There are lots of inexpensive hosts offered that offer a good service. WPEngine Gzip
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 webhosting, providing handled plans that are fully enhanced for the platform. Obviously, when compared to many other WordPress hosts, WP Engine’s strategies aren’t precisely cheap. You’ll desire to know whether this hosting service is worth the cost before making a purchase.
To help you out, we’re going to perform an extensive WP Engine evaluation for WordPress. We’ll discuss its essential features, support choices, efficiency capabilities, and everything 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 one of the leading managed WordPress hosting companies in the market. Serial entrepreneur Jason Cohen began WP Engine when he saw a requirement for specialized WordPress hosting due to the rising 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 company has won multiple awards for Best Place to Work in Austin and regularly contributes to the WordPress core and community.
WP Engine Features
The core reasons to select WP Engine over less expensive WordPress hosting are increased dependability, performance, support, and management, however these are difficult to measure. Some functions stand apart when you browse the interface, however, that can offer you some insight into the service provided.
WP Engine Page Performance is a cool tool created to help you speed up your WordPress website by providing meaningful metrics on performance.
Running a test returns you a page-performance report that details how rapidly your page rendered, for how long it required to fill in its whole, 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 decrease page load.
You can establish your WordPress site in a Staging or Development environment prior to making the modifications live (Image credit: WP Engine) Avoid awkward errors on your website by making changes to a copy of your site before it goes live. This is called Staging, and it allows your designers to make comprehensive changes to your website without affecting your clients.
WP Engine has a comprehensive list of plugins that are prohibited (Image credit: WP Engine) In a fairly unusual move, WP Engine restricts the WordPress plugins you can set up. Those normally limited are plugins that have actually been kept in mind to cause efficiency issues and security holes. For essential features such as caching, backups, and seo tools, WP Engine has actually made options readily available that do not put a high load on the server.
WP Engine Hosting Plans
WP Engine only uses managed WordPress hosting. There are five various plans available: 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
- Custom strategy consists of dedicated dev. environments, consumer success, and priority assistance
WP Engine consists of some special functions for WordPress users that the majority of hosts do not offer, or charge additional for. These unique features include:.
- Git version control
- Staging: immediately develop a copy of your site for screening
- Easy transferable installs from totally free to paid accounts
- Innovative innovations including most current PHP version.
In our WP Engine review, we found that WP Engine uses the most sophisticated and extensive managed WordPress hosting functions.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.
Interface and in use
WP Engine’s user interface is expert and well laid out, but the effective functions may mean 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, however otherwise you’ll need to invest some time on the assistance website.
In our screening, the default WordPress home page filled in simply over two seconds. This is one of the fastest reactions we’ve evaluated, with competitor Liquid Web just somewhat behind.
Support
A handled WordPress service ought to provide extra value through its support, and WP Engine provides. The assistance website consists of videos and posts of a quality you ‘d anticipate from a paid training course, with assistance on deeper WordPress functionality that numerous WordPress hosts do not enter into.
There’s 24/7 live chat assistance and a ticket system, too. In our testing, the action fasted and the representative experienced. For all strategies except for single-site strategies, there’s telephone assistance, too.
Pros
Exceptional Load Speed: If website packing speed is a top concern, WP Engine does well in this regard. The host’s combination of custom-made NGINX extension, integrated Content Delivery Network (CDN), and SSD technology ensure that your web pages load rapidly. NGINX extension prioritizes human requests over robotic demands and provides load balancing, giving your visitors a much better experience. For its part, CDN delivers site material to your visitors based upon their area to increase your site’s speed and decrease latency. You get this ability 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 cost 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 improved 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 keeps an eye on all the traffic going to your site and immediately finds and obstructs prospective attacks. Additionally, the hosting service immediately updates and patches the WordPress core to get rid of potential vulnerabilities. In a worst-case circumstance, WP Engine immediately backups your site every day and has a one-click repair feature to get you support and running rapidly. This hosting service secures your website versus JavaScript/SQL-injection attacks, brute force attempts, and DDoS attacks.
Phenomenal Customer Support: The hosting service has a transparent and trackable ticketing system to connect with customer care by means of chat. The support team has an exceptional knowledge base and can help you resolve issues quickly. You get 24/7 phone assistance for all plans except the Growth Plan, in addition to 24/7 live chat assistance on all strategies.
