There are plenty of inexpensive hosts readily available that supply a good service. WPEngine Review
What if you’re looking for more of a performance-oriented, concierge service? Because case, you’ll wish to take a look at our WP Engine review for WordPress.
WP Engine is a WordPress-specific web host, offering handled strategies that are totally optimized for the platform. Obviously, when compared to numerous other WordPress hosts, WP Engine’s strategies aren’t precisely inexpensive. For that reason, you’ll need to know whether this hosting service deserves the cost before buying.
To assist you out, we’re going to conduct an extensive WP Engine evaluation for WordPress. We’ll discuss its key features, assistance choices, efficiency capabilities, and everything else you’ll need to understand. Let’s get started!
WP Engine Video Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oklmdvSL7s
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About WP Engine
Founded in 2010, WP Engine is now among the leading handled 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 workplaces in San Antonio (Texas), London (England), Limerick (Ireland), Brisbane (Australia), and Kraków (Poland).
The company has won several awards for Best Place to Work in Austin and consistently contributes to the WordPress core and community.
WP Engine Features
The core reasons to select WP Engine over more affordable WordPress hosting are increased dependability, performance, support, and management, but these are tough to quantify. Some functions stand apart when you browse the interface, however, that can give you some insight into the service offered.
WP Engine Page Performance is a cool tool designed to help you accelerate your WordPress site by providing significant metrics on efficiency.
Running a test returns you a page-performance report that details how quickly your page rendered, the length of time it took to pack in its totality, and the overall size of the page. It even includes historical data on your website’s performance over the past 6 months and suggestions on how you can decrease page load.
You can develop your WordPress site in a Staging or Development environment before making the modifications live (Image credit: WP Engine) Avoid humiliating mistakes on your website by making changes to a copy of your site before it goes live. This is called Staging, and it permits your developers to make substantial changes to your site without impacting your customers.
WP Engine has an extensive list of plugins that are prohibited (Image credit: WP Engine) In a relatively uncommon relocation, WP Engine restricts the WordPress plugins you can set up. Those typically restricted are plugins that have actually been noted to trigger performance problems and security holes. For crucial features such as caching, backups, and search engine optimization tools, WP Engine has made alternatives readily available that do not put a high load on the server.
WP Engine Hosting Plans
WP Engine only provides managed WordPress hosting. There are 5 various strategies offered: Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom.
All plans include limitless information transfer. The plans differ based upon:
- number of WordPress installs
- traffic volume (# of visits per month)
- disk storage amount
- Customized strategy includes dedicated dev. environments, client success, and priority support
WP Engine includes some unique features for WordPress users that the majority of hosts do not offer, or charge additional for. These unique features consist of:.
- Git version control
- Staging: instantly create a copy of your website for screening
- Easy transferable installs from totally free to paid accounts
- Leading edge innovations including newest PHP version.
In our WP Engine evaluation, we discovered that WP Engine offers the most innovative and thorough 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, however the powerful features might imply a steep learning curve for inexperienced 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 require to spend some time on the assistance site.
In our testing, the default WordPress web page loaded in just over 2 seconds. This is among the fastest actions we’ve tested, with rival Liquid Web just slightly behind.
Support
A handled WordPress service ought to offer extra worth through its assistance, and WP Engine provides. The support website consists of videos and short articles of a quality you ‘d expect from a paid training course, with assistance on much 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 response fasted and the agent educated. For all strategies except for single-site plans, there’s telephone assistance, too.
Pros
Remarkable Load Speed: If website loading speed is a leading 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 quickly. NGINX extension focuses on human requests over robot requests and uses load balancing, giving your visitors a much better experience. For its part, CDN provides website material to your visitors based upon their location to boost your site’s speed and reduce latency. You get this ability totally free with all WP Engine strategies.
High Performance: It’s difficult 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 equates to a little under an hour of downtime per year. WP Engine will compensate you with hosting credit if your uptime falls listed below the guarantee.
Advanced Security: WP Engine keeps an eye on all the traffic going to your website and automatically detects and blocks prospective attacks. Additionally, the hosting service instantly updates and patches the WordPress core to remove prospective vulnerabilities. In a worst-case scenario, WP Engine immediately backups your website every day and has a one-click restoration function to get you support and running quickly. Lastly, this hosting service protects your site versus JavaScript/SQL-injection attacks, brute force efforts, and DDoS attacks.
