed servers, FREE migrations, and Heroic Support®
  • Oversee multiple sites at once with iThemes Sync Pro
  • Unlimited page views and no overage charges
  • Automatic image compression and plugin updates
  • FREE Varnish caching layer and PHP 7 support
  • Get started on Liquid Web now.
Money Back Guarantee
N/A
Disk Space
20 GB SSD - 150 GB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
WP Engine review

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

#7 out of 10 in WordPress Hosting reviews

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... read more +

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.

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  • 20% OFF your first payment for HostingAdvice readers
  • FREE Genesis Framework and StudioPress themes
  • Fast, scalable, and secure WordPress
  • FREE SSL certificate and CDN ready
  • Upgrade options for geotargeting and edge security
  • Get started on WP Engine now.
Money Back Guarantee
60 days
Disk Space
10 GB - 30 GB
Domain Name
New or Transfer

Site Builder Hosting Comparison

Liquid Web review

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ N/A
WP Engine review

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 2020's Best Site Builder Hosting. See 2020's Best Site Builder Hosting »

Advertiser Disclosure

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Liquid Web vs. WP Engine - Our Conclusion

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

Just because Liquid Web is more of a web hosting generalist than WP Engine, when it comes to delivering performant, secure, and highly optimized services, Liquid Web is no slouch. We obviously greatly appreciate the flexibility of being able to switch servers or content management systems, but we completely support the laser-like attention to detail that WP Engine devotes to continually improve the WordPress user experience. When looking for high-stakes WordPress hosting, however, look no further than our chosen winner.

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

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