OVERALL RATINGS
Best for?
- Individuals
- Businesses
Price
Starting at $20 per month
Our Verdict
WP Engine excels in WordPress hosting with remarkable uptime, security, and premium features. A top choice for reliable performance
Imagine a world where WordPress hosting is an art perfected, where your digital dreams come to life in stunning online experiences. That’s the bold claim of WP Engine, a heavyweight in the WordPress hosting arena, boasting clients like Yelp, Petco, and SoundCloud. Tempted to trust them blindly? Well, our guide is here to navigate through the hype.
In this detailed WP Engine review, buckle up as we embark on a journey through performance assessments, load times, and how this hosting giant handles those nerve-wracking traffic spikes.
WP Engine has been dubbed a user-friendly, high-performance hero with lightning-fast loading times, reliable uptime, and a support team that’s got your back. In this review, we’ll unravel the features, weigh the pros and cons, and help you decide if WP Engine’s plans are worth every penny.
Ready for the inside scoop? Stick around for the full story, or if you’re short on time, grab a quick summary in the conclusion. It’s time to make an informed decision about your hosting journey with WP Engine!
WPengine Feature Images
WP Engine Product Offer
WP Engine offers a trio of hosting solutions – Managed WordPress, WooCommerce Hosting, and Headless WordPress Hosting. If you’re just dipping your toes into the online world, their managed WordPress hosting plan will be your perfect starting point.
Managed WordPress
Managed WordPress hosting by WP Engine is not just about hosting your website; it’s about creating a seamless, magical experience. Imagine a hosting service that takes care of the technicalities, leaving you with the freedom to focus on what you do best – building exceptional content and engaging with your audience.
| MANAGED HOSTING | STARTUP | PROFESSIONAL | GROWTH | SCALE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Websites | 1 | 3 | 10 | 30 |
| Visits per month | 25,000 | 75,000 | 100,000 | 400,000 |
| Support | 24/7 chat | 24/7 chat and phone | 24/7 chat and phone | 24/7 chat and phone |
| Storage | 10GB | 15GB | 20GB | 50GB |
| Bandwidth per month | 50GB | 125GB | 200GB | 500GB |
| Free SSL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| External SSL Certificates | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SFTP accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Database | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| CDN | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Price | $20/month | $40/month | $77/month | $194/month |
Benefits
Performance Optimization: WP Engine fine-tunes your WordPress site for optimal speed and performance. Say goodbye to sluggish loading times and hello to a lightning-fast user experience.
Security First: Your website’s security is a top priority. Managed WordPress hosting includes robust security measures, ensuring your site is shielded from potential threats and vulnerabilities.
Scalability: As your site grows, so do your hosting needs. With managed WordPress hosting, scaling up is a breeze. WP Engine provides the flexibility to accommodate your expanding audience and evolving content.
Expert Support: WP Engine’s team of WordPress experts is at your beck and call. Whether you need assistance with technical issues, advice on optimization, or just a friendly chat about your website goals, their support team is there 24/7 to guide you.
WooCommerce Hosting
If you’re in the business of online selling, WP Engine’s WooCommerce Hosting is your secret weapon. This hosting solution is finely tuned to meet the unique demands of e-commerce, ensuring your online store not only survives but thrives in the competitive digital landscape.
Benefits
Optimized Performance: WP Engine’s WooCommerce Hosting integrates the magic of SiteGround’s optimizations, providing your online store with unparalleled speed and performance.
Secure Transactions: Security is paramount for e-commerce. With this hosting plan, your customers can shop with confidence, knowing their transactions are protected by robust security measures.
Seamless Scaling: As your online empire expands, so does the need for resources. WooCommerce Hosting allows for seamless scaling, accommodating increased traffic and product offerings effortlessly.
User-Friendly Management: WP Engine understands that managing an online store can be complex. That’s why their WooCommerce Hosting comes with user-friendly management tools, making it easy for you to update products, track inventory, and analyze sales data.
