There are lots of cheap hosts readily available that provide a decent service. WPEngine Affiliate
Nevertheless, what if you’re searching for more of a performance-oriented, concierge service? Because case, you’ll wish to have a look at our WP Engine review for WordPress.
WP Engine is a WordPress-specific web host, offering managed strategies that are totally optimized for the platform. Of course, when compared to numerous other WordPress hosts, WP Engine’s plans aren’t precisely low-cost. You’ll desire to understand whether this hosting service is worth the expense prior to making a purchase.
To help you out, we’re going to carry out a comprehensive WP Engine review for WordPress. We’ll discuss its essential functions, support choices, efficiency capabilities, and everything else you’ll need to know. Let’s get going!
WP Engine Video Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re66PSKd7_E&t=7s
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About WP Engine
Founded in 2010, WP Engine is now one of the leading managed WordPress hosting companies in the market. Serial entrepreneur Jason Cohen began WP Engine when he saw a requirement for specialized WordPress hosting due to the rising appeal of WordPress.
WP Engine is Headquartered in Austin, Texas with offices in San Antonio (Texas), London (England), Limerick (Ireland), Brisbane (Australia), and Kraków (Poland).
The business has won multiple awards for Best Place to Work in Austin and regularly contributes to the WordPress core and community.
WP Engine Features
The core factors to choose WP Engine over less expensive WordPress hosting are increased reliability, performance, support, and management, however these are difficult to measure. Some features stand out when you browse the interface, nevertheless, that can provide you some insight into the service provided.
WP Engine Page Performance is a neat tool created to assist you accelerate your WordPress site by offering meaningful metrics on efficiency.
Running a test returns you a page-performance report that details how rapidly your page rendered, the length of time it took to load in its whole, and the overall size of the page. It even consists of historic data on your site’s performance over the past 6 months and suggestions on how you can decrease page load.
You can develop your WordPress website in a Staging or Development environment before making the modifications live (Image credit: WP Engine) Avoid awkward mistakes on your site by making changes to a copy of your website prior to it goes live. This is called Staging, and it enables your developers to make substantial changes to your site without impacting your consumers.
WP Engine has an extensive list of plugins that are disallowed (Image credit: WP Engine) In a relatively uncommon relocation, WP Engine limits the WordPress plugins you can install. Those usually limited are plugins that have been kept in mind to trigger efficiency concerns and security holes. For essential functions such as caching, backups, and seo tools, WP Engine has actually made alternatives offered that do not put a high load on the server.
WP Engine Hosting Plans
WP Engine just offers managed WordPress hosting. There are 5 various strategies offered: Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom.
All plans include endless data transfer. The plans differ based on:
- number of WordPress installs
- traffic volume (# of visits per month)
- disk storage amount
- Custom-made plan consists of dedicated dev. environments, client success, and priority assistance
WP Engine consists of some distinct functions for WordPress users that the majority of hosts do not offer, or charge extra for. These unique features include:.
- Git version control
- Staging: immediately develop a copy of your website for screening
- Easy transferable installs from totally free to paid accounts
- Innovative technologies including latest PHP variation.
In our WP Engine evaluation, we found that WP Engine provides the most innovative and comprehensive handled WordPress hosting functions.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.
User interface and in use
WP Engine’s user interface is professional and well laid out, but the effective features might suggest a steep knowing curve for unskilled users. If you have an understanding of terms like Git, CNAME, and redirect guidelines, you’ll be right in the house here, but otherwise you’ll require to invest a long time on the assistance site.
In our testing, the default WordPress web page loaded in simply over two seconds. This is among the fastest responses we’ve evaluated, with rival Liquid Web only somewhat behind.
Assistance
A managed WordPress service need to use additional worth through its support, and WP Engine provides. The assistance website includes videos and posts of a quality you ‘d expect from a paid training course, with aid on much deeper WordPress performance that many WordPress hosts do not go into.
There’s 24/7 live chat support and a ticket system, too. In our testing, the reaction was quick and the representative educated. For all strategies except for single-site plans, there’s telephone assistance, too.
