Hostwinds vs WP Engine

Shared Web Hosting is a perfect place to start your web hosting. It is the most affordable option and has many features to help you build and manage a website.Our Shared Web Hosting servers come with SSD's (Solid State Drives). They are ideal if you need fast, secure, and affordable web hosting for your portfolio, personal site, or small business website.When you get started with any of our Shared Web Hosting plans, your website will live on a server with other websites. You will receive your ow

Technical knowledge is not required to use Shared Web Hosting. As soon as you order your service, we will send you your login details in addition to information about beginning your web hosting journey.We also offer you 24/7/365 support through Live Chat or ticket to ensure we answer any questions you have along the way.Once you receive your cPanel login details, you can begin managing all aspects of your website.This includes the ability to use the Weebly drag-and-drop Website Builder, install

You can always upgrade your package through your Hostwinds Client Area. Upgrading is a quick process, and there is no downtime.If you register more domains or need to use your account to host more websites, upgrading your package to Advanced or Ultimate web hosting can be done in a few clicks.Once you have upgraded your plan and paid the invoice, you can begin adding more domains immediately.

Business Web Hosting is a web hosting solution that is perfect for businesses of all sizes. Our Business Hosting packages are all hosted on Solid State Drives (SSDs) for optimum performance. We additionally increase Business Hosting performance further by utilizing LiteSpeed Web Server.We differentiate our Business Hosting services by provisioning our plans on robust servers, with fewer clients sharing the resources. We provide more resources than Shared Web Hosting plans, including higher inode

Although Business Web Hosting is ideal for businesses, it is certainly not exclusively for business owners.Our Business Hosting platform is perfect for performance-driven individuals who want the best and fastest possible experience for their website.If you are not happy with your current hosting and want something faster, then any of our business packages will be a great fit. We will even migrate your site to your Business Web Hosting account free of charge!

Once you have your domain name and signed up for web hosting, your company's website technically has everything it needs to launch.We understand that launching a new business venture can be daunting. This is why our Business Web Hosting plans provide you with more assistance than you would generally receive with a web hosting account. We offer a full range of utilities to help you create and manage your website. These tools make it easy to create a great-looking website to represent your busines

Not at all. That's what our enterprise support team is here for. Our Support Experts are available 24/7/365 to resolve technical issues or answer any questions you may have.We are always here for you if you need any assistance at all. We hope to become a valuable asset to you and your business.

Our Business Web Hosting plans come with more resources than Shared Web Hosting plans. Business plans also offer higher PHP Memory Limits, higher inode limits, and an increased outbound email limit.When you have a Shared Web Hosting account, you share dedicated resources with more individuals than you would as a Business Web Hosting client.Furthermore, our Business Web Hosting plans utilize LiteSpeed Web Server, which gives your viewers faster loading times when they visit your website.

Reseller Web Hosting is unique to Shared or Business Web Hosting. You become the hosting provider as a Reseller Web Hosting client. You sell hosting services to others rather than employing the hosting services of a web hosting company.When you sign up for Reseller Web Hosting, you rent Hostwinds server space, sell Hostwinds services, and our team handles everything else.

White Label Reseller Web Hosting is different from Reseller Web Hosting for a few reasons. First, White Label Reseller Web Hosting allows you to sell all of the products and services that Hostwinds offers to your clients under your brand. In contrast, Reseller Web Hosting allows you to sell shared services under Hostwinds. It does not include WHMCS or the ability to sell other products and services. Both are great offerings, and your choice is entirely dependent on your needs as a reseller.

YES! Reseller Hosting is particularly fantastic because you can launch your very own web hosting company without knowing anything about server management. Hostwinds technicians take care of all the technical details for you, so all you have to do is grow your hosting business.

Yes, you can! You can upgrade all of your accounts to increase the number of domains capable of being hosted, and upgrades happen instantly upon ordering. If one or more of your clients need additional room for more websites, upgrading is instant and straightforward.

