GridPane is a SaaS service where you can deploy and manage your own WordPress servers and sites. It has direct connections to multiple cloud server providers that make provisioning servers fast and easy.
The company is operated out of Michigan, USA.
They are partially funded by Automattic (the operators of the WordPress brand.)
Both WPCloudDeploy and GridPane allow you to deploy and manage your own WordPress servers that are optimized for building and managing WordPress sites. All the key WordPress management tools are available in both offerings including:
While there are a lot of tiny differences between how similar features work, both products are 100% focused on WordPress to the exclusion of other technology stacks and therefore both are highly optimized for that platform.
There are three key differences between WPCloudDeploy and GridPane:
Since Gridpane is an SaaS service, you are locked into a fixed set of personalization options. While there are a lot of options, it is still a fixed set. You can, of course, pay them to make customizations for you and that is a service that is offered.
Because WPCloudDeploy is an open source product built on WordPress, the sky’s the limit when it comes to customizations and you have a lot of flexibility in how those are accomplished. You can:
As an experienced WordPress developer or manager, you can do many of the customizations yourself. Or you can ask any other WP developer to do the work for you. Or you can ask us of course.
As with your customization options, GridPane is limited in the languages that can be used.
WPCloudDeploy can adopt any language you like simply by providing the translation terms using any of the many standard WP translation tools.
As with any SaaS service, your dashboard is running wherever GridPane determines is best.
WPCloudDeploy can be run on any appropriately configured server anywhere and can be installed in multiple locations if necessary. With this flexibility you can:
GridPane has direct support for five server providers plus the ability to bring your own server. WPCloudDeploy has built-in support for 12 providers (10 public cloud providers & 2 private cloud providers) as well as ability to “bring your own server”.
WPCloudDeploy also has an extension toolkit where you can build your own provider. Or you can ask to have one built for you at a cost of around 3K (for providers that generally follow the openstack api style format.)
GridPane has a classic and familiar Linux command line option – a core command ‘gp’ followed by subcommands and parameters.
WPCloudDeploy uses Bash scripts that you can execute in either of two ways:
Gridpane provides support for multiple tech stacks – you can choose from any combination of NGINX, LITESPEED, PERCONA and MARIADB.
WPCloudDeploy supports both a LEMP stack (Linux, NGINX, MySql/MariaDB, PHP) and a LOMP stack (Linux, OpenLiteSpeed, MySql/MariaDB, PHP).
Thus, GridPane has many stack combination options while WPCloudDeploy has two.
As an SaaS service it is far easier to get started with GridPane. WPCloudDeploy has an installation step that can sometimes be tricky (hence our free install service when you purchase a license.)
Consistent with SaaS services, the GridPane UI is custom-made and functional. WPCloudDeploy’s UI is recognizably WordPress on the backend with a highly customized UI for your end customers on the front-end.
Both WPCloudDeploy and GridPane offer tired pricing levels and both offer a free option.
Gridpane’s pricing is far more expensive than WPCloudDeploy. There are two fixed price plans above the free level – PANEL and DEVELOPER PLUS. PANEL has a limit of 50 servers that cost between $600 and $1200 per year depending on promotions and whether the customer purchases monthly or annually. The next level up is a huge jump – between $5000 and $6000 per year, depending on whether the customer purchases a monthly or annual plan.
WPCloudDeploy is $999 per year for unlimited servers and sites. The core is only $299 per year for unlimited servers and sites.
Gridpane sometimes make special, limited-time offers for lifetime pricing on lower-level plans. WPCloudDeploy has standard lifetime plans with pricing that is fully disclosed and always available.
Aside from the actual costs, a major difference is that WPCloudDeploy Core includes many advanced features that GridPane only offers on higher tier plans – including support for teams and role-based security at all levels.
You can transfer your sites using any WordPress backup tool. We recommend UPDRAFT PLUS though many folks seem to prefer using DUPLICATOR PRO (something we’re far less familiar with).
The above summary is only focused on the product differences and similarities. There are, of course, differences between the companies themselves – including large differences in operations, pricing, support policies, affiliate programs and more.
If you’re looking for an SaaS style product to manage your WordPress business and you’re not price conscious, these folks should be first on your list. Obviously, for a self-hosted, privacy-focused, feature-packed product, choose WPCloudDeploy.
Is anything in this article incorrect? If so, please feel free to contact us so we can apply corrections. As you might expect, corrections will be applied at our sole discretion subject to our ability to verify the new data.