Hosting Reviews on July 22, 2021 by Abdullah Fateh

Many web hosting providers claim to give you excellent reliability, and speeds so fast the website is loaded even before you click it. 

However, providers that offer ‘unlimited’ features at a low price often result in some corners being cut, with support and security often taking a hit.

WP Engine, however, aims to fix that, promising exceptional security, a feature-rich experience, and great support to anyone looking for the best web hosting.

Owner

Jason Cohen

Basic Plan

Managed Hosting Startup

Price

$25

Free Domain?

No

Average Uptime

100% (August 2023)

Average Speed

489 ms (August 2023)

One-Click WordPress Installation?

Yes

Free SSL?

Yes

Number of Sites

1

Free Email?

No

Free Backup?

Yes

Moneyback Guarantee

60 days

Support Channels

Phone (7 AM - 7 PM CST), live chat, knowledge base

Control Panel

Custom-built

Space

10 GB

Free CDN?

Yes

Migration Services

Yes

Overall Rating

Get Hosting

Other Plans

Managed WordPress ($25)

Best Alternative

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*Uptime and Speed data from Pingdom and Hrank

Here, we’re going to take an in-depth WP Engine review. 

In this review, I’ll go over the pros, cons, and features WP Engine provides to give you a better idea if this provider is the best choice for you in 2023. 

So let’s begin!

About WP Engine

WP Engine is a new breed of a technology company that aims to provide brands the solutions they need to create remarkable sites and apps on WordPress.

WP Engine Review 2021 - Is This the Web Hosting for You WP Engine


They are known to be one of the best in Managed WordPress Hosting and up-to-date web hosting equipment focused on advanced security and excellent customer satisfaction guarantee.

As such, they only provide Managed WordPress hosting. Nonetheless, they have different plans that can fit small businesses to enterprises to blogs.

WP Engine Review

For this review, we’ll look at:

  • The pros

  • The cons

  • Performance and uptime

  • Products and features

  • Website building

  • Packages and pricing

  • Security

  • Customer support 

WP Engine: The Pros

These are the benefits to WP Engine:

  • Fast loading speeds

  • Exceptional support

  • Similar monthly pricing

Fast loading speeds

With servers located in 6 different countries across 4 continents, as well as built-in CDN and SSD storage on every plan, you’ll get top speed and performance with WP Engine. I mean, on average, their loading speed is 489 ms (August 2023)!

Yes, it doesn’t matter where you or your visitors are located. 

This ensures that your visitors won’t have to wait long to access your content. In turn, this attracts even more visitors and lowers your bounce rate. 

And if those weren’t enough, WP Engine also has website caching that provides an additional boost to your sites. This is included in all of its plans, too.

Exceptional support

With WP Engine’s aim to give you a hassle-free experience, you’ll get nothing less than the best customer support in the industry. Their legion of experts is available 24/7 to answer any query or fix any problem you’re facing.

You can always rely on WP Engine’s customer support to be more than ready to help you. 

Customers commend the fast response time and knowledgeable answers to various issues. 

However, I would like to point out that phone calls aren’t 24/7 for the Managed Hosting Startup plan. Phone calls are only available from 7 AM - 7 PM CST. 

This could be a disadvantage, I agree, but this is compensated by the ticketing service and the in-depth knowledge base of the provider. 

And if you’re a Premium plan subscriber, you get a one-on-one onboarding session with a representative! Amazing! 

Similar monthly pricing 

Unlike other web hosting providers that normally charge 200-300% more for a monthly pricing structure, WP Engine only asks you to pay an extra 20% (amounts to $5 extra on their Managed Hosting Startup plan). 

This is perfect if you are looking to set up a project site for a few months only or if you don’t want to subscribe to one web hosting for a few years.

WP Engine: The Cons

As you might guess, there are downsides to WP Engine, too. Here are a few of the cons:

  • Expensive

  • No domain and email accounts

  • Only WordPress

Expensive

Compared to other WordPress-optimized web hosts, such as Bluehost that starts from $2.99 a month, WP Engine’s basic package starts at $25. This can be a bit much if you’re on a tight budget.

And the $25 is just for a month’s fee! So if you’re not keen on spending this much, I totally understand. 

But considering the number of extra features you are getting with daily backups, hassle-free experience, and more, you’ll get exceptional value here despite the higher price.

No domain and email accounts

If you’re looking to buy a domain with your web host or to get a free email account, you won’t be able to with WP Engine. This is because they don’t offer domain names and email account registrations. 

