There are a lot of cheap hosts offered that provide a decent service. WPEngine Customers
Nevertheless, what if you’re trying to find more of a performance-oriented, concierge service? Because case, you’ll want to check out our WP Engine evaluation for WordPress.
WP Engine is a WordPress-specific web host, offering handled plans that are completely optimized for the platform. Naturally, when compared to numerous other WordPress hosts, WP Engine’s plans aren’t exactly cheap. You’ll desire to understand whether this hosting service is worth the cost prior to making a purchase.
To assist you out, we’re going to conduct a comprehensive WP Engine evaluation for WordPress. We’ll discuss its crucial functions, support options, performance capabilities, and everything else you’ll require to understand. Let’s get started!
WP Engine Video Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oklmdvSL7s
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About WP Engine
Founded in 2010, WP Engine is now one of the leading managed WordPress hosting business in the market. Serial business owner Jason Cohen began WP Engine when he saw a requirement for specialized WordPress hosting due to the increasing appeal 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 community.
WP Engine Features
The core factors to select WP Engine over less expensive WordPress hosting are increased dependability, performance, support, and management, however these are tough to measure. Some functions stand apart when you search the interface, nevertheless, that can offer you some insight into the service used.
WP Engine Page Performance is a neat tool designed to assist you accelerate your WordPress site by offering meaningful metrics on efficiency.
Running a test returns you a page-performance report that information how quickly your page rendered, for how long it took to fill in its totality, and the total size of the page. It even consists of historical data on your website’s performance over the past 6 months and recommendations on how you can lower 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 mistakes on your site by making changes to a copy of your website before it goes live. This is called Staging, and it permits your developers to make comprehensive changes to your site without impacting your customers.
WP Engine has an extensive list of plugins that are disallowed (Image credit: WP Engine) In a fairly uncommon move, WP Engine limits the WordPress plugins you can install. Those generally restricted are plugins that have actually been noted to trigger efficiency concerns and security holes. For crucial functions such as caching, backups, and search engine optimization tools, WP Engine has made alternatives offered that don’t put a high load on the server.
WP Engine Hosting Plans
WP Engine just offers managed WordPress hosting. There are five various strategies available: Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom.
All plans include endless information transfer. The plans vary based on:
- number of WordPress sets up
- traffic volume (# of visits per month)
- disk storage amount
- Custom plan consists of dedicated dev. environments, client success, and priority support
WP Engine includes some distinct features for WordPress users that a lot of hosts do not offer, or charge additional for. These unique functions consist of:.
- Git version control
- Staging: immediately produce a copy of your site for testing
- Easy transferable installs from complimentary to paid accounts
- Innovative innovations including most current PHP version.
In our WP Engine review, we found that WP Engine provides the most advanced and extensive handled WordPress hosting features.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.
Interface and in use
WP Engine’s user interface is professional and well set out, but the effective functions might suggest a steep learning curve for inexperienced users. If you have an understanding of terms like Git, CNAME, and redirect guidelines, you’ll be right in your home here, however otherwise you’ll need to invest some time on the assistance website.
In our testing, the default WordPress web page filled in simply over 2 seconds. This is among the fastest responses we’ve checked, with rival Liquid Web just a little behind.
Assistance
A managed WordPress service need to offer extra value through its support, and WP Engine provides. The support site consists of videos and posts of a quality you ‘d anticipate from a paid training course, with aid on much deeper WordPress functionality that lots of 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 well-informed. For all strategies except for single-site strategies, there’s telephone assistance, too.
Pros
Extraordinary Load Speed: If website loading speed is a leading concern, WP Engine succeeds in this regard. The host’s combination of custom NGINX extension, integrated Content Delivery Network (CDN), and SSD technology make sure that your web pages load rapidly. NGINX extension prioritizes human requests over robot demands and offers load balancing, providing your visitors a better experience. For its part, CDN delivers site content to your visitors based on their location to enhance your website’s speed and minimize latency. You get this ability free of charge with all WP Engine strategies.
High Performance: It’s hard to beat WP Engine’s performance, which is why people continue to pay a premium price for this service. WP Engine ensures 99.95% server uptime, roughly 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 each year. WP Engine will compensate you with hosting credit if your uptime falls below the warranty.
Advanced Security: WP Engine monitors all the traffic going to your website and instantly detects and blocks potential attacks. Furthermore, the hosting service immediately updates and spots the WordPress core to get rid of potential vulnerabilities. In a worst-case circumstance, WP Engine immediately backups your website every day and has a one-click restoration function to get you back up and running quickly. This hosting service protects your site versus JavaScript/SQL-injection attacks, brute force attempts, and DDoS attacks.
