Charles Floate

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You are here: Home / Reviews / WPEngine Review – Premium WordPress Only Hosting

WPEngine Review – Premium WordPress Only Hosting

August 7, 2016 by Charles Floate 23 Comments

Introduction

WPEngine is likely the best dedicated WordPress host on the planet.. It comes with it’s ups and downs, and is specifically designed to just run WordPress sites, so if you’re looking for anything but those sites then you’ll need to find a different host as it doesn’t cater to anything but WP sites.

That being said, if you want to host WordPress sites only and you’re looking for the best WP host on the market, in terms of speed, security, support and more.. Then you’ve found the host for you.

Table of Contents

  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 The Negatives
  • 3 Speed
    • 3.1 Uptime
  • 4 Site Migration
  • 5 Content Delivery Network (CDN)
  • 6 Customer Service
  • 7 Security & Backups
  • 8 Pricing
    • 8.1 Money Back Guarantee
  • 9 Frequently Asked Questions
  • 10 Conclusion

The Negatives

Before we get into the post, I want to get all of the downfalls I found with WPEngine out the way and exactly why I don’t think it’s very good for anything other than hosting WordPress sites. This may seem a little strange, as I am do think WPEngine is a fantastic service.. but seeing the very limited cons first, will be a blessing when you come to setup an account with them. The pros FAR outweigh the negatives.

Restricted phpmyadmin & No cPanel

Unfortunately due to the way WPEngine have configured access to the phpmyadmin area, you’re not allowed to create new databases, which means you cannot manually create any installs of CMSs besides using their automatic WordPress installer. There is ways around this, and some CMSs won’t rely on SQL DBs to setup but a large majority do.

A lot of people who’re familiar with hostings have become very accustomed to using the simple and effective cPanel interface, however a lot of developers hate it.. And WPEngine is one of a select few hosts that doesn’t offer cPanel at all. That being said, they do offer SFTP (FTP, but encrypted for security reasons) which means you can get a very similar file manager using something like FileZilla on your desktop. This also means (as I said in the previous paragraph) that you can install non-database CMSs.

Non-WordPress Support

If something goes wrong with a CMS outside of WordPress, the staff likely won’t be able to help.. There knowledge of WP is extremely high and any problems I had with my 4 WP install migration and month+ hosting with them has been quickly resolved via live chat in a matter of minutes. They’re also extremely helpful when it comes to finding things like themes and plugins that you just cannot seem to locate – They have a vast knowledge of plugins, and when I asked if they knew of a plugin that did X, they located one within just 3 minutes.

However when I asked them about a non-WordPress CMS, they couldn’t be of service and I had to do a bit of Google’ing to locate any real support for it. I ended up moving that site away from WPEngine completely.

No Email System

WPEngine also doesn’t offer any kind of an email system, instead you’ll have to configure your DNS (I use DNS Made Easy for my custom nameservers) and MX records to allow for a different provider to host any email exchanges you want.

I use Google Apps to host my emails through the Gmail interface, and it only costs an additional couple of bucks per month per email, though you do get a pretty prolonged free trial of around 3 months until you’re actually billed anything and there’s several other services you’ll get as part of your monthly subscription. Plus a lot of non-techy people will find it extremely easy to use a Gmail interface, over setting up something like Outlook.

Speed

Prior to using WPEngine to host this site, I had a VPS dedicated to hosting this blog from RAMNode – It had been setup with speed optimization in mind, but was routinely (according to GTMetrix) getting less than satisfactory load times of around 7 – 10 seconds.

Since moving to WPEngine (and as of yet to implement their speed optimization tactics) it’s lowered to under 6 seconds, which is a considerable drop in load time –

wpengine speed test

In comparison (according to GTMetrix) the average load time of a site on the internet is 6.2 seconds. My homepage’s file size is fairly big as well, and the main reason for it not being significantly lower is the 6 YouTube embeds and large image files I have on the page. If I were to scale those images, remove the embeds and have links instead.. These files would be significantly smaller. However, I lose user experience quality.

I would like to note however, that Pingdom (Another fantastic speed monitoring tool) recorded a significantly lower page loading time (as they ignore external loads frequently) that is likely more accurate to what a user would get when trying to load my homepage –

Stockholm, Sweden Load Test:

stockholm speed test

Dallas, Texas (USA) Load Test:

dallas speed test

Previously to using WPEngine, Pingdom put my load time from the USA at around 3.8s and Europe at 3.2s – Giving WPEngine the CLEAR advantage here, even with the speed optimized configuration we did on the previous server.

