Flywheel Hosting Review: WordPress Hosting for Designers?
Disclosure: Your support helps keep the site running! We earn a referral fee for some of the services we recommend on this page. Learn more
Our overview of Flywheel…
Expert Opinion
Hear from our web hosting expert, Brian Wu.
Best Reviews
See what 2 Flywheel customers have to say.
Hosting Plans
Compare the best Flywheel hosting plans and their prices.
FAQs
Most asked Questions about Flywheel – answered!
Flywheel Introduction
Flywheel is a hosting company based in Omaha, Nebraska and founded in 2012. The company designs its plans based on the needs of the web design community.
Its hosting plans aim to make web hosting and client management simple for designers. By selecting hosting plans from Flywheel, designers can focus on design and content creation for the their clients.
Services and Specializations
Flywheel’s main focus is WordPress hosting plans. The plans cater to individual designers wanting to set up their own websites as well as design firms that manage multiple clients.
The company offers 3 WordPress hosting plans: Starter, Freelance, and Agency. The Freelance plan supports up to 10 websites, and the Agency plan supports up to 30.
(Those seeking to host more than 30 sites on one plan can contact Flywheel for a “Custom” plan quote.)
| Feature | Starter Plan | Freelance Plan | Agency Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price/mo | $23 | $105 | $266 |
| Sites supported | 1 | Up to 10 | Up to 30 |
| Monthly visitors (capacity) | 25k | 100k | 500k |
| Storage | 5 GB | 20 GB | 50 GB |
| Phone support | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Dedicated account manager | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
The plans vary by the amount of disk space and bandwidth allowed. Customers selecting a plan should choose one based on the number of monthly visitors expected. More visitors equate to increased bandwidth requirements.
The company offers introductory pricing for customers wanting to try out the service.
Flywheel will update your WordPress plugins for you.
Plans include free SSL Certificates, free site migration, and a CDN (content delivery network).
The Freelance and Agency plans support multi-site use. Customers needing additional capacity can also create their own custom plan.
Flywheel’s bulk plans are similar to its single install plans. These plans have much larger amounts of disk space and bandwidth which make them ideal for resellers needing to host multiple WordPress sites.
Like the per site plans, the reseller plans feature SSL, CDN, and MultiSite support. Customers needing more WordPress installs than the current offerings will need to contact sales to create a customized plan.
Staging sites are available on all plans. You can also clone your site.
All of Flywheel’s WordPress hosting plans include multiple features.
One such feature is SFTP access which allows the customer to manage all their sites from a single login.
This feature is also simplified to allow the customer to easily add and delete access to an unlimited amount of collaborators without having to maintain a separate list of usernames and passwords. In addition to SFTP, Flywheel features a caching system that is included so that customers won’t have to spend time configuring or installing related plugins.
Besides a built-in caching system, all plans feature free demo sites. This allows designers to keep developing a site until is ready and then pass the billing to their clients. Flywheel also offers a feature to continuously update WordPress to the latest and most secure version.
Flywheel Reviews by Our Community
Overall Rating from 2 Reviews by Flywheel Customers
| Support | |
|---|---|
| Quality | |
| Features | |
| Value |
Most Helpful Reviews
Soren Aarenson aeido.com
Feb 06, 2020
Nathan Swartz
Jul 26, 2019
The pricing on the main review here is inaccurate as they have recently increased pricing. Also, you have no control over wp-config.php, so you have to go into their interface to turn on WP_Debug. This can literally take 10 minutes sometimes.
The screen will just get stuck. Same with clearing cache, turning on Https, debug mode… it can be a nightmare.
They are not a "managed host" for WordPress, they are an overpriced, if pretty, hosting solution. Go with SiteGround or WP Engine, at least their support reps are knowledgeable, and don’t take 30 – 45 minutes to hop onto chat, and when Flywheel‘s folks do get on, they start the conversation with "Hey I’ll try and help but I basically don’t really know much so I’m just a person here to create a ticket for you."