Incredible Customer Support: The hosting service has a transparent and trackable ticketing system to contact customer care via chat. The assistance team has an excellent knowledge base and can help you resolve problems quickly. You get 24/7 phone assistance for all strategies except the Growth Plan, in addition to 24/7 live chat support on all plans.
Useful Staging Environment: The staging area permits you to clone your site’s live version and make changes or test new plugins and themes. Anything you do in the staging area does not affect your live site. This feature enables developers to deal with websites without disrupting the live site’s performance or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting designers, this function permits you to construct a site from your WP Engine account. You do not have to wait for the customer to add you to their WordPress site. Once completed, you can transfer the website to the customer or host the site on WP Engine. This functionality conserves time if you frequently build websites for clients.
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 works with WordPress. From a company perspective, it makes good sense to concentrate on a single market and offer remarkable services because area. This design locks out many people who could otherwise benefit 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 require to look elsewhere. You’ll need to use third-party services for domain registration or e-mail accounts.
Inflexible Pricing: WP Engine runs a tight ship, and this is shown in its rates structure. You will be punished for surpassing your plan’s visitor limitations. This may not be an issue if you have foreseeable traffic, and you can always update your plan as your website grows. Significant spikes in traffic throughout item launches or seasonal company can cost you substantial excess charges.
There is no other way to put it: WP Engine is costly. Is it worth the cost? The answer lies in determining what you are spending for.
You can get shared hosting that can manage the very same quantity of traffic as WP Engine for a fraction of the rate. You can even get devoted hosting for the same cost as WP Engine. What you are really spending for here is security, performance, speed, and, most significantly, comfort. The ultimate 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 strategy, you are normally paying for efficiency & not needing to believe excessive about upkeep, security & speed. If you look at WP Engine’s pricing based on the features you’re getting- you really do not get a whole lot.
And if you are the type who will consider your site’s health anyway (ie, keeping WordPress updated and typically visiting often), you’ll likely be spending for “management” that is superfluous.
Numerous shared hosting servers can handle the exact same traffic numbers as WP Engine- and cost a portion of the rate. My personal site a shared hosting plan from HostGator with standard caching) handled more than 15,000+ sees in a 24 hour period when a post of mine And if you are running a trusted VPS, you can certainly handle a lot more for much less. In fact, the website you are on handles more than 110,000+ sees each month with plenty 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 strategy.
They are relatively transparent about how they count visits, however it can still be rather a surprise for “small” site owners how rapidly they can enter into the $290 monthly tier. I have a client who started with the Startup strategy, but rapidly wound up with a custom-made strategy.
And as pointed out earlier that doesn’t even include many of the features you do not get with WP Engine’s strategies. You can’t run any email from your servers. You have low limits on regional media storage. Anything above the limits needs additional costs & technical execution of Amazon cloud services.
And most significantly for me- you are restricted on your installs. If you have a few side projects or low-traffic test sites, you need to factor those into the cost. You can’t use them to spread out the expense of your strategy- especially if you are striking your visitor cap instead of your install cap.
If you are wanting to pay for hosting- ie, a server that will hold & provide your website files- WP Engine is an expensive alternative, particularly compared to other non-managed hosting alternatives.
Startup
The Startup package is one of the most fundamental strategy and will set you back $25 each month. With this package, you get:.
25,000 check outs per month.
50GB bandwidth monthly.
10GB storage.
One website consisted of.
WP Engine targets little sites and blogs with this strategy, but we believe it might be overkill for the majority of people in this classification. You can get a far much better deal with shared hosting at Bluehost However, if you don’t want to take any possibilities with uptime or require an assurance that your site can deal with 25,000 visitors each month, WP Engine is a certainty. We ‘d recommend this choice to small businesses, affiliate websites, and blog sites making great cash and want guarantees that absolutely nothing will change.
You can conserve $60 each year or two months complimentary if you pay each year.
Growth
The development plan targets growing businesses and will cost you $95 monthly. Here you get:.
100,000 sees each month.
200GB bandwidth each month.
25GB storage.
Ten sites included a while.
This strategy is a terrific entry point for a growing service, and it might be a while prior to you need to update. With this plan, you also get 24/7 phone support in addition to round-the-clock chat assistance. This addition will come in convenient if you have an intricate problem that you need to fix rapidly.
You can save a cool $230 or 2 months totally free with annual billing.
Scale
WP Engine promotes its scale plan as the best value alternative. This one expenses $241 each month. Here you get:.
400,000 gos to monthly.
500GB bandwidth per month.
50GB storage.
30 sites included.
We suggest this alternative for a fast-growing blog or business. 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 annual pre-paid billing.
