There are plenty of cheap hosts readily available that offer a decent service. WPEngine Help
What if you’re looking for more of a performance-oriented, concierge service? In that case, you’ll wish to check out our WP Engine evaluation for WordPress.
WP Engine is a WordPress-specific web host, offering managed plans that are completely optimized for the platform. Naturally, when compared to many other WordPress hosts, WP Engine’s strategies aren’t exactly low-cost. You’ll desire to understand whether this hosting service is worth the cost prior to making a purchase.
To help you out, we’re going to carry out a thorough WP Engine review for WordPress. We’ll discuss its essential functions, support options, performance capabilities, and whatever else you’ll require to know. Let’s get going!
WP Engine Video Review
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About WP Engine
Founded in 2010, WP Engine is now among the leading handled WordPress hosting companies 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 company has actually 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 choose WP Engine over more affordable WordPress hosting are increased reliability, performance, support, and management, however these are tough to quantify. Some functions stand out when you browse the user interface, nevertheless, that can provide you some insight into the service used.
WP Engine Page Performance is a cool tool created to help you accelerate your WordPress site by providing significant metrics on performance.
Running a test returns you a page-performance report that information how rapidly your page rendered, for how long it required to load in its totality, and the overall size of the page. It even consists of historic data 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 before making the modifications live (Image credit: WP Engine) Avoid embarrassing mistakes on your site by making changes to a copy of your site before it goes live. This is called Staging, and it allows your designers to make extensive modifications to your website without affecting your consumers.
WP Engine has an extensive list of plugins that are prohibited (Image credit: WP Engine) In a reasonably uncommon relocation, WP Engine limits the WordPress plugins you can install. Those generally restricted are plugins that have been noted to cause performance problems and security holes. For crucial functions such as caching, backups, and search engine optimization tools, WP Engine has actually made alternatives readily available that do not put a high load on the server.
WP Engine Hosting Plans
WP Engine only provides handled WordPress hosting. There are 5 different strategies available: Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom.
All strategies consist of endless data transfer. The strategies differ based upon:
- number of WordPress installs
- traffic volume (# of visits per month)
- disk storage amount
- Custom-made strategy includes dedicated dev. environments, consumer success, and priority assistance
WP Engine consists of some unique functions for WordPress users that a lot of hosts don’t use, or charge additional for. These special features consist of:.
- Git version control
- Staging: instantly create a copy of your website for screening
- Easy transferable installs from complimentary to paid accounts
- Leading edge technologies consisting of latest PHP version.
In our WP Engine review, we found that WP Engine provides the most advanced and thorough managed WordPress hosting functions.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.
User interface and in use
WP Engine’s user interface is professional and well laid out, but the effective functions might imply 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 the house here, however otherwise you’ll require to invest some time on the assistance site.
In our screening, the default WordPress home page packed in just over 2 seconds. This is one of the fastest reactions we’ve tested, with rival Liquid Web just a little behind.
Support
A managed WordPress service must offer additional value through its assistance, and WP Engine delivers. The assistance site includes videos and short articles of a quality you ‘d anticipate from a paid training course, with aid on deeper WordPress functionality that lots of WordPress hosts don’t enter into.
There’s 24/7 live chat assistance and a ticket system, too. In our screening, the action fasted and the agent knowledgeable. For all plans except for single-site strategies, there’s telephone support, too.
Pros
Extraordinary Load Speed: If site packing speed is a top concern, WP Engine succeeds in this regard. The host’s mix of custom NGINX extension, integrated Content Delivery Network (CDN), and SSD technology guarantee that your web pages load rapidly. NGINX extension prioritizes human requests over robotic demands and uses load balancing, giving your visitors a better experience. For its part, CDN provides site content to your visitors based on their place to increase your website’s speed and decrease 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 people 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 further increase your uptime to 99.99% with enhanced SLA, which equates 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 keeps track of all the traffic going to your site and instantly finds and obstructs potential attacks. In addition, the hosting service instantly updates and spots the WordPress core to remove possible vulnerabilities. In a worst-case scenario, WP Engine instantly backups your website every day and has a one-click remediation function to get you support and running quickly. Finally, this hosting service secures your website against JavaScript/SQL-injection attacks, strength efforts, and DDoS attacks.
Incredible Customer Support: The hosting service has a transparent and trackable ticketing system to get in touch with customer care by means of chat. The support group has an excellent knowledge base and can assist you resolve problems 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 plans.
