There are plenty of cheap hosts readily available that supply a decent service. WPEngine Migration
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 handled plans that are totally optimized for the platform. Of course, when compared to numerous other WordPress hosts, WP Engine’s strategies aren’t precisely inexpensive. For that reason, you’ll wish to know whether this hosting service is worth the expense before purchasing.
To help you out, we’re going to conduct an extensive WP Engine evaluation for WordPress. We’ll discuss its key features, assistance alternatives, performance abilities, and everything 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 entrepreneur Jason Cohen started WP Engine when he saw a requirement 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 business 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 dependability, performance, assistance, and management, but these are tough to measure. Some features stand out when you browse the user interface, however, that can provide you some insight into the service provided.
WP Engine Page Performance is a neat tool created to help you accelerate your WordPress website by using 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 required to fill in its totality, and the total size of the page. It even includes historic information on your website’s efficiency over the past six months and recommendations on how you can lower page load.
You can develop your WordPress site in a Staging or Development environment before making the modifications live (Image credit: WP Engine) Avoid awkward errors on your site by making changes to a copy of your website prior to it goes live. This is called Staging, and it permits your developers to make extensive changes to your site without affecting your clients.
WP Engine has a thorough list of plugins that are disallowed (Image credit: WP Engine) In a relatively unusual relocation, WP Engine limits the WordPress plugins you can install. Those typically limited are plugins that have been noted to trigger efficiency issues and security holes. For crucial features such as caching, backups, and seo tools, WP Engine has made alternatives available that do not put a high load on the server.
WP Engine Hosting Plans
WP Engine just offers managed WordPress hosting. There are 5 different strategies available: Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom.
All plans consist of unrestricted information transfer. The plans differ based on:
- number of WordPress installs
- traffic volume (# of visits per month)
- disk storage amount
- Custom plan consists of dedicated dev. environments, consumer success, and priority support
WP Engine includes some special features for WordPress users that many hosts don’t use, or charge additional for. These special features consist of:.
- Git version control
- Staging: quickly produce a copy of your website for testing
- Easy transferable installs from totally free to paid accounts
- Cutting edge technologies including newest PHP variation.
In our WP Engine evaluation, 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.
User interface and in use
WP Engine’s user interface is expert and well laid out, however the effective features may suggest a high learning curve for unskilled users. If you have an understanding of terms like Git, CNAME, and reroute guidelines, you’ll be right at home here, however otherwise you’ll need to invest a long time on the support site.
In our screening, the default WordPress home page loaded in simply over 2 seconds. This is one of the fastest reactions we’ve checked, with rival Liquid Web just slightly behind.
Support
A handled WordPress service ought to use additional worth through its assistance, and WP Engine delivers. The support site includes videos and posts of a quality you ‘d expect from a paid training course, with help on deeper WordPress functionality that many WordPress hosts do not enter into.
There’s 24/7 live chat assistance and a ticket system, too. In our screening, the action was quick and the agent experienced. For all plans except for single-site plans, there’s telephone assistance, too.
Pros
Exceptional Load Speed: If site loading speed is a leading priority, WP Engine does well in this regard. The host’s mix of custom-made NGINX extension, integrated Content Delivery Network (CDN), and SSD innovation ensure that your websites load rapidly. NGINX extension focuses on human requests over robotic requests and provides load balancing, giving your visitors a much better experience. For its part, CDN delivers website content to your visitors based upon their area to increase your site’s speed and minimize latency. You get this capability totally free with all WP Engine plans.
High Performance: It’s hard to beat WP Engine’s performance, which is why people continue to pay a premium rate for this service. WP Engine guarantees 99.95% server uptime, roughly four and a half hours of downtime a year. You can further increase your uptime to 99.99% with boosted 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 guarantee.
