Flywheel vs Pantheon (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Flywheel and Pantheon share a 2.0 GPA, and only Pantheon has a free plan.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Flywheel grades higher on value for money and platforms. Pantheon grades higher on the free plan. They get the same grade on features 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
Pantheon
Managed WordPress, Drupal and Next.js hosting for teams
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 Pantheon if
- Fits if you run several WordPress or Drupal sites and want staging by default
- Works for teams that need an uptime SLA and SSO
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you want one live site: Gold plus a Basic site is $500 + $42 a month
- Skip it if you want a free site that goes live, since sandboxes can't use a domain
- Watch out: Basic's visitor allowance is 25k a month, or 35k on annual billing
- Watch out: Multidev, automated updates and 24/7 support need Gold, and SSO and an SLA need Platinum or Diamond
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAFlywheelFair | 2.0GPAPantheonFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | D$42 a month for one live site on annual billing, and the Gold workspace is another $500, so $542 for the useful parts. The category middle is $11. |
| 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. | CThe Silver workspace is $0 with 2 sandbox sites, but they can't use a domain, and you need a site plan to go live. |
| 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. | BDev, staging and production environments, Git CI/CD, CLI, Multidev, CDN and WAF. The listing names no core gap, though Multidev and 24/7 support need Gold. |
| 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. There are workspaces, site plans and a Git pipeline to set up. |
| 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 no integrations or API listed in the record. |
| Best for | designers building WordPress sites for clients | WordPress and Drupal for teams |
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 Pantheon. 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. Pantheon starts at $42 a month and scores 2.3.
Flywheel scores higher and starts $17 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, none scores higher than Flywheel for less, and 12 score higher than Pantheon 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.
- Pantheon also covers page speed.
At a glance
| Flywheel | Pantheon | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free plan |
| Starts at | $25 per month for 1 site, billed annually ($30 billed monthly) | $42 per month, billed annually ($55 billed monthly), for one live site |
| Free plan | None | Silver workspace: $0 with two sandbox sites; a site plan is needed before going live or connecting a domain. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | WP Engine | Pantheon |
| Price read from | getflywheel.com | pantheon.io |
| 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.
Pantheon
- Cost is workspace plus one site plan per live site: Gold with a Basic site is $500 + $42 a month on annual billing.
- Sandbox sites on the free Silver workspace cannot go live or connect a domain without a site plan.
- Annual billing raises the visitor allowance by 40%, for example 35k instead of 25k on Basic.
- Multidev, automated updates and 24/7 support need Gold; SSO, multi-zone failover and an SLA need Platinum or Diamond.
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.
Pantheon
- Dev, staging and production
- Every plan includes separate development, staging and production environments with built-in version control and backups.
- WordPress and Drupal
- Sites run WordPress or Drupal, and the platform pages also describe Next.js hosting and a serverless CMS option.
- Git-based pipeline and CLI
- A Git-based CI/CD pipeline and a command line interface come with the free Silver workspace.
- Multidev environments
- On-demand environments for testing changes in parallel are part of the Gold workspace and above.
- Autopilot updates
- The Gold workspace adds automated updates and visual regression testing for plugin and core updates.
- Global CDN and WAF
- The platform lists a global CDN with a web application firewall, and Platinum adds an advanced CDN with WAF.
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.
Pantheon
Silver workspace$0
per month, plus a site plan to go live
Two sandbox sites, Git-based CI/CD, a command line interface and basic chat support. Sandbox sites cannot use a domain.
Gold workspace$500
per month, billed annually ($600 billed monthly)
Everything in Silver plus on-demand environments (Multidev), automated updates, visual regression testing and 24/7 support.
Basic site plan$42
per month, billed annually ($55 billed monthly)
For small, low-traffic sites: 35k monthly visitors on annual billing (25k monthly), 1 app container and 5 custom domains.
Performance Small site plan$160
per month, billed annually ($200 billed monthly)
35k visitors on annual billing (25k monthly), 1 app container and 10 custom domains. Medium is $275 ($350 monthly).
Performance Large site plan$550
per month, billed annually ($700 billed monthly)
210k visitors on annual billing (150k monthly) and 3 app containers. XL is $917 ($1,150 monthly) for 420k visitors.
Platinum and DiamondCustom
Sold through sales for up to 100M visitors: multi-zone failover, SSO, an uptime SLA for elite sites and an advanced CDN with WAF.
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.
Pantheon
- Annual discount
Annual billing lowers the monthly rate
Site plans are cheaper per month when billed annually, for example Basic at $42 instead of $55, and annual billing also adds about 40% more visitors.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Flywheel or Pantheon?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Flywheel is cheaper to start with: $25 a month, against $42 a month for Pantheon. Flywheel starts at $25 per month for 1 site, billed annually ($30 billed monthly), and Pantheon starts at $42 per month, billed annually ($55 billed monthly), for one live site.
Which has a free plan, Flywheel or Pantheon?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Pantheon has a free plan. Flywheel does not.
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.