Jimmy ParkerWP Engine
WP Engine is a managed WordPress Hosting provider known for their scalable solutions and expert customer support
4.46
Pros
- Fantastic performance
- Robust security
- Scalable infrastructure
Cons
- Expensive
Table of Contents
About WP Engine
True to its name, WP Engine is a hosting provider for WordPress sites. The company was founded in 2010 – and for almost 10 years now, it’s still recognized for its stellar reputation.
WP Engine is actually one of the pioneers of WordPress hosting – yes, it’s a service that’s now commonly offered among other hosting plans (shared, VPS, dedicated, reseller, etc.). Its founder, Jason Cohen, thought it necessary to create a specialized hosting system for WordPress as it has become the most popular CMS platform for websites (it still is to this very day).
With headquarters located at Austin, Texas, WP Engine currently has around 400 employees. Those same employees are in charge of making sure that the domains they’re hosting are in good hands. And they’re also the ones handling their customer service. If you’re going to get your hosting from WP Engine, you’ll be a part of their growing family as well.
In this review, we’re going to take a look at WP Engine’s plans and overall structure. We aim to help you decide if it’s the best (or the right) hosting provider for you.
Pricing
1. StartUp
WP Engine’s StartUp plan is their cheapest plan – costing only $35 per month. This package allows for just 1 website as it’s just intended for newbies and small sites. You’ll get 10GB of storage space with it and 50GB bandwidth. You can also have up to 25,000 visitors per month.
The price mentioned is their regular price, not an introductory price as a majority of web hosting providers do to attract customers. With WP Engine, they encourage you to get an annual plan to get 2 months free of charge. In this case, you can save $70 when you prepay for 1 year.
2. Growth
Intended for growing businesses and sites with more than basic needs, you can get WP Engine’s Growth plan for $115 per month. You can host up to a maximum of 5 websites with it and it comes with 20GB of storage space. As for the bandwidth, it has 200GB. You can get up to 100,000 visitors per month with this plan.
Prepay for 1 year when you get this package and WP Engine will give you 2 months for free. That equals to $230 worth of savings.
3. Scale
If you want more of everything, WP Engine has the Scale plan for you. It’s priced at $290 per month and you can have up to 15 websites with it. It also comes with 30GB storage, 400GB bandwidth, and up to 400,000 visitors per month.
Get their promotional offer by paying for one year and you’ll get 2 months for free (that’s a total of $580 savings).
4. Custom
WP Engine has a fourth pricing structure that’s quite unique. It’s intended for high-performing sites that have very special needs. WP Engine will customize a plan for you with this option and you’ll get priority response (from their customer support) as well.
They’re not posting any price for this package as it will depend on your specific requirements. For starters, just know that you can host up to 25 websites with it. Your storage space can be anywhere from 100Gb to 1TB, and your bandwidth can be around 400GB. The plan can also accommodate millions of visitors per month.
Listed below are some key points to remember about WP Engine’s pricing plans.
- Keep in mind that all of WP Engine’s hosting plans are scalable from any point. In fact, even their most expensive plan is upgradable to a more powerful package. If needed, they can create a plan just for you and provide you with custom servers that will fit your needs.
- Their prices are straightforward – which is a relief from prices that have hidden catches and higher renewal rates. And although they’re not offering the typical introductory prices, they’re giving you 2 months for free when you pay for one year (it’s a lot of savings when you do the math).
- You’ll notice in their pricing plans that you’ll get more websites, storage, bandwidth and visitors as you upgrade your package. Some features get doubled or tripled or more when you choose to go for the pricier ones.
- As a WordPress hosting company, WP Engine includes Git version control, the latest version of PHP, and staging environments on their plans. Note that these features are included for free when other hosting companies charge for them.
