There are a lot of cheap hosts offered that offer a decent service. WPEngine Wiki
What if you’re looking for more of a performance-oriented, concierge service? Because case, you’ll wish to have a look at our WP Engine review for WordPress.
WP Engine is a WordPress-specific webhosting, providing managed plans that are completely enhanced for the platform. Of course, when compared to numerous other WordPress hosts, WP Engine’s plans aren’t precisely cheap. For that reason, you’ll want to know whether this hosting service is worth the cost before buying.
To assist you out, we’re going to carry out a comprehensive WP Engine review for WordPress. We’ll discuss its essential features, assistance alternatives, efficiency abilities, and everything else you’ll require to understand. 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 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 business 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 factors to select WP Engine over less expensive WordPress hosting are increased reliability, efficiency, support, and management, however these are difficult to quantify. Some functions stand apart when you search the interface, nevertheless, that can offer you some insight into the service offered.
WP Engine Page Performance is a cool tool developed to help you accelerate your WordPress website by providing significant metrics on performance.
Running a test returns you a page-performance report that details how rapidly your page rendered, the length of time it took to load in its totality, and the total size of the page. It even consists of historical information on your site’s performance over the past 6 months and suggestions on how you can reduce page load.
You can establish your WordPress site in a Staging or Development environment before making the changes live (Image credit: WP Engine) Avoid awkward 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 developers to make extensive modifications to your website without affecting your clients.
WP Engine has a comprehensive list of plugins that are disallowed (Image credit: WP Engine) In a relatively uncommon relocation, WP Engine restricts the WordPress plugins you can install. Those generally restricted are plugins that have actually been noted to trigger efficiency issues and security holes. For crucial features such as caching, backups, and search engine optimization tools, WP Engine has made alternatives available that don’t put a high load on the server.
WP Engine Hosting Plans
WP Engine just offers managed WordPress hosting. There are 5 different plans offered: Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom.
All strategies consist of limitless data transfer. The strategies vary based on:
- 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 consists of some distinct functions for WordPress users that many hosts don’t use, or charge additional for. These unique functions consist of:.
- Git version control
- Staging: quickly produce a copy of your website for testing
- Easy transferable installs from free to paid accounts
- Leading edge technologies consisting of latest PHP version.
In our WP Engine review, we found that WP Engine uses the most sophisticated and detailed managed WordPress hosting functions.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.
User interface and in use
WP Engine’s interface is professional and well set out, but the effective functions might mean a steep learning curve for inexperienced users. If you have an understanding of terms like Git, CNAME, and reroute guidelines, you’ll be right in the house here, however otherwise you’ll require to spend a long time on the assistance website.
In our screening, the default WordPress home page packed in just over 2 seconds. This is one of the fastest responses we’ve tested, with rival Liquid Web just a little behind.
Support
A managed WordPress service should use additional value through its assistance, and WP Engine delivers. The assistance site consists of videos and articles of a quality you ‘d anticipate from a paid training course, with help on 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 reaction was quick and the representative educated. For all strategies except for single-site strategies, there’s telephone support, too.
Pros
Exceptional Load Speed: If site packing speed is a leading concern, WP Engine succeeds in this regard. The host’s mix of customized NGINX extension, built-in Content Delivery Network (CDN), and SSD innovation guarantee that your websites load rapidly. NGINX extension focuses on human requests over robotic requests and uses load balancing, providing your visitors a better experience. For its part, CDN delivers website content to your visitors based on their area to boost your site’s speed and reduce latency. You get this ability totally free with all WP Engine plans.
High Performance: It’s difficult to beat WP Engine’s efficiency, which is why people continue to pay a premium price for this service. WP Engine ensures 99.95% server uptime, roughly 4 and a half hours of downtime a year. You can even more increase your uptime to 99.99% with boosted 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 below the guarantee.
Advanced Security: WP Engine keeps track of all the traffic going to your site and instantly spots and blocks possible attacks. Additionally, the hosting service automatically updates and patches the WordPress core to get rid of prospective vulnerabilities. In a worst-case scenario, WP Engine instantly backups your website every day and has a one-click repair feature to get you support and running quickly. This hosting service secures your site against JavaScript/SQL-injection attacks, brute force efforts, and DDoS attacks.
Extraordinary Customer Support: The hosting service has a transparent and trackable ticketing system to get in touch with customer care through chat. The support group has an exceptional knowledge base and can assist you fix problems quickly. You get 24/7 phone support 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 permits you to clone your site’s live version and make changes or check new plugins and styles. Anything you do in the staging area does not affect your live website. This function allows developers to work on websites without hindering the live site’s performance or user experience.
