There are plenty of inexpensive hosts readily available that provide a decent service. WPEngine Redirect
Nevertheless, what if you’re looking for more of a performance-oriented, concierge service? Because case, you’ll want to have a look at our WP Engine evaluation for WordPress.
WP Engine is a WordPress-specific web host, using managed plans that are completely enhanced for the platform. Obviously, when compared to numerous other WordPress hosts, WP Engine’s plans aren’t exactly low-cost. Therefore, you’ll need to know whether this hosting service deserves the cost before buying.
To assist you out, we’re going to conduct a thorough WP Engine review for WordPress. We’ll discuss its essential functions, assistance alternatives, performance abilities, and everything else you’ll need to understand. Let’s begin!
WP Engine Video Review
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About WP Engine
Founded in 2010, WP Engine is now among the leading managed WordPress hosting business in the market. Serial business owner Jason Cohen started 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 workplaces in San Antonio (Texas), London (England), Limerick (Ireland), Brisbane (Australia), and Kraków (Poland).
The business has won numerous awards for Best Place to Work in Austin and regularly contributes to the WordPress core and neighborhood.
WP Engine Features
The core reasons to select WP Engine over cheaper WordPress hosting are increased dependability, efficiency, assistance, and management, however these are difficult to quantify. Some features stand out when you browse the user interface, however, that can offer you some insight into the service used.
WP Engine Page Performance is a cool tool created to assist you accelerate your WordPress website by offering significant metrics on efficiency.
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 entirety, and the total size of the page. It even includes historical information on your site’s performance over the past six months and recommendations 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 embarrassing mistakes 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 substantial modifications to your site without affecting your customers.
WP Engine has a thorough list of plugins that are prohibited (Image credit: WP Engine) In a fairly uncommon move, WP Engine restricts the WordPress plugins you can install. Those generally limited are plugins that have actually been kept in mind to trigger performance issues and security holes. For crucial features 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 just provides managed WordPress hosting. There are five different plans readily available: Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom.
All plans include unrestricted information transfer. The strategies differ based upon:
- number of WordPress installs
- traffic volume (# of visits per month)
- disk storage amount
- Customized strategy consists of dedicated dev. environments, consumer success, and priority assistance
WP Engine consists of some distinct features for WordPress users that a lot of hosts don’t use, or charge additional for. These special features consist of:.
- Git version control
- Staging: immediately produce a copy of your website for testing
- Easy transferable installs from free to paid accounts
- Innovative technologies consisting of newest PHP version.
In our WP Engine review, we found that WP Engine provides the most advanced and detailed handled WordPress hosting features.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.
User interface and in use
WP Engine’s interface is expert and well laid out, but the powerful features might suggest a high knowing curve for unskilled 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 require to spend some time on the support site.
In our screening, the default WordPress web page loaded in simply over 2 seconds. This is among the fastest responses we’ve checked, with competitor Liquid Web just slightly behind.
Assistance
A managed WordPress service ought to provide additional worth through its support, and WP Engine delivers. The support website consists of videos and posts of a quality you ‘d expect from a paid training course, with aid on much deeper WordPress performance that many WordPress hosts don’t go into.
There’s 24/7 live chat assistance and a ticket system, too. In our testing, the response was quick and the representative well-informed. For all strategies except for single-site plans, there’s telephone assistance, too.
Pros
Remarkable Load Speed: If website packing speed is a top priority, WP Engine does well in this regard. The host’s mix of custom-made NGINX extension, integrated Content Delivery Network (CDN), and SSD technology make sure that your websites load rapidly. NGINX extension prioritizes human demands over robotic demands and offers load balancing, providing your visitors a better experience. For its part, CDN delivers website content to your visitors based upon their place to enhance your site’s speed and minimize latency. You get this ability free of charge with all WP Engine strategies.
High Performance: It’s tough to beat WP Engine’s efficiency, which is why individuals 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 even more 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 guarantee.
Advanced Security: WP Engine keeps an eye on all the traffic going to your site and automatically spots and obstructs prospective attacks. Additionally, the hosting service immediately updates and patches the WordPress core to eliminate possible vulnerabilities. In a worst-case circumstance, WP Engine automatically backups your website every day and has a one-click repair feature to get you support and running rapidly. This hosting service protects your website against JavaScript/SQL-injection attacks, brute force attempts, and DDoS attacks.
Remarkable Customer Support: The hosting service has a transparent and trackable ticketing system to get in touch with consumer care by means of chat. The support team has an exceptional knowledge base and can help you solve issues quickly. You get 24/7 phone assistance for all strategies other than the Growth Plan, in addition to 24/7 live chat assistance on all strategies.
