There are a lot of low-cost hosts available that offer a good service. WPEngine User Roles
Nevertheless, what if you’re trying to find more of a performance-oriented, concierge service? In that case, you’ll wish to check out our WP Engine review for WordPress.
WP Engine is a WordPress-specific webhosting, using managed plans that are completely optimized for the platform. Of course, when compared to numerous other WordPress hosts, WP Engine’s plans aren’t exactly inexpensive. You’ll want to know whether this hosting service is worth the expense prior to making a purchase.
To help you out, we’re going to carry out a comprehensive WP Engine review for WordPress. We’ll discuss its crucial features, assistance options, efficiency abilities, and everything else you’ll need to understand. Let’s get started!
WP Engine Video Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnf3do933oY
Sign up for a WP Engine plan and receive the Genesis Framework and 35+ StudioPress Themes free!
About WP Engine
Founded in 2010, WP Engine is now one of the leading managed WordPress hosting companies in the market. Serial business owner Jason Cohen started WP Engine when he saw a need for specialized WordPress hosting due to the rising 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 business has actually won numerous awards for Best Place to Work in Austin and regularly adds to the WordPress core and neighborhood.
WP Engine Features
The core reasons to pick WP Engine over more affordable WordPress hosting are increased dependability, efficiency, support, and management, however these are hard to measure. Some functions stand out when you browse the interface, however, that can offer you some insight into the service provided.
WP Engine Page Performance is a neat tool created to assist you accelerate your WordPress site by offering meaningful 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 fill in its entirety, 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 minimize 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 site before it goes live. This is called Staging, and it permits your designers to make comprehensive changes to your website without affecting your consumers.
WP Engine has a detailed list of plugins that are disallowed (Image credit: WP Engine) In a reasonably unusual move, WP Engine limits the WordPress plugins you can set up. Those normally restricted are plugins that have actually been kept in mind to cause efficiency concerns and security holes. For essential 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 strategies include limitless information transfer. The plans differ based on:
- number of WordPress installs
- traffic volume (# of visits per month)
- disk storage amount
- Custom strategy consists of dedicated dev. environments, consumer success, and priority assistance
WP Engine includes some special functions for WordPress users that most hosts do not offer, or charge extra for. These unique features consist of:.
- Git version control
- Staging: immediately produce a copy of your website for screening
- Easy transferable installs from totally free to paid accounts
- Cutting edge innovations including latest PHP version.
In our WP Engine review, we discovered that WP Engine uses the most innovative and comprehensive managed WordPress hosting functions.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.
Interface and in use
WP Engine’s interface is expert and well set out, but the effective functions might mean a high learning curve for unskilled users. If you have an understanding of terms like Git, CNAME, and reroute rules, you’ll be right in the house here, but otherwise you’ll require to invest some time on the assistance website.
In our testing, the default WordPress home page packed in simply over 2 seconds. This is among the fastest actions we’ve evaluated, with competitor Liquid Web just a little behind.
Assistance
A managed WordPress service should provide additional value through its assistance, and WP Engine delivers. The support site includes videos and posts of a quality you ‘d anticipate from a paid training course, with help 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 reaction was quick and the agent experienced. For all plans except for single-site strategies, there’s telephone assistance, too.
Pros
Extraordinary Load Speed: If site packing speed is a top priority, WP Engine succeeds in this regard. The host’s mix of customized NGINX extension, integrated Content Delivery Network (CDN), and SSD technology guarantee that your websites load quickly. NGINX extension focuses on human requests over robotic requests and uses load balancing, giving your visitors a better experience. For its part, CDN provides website content to your visitors based on their location to enhance your website’s speed and decrease latency. You get this capability for free with all WP Engine strategies.
High Performance: It’s difficult to beat WP Engine’s efficiency, which is why individuals continue to pay a premium cost for this service. WP Engine guarantees 99.95% server uptime, roughly 4 and a half hours of downtime a year. You can further increase your uptime to 99.99% with improved SLA, which equates 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 guarantee.
Advanced Security: WP Engine monitors all the traffic going to your website and automatically finds and obstructs prospective attacks. Furthermore, the hosting service immediately updates and spots the WordPress core to remove prospective vulnerabilities. In a worst-case situation, WP Engine immediately backups your site every day and has a one-click repair feature to get you back up and running quickly. This hosting service safeguards your website 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 client care through chat. The assistance team has an exceptional knowledge base and can help you fix 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 plans.
