flywheel review for wordpress

If you’re considering managed hosting, which often outperforms shared hosting, choosing the right provider is key. This is where our Flywheel review comes in, specifically tailored for WordPress users. Flywheel stands out in the world of managed WordPress hosting, being known for its wide array of features suitable for both individual WordPress users and agencies, while also remaining quite affordable.

But how well does Flywheel meet your specific requirements? In this review, we’ll explore the WordPress-centric features Flywheel offers, test their support team, measure Flywheel’s actual load times and performance, and delve a lot into their pricing. Let’s get started!

Flywheel

4.8 out of 5

Flywheel is a managed WordPress hosting provider that offers a user-friendly platform for designers and agencies to host and manage WordPress sites. Their plans include fast and secure hosting, easy site staging, and a collaborative workflow that allows teams to work together seamlessly.

User Rating
4.8 out of 5
Reliability
4.8 out of 5
Performance
4.8 out of 5

Pros

Good WordPress-specific features

Great support service

Good security options

Cons

Higher price to host multiple sites

An overview of Flywheel

Load times 0.96s (US avg.), 0.37s (EU), 0.39s (Asia)
Uptime 100% (avg. over 3 months)
Support 24/7 chat support, phone support on higher tier
Key features WordPress pre-installed, PHP 8.1, free SSL, auto-healing technology, SSH and SFTP access, free migrations, nightly backups
Apps FlyCache (custom caching), CDN included, 10 StudioPress themes and Genesis framework included, organization-level tools, local development and staging environment
Price From $13.00 / month, host 1-30 websites, 5k-400k monthly visits supported
Best for WordPress users who want to convert to managed hosting but have a limited budget; agencies hosting sites for clients.

Flywheel vs main competitors

Flywheel Kinsta SiteGround
Rating 4.8 / 5 4.8 / 5 4.7 / 5
Load time avg. 0.67s 0.89s 0.89s
Uptime avg. 100% 100% 100%
Price from $13.00 $30.00 $2.99
Free domain
Free email hosting
Free SSL
Easy staging
Security Nightly backups, plugin security alerts, auto-healing technology DDoS protection, 14-day backup retention Custom WAF, AI anti-bot system, backups
Infrastructure Own hosting stacks Google Cloud Platform Own hosting stacks
Visit Flywheel Kinsta SiteGround
Flywheel compared to market average
Flywheel market avg.
Load times US 0.96s 0.92s
Load times EU 0.37s 0.95s
Load times Asia 0.39s 1.68s
Uptime 100% 99.97%

Flywheel review for WordPress – specific features ⚙️

Flywheel homepage

Aside from their WordPress managed hosting features, Flywheel is known for its extensive suite of tools for freelancers, designers, developers, and agencies. If you’re looking for a web host that can help you grow your web development or design business, you definitely should consider them.

However, for the purposes of this review, we’re going to focus on WordPress-specific features. Here’s what Flywheel has to offer in that respect:

  • Optimized dashboard: Instead of a clunky cPanel, you get access to a streamlined dashboard for WordPress sites.
  • One-click staging sites: Test changes on your WordPress sites using staging environments.
  • Nightly backups: Flywheel backs up your WordPress sites nightly, for increased peace of mind.
  • Hands-on security: Protecting your site from malware and attacks is taken care of, removing the need to install security plugins.
  • No manual installations: Flywheel’s Blueprints tool packs some frequently used themes and plugins into reusable configurations to auto-install them on new sites.

Overall, Flywheel lives up to its reputation with a comprehensive set of WordPress features. Let’s see if that quality translates to support as well.

Note; Flywheel is now part of WP Engine. The WordPress hosting giant acquired them mid-2019. Ever since, WP Engine has been merging more of Flywheel’s features into their main setups, plus also sharing some of its own advanced perks with Flywheel’s customers as well. In simple terms, Flywheel pretty much is WP Engine at this point, but they’re still choosing to offer hosting under these two separate brands. Flywheel looks to be more focused to cater to entry-level managed hosting customers, while WP Engine tackles the rest of this market.

Support options 🖱️

When it comes to support, Flywheel doesn’t disappoint. They offer several channels of communication, including plain email tickets, phone calls, social media, and live chat. For our Flywheel review for WordPress, we decided to test their live chat, since that’s the channel most people tend to use.