Useful Staging Environment: The staging area allows you to clone your site’s live variation and make changes or check brand-new plugins and themes. Anything you perform in the staging area does not affect your live website. This feature allows designers to work on websites without disrupting the live site’s functionality or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting designers, this feature enables you to build a website from your WP Engine account. You don’t have to wait for the customer to add you to their WordPress website. As soon as completed, you can move the site to the client or host the site on WP Engine. This functionality saves time if you regularly build 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 works with WordPress. From a business viewpoint, it makes good sense to concentrate on a single market and offer extraordinary services because area. This model locks out lots of individuals 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 require to look elsewhere. You’ll need to use third-party services for domain registration or email accounts.
Inflexible Pricing: WP Engine runs a tight ship, and this is reflected in its rates structure. You will be penalized for exceeding your plan’s visitor limitations. This might not be an issue if you have predictable traffic, and you can always update your strategy as your website grows. However, significant spikes in traffic during product launches or seasonal service can cost you considerable overage charges.
There is no other method to put it: WP Engine is costly. Is it worth the cost? The answer depends on finding out what you are spending for.
You can get shared hosting that can deal with the very same amount of traffic as WP Engine for a portion of the rate. You can even get dedicated hosting for the same price as WP Engine. What you are truly paying for here is security, performance, speed, and, most notably, comfort. The supreme 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 usually paying for performance & not having to believe excessive about maintenance, security & speed. If you take a look at WP Engine’s pricing based upon the features you’re getting- you really do not get a lot.
And if you are the type who will consider your website’s health anyway (ie, keeping WordPress upgraded and normally visiting frequently), you’ll likely be paying for “management” that is unneeded.
Lots of shared hosting servers can manage the exact same traffic numbers as WP Engine- and cost a fraction of the rate. My personal website a shared hosting strategy from HostGator with standard caching) dealt with 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 manage a lot more for much less. In fact, the site you are on deals with more than 110,000+ visits monthly with plenty of space delegated spare for side-projects, gigabytes of media, email, 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 check outs, but it can still be quite a surprise for “little” site owners how rapidly they can get into the $290 per month tier. I have a customer who began with the Startup plan, but quickly wound up with a customized strategy.
And as discussed previously that does not even consist of a lot 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 regional media storage. Anything above the limits requires extra costs & technical application of Amazon cloud services.
And most importantly for me- you are restricted on your installs. If you have a couple of side projects or low-traffic test websites, you need to factor those into the rate. You can’t use them to expand the expense of your strategy- specifically if you are hitting your visitor cap rather than your install cap.
If you are aiming to spend for hosting- ie, a server that will hold & provide your site files- WP Engine is an expensive choice, specifically compared to other non-managed hosting alternatives.
Start-up
The Startup bundle is the most fundamental strategy and will set you back $25 monthly. With this package, you get:.
25,000 check outs monthly.
50GB bandwidth per month.
10GB storage.
One site included.
WP Engine targets small sites and blogs with this strategy, however we believe it might be overkill for most people in this classification. You can get a far better handle shared hosting at Bluehost However, if you do not wish to take any possibilities with uptime or need a warranty that your website can manage 25,000 visitors each month, WP Engine is a sure thing. We ‘d suggest this choice to small businesses, affiliate websites, and blog sites making good cash and want guarantees that nothing will change.
You can conserve $60 annually or 2 months totally free if you pay every year.
Growth
The growth plan targets growing companies and will cost you $95 monthly. Here you get:.
100,000 gos to per month.
200GB bandwidth per month.
25GB storage.
10 sites included a while.
This plan is a great entry point for a growing company, and it might be a while before you require to upgrade. With this plan, you also get 24/7 phone support in addition to day-and-night chat support. This addition will come in convenient if you have a complex concern that you need to deal with quickly.
You can conserve a cool $230 or two months free with yearly billing.
Scale
WP Engine markets its scale strategy as the very best value option. This one costs $241 per month. Here you get:.
400,000 visits monthly.
500GB bandwidth monthly.
50GB storage.
30 sites included.
We suggest this alternative for a fast-growing blog or organization. You get access to 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone support in addition to the assistance center.
You can save $580 or 2 months totally free with yearly pre-paid billing.
Custom-made
If you have a mission-critical website or big service, the Custom strategy might be appealing. With this plan, you get:.
Millions of sees each month.
400GB+ bandwidth per month.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 sites consisted of.
