Kinsta, WP Engine, and Cloudways price different packages. Compare a suitable configuration, required extras, and the cost of moving. An entry server and a multi-site managed plan are not equivalent just because both can install WordPress.

Should you switch hosts?

Compare staying, changing your current plan, and moving. Use your own quotes for the same sites and service requirements. No email required.

Prices below are yours to enter. The worked examples use fictional figures, not provider offers. Calculations stay in this page; analytics records tool use, not your amounts or quote names.

Try an example:

1. Set the comparison

2. Enter comparable quotes

Use ongoing renewal rates as monthly equivalents, including tax if relevant. Required extras can include backups, email, updates, and expected usage charges. Keep paid maintenance in extras; count your own time separately.

Stay on current plan

Your baseline

Provider and prepaid credit

Staying uses all the prepaid credit above. That reduces the amount still to pay in year one.

Change current plan
Moving costs, credit and provider
Switch host
Moving costs, credit and provider
How the comparison works

We project 12 months at constant renewal rates and workload. This is a cost comparison, not a payment calendar: annual billing can require a larger upfront payment. Temporary promotions, changing usage, revenue, financing, and tax effects are not modelled automatically.

Year-one cash still to pay = 12 months of hosting and extras + one-time fees - usable prepaid credit or refunds. Already-paid money is excluded from every option. Effective cost adds the value of your ongoing and one-time work. Unrecovered prepaid value affects savings through the difference in credit; do not add it again as a fee.

Payback compares each alternative with staying: one-time fees, your one-time work, and lost prepaid credit divided by the ongoing monthly saving including time. If there is no positive monthly saving, there is no financial payback. Per-client cost uses occupied sites and does not calculate retainer profit.

The three pricing models

Provider What you choose What can change the total
Kinsta A named hosting plan and its allowances Storage, backup frequency, paid services, and usage beyond the selected limits
WP Engine A subscription and its included sites/resources Renewal rate, extensions, extra sites, and excess usage
Cloudways Flexible Infrastructure provider and server configuration Additional servers, backup storage, application services, support, and transfer

Use the detailed guides for Kinsta pricing, WP Engine pricing, and Cloudways pricing to identify the line items. They distinguish current public offers from existing-customer renewal notices. Those are different prices for different buying situations.

One site: compare what you will use

For one small site, write down the total annual commitment, support requirement, storage, and maintenance arrangement. An included feature has value only if it replaces something you would otherwise pay for or do yourself.

For example, a staging environment is useful when someone tests changes before deployment. It saves nothing if nobody uses it. A paid update service may reduce repetitive work, but you still need to verify contact forms or checkout. Include those checks in every option so the comparison is fair.

Do not add a new email subscription automatically if you already pay for one that will continue after the move. Conversely, if cancelling the old hosting would also cancel your mailboxes, budget for replacing that service before calling the new host cheaper.

Five, ten, or twenty-five sites: count capacity and clients

Per-site cost helps compare portfolios, but a server cannot be judged sufficient from the site count alone. Estimate the combined workload before treating shared capacity as a saving.

Use this planning table instead:

Portfolio What changes in the calculation
1 site Migration cost can outweigh a modest monthly saving
5 sites Account for per-site add-ons and unused slots in larger plans
10 sites Measure update, recovery, and client-access work across the group
15 sites Check whether a larger tier or several servers are actually needed
25 sites Price separation for demanding clients and an exit process for each

With a $150 total monthly bill, five occupied sites average $30 each; ten average $15; twenty-five average $6. That is division, not a recommendation to put twenty-five sites on a $150 configuration. Add maintenance labor before comparing the hosting margin in a client retainer.

Compare the bill and the work separately

Here is an illustrative agency decision using invented quotes to show the method:

Monthly cost Current arrangement Proposed arrangement
Hosting plus required services $180 $110
Work that differs between arrangements 1 hour at $50 2 hours at $50
Effective operating total $230 $210

The invoice saving is $70, but the saving after extra work is $20. If the move costs $240, payback is twelve months using that effective saving. If the extra work turns out to take another hour, the proposed arrangement becomes more expensive.

This is why a large percentage discount is not sufficient evidence for a switch. Ask what changes in your own workload, and count that change once. Do not charge every WordPress maintenance task to Cloudways while assuming it vanishes at another host.

Annual billing and renewal traps

Compare the same time period on both sides. Divide a yearly bill by twelve for an effective monthly figure, but record the upfront cash commitment separately. Keep the first-year promotion and later renewal in separate rows if they differ.

When moving from an annual plan, establish what has already been paid and what can be refunded. A lower future monthly bill does not recover a nonrefundable current payment. The worksheet separates unused prepaid hosting from new fees. Enter how much credit each alternative preserves or refunds; do not add that same lost credit to moving fees again.

Use the worksheet for your decision

Enter hosting, required extras, and your own work separately in the three-option worksheet. Put paid migration help and additional overlapping service in one-time fees, and your own migration work in hours. Cash costs and costs including your time appear separately. The result estimates savings and payback, not plan capacity.

If the new option costs more, name what the premium buys: a usable support channel, less server administration, a needed workflow, or a service your current arrangement lacks. If there is no such benefit and no net saving, there is no financial reason to move.

Ready to narrow the offers? The three-provider comparison connects these costs to operating fit. The agency guide covers client ownership and margin, while the under-$50 guide treats that limit as a complete budget.