There are a lot of low-cost hosts offered that provide a good service. WPEngine Change Region
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 evaluation 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 strategies aren’t precisely cheap. Therefore, you’ll wish to know whether this hosting service is worth the cost prior to buying.
To help you out, we’re going to carry out an extensive WP Engine evaluation for WordPress. We’ll discuss its crucial functions, support options, efficiency abilities, and everything else you’ll require to know. Let’s get going!
WP Engine Video Review
Sign up for a WP Engine plan and receive the Genesis Framework and 35+ StudioPress Themes free!
About WP Engine
Founded in 2010, WP Engine is now among the leading managed WordPress hosting business 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 offices in San Antonio (Texas), London (England), Limerick (Ireland), Brisbane (Australia), and Kraków (Poland).
The business has actually won numerous awards for Best Place to Work in Austin and consistently adds to the WordPress core and community.
WP Engine Features
The core reasons to choose WP Engine over cheaper WordPress hosting are increased dependability, efficiency, support, and management, however these are tough to quantify. Some functions stand apart when you browse the user interface, nevertheless, that can provide you some insight into the service offered.
WP Engine Page Performance is a cool tool developed to assist you speed up your WordPress website by providing significant metrics on efficiency.
Running a test returns you a page-performance report that details how quickly your page rendered, for how long it took to fill in its entirety, and the total size of the page. It even includes historical information on your site’s performance over the past 6 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 awkward mistakes on your website by making changes to a copy of your site before it goes live. This is called Staging, and it allows your developers to make extensive modifications to your site without impacting your consumers.
WP Engine has a detailed list of plugins that are prohibited (Image credit: WP Engine) In a relatively uncommon move, WP Engine limits the WordPress plugins you can install. Those typically limited are plugins that have been kept in mind to cause efficiency concerns and security holes. For essential functions such as caching, backups, and seo tools, WP Engine has made alternatives readily available that do not put a high load on the server.
WP Engine Hosting Plans
WP Engine just offers handled WordPress hosting. There are five various plans offered: Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom.
All strategies consist of limitless data transfer. The strategies vary based upon:
- number of WordPress installs
- traffic volume (# of visits per month)
- disk storage amount
- Customized plan consists of dedicated dev. environments, customer success, and priority assistance
WP Engine includes some unique features for WordPress users that a lot of hosts do not provide, or charge additional for. These unique features consist of:.
- Git version control
- Staging: instantly create a copy of your site for screening
- Easy transferable installs from free to paid accounts
- Leading edge innovations consisting of newest PHP version.
In our WP Engine review, we discovered that WP Engine uses the most advanced and extensive handled WordPress hosting functions.
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, however the powerful features may indicate a steep knowing curve for inexperienced users. If you have an understanding of terms like Git, CNAME, and reroute guidelines, you’ll be right in the house here, however otherwise you’ll require to spend a long time on the support website.
In our testing, the default WordPress home page filled in simply over two seconds. This is one of the fastest responses we’ve tested, with rival Liquid Web just slightly behind.
Support
A managed WordPress service need to provide additional value through its support, and WP Engine provides. The support website consists of videos and short articles of a quality you ‘d get out of a paid training course, with help on much deeper WordPress functionality that numerous WordPress hosts do not go into.
There’s 24/7 live chat assistance and a ticket system, too. In our testing, the reaction fasted and the representative well-informed. For all strategies except for single-site plans, there’s telephone support, too.
Pros
Remarkable Load Speed: If website filling speed is a leading priority, WP Engine does well in this regard. The host’s combination of custom NGINX extension, built-in Content Delivery Network (CDN), and SSD technology ensure that your web pages load rapidly. NGINX extension prioritizes human demands over robotic requests and provides load balancing, giving your visitors a better experience. For its part, CDN provides site material to your visitors based upon their location to improve your site’s speed and minimize latency. You get this ability for free with all WP Engine strategies.
High Performance: It’s hard to beat WP Engine’s efficiency, which is why individuals continue to pay a premium rate for this service. WP Engine ensures 99.95% server uptime, roughly 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 per year. WP Engine will compensate you with hosting credit if your uptime falls below the assurance.
Advanced Security: WP Engine keeps track of all the traffic going to your site and immediately spots and blocks possible attacks. Furthermore, the hosting service automatically updates and patches the WordPress core to remove possible vulnerabilities. In a worst-case circumstance, WP Engine automatically backups your site every day and has a one-click remediation function to get you support and running rapidly. This hosting service protects your site versus JavaScript/SQL-injection attacks, brute force efforts, and DDoS attacks.
Sensational Customer Support: The hosting service has a transparent and trackable ticketing system to connect with client care via chat. The assistance group has an exceptional knowledge base and can help you solve issues quickly. You get 24/7 phone assistance for all strategies other than the Growth Plan, in addition to 24/7 live chat support on all strategies.
