Flywheel vs Pagely (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Flywheel grades higher than Pagely: 2.0 against 1.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Flywheel grades higher on value for money, features and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Flywheel
Managed WordPress hosting for designers, freelancers and agencies
Which one is for you
Pick Flywheel if
- Fits if you design WordPress sites for clients and hand them over, billing included
- Works for building sites on your own computer in Local and pushing them live
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want email with your hosting, as Flywheel doesn't host it
- Pricey if traffic grows, at $1 per 1,000 visits and $1 per GB over the plan
- Skip it if you need anything but WordPress, as that's all it hosts
- Pricey if you add sites, at $20 a month each, or want managed plugin updates, at $8 a month per site
- Watch out: Agency and Custom plans aren't covered by the 60-day refund, and prices may vary by server location
Pick Pagely if
- Fits if you run business WordPress sites and want the hosting handled
- Makes sense if you are an agency with 5 to 60 sites
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you run one small site, as the entry is $99 a month
- Skip it if you host anything besides WordPress
- Tight on traffic, because bandwidth is capped at 50 to 300 GB on listed plans
- Watch out: the page does not say whether prices are billed monthly or yearly
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAFlywheelFair | 1.4GPAPagelyWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CGraded against the other managed WordPress hosts. Starter is $300 a year for one site, so two years cost $600, about $25 a month, the middle of that group. Extra sites are $20 a month, and visits over 25,000 are $1 per 1,000. | DStartPress is $99 a month for 5 sites, against a $30 dearest-tenth line for web hosts. A crossed-out $199 sits beside it with no end date. |
| Free plan and trial | FNo free plan and no trial. There's a 60-day money-back guarantee, but it isn't a trial, and Agency plans aren't covered by it. | FNo free plan or trial is listed on the pages read. |
| Features | BNightly backups kept 30 days, staging, FlyCache with a Fastly CDN, free malware cleanup, Blueprints and billing transfer. Managed plugin updates are an $8 add-on and there's no email, but the managed WordPress job is covered. | CManaged WordPress with CDN, DNS, developer access and a high-availability option. It does that one job, and it does nothing else. |
| Ease of use | CNo app store rating to go on. Free migrations help, and you can build in Local first, but it's still a WordPress host with plans and limits to learn. | CNo store rating on record. Developer access and Git are part of the workflow. |
| Platforms and integrations | BA web dashboard plus the free Local app on your computer, which builds sites offline and pushes them to Flywheel. Fastly, Genesis and Google Analytics are named too, but no API is on record. | CWeb only, with AWS, Redis, WP-CLI and Git. |
| Best for | designers building WordPress sites for clients | managed WordPress hosting for agencies on AWS |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Flywheel and Pagely. How we grade
Price against what you get
Flywheel starts at $25 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Pagely starts at $99 a month and scores 2.0.
Flywheel scores higher and starts $74 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, none scores higher than Flywheel for less, and 37 score higher than Pagely for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Flywheel also covers malware protection.
- Pagely also covers reports.
At a glance
| Flywheel | Pagely | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| Starts at | $25 per month for 1 site, billed annually ($30 billed monthly) | $99 per month for 5 WordPress sites |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | WP Engine | Pagely |
| Price read from | getflywheel.com | pagely.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Flywheel
- Flywheel does not host email; its pricing page sends you to a separate email provider such as Google.
- Traffic over the plan's limit is billed at $1 per 1,000 visits and storage at $1 per GB, rather than the site being throttled.
- Extra sites cost $20 a month each, and the Agency and Custom plans are excluded from the 60-day money-back guarantee.
- It hosts WordPress sites only, and the page notes that prices may vary by server location.
Pagely
- It hosts WordPress only, with no plans for other kinds of sites or apps.
- The entry plan is $99 a month for 5 sites, much more than shared-hosting plans.
- The pricing page does not state whether the monthly prices are billed monthly or annually.
- Bandwidth is capped on every listed plan: 50, 100 and 150 GB on the three cheapest, 200 and 300 GB on ProPress and PowerPress.