Useful Staging Environment: The staging area enables you to clone your website’s live variation and make changes or check new plugins and styles. Anything you do in the staging area does not affect your live site. This feature permits developers to work on websites without disrupting the live site’s functionality or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting developers, this function enables you to construct a site from your WP Engine account. You do not have to await the customer to include you to their WordPress website. As soon as completed, you can move the site to the customer or host the site on WP Engine. This functionality saves time if you regularly construct 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 just deals with WordPress. From a service point of view, it makes good sense to focus on a single market and deal remarkable services because location. This model locks out numerous people who could otherwise benefit from WP Engine’s services.
No Domains or Email Hosting: If you prefer to host your email account and register your domain through your website host, you’ll need to look somewhere else. 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 pricing structure. You will be penalized for surpassing your plan’s visitor limitations. This may not be an issue if you have predictable traffic, and you can constantly update your plan as your site grows. Nevertheless, considerable spikes in traffic during item launches or seasonal organization can cost you considerable excess charges.
There is no other way to put it: WP Engine is pricey. Is it worth the expense? The answer lies in finding out what you are paying for.
You can get shared hosting that can manage the very same quantity of traffic as WP Engine for a portion of the cost. You can even get committed hosting for the exact same rate as WP Engine. What you are really paying for here is security, efficiency, speed, and, most significantly, comfort. 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 plan, you are generally spending for efficiency & not having to think excessive about upkeep, security & speed. If you look at WP Engine’s prices based on the functions you’re getting- you actually do not get a whole lot.
And if you are the type who will think of your website’s health anyway (ie, keeping WordPress updated and usually visiting frequently), you’ll likely be spending for “management” that is superfluous.
Lots of shared hosting servers can handle the same traffic numbers as WP Engine- and cost a fraction of the price. My individual site a shared hosting plan from HostGator with basic caching) handled more than 15,000+ sees in a 24 hour duration when a post of mine And if you are running a dependable VPS, you can certainly handle a lot more for much less. The website you are on manages more than 110,000+ gos to per month with plenty of room left to spare for side-projects, gigabytes of media, e-mail, 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 fairly transparent about how they count visits, but it can still be quite a surprise for “small” site owners how rapidly they can get into the $290 monthly tier. I have a client who started with the Startup strategy, but quickly wound up with a customized strategy.
And as pointed out earlier that does not even consist of much of the functions you do not get with WP Engine’s strategies. You can’t run any email from your servers. You have low limits on local media storage. Anything above the limits needs 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 need to factor those into the price. You can’t utilize them to spread out the expense of your plan- specifically 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 site files- WP Engine is a pricey 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 per month. With this plan, you get:.
25,000 visits monthly.
50GB bandwidth each month.
10GB storage.
One site included.
WP Engine targets small sites and blog sites with this strategy, however we believe it might be overkill for the majority of people in this classification. You can get a far better deal with shared hosting at Bluehost However, if you don’t want to take any opportunities with uptime or need a guarantee that your website can deal with 25,000 visitors each month, WP Engine is a certainty. We ‘d recommend this alternative to small companies, affiliate sites, and blogs making good cash and want assurances that absolutely nothing will change.
You can conserve $60 per year or more months free if you pay each year.
Growth
The development plan targets growing services and will cost you $95 monthly. Here you get:.
100,000 gos to per month.
200GB bandwidth monthly.
25GB storage.
Ten websites consisted of a while.
This plan is a terrific entry point for a growing business, and it might be a while before you require to update. With this plan, you likewise get 24/7 phone support in addition to day-and-night chat support. This addition will be available in handy if you have a complex issue that you require to resolve rapidly.
You can conserve a cool $230 or 2 months totally free with yearly billing.
Scale
WP Engine markets its scale strategy as the very best value alternative. This one costs $241 monthly. Here you get:.
400,000 gos to per month.
500GB bandwidth per month.
50GB storage.
30 websites included.
We recommend this choice for a fast-growing blog or service. You get access to 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone assistance in addition to the support.
You can save $580 or 2 months free with yearly pre-paid billing.
Custom-made
If you have a mission-critical site or large company, the Custom strategy might be appealing. With this plan, you get:.
