Flywheel vs Google Cloud Storage (2026): Pricing, Features & Verdict
Google Cloud Storage is our pick, scoring 7.6/10 against 5.4/10 for Flywheel on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria. Its biggest advantage: higher Integration score (9/10 vs 5/10). For 10 users, Google Cloud Storage is free, against $30/mo for Flywheel; only Google Cloud Storage has a free plan.
Last updated: November 2026
Flywheel
5.4/10
Managed WordPress hosting from WP Engine for designers, freelancers and agencies, with staging, nightly backups, a Fastly CDN and multi-site workflow tools.
Google Cloud Storage
7.6/10
Managed object storage from Google Cloud for unstructured data, offering several storage classes, multi-region replication and pay-per-use pricing for developers and enterprises.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | G Google Cloud Storage |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 5.4/10 | 7.6/10 |
| Integration | 5/10 | 9/10 |
| Support | 5/10 | 6/10 |
| Cost | 3/10 | 5/10 |
| Customization | 4/10 | 8/10 |
| Security | 7/10 | 9/10 |
| Reliability | 7/10 | 9/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Analytics | 5/10 | 8/10 |
| Scalability | 5/10 | 9/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | $30/mo Starter | Contact for pricing |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $30/mo Starter | Free Always Free |
| Features | ||
| Managed WordPress | ||
| Automatic Backups | ||
| Content Delivery Network | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| API and CLI | Not listed | |
| Dedicated Servers | Not listed | |
| Free SSL Certificates | Not listed | |
| Object Storage | Not listed | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
Flywheel vs Google Cloud Storage cost by team size
Google Cloud Storage costs less at every team size we checked.
| Team size | Flywheel | Google Cloud Storage |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | $30/moStarter | FreeAlways Free |
| 5 users | $30/moStarter | FreeAlways Free |
| 10 users | $30/moStarter | FreeAlways Free |
| 25 users | $30/moStarter | FreeAlways Free |
| 50 users | $30/moStarter | FreeAlways Free |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Who Flywheel and Google Cloud Storage suit
Google Cloud Storage fits enterprise better than Flywheel.
| Audience | Flywheel | Google Cloud Storage |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | 3/10WP Engine places Flywheel as its small-business and agency brand, so larger companies are steered to WP Engine instead. | 9/10Customer-managed encryption keys, Bucket Lock retention and dual-region turbo replication meet enterprise compliance and resilience needs. |
| Small Business | 6/10Hosting is fully managed, which suits a single business site, but the cost per site is above budget hosts. | 5/10The service is capable but technical, and its metered pricing is harder to forecast than flat-rate storage. |
| Agencies | 9/10Blueprints, Organizations, billing transfer, collaborators and the multi-site Freelance and Agency plans are built for agencies that manage client WordPress sites. | Not rated |
| Developers | Not rated | 9/10Developers can choose from the CLI, client libraries in eight languages, REST and gRPC APIs, Terraform and FUSE mounting. |
| Freelancers | 8/10The Freelance plan and the free Local development app suit solo WordPress designers, though the price is high for very small budgets. | Not rated |
| Marketing Teams | 6/10Marketing teams running WordPress sites get staging and managed updates without needing to run servers. | Not rated |
| SaaS Companies | Not rated | 8/10Elastic pay-per-use storage with event notifications suits application backends, though egress costs need watching. |
| Startups | Not rated | 7/10An always-free allowance and no minimum fee make it cheap to start, but pricing complexity can cause surprise bills. |
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Flywheel
- Higher Ease of Use score (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Includes Managed WordPress, which Google Cloud Storage lacks
GWhy choose Google Cloud Storage
- Has a free plan (Flywheel does not)
- Lower estimated cost for 10 users: Free vs $30/mo
- Higher Integration score (9/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Customization score (8/10 vs 4/10)
- Better fit for enterprise (9/10 vs 3/10)
Pros & Cons
Flywheel
Pros
- Agency tools such as Blueprints, Organizations, collaborator access and billing transfer make it easy to build sites and hand them over to clients.
- Every plan includes staging, nightly backups kept for 30 days, free SSL and a Fastly-powered CDN.
- Malware cleanup and plugin vulnerability alerts are included at no extra cost.
- It works closely with Local, Flywheel's free local WordPress development app.
- Independent tests found fast response times, with no downtime during monitoring periods.
Cons
- Reviewers consistently call it expensive compared with other managed WordPress hosts, especially when hosting many sites.
- Going over visit or storage limits brings extra charges of $1 per 1,000 visits and $1 per GB.
- Hosts WordPress only and includes no email hosting.
- Some users say they have limited control over server and PHP settings, and one review says the control panel hides most features under an Advanced tab.
- Ratings on Trustpilot are much lower than on G2 or Capterra, with complaints about support and billing.
GGoogle Cloud Storage
Pros
- Standard storage at about $0.020 per GB-month is slightly cheaper than S3 Standard at $0.023, and Archive costs about $0.0012 per GB-month.
- Dual-region turbo replication aims to copy new objects within 15 minutes, which helps teams with strict recovery point objectives.
- Data protection is broad: Bucket Lock, retention policies, versioning, and soft delete on by default with seven days of retention.
- Developers get the CLI, client libraries in eight languages, REST and gRPC APIs, Terraform and FUSE mounting.
- Native ties to BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Eventarc and Cloud CDN suit analytics and event-driven pipelines on Google Cloud.
- Autoclass moves objects between classes without retrieval or early-deletion fees on those automatic moves.
Cons
- Internet egress starts at about $0.12 per GB, which several comparisons rank among the highest of the major clouds.
- Reviewers on G2, GetApp and Gartner say costs are hard to estimate, especially egress and retrieval.
- Nearline, Coldline and Archive carry 30, 90 and 365-day minimum storage durations, plus retrieval fees.
- Reviewers cite a learning curve and lock-in to Google Cloud.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Google Cloud Storage scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7.6/10 against 5.4/10 for Flywheel. The largest gap is in Customization: 4/10 for Flywheel and 8/10 for Google Cloud Storage.
Google Cloud Storage costs less for 10 users: free on its Always Free plan, against about $30/mo on its Starter plan for Flywheel, billed monthly.
Google Cloud Storage has a free plan; Flywheel does not list one.
Google Cloud Storage is the better fit for enterprise: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 3/10 for Flywheel.
Flywheel has Managed WordPress, which Google Cloud Storage lacks.
