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In building a website, developers undoubtedly need a hosting service. Thus, all data and files can be stored to meet every business need. The best hosting service to consider is Flywheel Hosting.
Flywheel is a specialized WordPress hosting platform for designers and agencies. They offer premium managed WordPress hosting that allows you to build, launch, and manage all of your websites easily with workflow tools. They are famous for their beautiful user interface and have experienced expert support.
Flywheel features include free migrations, free SSL certificates, one-click staging sites, and transfer billing to your clients. They cooperate with the Google Cloud Platform, which enables them to provide lightning-fast, reliable, and secure site performance.
On top of all this, they have an exclusive Agency Partner Program that gives you access to networking, white-labeled resources, free website hosting, and much more.
Pros:
- User-friendly interface
- Maximum performance
- Reliable security system
- Diverse Features
- Affordable Costs
- Migration and Automatic Backup Processes
- Suitable for Every Type of Customer
Cons:
- Limited customization
- Plugin limitations
- Lack of cPanel support
This is a detailed review of Flywheel’s hosting service. If you don’t want to read the whole review, here’s a quick summary.
| Speed | 1 sec (USA) 1.1 sec (Mumbai) |
| Uptime (last 178 days) | 100% |
| Pricing | Starting $13/mo annually |
| Free Domain | No free domain Temporary domain available |
| Data Centers | US, Canada, UK, Europe, and Australia |
| Servers | Nginx servers |
| Backups and Restoration | Manual and automated backups Stored for 30-day backups Stored off-server on Google Cloud Storage No Selective restoration |
| Migrations | Unlimited free migrations |
| Email Hosting | No |
| Support | Live chat support, knowledge base, Email tickets |
| Payment Options | PayPal, Debit Card |
| Refund Policy | 60-day money-back guarantee |
| Features | Google Cloud Platform, Flycache, Fastly CDN, Fastly WAF, Staging support, Password Protected Sites, WordPress Blueprints, Flywheel Local, and Flywheel Demo Sites. |
| Hosting Plans | Managed WordPress Hosting and WooCommerce Hosting. |
What is Flywheel?
Flywheel is a WordPress hosting company that was established in 2012. The company was acquired by WP Engine in 2019. This service is based in Nebraska, United States, and also has several data centers in various countries.
This hosting service is more commonly used by designers, developers, and creative agencies. Flywheel is also suitable for those who want a simple hosting experience or professionals looking for the easiest way to manage WordPress sites.
This is because Flywheel offers good speed, uptime, and workload management. The service is even praised for its comprehensive security system and tools, offering reliable solutions for every user.
Best Features of Flywheel
As one of the leading WordPress hosting providers, Flywheel Hosting offers various features that will streamline the performance of website developers and improve the quality of hosting and WordPress management. Here are the main features:
1. Migration Feature
Flywheel offers two different options for migrating your site: self-migration, meaning independently, and “move my site for me,” which utilizes assistance from Flywheel. Interestingly, you don’t have to pay the additional charge for website migration.
If you prefer to migrate independently using a plugin, the self-migration option can be a solution, especially if you need to learn more about technical hosting aspects.
Generally, standard migration can take at least 3 days with no cost. If you want it faster, additional fees are required for Expedited Migration, which transfers the site within just 8 hours.
2. Security Feature
Security is one of Flywheel’s features in every service it provides, and it is one of its strengths. The platform continuously scans sites for malware without additional plugin installations.
Thus, if your site gets hacked, the Flywheel hosting team will attempt to fix it and restore the site to its normal state. The platform also provides free SSL for each registered domain.
Moreover, two-factor authentication is available to give your account and website extra security. There is also an IP blocking feature that can detect intruders and automatically block dangerous accounts for all sites on the server.
3. Automatic Backup Feature
This hosting service platform also provides an automatic backup feature that can be done daily. Thus, Flywheel can back up all changes that occur every day to ensure the integrity of your website.
These backups are generally performed automatically at night and stored for up to 30 days. The backups are stored in cloud storage locations outside the server, ensuring that WordPress site backups are protected in case of software or hardware failures.
Flywheel also provides an easy recovery process if there are any issues with your site. The one-click operation feature will make it easier for you to find an online backup company to use for storing and maintaining the integrity of your website data.
4. Collaboration Feature
Collaboration tools are also one of the essential features offered by Flywheel hosting, facilitating teamwork between teams and clients. In other words, users can invite multiple members to access a website and assign roles to each member.
This feature can be accessed through the “Add Collaborator” option, which allows you to share your account with other users. These collaborators can then perform backup restoration, site management, and more.