Millions of gos to monthly.
400GB+ bandwidth per month.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 sites consisted of.
You will need to speak with a sales rep to get your personalized quote depending on your requirements. This plan likewise offers proprietary support should something go wrong.
Migrate WordPress websites in just a few clicks.
Solid Uptime
WP Engine attains over 99% uptime thanks to its world-class network infrastructure.
The business also has three information centers in London, Tokyo, and Midwest USA.
As a result, you can get better website speeds by selecting to host your site on servers that are closest to your target audience.
WP Engine obstructs destructive attacks on your site.
Speed & Performance
There are a lot of variables that enter into website speed, but the guideline is that the more intricate your site is, the more complex the options to speed become.
Out of package- WordPress is fairly lean and fast. If you are running a primarily text site with a couple of basic 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 site owners keep their WordPress install lean. There’s usually additional plugins, customized theme files, lots of images, widgets, ads, types and more.
All these features integrated with good levels of traffic can begin to decrease your WordPress installation.
However a sluggish site does not mean that you need a bigger, better server. It does indicate that you require to get smarter about speed. Often it’s as basic as getting a more powerful 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 trying to transport 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 require to eliminate the emergency brake, set up a turbocharger, refresh the transmission fluid and consolidate your load.
The point is that WordPress needs assistance to stay quickly as you grow. There are a lot of services … however either you or a designer need to execute them.
That’s where handled WordPress hosting comes in. WP Engine looks after (almost) all speed issues. They have actually tailored servers with exceptionally aggressive caching and much more advanced “stack” than a normal web host. They likewise have trained support who will go into your WordPress set up and determine the precise chokepoint to get your site moving.
They don’t even enable caching plugins on their installs because they have such a customized caching setup.
The intriguing thing is that even unoptimized WordPress sets up still do well 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 bloated theme, extra scripts, a lot of 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 begin filling the page.
It’s good to have that kind of speed right out of the box- and have it stay that way no matter how huge or intricate the site gets.
* Note that the other point here is that if you are obsessed about speed, you can get even better numbers with WP Engine than you might get with other services because you are totally free to concentrate on speed factors that you can quickly control like image compression, use of scripts, and so on
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not just supplies an incorporated CDN, however they likewise supply international information centers in case your audience is mainly in Asia and/or Europe.
If you are trying to get top speeds without tinkering layered caching plugins- the WP Engine does exactly that. And given that they work on Google Cloud, you do not need to fret about uptime either.
CDN Included
All strategies include a global CDN (content delivery network).
The CDN will assist your site 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 sites are WordPress websites, according to Sucuri, a web security firm. Often the “open doors” are plugins that weren’t updated.
Securing sites is among the strong points of WP Engine’s handled WordPress hosting service.
The company takes a number of measures to safeguard WordPress sites:.
WP Engine runs everyday malware/virus scans in collaboration with Sucuri.
They monitor an updated firewall to block the latest dangers.
All sites are supported daily.
You get a one-click bring back function that can help you recover your site in case of an attack.
The WP Engine website supplies 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 provide webinars on security.
They release security guidelines and lists for developers and engineers.
If your site gets hacked, WPE will clean it totally free.
Online Resources
WP Engine offers webinars, guides, blog posts, updates, tutorials, and a knowledgebase. With these you can find out how to:.
Introduce your first website.
Troubleshoot typical issues.
Make improvements to your website.
Handle your hosting account with higher performance.
Both novices and knowledgeable WordPress website owners will discover the support paperwork invaluable.
WP Engine’s 60-Day Guarantee
WP Engine’s 60-day money-back assurance on all subscription costs is distinct in the hosting industry.
It allows you to experiment with the service in a risk-free method.
Note: this option is not available on customized 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 goals, budget plan, resources & routines.
If you remain in what I think of as WP Engine’s core markets- they offer an excellent service with a solid product. As a handled WordPress host, their rates is competitive. They offer more functions than “WordPress hosting” plans from other hosting brands. Their feature-set is unmatched for savvy DIYers, WordPress site designers and/or high-traffic sites that do not wish to worry about hosting issues.
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 warranty. So do a test install and see what you consider their backend. Be sure to chat w/ support & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.