Key features
Flywheel
- Nightly backups and staging
- Every site is backed up each night and the copies are kept for 30 days, with one-click restores. Staging sites let changes be tested before they go live.
- Caching and CDN
- FlyCache handles caching at the server with exclusions for common plugins, and a CDN run by Fastly is included on every plan.
- Security and malware cleanup
- Malware and hacking attempts are scanned for and blocked at the server, hacked sites are cleaned free, and plugin security alerts flag vulnerable plugins.
- Tools for client work
- Blueprints save a theme and plugin set for reuse, Organizations share sites with a team, and billing for a site can be handed to the client.
- Local development app
- Local, a free app from the same company, builds WordPress sites on your own computer and pushes them to Flywheel when they are ready.
- Paid add-ons
- Managed Plugin Updates ($8 a month per site) uses AI visual regression checks, Performance Insights sends monthly reports, and White Label lets agencies resell hosting.
Pagely
- WordPress-only platform
- The stack is built for WordPress: Redis caching, PHP 8.x, staging with a sync tool, and managed core and plugin upgrades on every plan.
- CDN and DNS included
- Every plan lists a global WordPress CDN (PressCDN), PressCACHE and PressDNS, with CDN allowances that grow by plan.
- Developer access
- Git and SVN version control, WP-CLI, SSH and database access are listed on every plan.
- Security and analytics
- Plans list advanced network security plus security and performance analytics. The compare table shows automated S3 backups with 14-day retention.
- Support by ticket and chat
- Each plan lists ticket and live chat support from Pagely staff, and a one-day setup time.
- High-availability option
- The three larger plans can be bought in a high-availability configuration at a higher monthly price, with decoupled database resources.
Plans
Flywheel
Starter$25
per month for up to 25,000 visits, billed annually ($30 monthly)
1 site, 10 GB storage and 50 GB bandwidth. Billed at $300 a year. Extra visits cost $1 per 1,000 a month.
Freelance$96
per month for up to 100,000 visits, billed annually ($115 monthly)
Up to 10 sites, 20 GB storage and 200 GB bandwidth. Billed at $1,150 a year.
Agency$242
per month for up to 400,000 visits, billed annually ($290 monthly)
Up to 30 sites, 50 GB storage and 500 GB bandwidth. Billed at $2,900 a year. Not covered by the 60-day money-back guarantee.
CustomCustom
Built with sales for more than 30 sites or high-traffic projects, with dedicated clusters and an account manager.
Pagely
StartPress$99
per month for 5 WordPress sites
30 GB SSD, 50 GB bandwidth and 150 GB of CDN. The page shows $199 crossed out beside the $99 price, with no end date.
DevPress$199
per month for 10 WordPress sites
50 GB SSD, 100 GB bandwidth and 350 GB of CDN. Shown with $299 crossed out.
LitePress$299
per month for 15 WordPress sites
50 GB SSD, 150 GB bandwidth and 500 GB of CDN. Shown with $375 crossed out.
ProPress$499
per month for 35 WordPress sites
2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM and 50 GB SSD with no cap on PHP workers. A high-availability configuration is listed at $1,249 a month.
PowerPress$999
per month for 60 WordPress sites
4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM and 50 GB SSD. A high-availability configuration is listed at $2,249 a month.
ScalePress$2,500
per month, with a custom number of sites
Custom CPU, RAM and storage. A high-availability configuration is listed at $3,600 a month.
Ways to pay less
Flywheel
- Annual discount
Two months free with yearly billing
Paying yearly includes two months free: Starter is $300 a year instead of $30 a month, and an extra site is $200 a year instead of $20 a month.
Pagely
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Flywheel or Pagely?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Flywheel is cheaper to start with: $25 a month, against $99 a month for Pagely. Flywheel starts at $25 per month for 1 site, billed annually ($30 billed monthly), and Pagely starts at $99 per month for 5 WordPress sites.
Which has a free plan, Flywheel or Pagely?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither Flywheel nor Pagely has a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.