WP Engine Review
of 5
Expert Rating
of 5
User Rating
Thinking of taking your website to the next level? WP Engine could be just the hosting company to get you there.
We have hosted with them for over 10 years and can tell you the Pros, Cons, and everything you need to know before moving up to WP Engine. Continue reading to learn all about our experiences with WP Engine.
Pros and Cons
Like everything, there are pros and cons to WP Engine. Unlike most hosting companies WP Engine has way more positives than negatives.
Even though you may see some negatives many times the negative does not apply to the average website. These are some edge cases. Just remember WP Engine's only goal is to provide fast, secure WordPress websites.
Pros
- WordPress Specific
- Extremely Fast Servers
- Tech support are WordPress Experts
- Curated Plugins & Themes
- Easily add a CDN to your site
Cons
- Higher Prices
- No Email Hosting
- Do not have root access
Performance and Reliability
This is where WP Engine really shines. Any site that runs at WP Engine will run to the best of its ability. The servers environment it incredibly well-tuned and we have experienced virtually no downtime.
Customer Experience / Ease of Use
Another area where WP Engine does very well, is the ease of use. Their control panel has really evolved from a basic hosting panel to a super solid system that includes staging sites, dev sites, one-click migrations, and one-click backups.
Customer Support
- Phone Support: Yes
- Email Support: Yes
- Support Ticket System: No
- Live Support Chat: No
- Support Forums: Yes
- FAQ & Knowledge base: Yes
- Video Tutorials: No
Hosting Plans & Packages
- Startup: for $29/month, you can host one WordPress site that gets up to 25,000 visits per month and 10 GB of storage and all of the standard goodness that comes with a WPEngine account. You can add on a CDN for $19.95 per month.
- Growth: for $95/month, you can host up to 10 WordPress sites that get up to 100,000 visits per month. The storage is increased to 20GB, the CDN is now included, along with SSL and WordPress Multi-site support. A dedicated IP can be added for $5/month
- Scale: For $241/month, you can host up to 25 WordPress Sites, get up to 400,000 visits / month. The storage is increased to 30GB. You get all the features of the Professional Plan, the Dedicated IP is included and you get telephone support.
- Custom: This is custom service, the prices are not even listed on the site. I am sure you can get anything you want and more, the price is going to be up there.
Hosting Features
- SFTP Access
- Out of the box Memcached
- Redundant Firewall Protection
- Web Application Protection
- Redundant DoS/DDoS Mitigation
- Weekly Backup & Encrypted Daily Differentials
- 24/7/365 Monitoring
WordPress Specific Features
We have that using WP Engine is like the ultimate WordPress extension. They have such an integrated system that the WP Engine service and WordPress work hand in hand. They provide you with a customized version of WordPress that has a control panel that makes some tasks like “CDN Control” much simpler.
Their servers are secure and they guarantee that if your site is hacked that they will pay to get it cleaned up (Hacker Cleanup Guarantee).
****UPDATE DECEMBER 30 2011****
In a blog post, WP Engine announced they no longer have a need for caching plugins. They now do not include W3 Total Cache or Adminer as part of their “curated plugins”. They say that caching is great and can significantly speed up a website, However, since they have moved to their new (incredibly fast) infrastructure, they have found that caching can actually slow them down.
Hosting Specialties
WPEngine compared to a standard shared hosting companyThis is not an entirely fair comparison because the are two classes of service but since many are considering moving up from shared hosting we will do our best.
- Server Speed - WPEngine is going to be much faster without a doubt. Their servers are not oversold and everything is geared to making sites fast. A standard shared hosting company is geared more to putting as many sites on a server as possible, this keeps the monthly hosting cost low.
- Price - WPEngine is going to be about 3 times as much but you are getting so much more it is hard to make a straight price comparison.
- Tech Support - With WPEngine you have access to some of the best in the business. They know WordPress inside and out. With a shared hosting company they may know some about WordPress but they typical line is our support stops where WordPress starts. Now one thing you do get with a typical shared host is 24 by 7 by 365 tech support. WPEngine operates more on a standard work week. Support hours are 9AM to 6PM Central Standard Time.