Useful Staging Environment: The staging area enables you to clone your site’s live version and make changes or test new plugins and styles. Anything you perform in the staging area doesn’t affect your live site. This function allows designers to work on sites without hindering the live site’s functionality or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting developers, this feature enables you to develop a website from your WP Engine account. You don’t need to wait for the client to include you to their WordPress site. As soon as completed, you can transfer the website to the client or host the site on WP Engine. This performance conserves time if you routinely build sites for customers.
Cons
WordPress-Only Hosting: If you are using 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 concentrate on a single market and deal exceptional services because location. Nevertheless, this design locks out many individuals who might otherwise gain 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 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 rates structure. You will be penalized for exceeding your strategy’s visitor limits. This might not be a problem if you have foreseeable traffic, and you can constantly upgrade your strategy as your website grows. Nevertheless, considerable spikes in traffic during product launches or seasonal service can cost you significant overage charges.
There is no other way to put it: WP Engine is costly. Is it worth the cost? The response depends on finding out what you are spending for.
You can get shared hosting that can handle the same quantity of traffic as WP Engine for a portion of the cost. You can even get devoted hosting for the very same rate as WP Engine. What you are truly paying for here is security, efficiency, speed, and, most significantly, comfort. 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 normally spending for performance & not needing to think excessive about maintenance, security & speed. If you look at WP Engine’s rates based on the functions you’re getting- you truly do not get a lot.
And if you are the type who will think of your website’s health anyway (ie, keeping WordPress upgraded and normally logging in often), you’ll likely be spending for “management” that is unnecessary.
Lots of 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 strategy from HostGator with basic caching) dealt with more than 15,000+ gos to in a 24 hour period when a post of mine And if you are running a trusted VPS, you can definitely manage a lot more for much less. In fact, the website you are on handles more than 110,000+ gos to each month with a lot of room left to 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 visits, but it can still be rather a surprise for “small” website owners how quickly they can enter into the $290 each month tier. I have a customer who began with the Startup strategy, however rapidly wound up with a custom strategy.
And as pointed out previously that does not even consist of much of the features you don’t get with WP Engine’s plans. You can’t run any email from your servers. You have low limitations on local media storage. Anything above the limits requires additional expenses & technical application of Amazon cloud services.
And most notably 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 cost. You can’t utilize them to expand the expense of your strategy- particularly if you are hitting your visitor cap rather than your set up cap.
If you are wanting to spend for hosting- ie, a server that will hold & dish out your website files- WP Engine is a costly choice, particularly compared to other non-managed hosting alternatives.
Startup
The Startup package is one of the most standard plan and will set you back $25 monthly. With this bundle, you get:.
25,000 gos to monthly.
50GB bandwidth monthly.
10GB storage.
One website consisted of.
WP Engine targets little sites and blog sites with this strategy, but we think it may be overkill for most people in this category. You can get a far much better handle shared hosting at Bluehost However, if you don’t wish to take any possibilities with uptime or need an assurance that your site can deal with 25,000 visitors monthly, WP Engine is a sure bet. We ‘d suggest this option to small businesses, affiliate sites, and blog sites making great cash and want assurances that absolutely nothing will alter.
You can conserve $60 each year or 2 months totally free if you pay every year.
Growth
The growth plan targets growing organizations and will cost you $95 per month. Here you get:.
100,000 visits monthly.
200GB bandwidth per month.
25GB storage.
10 sites included a while.
This strategy is a great entry point for a growing business, and it might be a while before you require to upgrade. With this plan, you likewise get 24/7 phone support in addition to day-and-night chat assistance. This addition will be available in handy if you have a complicated issue that you need to fix rapidly.
You can conserve a cool $230 or two months complimentary with annual billing.
Scale
WP Engine advertises its scale strategy as the best worth choice. This one expenses $241 monthly. Here you get:.
400,000 visits monthly.
500GB bandwidth monthly.
50GB storage.
30 websites consisted of.
We suggest this option for a fast-growing blog or business. You get access to 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone assistance in addition to the assistance.
You can conserve $580 or 2 months complimentary with yearly pre-paid billing.
Custom
If you have a mission-critical site or large organization, the Custom strategy may be appealing. With this plan, you get:.
Countless visits each month.
400GB+ bandwidth each month.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 sites included.