Useful Staging Environment: The staging area allows you to clone your site’s live version and make changes or test new plugins and themes. Anything you perform in the staging area does not impact your live site. This feature allows designers to deal with sites without disrupting the live site’s performance or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting designers, this function permits you to build a website from your WP Engine account. You do not need to wait for the client to add you to their WordPress site. When completed, you can transfer the site to the customer or host the site on WP Engine. This functionality conserves time if you frequently build websites for customers.
Cons
WordPress-Only Hosting: If you are utilizing any other content management system aside from WordPress, then you run out luck. WP Engine only works with WordPress. From a business perspective, it makes sense to focus on a single market and offer exceptional services because area. This model locks out many individuals who could otherwise benefit from WP Engine’s services.
No Domains or Email Hosting: If you choose to host your e-mail account and register your domain through your website host, you’ll need to look somewhere else. You’ll have to utilize third-party services for domain registration or e-mail accounts.
Inflexible Pricing: WP Engine runs a tight ship, and this is shown in its pricing structure. You will be penalized for exceeding your plan’s visitor limitations. This might not be a problem if you have predictable traffic, and you can constantly upgrade your strategy as your site grows. However, significant spikes in traffic throughout item launches or seasonal service 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 lies in finding out what you are spending for.
You can get shared hosting that can deal with the very same amount of traffic as WP Engine for a fraction of the cost. You can even get committed hosting for the very same rate as WP Engine. What you are really paying for here is security, efficiency, speed, and, most notably, comfort. The supreme question is how much these things deserve to you.
Plans and Pricing
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.
With a WP Engine strategy, you are usually spending for performance & not needing to think too much about upkeep, security & speed. If you take a look at WP Engine’s rates based on the functions you’re getting- you really do not get a whole lot.
And if you are the type who will think about your website’s health anyhow (ie, keeping WordPress updated and usually visiting often), you’ll likely be spending for “management” that is unnecessary.
Many shared hosting servers can deal with the same traffic numbers as WP Engine- and cost a fraction of the rate. My individual site a shared hosting strategy 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 trustworthy VPS, you can definitely handle a lot more for much less. In fact, the site you are on manages more than 110,000+ sees per month with a lot of room delegated spare for side-projects, gigabytes of media, email, RSS apps, etc with an InMotion VPS. I spend for the VPS plus a CDN for less than WP Engine’s starter strategy.
They are relatively transparent about how they count sees, however it can still be rather a surprise for “little” website owners how rapidly they can enter the $290 monthly tier. I have a customer who started with the Startup plan, however quickly wound up with a custom-made plan.
And as mentioned earlier that doesn’t even consist of a number of the functions you don’t get with WP Engine’s plans. You can’t run any email from your servers. You have low limits on local media storage. Anything above the limits requires additional expenses & technical implementation of Amazon cloud services.
And most importantly for me- you are restricted on your installs. If you have a few side projects or low-traffic test websites, you have to factor those into the cost. You can’t use them to spread out the expense of your strategy- particularly if you are hitting your visitor cap instead of your set up cap.
If you are looking to pay for hosting- ie, a server that will hold & serve up your website files- WP Engine is a pricey choice, particularly compared to other non-managed hosting choices.
Start-up
The Startup package is the most basic strategy and will set you back $25 monthly. With this bundle, you get:.
25,000 gos to each month.
50GB bandwidth per month.
10GB storage.
One website consisted of.
WP Engine targets small websites and blogs with this strategy, however we think it might be overkill for many people in this classification. You can get a far much better handle shared hosting at Bluehost However, if you do not want to take any opportunities with uptime or require a warranty that your website can handle 25,000 visitors each month, WP Engine is a sure thing. We ‘d advise this choice to small companies, affiliate sites, and blog sites making great money and desire assurances that absolutely nothing will alter.
You can save $60 per year or 2 months complimentary if you pay each year.
Growth
The growth plan targets growing businesses and will cost you $95 per month. Here you get:.
100,000 gos to monthly.
200GB bandwidth each month.
25GB storage.
Ten sites consisted of a while.
This strategy is an excellent 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 assistance in addition to round-the-clock chat support. This addition will can be found in useful if you have an intricate issue that you require to fix rapidly.
You can conserve a cool $230 or two months totally free with annual billing.
Scale
WP Engine promotes its scale strategy as the best worth choice. This one expenses $241 each month. Here you get:.
400,000 gos to each month.
500GB bandwidth each month.
50GB storage.
30 websites included.
We advise this alternative for a fast-growing blog or company. You get access to 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone support in addition to the assistance.
You can conserve $580 or 2 months free with annual pre-paid billing.
Custom-made
Finally, if you have a mission-critical site or big business, the Custom plan might be appealing. With this strategy, you get:.
