WP Engine – Full Service Review

Right this moment’s finest WP Engine Net Internet hosting offers

For those who’ve ever thought of creating your personal web site or weblog, then you definately’ve doubtless heard of WordPress. Many website hosting providers supply easy one-click on installations whereas some even present extra succesful managed WordPress plans. Nonetheless, no different net host has the WordPress experience that WP Engine does.

Austin-primarily based WP Engine was based in 2010 and in contrast to its opponents which supply a wide range of services, the corporate solely presents managed WordPress internet hosting. There aren’t any e-commerce plans, devoted servers, VPS or different choices and add-ons to select from, only a dedication to ship and handle the very best WordPress expertise for its prospects.

So let’s take a better have a look at the plans, pricing, options and help supplied by WP Engine to see if this net host is the appropriate match on your web site.

Price and what’s coated

At first look you’ll discover that WP Engine’s costs are considerably greater than these supplied by competing net hosts. It’s because lots of the options that come bundled with its plans could be thought of premium from different suppliers that may require you to improve your plan or buy extra add-ons.

WP Engine’s entry-stage ‘Startup’ plan begins at $35 monthly and helps as much as 25,000 visits a month with 10 GB of native storage and 50 GB of bandwidth. This plan contains one website, 24/7 chat help, automated SSL certificates and entry to the Genesis Framework.

Subsequent up we have now the ‘Growth’ plan which begins at $115 monthly and helps as much as 100,000 visits a month with 20 GB of native storage and 200 GB of bandwidth. The corporate contains 5 websites with this plan in addition to the entire options of the Startup plan.

Lastly, we have now WP Engine’s most premium ‘Scale’ plan beginning at $290 monthly that helps as much as 400,000 visits a month with 30 GB of native storage and 400 GB of bandwidth. You’ll be able to have as much as 15 websites with this plan and it and the Development plan each embrace 24/7 telephone help.

If these plans are too restricted for your online business, you may as well create a ‘Custom’ plan with help for thousands and thousands of visits a month, as much as 1 TB of native storage, 400 GB+ of bandwidth and 25 websites. Nonetheless, you’ll have to contact WP Engine immediately for a quote.

(Picture credit score: Future)

Signing up

After choosing out your plan, WP Engine walks you thru its account creation course of the place you may be requested to offer your title, electronic mail, billing deal with and cost data. Sadly although, PayPal isn’t a supported cost choice so you will have both a credit score or debit card to enroll.

Additionally, you will should determine which knowledge middle you need your website to be hosted from with choices to host your website in both the US, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Taiwan, the UK or in Eire.

WP Engine is completely different than numerous different net hosts as the corporate doesn’t attempt to trick you into buying extra add-ons on your website which you doubtless received’t even want. As a substitute all of its further providers stay unchecked at checkout and you’ll determine for your self whether or not or not your website truly wants them. We’ve seen loads of net hosts use this chance to trick customers into pointless upgrades and add-ons however not WP Engine.

The signup course of was full as soon as we acquired an electronic mail from the corporate which summarized the main points of our website and in addition included numerous useful hyperlinks to tutorials and help pages simply in case we ended up needing them later.

Making a website 

At first look, WP Engine’s net dashboard seemed like a cluttered mass of alerts, standing messages, information objects and extra. Nonetheless, we had been capable of finding some settings that would assist simplify the scenario by clearing issues up a bit.

Tapping on a hyperlink to our WP Engine plan displayed a panel with additional data on our website together with our area, IP deal with, WordPress model and PHP model. The corporate additionally gives a number of handy mini-graphs which present latest histories on your guests, bandwidth and the way a lot storage you’re presently utilizing.

The interface doesn’t even attempt to level customers in the appropriate route and novices will in all probability be confused by a few of the language used right here reminiscent of area-stage redirects, CNAME information, Git push and extra.

This shouldn’t be an issue although, as WP Engine is a premium managed WordPress host that caters extra to skilled customers than it does to novices. This isn’t essentially a foul factor however it’s one thing to bear in mind should you’re simply beginning out as you may be higher off utilizing a special net host on your first website.

In case you are creating a brand new website from scratch, you’ll be able to launch the usual WordPress admin web page with only one click on and get to work. The set up itself doesn’t come geared up with any further plugins or themes however there may be the choice to browse and set up no matter you want utilizing the usual instruments.

Customers with an current WordPress website can use the BlogVault-primarily based Automated Migration plugin to maneuver their website to WP Engine. All of this may be accomplished utilizing your supply server SFTP credentials and your vacation spot URL. This plugin received’t work with suppliers that don’t help SFTP entry reminiscent of WordPress.com, Wix, SquareSpace and different proprietary providers but it surely needs to be greater than sufficient to deal with common WordPress internet hosting with out difficulties.

(Picture credit score: Future)

Efficiency

Evaluating WP Engine’s efficiency is quite a bit more durable than doing so for different net hosts as the very best components of the service reminiscent of efficiency optimizations, administration and reliability usually are not simple to see or measure. Nonetheless, after we explored the interface additional some clues did start to emerge.

WP Engine contains constructed-in computerized backups and this options is normally one you need to pay further for with different net hosts. By default these backups are scheduled to run each day however you may as well create a backup on demand. WP Engine’s website solely exhibits backups from the final 30 days however you’ll be able to obtain them in archived kind if you wish to maintain a backup of your personal copies domestically.

The service additionally has a Staging function which supplies you the flexibility to create a replica of your website for personal testing. This function will be significantly helpful when making an attempt out a brand new theme or plugin as you are able to do so with out having to fret about how they’ll have an effect on your manufacturing website.

WP Engine even contains constructed-in efficiency exams that will help you assess the efficiency of your website. These exams give your website a rating together with clever suggestions on what you need to modify to enhance your website’s efficiency. The report web page additionally shows a desk of your outcomes over the previous six months to indicate you precisely how particular person tweaks have an effect on the pace of your website.

WP Engine’s official help website has numerous tutorials and guides that cowl the WP Engine portal, find out how to migrate your web site, troubleshooting issues, optimizing the pace of your website and extra. Usually we see easy step-by-step guides however the firm exhibits its experience by providing movies and pages which seem extra like an expert coaching course than the same old primary help content material sometimes supplied by the competitors.

For those who occur to run into any tougher points, WP Engine presents 24/7 reside chat help on its web site in addition to telephone help with all however its most elementary plan.

Verdict and Conclusion

WP Engine’s excessive costs will likely be onerous for informal customers and novices to swallow however extra demanding customers will admire the pace, energy and prolonged listing of premium options the service gives. PayPal help would even be a pleasant addition but it surely’s in no way a deal-breaker. For those who want actual WordPress energy, then look no additional than WP Engine.

Right this moment’s finest WP Engine Net Internet hosting offers