Transferable Installs: Also targeting designers, this feature enables you to build a website from your WP Engine account. You do not need to await the client to include you to their WordPress site. As soon as finished, you can transfer the website to the client or host the website on WP Engine. This functionality conserves time if you frequently construct 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 only works with WordPress. From a service viewpoint, it makes sense to concentrate on a single market and deal remarkable services in that area. However, this design locks out many individuals who might otherwise gain 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 site host, you’ll need to look elsewhere. 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 reflected in its rates structure. You will be punished for surpassing your strategy’s visitor limits. This might not be a problem if you have predictable traffic, and you can always upgrade your strategy as your site grows. Considerable spikes in traffic during item launches or seasonal service can cost you considerable overage charges.
There is no other method to put it: WP Engine is expensive. Is it worth the expense? The answer depends on finding out what you are paying for.
You can get shared hosting that can manage the exact same amount of traffic as WP Engine for a fraction of the price. You can even get committed hosting for the very same price as WP Engine. What you are really paying for here is security, performance, speed, and, most significantly, comfort. The ultimate question is how much these things deserve to you.
Plans and Pricing
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With a WP Engine strategy, you are generally spending for performance & not needing to think too much about maintenance, security & speed. If you look at WP Engine’s prices based on the features you’re getting- you truly don’t get a whole lot.
And if you are the type who will think of your website’s health anyhow (ie, keeping WordPress upgraded and usually logging in frequently), you’ll likely be paying for “management” that is unneeded.
Lots of shared hosting servers can handle the same traffic numbers as WP Engine- and cost a fraction of the cost. My personal site a shared hosting plan from HostGator with basic caching) handled more than 15,000+ check outs in a 24 hour period when a post of mine And if you are running a trustworthy VPS, you can definitely handle a lot more for much less. The website you are on manages more than 110,000+ sees per month with plenty of space 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 fairly transparent about how they count visits, but it can still be quite a surprise for “little” website owners how rapidly they can enter the $290 each month tier. I have a customer who started with the Startup strategy, but quickly wound up with a custom plan.
And as mentioned earlier that doesn’t even include much of the functions you don’t get with WP Engine’s strategies. You can’t run any e-mail from your servers. You have low limits on regional media storage. Anything above the limits needs additional expenses & technical application of Amazon cloud services.
And most significantly 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 use them to spread out the expense of your plan- especially if you are striking your visitor cap rather than your install cap.
If you are looking to spend for hosting- ie, a server that will hold & serve up your site files- WP Engine is an expensive choice, especially compared to other non-managed hosting choices.
Start-up
The Startup bundle is one of the most fundamental plan and will set you back $25 each month. With this bundle, you get:.
25,000 sees each month.
50GB bandwidth per month.
10GB storage.
One website included.
WP Engine targets small sites and blog sites with this plan, however we believe it may be overkill for the majority of people in this classification. You can get a far better handle shared hosting at Bluehost However, if you don’t want to take any opportunities with uptime or need a warranty that your site can manage 25,000 visitors each month, WP Engine is a certainty. We ‘d recommend this alternative to small businesses, affiliate sites, and blogs making good money and desire assurances that absolutely nothing will change.
You can conserve $60 per year or 2 months totally free if you pay annually.
Growth
The growth strategy targets growing companies and will cost you $95 monthly. Here you get:.
100,000 gos to monthly.
200GB bandwidth per month.
25GB storage.
Ten sites included a while.
This strategy is a terrific entry point for a growing company, and it might be a while prior to you require to upgrade. With this plan, you also get 24/7 phone assistance in addition to day-and-night chat support. This addition will can be found in helpful if you have an intricate issue that you need to fix quickly.
You can save a cool $230 or two months complimentary with annual billing.
Scale
WP Engine promotes its scale plan as the very best value alternative. This one costs $241 each month. Here you get:.
400,000 visits monthly.
500GB bandwidth each month.
50GB storage.
30 sites included.
We suggest this alternative for a fast-growing blog or business. You get access to 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone support in addition to the support center.
You can conserve $580 or more months totally free with yearly pre-paid billing.
Custom
Lastly, if you have a mission-critical site or large service, the Custom plan might be appealing. With this strategy, you get:.
Countless visits per month.
400GB+ bandwidth per month.
100GB-1TB storage.
30 websites consisted of.
You will need to speak to a sales representative to get your tailored quote depending upon your requirements. This strategy likewise uses exclusive support needs to 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 likewise has 3 data centers in London, Tokyo, and Midwest USA.
