There are a lot of cheap hosts available that provide a good service. WPEngine Environments
What if you’re looking for more of a performance-oriented, concierge service? Because case, you’ll want to check out our WP Engine review for WordPress.
WP Engine is a WordPress-specific web host, offering managed strategies that are fully enhanced for the platform. Naturally, when compared to many other WordPress hosts, WP Engine’s plans aren’t precisely low-cost. For that reason, you’ll need to know whether this hosting service is worth the cost before making a purchase.
To assist you out, we’re going to carry out a thorough WP Engine evaluation for WordPress. We’ll discuss its key features, support alternatives, performance abilities, and whatever else you’ll need to understand. Let’s get going!
WP Engine Video Review
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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 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 adds to the WordPress core and neighborhood.
WP Engine Features
The core factors to choose WP Engine over cheaper WordPress hosting are increased reliability, performance, assistance, and management, but these are difficult to measure. Some features stand apart when you search the user interface, however, that can offer you some insight into the service provided.
WP Engine Page Performance is a cool tool created to help you accelerate your WordPress site by offering significant 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 totality, and the total size of the page. It even includes historic data on your website’s performance over the past 6 months and suggestions on how you can reduce page load.
You can establish your WordPress site in a Staging or Development environment prior to making the changes live (Image credit: WP Engine) Avoid awkward errors on your site by making changes to a copy of your website before it goes live. This is called Staging, and it permits your designers to make substantial changes to your website without impacting your customers.
WP Engine has a detailed list of plugins that are disallowed (Image credit: WP Engine) In a relatively unusual relocation, WP Engine limits the WordPress plugins you can set up. Those normally limited are plugins that have actually been noted to cause performance issues and security holes. For essential functions such as caching, backups, and seo tools, WP Engine has made alternatives readily available that don’t put a high load on the server.
WP Engine Hosting Plans
WP Engine only uses managed WordPress hosting. There are five different plans available: Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom.
All strategies consist of unlimited data transfer. The plans vary based on:
- number of WordPress installs
- traffic volume (# of visits per month)
- disk storage amount
- Custom-made plan includes dedicated dev. environments, consumer success, and priority assistance
WP Engine includes some distinct features for WordPress users that a lot of hosts don’t provide, or charge additional for. These unique functions include:.
- Git version control
- Staging: instantly create a copy of your site for testing
- Easy transferable installs from complimentary 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 thorough 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 effective functions may mean a steep learning curve for inexperienced users. If you have an understanding of terms like Git, CNAME, and redirect rules, you’ll be right in your home here, but otherwise you’ll need to spend some time on the assistance site.
In our screening, the default WordPress web page packed in just over 2 seconds. This is one of the fastest actions we’ve tested, with competitor Liquid Web only slightly behind.
Support
A handled WordPress service need to offer additional worth through its support, and WP Engine provides. The support site consists of videos and short articles of a quality you ‘d get out of a paid training course, with assistance on much deeper WordPress performance that lots of WordPress hosts don’t enter into.
There’s 24/7 live chat support and a ticket system, too. In our screening, the action was quick and the representative well-informed. For all plans except for single-site plans, there’s telephone support, too.
Pros
Remarkable Load Speed: If site packing speed is a top priority, WP Engine succeeds in this regard. The host’s mix of customized NGINX extension, integrated Content Delivery Network (CDN), and SSD technology make sure that your websites load rapidly. NGINX extension focuses on human demands over robot demands and provides load balancing, giving your visitors a much better experience. For its part, CDN delivers website material to your visitors based on their area to increase your website’s speed and lower latency. You get this capability totally free 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 guarantees 99.95% server uptime, roughly 4 and a half hours of downtime a year. You can further increase your uptime to 99.99% with improved SLA, which translates to a little under an hour of downtime annually. 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 site and automatically detects and obstructs prospective attacks. In addition, the hosting service automatically updates and spots the WordPress core to get rid of prospective vulnerabilities. In a worst-case circumstance, WP Engine immediately backups your website every day and has a one-click repair function to get you support and running rapidly. Finally, this hosting service protects your website versus JavaScript/SQL-injection attacks, strength attempts, and DDoS attacks.