When you run an inner blog post, such as this review, which doesn’t have the large amount of YouTube embeds and various other elements that’d slow down the loading time on the homepage.. You get an even more accurate speed time of what a standard user would get:

wpengine speed test

Considering the size of the page, a 1.24s loading time is VERY impressive. I’m sure with a few minor OnPage speed improvements, I could have it drop below a one second load time. I will get around to making those speed optimization changes at some point, but that’s another blog post, for another day.

Uptime

Of course, if you know much about hosting it’s impossible to have a host that can guarantee 100% uptime, even the so called “bullet proof hosts” will tell you they can’t guarantee your site will deliver to everyone on the planet at any given moment.

That being said, when WPEngine do experience downtime it’s not like most other hosts.. Due to the way their infrastructure is setup, when they experience downtime, only a small % (normally under 1%) of their customer base is affected.

All in all, on average last year, WPEngine customers experienced about 50 minutes downtime per site, for the entire year. This does also account for DDoS attacks, which are a major factor when running a site and WPEngine’s mitigation network works overtime so that even if your server does go down, their server grid will prop your site up anyway.. Essentially negating the attack.

Site Migration

WPEngine has one of the best WordPress migration tools out there. It may be a little more time consuming than manually moving files and databases, but it means you can make sure your entire site is moved properly (as it’ll move to a subdomain run by WPEngine prior to your live site) first, before ever moving to your actual live environment.

All you have to do to move your site is:

  1. Get a WPEngine Account
  2. Add Your WP Site’s Domain
  3. Go to the “Site Migration” Tab in your WPEngine Account
  4. Install the WPEngine Migration plugin onto your WordPress Site
  5. Follow The Super Easy Instructions (To Move to the WPEngine SubDomain)
  6. Then Change Your Old Domain NameServers/DNS
  7. Move From The Subdomain to the main domain

It’s literally a 7 step process, won’t require you to download anything to your desktop (as server to server is 1000x quicker than downloading your site) and if you’re finding it really tricky to do.. Then you can always hit up their live chat who will do it all for you anyway.

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

You can choose to have your server hosted in either the US or UK data centre, and if you have traffic from around the world (like I do) then you’ll ideally want to use a CDN, normally you’d have to get a hosting package and pay extra for a CDN service like MaxCDN, which can cost tens (if not hundreds) of dollars per month.

WPEngine however, is one of the very few hosts that has built it’s very own CDN, allowing you to deliver your website with virtually no load time difference around the globe, no matter which data centre you choose… Even if your visitor is on the other side of the world, and the best bit? It’s part of your monthly subscription, no extra fees.

It doesn’t require any setup either, you literally check a box –

wpengine cdn

And it’s enabled straight onto your WP installation, no plugin configurations, just a simple checkbox.

Customer Service

I haven’t as of yet needed to phone them and even if you did, by the time you’ve dialed in the numbers and pressed ring you would of been connected to an engineer on their live chat support system anyway –

wpengine live chat

The live chat PHP7 module they use is extremely effective, and the staff manning it seem extremely capable of dealing with any server or WordPress issue I could think to put to them. Not only was every live request I sent answered within 30 seconds, but once I’d pitched the question the responses were in perfect English, leading me to believe the authenticity of the names and pictures they’d assigned to the staff, rather than faked profiles of Indian or Filipino $2/hour VAs manning the systems of most other providers.

I never spent more than 5 minutes in the chat box, they quickly fixed any issues I had or gave me precise instructions… Even when I (and my developer) were being rather stupid and forgetting one of the most basic permalink settings in WordPress.

Security & Backups

With WPEngine, backups aren’t really an issue.. They have an automated backup system that runs every 24 hours, as well as an option to create manual backups. They don’t eat into your overall file size allowance either, which means you won’t need to be purchasing anymore disk space anytime soon, even if you’re on their smallest package.

In terms of security, WPEngine are experts when it comes to WordPress.. They have real time threat analysis, managed server patches and constantly monitor for new intrusion techniques against WordPress and it’s associated plugins – Meaning if you’ve got a dodgy plugin on your site, it’s very unlikely anyone will be able to exploit it due to the precautions they take and the warnings the system will give you both inside your WPAdmin area, and via email.

Every server is configured specifically to protect against known threats, has live monitoring enabled (with 24/7 security staff monitoring it) and each user is split at the kernel and file level, which means no matter how good you are, you won’t be able to get into another users files through your own WPEngine account. Each enterprise account is also run on it’s very own dedicated server (or servers) and is completely disconnected from any other WPEngine customer or hosted site.

In the extremely rare event that you do get hacked, they offer a completely free consultation service in which they will audit and fix what caused the hack and any damage the hackers left. Though they do conduct periodic security audits, improvements & assessments against their own networks & sites to make sure the entire network is as secure as possible.