Pros
Exceptional Load Speed: If website filling speed is a top priority, WP Engine does well in this regard. The host’s combination of customized NGINX extension, integrated Content Delivery Network (CDN), and SSD technology make sure that your web pages load quickly. NGINX extension prioritizes human demands over robot requests and offers load balancing, providing your visitors a much better experience. For its part, CDN delivers website material to your visitors based upon their location to increase your site’s speed and minimize latency. You get this capability free of charge with all WP Engine strategies.
High Performance: It’s difficult to beat WP Engine’s performance, which is why individuals continue to pay a premium price for this service. WP Engine ensures 99.95% server uptime, approximately four and a half hours of downtime a year. You can even more increase your uptime to 99.99% with enhanced SLA, which equates to a little under an hour of downtime each year. WP Engine will compensate you with hosting credit if your uptime falls below the warranty.
Advanced Security: WP Engine keeps track of all the traffic going to your site and immediately finds and obstructs possible attacks. In addition, the hosting service automatically updates and patches the WordPress core to eliminate potential vulnerabilities. In a worst-case scenario, WP Engine immediately backups your website every day and has a one-click remediation function to get you support and running quickly. This hosting service secures your website against JavaScript/SQL-injection attacks, brute force efforts, and DDoS attacks.
Extraordinary Customer Support: The hosting service has a transparent and trackable ticketing system to contact client care by means of chat. The support team has an exceptional knowledge base and can help you resolve issues rapidly. You get 24/7 phone assistance for all plans except the Growth Plan, in addition to 24/7 live chat assistance on all strategies.
Useful Staging Environment: The staging area allows you to clone your website’s live version and make changes or test brand-new plugins and themes. Anything you carry out in the staging area doesn’t affect your live website. This feature permits designers to work on websites without interfering with the live website’s functionality or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting developers, this feature enables you to construct a site from your WP Engine account. You don’t need to await the client to include you to their WordPress website. Once completed, you can transfer the site to the customer or host the website on WP Engine. This functionality saves time if you routinely build sites for customers.
Cons
WordPress-Only Hosting: If you are using any other content management system aside from WordPress, then you are out of luck. WP Engine only works with WordPress. From a company perspective, it makes sense to concentrate on a single market and offer exceptional services in that location. Nevertheless, this model locks out many people who could otherwise gain from WP Engine’s services.
No Domains or Email Hosting: If you prefer to host your e-mail account and register your domain through your site host, you’ll need to look somewhere else. You’ll have to use third-party services for domain registration or email accounts.
Inflexible Pricing: WP Engine runs a tight ship, and this is reflected in its rates structure. You will be punished for surpassing your strategy’s visitor limits. This may not be an issue if you have foreseeable traffic, and you can always update your plan as your website grows. Nevertheless, considerable spikes in traffic throughout product launches or seasonal organization can cost you substantial excess charges.
There is no other way to put it: WP Engine is costly. Is it worth the expense? The response depends on figuring out what you are paying for.
You can get shared hosting that can deal with the same quantity of traffic as WP Engine for a fraction of the rate. You can even get committed hosting for the same price as WP Engine. What you are really spending for here is security, performance, speed, and, most importantly, peace of mind. The supreme question is how much these things are worth to you.
Plans and Pricing
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.
With a WP Engine plan, you are typically spending for efficiency & not needing to think too much about maintenance, security & speed. If you look at WP Engine’s pricing based upon the features you’re getting- you actually don’t get a whole lot.
And if you are the type who will think about your site’s health anyhow (ie, keeping WordPress updated and generally visiting often), you’ll likely be paying for “management” that is unneeded.
Many shared hosting servers can manage the very same traffic numbers as WP Engine- and cost a fraction of the price. My personal site a shared hosting plan from HostGator with basic caching) managed more than 15,000+ gos to in a 24 hour period when a post of mine And if you are running a dependable VPS, you can certainly handle a lot more for much less. The website you are on handles more than 110,000+ visits per month with plenty of space left to spare for side-projects, gigabytes of media, e-mail, RSS apps, etc with an InMotion VPS. I spend for the VPS plus a CDN for less than WP Engine’s starter plan.