Useful Staging Environment: The staging area permits you to clone your site’s live version and make changes or test new plugins and themes. Anything you do in the staging area doesn’t affect your live website. This feature permits designers to work on sites without disrupting the live site’s functionality or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting developers, this feature allows you to develop a website from your WP Engine account. You do not need to wait on the client to include you to their WordPress website. Once completed, you can move the website to the client or host the site on WP Engine. This performance conserves time if you routinely develop websites for clients.
Cons
WordPress-Only Hosting: If you are utilizing any other content management system aside from WordPress, then you run out luck. WP Engine just deals with WordPress. From a business point of view, it makes sense to focus on a single market and deal remarkable services because area. This model locks out lots of 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 require to look in other places. You’ll have 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 rates structure. You will be penalized for exceeding your plan’s visitor limitations. This may not be an issue if you have predictable traffic, and you can constantly update your strategy as your site grows. However, significant spikes in traffic during product launches or seasonal business can cost you considerable overage charges.
There is no other way to put it: WP Engine is costly. Is it worth the cost? The response lies in finding out what you are spending for.
You can get shared hosting that can manage the same quantity of traffic as WP Engine for a portion of the cost. You can even get devoted hosting for the exact same cost as WP Engine. What you are truly paying for here is security, performance, speed, and, most importantly, 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 efficiency & not having to believe excessive about upkeep, security & speed. If you look at WP Engine’s rates based upon the features you’re getting- you truly don’t get a whole lot.
And if you are the type who will consider your website’s health anyway (ie, keeping WordPress upgraded and normally logging in regularly), you’ll likely be paying for “management” that is superfluous.
Lots of shared hosting servers can deal with the exact same traffic numbers as WP Engine- and cost a fraction of the rate. My individual website a shared hosting strategy from HostGator with basic caching) dealt with more than 15,000+ check outs in a 24 hour duration when a post of mine And if you are running a dependable VPS, you can definitely deal with a lot more for much less. In fact, the site you are on handles more than 110,000+ check outs per month with lots of room left to spare for side-projects, gigabytes of media, e-mail, RSS apps, etc with an InMotion VPS. I pay for the VPS plus a CDN for less than WP Engine’s starter plan.
They are relatively transparent about how they count visits, however it can still be rather a surprise for “little” site owners how rapidly they can enter the $290 each month tier. I have a client who began with the Startup plan, however quickly ended up with a customized strategy.
And as discussed previously that does not even include a number of the functions you don’t get with WP Engine’s plans. You can’t run any e-mail from your servers. You have low limits on local media storage. Anything above the limits needs extra expenses & technical implementation of Amazon cloud services.
And most notably for me- you are restricted on your installs. If you have a few side projects or low-traffic test sites, you have to factor those into the cost. You can’t utilize them to spread out the expense of your plan- specifically if you are striking your visitor cap rather than your install cap.
If you are aiming to spend for hosting- ie, a server that will hold & provide your website files- WP Engine is a pricey alternative, particularly compared to other non-managed hosting choices.
Startup
The Startup package is the most fundamental strategy and will set you back $25 per month. With this plan, you get:.
25,000 gos to each month.
50GB bandwidth each month.
10GB storage.
One site included.
WP Engine targets small websites and blog sites with this plan, however we think it might be overkill for most people in this classification. You can get a far much better deal with shared hosting at Bluehost However, if you don’t want to take any possibilities with uptime or require a warranty that your website can manage 25,000 visitors monthly, WP Engine is a sure bet. We ‘d suggest this choice to small companies, affiliate websites, and blog sites making good cash and desire assurances that absolutely nothing will change.
You can conserve $60 each year or more months complimentary if you pay each year.
Growth
The development plan targets growing companies and will cost you $95 each month. Here you get:.
100,000 sees monthly.
200GB bandwidth monthly.
25GB storage.
Ten websites included a while.
This strategy is an excellent entry point for a growing service, and it might be a while prior to you require to update. With this plan, you also get 24/7 phone assistance in addition to round-the-clock chat assistance. This addition will come in handy if you have an intricate concern that you need to resolve rapidly.
You can save a cool $230 or 2 months free with annual billing.
Scale
WP Engine promotes its scale strategy as the very best value choice. This one costs $241 per month. Here you get:.
400,000 sees each month.
500GB bandwidth per month.
50GB storage.
30 sites consisted of.
We recommend 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.
You can save $580 or more months totally free with yearly pre-paid billing.