Headless WordPress
Enter the realm of limitless possibilities with WP Engine’s Headless WordPress hosting. It’s not just about pages; it’s about creating a digital experience that defies traditional boundaries. Whether you’re a developer pushing the limits or a creative mind envisioning unique user interactions, Headless Hosting provides the canvas for your digital masterpiece.
Benefits
Decoupled Architecture: Break free from the constraints of traditional WordPress architecture. With a decoupled setup, your front-end and back-end are independent, offering unprecedented flexibility in design and functionality.
APIs for Creativity: WP Engine’s Headless Hosting embraces the power of APIs, allowing developers to integrate diverse services and technologies seamlessly. It’s a playground for creativity and innovation.
Content Management Simplicity: While the front end dazzles with innovation, the back-end content management remains familiar and user-friendly. Create and manage content with the efficiency of traditional WordPress, even in a headless setup.
Developer-Friendly Environment: For developers seeking to explore the uncharted territories of web development, WP Engine’s Headless Hosting provides a developer-friendly environment. Access to a range of tools and resources empowers developers to bring their visions to life with ease.
WP Engine Pricing
WP Engine presents 4 plans, all-inclusive of complimentary SSL certificates, daily backups, free automated migrations, and 3-level staging environments. Additionally, users gain access to 30+ premium themes, caching features, and a global CDN (content delivery network).
| Plan | Features | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Startup | 1 site, 10GB storage, 50GB bandwidth, and up to 25,000 visits per month. | $20.00/mo |
| Professional | 3 sites, 15GB storage, 200GB bandwidth, and up to 75,000 visits per month. | $40.00/mo |
| Growth | 10 sites, 20GB storage, 200GB bandwidth, and up to 100,000 visits per month. | $77.00/mo |
| Scale | 30 sites, 50GB storage, 500GB bandwidth, and up to 400,000 visits per month. | $194.00/mo |
| Custom | Tailored for large businesses and mission-critical sites. | N/A |
While server resources may appear modest, it’s crucial to note that the average WordPress site typically requires no more than 5GB of storage, unless it involves hosting a substantial online store. Nevertheless, the inclusion of other essential features is highly beneficial.
However, not all features offer the same value. Here are my personal recommendations:
- Startup: An excellent choice for small yet vital business websites. Its affordability, combined with the provided features and support, makes it a compelling option.
- Scale: Ideal for agencies or freelancers constructing websites for clients. Hosting all 30 allowed websites brings the cost down to $7.25 per site, making it a cost-effective solution.
Of course, individual needs vary, so it’s essential to assess your specific requirements and select the most suitable small business hosting plan for your project.
WP Engine Pros and Cons
- Managed Hosting: WP Engine's managed hosting allows users to focus on content creation and marketing while leaving the technical aspects to the experts, ensuring optimal website performance.
- Free Data Backup/Restore: The inclusion of free data backup and restore services by WP Engine is a valuable benefit, providing users with a safety net against data loss and facilitating easy recovery.
- WordPress Updates: WP Engine's automatic installation of WordPress updates ensures that websites stay current with the latest features and security patches, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities.
- Free Fix for Hacked Sites: Users benefit from the added security of having hacked sites fixed at no extra cost, enhancing the overall protection of their online assets.
- Only Host WordPress: WP Engine is exclusively focused on hosting WordPress, which may be restrictive for users with diverse web development needs beyond WordPress platform.
- More Expensive: WP Engine's hosting service is comparatively more expensive than some alternatives, potentially posing a challenge for budget-conscious users.
- Plugins and Themes Restriction: WP Engine's restrictions on certain plugins and themes may limit the customization options for users, affecting the overall flexibility of their websites.
- Visitor Limits: WP Engine imposes visitor limits, which could be perceived as a drawback by users with high-traffic websites seeking more flexibility.
Best Time to Use WP Engine
WP Engine provides top-notch hosting services tailored for WordPress users. Whether you operate a single WordPress site or manage multiple websites and WooCommerce online stores, WP Engine excels in delivering fast, reliable, and downtime-free performance.