They are fairly transparent about how they count visits, but it can still be quite a surprise for “small” website owners how rapidly they can enter the $290 each month tier. I have a customer who began with the Startup strategy, but rapidly ended up with a custom strategy.
And as mentioned previously that doesn’t even consist of a lot of the functions you don’t get with WP Engine’s strategies. You can’t run any e-mail from your servers. You have low limits on local media storage. Anything above the limits needs additional costs & technical application of Amazon cloud services.
And most notably for me- you are restricted on your installs. If you have a couple of side projects or low-traffic test websites, you have to factor those into the price. You can’t utilize them to spread out the cost of your plan- especially if you are hitting your visitor cap instead of your install cap.
If you are wanting to pay for hosting- ie, a server that will hold & serve up your site files- WP Engine is a pricey alternative, particularly compared to other non-managed hosting options.
Start-up
The Startup plan is the most basic strategy and will set you back $25 per month. With this plan, you get:.
25,000 sees per month.
50GB bandwidth each month.
10GB storage.
One site included.
WP Engine targets small websites and blogs with this strategy, however we think it may be overkill for the majority of people in this category. You can get a far better deal with shared hosting at Bluehost However, if you don’t wish to take any chances with uptime or require a warranty that your site can manage 25,000 visitors per month, WP Engine is a sure bet. We ‘d advise this option to small companies, affiliate websites, and blogs making great cash and desire assurances that nothing will change.
You can conserve $60 per year or two months complimentary if you pay yearly.
Growth
The growth plan targets growing companies and will cost you $95 per month. Here you get:.
100,000 sees monthly.
200GB bandwidth per month.
25GB storage.
Ten websites included a while.
This plan is an excellent entry point for a growing service, and it might be a while before you need to upgrade. With this strategy, you also get 24/7 phone assistance in addition to day-and-night chat support. This addition will come in handy if you have an intricate problem that you need to resolve rapidly.
You can conserve a cool $230 or 2 months totally free with yearly billing.
Scale
WP Engine advertises its scale plan as the very best value choice. This one expenses $241 per month. Here you get:.
400,000 sees per month.
500GB bandwidth monthly.
50GB storage.
30 websites consisted of.
We advise this alternative for a fast-growing blog site or service. You get access to 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone support in addition to the support.
You can save $580 or two months free with annual pre-paid billing.
Custom-made
Lastly, if you have a mission-critical site or large service, the Custom plan may be appealing. With this strategy, you get:.
Millions of visits per month.
400GB+ bandwidth per month.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 websites consisted of.
You will need to speak with a sales representative to get your customized quote depending on your requirements. This plan also offers proprietary assistance needs to something fail.
Migrate WordPress websites in just a few clicks.
Strong Uptime
WP Engine accomplishes over 99% uptime thanks to its first-rate network infrastructure.
The business likewise has three data centers in London, Tokyo, and Midwest USA.
As a result, you can improve website speeds by choosing to host your site on servers that are closest to your target audience.
WP Engine obstructs destructive attacks on your site.
Speed & Performance
There are a lot of variables that go into site speed, but the guideline is that the more intricate your site is, the more complicated the options to speed become.
Out of package- WordPress is fairly lean and fast. If you are running a mainly text site with a few fundamental plugins and a couple of small images, you’ll be fine with a cost effective shared hosting plan from somebody like InMotion HostGator Bluehost But few website owners keep their WordPress install lean. There’s normally additional plugins, custom-made style files, lots of images, widgets, advertisements, kinds and more.
All these functions combined with decent levels of traffic can start to slow down your WordPress setup.
A sluggish site doesn’t suggest that you require a larger, better server. It does imply that you need to get smarter about speed. Often it’s as basic as getting a more powerful server, but in some cases it’s more about caching particular resources in a certain order and enhancing your files. To put it simply- it gets complex.
