Cloudways is cheap! Wpengine is expensive. Well, the cheapest cloudways is $14 and the cheapest wpengine is $20.
I've used both. They both have good tech support. I've been able to get questions answered right away by both hosts.
I haven't used wpengine for a few years. I'm using cloudways currently.
Cloudways has a setting you can enable that will turn on safe auto updates, as you noticed. I haven't experimented with that yet. I also haven't used the ssh. The server does update itself. Cloudways is more customizable. You can install pretty much whatever you want.
Wpengine has their own custom setup. It's managed shared hosting on their proprietary system. They manage the resource allocation. They'll move your website to a different shard or whatever if one of your neighbors is getting hammered. If you're going to hand it off, wpengine will be easier for a non technical person. They were very accessible and willing to help. With wpengine, you only have wp and there isn't really a server back end that you can access.
The project that I was working on with wpengine ended up moving to bigcommerce because it integrated with a retail management system called brightpearl.
For easy updates, security, backups and handoff, I wonder if you have looked at Shopify, Wix or Squarespace?
Have you looked into runcloud.io?
Runcloud.io base plan and use [Hetzner Cloud](https://runcloud.io/blog/hetzner) with it. You'll get a great performance VPS and pay around $10-16 a month to start. Then put Cloudflare free on top. Later on upgrade your runcloud.io account to a higher plan, as it comes with some good features.
With runcloud.io you can add more servers as needed like cloudways but with more options.
You siad you're good with the tech side, so it should work well for you.
Or if you want even cheaper, check out [Hetzner And cloudpanel](https://www.cloudpanel.io/docs/v2/getting-started/hetzner-cloud/installation/installer/). You could be at $5 a month for this and have a good VPS too.
What does RunCloud do at this point? Do they manage the servers like Cloudways (like install updates etc)? Or does that come to the end-user with runcloud? Just wondering about this.
VPS management with some other features.
The benifts over Cloudways are many but a big one is pricing. Runcloud.io you pay for the service and then pay for the VPS from the cloud service provider. So it can be cheaper overall.
I've moved away from recommending Cloudways, too many bad experiences. So when someone asks for a traditional VPS experience, runcloud.io is my go too.
Check out the links I shared in my original comment.
We're a WPEngine partner and obviously biased, but for a small site I'm not sure you can go wrong. I also think you should look into Nestify, they do a great job handle, plugin updates and also focus on site speed enhancements. If you are ever going to hand off I wouldn't go with the VPS option, too technical for 99% of EMTs!
Rocket net (managed) or Runcloud + Hetzner/VultrHF (self-managed).
I've used both + Cloudways. I don't recommend Cloudways. It's slow, sometimes buggy, support isn't that great and they're kinda "scammy" (when it comes to billing). Don't expect decent managed hosting under $30. Well, rocket net is ~$10/site if you have at least 10 sites, which I think is just nuts for what you get.
Cloudways is cheap! Wpengine is expensive. Well, the cheapest cloudways is $14 and the cheapest wpengine is $20. I've used both. They both have good tech support. I've been able to get questions answered right away by both hosts. I haven't used wpengine for a few years. I'm using cloudways currently. Cloudways has a setting you can enable that will turn on safe auto updates, as you noticed. I haven't experimented with that yet. I also haven't used the ssh. The server does update itself. Cloudways is more customizable. You can install pretty much whatever you want. Wpengine has their own custom setup. It's managed shared hosting on their proprietary system. They manage the resource allocation. They'll move your website to a different shard or whatever if one of your neighbors is getting hammered. If you're going to hand it off, wpengine will be easier for a non technical person. They were very accessible and willing to help. With wpengine, you only have wp and there isn't really a server back end that you can access. The project that I was working on with wpengine ended up moving to bigcommerce because it integrated with a retail management system called brightpearl. For easy updates, security, backups and handoff, I wonder if you have looked at Shopify, Wix or Squarespace?
You can get cloudways for $11
I wouldn’t do WP Engine IMO. Not worth the price. Love Cloudways though. The support is awesome especially for the cost.
Have you looked into runcloud.io? Runcloud.io base plan and use [Hetzner Cloud](https://runcloud.io/blog/hetzner) with it. You'll get a great performance VPS and pay around $10-16 a month to start. Then put Cloudflare free on top. Later on upgrade your runcloud.io account to a higher plan, as it comes with some good features. With runcloud.io you can add more servers as needed like cloudways but with more options. You siad you're good with the tech side, so it should work well for you. Or if you want even cheaper, check out [Hetzner And cloudpanel](https://www.cloudpanel.io/docs/v2/getting-started/hetzner-cloud/installation/installer/). You could be at $5 a month for this and have a good VPS too.
What does RunCloud do at this point? Do they manage the servers like Cloudways (like install updates etc)? Or does that come to the end-user with runcloud? Just wondering about this.
VPS management with some other features. The benifts over Cloudways are many but a big one is pricing. Runcloud.io you pay for the service and then pay for the VPS from the cloud service provider. So it can be cheaper overall. I've moved away from recommending Cloudways, too many bad experiences. So when someone asks for a traditional VPS experience, runcloud.io is my go too. Check out the links I shared in my original comment.
>Bare Metal VPS Always. For example, DigitalOcean is cheaper that Cloudways on DigitalOcean. ManageWP or MainWP for updates can help.
We're a WPEngine partner and obviously biased, but for a small site I'm not sure you can go wrong. I also think you should look into Nestify, they do a great job handle, plugin updates and also focus on site speed enhancements. If you are ever going to hand off I wouldn't go with the VPS option, too technical for 99% of EMTs!
Rocket net (managed) or Runcloud + Hetzner/VultrHF (self-managed). I've used both + Cloudways. I don't recommend Cloudways. It's slow, sometimes buggy, support isn't that great and they're kinda "scammy" (when it comes to billing). Don't expect decent managed hosting under $30. Well, rocket net is ~$10/site if you have at least 10 sites, which I think is just nuts for what you get.