Millions of sees each month.
400GB+ bandwidth each month.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 websites consisted of.
You will have to speak with a sales representative to get your customized quote depending on your requirements. This plan likewise provides exclusive assistance must something fail.
Migrate WordPress websites in just a few clicks.
Solid Uptime
WP Engine achieves over 99% uptime thanks to its first-rate network infrastructure.
The company likewise has three information centers in London, Tokyo, and Midwest USA.
As a result, you can get better site speeds by choosing to host your site on servers that are closest to your target market.
WP Engine obstructs destructive attacks on your website.
Speed & Performance
There are a great deal of variables that go into site speed, but the general rule is that the more intricate your site is, the more intricate 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 few fundamental plugins and a couple of little images, you’ll be fine with an affordable shared hosting strategy from someone like InMotion HostGator Bluehost But few site owners keep their WordPress set up lean. There’s generally additional plugins, custom style files, great deals of images, widgets, advertisements, forms and more.
All these functions combined with decent levels of traffic can start to slow down your WordPress setup.
A slow website doesn’t indicate that you require a larger, much better server. It does mean that you need to get smarter about speed. In some cases it’s as simple as getting a more effective server, however in some cases it’s more about caching specific resources in a certain order and enhancing your files. Simply put- it gets complex.
Envision you are trying to haul a trailer with a pickup truck. Picture your trailer keeps getting much heavier. It’s meaningless to keep complaining that your truck is not big enough when you may simply need to remove the emergency brake, install a turbocharger, revitalize the transmission fluid and consolidate your load.
The point is that WordPress needs aid to stay quick as you grow. There are plenty of solutions … but either you or a designer should implement them.
That’s where managed WordPress hosting comes in. WP Engine takes care of (almost) all speed concerns. They have customized servers with very aggressive caching and even more sophisticated “stack” than a typical web host. They also have actually trained assistance who will go into your WordPress install and determine the specific chokepoint to get your website moving.
They don’t even enable caching plugins on their installs because they have actually such a tailored caching setup.
The interesting thing is that even unoptimized WordPress sets up still do well on their platform due to the fact that their platform does the additional work.
Here’s the speed test for among my customers on WP Engine (who has a bloated style, extra scripts, a lot of uncompressed images, to name a few things)- Note the Time To First Byte and the Start Render numbers. That measures how quickly the server returned enough data to start packing the page.
It’s good to have that sort of speed right out of the box- and have it stay 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 even much better numbers with WP Engine than you may get with other services given that you are totally free to focus on speed aspects that you can quickly manage like image compression, use of scripts, and so on
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not only offers an integrated CDN, but they likewise provide international data centers in case your audience is mostly in Asia and/or Europe.
If you are trying to get top speeds without tinkering layered caching plugins- the WP Engine does precisely that. And given that they work on Google Cloud, you do not need to stress over uptime either.
CDN Included
All strategies include a global CDN (material shipment network).
The CDN will assist your website load quick for customers around the globe by serving it to them from the network node that’s geographically closest to them.
Security and Backups
An estimated 78% of hacked websites are WordPress sites, according to Sucuri, a web security firm. Regularly the “open doors” are plugins that weren’t updated.
Securing sites is among the strong suits of WP Engine’s managed WordPress hosting service.
The business takes a number of procedures to protect WordPress sites:.
WP Engine runs everyday malware/virus scans in collaboration with Sucuri.
They keep an eye on an upgraded firewall program to block the current threats.
All sites are supported daily.
You get a one-click bring back function that can assist you recover your site in case of an attack.
The WP Engine website offers 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 supply webinars on security.
They publish security guidelines and checklists for designers and engineers.
If your site gets hacked, WPE will clean it free of charge.
Online Resources
WP Engine supplies webinars, guides, post, updates, tutorials, and a knowledgebase. With these you can discover how to:.
Introduce your first website.
Troubleshoot typical problems.
Make improvements to your site.
Manage your hosting account with higher performance.
Both beginners and skilled WordPress site owners will find the support documents invaluable.
WP Engine’s 60-Day Guarantee
WP Engine’s 60-day money-back assurance on all subscription costs is distinct in the hosting market.
It allows you to experiment with the service in a risk-free method.
Keep in mind: this choice is not available on custom-made hosting plans.
Is WP Engine Worth It?
Like any service, it’s not about what is finest overall, but what is best for you based on your goals, budget, resources & habits.
If you are in what I think of as WP Engine’s core markets- they offer a terrific service with a solid item. As a managed WordPress host, their prices is competitive. They offer more features than “WordPress hosting” strategies from other hosting brands. Their feature-set is unmatched for smart DIYers, WordPress website developers and/or high-traffic websites that don’t want to worry about hosting issues.
If handled hosting is a fit 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 think about their backend. Be sure to chat w/ assistance & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.