Pricing

The only thing holding WPEngine’s pricing back is the visitor count, for site’s that make little revenue per month off large amounts of visits it can be extremely expensive. Adsense sites or sites with low commissions/sales points will not fair well profit-wise being hosted with WPEngine. As it’s around 1 cent per visit, which can work out to be hella expensive for the lower revenue/visitor sites out there.

However if you’re running a popular blog or E-Commerce site running in WordPress, then the pricing plans WPEngine offer are very reasonable, and won’t cost you an arm and a leg to operate your site in a fast and secure environment –

Plan# of InstallsVisits/MoStorageCost / Mo
Personal125,00010gb$29
Professional10100,00020gb$99
Business25400,00030gb$249
Premium1501 Million+100 - 300gbCustom
Enterprise1505 Million+400gb - 1tbCustom

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Don’t forget that you can get 20% off with their 2016 coupon code: WINNING4FREE

Money Back Guarantee

To add to the pretty decent pricing you get from WPEngine, they offer a 60 day money back guarantee just in case you aren’t completely satisfied with the service they provided.

This gives you 2 months to work out any kinks too, and make sure any transitions in your site are done correctly.

Frequently Asked Questions

I thought I’d also include an FAQ for those who still have questions around WPEngine, that I haven’t specifically answered in the rest of this post.

Does WPEngine offer dedicated hosting?

Yes, they offer dedicated WordPress hosting for both the UK, and US. However, this is not included in any of the standard plans, you have to contact them for Enterprise level accounts.

Do WPEngine run sales?

The WPEngine sale routinely runs every Summer & Winter, with a general 20% off amount. They do however occasionally offer other coupons and sales.

Is WPEngine Better That SiteGround?

I haven’t yet done a SiteGround review, but I suspect I’ll get around to doing one at some point.

SiteGround offer a very similar service, but in terms of WordPress installations, WPEngine is the best in the market. If you’re doing anything other than WordPress however, then I suggest checking out SiteGround.

Does WPEngine Have cPanel?

No, they have a restricted version of PHPMyAdmin, that’s it. No cPanel.

How long have you used WPEngine for?

I first got an account with WPEngine in 2015, but didn’t start using them fully until July, 2016.

Does WPEngine Offer a 60 day free trial?

The “WPEngine Trial” that people keep referring to, is fake, unfortunately. It really just gives you a 20% off first month deal (like the Summer Savings coupon I showcase) and doesn’t actually give you a 60 day free trial. Sorry.

Does WPEngine offer a VPS package?

Unfortunately not. You can choose between shared (though you’re in a unique environment, so it is similar to running a VPS in terms of speed/IP etc) or dedicated with the enterprise package.

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You can get 20% off your first month with their coupon code for 2016: WINNING4FREE

Conclusion

Overall I think WPEngine likely has the best dedicated WordPress hosting on the planet, there age, experience, servers and staff make for a very powerful combination and that’s exactly why they’ve become such a dominant player in the hosting market.. Pulling in clients from small bloggers to some of the biggest sites on the internet, all running on the world’s most diverse CMS: WordPress.

I hope you enjoyed this review and it gave you an insight into why I’ve chosen to host my blog with WPEngine, and why I think you should too.

Product
WPEngine WordPress Hosting
Type
Web Hosting
Reviewed by
Charles Floate
on 2016-08-08
Rating
Price
From $29/Mo
Summary
WPEngine's WordPress expertise makes them the best WP host on the planet, but when it comes to other CMSs it's a completely different story. If you're looking to host sites running in WordPress only, then signup today, but if you're looking for anything other than WordPress.. I'd suggest you find a different host.

Filed Under: Reviews

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Charles FloateHonestlyPooja ThakurBekBekSteve Recent comment authors
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Charles Floate
Author
Charles Floate

Just like to note that I use the professional package to host this blog, it’s just under $100 a month which isn’t bad for what I get from it!

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Honestly
Guest
Honestly

Oh really? My browser extension says this blog is hosted at Rackspace. What gives?

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Charles Floate
Author
Charles Floate

Well, your extension is wrong 🙂

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2 years ago
Mr Inhouse SEO
Guest
Mr Inhouse SEO

Nice review, I’ve used WPEngine for quite a few months now and their support is amazing! Who would you recommend for other CMS hosts then?

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Charles Floate
Author
Charles Floate

Thanks man, I’ve recently been trialing SiteGround which seems to be awesome for non-WP stuff, I would of previously recommended MDD but they’ve been going downhill.

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Marc
Guest
Marc

And the hosting of TRAFFIC PLANET do you know?

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Charles Floate
Author
Charles Floate

Traffic planet hosting, I know of it yes and have tested it out.. WPEngine had better loading times & a LOT quicker support. TPH is still good, but it’s not as good as WPEngine.

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2 years ago
Harry Bloom
Guest
Harry Bloom

I use TPH and I love them, I actually decided to use them against WP Engine as a result of Matthew Woodward’s scathing review of them. However it’s interesting to see another side of the story.

