There are a lot of low-cost hosts offered that offer a good service. WPEngine Careers
However, what if you’re looking for more of a performance-oriented, concierge service? In that case, you’ll wish to take a look at our WP Engine review for WordPress.
WP Engine is a WordPress-specific webhosting, using managed strategies that are totally enhanced for the platform. Of course, when compared to numerous other WordPress hosts, WP Engine’s plans aren’t exactly inexpensive. For that reason, you’ll would like to know whether this hosting service is worth the cost before purchasing.
To help you out, we’re going to perform a comprehensive WP Engine review for WordPress. We’ll discuss its essential features, assistance options, efficiency capabilities, and whatever else you’ll need to understand. Let’s get started!
WP Engine Video Review
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About WP Engine
Founded in 2010, WP Engine is now among the leading handled WordPress hosting companies in the market. Serial entrepreneur Jason Cohen began WP Engine when he saw a need for specialized WordPress hosting due to the increasing popularity of WordPress.
WP Engine is Headquartered in Austin, Texas with workplaces in San Antonio (Texas), London (England), Limerick (Ireland), Brisbane (Australia), and Kraków (Poland).
The company has actually won several awards for Best Place to Work in Austin and consistently contributes to the WordPress core and neighborhood.
WP Engine Features
The core factors to select WP Engine over cheaper WordPress hosting are increased dependability, efficiency, assistance, and management, but these are hard to quantify. Some features stand out when you search the user interface, nevertheless, that can offer you some insight into the service provided.
WP Engine Page Performance is a cool tool created to assist you accelerate your WordPress website by using significant metrics on efficiency.
Running a test returns you a page-performance report that details how quickly your page rendered, the length of time it took to pack in its entirety, and the overall size of the page. It even includes historical information on your website’s performance over the past six months and suggestions on how you can decrease page load.
You can establish your WordPress website in a Staging or Development environment before making the changes live (Image credit: WP Engine) Avoid humiliating mistakes on your website by making changes to a copy of your website prior to it goes live. This is called Staging, and it permits your designers to make extensive changes to your site without impacting your consumers.
WP Engine has a detailed list of plugins that are prohibited (Image credit: WP Engine) In a reasonably unusual relocation, WP Engine limits the WordPress plugins you can set up. Those generally restricted are plugins that have been kept in mind to cause efficiency problems and security holes. For crucial features such as caching, backups, and search engine optimization tools, WP Engine has made options offered that do not put a high load on the server.
WP Engine Hosting Plans
WP Engine just provides handled WordPress hosting. There are 5 different strategies readily available: Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom.
All strategies consist of unlimited data transfer. The plans differ based on:
- number of WordPress installs
- traffic volume (# of visits per month)
- disk storage amount
- Customized strategy includes dedicated dev. environments, customer success, and priority assistance
WP Engine consists of some unique functions for WordPress users that the majority of hosts don’t provide, or charge extra for. These special functions include:.
- Git version control
- Staging: instantly produce a copy of your website for screening
- Easy transferable installs from totally free to paid accounts
- Cutting edge technologies including latest PHP version.
In our WP Engine evaluation, we found that WP Engine uses the most sophisticated and detailed handled WordPress hosting features.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.
Interface and in use
WP Engine’s interface is professional and well set out, but the powerful features may imply a high learning curve for unskilled users. If you have an understanding of terms like Git, CNAME, and reroute guidelines, you’ll be right in your home here, but otherwise you’ll require to invest some time on the assistance site.
In our screening, the default WordPress web page filled in just over two seconds. This is among the fastest actions we’ve tested, with rival Liquid Web just somewhat behind.
Support
A handled WordPress service need to use extra value through its support, and WP Engine delivers. The assistance site consists of videos and articles of a quality you ‘d get out of a paid training course, with assistance on deeper WordPress functionality that many WordPress hosts do not go into.
There’s 24/7 live chat assistance and a ticket system, too. In our screening, the reaction fasted and the agent educated. For all plans except for single-site plans, there’s telephone assistance, too.
Pros
Exceptional Load Speed: If site loading speed is a top concern, WP Engine does well in this regard. The host’s mix of customized NGINX extension, integrated Content Delivery Network (CDN), and SSD innovation make sure that your web pages load quickly. NGINX extension prioritizes human demands over robot requests and uses load balancing, offering your visitors a better experience. For its part, CDN delivers site content to your visitors based upon their area to increase your website’s speed and lower latency. You get this capability free of charge with all WP Engine plans.
High Performance: It’s tough to beat WP Engine’s performance, which is why individuals continue to pay a premium price for this service. WP Engine guarantees 99.95% server uptime, approximately four and a half hours of downtime a year. You can further increase your uptime to 99.99% with enhanced SLA, which translates to a little under an hour of downtime per year. WP Engine will compensate you with hosting credit if your uptime falls below the guarantee.