Infrastructure
Flywheel’s new partnership with Google Cloud Platform gives them access to Google’s datacenters around the globe.
Flywheel also has its own datacenters in North America, Europe, and Asia. In addition, the company features a CDN with up to 30 nodes to help guarantee fast response times and allow sites to be scaled to handle millions of visitors.
Security and Backups
Flywheel’s custom control panel supports 2FA (two-factor authentication) via app or SMS.
Most of Flywheel’s plans have a backup option which includes nightly backups that are stored up to 30 days.
When customers need to restore a previous a version of a website, they can do so with a single click.
In addition, a customer can make a backup prior to a plugin installation or site change and go back to the previous version immediately.
Flywheel’s backup feature eliminates the need to install and configure plugins. Also, the company’s automated backups are stored offsite on Amazon to ensure the backup’s integrity.
In addition to its automated backup service, Flywheel offers security for customer websites. The feature includes malware removal for all sites in case the site gets hacked.
The company uses Sucuri, a WordPress security provider, to scan for malware. They enforce a strong password policy and limit the number of login attempts.
Support and Customer Service
Site migration is free of charge.
Flywheel offers 24/7/365 emergency support as well as standard support during normal business hours, Monday through Friday.
Customers can seek support by sending an e-mail, talking over the phone, or live chatting with support specialists.
The company also features articles on various topics including plugins, databases, and basic setup for customers wanting self-support.
Besides help on technical issues, the company offers free migration assistance for customers coming from other hosting providers.
Uptime Guarantee
Flywheel offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee that is backed by a Service Level Agreement. The company features an extensive content delivery network and datacenters around the globe as well as continuous monitoring of security issues to help satisfy this guarantee.
Billing
Flywheel primarily bills its customers on a monthly basis for most plans and offers discounts for paying a year up-front. Some hosting plans include many features at no cost while other plans charge extra.
Flywheel is flexible in terms of payment methods and accepts PayPal and most major credit cards. The company also accepts personal checks for yearly invoices.
Summary
Flywheel offers a specialized form of hosting that caters to designers — allowing them to focus on their clients and not the technical aspects of web hosting.
Most Popular Flywheel Hosting Plans
| Tiny | Personal | Professional | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disk Space | 5GB | 10GB | 20GB |
| Bandwidth | 250GB | 500GB | 1TB |
| Price | $15 / mo (Billed as $15 Per Month) ⓘPrices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate. Usual price: – Get % off! | $30 / mo (Billed as $15 Per Month) ⓘPrices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate. Usual price: – Get % off! | $75 / mo (Billed as $15 Per Month) ⓘPrices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate. Usual price: – Get % off! |
| Visit Flywheel Now | Visit Flywheel Now | Visit Flywheel Now |
Most Popular Flywheel Alternatives
Starts at:
$30
per month
(Billed as $15 Per Month) ⓘPrices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate.
Usual price: – Get % off!
Starts at:
$30
per month
(Billed as $15 Per Month) ⓘPrices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate.
Usual price: – Get % off!
Starts at:
$4
per month
(Billed as $15 Per Month) ⓘPrices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate.
Usual price: – Get % off!
Flywheel hosting, Imho, is for the novice and not for the expert. They have a few bells and whistles with their backend, however, you have absolutely no granular control over very basic features of managing a website and it’s hosting. If you’re a quasi developer that only know hows to use Divi or Be-theme front end development or a plugin, I say sure go with them because I doubt you even know what PHP is and you need everything dumbed down in order to build a website.
However, the reality is that doing simple things like redirects and performance tweaking is a nightmare with Flywheel and requires support tickets for the very basic of things, which you will have to wait on for someone else to do at your time and expense when you could be doing other things. There are more robust and better hosting options out there. Before anyone sells you on white label agency hosting with Flywheel, consider your client’s hosting requirements and the expense and time you’ll end up paying just to keep them there.