It's windy and the ocean is rough. Ships called WordPress and WP Engine are battling the wild waters and occasionally bump into each other. In times like these, people start to look around for more stable alternatives. Alternatives that aren't in a fight. After all, you don’t want your side hustle to become a casualty of all this. Here’s my take on the search for alternatives to WordPress CMS or WP Engine WordPress Hosting.
I won’t go into details about what is going on between Automattic – the commercial company behind WordPress – and WP Engine, a popular WordPress hosting company. You ended up here, so you are aware of what the feud and lawsuit(s) are all about.
I’m also not siding with any of the parties involved as both have a fair point. Yes, a copyright is a copyright and the owner can do what it needs to do to protect it. And yes, benefiting from an open-source project without adding (enough) to the project is not sustainable. And yes, open source is open source so it can be used according to the rules laid out. But some of the tactics used…. Ay ay.
From one WordPress fanboy to another
As a digital geek, I’ve been a fan of WordPress for a long time (more than 10 years). I’m also a fan of WP Engine’s hosting services but I have switched hosting providers in the past so for me it never is a lock-in. When change is needed, change must be created! After all, change is good!
However, when my website can be negatively impacted by something a company does or plans to do, I tend to look for alternatives. However, switching from WordPress to another CMS is extremely unlikely for me to do. Why? I like it, a lot! It is an easy yet flexible CMS that works great for digital nomads who are just starting out but also for the ones who have evolved to more advanced users. It offers something for everyone.
With great tools like Beaver Builder to create any kind of website you want and security tools like Wordfence, it’s an ecosystem I don’t want to leave (yet). Although, I have been looking at Ghost as an alternative to WordPress. Even though it looks great, especially for blogs, it won’t be a good alternative when running an eCommerce site / online shop on Woo(Commerce). However, I have a feeling I will be testing out Ghost for one of my blogs, so you might see a review of that popping up here in the future.
Considering WordPress hosting alternatives
When I was thinking about an alternative due to the issues in the world of WordPress & WP Engine, it was on the hosting side. Yes, WP Engine is still my favourite hosting provider for WordPress – I have no complaints – but I do wonder whether staying with this provider is the right thing to do. Maybe there is a better or similar yet cheaper option out there? A hosting option where the water is nice & calm.
Of course, there are lots of WordPress hosting alternatives out there, some similar to WP Engine and some more basic and thus cheaper. Let’s face it, WP Engine isn’t the cheapest WordPress hosting provider but you do get a lot for your buck. They include so many things to make your digital life easier.
The following WordPress hosting alternatives are my personal favourites when it comes to switching WordPress hosting providers. I have at least one WordPress site running at these providers, so all the info below is based on my personal experience. They all offer managed WordPress hosting as that is just easier for most bloggers and digital nomads, who just like me won’t want to spend time on managing a server but rather focus on the website, blog and its content.
Green Geeks for WordPress: independent hosting for eco-conscious brands
If eco is part of your business, its strategy or motto then Green Geeks hosting is perfect for your WordPress site. And they offer lot at a lower price point, which is great if you are just starting with your side hustle or want to save on hosting costs.
Moving from WP Engine to Green Geeks is easy to do. Their migration team will do the work for you. WP Engine has added some things to your WordPress code – things that power the WP Engine dashboard and magic – and these will need to be removed first, which Green Geek’s Migration Team will do for you while moving your website from WP Engine to Green Geeks.
If you prefer to migrate your website yourself, WP Engine has a great article explaining all this, how to remove these WP Engine specifics and migrate your website.
Green Geeks server locations
Green Geeks, the eco WordPress hosting provider, has the following server locations to choose from:
- Chicago, IL in the USA
- Montreal in Canada
- Amsterdam in the Netherlands (Europe)
- Singapore
If your main audience is located in New Zealand, Australia or elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, hosting it in Green Geeks Singapore, combined with a CDN like Bunny is a great option to achieve lightning-speed results and no worries about lag.
The advantages & features of Green Geeks in a nutshell
- Managed WordPress Hosting: A hosting service that handles all the technical stuff for running a WordPress site, so you can focus on your content.
- 1-Click WordPress Installation: Quickly set up WordPress with just a single click, no tech skills are needed.
- WordPress Acceleration: Uses a special plugin to make your WordPress website load up to 4 times faster.
- Enhanced Security: Extra layers of protection to keep your WordPress site safe from hackers and threats.
- Automatic Updates: Your WordPress site and plugins are automatically updated to stay secure and up-to-date.
- On-Demand WordPress Backups: Backups of your website that you can create whenever you need to.
- Free SSL Certificates: Free security certificates to protect your website and visitors' information.
- 24/7 Support: Expert help is available anytime, day or night.
- Free WordPress Migration: Transfer your WordPress website to a new host for free, with no hassle.
- Developer Friendly: Tools and features that make it easy for web developers to work on your WordPress site.
- Reliable & Powerful Infrastructure: High-performance servers powered by 300% renewable energy, making it eco-friendly.
- Name Brand Servers and Parts: Quality hardware that isn’t oversold, ensuring better performance for your site.
- The Fastest Hardware: SSD Hard Drives: Your site runs faster thanks to high-speed SSD storage.
- Ultra-Optimized Web & Database Servers: Specially tuned servers that make your website load up to 50 times faster.
- Nightly Backups: Your website is automatically backed up every night to protect against data loss.
Check out all the details of Green Geeks and see their low prices for your WordPress hosting requirements.