The robust security measures and seamless backup features offered by WP Engine contribute to a heightened sense of assurance. For those frequently implementing changes to their sites, the availability of a staging area for testing, coupled with comprehensive backup options, ensures a secure environment to address any unforeseen issues.
Worst Time to Use WP Engine
As mentioned earlier, if your website isn’t built on WordPress, exploring alternative hosting providers is advisable. Even for WordPress users managing smaller sites, there are potentially more budget-friendly hosting options available, such as DreamHost, especially if cost-effectiveness takes precedence over performance.
Additionally, larger websites experiencing seasonal spikes in traffic may have reservations about visitor limits. For example, a WooCommerce store generating significant revenue during peak seasons like the holiday season or events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday could face challenges with imposed visitor limits. It’s crucial to consider the specific needs and traffic patterns of your site when evaluating hosting solutions.
WP Engine Feature Ratings
EASE OF USE
The user interface of WP Engine, referred to as the user portal, exhibits a well-crafted design featuring a distinct left-panel navigation for managing your sites, users, tools, and billing.
In the Site section, you get a comprehensive overview of storage, bandwidth, and visits for each website. The team management functionalities within the Users section are equally impressive.
While there might be several features to grasp initially, the learning curve is pleasant, and the overall experience is mostly intuitive.
UPTIME
WP Engine like any other web hosting provides experiences minimal downtime. In comparison to other leading providers, WP Engine consistently delivers strong uptime ratios, surpassing 99.98%. This high level of reliability contributes to a stable online presence for hosted websites.
SECURITY FEATURES
WP Engine takes care of updates and security glitches on your behalf. This includes proactive measures such as prompting you to update a plugin in case a vulnerability is detected. This managed approach ensures that your WordPress site stays current and secure without requiring extensive manual intervention.
WP Engine also provides extra layers of security, including 2-factor authentication, their proprietary malware monitoring system, and DDoS attack prevention. Furthermore, they offer the latest PHP version, contributing to a safer hosting environment for your WordPress site. These features collectively enhance the overall security posture of your website.
SERVER LOCATION
WP Engine utilizes servers from Google Cloud and AWS, offering users the flexibility to choose from approximately 20 different locations globally. These locations include the US (e.g., Iowa, Virginia, or Oregon), Canada, Belgium, Germany, the UK, Japan, or Australia. This allows users to select a server location that aligns with their target audience or specific performance preferences.
SERVER SPEED
The combination of the integrated Content Delivery Network (CDN), caching plugin, and global server locations proves effective: WP Engine delivers impressive server speeds, ranking among the best in our tests. This setup ensures efficient content delivery and enhances the overall performance of hosted WordPress websites.
WEBSPACE LIMIT
The Startup plan offers up to 10 GB of storage, while the Growth tier provides 20 GB, and the Scale tier includes 50 GB. It’s important to note that with the Startup plan, hosting is limited to one website. If you host multiple sites, the webspace limit is shared among all of them.
MONTHLY DATA TRANSFER LIMIT
WP Engine imposes monthly visit limits: 25,000 for the Startup plan, 100,000 for Growth, and 400,000 for the Scale plan. It’s crucial to be mindful of these limitations when selecting a plan based on your website’s traffic requirements.
FTP ACCOUNTS AND SECURE FTP
WP Engine allows both Secure FTP (SFTP) access and SSH access. It’s notable that there doesn’t appear to be a restriction on the number of SFTP accounts that can be created, providing flexibility for secure file transfers.
SERVER FEATURES
WP Engine operates with the latest PHP versions, enhancing the security and efficiency of your website. Users have the flexibility to choose between PHP versions 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4. Additionally, for MySQL, you can opt for either version 5.6 or 5.7.
The WP Engine environment includes several developer-friendly features, such as staging areas, geoip features, a built-in caching system, support for WordPress multisite, and Git support. These perks contribute to a robust and versatile environment for developers working with WordPress.
