{"id":107343,"date":"2024-10-28T14:54:49","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T12:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/?p=107343"},"modified":"2024-10-28T14:54:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T12:54:51","slug":"wp-engine-vs-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wp-engine-vs-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"WP Engine vs WordPress.com: Who Has the Better Plans and Prices?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sometimes fate works in mysterious ways. I originally began writing this article the day before WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg took the stage in Portland, Oregon to deliver his keynote speech at WordCamp U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little did I know, less than 24 hours after I began typing, that my lil’ ol’ comparison of WP Engine vs<\/strong> WordPress.com would rapidly get overshadowed by the now very-trending story of WP Engine VERSUS<\/strong> WordPress. \ud83d\ude05<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Well, I decided that I’m still going to share my original comparison with you because the inherent value of it hasn’t changed – even if current events might temporarily be drowning it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact remains: both WP Engine and WordPress.com are two very popular WordPress-only hosting providers. Many people who want to build their site using WordPress end up narrowing down their decision to these two, but then get stuck on the final decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I don’t blame them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At first glance, their plans and pricing structures couldn’t be any more different<\/strong>. I’ve written quite a few hosting company comparisons and I’m not sure that any of them have been more confusing than this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But don’t worry. That’s the whole reason I wrote this. I’m going to make sense of it for you<\/strong> and explain it in a way that will allow you to understand what exactly you’re getting with each host<\/strong> (and what it’ll cost you).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s do this! \ud83d\udcaa<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\t \t\tTrying to choose between #WPEngine and #WordPress(com) for your site? \ud83d\udcbb Read this first! \ud83d\udc40<\/a>\n\t\t \t<\/div>\n\t\t \t
\n\t\t \tClick To Tweet \n\t\t \t\t<\/span>\n\t\t \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A primer on the plans \ud83e\udd3c<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you first land on the WP Engine<\/strong> plans and pricing<\/a> page, it appears they have three plans<\/strong>, whereas WordPress.com<\/strong> has five plans<\/strong><\/a> (and a sixth 100% free plan – though this is more of a “try it out” option than a serious plan):<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"WP
WP Engine plans<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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\"WordPress.com
WordPress.com plans<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

This might give you the impression that WP Engine’s plans are simpler to browse through – since there are only three of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In actuality, this couldn’t be further from the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a look at the screenshot under the “Build your plan” section to understand why I say that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you can see, their main plan has four different variations<\/strong> to it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus there’s an option to add on an extra site (for $17 per site), and four optional add-on features (which all cost extra). \ud83e\udd2f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tweaking any of these variables will result in a different final price.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"WP<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

If you do the math, there are 64 possible variations (and that’s excluding any additional sites added onto any variation). As you can imagine and as I mentioned in the introduction, this makes it challenging to do an apples-to-apples<\/em> comparison with WordPress.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of that, they have an entire lineup of WooCommerce plans<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doesn’t mean we can’t make any kind of comparison at all. But we do need to make it practical. The easiest way to do that is by disqualifying some things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here is what we will NOT compare<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n