You will have to speak to a sales rep to get your tailored quote depending upon your requirements. This strategy also uses proprietary assistance needs to something go wrong.
Migrate WordPress websites in just a few clicks.
Strong Uptime
WP Engine achieves over 99% uptime thanks to its world-class network facilities.
The company likewise has three data centers in London, Tokyo, and Midwest USA.
As a result, you can get better site speeds by picking to host your site on servers that are closest to your target market.
WP Engine blocks harmful attacks on your website.
Speed & Performance
There are a lot of variables that go into website speed, but the guideline is that the more intricate your site is, the more complicated the options to speed become.
Out of package- WordPress is fairly lean and quick. 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 economical shared hosting strategy from somebody like InMotion HostGator Bluehost But couple of website owners keep their WordPress install lean. There’s generally extra plugins, custom-made theme files, great deals of images, widgets, advertisements, forms and more.
All these features integrated with decent levels of traffic can begin to decrease your WordPress installation.
A sluggish site does not suggest that you need a larger, better server. It does indicate that you require to get smarter about speed. In some cases it’s as simple as getting a more powerful server, but sometimes it’s more about caching certain resources in a specific order and enhancing your files. Simply put- it gets complex.
Imagine you are attempting to transport a trailer with a pickup truck. Envision your trailer keeps getting much heavier. It’s pointless to keep grumbling that your truck is not big enough when you may simply need to get rid of the emergency brake, set up a turbocharger, revitalize the transmission fluid and consolidate your load.
The point is that WordPress needs aid to remain fast as you grow. There are lots of services … however either you or a designer must execute them.
That’s where managed WordPress hosting is available in. WP Engine takes care of (almost) all speed concerns. They have actually tailored servers with extremely aggressive caching and even more sophisticated “stack” than a common web host. They likewise have actually trained assistance who will go into your WordPress set up and determine the precise chokepoint to get your website moving.
They do not even enable caching plugins on their installs due to the fact that they have actually such a customized caching setup.
The fascinating thing is that even unoptimized WordPress installs still succeed 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, extra scripts, too many uncompressed images, to name a few things)- Note the Time To First Byte and the Start Render numbers. That determines how rapidly the server returned enough information to start packing the page.
It’s great to have that kind of speed right out of the box- and have it stay that way no matter how big or complicated the site gets.
* Note that the other point here is that if you are consumed about speed, you can get back at better numbers with WP Engine than you may get with other services given that you are free to focus on speed aspects that you can quickly manage like image compression, usage of scripts, and so on
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not only offers an incorporated CDN, but they likewise supply global data 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 considering that they operate on Google Cloud, you don’t have to stress over uptime either.
CDN Included
All plans consist of a global CDN (content delivery network).
The CDN will assist your website load quick for clients 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 sites are WordPress websites, according to Sucuri, a web security company. Regularly the “open doors” are plugins that weren’t updated.
Protecting websites is one of the fortes of WP Engine’s handled WordPress hosting service.
The business takes numerous measures to safeguard WordPress sites:.
WP Engine runs day-to-day malware/virus scans in partnership with Sucuri.
They monitor an upgraded firewall to block the latest hazards.
All sites are backed up daily.
You get a one-click restore function that can assist you recover your site in case of an attack.
The WP Engine site 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 concerning security.
They offer 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 provides webinars, guides, article, updates, tutorials, and a knowledgebase. With these you can discover how to:.
Launch your very first website.
Troubleshoot typical problems.
Make improvements to your website.
Handle your hosting account with greater efficiency.
Both beginners and experienced WordPress website owners will discover the support documentation vital.
WP Engine’s 60-Day Guarantee
WP Engine’s 60-day money-back guarantee on all subscription costs is special in the hosting industry.
It allows you to try the service in a safe method.
Keep in mind: this alternative is not available on custom hosting plans.
Is WP Engine Worth It?
Like any service, it’s not about what is finest overall, however what is finest for you based on your objectives, spending plan, resources & practices.
If you are in what I consider WP Engine’s core markets- they provide an excellent service with a solid product. As a handled WordPress host, their prices is competitive. They use more features than “WordPress hosting” strategies from other hosting brands. Their feature-set is unmatched for savvy DIYers, WordPress website designers and/or high-traffic websites that don’t wish to fret 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 guarantee. Do a test set up and see what you think of their backend. Make certain to talk w/ assistance & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.