Published plans compared
WP Engine's larger Essential tiers are 10 sites with 100,000 visits for $130 a month or $1,248 a year billed annually, and 30 sites with 400,000 visits for $330 a month or $3,168 a year billed annually. Its Business plan, with isolated resources and a 99.99% uptime SLA, starts at $400 a month billed annually.
| SiteGround GrowBig | SiteGround GoGeek | WP Engine Essential, 1 site | WP Engine Essential, 3 sites | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99/mo first year, then $29.99/mo | $7.99/mo first year, then $44.99/mo | $35/mo, or $336/yr billed annually | $65/mo, or $624/yr billed annually |
| Sites | Unlimited | Unlimited | 1 | 3 |
| Monthly visits | ~100,000 (reference, cached) | ~400,000 (reference, cached) | 25,000 | 75,000 |
| Storage | 50GB | 100GB | 10GB | 15GB |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered, fair use | Unmetered, fair use | 75GB | 150GB |
| Staging | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Backups | Daily, up to 30 copies | Daily, up to 30 copies | Kept 30 to 60 days | Kept 30 to 60 days |
| Environment | Shared, fair-use CPU | Shared, fair-use CPU | Shared | Shared |
Overage rules: CPU on one side, visits on the other
WP Engine counts a visit as one unique IP address per day and says known and suspected bots are not counted. Its billable visits article says that on its Startup, Professional, Growth, Scale and Agency plans the overage is $2 per 1,000 extra monthly visitors, and that it does not throttle sites for traffic spikes. That article names older plan tiers, so confirm the rate for Essential before you buy. WP Engine says shared plans are not charged bandwidth overages; instead someone may contact you about reducing usage or changing plan.
SiteGround does not charge for extra visits. Its limit is CPU: a fair-use system may restrict an account that uses more than its share over time, and SiteGround's uptime commitment excludes downtime caused by reaching your plan's maximum resource allocation.
Worked example: a course site at 60,000 visits a month on WP Engine's 1-site plan would be 35,000 over, or $70 a month in overage at $2 per 1,000, so the 3-site plan at $624 a year is cheaper than $336 plus $840. On SiteGround the same site fits GrowBig's reference range, as long as its CPU graph stays within the fair-use thresholds.
Plugin restrictions that affect course sites
WP Engine publishes a disallowed plugin list. Caching plugins such as W3 Total Cache and WP File Cache are disallowed because they conflict with WP Engine's server caching, and several backup plugins that store copies on the server, including WP DB Backup and BackupWordPress, are disallowed because WP Engine runs its own nightly backups. WP Engine's default cache exclusions include the WordPress admin, wp-login.php, pages where a cookie containing wordpress_ has a value set (which covers logged-in users), pages named cart, checkout, store or check-out, and extra rules when WooCommerce is detected.
SiteGround does not publish a comparable disallowed list in the pages checked, but MemberPress's hosting guide recommends excluding register, login, account, thank-you, unauthorized and mepr pages from SiteGround's cache and disabling Memcached for MemberPress sites.
Renewal wording
SiteGround states that special prices apply to the first invoice of a 12-month plan and regular prices apply to all renewals. WP Engine's plan page says first-year pricing and coupons apply only to new customers buying Essential plans, are not valid for renewals, and that renewal pricing is subject to change. On both, budget using the regular rate from the second year.
Decision checklist by budget and student volume
- Under $100 in year one and fewer than about 100 active students: SiteGround GrowBig.
- One site, under 25,000 monthly visits, and you want backups kept 30 to 60 days without managing plugins for them: WP Engine Essential 1 site.
- Several brands or a separate sales site plus course site: SiteGround GrowBig or GoGeek, since WP Engine prices by site count.
- Visits between 25,000 and 75,000: compare WP Engine's 3-site tier against overage on the 1-site tier before buying.
- You rely on a disallowed plugin: check WP Engine's list first, or choose SiteGround.
- Frequent CPU warnings on SiteGround after caching fixes: compare SiteGround Cloud with WP Engine Business rather than another shared tier.
Questions before you decide
Which keeps backups longer?
WP Engine says it keeps backups for no less than 30 and no longer than 60 days. SiteGround keeps up to 30 daily copies on shared plans.
Can I bring my own caching plugin to WP Engine?
Not W3 Total Cache or WP File Cache, which WP Engine lists as disallowed because they conflict with its server caching. Check the full disallowed list for any plugin your course site depends on before migrating.
Sources & verification
Product details and prices can change. Check the linked provider before buying.
- SiteGround WordPress hosting plans and prices Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- SiteGround shared hosting feature comparison Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- SiteGround KB: Fair use of server resources (page dated 12 October 2021) Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- SiteGround Terms of Service Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- SiteGround KB: Backup service Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- WP Engine plans and pricing Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- WP Engine support: Understand billable visits Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- WP Engine support: Bandwidth and storage usage Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- WP Engine support: Disallowed plugins Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- WP Engine support: Cache and cache exclusions Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- MemberPress docs: What web hosting works best with MemberPress Accessed 29 Oct 2026
Sources link directly to providers. Product buttons may use separately labeled affiliate links. Read our disclosure.