WP Engine vs SiteGround: How Do These Top WordPress Hosts Compare in 2023?

If you‘re looking to build a new WordPress website, one of the most important decisions you‘ll make is picking the right web host. A quality host that‘s optimized for WordPress can help your site load faster, be more secure, and scale to handle more growth.

Two of the most popular managed WordPress hosting providers are WP Engine and SiteGround. Both companies cater specifically to WordPress users and offer compelling features for your site.

But WP Engine and SiteGround have notable differences across pricing, performance, ease of use and more. So how do you decide which one is the best fit?

In this comprehensive comparison guide, we‘ll break down how WP Engine and SiteGround stack up on all the key factors you should evaluate when selecting a managed WordPress host.

At a Glance: WP Engine vs SiteGround

Before we dive into the details, here‘s a high-level overview of how WP Engine and SiteGround compare:

Now let‘s analyze the key considerations for WP hosting in more detail…

WP Engine vs SiteGround: Plan Pricing

One major difference between WP Engine and SiteGround is the pricing and overall affordability.

SiteGround starts at just $3.95/month for their basic shared StartUp plan. WP Engine‘s plans start at $35/month, nearly 10X more expensive.

However, WP Engine positions itself as a premium managed WordPress host, with specialized features and performance to justify the higher price tag.

Here‘s how the starter plans stack up, along with what‘s included:

SiteGround has better value at the low end, but WP Engine offers more robust features, hosting infrastructure and enterprise-grade support.

For medium traffic loads in the 75-100k monthly visits range, WP Engine is around $115/month while SiteGround GrowBig shared hosting runs $11.95/month.

The main appeal of SiteGround is much lower entry pricing for starter websites. But WP Engine starts to make more sense at higher traffic levels when performance and specialized WordPress hosting matter more.

Speed and Reliability Benchmarks

There‘s no substitute for consistently fast page load speeds and reliability when it comes to WordPress hosting. Problems here directly impact site visitors and your business revenue.

Independent monitoring tools can give us objective performance benchmarks between SiteGround and WP Engine:

• Uptime: Across thousands of sites monitored over the past year, WP Engine maintains a superb 99.98% uptime while SiteGround averages 99.99% uptime. Both are excellently reliable.

• Page load speed: SiteGround averages 760ms page load times while WP Engine is considerably quicker with an average of 406ms, per Bitcatcha real user monitoring data.

• Ping times: On average, SiteGround servers have a slightly faster 37ms ping time compared to 58ms for WP Engine. However, there‘s little real-world performance difference at this scale.

For pure speed and reliability metrics, WP Engine comes out ahead. Their specialized WordPress infrastructure, EverCache technology and over-provisioned resources allow them to better optimize performance.

SiteGround is still very good, but WP Engine has an edge with large or high-traffic WP sites where speed is a priority.

Ease of Use

Most website owners prefer a WordPress host that provides an easy, user-friendly interface to manage sites. Complexity costs extra time and effort.

• SiteGround uses its own dashboard system tailored for WordPress. Everything you need is accessible from one place. Their UI is clean, simple and intuitive even for first-time users.

• WP Engine also built their own platform to simplify WordPress hosting management. It works well for single sites but can become more complex when managing multiple WordPress installations. Some familiarity required.

Overall, SiteGround has done a better job keeping things straightforward for customer of all skill levels. Their UI avoids unnecessary clutter and config options that would confuse beginners.

WP Engine has more power under the hood, but isn’t quite as seamless for brand new users.

Security Features

Security is now a necessity for any website, so we evaluated SiteGround and WP Engine across several key criteria:

SiteGround Security

• Free SSL certificates
• Website application firewall
• DDoS prevention
• IP blacklist monitoring
• SpamAssassin protection

WP Engine Security

• Free SSL certificates
• Automated malware detection
• Geo-distributed firewall
• DDoS prevention
• Brute force login protection
• Two-factor authentication

Both SiteGround and WP Engine offer well-rounded security suites covering the essentials like malware monitoring, firewalls and SSL.

SiteGround‘s application firewall and IP reputation monitoring provides an extra advantage for blocking threats before they reach your site. WP Engine makes it easier to implement two-factor login protection.

Ultimately, most users will be well-served by the security features included with either host. But do pay attention to vulnerabilities unique to your particular site or application.

Customer Support

Dealing with web hosting problems or issues accessing your site? You‘ll want a host with excellent customer support at your back.

• SiteGround Support

  • 📞 Phone, email and 24/7 live chat
  • Knowledgebase and community forums
  • 30 minute emergency response time
  • 4.8/5 rating on TrustPilot

• WP Engine Support

  • 📞 Phone (for Growth plan +)
  • Email and live chat
  • Searchable docs/guides
  • 4.7/5 rating on TrustPilot

SiteGround has more support channels for all plans. Their stellar ratings and extreme focus on customer experience gives them an advantage over competitors.

But generally, both hosts provide multiple avenues to get issues resolved or questions answered by WordPress experts on staff. Most support needs should be covered 24/7.

Ideal Site Types

We‘ve compared feature-sets…but what types of sites are actually best fit for WP Engine versus SiteGround?

When to choose SiteGround

SiteGround is the best fit for:

• New starter websites
• Small business websites
• Personal blogs and portfolios
• Marketing sites with ~100k or less monthly visitors
• Solo website owners and very small teams

Their shared hosting delivers excellent WordPress performance at a very appealing price point for early-stage sites. Easy UI and stellar support also appeals to beginners.

When to choose WP Engine

Consider WP Engine if:

• Building an ecommerce store
• Running a SaaS business or membership site
• Company/brand websites with high traffic
• Media sites or online publications
• Sites where speed and scaling are top priorities
• Developers managing multiple complex WP sites

WP Engine specializes in high-performance, managed WordPress hosting suited for more complex or revenue-critical sites. The improved speed, infrastructure reliability and security make the higher pricing worthwhile.

Final Recommendation

So with all factors considered, which host is better…SiteGround or WP Engine?

For most website owners, SiteGround is the best option if you want excellent managed WordPress hosting on budget or are just starting development. Their UI is very user-friendly and their support team will promptly fix issues.

However, WP Engine makes more sense once your WordPress site scales up and needs highest-grade infrastructure, specialized features or hosting expertise. Their solution caters to the complex needs of large, business-critical WP sites.

Hopefully by comparing them head-to-head across these key categories, you‘re better equipped to decide which provider fits your site‘s unique hosting needs in 2023!