DATABASES
While WP Engine offers unlimited databases, it’s essential to note a 50MB limit when importing a database. Larger databases can still be uploaded via SFTP, but for assistance with this process, reaching out to their support is necessary.
DOMAIN NAMES
WP Engine does not offer the option to purchase your domain name directly through their service. Instead, you’ll need to acquire a domain externally, for example, from a service like Namecheap, and subsequently connect it to WP Engine through DNS records.
APPLICATIONS
Not applicable. This hosting package is specifically tailored for WordPress, allowing only the installation and use of WordPress. If you’re considering a different CMS, explore alternative hosting options provided in the suggested alternatives.
EMAIL RATING
Creating a professional email is not possible directly through WP Engine. To set up a professional email, you’ll need to use external services like Google Workspace or NameCheap.
BACKUPS
WP Engine automatically generates system backups for each installation (website) you have. These backups are accessible for 30 days, allowing you to effortlessly restore your site to a previous version with just a few clicks. Additionally, you have the option to manually download backups and store them on your computer, providing a precautionary step, for instance, before updating a plugin. This feature ensures a reliable and easily retrievable backup system for your website.
CDN
WP Engine utilizes StackPath as its primary Content Delivery Network (CDN), ensuring content is delivered to 45 locations worldwide. It’s worth noting that StackPath was previously known as MaxCDN. This CDN integration contributes to efficient content delivery, enhancing the overall performance and speed of websites hosted on WP Engine.
REFUNDS AND GUARANTEES
WP Engine commits to providing a 99.95% uptime guarantee, and in the event of falling below this threshold, they offer compensation in the form of hosting credit. Additionally, there is a 60-day money-back policy, providing users with a risk-free window to assess the hosting service and make an informed decision. These assurances reflect WP Engine’s commitment to reliability and customer satisfaction.
ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT
WP Engine’s support is well-regarded for its reliability and effectiveness, ranking among the best in my experience. However, it’s worth noting that in certain instances, issue resolution took a bit of time. While the support is generally strong, occasional delays may occur in addressing specific concerns.
OVERALL RATINGS
WP Engine offers exceptional server speeds, high uptime, and robust backup features, making it a secure choice for established or expanding business websites.
WP Engine Performance Tests
WP Engine demonstrates remarkable performance, evidenced by swift page load speeds in our tests. The Time to First Byte (TTFB) and GMatrix metrics align with this, highlighting its consistent speed across various testing rounds. This speed not only enhances user experience, reducing the likelihood of frustration-induced exits but also aligns with Google’s preferences, benefiting SEO and driving more traffic to your business.
WP Engine Speed Test
Over the last three years, WP Engine has consistently ranked among the fastest web hosts, as illustrated in the table below. This sustained speed performance is crucial for optimal website functioning.
While various strategies can enhance website speed, selecting a fast web host, such as WP Engine, stands out as the most impactful. These test results provide reassurance about the hosting platform’s ability to deliver a consistently high level of performance.
| Page Load Time in Seconds | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GreenGeeks | 1.56 | 1.29 | 1.21 |
| A2 Hosting | 2.01 | 1.30 | 1.25 |
| GoDaddy | 1.94 | 1.44 | 1.28 |
| Cloudways | 1.73 | 1.46 | 1.30 |
| SiteGround | 1.54 | 1.56 | 1.35 |
| Hostinger | 1.61 | 1.63 | 1.35 |
| WP Engine | 1.65 | 1.66 | 1.37 |
| Namecheap | 1.60 | 1.69 | 1.40 |
| Dreamhost | 1.84 | 1.75 | 1.63 |
| Kinsta | 1.77 | 1.82 | 1.70 |
| Bluehost | 2.87 | 2.07 | 1.89 |
| IONOS | 1.95 | 2.32 | 2.20 |
| InMotion | 2.75 | 2.58 | 2.35 |
| iPage | 2.76 | 2.60 | 2.58 |
| HostGator | 2.78 | 2.72 | 2.70 |
WP Engine Uptime
WP Engine achieved a flawless 100% uptime in this year’s web host reliability tests, corroborating our own experience hosting this website on their servers and aligning with their uptime policy.
