There are lots of low-cost hosts available that provide a good service. WPEngine Revisions
However, what if you’re searching for more of a performance-oriented, concierge service? Because case, you’ll wish to check out our WP Engine evaluation for WordPress.
WP Engine is a WordPress-specific webhosting, using managed plans that are totally optimized for the platform. Obviously, when compared to numerous other WordPress hosts, WP Engine’s plans aren’t precisely inexpensive. You’ll want to understand whether this hosting service is worth the cost prior to making a purchase.
To assist you out, we’re going to conduct a thorough WP Engine review for WordPress. We’ll discuss its crucial features, assistance alternatives, efficiency abilities, and whatever else you’ll need 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 managed WordPress hosting business in the market. Serial business owner 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 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 adds to the WordPress core and neighborhood.
WP Engine Features
The core reasons to pick WP Engine over cheaper WordPress hosting are increased reliability, performance, assistance, and management, however these are hard to measure. Some features stand apart when you search the user interface, nevertheless, that can give you some insight into the service provided.
WP Engine Page Performance is a neat tool designed to help you speed up your WordPress website by offering meaningful metrics on performance.
Running a test returns you a page-performance report that details how rapidly your page rendered, how long it took to fill in its entirety, and the total size of the page. It even consists of historical data on your site’s performance over the past six months and suggestions on how you can lower page load.
You can develop 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 website prior to 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 a detailed list of plugins that are prohibited (Image credit: WP Engine) In a relatively unusual relocation, WP Engine restricts the WordPress plugins you can set up. Those usually restricted are plugins that have actually been noted to cause performance issues and security holes. For essential functions such as caching, backups, and search engine optimization tools, WP Engine has actually made alternatives readily available that don’t put a high load on the server.
WP Engine Hosting Plans
WP Engine only offers handled WordPress hosting. There are five different strategies available: Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom.
All plans consist of limitless data transfer. The strategies differ based upon:
- number of WordPress sets up
- traffic volume (# of visits per month)
- disk storage amount
- Customized strategy includes dedicated dev. environments, consumer success, and priority support
WP Engine consists of some special functions for WordPress users that many hosts do not use, or charge extra for. These special features consist of:.
- Git version control
- Staging: quickly develop a copy of your website for testing
- Easy transferable installs from free to paid accounts
- Leading edge innovations consisting of latest PHP version.
In our WP Engine evaluation, we found that WP Engine uses the most innovative and detailed 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 set out, however the effective features may imply a steep learning curve for inexperienced users. If you have an understanding of terms like Git, CNAME, and redirect rules, you’ll be right in your home here, however otherwise you’ll need to invest some time on the assistance site.
In our screening, the default WordPress home page filled in just over 2 seconds. This is one of the fastest responses we’ve checked, with competitor Liquid Web just somewhat behind.
Assistance
A managed WordPress service need to use additional value through its support, and WP Engine provides. The assistance site consists of videos and short articles of a quality you ‘d get out of a paid training course, with assistance on deeper WordPress functionality that numerous 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 agent experienced. For all strategies except for single-site strategies, there’s telephone support, too.
Pros
Exceptional Load Speed: If website loading speed is a top concern, WP Engine succeeds in this regard. The host’s combination of custom-made NGINX extension, built-in Content Delivery Network (CDN), and SSD innovation guarantee that your web pages load rapidly. NGINX extension prioritizes human demands over robotic demands and provides load balancing, giving your visitors a much better experience. For its part, CDN delivers website material to your visitors based upon their location to boost your site’s speed and decrease latency. You get this capability totally free with all WP Engine plans.
High Performance: It’s tough to beat WP Engine’s performance, which is why people continue to pay a premium cost 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 improved SLA, which translates to a little under an hour of downtime each year. WP Engine will compensate you with hosting credit if your uptime falls listed below the warranty.
Advanced Security: WP Engine monitors all the traffic going to your site and automatically spots and blocks potential attacks. Additionally, the hosting service automatically updates and spots the WordPress core to remove prospective 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. Lastly, this hosting service protects your site versus JavaScript/SQL-injection attacks, strength attempts, and DDoS attacks.
