Without question, WordPress is the most popular content management system on the planet today. It is easy to use, highly customizable, and versatile enough to power websites of almost all scales, from small personal blogs to big businesses. Because of this, there are a lot of WordPress-oriented hosting providers in the market today, and WP Engine is among the most popular out there. The self-claimed #1 platform for WordPress, WP Engine provides WordPress solutions for all kinds of businesses. They have an enormous -and still growing- user base, and they are pretty confident with the quality of their products and services. So, if you are thinking about starting a WordPress site, or migrating your existing one to a new host, you should definitely consider WP Engine. But should you pick it over other WordPress-focused alternatives? Continue reading and find out for yourself!
Here is our detailed WP Engine hosting review.
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WP Engine Website Performance
First, let’s check out WP Engine’s performance and pricing basics:
Speed: 337 ms (average)
Uptime: %99.99 (average)
Support: 24/7/365 live chat support, 24/7/365 live phone support available on most plans, support center with guides on important topics
Apps: WordPress, WooCommerce
Hosting Plans: Managed WordPress hosting, e-commerce hosting, enterprise WordPress hosting
Pricing: Starting at $25.00/mo
Cancellation: 60-day money-back guarantee
About WP Engine
Preferred by more than 1.5 million websites in 150 countries around the globe, WP Engine is one of the leading brands when it comes to managed WordPress hosting. WP Engine was awarded “The Best Web Hosting Service for 2021” by PC Mag. The company is a partner of Google, New Relic, and AWS, and optimizes their technology for WordPress.
WP Engine Hosting Packages & Prices
WP Engine offers several hosting packages, including Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom. The Startup plan is suitable for small websites or blogs, while the Growth plan is ideal for growing websites with higher traffic. The Scale plan is designed for high-traffic websites, and the Custom plan is tailored to meet specific needs and requirements. Each plan has different features and pricing options.
In addition to general packages, WP Engine also offers enterprise-level solutions. The company’s enterprise WordPress platform provides a highly scalable infrastructure with advanced-level security and white-glove customer service. And then there is Atlas, marketed as “The Future of Headless WordPress”, which includes Headless WordPress and dynamic Node.js combined in one package with a modern framework, for unparalleled speed and performance. For these advanced solutions, users will have to contact the company to get offers and prices.
WP Engine Pros and Cons
WP Engine has a lot of plus sides, but of course, not all that glitters is gold. Now let’s take a quick look at some of the main pros and cons of the provider.
Pros
😊 Custom plans available: Larger businesses may require more than the standard plans provided by the hosting companies, and WP Engine recognizes that. They provide custom packages for managed WordPress hosting, as well as e-commerce hosting plans- not to mention their enterprise solutions for large-scale sites.
😊 Free premium WordPress themes: WP Engine gives out 10 premium WordPress themes for managed WordPress plan registrations, which is a big plus.
😊 Free SSL, CDN & site backups: To increase site security & performance, WP Engine provides free SSL & SSH, as well as daily & on-demand backups and CDN.
😊 Fast loading times: In this age, speed is everything- both for users, and search engines. WP Engine’s servers are optimized for WordPress, and their loading times are impressive.
😊 Expert WordPress support: WP Engine support team are WordPress experts, and they are available to assists you 24/7/365 with your site.
😊 A wide range of optional addons: From performance trackers to advanced security measures, WP Engine provides a very wide range of addons that users can purchase with their hosting plans, to customize their sites easily according to their needs.
Cons
☹ No free domains or e-mail: Unlike several other providers, WP Engine does not provide free domains or e-mails with its WordPress hosting or e-commerce hosting plans. They obviously do offer a lot of free features -such as SSL and CDN- but considering their prices, lack of domain and e-mails may be a dealbreaker for some.
☹ Relatively high costs: When compared to most other hosting companies, WP Engines WordPress hosting prices are high. It may be argued that their services and performance is worth it, but still, if you are on a budget, you may want to check out other alternatives.
☹ WordPress-only hosting: This obviously might not be a problem for WordPress users -which are many!- but if you want to use another content management system -such as Drupal or Joomla- you should check out other providers.
Additional Features/Products for Websites
To help its users build beautiful, fast, and highly functional websites using WordPress, WP Engine offers a number of additional features/products, which can be optionally purchased via WordPress managed and/or e-commerce hosting plans:
- Smart Plugin Manager – Automated plugin maintenance
- Account Team – A team of customer and technical success managers to make sure you meet your goals
- Global Edge Security – An enterprise-level addon for maximum security, this comes with features such as DDOS mitigation, Web Application Firewall, Cloudflare CDN, and automatic SSL installation.
- Genesis Pro – A professional toolkit that includes premium blocks, premium themes, and custom developer tools
- GeoTarget – A sophisticated service for serving visitors specific content based on their location.
- Application Monitoring – Help users monitor the performance of their WordPress themes, plugins and more!
- WordPress Multisite – Converts a site to a WordPress multisite.
WP Engine Security
In this age, site security is not a luxury, but a necessity, and thankfully, it is one of the departments WP Engine excels at! They have a dedicated team of WordPress security experts and an enterprise-level threat-detection technology that automatically blocks 72 million attacks daily!
Here are some of the advanced WP Engine security features:
- Platform-level protection for blocking attacks, and detecting threats
- Free SSL
- User permissions & activity logs
- Automatic updates
- Multi-factor password authentications
- WordPress-optimized WAF
WP Engine Support
WP Engine’s award-winning support team of WordPress experts basically know all there is to know about WordPress and they are ready to assist you every way they can 24/7/365. They help users with the maintenance of their websites, as well as all kinds of technical issues, and have a 97% satisfaction rate. (based on their website) But bear in mind that there is no live phone support available if you choose the base plan for managed WordPress hosting.
WP Engine also has extensive support documentation, freely available to all, covering essential topics like setting up a website, backups and restore, SSL, migration, WordPress and many more.
WP Engine Migration
WP Engine aims to make the migration process as smooth and easy as possible for its customers, and for this purpose, they have a number of useful products & services.
First of all, the company provides a free automated migration plugin with all of its managed WordPress and e-commerce hosting plans. This way, new customers are able to easily migrate their sites to WP Engine in minutes. For larger-scale website migrations, the company provides white-glove migration & launch support. Also, there is a very detailed step-by-step WP Engine migration guide on their website, with a helpful video. So, if you are considering migrating to WP Engine but having second thoughts because of the hassle of migration, you don’t have to worry about it!
FAQ about WP Engine
Q: How can I make my website live on WP Engine?
A: You need to login to user portal. Then select the environment name and go live checklist.
Q: Can I buy domain for my website from WP Engine?
A: WP Engine doesn’t provide domain service for websites but you can get wordpress theme for your website via WP Engine.
Summary – Final Verdict: 9/10
At the end, we rate WP Engine and its services a solid 9 out of 10- and they deserve it! Their team of highly competent WordPress experts, flexible plans, and advanced security solutions easily make them a sensible choice for building WordPress sites of all scales- from small blogs to giant enterprises.
Whether they are really the best or not is arguable -as “the best” provider may change on clients’ priorities- but they are certainly one of the most trustable providers in the industry for WordPress-oriented hosting services. Yes, they are not exactly budget-friendly, but if you don’t mind paying higher-than-average prices for higher-than-average products and services for designing a website, you can’t go wrong with WP Engine.