Custom-made
If you have a mission-critical website or large company, the Custom plan may be appealing. With this strategy, you get:.
Countless sees each month.
400GB+ bandwidth monthly.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 websites included.
You will have to speak with a sales associate to get your individualized quote depending on your requirements. This strategy also offers proprietary support must something go wrong.
Migrate WordPress websites in just a few clicks.
Solid Uptime
WP Engine achieves over 99% uptime thanks to its world-class network infrastructure.
The company likewise has three information centers in London, Tokyo, and Midwest USA.
As a result, you can improve website speeds by selecting to host your website on servers that are closest to your target market.
WP Engine obstructs harmful attacks on your site.
Speed & Performance
There are a lot of variables that enter into site speed, but the guideline is that the more complex your site is, the more intricate the options to speed ended up being.
Out of the box- WordPress is fairly lean and quick. If you are running a mostly text site with a few fundamental plugins and a few little images, you’ll be fine with an inexpensive shared hosting strategy from somebody like InMotion HostGator Bluehost But few site owners keep their WordPress set up lean. There’s generally extra plugins, custom theme files, great deals of images, widgets, advertisements, types and more.
All these features integrated with decent levels of traffic can begin to slow down your WordPress setup.
A sluggish site does not imply that you require a larger, much better server. It does imply that you need to get smarter about speed. In some cases it’s as basic as getting a more effective server, but often it’s more about caching specific resources in a particular order and enhancing your files. To put it simply- it gets complex.
Imagine you are attempting to carry a trailer with a pickup truck. Picture your trailer keeps getting heavier. It’s pointless to keep grumbling that your truck is not big enough when you might just require to remove the emergency brake, set up a turbocharger, revitalize the transmission fluid and consolidate your load.
The point is that WordPress requires aid to stay quickly as you grow. There are lots of options … however either you or a designer should implement them.
That’s where managed WordPress hosting comes in. WP Engine takes care of (nearly) all speed concerns. They have actually personalized servers with very aggressive caching and much more innovative “stack” than a normal web host. They also have trained assistance who will go into your WordPress set up and recognize the exact chokepoint to get your website moving.
They don’t even enable caching plugins on their installs because they have such a customized caching setup.
The fascinating thing is that even unoptimized WordPress installs still do well on their platform because their platform does the additional work.
Here’s the speed test for among my customers on WP Engine (who has a bloated style, additional scripts, too many uncompressed images, to name a few things)- Note the Time To First Byte and the Start Render numbers. That determines how quickly the server returned enough data to start loading the page.
It’s good to have that kind of speed right out of package- and have it remain that way no matter how big or complex the site gets.
* Note that the other point here is that if you are obsessed about speed, you can get back at much better numbers with WP Engine than you may get with other services because you are complimentary to focus on speed factors that you can quickly control like image compression, usage of scripts, and so on
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not just provides an integrated CDN, however they also offer worldwide information centers in case your audience is primarily 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 since they work on Google Cloud, you don’t need to stress over uptime either.
CDN Included
All plans consist of a global CDN (material delivery network).
The CDN will help your website load quickly for customers around 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 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 strengths of WP Engine’s handled WordPress hosting service.
The company takes numerous procedures to safeguard WordPress sites:.
WP Engine runs everyday malware/virus scans in collaboration with Sucuri.
They monitor an upgraded firewall program to block the latest threats.
All sites are backed up daily.
You get a one-click bring back function that can help you recover your site 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 regarding security.
They offer webinars on security.
They publish security guidelines and lists for designers and engineers.
If your site gets hacked, WPE will clean it for free.
Online Resources
WP Engine offers webinars, guides, article, updates, tutorials, and a knowledgebase. With these you can learn how to:.
Release your very first website.
Troubleshoot typical issues.
Make improvements to your website.
Handle your hosting account with higher efficiency.
Both newbies and experienced WordPress website owners will find the assistance documentation invaluable.
WP Engine’s 60-Day Guarantee
WP Engine’s 60-day money-back warranty on all membership fees is special in the hosting industry.
It enables you to try out the service in a risk-free method.
Keep in mind: this alternative is not available on customized hosting strategies.
Is WP Engine Worth It?
Like any service, it’s not about what is best overall, but what is finest for you based upon your goals, spending plan, resources & routines.
If you remain in what I consider WP Engine’s core markets- they provide a great service with a solid item. As a handled WordPress host, their prices is competitive. They use more features than “WordPress hosting” plans from other hosting brand names. Their feature-set is unmatched for savvy DIYers, WordPress site designers and/or high-traffic websites that do not wish to stress over hosting concerns.
If managed 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 think about their backend. Make sure to chat w/ assistance & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.