There are lots of low-cost hosts available that offer a good service. WPEngine Crunchbase
What if you’re looking for more of a performance-oriented, concierge service? In that case, you’ll want to check out our WP Engine review for WordPress.
WP Engine is a WordPress-specific webhosting, using managed plans that are completely optimized for the platform. Obviously, when compared to numerous other WordPress hosts, WP Engine’s strategies aren’t exactly inexpensive. For that reason, you’ll need to know whether this hosting service deserves the cost prior to buying.
To assist you out, we’re going to perform a comprehensive WP Engine review for WordPress. We’ll discuss its crucial functions, assistance options, performance capabilities, and everything else you’ll need to understand. Let’s start!
WP Engine Video Review
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About WP Engine
Founded in 2010, WP Engine is now among the leading managed WordPress hosting business in the market. Serial entrepreneur Jason Cohen started 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 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 reasons to choose WP Engine over cheaper WordPress hosting are increased dependability, performance, support, and management, but these are hard to measure. Some functions stick out when you browse the user interface, nevertheless, that can offer you some insight into the service provided.
WP Engine Page Performance is a cool tool developed to assist you accelerate your WordPress website by using significant metrics on performance.
Running a test returns you a page-performance report that information how quickly your page rendered, how long it took to load in its totality, and the overall size of the page. It even consists of historical information on your website’s performance over the past six months and suggestions on how you can minimize page load.
You can develop your WordPress site in a Staging or Development environment prior to making the changes live (Image credit: WP Engine) Avoid embarrassing errors on your website by making changes to a copy of your website prior to it goes live. This is called Staging, and it enables your designers to make substantial modifications to your site without affecting your clients.
WP Engine has a detailed list of plugins that are prohibited (Image credit: WP Engine) In a reasonably uncommon relocation, WP Engine restricts the WordPress plugins you can set up. Those normally restricted are plugins that have actually been noted to cause performance issues and security holes. For important features 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 provides managed WordPress hosting. There are five various strategies offered: Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom.
All plans include unlimited information transfer. The plans differ based on:
- number of WordPress sets up
- traffic volume (# of visits per month)
- disk storage amount
- Customized strategy includes dedicated dev. environments, consumer success, and priority support
WP Engine includes some distinct features for WordPress users that most hosts do not provide, or charge additional for. These unique functions consist of:.
- Git version control
- Staging: quickly produce a copy of your website for screening
- Easy transferable installs from free to paid accounts
- Innovative technologies including most current PHP version.
In our WP Engine review, we discovered that WP Engine provides the most innovative and extensive managed 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 laid out, but the powerful functions might indicate a high learning curve for inexperienced users. If you have an understanding of terms like Git, CNAME, and reroute rules, you’ll be right in your home here, but otherwise you’ll require to invest a long time on the assistance site.
In our screening, the default WordPress web page filled in simply over two seconds. This is one of the fastest reactions we’ve tested, with competitor Liquid Web just somewhat behind.
Assistance
A handled WordPress service ought to use additional value through its assistance, and WP Engine delivers. The assistance site consists of videos and short articles of a quality you ‘d get out of a paid training course, with assistance on deeper WordPress performance that numerous WordPress hosts do not go into.
There’s 24/7 live chat support and a ticket system, too. In our screening, the action fasted and the representative experienced. For all plans except for single-site plans, there’s telephone support, too.
Pros
Exceptional Load Speed: If website loading speed is a top 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 make sure that your web pages load quickly. NGINX extension prioritizes human requests over robot requests and uses load balancing, providing your visitors a much better experience. For its part, CDN delivers website material to your visitors based upon their area to increase your site’s speed and decrease latency. You get this capability for free 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 rate for this service. WP Engine guarantees 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 boosted 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 listed below the warranty.
Advanced Security: WP Engine monitors all the traffic going to your website and automatically finds and obstructs possible attacks. In addition, the hosting service immediately updates and spots the WordPress core to get rid of potential vulnerabilities. In a worst-case situation, WP Engine instantly backups your website every day and has a one-click restoration feature to get you back up and running rapidly. This hosting service protects your site against JavaScript/SQL-injection attacks, brute force attempts, and DDoS attacks.