A Linux VPS hosting service includes dedicated resources including CPU Cores, RAM, and Disk Space exclusively reserved for you.You can think of it as your own personal Linux computer, with its own set of dedicated resources. This gives you massive benefits over shared hosting, as you are much less likely to be impacted by "noisy neighbors". You also benefit from much-improved security by having your operating system environment completely separate from other users.Linux Virtual Private Servers a

We are happy to help you migrate your content to any new service so you can get started with your Hostwinds account as soon as possible.We have helped many new clients move their Linux VPS web hosting services from other providers. We are proud to offer this complimentary service for any new orders.Once you have submitted a migration request, our migration experts will begin with the transfer and communicate with you throughout this process.We also have lots of experience migrating from other pl

Our tiers of support include 24/7/365 support via Live Chat and support tickets. We also offer a 99.9999% network uptime guarantee, a 99.9999% power uptime guarantee, ongoing server maintenance, and the setup of automated tasks upon request.More included offerings: operating system updates, virus scans, mitigation of load problems or sluggishness, troubleshooting for network-related issues, assistance if a server fails to boot, help with hardware failures, package installations, and much more!Ch

Yes — managed hosting is worth it if your site requires reliability, security, and performance beyond what shared or DIY hosting can deliver. Unlike basic hosting, managed hosting includes ongoing updates, advanced security, daily backups, performance tuning, and expert WordPress support. While it costs more upfront, it typically lowers total cost of ownership (TCO) by reducing downtime, improving site speed, and saving internal IT resources. For enterprises, agencies, and developers, the ROI co

Shared hosting provides basic server space at low cost, while managed hosting delivers a premium, optimized environment with expert support and ongoing management. With shared hosting, many sites share the same server resources, which can limit performance and security. Managed hosting is purpose-built for WordPress, with dedicated resources, proactive monitoring, automated updates, and 24/7 expert support. It’s the difference between renting an apartment in a crowded building (shared) versus ha

Yes — most managed hosting plans include free or assisted site migrations to make switching providers seamless. At WP Engine, migrations are supported through automated tools and expert guidance to ensure your site transitions smoothly with minimal downtime. This includes migrating files, databases, and configurations. For enterprises and agencies with complex setups, custom migration support is also available to reduce risk during the move.

Managed hosting typically ranges from about $30/month for entry plans to several hundred per month for enterprise-grade solutions. Pricing reflects the level of performance, support, and features included. While the upfront cost is higher than shared hosting, managed plans reduce hidden costs like downtime, developer hours, and security incidents — delivering stronger ROI for businesses that rely on WordPress at scale.

Yes — managed hosting platforms use server-level caching, CDN integration, and optimized infrastructure to significantly improve WordPress speed and Core Web Vitals. Many sites see lower TTFB, faster LCP, and more stable performance during traffic spikes; some providers also add edge delivery for even greater consistency under global demand.

Managed hosting adds advanced security with firewalls, malware scanning, automatic patches, and backups to reduce risk compared to self-managed environments. For enterprises, leading providers also offer compliance support (SOC2, HIPAA, GDPR) and proactive monitoring that helps meet both IT governance and regulatory standards.

Managed hosting usually includes performance optimizations, automated updates, backups, staging environments, and expert WordPress support. Enterprise-level packages may also feature SLAs, advanced developer tooling, dedicated account support, and integrations that go beyond basic site hosting.

Yes — most managed hosting platforms allow developer access with tools like SSH, Git, staging sites, and CI/CD pipelines. This means teams can deploy custom code, integrate workflows, and maintain flexibility while still benefiting from a secure, fully managed hosting foundation.

Switch when your WordPress site grows in traffic, complexity, or revenue, and downtime or manual maintenance starts costing more than hosting fees. Common signals include traffic above 50k monthly visits, eCommerce checkout failures, compliance requirements, or the need to scale multiple client sites — all situations where managed hosting delivers outsized value.

Error logs are necessary for most WordPress troubleshooting. You can access the most recent 24 hours of PHP/Apache error logs in two different ways: how to access WordPress error logs.

We’ve outlined two methods for resetting your password, a traditional method and a method directly from the database: two ways to reset a WordPress password.

Here you will find a comprehensive list of WP Engine platform settings. Please reach out to our 24-hour Support team with any questions.

This article will cover how to import a database file into your WP Engine environment.

Follow this link for detailed instructions about how to update WordPress URLs.

Follow this link to learn more about how to solve problems when updating WordPress URLs.

Follow this link to learn more about understanding the WP Engine Error Logs.

Learn more about WordPress Backups and Restoring your website.

Learn more about copying to staging.

Learn more about common errors that WordPress users face and how to resolve them.

Learn how to purge your site cache in this detailed article.

Learn more about Improving Cacheability for WordPress websites.

Yes, learn more about how WP Engine works with LargeFS: Configuring Unlimited Storage with Amazon S3.

WP Engine will make the services available 99.95% of the time, excluding any excused downtime. The WP Engine SLA amends the agreement between WP Engine and customer and addresses the uptime guarantees in relation to the services we provide to you and your remedies for our failure to meet such guarantees.

