Is migration from WP Engine really free?

Yes. Our team moves your site off WP Engine for you at no cost. We handle the files, the database, and the DNS, and we check that everything works before you go live. There is no per-site migration fee.

How fast can I reach a real person?

Our promise is human support in under five minutes. You reach a real person, by message or phone, not a bot or a scripted upsell.

Will my price jump at renewal like it did on WP Engine?

We do not play the teaser game. The price you sign up at is the real price, not an introductory rate designed to spike in year two. If pricing ever changes, existing customers get 30 days’ notice first.

Can you move my email and domain too?

If your mailboxes live with WP Engine we copy them across with your site. Your domain can stay registered wherever it is now: we simply update the DNS records (or, if you prefer, walk you through pointing the nameservers), so there is no risky registrar transfer required just to change hosts.

Do you handle WooCommerce stores and custom builds?

Yes. WooCommerce stores, membership sites, multilingual setups, page-builder sites, and heavily customized themes are everyday work for our migration team, and store cutovers are scheduled deliberately so orders are not lost in the switch.

What if UpperLevel is not the right fit?

You are covered by our 45-day money-back guarantee. If hosting with us is not right for you, tell us within 45 days and we refund you.

Switch from WP Engine

The UpperLevel alternative to WP Engine

If you are leaving WP Engine over surprise overage bills, slow premium-priced support, relentless upsells, and a first-year rate that jumps at renewal, UpperLevel is the clean swap: free hands-on migration, sub-5-minute human support, and honest, no-bait-and-switch pricing (no first-year teaser, no visit-metered overage charges), backed by a track record since 2016 and 111 perfect 5.0-star reviews.

Get Started See how the move works

We move you off WP Engine for free. You do not lift a finger, and there is nothing to figure out.

111 5.0-star reviews
Since 2016
Human support in under five minutes

UpperLevel Hosting at a glance

Founded: 2016
Headquarters: United States
Support: <5 min response · 24/7/365 · Level 3 experts
Storage: NVMe SSD
Backups: Daily · 30-day retention (managed) · 15-day (shared)
Malware removal: Unlimited, included
Pricing: Shared from $11/mo · managed WordPress from $24/mo, billed annually · no bait-and-switch pricing
Guarantee: 45-day money-back guarantee
Uptime: 99.9% uptime
Reviews: 111 five-star reviews across Google, Trustpilot, HostAdvice, G2

The WP Engine problem

Why people leave WP Engine

WP Engine is a premium managed WordPress host. These are the reasons customers tell us they are looking for something better.

Visitor-based overage fees ($2 per 1,000 extra visits) that are auto-charged to the card, often with little or no advance warning, and a visit-counting method that can run higher than the customer’s own analytics. Surprise bills are a recurring complaint.

Inconsistent support for a premium price. Live chat wait times are unpredictable (sometimes minutes, sometimes long), and phone support is locked behind higher tiers. BBB and Trustpilot reviews cite unresolved tickets (for example repeated 500 errors) and slow billing-department responses.

Aggressive, persistent upselling from account managers. Reviewers describe pressure (sometimes with cherry-picked metrics) to move onto more expensive dedicated or Core plans, with the upsold options characterized as expensive.

Renewal and first-year price step-up. Headline pricing is promotional first-year only, so the second-year bill rises to standard rates, and pricing transparency around the real long-term cost is frequently criticized.

Migration friction. The WP Engine Site Migration plugin is widely reported to stall (often at 2 to 5 percent), time out on larger uploads or plugins, or report a false success on incomplete transfers, forcing manual SSH cleanup. WP Engine also disallows certain plugins (some caching and backup tools), which can break existing setups.

The real cost

What WP Engine actually costs

How WP Engine prices it

WP Engine is a premium managed-WordPress host with tiered, visit-capped plans. As of mid-2026 its published Essential tiers (annual billing) run roughly: Startup about $30/mo (1 site, 25,000 visits/mo, 10 GB), Professional about $55/mo (3 sites, 75,000 visits), Growth about $109/mo (10 sites, 100,000 visits), and Scale about $276/mo (30 sites, 400,000 visits), with Core hosting starting at about $400/mo and Enterprise quoted custom. Annual billing saves about 17 percent (roughly two months free) versus month-to-month, and new customers are frequently offered limited promotions of around 4 free months. Plans are metered by monthly visits: exceeding the cap incurs an overage of $2 per 1,000 extra visitors, billed as a Visitor Overage Charge on the monthly invoice (charged even on annual subscriptions). Extra sites on lower tiers cost about $20/mo each, phone support is gated to Professional and up, and email hosting and some security and automation features (Global Edge Security, Smart Plugin Manager) are paid add-ons.

What happens at renewal

WP Engine’s advertised plan prices are explicitly first-year or promotional rates. Its own plans page marks the headline figures with an asterisk denoting First year pricing, with standard (higher) rates applying thereafter. The exact renewal uplift is not disclosed on WP Engine’s site. Independent sources report the renewal step-up is real (one published example shows a Startup intro about $27/mo renewing about $35/mo, roughly a 30 percent step-up) and that renewal rates are often negotiable if you push back 60 to 90 days before renewal; WP Engine also refreshed its standard renewal rates for renewals on or after March 11, 2026. So the verified pattern is: discounted intro year, then a step up to standard pricing at renewal, the magnitude of which varies by plan and negotiation.