The existence of this feature is supported by Flywheel’s ability to provide login credentials to each collaborator. Thus, Flywheel can be the best platform for design agencies and developers to manage multiple websites.
5. Demo Feature
To ensure optimal service, Flywheel primarily offers paid service options. However, you can see its capabilities through the free demo account provided. This is good news for both designers and web developers.
This feature allows you to create a temporary WordPress site with limited resources. You can enjoy this free service for approximately 14 days before being directed to use the paid service.
Through this demo site feature, you can showcase the website created before sending proposals or invoices to clients. You can also test the developed platform and experience various features before using the paid packages.
6. Hosting Management Feature
Flywheel hosting platform is known for treating each website individually, allowing users to personalize their styles on their created sites. This feature makes site management easier with good caching and performance.
WordPress is often targeted by hackers, making security features crucial for the Flywheel platform. With site management features, you can prevent such hacking attempts, starting from vulnerable server levels.
This is also supported by Flywheel’s automatic update feature, ensuring you always have the latest WordPress version. Expert WordPress support is also provided, making your website feel like it has a personal secretary.
7. Privacy Mode Feature
Flywheel is a hosting platform focused on user-friendly design and organized workflows, making it suitable for agency workers, freelancers, and even business owners, especially for those looking for reliable managed WordPress hosting solutions.
Therefore, conducting periodic developments is worthwhile to ensure the website runs optimally. To support this, Flywheel provides a privacy mode so that visitors or search engines can see the development process.
As the site owner, the presence of privacy mode also allows you to activate password protection. Thus, only users who enter the correct password will be granted access to the website.
8. Customer Support Feature
Support for users is also a concern for Flywheel hosting to maximize its services. Flywheel offers various channels to assist customers, from email and live chat to blogs.
There are also several helpful articles covering various important information about Flywheel’s features and services. Often, this knowledge base is supplemented with illustrations to make it easier for customers to obtain the desired information.
Customer service is available 24/7 so that you can obtain information to the fullest extent possible. If you want to access more comprehensive services, ebooks and video tutorials are absolutely free.
In addition to the above features, the Flywheel platform certainly offers many other essential features. You can enjoy all the tools and features by purchasing a subscription package on the Flywheel website.
Price and Payment
In general, Flywheel offers several hosting packages that can meet every user’s needs, from beginners to agencies. You can also choose packages with monthly or yearly payment options. Here are the Flywheel hosting package offers:
1. Tiny Package
Tiny Package is the smallest and cheapest package available from Flywheel. With this package, you have to pay $150 per year, or equivalent to $13 per month. With the offer of 1 website, it is sufficient for those who are just starting to try web development.
2. Starter Package
The Starter Package is a beginner package with a slightly higher price than the Tiny Package, offering more diverse service options. With a cost of $240 per year ($20 per month), you will get 1 WordPress site with 10GB storage and 50GB bandwidth.
3. Freelance Package
This hosting package is the best choice for those running freelance and who want to maximize client website growth. With this package, you will get 10 WordPress sites for $920 per year, equivalent to $77 per month.
4. Agency Package
Flywheel is indeed a good hosting choice for agencies. If you want to host 30 sites, this package can be the best choice. Starting from $194 per month, you will get services for 400,000 monthly visitors with 50GB storage and 500GB bandwidth.
All charges are available in dollars, so a suitable payment method is required. You can use credit cards or PayPal to facilitate the payment process for the desired Flywheel hosting package.
Although the costs may seem relatively high, Flywheel indeed provides a refund policy that sets it apart from other hosting providers. This policy is valid for 60 days, allowing you to test all its features for 2 months.
If you are unsatisfied or feel it’s unsuitable, you can cancel your subscription and get a refund. However, with its excellent service, it is rare for customers to request this.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Behind every service provided, Flywheel hosting certainly has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. All the advantages will undoubtedly support its performance to be better, but some of its weaknesses only sometimes make it unusable. Here’s the explanation:
Flywheel Advantages
Compared to similar hosting services, Flywheel is considered to have more advantages. From interface design to performance, everything can be relied upon. Here are some things that make you consider choosing Flywheel:
1. User-friendly interface
Compared to similar hosting services, the interface owned by Flywheel can be said to be one of the best. Not only is it intuitive, but the site interface is very user-friendly and easily accessible by anyone. WordPress website managers will also find it easier to manage and run their websites. Hosting settings can also be done more optimally and easily, even by beginners.
2. Maximum performance
Flywheel also offers maximum performance in terms of hosting infrastructure and access speed. It is known that this hosting service provides faster loading times with smoother search and browsing experiences.