Advanced Security: WP Engine monitors all the traffic going to your site and immediately spots and obstructs possible attacks. In addition, the hosting service immediately updates and patches the WordPress core to get rid of possible vulnerabilities. In a worst-case circumstance, WP Engine automatically backups your site every day and has a one-click remediation feature to get you back up and running rapidly. This hosting service safeguards your site versus 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 through chat. The support team has an exceptional knowledge base and can assist you fix problems rapidly. You get 24/7 phone support for all strategies other than the Growth Plan, in addition to 24/7 live chat assistance on all plans.
Useful Staging Environment: The staging area enables you to clone your site’s live variation and make changes or test brand-new plugins and styles. Anything you carry out in the staging area doesn’t impact your live website. This feature permits designers to deal with websites without disrupting the live website’s performance or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting developers, this feature enables you to develop a site from your WP Engine account. You don’t need to await the customer to add you to their WordPress site. Once finished, you can transfer the site to the client or host the website on WP Engine. This functionality saves time if you frequently construct sites for clients.
Cons
WordPress-Only Hosting: If you are using any other content management system aside from WordPress, then you are out of luck. WP Engine just works with WordPress. From an organization viewpoint, it makes good sense to concentrate on a single market and deal extraordinary services in that area. This design locks out many individuals who might otherwise benefit from WP Engine’s services.
No Domains or Email Hosting: If you choose to host your email account and register your domain through your website host, you’ll require to look somewhere else. You’ll need to utilize third-party services for domain registration or email accounts.
Inflexible Pricing: WP Engine runs a tight ship, and this is shown in its prices structure. You will be penalized for exceeding your strategy’s visitor limits. This might not be a problem if you have predictable traffic, and you can constantly upgrade your plan as your website grows. Considerable spikes in traffic during item launches or seasonal company can cost you considerable excess charges.
There is no other method to put it: WP Engine is pricey. Is it worth the expense? The answer depends on finding out what you are spending for.
You can get shared hosting that can deal with the same quantity of traffic as WP Engine for a portion of the price. You can even get committed hosting for the exact same rate as WP Engine. What you are truly paying for here is security, performance, speed, and, most importantly, comfort. The supreme question is just 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 strategy, you are usually paying for efficiency & not having to believe excessive about maintenance, security & speed. If you take a look at WP Engine’s prices based upon the features you’re getting- you really do not get a great deal.
And if you are the type who will consider your website’s health anyway (ie, keeping WordPress updated and usually logging in frequently), you’ll likely be paying for “management” that is superfluous.
Numerous shared hosting servers can deal with the same traffic numbers as WP Engine- and cost a fraction of the cost. My individual website a shared hosting plan from HostGator with standard caching) managed more than 15,000+ check outs in a 24 hour period when a post of mine And if you are running a trustworthy VPS, you can certainly manage a lot more for much less. The website you are on handles more than 110,000+ sees 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 pay for the VPS plus a CDN for less than WP Engine’s starter plan.
They are fairly transparent about how they count gos to, however it can still be rather a surprise for “small” website owners how rapidly they can get into the $290 per month tier. I have a customer who started with the Startup strategy, however rapidly wound up with a custom strategy.
And as pointed out previously that doesn’t even consist of a lot of the features you don’t get with WP Engine’s plans. You can’t run any e-mail from your servers. You have low limitations on local media storage. Anything above the limits needs additional costs & technical implementation of Amazon cloud services.
And most significantly for me- you are limited on your installs. If you have a couple of side projects or low-traffic test sites, you need to factor those into the cost. You can’t use them to expand the cost of your plan- specifically if you are striking your visitor cap rather than your install cap.
If you are wanting to pay for hosting- ie, a server that will hold & serve up your website files- WP Engine is a costly option, especially compared to other non-managed hosting options.
Start-up
The Startup package is the most standard strategy and will set you back $25 each month. With this plan, you get:.
25,000 check outs each month.
50GB bandwidth monthly.
10GB storage.
One website included.
WP Engine targets small websites and blog sites with this plan, but we think it might be overkill for most 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 opportunities with uptime or need a warranty that your website can manage 25,000 visitors monthly, WP Engine is a sure bet. We ‘d suggest this option to small companies, affiliate websites, and blogs making good cash and desire guarantees that nothing will alter.
You can conserve $60 annually or two months totally free if you pay annually.
Growth
The development plan targets growing businesses and will cost you $95 monthly. Here you get:.
100,000 visits monthly.
200GB bandwidth each month.
25GB storage.
10 sites consisted of a while.
This strategy is a fantastic entry point for a growing organization, and it might be a while before you need to update. With this plan, you likewise get 24/7 phone support in addition to day-and-night chat support. This addition will can be found in handy if you have an intricate issue that you need to deal with quickly.
You can save a cool $230 or more months complimentary with annual billing.
Scale
WP Engine advertises its scale plan as the best value alternative. This one costs $241 monthly. Here you get:.
400,000 check outs per month.
500GB bandwidth each month.
50GB storage.
30 sites consisted of.
We recommend this choice for a fast-growing blog or company. You get access to 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone assistance in addition to the support.
You can save $580 or more months totally free with yearly pre-paid billing.
