Summary: WP Engine records 361ms TTFB speed, 99.9933% uptime, 27ms load handling response time, 65ms cached global TTFB and a 6.5/10 WPBench score. score. The performance data was collected between November 1, 2025 and August 29, 2026. In the same time period, Cloudways Vultr HF records 433ms TTFB, 99.9990% uptime, 291ms load handling response time, 395ms cached global TTFB and a 7.6/10 WPBench. WP Engine clearly wins on speed, load handling and global speed TTFB. WP Engine and Cloudways Vultr HF tie in the uptime test, while Cloudways Vultr HF wins the server hardware test.
Note: We are paying customers to both Cloudways and WP Engine since 2020 and our actual invoices can be seen here. Our Cloudways and WP Engine comparison follows our methodology. We have been testing all the 5 cloud providers of Cloudways. However, the Cloudways Vultr HF is priced at $16 per month, which is closest to the range of WP Engine at $27 per month. Hence, we picked Cloudways Vultr HF for comparison in this review.
Quick Verdict
| Metric | Cloudways Vultr HF | WP Engine | Winner |
| Overall rank (of 29) | #20 | #9 | WP Engine |
| Final score | 6.43 | 7.80 | WP Engine |
| TTFB (10-month avg) | 433ms | 361ms | WP Engine |
| Uptime (10-month avg) | 99.9990% | 99.9933% | Cloudways and WP Engine |
| Load test | 291ms / 2.3% errors | 27ms / 0% errors | WP Engine |
| Global TTFB (cached) | 395ms | 65ms | WP Engine |
| WPBench score | 7.6/10 | 6.5/10 | Cloudways |
| Sites included | Unlimited (CPU/RAM bound) | 1 | Cloudways |
| CDN (entry plan) | Paid add-on at $4.99/domain | Cloudflare edge caching | WP Engine |
| Intro price | $16/mo | $27/mo | Cloudways |
| Visit Cloudways.com | Visit WPEngine.com |
Cloudways vs WP Engine: Speed
WP Engine outperforms Cloudways Vultr HF in TTFB speed with a 72ms difference.
Historically based on the last five years, Cloudways has been consistently offering the best TTFB range from 400 to 450 ms in average. However, WP Engine had a roller coaster where the TTFB might be above 500 ms. But since 2024 when they introduced the edge caching, their response time has been improved a lot and now they are much faster than any of the Cloudways Cloud providers.
Cloudways vs WP Engine: Uptime
Cloudways and WP Engine both wins with consistent uptime at 99.99%. Similar to TTFB speed, the uptime has been consistently better at Cloudways and WP Engine has improved after the 2024. WP Engine has recorded two outages in this time period and one outage lasted for 25 minutes, which is the periodic scheduled maintenance. So leaving that, the outage is just four minutes in this whole 10 months testing period. In comparison, Cloudways Vultr HF has small outages happened for four times lasting for four minutes.
Cloudways vs WP Engine: Load Handling
WP Engine wins the load handling test outright. It has recorded an average response time of 27ms with 0% errors, while Cloudways Vultr HF recorded 291ms with a 2.3% error rate. Lower the response time indicates the faster the servers are handling the bulk of visitors. WP Engine is at least 10 times faster than Cloudways Vultr HF. The major reason is that WP Engine comes with Cloudflare edge caching CDN wheras Cloudways is tested with its origin server only. To attain a similar performance, you can use the Cloudflare Enterprise CDN add-on for $4.99 per domain. And through this way, it can also handle the response time at lesser than 50ms.
Cloudways vs WP Engine: Global TTFB
WP Engine dominates Cloudways in Global TTFB test. It has recorded an average global TTFB of 65 ms measured from 40 global locations, whereas Cloudways Vultr HF has recorded 395 ms. Again, due to the bundled CDN offering of WP Engine, it has been able to offer the highest, the fastest possible global TTFB among any of the 35 hosts we have tested so far.
Cloudways vs WP Engine: Hardware Server Test
Cloudways is the real winner in Hardware Server test. It has recorded 7.6/10 against WP Engine’s 6.5/10. The higher the score indicates the servers can handle uncached requests faster, like our WordPress backend dashboard, LMS or WooCommerce stores. WP Engine achieves a better score in the above test through its CDN whereas, in this test, the real origin server power is tested, and Cloudways wins hands down.
Cloudways vs WP Engine: Features
| Feature | Cloudways Vultr HF | WP Engine |
| Websites included | Unlimited (bound by CPU and RAM) | 1 |
| Monthly visits | Not metered | 25,000 |
| Automated backups | Daily | Daily, 30-day retention |
| Email hosting | Paid add-on | Not offered |
| CDN | Add-on (Cloudflare Enterprise, $4.99/domain) | Cloudflare edge caching included |
| Staging environment | Yes | Staging, development and production |
| Free migration | Yes | Yes |
| Caching | Breeze plugin, unlimited sites | Built-in page and object caching |
| Control panel | Cloudways custom panel | WP Engine User Portal |
| DDoS protection | Cloud provider level | Layer 3+4 |
| Trial / guarantee | 3-day free trial, no contract | 60-day money-back guarantee |
| Support | 24/7 live chat | 24/7 live chat |