This means that you’ll have to buy a domain name from somewhere else before you can get started, which will cost you an extra $15 per year.

As for the email accounts, you have to register with a third party. And if you’re already concerned about the $25 monthly fee, these added costs can really put you off. 

Only WordPress

WP Engine, as its name suggests, only provides WordPress hosting solutions. So if you’re used to other content management systems, you won’t get the same experience here.

But since WordPress is the best option for newbies and experts alike, this isn’t too much of a concern. Besides, there are lots of different plans that will give you the flexibility and capability to create your ideal WordPress site. 

WP Engine: Performance and Uptime

WP Engine uptime comes in at 100% (August 2023). 

Higher uptime means your website will almost never experience any downtime, allowing your visitors to find your site online more often than not. 

Speed is also excellent with server locations in the US, Germany, Taiwan, Australia, among others.

Besides the locations, CDN, and SSD, another great feature is NGINX. This distinguishes between bots and actual people, prioritizing actual users to give them the best possible speed and service at all times.

WP Engine: Products and Features

All WP Engine’s plans come with managed WordPress.

The basic Managed Hosting Startup plan comes with 10GB of SSD storage, 50GB of bandwidth, and support for one site that WP advertises as good for 25,000 page views a month.

This package is a bit restricting and will only be good for a small blog or local businesses that attract small to medium traffic.

Also, going above the page view count will lead you to pay more, so the Managed Hosting Startup plan should only be an option if you know you’ll get less than 25,000 views a month.

The low storage space is somewhat an issue because even their premium package (Manged Hosting Scale) only offers 50GB.

Don’t worry, though. 

There are other products, such as the Managed Hosting Plus, Secure Hosting, and eCommerce Hosting that offer a lot more storage space and other features. So if you’re planning a website with loads of traffic, these plans might be a better option for you. 

WP Engine: Website Building

All WP Engine packages come with a site builder that gives your over 30+ easy-to-apply themes. This simplifies and speeds up your site creation process.

Check out this video on how to create a website with WP Engine:


WP Engine: Packages and Pricing

Plan type:

Pricing range per month*:

Managed Hosting

$25.00-$241.67

Managed Hosting Plus

$28.33-$258.33

Secure Hosting

$44.17-$291.67

Ecommerce Hosting

$30.00-$291.67

The packages above are all WordPress-managed solutions but are geared towards different user needs, with 4 subtypes in each package. 

You’re given the option of customizing your own package to suit your needs, which you may prefer if you have unique requirements or don't want to overpay for features you don’t need.

What’s more, WP Engine’s packages are all cloud-based, so you won’t have the option of selecting VPS or dedicated server offerings.

WP Engine: Security

WP Engine takes security seriously, giving you a wide array of security tools.

Every package comes with SSL certificates that encrypt sensitive information, such as customers’ credit card details, to keep personal information safe.

WP Engine is constantly on the lookout, scanning your site’s traffic to prevent malicious attackers with DDoS protection - thanks to their firewall which prevents your site from being taken down by an army of bots!

WordPress is automatically updated, so rest assured that you’re running the latest version while plugins are scanned. Remember that these scans are run to check for outdated plugin versions so that they’ll be able to plug loopholes that hackers may try to exploit if left unchecked.

Also, every package includes daily backups with a simple 1 click restore if you ever encounter any data loss. This makes managing your site a lot less stressful.

WP Engine: Customer Support

With WP Engine, you’ll get access to customer support 24/7 no matter where you are. They have live chat, call, and email support that, more often than not, responds in less than 5 minutes.

Unlike other hosting providers, WP Engine won’t try to sell you any extra features and packages that are irrelevant to the questions you ask. You can rest assured you’ll get quality guidance from their team.

You’ll also get access to WP Engine’s extensive knowledge hub which contains answered FAQs and how-to guides to help you solve daily problems quickly without having to contact customer support.

Wrap Up

WP Engine isn’t the best web host for everyone. The high cost of the basic package may not be easy to afford, especially if you’re just starting out with your own blog or site.

You may also feel restricted with WP Engine if you’re a developer not suited to WordPress as WP Engine doesn’t provide any other CMS. Their managed services also limit the amount of flexibility you’ll have with other unmanaged hosting solutions.

However, if you’re looking for a stress-free experience with easy-to-use tools and reliable service, WP Engine may be a perfect fit with managed solutions that prevent you from having to get your hands dirty in the technicalities.  

So we’d recommend WP Engine to medium to large-scale sites that aren’t too concerned with the price tag. 

Have we missed anything out?

Comment your thoughts down below.

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