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Charles Floate
Author
Charles Floate

Woodward’s review was a significant amount of time ago now and they’ve since made some big improvements.

Matt also no longer hosts his site there, his site is hosted with that Google cloud platform for WP which I cannot remember the name of, and I’m commenting via my phone ^.^

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2 years ago
Carlos Polanco
Guest
Carlos Polanco

Locations of the CDN? Btw 5 seconds for a website is not really good imo, 2.5 seconds it’s the minimum if you don’t want visitors bouncing back.

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Charles Floate
Author
Charles Floate

As explained, 5 seconds isn’t the actual time at all.. My site loads in about 2s, its just the homepage has 6 YouTube embeds, Facebook scripts and a ton of high res images to load.. Check out how fast this post page loads in comparison for a better test – Though the Facebook box in the sidebar will still slow down the loading time!

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Gowtham V
Guest
Gowtham V

Hi Charles ,
Good review. I was first planning to use WPEngine for my main sites. But after i found digital ocean VPS hosting i could not go back. I host about 30 sites with digitalocean now. As i work on WordPress Theme development and speed optimization services for wordpress i was able to apply redis caching to my Digitalocean vps server which is 5$ per month and my sites loads a lot faster.
My site loads in under 1 second , 2 second is not good if you are paying about 100$ in my opinion but if you are in it for the support wpengine is worth it . And some starting plans are hosting on a shared hosting platform in WPEngine which is bad as i get a dedicated IP along with 5$ per month vps at digitalocean.
Using EasyEngine script you can also install wordpress on your server within 1 minute and also you can add as many sites as you want until your vps can handle the traffic .

Have you tried digitalocean and vultr charles ? If so what’s your opinion about them.

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Charles Floate
Author
Charles Floate

That loading time is good, but do you get it internationally? As WPEngine’s grid/CDN works to deliver it across the globe for you, where as DO will start to get slower & slower the further away you get.

I have tried Digital Ocean, didn’t really like the support and I like RAMNode for VPSs as they offer well priced SSDs as well. Though Digital Ocean is really easy to setup VPSs with, I will admit!

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Robert
Guest
Robert

Hi charles.

I tell you, with ANY shared hosting +totalcache + free cloudflare account you have those 2s

You need to optimize your onpage,

Check this https://gtmetrix.com/reports/charlesfloate.com/de4bAGfv this is a professional speed test.

Just this image, even with the cdn http://1s8wk72rspxha0st845z3r52.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/slide1.png 1.5MiB this is insane.

Google dont reward fast sites. Google penalize slow sites

Cheers, Mr.

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Charles Floate
Author
Charles Floate

I know, I need to run image compression again.. I used to do it, but stopped the cache’ing plugin due to it affecting some of the things I run on my blog.

Vote Up1Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Robert
Guest
Robert

That´s why I trust you.

If I comment this with a douchebag marketer, in a million years would published my comment 🙂

Cheers, Mr.

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Charles Floate
Author
Charles Floate

Ah thanks man ^.^

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Steve
Guest
Steve

Charles, I noticed you’re using WP Social SEO Pro Plugin for the review schema. Do you have an older version of WordPress or does it not matter? I noticed the plugin hasn’t been updated in almost 2 years.

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Charles Floate
Author
Charles Floate

It’s a premium one, it still gets updated but not to the WP part, you verify ownership and it does automatic updates.

Vote Up1Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
BekBek
Guest
BekBek

Hey man.

Not sure you took notice.

Saw this now at the top of this blog post.

Notice: Undefined variable: is_single_name in /home/marthagu/domains/charlesfloate.com/public_html/wp-content/plugins/bloom/bloom.php on line 5999

Look into it.

And great article you’ve got there

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Charles Floate
Author
Charles Floate

Thanks, fixed it!

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Pooja Thakur
Guest
Pooja Thakur

I tried WP Engine for a few of my websites about a year ago. I wasn’t impressed with the performance, which I found just average. I ended up going with a VPS server on A Small Orange and I’m very satisfied. I have the performance and flexibility I need, and A Small Orange has the best customer service / support I’ve found of any company so far. So, if anyone’s looking for an alternative to WP Engine, give ASO a look. 😉

Vote Up-1Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
Charles Floate
Author
Charles Floate

ASO are one of the worst hosts I’ve dealt with, their UI is extremely bad and their customer service is not upto par. I’ve tried it 3 times.

WPEngine has come a long way in the last 2 years.

Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
2 years ago
ABOUT ME
Charles Floate
I'm a British SEO consultant specializing in link building. I run an E-Commerce SEO Agency & a small affiliate site empire. This is my blog, where I cover online marketing strategies, tutorials, news and do product reviews.

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