As a result, you can improve website speeds by picking 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 go into website speed, however the general rule is that the more intricate your website is, the more intricate the services to speed ended up being.
Out of package- WordPress is fairly lean and fast. If you are running a mainly text site with a couple of standard plugins and a couple of little images, you’ll be great with a budget-friendly shared hosting plan from someone like InMotion HostGator Bluehost But couple of site owners keep their WordPress set up lean. There’s generally extra plugins, custom-made style files, great deals of images, widgets, advertisements, kinds and more.
All these functions combined with decent levels of traffic can start to decrease your WordPress installation.
But a slow site does not suggest that you need a bigger, much better server. It does imply that you require to get smarter about speed. Sometimes it’s as simple as getting a more effective server, however sometimes it’s more about caching particular resources in a specific order and optimizing your files. To put it simply- it gets complex.
Envision you are trying to haul a trailer with a pickup. Picture your trailer keeps getting much heavier. It’s meaningless to keep complaining that your truck is not big enough when you may simply require to get rid of the emergency brake, set up a turbocharger, refresh the transmission fluid and combine your load.
The point is that WordPress requires assistance to remain fast as you grow. There are a lot of options … but either you or a developer should execute them.
That’s where managed WordPress hosting comes in. WP Engine takes care of (almost) all speed issues. They have actually tailored servers with extremely aggressive caching and a lot more sophisticated “stack” than a typical webhosting. They likewise have actually trained support who will go into your WordPress install and recognize the exact chokepoint to get your site moving.
They don’t even allow caching plugins on their installs due to the fact that they have actually such a personalized caching setup.
The interesting thing is that even unoptimized WordPress installs still do well on their platform since their platform does the extra work.
Here’s the speed test for among my customers on WP Engine (who has a bloated theme, extra scripts, a lot of uncompressed images, among other things)- Note the Time To First Byte and the Start Render numbers. That determines how quickly the server returned enough information to begin filling the page.
It’s nice to have that sort of speed right out of the box- and have it remain that way no matter how huge or intricate the website 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 might get with other services because you are totally free to focus on speed elements that you can easily control like image compression, use of scripts, and so on
. The last observation on speed- WP Engine not just offers an incorporated CDN, however they likewise offer international data centers in case your audience is mostly in Asia and/or Europe.
If you are trying to get top speeds without tinkering layered caching plugins- the WP Engine does exactly that. And since they run on Google Cloud, you don’t have to worry about uptime either.
CDN Included
All strategies consist of an international CDN (material delivery network).
The CDN will assist your site load quick for clients all over the world by serving it to them from the network node that’s geographically closest to them.
Security and Backups
An estimated 78% of hacked sites are WordPress sites, according to Sucuri, a web security firm. Regularly the “open doors” are plugins that weren’t updated.
Protecting websites is one of the strong points of WP Engine’s managed WordPress hosting service.
The company takes numerous procedures to protect WordPress websites:.
WP Engine runs everyday malware/virus scans in partnership with Sucuri.
They keep track of an upgraded firewall software to block the most recent hazards.
All sites are supported daily.
You get a one-click restore function that can assist you recuperate your website in case of an attack.
The WP Engine site 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 concerning security.
They supply webinars on security.
They release security standards and checklists for developers and engineers.
If your site gets hacked, WPE will clean it totally free.
Online Resources
WP Engine provides webinars, guides, post, updates, tutorials, and a knowledgebase. With these you can find out how to:.
Release your first site.
Troubleshoot common issues.
Make improvements to your website.
Handle your hosting account with higher efficiency.
Both newbies and experienced WordPress site owners will discover the support documentation invaluable.
WP Engine’s 60-Day Guarantee
WP Engine’s 60-day money-back warranty on all membership costs is unique in the hosting industry.
It allows you to try the service in a risk-free way.
Note: this alternative is not readily available on customized hosting strategies.
Is WP Engine Worth It?
Like any service, it’s not about what is best overall, but what is best for you based upon your goals, budget plan, resources & practices.
If you are in what I think of as WP Engine’s core markets- they use a fantastic service with a strong product. As a managed WordPress host, their rates is competitive. They use more features than “WordPress hosting” plans from other hosting brand names. Their feature-set is unequaled for savvy DIYers, WordPress website designers and/or high-traffic sites that do not wish to worry about hosting problems.
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 assurance. So do a test set up and see what you think about their backend. Make certain to talk w/ support & sales.
Get 3 months free when you sign up for WP Engine.