Envision you are attempting to haul a trailer with a pickup. Picture your trailer keeps getting heavier. It’s meaningless to keep grumbling that your truck is not big enough when you might just require to eliminate the emergency brake, set up a turbocharger, revitalize the transmission fluid and combine your load.
The point is that WordPress needs assistance to remain quick as you grow. There are a lot of services … but either you or a designer must execute them.
That’s where managed WordPress hosting can be found in. WP Engine takes care of (nearly) all speed issues. They have tailored servers with extremely aggressive caching and a lot more advanced “stack” than a normal webhosting. They also have actually trained support who will enter into your WordPress set up and recognize the exact chokepoint to get your site moving.
They do not even allow caching plugins on their installs since they have such a tailored caching setup.
The interesting thing is that even unoptimized WordPress installs still succeed on their platform because their platform does the additional work.
Here’s the speed test for one of my clients on WP Engine (who has a bloated style, extra scripts, a lot of uncompressed images, among other things)- Note the Time To First Byte and the Start Render numbers. That determines how quickly the server returned enough information to begin filling the page.
It’s nice to have that sort of speed right out of the box- and have it remain that way no matter how huge or intricate the website gets.
* Note that the other point here is that if you are consumed about speed, you can get back at better numbers with WP Engine than you might get with other services because you are complimentary to concentrate on speed factors that you can quickly manage like image compression, use of scripts, and so on
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not just provides an incorporated CDN, however they also offer international data centers in case your audience is mainly in Asia and/or Europe.
If you are attempting to get top speeds without messing with layered caching plugins- the WP Engine does exactly that. And considering that they run on Google Cloud, you do not have to worry about uptime either.
CDN Included
All strategies consist of a worldwide CDN (content delivery network).
The CDN will help your website load quick for customers all over the world by serving it to them from the network node that’s geographically closest to them.
Security and Backups
An approximated 78% of hacked websites are WordPress websites, according to Sucuri, a web security company. Regularly the “open doors” are plugins that weren’t updated.
Protecting sites is among the strengths of WP Engine’s managed WordPress hosting service.
The business takes a number of measures to protect WordPress websites:.
WP Engine runs daily malware/virus scans in partnership with Sucuri.
They monitor an updated firewall to obstruct the current risks.
All sites are supported daily.
You get a one-click bring back function that can help you recuperate your site in case of an attack.
The WP Engine site supplies a guide on “Tips to Protect Your WordPress Site From Being Hacked.”.
You’ll have access to 24/7/365 technical assistance for any concerns relating to security.
They offer webinars on security.
They release security guidelines and lists for developers and engineers.
If your site gets hacked, WPE will clean it for free.
Online Resources
WP Engine offers webinars, guides, post, updates, tutorials, and a knowledgebase. With these you can find out how to:.
Release your very first website.
Troubleshoot common problems.
Make improvements to your website.
Handle your hosting account with higher effectiveness.
Both newbies and experienced WordPress website owners will discover the assistance documentation invaluable.
WP Engine’s 60-Day Guarantee
WP Engine’s 60-day money-back assurance on all subscription fees is special in the hosting industry.
It allows you to check out the service in a safe way.
Keep in mind: this choice is not readily available on custom-made hosting plans.
Is WP Engine Worth It?
Like any service, it’s not about what is best overall, but what is finest for you based on your goals, budget plan, resources & practices.
If you are in what I think of as WP Engine’s core markets- they use a terrific service with a solid product. As a managed WordPress host, their rates is competitive. They provide more functions than “WordPress hosting” plans from other hosting brand names. Their feature-set is unmatched for smart DIYers, WordPress website developers and/or high-traffic sites that do not want to stress over hosting issues.
If managed hosting is a suitable for you- then go take a look at WP Engine’s strategies here View Current Plans They do a 60-day money-back assurance. Do a test set up and see what you think of their backend. Make certain to talk w/ support & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.