Company Details
Data Center Details
Our WP Engine Experience
We originally had this site on another server then we decided to move to a better host. We had heard of WP Engine and looked into them. What they said about speed and expert WordPress help seemed worth the money so we decided to go for it.
The entire site transfer process is handled entirely by the WP Engine staff. From our point of view when we moved WordPress Hosting Review to WPEngine the process was smooth and painless. I gave them the information that they needed and they handled the rest.
We have been very pleased with our move to WPEngine and would make the same choice again. I think it speaks very highly of them when we choose to host our review site with them.
Tech support has been excellent when we have had a few small things happen they were there working with us to solve the problem quickly and efficiently. I can not see any reason to move away from WP Engine.
Conclusion
We have found WP Engine to be an excellent hosting company. We have hosted this site (WordPress Hosting Reviews) with them for over a year and it has been a great experience. They are not the cheapest hosting option, but if you have a site that requires top level hosting, WP Engine is a excellent choice and your money is very well spent.
Summary
WordPress Hosting Expert
What you need to know about WPEngine:
WPEngine is the gold standard in WordPress Hosting. Excellent Servers, Fast HELPFUL tech support, and so much WordPress knowledge. They offer plans for small sites all the way up to plans that are thousands of dollars per month. If your site is of any importance and you have the budget hosting with WPEngine is the way to go.
4.8 / 5.0
Editor review
1 review
WPEngine is a WordPress specific or Managed WordPress hosting service. Meaning all they do is WordPress and will help you keep up with the software updates. This allows you to focus more on making your site better and not all of the numerous WordPress version point releases.
All of WP Engine's servers are fine-tuned to run WordPress, they have selected the best standard WP plugins, including the best plugins to make your site run fast. Finally, they have an extremely knowledgeable staff to help solve any technical issues you may run into.
They are not perfect though. For some users, their plans are going to be a little pricey. They do not have 24/7 technical support and some plugins are not allowed to be installed. Not everyone needs those things but some do.
Reviewer Info
Pros and Cons
User reviews
2 reviews
If you run a small, simple blog that gets a modest amount of traffic, WPEngine may be right for you. But if your website is mission-critical, you cannot afford to gamble with WPEngine.
Reviewer Info
Their servers are secure and they guarantee that if your site is hacked that they will pay to get it cleaned up (Hacker Cleanup Guarantee).
Criticism of WP Engine is simple. It’s just expensive. This is serious hosting. We would say for the professional blogger. Or even just someone that takes their site seriously. However, you get what you pay for, and then some.
Speed: We have been astounded by the speed of WP Engine. They really do get it right and make it fast. We have seen our page speeds increase by 350ms since signing up with WP Engine. Nothing else has changed except the hosting.
Control Panel: Their account control panel located on their website at WP Engine is not the most pretty control panel in the world, but you can manage some important things here. Some tools in the admin area are: account user manager, website restore points, SFTP users, domain management, billing, error log, and support. We don’t have any serious complaints, but they should really update the look of this control panel. It’s a little too simple looking. That beings said, everything functions fine.
Support: We have an excellent time dealing with the tech support at WP Engine. So far, every time we have talked with tech support, we have never been ‘elevated’ to a higher support level. All of the staff are knowledgeable and we have end up dealing with the same technician from start to finish. It’s a small knit group that handles support and they are very professional and knowledgeable. We know most of them by name at this point.
Conclusion: WP Engine is for serious WordPress users. You will spend a pretty penny, but their service is excellent.
Reviewer Info
1 thought on “WP Engine Review”
Comments are closed.
WPEngine did not provide business-class webhosting services for my site. I’ve had my site hosted with Media Temple (previously) and Rackspace (currently), and by comparison the experience with WPEngine was absolutely horrendous. In six months, I endured more issues, more service requests and more downtime than I’ve seen in the other five years my site’s been around… combined.
If you run a small, simple blog that gets a modest amount of traffic, WPEngine may be right for you. But if your website is mission-critical, you cannot afford to gamble with WPEngine.