Pressable WordPress Hosting: the alternative that offers more
If you prefer to stay in the official world of WordPress and Automattic, then Pressable is the option for you. It’s part of Automattic – the company behind WordPress dot com, Jetpack, WooCommerce, and more.
As they are the “official” WordPress hosting provider, they have a lucrative offering for you, especially if you are on WP Engine right now. They now offer things like paying the remainder of your WP Engine contract, giving you a sign-up bonus for each WordPress website that you move from WP Engine to Pressable and more. And their prices are lower than WP Engine while offering more.
Moving your website from WP Engine to Pressable is super easy. They have a great website migration tool that is so easy to use. Just follow these steps:
- Create an account and website placeholder on Pressable – it's where your website will land when arriving in the world of Pressable.
- Add the Pressable Migration plugin to your website, similar to adding any plugin to your WordPress site.
- Click ‘Start migration’ and follow the steps. Your Pressable dashboard contains all the information you need to complete the migration.
- Sit back & relax… Your website will be migrated to Pressable.
- When done, fill in the domain info in your Pressable dashboard and update the DNS records to point to the new location of your website.
That’s it. You’ll have your website running on Pressable in minutes, with no downtime at all.
Pressable server locations
Pressable WordPress Hosting has the following hosting locations to choose from:
- Amsterdam in the Netherlands
- Washington, DC in the USA
- Los Angeles, CA in the USA
- Dallas, TX in the USA
The advantages & features of Pressable’s in a nutshell: get more, pay less
- WordPress Cloud Platform: A powerful hosting service built specifically to run WordPress websites smoothly and securely.
- Seamless White Glove WordPress Migrations: Expert help to transfer your WordPress site to a new platform without any hassle.
- 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee: You can get a full refund if you're not satisfied within 30 days.
- Smart WordPress Staging Environments: A safe space to test changes on your website without affecting the live version.
- Free SSL Certificates: Security certificates are provided at no extra cost to protect your website and user data.
- 100% Uptime Guarantee: Assurance that your website will be available online all the time.
- Easy-To-Use Dashboard: A simple control panel to manage your WordPress website.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): A security system that protects your website from online threats and attacks.
- Free Jetpack Security: Built-in security features to keep your WordPress site safe at no extra cost.
- WordPress Malware Scanning & Threat Monitoring: Continuous scanning of your site to detect and prevent malware.
- WordPress Malware Cleaning and Hack Recovery Assistance: Professional help to remove malware and recover your site if it's hacked.
- Around-the-Clock WordPress Support That Radiates Expertise: 24/7 expert help whenever you need assistance with WordPress.
- WordPress Performance Monitoring and Optimisation: Tools to track and improve the speed and performance of your WordPress site.
- Automatic WordPress Updates: Your WordPress site automatically stays up to date with the latest features and security patches.
- WordPress Plugin Update Scheduler and Performance Reports: Schedule plugin updates and receive reports on how they affect your site's performance.
- Automated Backups: Regularly scheduled backups of your website to prevent data loss.
- Auto-Scaling WordPress That Exceeds Expectations: Your website can automatically handle more traffic without slowing down.
- Free Automatic Failover: If one server goes down, your website automatically switches to another without any downtime.
- Free Global Content Delivery Network: Your website content is delivered faster to users around the world by using servers close to them.
Check out all the details of Pressable and see their special prices for hosting your WordPress site. You'll see that you will get more bang for your buck. As they are now aggressively marketing themselves as the best alternative for WP Engine, they have a great deal when moving from WP Engine. Pressable will make switching hosting providers worth your while.
WP Engine: always compare apples with apples
Before you decide to move your WordPress websites to an alternative hosting provider, keep in mind what you will be leaving behind. After all, WP Engine is a dedicated WordPress hosting provider that focuses on one thing and one thing only: WordPress hosting… And they do it exceptionally well.
WP Engine has the following hosting locations to choose from:
- North America: Iowa
- North America: South Carolina
- North America: Oregon
- North America: Montreal
- Europe: Belgium
- Europe: London
- Europe: Frankfurt
- Europe: Netherlands
- Europe: Finland
- Asia/Pacific: Taiwan
- Asia/Pacific: Tokyo
- Asia/Pacific: Sydney
- Asia/Pacific: Singapore
- Middle East: Tel Aviv
What WP Engine has to offer for your WordPress website
- 1-click staging. Flexible site copy tools, so you can easily update your website on the staging site, and then push it live when it's ready. No technical knowledge is required.
- Site speed boost with EverCache. making your website load fast (SEO benefit)
- Global CDN
- Automated updates
- DDoS protection and managed WAF. Threat blocking & WordPress security, keeping your small business website safe.
- Annual SOC 2 audits and ISO 27001 certification
- Expert support for WordPress: 24/7 WordPress-specific support, so there is always a helping hand available if you encounter an issue
- Local WordPress development
- Free automated migration plugin, making it super easy to migrate your website from another hosting provider to WP Engine
- World-class infrastructure with a global presence
- Transferable sites for easy client hand-off, in case you are in the business of creating websites for clients
Check out all the details of WP Engine and see their prices for your WordPress hosting requirements.
Should I stay or should I go?
That classic Clash song always rears its head in situations like this. And the decision to stay or go is yours. WP Engine still delivers world-class hosting for WordPress but it is not the only one out there. If another hosting provider helps you save a bit of money and offers exactly what you are looking for, why not make the switch? But if you are happy with WP Engine, why should you move? The decision is all yours. It’s your website so you have to do what is best for your online business or side hustle and your bottom line.
In the meantime, everyone’s eyes will be on the feud between Automattic (WordPress) and WP Engine. We’ll see what happens there.
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