Leave WP Engine Managed WordPress Hosting

Managed WordPress hosting solved 2015 problems. Modern frameworks solve 2026 problems.

Start Migration

Why People Leave WP Engine

Common frustrations that drive users to look for alternatives.

Starts at $20/month for a single site — costs scale quickly with traffic and sites

Plugin blacklist blocks popular plugins (some caching, security, and backup plugins are banned)

PHP version updates are controlled by WP Engine, not you — can break custom code

Proprietary page caching can cause issues with dynamic content and logged-in users

Locked into WordPress — WP Engine's entire value proposition disappears if you switch frameworks

What You Gain by Leaving

The benefits of migrating to a modern deployment platform.

Save $240-600/year — WP Engine costs $20-50/month vs. free tier on Vercel

No more plugin blacklists — use any npm package you want

Full control over your deployment pipeline, caching, and infrastructure

Better performance — static pages are inherently faster than cached PHP

Your codebase is portable — not locked into any hosting provider

How to Migrate Away from WP Engine

Follow these steps to move your WordPress site to a modern platform.

Export content from WordPress using LeaveWP — WP Engine allows full WP Admin access

Download your media library from WP Engine's SFTP or backup downloads

Use LeaveWP to generate a Next.js or Astro project with your content

Customize the design and deploy to Vercel

Update DNS records in your registrar (WP Engine doesn't register domains)

Test all pages, check redirects, and verify SEO metadata

Cancel your WP Engine plan — no long-term contracts on most plans

Recommended Alternatives

Modern platforms that replace WP Engine with better performance and lower costs.

Vercel

The natural destination for WP Engine sites moving to Next.js. Managed infrastructure with better DX.

Free tier, Pro at $20/monthBest for: Next.js projects (replaces WP Engine at same or lower cost)

Netlify

Excellent DX with deploy previews, split testing, and serverless functions.

Free tier, Pro at $19/monthBest for: Teams who value collaboration features

Cloudflare Pages

Global edge deployment with Workers for server-side logic.

Free tier, Pro at $20/monthBest for: Performance-critical sites

Railway

If you need a database and server-side features alongside your frontend.

Usage-based from $5/monthBest for: Full-stack apps with databases

Related Migration Guides

Migrate WordPress → Next.js Migrate WordPress → Astro

Frequently Asked Questions

Is WP Engine worth the premium?

WP Engine is the best WordPress hosting available. But the question is whether WordPress itself is the right choice. If you're paying WP Engine prices to make WordPress fast, a modern framework gives you better performance for free.

I rely on WP Engine's staging and backups — will I lose those?

No. Vercel and Netlify both offer preview deployments (better than staging). Git provides unlimited version history (better than backups). You gain more capability, not less.

What about WP Engine's CDN and caching?

Static sites don't need a separate CDN or caching layer — the HTML is pre-built and served from the edge by default. This is fundamentally faster than WP Engine's page caching of PHP output.

Is WP Engine worth the premium price?

Only if you need managed WordPress. Modern stacks achieve better performance at lower cost.

Can I migrate my WP Engine staging site?

Yes, export from staging URL just like production using LeaveWP.

How do I handle WP Engine-specific features?

Page performance, CDN, and SSL are free on Vercel/Netlify. No vendor lock-in needed.