Flywheel hosting: overview
An overview of Flywheel managed WordPress hosting — what it offers, who it's for, and why we recommend it for many of our clients.
Flywheel is a managed WordPress hosting platform built with agencies and creative businesses in mind. It's one of our most-recommended platforms for small to mid-size WordPress sites, and it's known for its clean, easy-to-use interface.
Quick summary
Flywheel is a managed WordPress host that handles backups, SSL, caching, staging, and updates automatically. It's fast, reliable, and has excellent support. It's now part of WP Engine (the same parent company), but operates as its own distinct platform.
What Flywheel includes
Every Flywheel plan includes:
- Free SSL certificate — auto-renewed and managed for you.
- Daily backups — automatic backups with one-click restore.
- Staging environment — a private copy of your site for testing changes.
- Built-in caching — pages served fast from Flywheel's caching layer.
- CDN (Content Delivery Network) — files served from locations near your visitors.
- Malware scanning — security threats caught and flagged automatically.
- 24/7 expert support — chat support from a team that knows WordPress.
- Free site migrations — Flywheel migrates existing sites free of charge.
Who Flywheel is for
Flywheel is a great fit for:
- Small to medium business websites
- Portfolio and marketing sites
- WordPress blogs and content sites
- Service businesses, consultants, and creatives
- Clients who want an easy, clean hosting dashboard
If you need enterprise-level capacity or advanced multi-environment workflows, WP Engine or Kinsta may be a better fit.
How Flywheel is organized
When you log in to Flywheel, your account contains Sites — one for each WordPress installation. Each site has its own:
- Dashboard with quick stats (visits, storage)
- Staging environment
- Backup history
- SSL settings
- Collaborator access controls
Flywheel also offers Local by Flywheel — a free desktop app for local WordPress development. You likely won't need this yourself, but our developers use it.
Flywheel and WP Engine
Flywheel was acquired by WP Engine in 2019. The two platforms share some infrastructure but remain distinct products with different dashboards, pricing, and feature sets. If you're on Flywheel, you use the Flywheel dashboard — not the WP Engine User Portal.
Plans and pricing
Flywheel offers several plans based on the number of sites, monthly visitors, and storage. Pricing changes over time — check Flywheel's website for current plans.
We'll recommend the appropriate plan for your site based on your expected traffic and content volume.
Common questions
Related guides
- Logging in to Flywheel
- The Flywheel dashboard explained
- Staging sites on Flywheel
- Backups on Flywheel
- Flywheel billing & plans
- Give us access to your Flywheel hosting
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