Support
In general, WP Engine has 24/7 phone support, live chat, and e-mail support (via ticketing system). The nice thing about getting a WordPress hosting for your WordPress site is that you know their customer support team is comprised of WordPress experts. WP Engine is said to deal with thousands of customers in a day and still manage to maintain a 97% customer satisfaction rating. Impressive.
If you’re going to get their StartUp package, know that you’ll only get 24/7 live chat support. This is not a bad deal as their live chat support can provide you with instant answers and solutions to your problems.
Should you decide to go for their Growth package, you’ll be provided with 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone support. As you can see, you get an extra line of communication when you upgrade your plan to their mid-range offering.
Their most expensive plan (Scale) also comes with 24/7 live chat and 24/7 phone support (yes, just like the Growth package).
Now, if you end up with their Custom plan which will surely be more expensive, you’ll get even more support options. Not only will you get 24/7 live chat and phone support, but it also includes consultative onboarding (free consultations). You can also opt to get e-mail support at this level but you’ll have to pay extra for it.
With WP Engine’s customer service format, you can be sure that help is always available when you need it.
Pros
1. Great security features
WP Engine will automatically update your WordPress version, but they’ll test it out first. Their system also includes intrusion detection and other preventive measures for DDoS, brute force attacks, and more. In fact, they’re guaranteeing security so much that if your site ever gets attacked or hacked, they’ll fix it for you free of charge.
2. Free CDN on all plans
WP Engine has teamed up with MaxCDN. You can turn this CDN feature on for free.
3. Premium WordPress themes are included
Since WP Engine has bought StudioPress (a WordPress theme company), you can also access their 30+ premium themes and Genesis framework – all for free. Note that these can have a total value of $2,000 if you buy them outside of WP Engine. These premium themes are also well-coded for structure and SEO and they look really REALLY good.
4. Money-back guarantee
WP Engine comes with a very generous money-back guarantee of 60 days. Just cancel within 60 days if you don’t like their service and they’ll give your money back (no questions asked).
5. Uptime reliability
Yes, WP Engine is a reliable hosting company. They’ll keep your site online at least 99.9% of the time.
6. Good speed
With WP Engine’s high-performing servers and CDN, you can expect your site and pages to load quickly.
7. Great customer support
We just talked about this in the previous section, right? Their customer support is truly one of WP Engine’s best features. Their people are all experts in WordPress and can help you with anything WordPress-related (pretty much everything).
Cons
1. Some plugins are not allowed
WP Engine has a list of disallowed plugins on their website. They’re quite plenty (like plugins on caching, backup, etc.). The main reason for this is that some of these plugins can run into conflict with their built-in apps. Some are also considered to be duplicates of their existing features and are therefore considered unnecessary (these will only load up their servers).
2. Domain registration is not included in their service
WP Engine is not a domain registrar like other web hosting companies. The service that they offer is simply web hosting for WordPress. Therefore, you’ll have to buy a domain name from somewhere else (and simply host it on Wp Engine).
3. Expensive when compared to shared hosting
You know you can also create a WordPress site with shared hosting, right? WordPress hosting (a specialized hosting solution) is typically more expensive than shared hosting because it comes with more specific features.
Conclusion
As you can see, we only came up with a few cons on WP Engine because it’s that good. Even their cons can have solutions and workarounds, you see.
You really shouldn’t mind that they don’t allow the use of some plugins. Their collection of WordPress apps and features are complete, so there’s no need for more.
WP Engine’s prices can be a major issue if you compare them with shared hosting plans. But if you’re going to compare their prices with other WordPress hosting companies, you’ll see that their prices are reasonable and competitive.
If you want specialized hosting for your WordPress site, WP Engine is certainly a good choice. It comes with built-in WordPress features and their customer support is made up of WordPress experts. Scaling is also customizable with WP Engine – you’ll be given all the freedom you want to expand your site and reach more goals.
So, if you’re particularly looking for a WordPress hosting solution, know that you’re looking at one of the best (if not the best) companies right now. Look no further and start your journey with WP Engine today.