WP Engine
Author: Tina Bekkholt <@Bekkholt>Introduction
WP Engine is a managed web hosting service, optimized and specialized for Wordpress websites and apps. It is known for being one of the most trusted Wordpress platforms, with many hosting plan options and 24/7 support service.
Brief History
WP Engine was founded by Jason Cohen in 2010. He wanted to focus on web hosting specified for Wordpress after he was experiencing issues on his own blog. He had bad speed and his server was crashing when traffic went up as well as no costumer support to reach out to. After only a year in business his company reached $1 million in sales, after solving these problems Cohen had himself back in the day.
In the beginning they mostly worked with blogs, but as Wordpress has kept evolving through the years, so has WP Engine’s customers. One of their main goals has been to always accomodate the needs of their customers, wheter it is a blog, shopping site or larger businesses.
Being a company filled with Wordpress advocates, WP Engine has also contributed to Wordpress itself, being a part of the launching of Wordpress 5.0 and creating popular plugins for Wordpress, like Cloudflare Stream (video streaming plugin) and Amazon Polly (text-to-speech plugin).
Today WP Engine is a global success, having several hosting plans to fit all types and sizes of Wordpress websites and their needs, making them fast, scaleable and with top security and support.
Main Features
There are several features that makes WP Engine a good choice, here are some of the main ones that makes it an easy, fast working and safe Wordpress platform.
Specialized hosting plans: WP Engine has a large variety of hosting plans, making it resourceful for most websites. Their most expensive plan is a custom plan, where you will get a plan customized exactly for you needs.
24/7 customer support: This was one of the first things the founder wanted to solve, in lack of a good support system when he himself needed it back in 2010. WP Engine is not only known for having a customer support that is always available, but also for a customer support that is of a high quality. You can reach a Wordpress expert on chat, phone or email whenever you need it. There is no doubt that this sevice is one of the biggest perks with using WP Engine.
Security and backup: WP Engine offers a platform-level protection to detect threaths and block attacks, and updates Wordpress and PHP automatically to always make sure to be on top of security. They also use a multi-factor password authentication and activity logs. On top of this , you will always have a daily backup of everything, so you should feel safe both about your private security and your website’s security at all times.
Great speed and performance: Another issue that Cohen had back in the day and wanted to solve was speed and performance. WP Engine use EverCache technology to reduce load on the server while boosting the page speed. They also make sure that you are always up to date when it comes to all types of updates, so that the latest version of everything is running. They also use a free fully-managed CDN.
Strengths and weaknesses
| Strengts | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| + Several hosting plans | x Expensive hosting plans |
| + 24/7 support service | x No email included in hosting plans |
| + Fast loading speed | x Does not sell domains |
| + High security | x Not allowing all plugins (security reasons) |
| + Daily backup | x Only for Wordpress |
| + Always updated |
Market Comparison
Hostinger
Hostinger is one of the other most popular hosting services for Wordpress. It is naturally more appealing at first sight than WP Engine when you look at the pricing. Hostinger offers high quality hosting plans, but at a much lower cost than WP Engine. Hostinger offers an email account in their plans, which you will not get at all with WP Engine. They also have their own Hostinger website builder included. Both Hostinger and WP Engine are good at being available and giving quality customer service. However, you will not have the ability to get any phone support by Hostinger, which can be a crucial point at the time when you actually need it. Also, not every hosting plan has a Windows option.
Bluehost
Bluehost is, along with Dreamhost, one of the hosting services for Wordpress that is mentioned by Wordpress itselves as examples of hosting services you can use. Bluehost can give you domain and email, which you will not get from WP Engine. They can also be compared to WP Engine when it comes to good customer service and great hosting plans. What you will not get from Bluehost is cloud hosting or Windows-based servers.
Dreamhost
Dreamhost is, as mentioned above, also mentioned by Wordpress as an example hosting service. They can be compared to WP Engine when it comes to great security, and good hosting plan options. They have unlimited monthly data transfers, unlimited websites and domain-management tools. But as with Hostinger, there is no telephone support available. They also lack Windows-based servers and email in the Shared Starter plan.
Getting started
This is how you can get started with WP Engine from scratch.
- Subsribe to a WP Engine-plan that fit your needs.
- Log in to the User Portal on WP Engine
- Click “Add site”
- Choose if you want to start with a blank site, a WooCommerce site or transfer a site that already exists.
- Fill in the site name and environment name.
- Select the environment type (production, staging or development).
- Click on “Add site” and you are good to go!
Conclusion
WP Engine is a great hosting service for Wordpress if you want to feel secure and taken care of. Having 24/7 expert customer support is very important if you want to make sure that everything is as it should be at all times. Also, the high level of security, continous backup and automatic updates can give you much more time to sit back and do what you are supposed to do, without worrying too much about the security. There are positives and negatives with all hosting services, and it’s hard to say that one is better than the other. The biggest negative with WP Engine seems to be the pricing. If you can afford it, I think it will be worth it, given the time you don’t need to think about the security, speed and overall well-being of your Wordpress website.