Sensational Customer Support: The hosting service has a transparent and trackable ticketing system to contact customer care by means of chat. The assistance team has an excellent knowledge base and can help you resolve issues rapidly. You get 24/7 phone assistance for all strategies other than the Growth Plan, in addition to 24/7 live chat support on all strategies.
Useful Staging Environment: The staging area allows you to clone your site’s live variation and make changes or check new plugins and styles. Anything you perform in the staging area does not affect your live site. This feature enables designers to deal with websites without disrupting the live website’s functionality or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting designers, this feature enables you to build a site from your WP Engine account. You don’t need to wait on the client to include you to their WordPress site. Once completed, you can move the site to the client or host the website on WP Engine. This functionality saves time if you routinely construct websites for customers.
Cons
WordPress-Only Hosting: If you are using 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 sense to focus on a single market and offer remarkable services because area. However, this design locks out lots of people who might 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 need to utilize third-party services for domain registration or email accounts.
Inflexible Pricing: WP Engine runs a tight ship, and this is shown in its prices structure. You will be punished for exceeding your plan’s visitor limits. This might not be an issue if you have predictable traffic, and you can constantly upgrade your strategy as your website grows. Substantial spikes in traffic during item launches or seasonal organization can cost you substantial overage charges.
There is no other method to put it: WP Engine is costly. Is it worth the cost? The response depends on determining what you are spending for.
You can get shared hosting that can handle the exact same quantity of traffic as WP Engine for a fraction of the price. You can even get dedicated hosting for the exact same cost as WP Engine. What you are actually paying for here is security, efficiency, speed, and, most significantly, comfort. The ultimate question 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 plan, you are usually paying for performance & not needing to think too much about maintenance, security & speed. If you look at WP Engine’s pricing based on the functions you’re getting- you really do not get a great deal.
And if you are the type who will think of your website’s health anyhow (ie, keeping WordPress upgraded and generally visiting regularly), you’ll likely be paying for “management” that is unnecessary.
Lots of shared hosting servers can manage the same traffic numbers as WP Engine- and cost a fraction of the cost. My personal website a shared hosting strategy from HostGator with basic caching) managed more than 15,000+ visits in a 24 hour period when a post of mine And if you are running a trustworthy VPS, you can certainly deal with a lot more for much less. In fact, the site you are on deals with more than 110,000+ visits monthly with a lot of space 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 check outs, however it can still be quite a surprise for “little” website owners how rapidly they can enter into the $290 monthly tier. I have a customer who started with the Startup plan, but rapidly ended up with a customized strategy.
And as discussed previously that does not even consist of much of the features you do not 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 needs additional expenses & technical execution 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 need to factor those into the price. You can’t use them to expand the cost of your plan- specifically if you are hitting your visitor cap rather than your set up cap.
If you are seeking to spend for hosting- ie, a server that will hold & dish out your website files- WP Engine is a costly alternative, specifically compared to other non-managed hosting options.
Startup
The Startup plan is the most standard strategy and will set you back $25 each month. With this package, you get:.
25,000 sees per month.
50GB bandwidth monthly.
10GB storage.
One website included.
WP Engine targets little 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 much better handle shared hosting at Bluehost However, if you do not wish to take any opportunities with uptime or require an assurance that your website can manage 25,000 visitors per month, WP Engine is a certainty. We ‘d advise this alternative to small companies, affiliate websites, and blog sites making great money and want assurances that absolutely nothing will alter.
You can conserve $60 each year or more months complimentary if you pay annually.
Growth
The growth plan targets growing businesses and will cost you $95 each month. Here you get:.
100,000 sees monthly.
200GB bandwidth per month.
25GB storage.
10 websites consisted of a while.
This strategy is a great entry point for a growing organization, and it might be a while prior to you require to update. With this strategy, you likewise get 24/7 phone support in addition to day-and-night chat support. This addition will come in convenient if you have a complex problem that you need to resolve quickly.
You can conserve a cool $230 or 2 months free with yearly billing.
Scale
WP Engine advertises its scale strategy as the best worth choice. This one costs $241 monthly. Here you get:.
400,000 check outs per month.
500GB bandwidth each month.
50GB storage.
30 sites consisted of.
We suggest this option for a fast-growing blog site or service. You get access to 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone support in addition to the support center.