| Uptime Chart | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SiteGround | 99.97 | 100 | 99.99 |
| WP Engine | 99.99 | 99.99 | 99.97 |
| Namecheap | 99.99 | 100 | 99.99 |
| Kinsta | 100 | 100 | 99.99 |
| InMotion | 99.73 | 99.95 | 99.99 |
| A2 Hosting | 99.99 | 99.98 | 99.99 |
| Cloudways | 100 | 100 | 99.99 |
| HostGator | 99.91 | 99.99 | 99.98 |
| GreenGeeks | 99.98 | 99.98 | 99.97 |
| GoDaddy | 99.90 | 99.96 | 99.95 |
| Hostinger | 99.48 | 99.92 | 99.95 |
| Bluehost | 99.96 | 99.99 | 99.95 |
| iPage | 98.45 | 99.85 | 99.95 |
| Dreamhost | 99.99 | 99.96 | 99.83 |
| IONOS | 99.91 | 99.93 | 99.71 |
WP Engine Features for WordPress
WP Engine, exclusive to WordPress sites, offers tailored features and special deals:
- StudioPress Themes: Enjoy a free WordPress theme, typically valued between $100-150.
- The Genesis Framework: Default efficiency-enhancing code for StudioPress themes.
- Auto Upgrade: Major releases and plugin updates are automatically upgraded, with real-time monitoring for potential site downtime.
- Geotargeting: Utilize the Geotarget feature (a paid add-on) to deliver specific content based on user location.
- Security Features: Benefit from SSL certificates, malware scanning, cleaning, and activity logs for user account tracking.
Furthermore, the support team’s expertise is solely focused on WordPress, ensuring efficient problem-solving tailored to the CMS platform.
My Verdict on WP Engine: Do I Recommend It?
In conclusion, assessing WP Engine reveals potential drawbacks for certain users due to pricing and limitations, especially for those not utilizing WordPress or concerned about visitor limits. In such cases, exploring budget-friendly or visitor-limit-free hosts may be more suitable.
However, for professional WordPress sites, WP Engine stands out, offering substantial value in terms of support, backup features, and performance. This trifecta is crucial when your website is integral to your business, making WP Engine a recommended choice.
A note based on our long-term experience: WP Engine has evolved into a more sales-oriented company, occasionally opting for phone communication. While this might not be universally negative, some issues could be addressed more conveniently via email, reflecting personal preferences.
Ready to elevate your WordPress site to peak performance? Experience the power of WP Engine risk-free for 60 days. Boost support, backups, and performance – transform your website into a business powerhouse!
WP Engine Alternatives
For alternatives, consider:
- DreamHost: More cost-effective but lacks staging for shared hosting plans.
- SiteGround: Unrestricted bandwidth and traffic.
- Cloudways: A high-performing provider catering to more than just WordPress sites.
Feel free to explore WP Engine risk-free for 60 days with their money-back guarantee or consult our comprehensive web hosting guide for further options.
If you have additional questions, please drop a comment below, and I’ll gladly assist!
WP Engine Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why is WP Engine Visits Numbers Not Aligning With Google Analytics?
The variance in visit numbers between WP Engine and Google Analytics may arise due to differences in tracking methodologies. WP Engine calculates visits based on unique IP addresses, while Google Analytics might use different metrics, leading to variations in reported numbers.
What Happens If I Go Over My Monthly Traffic Limits?
If you exceed your allocated monthly limits, WP Engine will notify you, and you may need to upgrade your plan to accommodate the increased traffic. Alternatively, you can work with the support team to find a suitable solution based on your specific needs.
How Does WP Engine Calculate User Visits?
WP Engine calculates user visits based on the number of unique IP addresses hitting your website in a 24-hour period. Each unique IP address within this timeframe is counted as one visit.