Advanced Security: WP Engine keeps track of all the traffic going to your website and instantly identifies and obstructs prospective attacks. Furthermore, the hosting service instantly updates and patches the WordPress core to eliminate possible vulnerabilities. In a worst-case situation, WP Engine automatically backups your website every day and has a one-click repair function to get you support and running rapidly. This hosting service protects 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 get in touch with consumer care through chat. The assistance team has an outstanding knowledge base and can help you resolve issues rapidly. 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 website’s live variation and make changes or evaluate new plugins and styles. Anything you carry out in the staging area doesn’t impact your live website. This function permits developers to deal with websites without hindering the live website’s functionality or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting developers, this function permits you to develop a website from your WP Engine account. You don’t need to wait for the client to add you to their WordPress website. When completed, you can transfer the site to the client or host the site on WP Engine. This performance saves 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 just works with WordPress. From a company perspective, it makes sense to concentrate on a single market and deal exceptional services in that location. Nevertheless, this model locks out many individuals who could 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 site host, you’ll require to look somewhere else. 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 prices structure. You will be penalized for surpassing your strategy’s visitor limits. This might not be an issue if you have predictable traffic, and you can always update your strategy as your site grows. Considerable spikes in traffic during item launches or seasonal organization can cost you considerable overage charges.
There is no other way to put it: WP Engine is costly. Is it worth the expense? The answer depends on finding out what you are paying for.
You can get shared hosting that can deal with the very same amount of traffic as WP Engine for a fraction of the cost. You can even get dedicated hosting for the same cost as WP Engine. What you are actually spending for here is security, efficiency, speed, and, most importantly, assurance. The ultimate concern 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 typically spending for performance & not needing to believe too much about upkeep, security & speed. If you take a look at WP Engine’s rates based upon the functions you’re getting- you really don’t get a whole lot.
And if you are the type who will think of your website’s health anyway (ie, keeping WordPress updated and generally visiting frequently), you’ll likely be spending for “management” that is superfluous.
Lots of shared hosting servers can deal with the same traffic numbers as WP Engine- and cost a portion of the rate. My personal website a shared hosting strategy from HostGator with fundamental caching) dealt with more than 15,000+ visits in a 24 hour period when a post of mine And if you are running a reputable VPS, you can certainly deal with a lot more for much less. The website you are on handles more than 110,000+ visits 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 strategy.
They are relatively transparent about how they count visits, however it can still be quite a surprise for “little” website owners how rapidly they can get into the $290 monthly tier. I have a client who started with the Startup plan, however quickly ended up with a custom strategy.
And as mentioned earlier that does not even include a number of the functions you do not get with WP Engine’s plans. You can’t run any e-mail from your servers. You have low limits on regional media storage. Anything above the limits needs extra expenses & technical implementation of Amazon cloud services.
And most significantly for me- you are limited 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 use them to expand the expense of your plan- specifically if you are striking your visitor cap rather than your set up cap.
If you are looking to pay for hosting- ie, a server that will hold & serve up your website files- WP Engine is a costly choice, specifically compared to other non-managed hosting choices.
Startup
The Startup bundle is one of the most basic strategy and will set you back $25 per month. With this bundle, you get:.
25,000 visits each month.
50GB bandwidth monthly.
10GB storage.
One website included.
WP Engine targets small websites and blog sites with this strategy, however we think it may be overkill for most people in this classification. 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 require a warranty that your site can manage 25,000 visitors each month, WP Engine is a sure thing. We ‘d recommend this alternative to small businesses, affiliate websites, and blogs making good cash and want assurances that nothing will change.
You can conserve $60 each year or more months complimentary if you pay each year.
Growth
The growth plan targets growing businesses and will cost you $95 monthly. Here you get:.
100,000 check outs monthly.
200GB bandwidth each month.
25GB storage.
Ten sites consisted of a while.
This strategy is a terrific 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 support. This addition will can be found in convenient if you have a complicated issue that you need to fix rapidly.
You can save a cool $230 or more months free with yearly billing.
Scale
WP Engine advertises its scale plan as the very best worth alternative. This one costs $241 each month. Here you get:.
400,000 visits per month.
500GB bandwidth monthly.
50GB storage.
30 websites included.
We advise this alternative for a fast-growing blog site or organization. You get access to 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone support in addition to the support center.
You can conserve $580 or 2 months free with yearly pre-paid billing.
Custom
Lastly, if you have a mission-critical website or big company, the Custom strategy may be appealing. With this strategy, you get:.
Millions of sees per month.
400GB+ bandwidth per month.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 websites included.