Customized
Lastly, if you have a mission-critical website or big business, the Custom strategy may be appealing. With this strategy, you get:.
Millions of visits per month.
400GB+ bandwidth monthly.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 websites consisted of.
You will need to talk to a sales rep to get your customized quote depending on your requirements. This strategy also provides exclusive assistance should something go wrong.
Migrate WordPress websites in just a few clicks.
Solid Uptime
WP Engine attains over 99% uptime thanks to its first-rate network infrastructure.
The business also has 3 information centers in London, Tokyo, and Midwest USA.
As a result, you can get better site speeds by picking to host your website on servers that are closest to your target market.
WP Engine obstructs destructive attacks on your website.
Speed & Performance
There are a lot of variables that go into site speed, however the rule of thumb is that the more complex your website is, the more complex the options to speed ended up being.
Out of package- WordPress is fairly lean and fast. If you are running a mainly text site with a couple of fundamental plugins and a few small images, you’ll be fine with a budget friendly shared hosting plan from someone like InMotion HostGator Bluehost But few website owners keep their WordPress set up lean. There’s typically extra plugins, customized theme files, lots of images, widgets, ads, types and more.
All these features integrated with decent levels of traffic can begin to decrease your WordPress setup.
However a slow website doesn’t mean that you require a bigger, much better server. It does mean that you require to get smarter about speed. In some cases it’s as basic as getting a more powerful server, however sometimes it’s more about caching certain resources in a certain order and enhancing your files. To put it simply- it gets complex.
Envision you are trying to haul a trailer with a pickup truck. Picture your trailer keeps getting heavier. It’s meaningless to keep complaining that your truck is not big enough when you might just need to remove the emergency brake, install a turbocharger, revitalize the transmission fluid and combine your load.
The point is that WordPress requires aid to remain quick as you grow. There are a lot of solutions … but either you or a developer should implement them.
That’s where handled WordPress hosting is available in. WP Engine takes care of (almost) all speed concerns. They have personalized servers with incredibly aggressive caching and a lot more innovative “stack” than a common web host. They also have trained support who will enter into your WordPress install and identify the specific chokepoint to get your website moving.
They don’t even enable caching plugins on their installs due to the fact that they have such a personalized caching setup.
The interesting thing is that even unoptimized WordPress sets up still do well on their platform since their platform does the extra work.
Here’s the speed test for among 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 rapidly the server returned enough information to start loading the page.
It’s great to have that sort of speed right out of package- and have it stay that way no matter how huge or complex the website gets.
* Note that the other point here is that if you are obsessed about speed, you can get even much better numbers with WP Engine than you may get with other services given that you are complimentary to concentrate on speed aspects that you can easily manage like image compression, use of scripts, and so on
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not just provides an incorporated CDN, but they likewise supply international data centers in case your audience is mostly in Asia and/or Europe.
If you are attempting to get top speeds without messing with layered caching plugins- the WP Engine does precisely that. And considering that they operate on Google Cloud, you don’t need to stress over uptime either.
CDN Included
All strategies include a global CDN (material shipment 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 estimated 78% of hacked sites are WordPress websites, according to Sucuri, a web security company. Regularly the “open doors” are plugins that weren’t upgraded.
Protecting websites is among the strong points of WP Engine’s managed WordPress hosting service.
The company takes numerous measures to protect WordPress sites:.
WP Engine runs daily malware/virus scans in collaboration with Sucuri.
They keep an eye on an updated firewall to obstruct the current hazards.
All sites are backed up daily.
You get a one-click bring back function that can help you recover your website in case of an attack.
The WP Engine site provides a guide on “Tips to Protect Your WordPress Site From Being Hacked.”.
You’ll have access to 24/7/365 technical support for any concerns relating to security.
They offer webinars on security.
They publish security standards and lists for designers and engineers.
If your website gets hacked, WPE will clean it free of charge.
Online Resources
WP Engine supplies webinars, guides, article, updates, tutorials, and a knowledgebase. With these you can find out how to:.
Release your very first website.
Troubleshoot typical problems.
Make improvements to your site.
Handle your hosting account with greater performance.
Both novices and experienced WordPress site owners will find the support paperwork invaluable.
WP Engine’s 60-Day Guarantee
WP Engine’s 60-day money-back assurance on all subscription costs is special in the hosting industry.
It enables you to experiment with the service in a safe method.
Keep in mind: this option is not available on customized hosting plans.
Is WP Engine Worth It?
Like any service, it’s not about what is finest overall, however what is best for you based upon your objectives, budget plan, resources & habits.
If you are in what I consider WP Engine’s core markets- they provide an excellent service with a solid product. As a managed WordPress host, their prices is competitive. They offer more features than “WordPress hosting” plans from other hosting brand names. Their feature-set is unmatched for smart DIYers, WordPress site developers and/or high-traffic websites that do not want to fret about hosting problems.
If handled hosting is a suitable for you- then go take a look at WP Engine’s plans here View Current Plans They do a 60-day money-back assurance. So do a test set up and see what you consider their backend. Be sure to talk w/ support & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.