Pricing details are sourced from public, dated references and are reviewed before publishing. Figures change, so confirm current rates on WP Engine’s own site.

And what we cost

UpperLevel pricing, with nothing hidden

Managed WordPress hosting in three flat tiers, billed annually. The price you sign up at is the real price: no intro teaser, no usage meter, and no add-on checklist at checkout. If pricing ever changes, existing customers get 30 days’ notice first.

Starter

$24/mo

For one WordPress site that needs to be fast, secure, and fully managed.

Business

$36/mo

For a growing business running a couple of sites that cannot afford downtime.

Pro

$48/mo

For freelancers and small agencies managing up to three client sites.

Every tier includes the migration off WP Engine, NVMe storage, free SSL, daily backups, malware removal, and the 45-day guarantee. There are no setup fees, no metered visitor counts, and no surcharge to keep your SSL certificate renewing.

Head to head

UpperLevel vs WP Engine

The same things customers leave WP Engine over are the things we built UpperLevel to do well.

With UpperLevel

Free hands-on migration. Our team moves your whole site for you, with no per-site fee and no plugin that stalls at 3 percent.
Human support in under five minutes. A real person, by message or phone, not a bot loop or a scripted upsell.
No bait-and-switch pricing. The price you sign up at is the real price, not an intro teaser that doubles in year two.
Everything included. NVMe speed, free SSL, daily backups, and security come standard, not as paid add-ons.
A 45-day money-back guarantee, backed by 111 verified 5.0-star reviews since 2016.

Staying on WP Engine

Visitor-based overage fees ($2 per 1,000 extra visits) that are auto-charged to the card, often with little or no advance warning, and a visit-counting method that can run higher than the customer’s own analytics. Surprise bills are a recurring complaint.
Inconsistent support for a premium price. Live chat wait times are unpredictable (sometimes minutes, sometimes long), and phone support is locked behind higher tiers. BBB and Trustpilot reviews cite unresolved tickets (for example repeated 500 errors) and slow billing-department responses.
Aggressive, persistent upselling from account managers. Reviewers describe pressure (sometimes with cherry-picked metrics) to move onto more expensive dedicated or Core plans, with the upsold options characterized as expensive.
Renewal and first-year price step-up. Headline pricing is promotional first-year only, so the second-year bill rises to standard rates, and pricing transparency around the real long-term cost is frequently criticized.
Migration friction. The WP Engine Site Migration plugin is widely reported to stall (often at 2 to 5 percent), time out on larger uploads or plugins, or report a false success on incomplete transfers, forcing manual SSH cleanup. WP Engine also disallows certain plugins (some caching and backup tools), which can break existing setups.

Free white-glove migration

We move you off WP Engine for free

Our team handles the whole move from WP Engine: files, database, email where it applies, and DNS. No downtime, no per-site fee, and nothing for you to figure out. And if a question comes up mid-move, a real person answers in under five minutes.

Moves are scheduled around your timezone and traffic patterns. Overnight cutovers and weekend launches are normal requests here, not special favors.

Get Started Talk to a real person

Want the play-by-play first? Read the step-by-step WP Engine migration guide

The proof

111 verified 5.0-star reviews

Since 2016, businesses across every industry have rated UpperLevel a perfect 5.0 out of 5. Read every one on the verified profiles.

111 5.0-star reviews
Since 2016
Human support in under five minutes

Questions

Switching from WP Engine, answered

Is migration from WP Engine really free?: Yes. Our team moves your site off WP Engine for you at no cost. We handle the files, the database, and the DNS, and we check that everything works before you go live. There is no per-site migration fee.
How fast can I reach a real person?: Our promise is human support in under five minutes. You reach a real person, by message or phone, not a bot or a scripted upsell.
Will my price jump at renewal like it did on WP Engine?: We do not play the teaser game. The price you sign up at is the real price, not an introductory rate designed to spike in year two. If pricing ever changes, existing customers get 30 days’ notice first.
Can you move my email and domain too?: If your mailboxes live with WP Engine we copy them across with your site. Your domain can stay registered wherever it is now: we simply update the DNS records (or, if you prefer, walk you through pointing the nameservers), so there is no risky registrar transfer required just to change hosts.
Do you handle WooCommerce stores and custom builds?: Yes. WooCommerce stores, membership sites, multilingual setups, page-builder sites, and heavily customized themes are everyday work for our migration team, and store cutovers are scheduled deliberately so orders are not lost in the switch.
What if UpperLevel is not the right fit?: You are covered by our 45-day money-back guarantee. If hosting with us is not right for you, tell us within 45 days and we refund you.

Coming from somewhere else?

Compare other hosts

Sources & references

Where the WP Engine details come from

Every pricing, renewal, and support claim above traces to independently published reviews, consumer-complaint registries, or WP Engine’s own pricing pages and documentation, all reviewed before publishing:

Ready to leave WP Engine?

Free migration, human support in under five minutes, and a 45-day money-back guarantee. No teaser rates, no bait-and-switch pricing.

Get Started