Remarkable Customer Support: The hosting service has a transparent and trackable ticketing system to get in touch with client care by means of chat. The assistance group has an outstanding knowledge base and can assist you resolve problems quickly. You get 24/7 phone support for all strategies except the Growth Plan, in addition to 24/7 live chat support on all strategies.
Useful Staging Environment: The staging area enables you to clone your website’s live variation and make changes or evaluate new plugins and themes. Anything you do in the staging area does not impact your live site. This feature permits designers to work on websites without disrupting the live website’s functionality or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting developers, this function allows you to develop a site from your WP Engine account. You do not have to await the client to add you to their WordPress site. Once finished, you can transfer the website to the client or host the website on WP Engine. This functionality conserves time if you routinely develop 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 works with WordPress. From a business perspective, it makes good sense to focus on a single market and offer extraordinary services in that location. Nevertheless, this design locks out many people who could otherwise benefit from WP Engine’s services.
No Domains or Email Hosting: If you choose to host your e-mail account and register your domain through your website host, you’ll need to look elsewhere. You’ll have 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 prices structure. You will be penalized for surpassing your plan’s visitor limitations. This might not be an issue if you have predictable traffic, and you can constantly update your plan as your website grows. However, substantial spikes in traffic throughout product launches or seasonal business can cost you considerable overage charges.
There is no other method to put it: WP Engine is pricey. Is it worth the expense? The response depends on determining what you are spending for.
You can get shared hosting that can deal with the exact same amount of traffic as WP Engine for a portion of the cost. You can even get devoted hosting for the same price as WP Engine. What you are actually spending for here is security, efficiency, speed, and, most significantly, peace of mind. 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 efficiency & not having to think excessive about upkeep, security & speed. If you look at WP Engine’s prices based upon the features you’re getting- you really don’t get a whole lot.
And if you are the type who will consider your site’s health anyway (ie, keeping WordPress upgraded and typically logging in often), you’ll likely be spending for “management” that is superfluous.
Numerous shared hosting servers can manage the very 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+ visits in a 24 hour period when a post of mine And if you are running a reliable VPS, you can certainly handle a lot more for much less. The website you are on handles more than 110,000+ gos to per month with plenty of space 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 strategy.
They are fairly transparent about how they count sees, but it can still be rather a surprise for “little” site owners how quickly they can get into the $290 per month tier. I have a client who started with the Startup plan, however rapidly ended up with a custom strategy.
And as mentioned earlier that does not even consist of a lot of the features you don’t get with WP Engine’s plans. You can’t run any email from your servers. You have low limits on local media storage. Anything above the limits needs additional costs & technical application 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 websites, you need to factor those into the cost. You can’t use them to spread out the expense of your plan- specifically if you are hitting your visitor cap instead of your set up cap.
If you are looking to spend for hosting- ie, a server that will hold & dish out your website files- WP Engine is a pricey alternative, particularly compared to other non-managed hosting choices.
Startup
The Startup plan is the most fundamental strategy and will set you back $25 monthly. With this plan, you get:.
25,000 gos to each month.
50GB bandwidth per month.
10GB storage.
One website included.
WP Engine targets small websites and blogs 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 do not wish to take any opportunities with uptime or require an assurance that your site can manage 25,000 visitors each month, WP Engine is a sure thing. We ‘d advise this choice to small companies, affiliate websites, and blog sites making great cash and want guarantees that nothing will change.
You can conserve $60 each year or two months free if you pay yearly.
Growth
The development strategy targets growing organizations and will cost you $95 per month. Here you get:.
100,000 sees each month.
200GB bandwidth monthly.
25GB storage.
Ten sites consisted of a while.
This strategy is an excellent entry point for a growing company, and it might be a while before you need to update. 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 useful if you have an intricate concern that you need to deal with quickly.
You can save a cool $230 or 2 months totally free with yearly billing.
Scale
WP Engine advertises its scale strategy as the best worth option. This one expenses $241 each month. Here you get:.
400,000 sees each month.
500GB bandwidth per month.
50GB storage.
30 sites consisted of.
We advise this alternative for a fast-growing blog or service. You get access to 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone support in addition to the support.
You can save $580 or two months totally free with annual pre-paid billing.
Custom
Finally, if you have a mission-critical site or large company, the Custom plan might be appealing. With this strategy, you get:.
Millions of visits monthly.