Phenomenal Customer Support: The hosting service has a transparent and trackable ticketing system to get in touch with consumer care through chat. The assistance team has an excellent knowledge base and can help you fix issues rapidly. You get 24/7 phone support 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 permits you to clone your site’s live variation and make changes or test new plugins and styles. Anything you do in the staging area doesn’t affect your live website. This function allows designers to deal with sites without disrupting the live website’s functionality or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting designers, this function enables you to construct a website from your WP Engine account. You don’t have to wait on the client to include you to their WordPress site. When finished, you can move the website to the client or host the website on WP Engine. This functionality conserves time if you regularly develop 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 a company viewpoint, it makes good sense to focus on a single market and deal exceptional services in that area. This model locks out lots of 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 website host, you’ll require to look in other places. You’ll have 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 exceeding your plan’s visitor limitations. This may not be a problem if you have predictable traffic, and you can constantly update your plan as your site grows. Nevertheless, considerable spikes in traffic throughout product launches or seasonal business can cost you substantial excess charges.
There is no other way to put it: WP Engine is expensive. Is it worth the expense? The response depends on 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 rate as WP Engine. What you are really paying for here is security, performance, speed, and, most notably, peace of mind. The ultimate question is just 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 paying for efficiency & not needing to think excessive about upkeep, security & speed. If you take a look at WP Engine’s pricing based upon the features you’re getting- you truly don’t get a great deal.
And if you are the type who will consider your website’s health anyhow (ie, keeping WordPress upgraded and typically logging in frequently), you’ll likely be spending for “management” that is unnecessary.
Many shared hosting servers can handle the very same traffic numbers as WP Engine- and cost a fraction of the cost. My personal site a shared hosting strategy from HostGator with basic caching) handled more than 15,000+ sees in a 24 hour period when a post of mine And if you are running a reputable VPS, you can definitely handle a lot more for much less. The site 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 pay for the VPS plus a CDN for less than WP Engine’s starter strategy.
They are relatively transparent about how they count sees, but it can still be rather a surprise for “little” website owners how quickly they can get into the $290 per month tier. I have a customer who started with the Startup plan, however rapidly ended up with a custom plan.
And as mentioned earlier that does not even include many of the functions you do not 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 extra 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 sites, you have to factor those into the rate. You can’t utilize them to expand the expense of your plan- particularly if you are hitting your visitor cap rather than your install cap.
If you are seeking to spend for hosting- ie, a server that will hold & serve up your website files- WP Engine is a pricey choice, specifically compared to other non-managed hosting choices.
Startup
The Startup plan is one of the most standard plan and will set you back $25 per month. With this plan, you get:.
25,000 sees each month.
50GB bandwidth per month.
10GB storage.
One site included.
WP Engine targets small websites and blog sites with this plan, however we believe it might 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 opportunities with uptime or need a warranty that your website can handle 25,000 visitors each month, WP Engine is a certainty. We ‘d suggest this alternative to small businesses, affiliate websites, and blog sites making good money and want guarantees that nothing will change.
You can save $60 annually or two months free if you pay yearly.
Growth
The development plan targets growing organizations and will cost you $95 monthly. Here you get:.
100,000 gos to per month.
200GB bandwidth each month.
25GB storage.
10 sites included a while.
This plan is a fantastic entry point for a growing organization, and it might be a while prior to you need to upgrade. With this strategy, you likewise get 24/7 phone assistance in addition to day-and-night chat assistance. This addition will can be found in handy if you have a complex concern that you need to deal with rapidly.
You can conserve a cool $230 or two months free with yearly billing.
Scale
WP Engine promotes its scale strategy as the best value alternative. This one costs $241 monthly. Here you get:.
400,000 visits per month.
500GB bandwidth monthly.
50GB storage.
30 websites included.
We recommend this alternative for a fast-growing blog site or company. You get access to 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone support in addition to the support center.
You can save $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 strategy might be appealing. With this strategy, you get:.
Millions of check outs each month.
400GB+ bandwidth each month.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 sites included.
You will have to talk to a sales rep to get your tailored quote depending on your requirements. This plan also provides proprietary support must something fail.
Migrate WordPress websites in just a few clicks.