You will need to speak with a sales rep to get your individualized quote depending on your requirements. This plan also uses exclusive support must something fail.
Migrate WordPress websites in just a few clicks.
Strong Uptime
WP Engine accomplishes over 99% uptime thanks to its first-rate network facilities.
The company also has 3 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 blocks malicious attacks on your website.
Speed & Performance
There are a great deal of variables that enter into website speed, however the guideline is that the more complex your website is, the more complicated the solutions to speed ended up being.
Out of the box- WordPress is fairly lean and fast. If you are running a mainly text site with a few fundamental plugins and a couple of little images, you’ll be great with a cost effective shared hosting strategy from somebody like InMotion HostGator Bluehost But couple of website owners keep their WordPress install lean. There’s generally additional plugins, customized theme files, lots of images, widgets, advertisements, types and more.
All these features combined with good levels of traffic can begin to slow down your WordPress installation.
But a sluggish website doesn’t mean that you need a bigger, much better server. It does indicate that you need to get smarter about speed. Sometimes it’s as easy as getting a more effective server, but sometimes it’s more about caching specific resources in a particular order and optimizing your files. In other words- it gets complex.
Envision you are trying to carry a trailer with a pickup. Envision your trailer keeps getting much heavier. It’s pointless to keep complaining that your truck is not big enough when you may simply need to remove the emergency brake, install a turbocharger, refresh the transmission fluid and consolidate your load.
The point is that WordPress requires aid to stay fast as you grow. There are a lot of services … however either you or a developer need to implement them.
That’s where managed WordPress hosting is available in. WP Engine looks after (almost) all speed issues. They have customized servers with incredibly aggressive caching and a lot more advanced “stack” than a typical web host. They also have actually trained support who will enter into your WordPress install and recognize the exact chokepoint to get your site moving.
They do not even permit caching plugins on their installs since they have actually such a personalized caching setup.
The intriguing thing is that even unoptimized WordPress installs still do well on their platform due to the fact that their platform does the extra work.
Here’s the speed test for one of my clients 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 information to begin loading the page.
It’s nice to have that type of speed right out of the box- and have it stay that way no matter how huge or intricate the website 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 since you are free to concentrate on speed aspects that you can quickly control like image compression, usage of scripts, and so on
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not only offers an incorporated CDN, however they likewise supply international data centers in case your audience is primarily 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 run on Google Cloud, you do not have to worry about uptime either.
CDN Included
All strategies consist of a global CDN (material shipment network).
The CDN will help your site 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 estimated 78% of hacked websites are WordPress websites, according to Sucuri, a web security firm. Regularly the “open doors” are plugins that weren’t upgraded.
Protecting websites is among the strong points of WP Engine’s handled WordPress hosting service.
The company takes several steps to protect WordPress sites:.
WP Engine runs everyday malware/virus scans in collaboration with Sucuri.
They keep track of an upgraded firewall program to obstruct the most recent dangers.
All websites are backed up daily.
You get a one-click restore function that can help you recover your website in case of an attack.
The WP Engine website 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 provide webinars on security.
They publish security guidelines and checklists for designers and engineers.
If your site gets hacked, WPE will clean it for free.
Online Resources
WP Engine supplies webinars, guides, post, updates, tutorials, and a knowledgebase. With these you can discover how to:.
Launch your first site.
Troubleshoot typical issues.
Make improvements to your site.
Handle your hosting account with higher efficiency.
Both beginners and skilled WordPress site owners will find the assistance documentation important.
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 allows you to experiment with the service in a safe way.
Keep in mind: this choice is not offered on customized hosting strategies.
Is WP Engine Worth It?
Like any service, it’s not about what is best overall, however what is best for you based on your objectives, budget plan, resources & practices.
If you are in what I think of as WP Engine’s core markets- they use a terrific service with a solid item. As a managed WordPress host, their prices is competitive. They offer more functions than “WordPress hosting” strategies from other hosting brand names. Their feature-set is unequaled for smart DIYers, WordPress website developers and/or high-traffic websites that don’t wish to worry about hosting issues.
If handled 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 install and see what you consider their backend. Be sure to talk w/ assistance & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.