You can conserve $580 or two months complimentary with yearly pre-paid billing.
Customized
If you have a mission-critical site or large company, the Custom plan might be appealing. With this plan, you get:.
Countless gos to each month.
400GB+ bandwidth monthly.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 sites included.
You will have to speak with a sales rep to get your customized quote depending on your requirements. This plan likewise offers exclusive assistance ought to something go wrong.
Migrate WordPress websites in just a few clicks.
Strong Uptime
WP Engine accomplishes over 99% uptime thanks to its world-class network infrastructure.
The business also has 3 information centers in London, Tokyo, and Midwest USA.
As a result, you can improve site speeds by choosing to host your site on servers that are closest to your target audience.
WP Engine obstructs malicious attacks on your website.
Speed & Performance
There are a lot of variables that go into website speed, but the general rule is that the more complicated 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 website with a few basic plugins and a few little images, you’ll be great with a cost effective shared hosting strategy from somebody like InMotion HostGator Bluehost But couple of site owners keep their WordPress set up lean. There’s generally extra plugins, customized 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 installation.
However a slow website doesn’t mean that you require a larger, much better server. It does imply that you need to get smarter about speed. In some cases it’s as basic as getting a more powerful server, however sometimes it’s more about caching specific resources in a specific order and optimizing your files. In other words- it gets complex.
Imagine you are attempting to carry a trailer with a pickup truck. Picture your trailer keeps getting heavier. It’s meaningless to keep grumbling that your truck is not big enough when you may just need to get rid of the emergency brake, install a turbocharger, revitalize the transmission fluid and combine your load.
The point is that WordPress requires help to remain quick as you grow. There are plenty of services … but either you or a designer need to execute them.
That’s where managed WordPress hosting can be found in. WP Engine looks after (nearly) all speed issues. They have actually tailored servers with incredibly aggressive caching and a lot more sophisticated “stack” than a normal webhosting. They also have actually trained support who will go into your WordPress install and determine the specific chokepoint to get your website moving.
They do not even permit caching plugins on their installs since they have actually such a customized caching setup.
The intriguing thing is that even unoptimized WordPress sets up still succeed on their platform because their platform does the additional work.
Here’s the speed test for among my customers 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 determines how rapidly the server returned enough information to start 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 huge or complex the site gets.
* Note that the other point here is that if you are obsessed about speed, you can get even much better numbers with WP Engine than you may get with other services because you are free to concentrate on speed elements that you can quickly manage like image compression, usage of scripts, and so on
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not only supplies an incorporated CDN, but they likewise offer global information centers in case your audience is mostly 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 don’t need to stress over uptime either.
CDN Included
All plans consist of a worldwide CDN (material shipment network).
The CDN will assist your site load quickly for clients around the world 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 sites, according to Sucuri, a web security company. Often the “open doors” are plugins that weren’t updated.
Securing websites is among the strong points of WP Engine’s managed WordPress hosting service.
The company takes several measures to protect WordPress sites:.
WP Engine runs day-to-day malware/virus scans in collaboration with Sucuri.
They keep an eye on an updated firewall program to block the latest risks.
All sites 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 assistance for any concerns relating to security.
They supply webinars on security.
They release security guidelines and checklists for designers and engineers.
If your website 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 discover how to:.
Launch your first site.
Troubleshoot typical issues.
Make improvements to your website.
Manage your hosting account with greater effectiveness.
Both newbies and experienced WordPress website owners will discover the assistance paperwork vital.
WP Engine’s 60-Day Guarantee
WP Engine’s 60-day money-back guarantee on all subscription fees is unique in the hosting industry.
It allows you to try the service in a safe method.
Note: this choice is not readily available on custom-made hosting strategies.
Is WP Engine Worth It?
Like any service, it’s not about what is best overall, but what is finest for you based upon your objectives, budget, resources & habits.
If you are in what I think of as WP Engine’s core markets- they offer a terrific service with a strong item. As a managed WordPress host, their pricing is competitive. They offer more functions than “WordPress hosting” plans from other hosting brand names. Their feature-set is unrivaled for smart DIYers, WordPress website designers and/or high-traffic websites that don’t want to worry about hosting issues.
If managed hosting is a fit for you- then go check out WP Engine’s strategies here View Current Plans They do a 60-day money-back warranty. Do a test install and see what you believe of their backend. Make certain to talk w/ assistance & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.