Solid Uptime
WP Engine accomplishes over 99% uptime thanks to its first-rate network infrastructure.
The company also has three information centers in London, Tokyo, and Midwest USA.
As a result, you can improve site speeds by selecting to host your site on servers that are closest to your target audience.
WP Engine obstructs harmful attacks on your site.
Speed & Performance
There are a lot of variables that go into website speed, but the rule of thumb is that the more complex your site is, the more intricate the services to speed become.
Out of package- WordPress is fairly lean and fast. If you are running a mostly text website with a few standard plugins and a couple of small images, you’ll be fine with an affordable shared hosting plan from somebody like InMotion HostGator Bluehost But couple of website owners keep their WordPress set up lean. There’s generally additional plugins, custom-made style files, great deals of images, widgets, advertisements, kinds and more.
All these features integrated with good levels of traffic can start to decrease your WordPress setup.
However a slow site does not mean that you require a bigger, much better server. It does mean that you need to get smarter about speed. In some cases it’s as easy as getting a more effective server, however often it’s more about caching certain resources in a specific order and optimizing your files. Simply put- it gets complex.
Envision you are trying to transport 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 may just require to eliminate the emergency brake, set up a turbocharger, refresh the transmission fluid and combine your load.
The point is that WordPress requires assistance to stay quick as you grow. There are lots of solutions … however 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 issues. They have tailored servers with extremely aggressive caching and much more advanced “stack” than a normal webhosting. They also have trained support who will enter into your WordPress set up and determine the specific chokepoint to get your site moving.
They do not even allow caching plugins on their installs since they have actually such a personalized caching setup.
The intriguing thing is that even unoptimized WordPress sets up still do well on their platform because their platform does the additional work.
Here’s the speed test for among my clients on WP Engine (who has a bloated style, additional scripts, a lot of uncompressed images, among other things)- Note the Time To First Byte and the Start Render numbers. That measures how quickly the server returned enough data to begin packing the page.
It’s nice to have that sort of speed right out of the box- and have it stay 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 might get with other services considering that you are totally free to focus on speed elements that you can easily control like image compression, use of scripts, and so on
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not just offers an incorporated CDN, but they also provide worldwide data centers in case your audience is mainly in Asia and/or Europe.
If you are trying to get top speeds without messing with layered caching plugins- the WP Engine does precisely that. And because they run on Google Cloud, you do not need to stress over uptime either.
CDN Included
All plans consist of an international CDN (content shipment network).
The CDN will assist your site load fast for customers worldwide 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 firm. Regularly the “open doors” are plugins that weren’t updated.
Securing sites is one of the strong suits of WP Engine’s managed WordPress hosting service.
The company takes a number of procedures to secure WordPress sites:.
WP Engine runs everyday malware/virus scans in partnership with Sucuri.
They monitor an upgraded firewall program to obstruct the most recent hazards.
All sites are backed up daily.
You get a one-click restore 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 questions relating to security.
They provide webinars on security.
They publish security guidelines and checklists for developers and engineers.
If your website 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:.
Introduce your very first website.
Troubleshoot common problems.
Make improvements to your website.
Handle your hosting account with greater efficiency.
Both newbies and knowledgeable WordPress site owners will discover the assistance documents invaluable.
WP Engine’s 60-Day Guarantee
WP Engine’s 60-day money-back assurance on all membership fees is unique in the hosting industry.
It enables you to try out the service in a risk-free way.
Note: this alternative is not offered on custom hosting plans.
Is WP Engine Worth It?
Like any service, it’s not about what is best overall, but what is best for you based on your objectives, budget plan, resources & routines.
If you remain in what I think of as WP Engine’s core markets- they offer a terrific service with a solid product. As a managed WordPress host, their pricing is competitive. They provide more functions than “WordPress hosting” strategies from other hosting brand names. Their feature-set is unequaled for savvy DIYers, WordPress website developers and/or high-traffic sites that do not want to fret about hosting problems.
If handled hosting is a suitable for you- then go have a look at WP Engine’s strategies here View Current Plans They do a 60-day money-back guarantee. Do a test set up and see what you think of their backend. Make sure to chat w/ support & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.