The maximum performance of the Flywheel hosting service can also be seen from the statistics menu that shows how many visits to the website are. These graphical statistics are easy to read and have quite detailed details, including the number of visits, storage, and bandwidth consumption. Account management can also be maximized by adding sites, add-ons, and various tools you need. Thus, users can maximize every service provided to be applied to the websites they develop.
3. Reliable security system
Website security is one of the priorities of the Flywheel service. This can be seen from the offering of free SSL certificates to ensure the security of managed sites. There is also automatic malware scanning that will protect the website from viruses.
In addition, Flywheel also limits users from overwriting WordPress core files to ensure that there are no hackers who will insert malicious code. This will undoubtedly be very useful in maximizing the security of your WordPress website. Not only that, two-factor authentication is also provided, as well as automatic WordPress updates using the latest security patches and versions. You will also receive information and plugin security alerts to ensure website security.
4. Diverse Features
The features offered by Flywheel hosting services are also considered very diverse and comprehensive. You can not only efficiently manage and control websites but also add collaborators to restore website backups.
For freelancers and agencies, Flywheel offers the Local by Flywheel feature, which can be downloaded to manage WordPress sites locally with clients. This feature will provide maximum visual experience to clients without having to set up the entire website. Blueprints are also offered to create and store different configurations for each project. When creating a new site later on, this feature can be used to save time and optimize performance.
5. Affordable Costs
Cost is often a factor that is always considered when choosing hosting services. By using Flywheel, you certainly no longer need to worry about the cost. For each service type, the required costs are guaranteed to be very affordable.
The package prices are comparable to the services and features provided. If you think Flywheel’s prices are high, you should know the various features it offers are fantastic. If you need the proof, you can use the free demo account provided for 14 days.
6. Migration and Automatic Backup Processes
Migration service is also one of the advantages of Flywheel hosting compared to most hosting services. If you currently feel that WordPress management is lacking, you can safely migrate your website to servers with both free and paid options.
Daily backups are also available, done automatically to ensure the integrity of your website. Troubleshooting can also be quickly resolved, so you won’t have trouble accessing all the stored changes.
7. Suitable for Every Type of Customer
Flywheel provides several options for use by various groups, including beginners, freelancers, and large agencies. Subscription prices and services available for each type of customer can also be tailored to their needs. For beginners, you can certainly try the cheapest package, available for monthly or yearly purchases. As you gain more experience and build your portfolio, you can maximize performance with more complex subscription packages.
Disadvantages of Flywheel
Despite offering many advantages, Flywheel hosting also has some drawbacks. However, you can still maximize its performance to make it better. Here are some drawbacks you might encounter when using Flywheel:
1. Limited customization
In essence, Flywheel specializes in hosting and managing WordPress. This means they do not offer other types of services, such as dedicated servers or shared hosting. This limitation may affect the flexibility of users who require non-WordPress hosting.
Additionally, this service does not provide email hosting in every package. If you need email inbox features, you can use separate services or third parties to support other maximum features.
However, there’s no need to worry too much about this because Flywheel provides other features that are equally comprehensive. The interface is also modern, with tidy layouts and options, providing a maximum user experience.
2. Plugin limitations
Another drawback of Flywheel hosting lies in the limitation of excessive plugin usage. This is considered to cause various problems with web performance and duplicate provided functions.
For this reason, some additional plugins, such as backup, security, and caching, are not highly recommended. Moreover, Flywheel already provides maximum backup and security services that you can use directly.
Thus, you don’t need to add various plugins that are already included in a Flywheel package. Furthermore, external plugin services may not necessarily be compatible and easy to use.
The availability of various comprehensive features on Flywheel is likely to optimize hosting performance. Users don’t need to bother looking for other plugins because they are provided in one hosting service.
3. Lack of cPanel support
Some additional features like cPanel are also not widely provided by Flywheel. Many users are fine with this, but it’s different if you want to track a different dashboard interface.
You are likely interested in other hosting or adding third-party applications, but every service provided by Flywheel adjusts to the needs of every user. For example, beginners may not need that feature.
However, this doesn’t mean Flywheel doesn’t consider various modern features that will help maximize web performance. You can provide feedback and suggestions regarding desired features or tools through the available user services.
Conclusion
Even though the price is relatively high for some people, Flywheel hosting is affordable for designers, developers, and agencies. It offers several fantastic free features to support you in building a website. Flywheel has tremendous hosting security, which is managed by expert team support. I highly recommend this hosting product since its advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
References:
Adwani, Kripesh. (2024). Flywheel Review (January 2024) – A No Nonsense Review
Joe. (2023). Flywheel Hosting Reviews. Whatsthehost.com