You will have to speak to a sales associate to get your tailored quote depending on your requirements. This plan also uses proprietary support must something go wrong.
Migrate WordPress websites in just a few clicks.
Strong Uptime
WP Engine achieves over 99% uptime thanks to its first-rate network facilities.
The business also has 3 data centers in London, Tokyo, and Midwest USA.
As a result, you can get better site speeds by choosing to host your site on servers that are closest to your target market.
WP Engine blocks harmful attacks on your site.
Speed & Performance
There are a great deal of variables that enter into website speed, but the rule of thumb is that the more complex your website is, the more complicated the services to speed ended up being.
Out of the box- WordPress is fairly lean and quick. If you are running a mainly text site with a couple of fundamental plugins and a few little images, you’ll be great with an economical shared hosting plan from someone like InMotion HostGator Bluehost But couple of website owners keep their WordPress set up lean. There’s generally additional plugins, custom theme files, great deals of images, widgets, ads, types and more.
All these features integrated with decent levels of traffic can start to decrease your WordPress setup.
A slow site doesn’t imply that you require a larger, much better server. It does mean that you require to get smarter about speed. In some cases it’s as easy as getting a more effective server, but in some cases it’s more about caching specific resources in a particular order and optimizing your files. In other words- it gets complex.
Imagine you are attempting to haul a trailer with a pickup. Imagine your trailer keeps getting heavier. It’s pointless to keep complaining that your truck is not big enough when you may just require to get rid of the emergency brake, install a turbocharger, refresh the transmission fluid and consolidate your load.
The point is that WordPress needs help to stay fast as you grow. There are a lot of options … but either you or a designer must execute them.
That’s where managed WordPress hosting is available in. WP Engine takes care of (nearly) all speed issues. They have customized servers with incredibly aggressive caching and even more sophisticated “stack” than a normal web host. They also have actually trained assistance who will go into your WordPress install and identify the precise chokepoint to get your site moving.
They don’t even allow caching plugins on their installs due to the fact that they have such a personalized caching setup.
The intriguing thing is that even unoptimized WordPress installs still succeed on their platform since their platform does the extra work.
Here’s the speed test for among my clients on WP Engine (who has a puffed up style, extra scripts, too many uncompressed images, among other things)- Note the Time To First Byte and the Start Render numbers. That measures how rapidly the server returned enough data to begin packing the page.
It’s nice to have that kind of speed right out of package- and have it stay that way no matter how big or complex the website gets.
* Note that the other point here is that if you are consumed about speed, you can get even better numbers with WP Engine than you may get with other services because you are complimentary to focus on speed elements that you can easily manage like image compression, use of scripts, and so on
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not only provides an integrated CDN, however they likewise supply global information centers in case your audience is mostly 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 operate on Google Cloud, you do not need to fret about uptime either.
CDN Included
All plans include a worldwide CDN (material shipment network).
The CDN will assist 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. Frequently the “open doors” are plugins that weren’t upgraded.
Securing sites is one of the strengths of WP Engine’s managed WordPress hosting service.
The company takes numerous procedures to secure WordPress sites:.
WP Engine runs day-to-day malware/virus scans in collaboration with Sucuri.
They monitor an upgraded firewall software to block the current hazards.
All websites are supported daily.
You get a one-click bring back function that can help you recuperate 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 questions relating to 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, post, updates, tutorials, and a knowledgebase. With these you can find out how to:.
Release your very first site.
Troubleshoot typical problems.
Make improvements to your website.
Manage your hosting account with greater efficiency.
Both beginners and knowledgeable WordPress website owners will find the assistance documentation vital.
WP Engine’s 60-Day Guarantee
WP Engine’s 60-day money-back guarantee on all membership charges is special in the hosting market.
It allows you to try out the service in a safe way.
Note: this option is not readily available on custom-made hosting plans.
Is WP Engine Worth It?
Like any service, it’s not about what is best overall, however what is finest for you based upon your goals, budget plan, resources & routines.
If you are in what I consider WP Engine’s core markets- they offer a fantastic service with a strong product. As a handled WordPress host, their rates is competitive. They use more functions than “WordPress hosting” plans from other hosting brand names. Their feature-set is unequaled for savvy DIYers, WordPress website designers and/or high-traffic websites that don’t wish to fret about hosting concerns.
If handled hosting is a suitable for you- then go have a look at WP Engine’s plans here View Current Plans They do a 60-day money-back warranty. Do a test install and see what you think of their backend. Be sure to talk w/ support & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.