Phenomenal Customer Support: The hosting service has a transparent and trackable ticketing system to get in touch with consumer care by means of chat. The assistance team has an exceptional knowledge base and can help you solve problems quickly. You get 24/7 phone assistance for all plans 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 website’s live variation and make changes or test brand-new plugins and themes. Anything you carry out in the staging area does not affect your live site. This feature enables developers to deal with websites without hindering the live website’s functionality or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting designers, this function permits you to build a website from your WP Engine account. You don’t have to wait on the client to add you to their WordPress site. When finished, you can move the site to the customer or host the website on WP Engine. This functionality conserves time if you frequently develop sites for customers.
Cons
WordPress-Only Hosting: If you are utilizing any other content management system aside from WordPress, then you are out of luck. WP Engine only deals with WordPress. From a service perspective, it makes sense to focus on a single market and offer exceptional services in that location. However, this model locks out lots of people who might 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 website host, you’ll need to look elsewhere. You’ll need 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 penalized for exceeding your strategy’s visitor limitations. This may not be an issue if you have foreseeable traffic, and you can constantly upgrade your strategy as your website grows. Nevertheless, considerable spikes in traffic during item launches or seasonal service can cost you considerable excess charges.
There is no other way to put it: WP Engine is costly. Is it worth the cost? The answer lies in figuring out what you are paying for.
You can get shared hosting that can deal with the exact same quantity of traffic as WP Engine for a portion of the cost. You can even get committed hosting for the very same rate as WP Engine. What you are actually paying for here is security, efficiency, speed, and, most importantly, peace of mind. The ultimate 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 generally paying for performance & not needing to think excessive about maintenance, security & speed. If you take a look at WP Engine’s pricing based on the functions you’re getting- you truly don’t get a great deal.
And if you are the type who will consider your site’s health anyhow (ie, keeping WordPress upgraded and normally visiting often), you’ll likely be spending for “management” that is unneeded.
Lots of shared hosting servers can handle the exact same traffic numbers as WP Engine- and cost a portion of the cost. My personal website a shared hosting strategy from HostGator with standard caching) dealt with more than 15,000+ visits in a 24 hour duration when a post of mine And if you are running a trustworthy VPS, you can certainly deal with a lot more for much less. In fact, the site you are on handles more than 110,000+ sees each month with lots of space 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 plan.
They are relatively transparent about how they count check outs, however it can still be quite a surprise for “small” website owners how quickly they can enter into the $290 each month tier. I have a customer who started with the Startup plan, however rapidly wound up with a custom plan.
And as discussed previously that does not even include a number of the functions you don’t get with WP Engine’s strategies. You can’t run any email 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 importantly 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 rate. You can’t utilize them to expand the expense of your plan- especially if you are hitting your visitor cap instead of your set up cap.
If you are aiming to spend for hosting- ie, a server that will hold & serve up your website files- WP Engine is a pricey alternative, particularly compared to other non-managed hosting options.
Start-up
The Startup package is the most basic plan and will set you back $25 per month. With this package, you get:.
25,000 gos to per month.
50GB bandwidth each month.
10GB storage.
One site included.
WP Engine targets small websites and blogs with this plan, however we think it may be overkill for many people in this category. You can get a far much better handle shared hosting at Bluehost However, if you do not wish to take any possibilities with uptime or require an assurance that your website can manage 25,000 visitors monthly, WP Engine is a certainty. We ‘d recommend this option to small businesses, affiliate websites, and blog sites making great cash and want guarantees that absolutely nothing will alter.
You can conserve $60 per year or two months totally free if you pay yearly.
Growth
The growth plan targets growing businesses and will cost you $95 per month. Here you get:.
100,000 check outs per month.
200GB bandwidth per month.
25GB storage.
10 websites included a while.
This strategy is a fantastic entry point for a growing service, and it might be a while prior to you need to upgrade. With this strategy, you likewise get 24/7 phone support in addition to round-the-clock chat assistance. This addition will come in handy if you have a complicated problem that you need to solve rapidly.
You can conserve a cool $230 or 2 months totally free with yearly billing.
Scale
WP Engine promotes its scale strategy as the very best value option. This one costs $241 each month. Here you get:.
400,000 gos to per month.
500GB bandwidth monthly.
50GB storage.
30 sites consisted of.
We recommend this option for a fast-growing blog or organization. You get access to 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone support in addition to the assistance center.
You can conserve $580 or more months complimentary with yearly pre-paid billing.
Custom-made
Finally, if you have a mission-critical website or large service, the Custom plan may be appealing. With this plan, you get:.