Custom-made
If you have a mission-critical site or large business, the Custom plan might be appealing. With this strategy, you get:.
Millions of gos to each month.
400GB+ bandwidth monthly.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 websites included.
You will have to speak to a sales associate to get your customized quote depending upon your requirements. This strategy also uses proprietary support must something fail.
Migrate WordPress websites in just a few clicks.
Solid Uptime
WP Engine achieves over 99% uptime thanks to its world-class network facilities.
The company also has three information 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 obstructs destructive attacks on your site.
Speed & Performance
There are a great deal of variables that go into website speed, however the guideline is that the more complicated your site is, the more complicated the services to speed become.
Out of the box- WordPress is relatively lean and quick. If you are running a mostly text website with a few basic plugins and a couple of small images, you’ll be fine with a cost effective shared hosting plan from someone like InMotion HostGator Bluehost But few site owners keep their WordPress install lean. There’s normally extra plugins, custom-made theme files, great deals of images, widgets, advertisements, kinds and more.
All these functions combined with decent levels of traffic can start to slow down your WordPress setup.
But a sluggish site does not indicate that you require a bigger, better server. It does suggest that you require to get smarter about speed. Often it’s as easy as getting a more effective server, however in some cases it’s more about caching particular resources in a specific order and optimizing your files. In other words- it gets complex.
Picture you are attempting to carry a trailer with a pickup. Picture your trailer keeps getting heavier. It’s meaningless to keep grumbling that your truck is not big enough when you might simply require to get rid of the emergency brake, set up a turbocharger, revitalize the transmission fluid and consolidate your load.
The point is that WordPress requires assistance to remain quick as you grow. There are lots of options … however either you or a developer need to implement them.
That’s where managed WordPress hosting can be found in. WP Engine looks after (almost) all speed concerns. They have actually customized servers with very aggressive caching and even more advanced “stack” than a normal web host. They also have trained assistance who will enter into your WordPress set up and recognize the exact chokepoint to get your website moving.
They do not even enable caching plugins on their installs because they have such a customized caching setup.
The interesting thing is that even unoptimized WordPress sets up still succeed on their platform because 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, a lot of 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 data to begin filling the page.
It’s great to have that sort of speed right out of package- and have it stay that way no matter how big or intricate the website gets.
* Note that the other point here is that if you are consumed about speed, you can get even much better numbers with WP Engine than you might get with other services since you are free to concentrate on speed factors that you can quickly manage like image compression, usage of scripts, and so on
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not just offers an integrated CDN, but they likewise supply international information centers in case your audience is mostly in Asia and/or Europe.
If you are attempting to get top speeds without tinkering layered caching plugins- the WP Engine does precisely that. And since they run on Google Cloud, you don’t need to fret about uptime either.
CDN Included
All plans include an international CDN (content shipment network).
The CDN will help your site load quickly for clients worldwide 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. Often the “open doors” are plugins that weren’t updated.
Protecting websites is one of the fortes of WP Engine’s managed WordPress hosting service.
The company takes numerous steps to protect WordPress websites:.
WP Engine runs everyday malware/virus scans in collaboration with Sucuri.
They keep an eye on an upgraded firewall program to obstruct the current risks.
All sites are supported daily.
You get a one-click restore function that can help you recuperate your website in case of an attack.
The WP Engine site offers 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 regarding security.
They provide webinars on security.
They publish security standards and checklists for designers and engineers.
If your website gets hacked, WPE will clean it free of charge.
Online Resources
WP Engine supplies webinars, guides, blog posts, updates, tutorials, and a knowledgebase. With these you can discover how to:.
Release your very first website.
Troubleshoot typical problems.
Make improvements to your site.
Manage your hosting account with higher performance.
Both beginners and skilled WordPress site owners will discover the assistance documentation indispensable.
WP Engine’s 60-Day Guarantee
WP Engine’s 60-day money-back guarantee on all membership charges is special in the hosting industry.
It enables you to experiment with the service in a safe way.
Keep in mind: this option is not available on custom 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 upon your goals, budget plan, resources & practices.
If you remain in what I consider WP Engine’s core markets- they offer an excellent service with a strong product. As a handled WordPress host, their pricing is competitive. They use more features than “WordPress hosting” strategies from other hosting brand names. Their feature-set is unmatched for savvy DIYers, WordPress website designers and/or high-traffic sites that do not want to stress over hosting problems.
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 warranty. So do a test install and see what you think of their backend. Be sure to chat w/ assistance & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.