WP Alpha vs Flywheel
An honest comparison for WordPress site owners weighing up Flywheel. Where Flywheel is the better choice, this page says so.
Side by side
| Compared | WP Alpha | Flywheel |
|---|---|---|
| Server locations | Sydney, Melbourne, London, Chicago | Yes: Sydney data centre (listed as Australia – Sydney), plus US Iowa, Canada Montreal, UK London, EU Belgium. No Melbourne. |
| Entry price | A$29, £15.95 or US$24.95 a month | Starter US$30/mo month-to-month, or US$25/mo billed US$300/year; no separate promo or renewal price stated. |
| Free migration | Yes, done for you | Yes, free: Flywheel’s team migrates for you (about 3 business days); self-service guide also offered; US$49 expedited. |
| Updates tested on a staging copy first | Yes | Not by default. Managed Plugin Updates add-on (US$8/site/mo) updates live then checks screenshots; Premium tier updates a clone first. |
| Backups | Every two hours offsite, plus your own hourly backups to your own storage | Nightly backups kept 30 days; restore or download from the site’s Backups tab at no extra charge. |
| Malware scanning and cleanup | Daily scans, cleanup included | Scanned and blocked at server level; malware removal is free, but plugins must be updated and admin passwords changed first. |
| Firewall | Business grade WAF on every plan | Yes: Fastly WAF (ModSecurity and OWASP Top Ten rules) included. |
| Traffic limits | None. No metering, no overage fees | Starter 25,000 visits and 50GB bandwidth/mo; pricing page says US$1 per extra 1,000 visits, help doc says US$2; sites never shut off. |
| Support | 24/7 live chat and tickets | 24/7/365 live chat from the dashboard plus tickets; no phone number listed on the contact page. |
| Contract | None. 30-day money-back guarantee | Monthly or annual billing, cancel from the dashboard; 60-day money-back on new Starter and Freelance plans, not Agency or Custom. |
Flywheel column read from Flywheel’s own pages on 2026-10-10, prices in USD (site showed USD to this visitor; no AUD option). Sources: getflywheel.com, getflywheel.com, getflywheel.com, getflywheel.com, getflywheel.com, getflywheel.com.
Where Flywheel is the better choice
- Designers and agencies running many client sites: Freelance (10 sites) and Agency (30 sites) plans, collaborators, billing transfer and a US$99/mo white label option.
- Anyone who wants a global brand with a Sydney data centre option and free team-done migrations of every site.
- Developers who build in the Local app: Local Connect pushes and pulls sites straight to Flywheel.
Switching from Flywheel
We migrate your site for free. We move it, you approve it, then DNS changes, and 99 of 100 migrations happen with no downtime window. Your old host stays live until you say so.
Backups: open the site in the Flywheel dashboard, Backups tab, restore or request an emailed download. Files: SFTP host sftp.flywheelsites.com port 22, username is your Flywheel username, set the password at Profile > Account. Flywheel does not sell domains, so there is no EPP code to collect. WP Engine note: the help doc ‘Migrate to WP Engine’ treats moving as optional with no forced date; the homepage carries no migration notice, only the WPEngine, Inc. copyright.
Which hosting fits your business?
The simple rule: if you pay for your traffic, in ad spend or in SEO, choose Fully Managed. If customers find you on their own, Basic is all you need.
The one to pick if customers find you on their own
Basic Managed Hosting
A reliable site with minimum hassle.
For businesses that win their work through reputation, referrals and repeat customers. Your site needs to be there, look right and load fast whenever someone looks you up. It is important, but it is not the engine of the business, its traffic needs are small, and it does not need a team working on it.
This is you if
- Your site is a brochure, a portfolio, a local service site or a small store
- Customers find you through referrals, word of mouth or your Google listing
- You are not paying for clicks or running an SEO campaign
- A few hours of downtime would be annoying, not expensive
- You want updates, backups and security handled, and never to think about hosting
On a bad day: the site is slow for an afternoon. We fix it, and nobody is out of pocket.
From A$29 a month
See Basic Managed plansThe one to pick if you advertise
Fully Managed Hosting
For businesses that market online, every day.
For businesses proactively marketing online: running Google Ads or other paid traffic, doing SEO aggressively, including for AI search, and relying on the site day by day, sometimes hour by hour, to generate leads, customers and sales. Downtime and issues have a serious impact on the bottom line.
This is you if
- You run Google Ads, Meta ads or other paid traffic to the site
- You invest in SEO, in Google and increasingly in AI answers, and being found is tied to revenue
- The site brings in enquiries, bookings, calls or orders every day
- An hour of downtime, a broken form or a slow checkout costs real money
- You chose the hosting, and you do not want to be the one who gets the 7am call
On a bad day: the site is slow for an afternoon while your ads keep running. You pay for every click and lose the enquiries. Our job is to make sure that day does not happen, and to catch it fast if it does.
You do not need this if customers find you without ads or an SEO push. Basic will serve you well, and if you ask us, we will tell you so.
From US$99 a month
See Fully Managed plansThe one to pick if you need to prove what works
Fully Managed, with the Conversion Tracking Pack
For businesses that need proof of what the site produces.
Everything in Fully Managed, plus PixelYourSite and CallRail set up and kept working, so every form, sale and phone call is credited to the ad, keyword or page that produced it. Your monthly report shows leads, sales and calls next to speed and uptime.
This is you if
- You want to know which ads and keywords bring in customers, not just clicks
- Phone calls are a large share of your enquiries
- You report marketing results to a boss, a board or a client
- Your ad platforms are bidding without seeing all your conversions
On a bad day: a plugin update quietly stops your forms reporting to Google Ads, and the bidding drifts for weeks before anyone notices. We test the tracking on a schedule, so it is days, not weeks.
Any Fully Managed plan, plus US$99 a month and a US$295 setup
See what is in the packWhat customers say
Very happy with the work they did to optimize the caching and speed on the website. They also debugged some weird issues that I was having related to caching plugins.
These guys always deliver. Have been using Brendan and the team for 5+ years now, from site attacks to internal web dev issues, these guys are always super quick and get it right. Thanks for saving our ass time and time again aha
6 stars! I was so excited to work with these guys as they had been recommended . Brendan always looks after everything I need
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