400GB+ bandwidth per month.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 sites included.
You will need to speak with a sales rep to get your tailored quote depending on your requirements. This plan also provides exclusive support needs to something fail.
Migrate WordPress websites in just a few clicks.
Strong Uptime
WP Engine attains over 99% uptime thanks to its first-rate network facilities.
The company also has three 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 market.
WP Engine obstructs malicious attacks on your site.
Speed & Performance
There are a lot of variables that enter into site speed, however the guideline is that the more intricate your website is, the more complicated the options to speed ended up being.
Out of the box- WordPress is fairly lean and fast. If you are running a mostly text website with a couple of basic plugins and a few little images, you’ll be great with an inexpensive shared hosting strategy from someone like InMotion HostGator Bluehost But couple of site owners keep their WordPress install lean. There’s typically extra plugins, customized style files, great deals of images, widgets, ads, kinds and more.
All these functions combined with good levels of traffic can begin to decrease your WordPress setup.
A sluggish site does not imply that you require a larger, much better server. It does mean that you need to get smarter about speed. In some cases it’s as easy as getting a more powerful server, however often it’s more about caching certain resources in a particular order and enhancing your files. In other words- it gets complex.
Picture you are trying to carry a trailer with a pickup. Imagine your trailer keeps getting much heavier. It’s meaningless to keep complaining that your truck is not big enough when you may just need to remove the emergency brake, set up a turbocharger, revitalize the transmission fluid and consolidate your load.
The point is that WordPress requires aid to stay quickly as you grow. There are plenty of options … but either you or a designer should execute them.
That’s where managed WordPress hosting comes in. WP Engine looks after (nearly) all speed concerns. They have actually tailored servers with exceptionally aggressive caching and a lot more innovative “stack” than a common web host. They likewise have trained support who will enter into your WordPress install and identify the precise chokepoint to get your website moving.
They don’t even enable caching plugins on their installs since they have such a tailored caching setup.
The fascinating thing is that even unoptimized WordPress sets up still do well 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 bloated theme, extra scripts, too many uncompressed images, to name a few things)- Note the Time To First Byte and the Start Render numbers. That measures how rapidly the server returned enough data to begin filling the page.
It’s great to have that kind of speed right out of package- 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 much better numbers with WP Engine than you may get with other services considering that you are free to focus on speed factors that you can easily manage like image compression, usage of scripts, etc
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not only supplies an integrated CDN, however they also offer worldwide data 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 considering that they operate on Google Cloud, you do not need to stress over uptime either.
CDN Included
All plans consist of a worldwide CDN (material shipment network).
The CDN will help your site load quick for consumers 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 websites are WordPress sites, according to Sucuri, a web security firm. Often the “open doors” are plugins that weren’t updated.
Securing websites is one of the strengths of WP Engine’s handled WordPress hosting service.
The business takes numerous measures to secure WordPress sites:.
WP Engine runs everyday malware/virus scans in collaboration with Sucuri.
They keep an eye on an updated firewall to obstruct the latest threats.
All sites are backed up daily.
You get a one-click bring back function that can help you recover your site in case of an attack.
The WP Engine site 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 concerning security.
They offer webinars on security.
They publish security standards and checklists for designers and engineers.
If your website gets hacked, WPE will clean it totally free.
Online Resources
WP Engine offers webinars, guides, post, updates, tutorials, and a knowledgebase. With these you can learn how to:.
Introduce your very first website.
Troubleshoot common problems.
Make improvements to your site.
Handle your hosting account with higher 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 warranty on all subscription costs is distinct in the hosting industry.
It enables you to check out the service in a safe way.
Note: this option is not readily available on customized hosting plans.
Is WP Engine Worth It?
Like any service, it’s not about what is finest overall, but what is best for you based upon your objectives, budget plan, resources & routines.
If you remain in what I think of as WP Engine’s core markets- they provide an excellent service with a solid product. As a handled WordPress host, their pricing is competitive. They provide more functions than “WordPress hosting” strategies from other hosting brands. Their feature-set is unequaled for savvy DIYers, WordPress website developers and/or high-traffic sites that do not want to stress over hosting concerns.
If handled hosting is a suitable 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 think of their backend. Be sure to talk w/ support & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.