# Flywheel

> Managed WordPress hosting for designers, freelancers and agencies

Flywheel is a managed WordPress host owned by WP Engine, which bought it in 2019. Plans are priced by sites, monthly visits and storage, and include nightly backups, staging, a Fastly CDN, free SSL and free migrations. Its tools lean toward people who build sites for clients: reusable Blueprints, billing transfer to a client and the free Local app for building sites offline.

- **Category:** Web Hosting
- **Made by:** WP Engine
- **Website:** https://getflywheel.com
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 17, 2026

## Pricing

Flywheel is a paid product, starting at $25 per month for 1 site, billed annually ($30 billed monthly).

- **Pricing model:** Paid
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. |
| Custom | Custom | Built with sales for more than 30 sites or high-traffic projects, with dedicated clusters and an account manager. |

Read from https://getflywheel.com/pricing/ on Oct 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Flywheel before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Two months free with yearly billing** (Annual discount): 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. Source: https://getflywheel.com/pricing/

## Key features

- **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.

## Good for

- Designers and freelancers who build WordPress sites for clients
- Agencies that hand billing for each site over to the client
- Single WordPress sites that want backups and staging handled for them

## Worth knowing

- 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.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.0 out of 4**, graded Oct 17, 2026. Flywheel is managed WordPress for people who build sites for clients: Blueprints to reuse a setup, billing you can hand to the client, and the free Local app for building offline. Backups, staging, a CDN and malware cleanup are all included. It doesn't do email, though, and managed plugin updates cost $8 a month per site.

- **Value for money: C.** Graded 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.
- **Free plan and trial: F.** No free plan and no trial. There's a 60-day money-back guarantee, longer than most, but it isn't a trial, and Agency plans aren't covered by it.
- **Features: B.** Nightly 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.
- **Ease of use: C.** No app store rating to go on. Free migrations help, and building in Local first is handy, but it's still a WordPress host with plans and limits to learn.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** A 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.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Flywheel's own pages on 17 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among web hosts

- Flywheel's GPA of 2.0 is higher than 7 of the 21 other web hosts we grade, and level with 7.
- It stands best on platforms and integrations (B, above 12 of 21) and worst on free plan and trial (F, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $25 a month, against a middle price of $10.99 for the category: 13 of the 16 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/web-hosting

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Flywheel you would be making servers kept running, patched and backed up for you. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It costs $300 a year.

- You could not: Servers kept running, patched and backed up for you.
- You could not: An engine that recognises new malware as it appears.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, WordPress, WooCommerce and Local among them.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

WordPress, WooCommerce, Local, Genesis Framework, StudioPress, Fastly, Google Analytics

**Tags:** Managed WordPress, Malware protection

## Alternatives

- [WP Engine](https://toolgpa.com/tools/wp-engine): Managed WordPress hosting sized by sites and monthly visits. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/flywheel-vs-wp-engine)
- [Kinsta](https://toolgpa.com/tools/kinsta): Managed WordPress hosting priced by sites, visits or bandwidth. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/flywheel-vs-kinsta)
- [Pressable](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pressable): Managed WordPress hosting from Automattic, built on its WP Cloud. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/flywheel-vs-pressable)
- [Rocket.net](https://toolgpa.com/tools/rocket-net): Managed WordPress hosting served through Cloudflare Enterprise. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/flywheel-vs-rocket-net)
- [WPX](https://toolgpa.com/tools/wpx): Managed WordPress hosting with its own CDN and hands-on support. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/flywheel-vs-wpx)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 17, 2026:

- https://getflywheel.com/pricing/
- https://getflywheel.com/
- https://getflywheel.com/why-flywheel/
- https://getflywheel.com/wordpress-support/what-is-a-demo-site/
- https://wpengine.com/about-us/

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/flywheel
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).