How Much Traffic Can WordPress Handle? Cloudways vs WP Engine

When you think about scaling a WordPress website to handle thousands, or even millions of visitors, two critical questions come to mind:

1. How much traffic can WordPress actually handle?

2. Which hosting provider can help you achieve that scalability without breaking the bank?

WordPress itself is incredibly powerful and flexible. In fact, it powers over 43% of the web, including high-traffic sites like TechCrunch and BBC America. However, your site’s traffic-handling capacity doesn’t just depend on WordPress, it depends on your hosting infrastructure.

In this guide, we’ll break down exactly how much traffic WordPress can handle, the key factors affecting performance, and how Cloudways vs WP Engine stack up when it comes to scaling your WordPress site. Spoiler: Cloudways comes out on top.

Understanding WordPress Traffic Capacity

Out of the box, WordPress can handle a decent amount of traffic. But performance depends heavily on:

• Server Resources (CPU, RAM, bandwidth)

• Caching mechanisms

• Database optimization

• Content Delivery Network (CDN) usage

• Code quality and theme efficiency

On a weak shared hosting plan, your WordPress site might crash with just 1,000–2,000 daily visitors. On the other hand, with optimized cloud hosting, proper caching, and CDN integration, WordPress can scale to handle hundreds of thousands of visitors per day.

So, the real question isn’t whether WordPress can handle high traffic, it’s which hosting provider gives you the flexibility, power, and pricing to make that happen.

Cloudways vs WP Engine: The Scalability Showdown

Both Cloudways and WP Engine market themselves as performance-oriented WordPress hosting solutions. But they take different approaches:

Why Cloudways Handles More Traffic Than WP Engine

Here’s where Cloudways really pulls ahead for high-traffic WordPress sites.

1. No Traffic Overage Fees

WP Engine imposes soft traffic limits. For example, if your plan includes 25,000 visits per month and you get 30,000, you’ll pay overage fees. These fees can stack up quickly during viral traffic spikes.

Cloudways, on the other hand, doesn’t penalize you for high traffic. You simply scale your server resources as needed, without hidden costs.

2. Choice of World-Class Cloud Providers

Cloudways lets you choose from DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, or Linode. This means you can place your site on infrastructure trusted by tech giants, capable of handling millions of concurrent connections.

WP Engine runs its own managed environment, which is optimized but less flexible in terms of infrastructure choices.

3. Instant Vertical Scaling

If your WordPress site suddenly goes viral, maybe from a press mention or social media spike, you can instantly upgrade your Cloudways server’s CPU, RAM, and storage in just a few clicks. This prevents downtime and ensures smooth performance.

With WP Engine, scaling often means upgrading to a higher-tier plan, which is slower, less flexible, and more expensive.

4. Advanced Caching & Performance Stack

Cloudways offers a performance stack designed for high-traffic situations:

• Varnish Cache for fast static content delivery

• Redis for database query caching

• Memcached for in-memory caching

• Cloudflare Enterprise CDN for global delivery

This stack means your WordPress site can handle tens of thousands of requests per second with minimal latency.

WP Engine’s EverCache is solid but lacks the same depth of control and customizability.

5. Pay for What You Use

Cloudways operates on a pay-as-you-go model, so you only pay for the resources you actually consume. This is perfect for seasonal businesses or event-based websites where traffic can surge and drop unpredictably.

WP Engine locks you into fixed monthly plans, even if you’re not using all the allocated resources.

Real-World Example: Handling a Viral Traffic Surge

Imagine you run an eCommerce store that averages 50,000 monthly visitors. One day, a TikTok video about your product goes viral, and suddenly you’re looking at 500,000 visitors in 48 hours.

• On WP Engine, you’d likely hit your monthly traffic cap in a day or two, triggering overage fees and possibly throttling performance.

• On Cloudways, you’d just scale your server size, handle the surge, and scale back down when traffic normalizes, without any penalties.

How Much Traffic Can Cloudways-Hosted WordPress Sites Handle?

With the right optimization, Cloudways-hosted WordPress sites can handle millions of monthly visitors. The key factors are:

1. Server size — Larger CPU & RAM for heavy concurrent traffic

2. Caching layers — Serving most requests without hitting PHP or MySQL

3. CDN coverage — Delivering assets from edge locations globally

4. Database optimization — Reducing query execution time

For example, a 4GB RAM, 2 Core CPU server on Cloudways with full caching and CDN can handle 200,000–400,000 monthly visits comfortably. Scaling to an 8GB RAM, 4 Core CPU setup can push that into the millions.

Cloudways vs WP Engine: Verdict

If your WordPress site is small, predictable in traffic, and you want a “set it and forget it” environment, WP Engine might work fine.

But if you:

• Expect unpredictable or viral traffic spikes

• Need flexibility in scaling resources

• Want global infrastructure options

• Hate overage fees

• Prefer paying only for what you use

…then Cloudways is the clear winner for high-traffic WordPress hosting.

Final Thoughts

WordPress can handle massive amounts of traffic, if it’s paired with the right hosting. While WP Engine offers a polished managed WordPress experience, its traffic caps, fixed plans, and limited scalability can hold back high-growth sites.

Cloudways offers the freedom, raw power, and scalability that ambitious WordPress site owners need. Whether you’re running an eCommerce store, a news portal, or a membership site, Cloudways ensures you can go viral without going offline.

Bottom line: When it comes to handling serious WordPress traffic, Cloudways wins, every time.