All in all, we had a very pleasant experience. We waited for less than a minute for a support specialist to connect with us, and they answered our WordPress questions promptly and fully:

Flywheel support chat

As far as documentation goes, Flywheel provides its users with over 100 articles covering everything from WordPress-specific issues to billing questions. Chances are you’ll find what you need in there without even having to contact a specialist. But if you don’t, use their 24/7 worldwide in-app support in no time.

Performance ⌛

As a managed WordPress web host, Flywheel takes performance seriously. That becomes clear when perusing the tools they offer:

  • WordPress optimization: Since Flywheel only hosts WordPress sites, they’ve fine-tuned their servers for it.
  • Custom caching engine: They offer a custom caching solution built with WordPress users in mind.
  • Free Content Delivery Network (CDN): A partnership with Fastly enables Flywheel to deliver enhanced load speed.
  • Powerful infrastructure: Flywheel also partnered with the Google Cloud platform for powerful performance.

To top things off, Flywheel offers server availability throughout the world, including the following locations:

  • USA: New York, Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco
  • Singapore
  • Tokyo, Japan
  • Toronto, Canada
  • Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Frankfurt, Germany
  • London, United Kingdom

That collection of features and server locations sounds great on paper, but does it translate into positive real-life results? Let’s find out.

Page speed tests 🚴

To get it going, let’s first evaluate Flywheel’s performance by measuring load times from various locations.

For this test, we set up a demo website using the Neve theme, integrated with a handful of widely-used plugins and demo content. Our goal was to create a setup that closely resembles an actual, live website.

Here are the loading times we got:

Flywheel loading times 🔃
East Coast USA: 0.68s ⭐West Coast USA: 1.94s
Central USA: 0.27s ⭐London, UK: 0.52s ⭐
Paris, France: 0.21s ⭐Mumbai, India: 0.39s ⭐

Uptime tests ⏰

During a three-month period, we monitored and recorded the uptime for our test setup, too. The results are as follows:

Flywheel uptime 📶
August 2024September 2024October 2024
100.00% ⭐100.00% ⭐100.00% ⭐

See the live status page and historical data for Flywheel.

Pricing 💵

Flywheel pricing

Flywheel’s plans cater to both business owners and freelancers (with an emphasis on agencies). They offer a wide range of offerings, but for this review, we’ll focus on their Pay-per-Site plans:

  • TINY ($13.00 per month): This plan supports up to 5,000 monthly visits and is good for portfolio websites.
  • STARTER ($25.00 per month): This plan supports up to 25,000 monthly visits and is perfect for freelancers, small sites, and personal blogs.
  • FREELANCE ($77 per month): The FREELANCE plan is good for up to 1,000,000 visits per month and is an excellent choice for medium service sites or online stores. You can use it to create ten sites.
  • AGENCY ($194 per month): The AGENCY tier can handle up to 5,000,000 monthly visits. It’s a reliable option for popular blogs and established eCommerce sites. It will allow you to build over 30 websites.

The first two plans we mentioned above only support a single WordPress site. They are not very expensive, as far as WordPress hosting goes, and in exchange for their price tags, they offer great quality of service and little need for micromanagement. If you want your site to run at top form at all times and can pay for the service, you should definitely consider Flywheel.

Overall pros and cons 👍👎

Before we wrap up this Flywheel review for WordPress, let’s take one final look at this web host’s pros and cons.

Pros

A good suite of WordPress-specific (and security) options.

Great support service.

Fast, stable performance.

Multiple advanced features for freelancers and agencies.

Cons

A higher price tag than some competitors, especially if you expect to host multiple sites.

Conclusion 🏁

Flywheel presents an appealing option for WordPress users and agencies seeking quality managed hosting without breaking the bank. While there are less expensive options available, Flywheel stands out for its balance of affordability and high-quality service.

All things considered, for WordPress users or agencies with some budget flexibility, Flywheel emerges as a strong contender worth considering for managed hosting needs.

Do you agree with the findings of our Flywheel review? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!

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Thomas Secher
August 1, 2017 1:46 pm

Its not really fair to compare Kinsta and Siteground with their low pricepoint with superexpensive Flywheel. Ofcourse Flywheel is faster and able to provider more support for 5 times the price.

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