Liquid Web vs WP Engine

Liquid Web wins 2 of the 3 points we can measure. Here's how they compare on price, features, ratings and deals.

Feature	Liquid Web	WP Engine
Our score	6.4/10	7.2/10 (better)
Starts at	$19/month (better)	$28/month
Free version	No	No
Refund window	–	–
Billing	Subscription	Subscription
Active installs	–	–
Last Black Friday	52% off (better)	10% off
Category	Other tools	Other tools
Vendor	Liquid Web	WP Engine
Black Friday 2026	Not announced	Not announced

Which should you choose?

Choose Liquid Web if…

Businesses that need managed WordPress or WooCommerce hosting
Sites that may later need VPS or dedicated servers
You want the lower starting price

Liquid Web review Visit Liquid Web

Choose WP Engine if…

Businesses with high-traffic WordPress sites
Agencies managing client sites on premium hosting
Publishers needing uptime guarantees

WP Engine review Visit WP Engine

Features

Liquid Web

Automatic WordPress updates
Daily backups
Staging sites
Human-assisted migration
Virtual patching

WP Engine

Automated updates
Daily and on-demand backups
Global CDN and caching
Staging and dev environments
Uptime SLA
24/7 support

Pros and cons

Liquid Web

Automatic WordPress updates and daily backups on managed plans
Human-assisted migration is included
Can scale from managed WordPress to VPS and dedicated servers

Elite plan price is not shown in the pricing text checked
CDN overage and autoscaling are billed as usage extras on top of the plan
Entry plans are limited to 50k monthly visitors

WP Engine

Managed updates and backups on every plan
99.99% uptime SLA on Business and above
Strong support reputation in reviews
1-click staging environments

Entry plan at $28/month is expensive for small sites
Essential covers only one site
Enterprise pricing is a custom quote with no public price

Pricing plans

Liquid Web

Pro WordPressStarts here
$19/month
1 site
- 50k monthly visitors, 15GB shared storage
- 14-day daily backups
- Staging sites and automatic WordPress updates
Elite WordPress
Custom
1 site
- 50k monthly visitors
- 30-day daily backups
- Virtual patching through Patchstack

WP Engine

EssentialStarts here
$28/month
1 site sites
- Daily automated backups
- 24/7 chat support
- Free SSL and SSH access
Business
$400/month
3 sites sites
- Isolated resources
- 24/7 chat and phone support
- 99.99% uptime SLA
Enterprise
Custom
10 sites sites
- Dedicated account team
- Managed WAF and DDoS protection
- Custom contract terms

What Reddit says

Liquid Web

Reddit users are strongly negative about Liquid Web, saying its support has declined and that plugins it bought have brought higher prices and forced bundles. One widely shared post tells developers to avoid its plugins after a licence check blocked an add-on on a client launch.

WP Engine

Reddit posts about WP Engine are mostly company news, including a BigCommerce partnership, a standalone Smart Search AI plugin and a trademark dispute with the WordPress Foundation. Users offer little opinion of their own, though one open source post pitches a self-hosted alternative.