We offer hosting solutions for WordPress websites and businesses of all sizes, from SMB to enterprise. We also offer eCommerce hosting and advanced solutions with customizable packages. See which hosting plan is right for your needs.

If you’re experiencing a technical issue on your website, please reach out to our 24-hour Support team and give us the opportunity to help you resolve it. Per our terms of service, account cancellations require a 30 day notice via our cancellation form.

WP Engine provides everything a WordPress website needs. Learn more about our award-winning hosting platform.

WP Engine is the most trusted enterprise platform for WordPress. Learn more about our enterprise hosting plans.

It’s free to migrate a site to WP Engine. Our automated migration plugin makes it simple.

Yes! Here’s the information needed to do a manual site migration.

It’s easy to launch a site with WP Engine, here’s how.

It’s possible to test your site on WP Engine after migrating without changing your DNS, just by editing a file on your computer.

This guide will take you through the process of exporting your database from your previous host, so that you can then migrate it to WP Engine.

Once you’ve downloaded your wp-content folder from your previous host, you can easily upload this folder or zip file to our Support Team so we can help you with this step of the manual migration process.

Learn more about transferable sites and environments.

Learn how to manage user roles on WP Engine.

The billing menu in your User Portal provides access to several plan-related functions, such as invoices, modifying billing info or changing your plan level.

Our pricing is partially based on the number of monthly visits to your site, we’ve provided as clear of guidelines as possible about which visits are considered billable.

When your number of visits exceeds your plan limit (here’s how we count visits), we charge you a small overage for each 1,000 visitors over your limit. If you are on a Startup, Professional, Growth, or Scale plan, the overage is $2 per 1,000 extra monthly visitors.

The WP Engine User Portal enables users to make many adjustments to their plans through upgrades, downgrades, and add-on features.

Follow this link to learn more about WP Engine’s Automated Migration plugin.

Yes, we recommend following this link to update plugins automatically with Smart Plugin Manager.

Follow this link to see our list of essential WordPress eCommerce plugins.

Follow this link to see the top 10 WordPress plugins on WP Engine.

Yes, follow this link to learn more about creating geographically customized content.

When hosting your WordPress site on WP Engine, you may need to connect directly to your website’s file system. On other platforms you may already be used to using FTP. At WP Engine we use SFTP which works the same, except it uses a layer of encryption for security and is restricted to a secured port. Read more about using SFTP on WP Engine.

Once you’ve downloaded your wp-content folder from your previous host, you can easily upload this folder or zip file to our Support Team so we can help you with this step of the manual migration process.

Git is a powerful development tool which enables developers or a development team to securely push code changes from their local machine to their site on WP Engine with the benefit of version control. Read more about using Git Push on WP Engine.

Here’s how to setup and connect to SSH Gateway. SSH, also known as Secure Shell, is the method of connecting from your computer to the web server where your site is hosted.

SSL/TLS certificates enable visitors to connect to your site with HTTPS, a secure protocol for exchanging information on the Internet. See more information on SSL (secure sockets layer) certificates.

Click here to learn more about adding SSL to your WP Engine site.

Yes, learn more about how to upload 3rd Party SSL Certificates.

Learn more about securing all URLs with SSL.

Learn more about obtaining free SSL Certificates with Lets Encrypt.

While we manage many parts of your website hosting, default email functionality on WP Engine is limited. Normal emails, such as password resets, will not typically have any issues sending. However, for robust email functionality, monitoring and scalability, we highly suggest utilizing a 3rd party email host.

We typically recommend using a 3rd party transactional mail provider such as Mailgun, Gmail, or Sendinblue. These services allow you to send emails from a specialized mail IP and will include a higher level of customization, such as more robust logging. See our full list of recommended email providers.

Learn more about DMARC Policies for Email Deliverability.

Learn more about sending Email Blasts on WP Engine.

Yes! With a dedicated security team specializing in WordPress behind it, our platform’s enterprise-grade technology automates threat detection to block 72M attacks daily while keeping your website vulnerabilities up to date. See more about WP Engine security protocols.

Yes, learn more about WP Engine’s enterprise-grade security.

Learn more about how to handle the WordPress update process.

Multisite for WordPress is a feature that allows you to create a “network” of subsites within a single instance of WordPress. Learn more about multisite for WordPress.

/support/what-is-wordpress-multisite/#Custom_Main_Site_DomainFollow this link to learn more about how to Add New Sites and Map a Custom Domain.

Follow this link to learn more about changing your Multisite Primary Domain.

Follow this link to learn more about Enabling Multisite on your WordPress website.