Millions of sees per month.
400GB+ bandwidth per month.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 websites included.
You will need to talk to a sales rep to get your tailored quote depending upon your requirements. This plan likewise offers proprietary assistance must something go wrong.
Migrate WordPress websites in just a few clicks.
Solid Uptime
WP Engine accomplishes over 99% uptime thanks to its first-rate network facilities.
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 website on servers that are closest to your target audience.
WP Engine obstructs destructive attacks on your website.
Speed & Performance
There are a great deal of variables that enter into website speed, but the general rule is that the more complex your website is, the more complex the services to speed become.
Out of package- WordPress is fairly lean and fast. If you are running a primarily text website with a few standard plugins and a few little images, you’ll be fine with an inexpensive shared hosting plan from someone like InMotion HostGator Bluehost But couple of site owners keep their WordPress install lean. There’s typically additional plugins, custom-made theme files, lots of images, widgets, advertisements, forms and more.
All these functions integrated with good levels of traffic can start to decrease your WordPress installation.
But a slow website does not imply that you require a bigger, much better server. It does imply that you require to get smarter about speed. Sometimes it’s as basic as getting a more powerful server, but often it’s more about caching particular resources in a certain order and optimizing your files. To put it simply- it gets complex.
Picture you are trying to carry a trailer with a pickup. Imagine your trailer keeps getting heavier. It’s meaningless to keep complaining that your truck is not big enough when you might simply need to remove the emergency brake, set up a turbocharger, refresh the transmission fluid and consolidate your load.
The point is that WordPress requires assistance to remain fast as you grow. There are a lot of solutions … but either you or a developer should implement them.
That’s where handled WordPress hosting comes in. WP Engine takes care of (nearly) all speed issues. They have actually customized servers with extremely aggressive caching and a lot more sophisticated “stack” than a normal web host. They also have actually trained support who will go into your WordPress set up and recognize the precise chokepoint to get your site moving.
They don’t even permit 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 installs still succeed on their platform due to the fact that their platform does the extra work.
Here’s the speed test for among my clients on WP Engine (who has a puffed up 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 rapidly the server returned enough data to begin filling the page.
It’s good to have that type of speed right out of package- and have it remain that way no matter how big or complicated 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 might get with other services given that you are complimentary to concentrate on speed factors that you can easily manage like image compression, usage of scripts, etc
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not only supplies an incorporated CDN, but they also supply global 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 precisely that. And since they work on Google Cloud, you don’t need to stress over uptime either.
CDN Included
All plans include a worldwide CDN (material shipment network).
The CDN will assist your site 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 approximated 78% of hacked websites are WordPress sites, according to Sucuri, a web security company. Often the “open doors” are plugins that weren’t updated.
Securing websites is one of the strong points of WP Engine’s managed WordPress hosting service.
The business takes several measures to safeguard WordPress sites:.
WP Engine runs day-to-day malware/virus scans in collaboration with Sucuri.
They keep an eye on an upgraded firewall to obstruct the current risks.
All sites are supported daily.
You get a one-click restore function that can assist you recover your website in case of an attack.
The WP Engine site 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 questions relating to security.
They offer webinars on security.
They publish security guidelines and checklists for developers and engineers.
If your site gets hacked, WPE will clean it for free.
Online Resources
WP Engine provides webinars, guides, post, updates, tutorials, and a knowledgebase. With these you can learn how to:.
Release your first site.
Troubleshoot common problems.
Make improvements to your site.
Manage your hosting account with higher effectiveness.
Both novices and knowledgeable WordPress site owners will discover the assistance documentation vital.
WP Engine’s 60-Day Guarantee
WP Engine’s 60-day money-back guarantee on all subscription fees is special in the hosting industry.
It allows you to try the service in a risk-free method.
Keep in mind: this alternative is not offered on customized hosting strategies.
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, spending plan, resources & routines.
If you are in what I consider WP Engine’s core markets- they offer a great service with a solid product. As a handled WordPress host, their rates is competitive. They use more features than “WordPress hosting” plans from other hosting brands. Their feature-set is unequaled for smart DIYers, WordPress website developers and/or high-traffic websites that do not wish to stress over hosting problems.
If managed hosting is a fit for you- then go check out WP Engine’s strategies here View Current Plans They do a 60-day money-back warranty. Do a test install and see what you believe of their backend. Make certain to chat w/ support & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.