Now before we dive into a web hosting provider that offers one of the best WordPress experiences in the world, I want to start off by saying welcome to The Online Genius! Your one-stop shop everything relating to the online business community!
Are you shopping for a web hosting platform that caters specifically to WordPress?
Are you looking for a managed hosting option that ensures you have a fully optimized and secure website?
If you answered YES to any of these two questions then this article could be for you.
In this article, we will be looking at WP Engine, a managed WordPress hosting platform. We will be doing an in-depth review on why we believe WP Engine is an underdog and one of the big names when it comes to specializing in WordPress hosting.
Without further ado, buckle up and get ready for a value-packed article!
Let’s hop right straight into it.
P.S if you would like more information on the hosting platform, WP Engine, we are about to cover visit wpengine.com.
Table of Contents
What is WP Engine?
Before we dive straight into the features, pros, and cons as well as the pricing, let’s first take a look at the insides of WP Engine and what it’s really about.
WP Engine is one of the leading WordPress digital experience platforms in the world. WP Engine was built with the WordPress uses in mind!
The hosting company was founded by Jason Cohen, Ben Metcalfe and Cullen Wilson in 2010. The company has grown since then to having three data centers in London, Tokyo and in the Midwest of the United States.
Today the company has over 500,000 customers in 120 countries.
Their mission is simple, all they want to do is help customers win online.
Needless to save they have tons of awards and accolades to solidify WP Engine as a premier web hosting platform. These include the 2015 CEO award, the 2017 Ethics in Business & Community award and the 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
What are WP Engine’s best features?
Let’s look at some of the features that make WP Engine not only different but also better than the majority of competitors.
WP Engine strongly believes in building experiences, not the platform to power them.
Having that mantra in mind they created a platform with various solutions that can help you create an amazing online experience.
The Solutions are Creative Agility, Ecosystem Integration, Enterprise Performance, and Actionable Intelligence.
Creative Agility
Agility aka FAST! With the creative Agility solution, WP Engine aims to help you get to market quicker than ever. This solution consists of features such as :
- StudioPress Themes
- DevKit
- Auto Migration
- Deploy Site
- Serviced Onboarding
- Git and SFTP Connections
- One-Click Staging
- Dev, Stage, Prod Environments
- Launch Readiness Assessments
- Automated Backups
- WordPress Core Updates
These are just a few of the features that come equipped with WP Engine Creative Agility. In a nutshell, this experience focuses on Dev and Design Tools, Site Management Tools and WordPress CMS.
Ecosystem Integration
This places the majority of the attention on APIs, Martech Partner Solutions and WordPress Solutions. It includes features such as :
-
- Integration DNA
- Thousands of WordPress Plugins
- Core Contributors
- WordPress Experts – WP Engine has over 14 subject matter WordPress Experts!
- Enterprise Onboarding & Account management.
With Ecosystem Integration, there are endless possibilities.
Enterprise Performance
When it comes to performance WP Engine wanted to build a platform that had amazing Cloud Solutions and incredible security. They did just that. The performance features include:
- Amazon Web Services
- Global Data Centres
- Uptime Protection
- Enhanced Speed – 27% faster loading times
- Two-Factor Authentication
- Studio Press Themes
The Enterprise performance aims to bring you a scalable and secure digital experience.
Actionable Intelligence
This covers features that help improve page speed diagnostics, application performance monitoring, and content insights.
In a nutshell, these features give you insights on the traffic coming to the website, content, and performance. These features include :
- Content Performance
- Page Performance
- Application Performance
These incredible features show exactly why WP Engine is truly dedicated to becoming one of the best WordPress Managed hosting platforms in the world.
Don’t take our word for it, here’s what Brad Williams from Webdev Studios have to say about the WordPress managed hosting platform, “WP Engine knows how to optimize for WordPress and it shows every day!”
For more information on these differences click here.
Does WP Engine have great Customer Support?
When it comes to excellent customer service, this is what WP Engine does best! Don’t believe us? Let us take a look at the numbers.
They have an average live chat response of fewer than 3 minutes.
They have over 200 service experts on staff who provide amazing 24/7/365 support.
WP Engine is the ONLY customer service team in the industry to have awards in both the international and national arena.
They operate in three global support locations with the simple goal in mind to improve our WordPress experience
Here’s what Roel van der Ven from Soundcloud had to say about the customer service.
“Swift Replies, but also very open to feedback and eager to improve. Almost like unicorns”.
In addition, they offer various ways to gain expert support besides the telephone and the live chat. These include the :
- Support Garage – This platform allows you to find technical documentation on specific topics by browsing articles in our Support Garage.
- Resource Center – This platform offers white papers, ebooks, webinars and more to help you grow your knowledge of WordPress and digital experiences.
- Newsroom – This platform allows you to get insights into industry trends from leading marketers and technologists in WP Engine’s community.
Needless to say, they have easy access to excellent billing help. All in all WP Engine lives up to their promise that they have over 97% customer satisfaction.
What are WP Engine’s Pricing and Plans?
WP Engine has a variety of different plans to choose from. These plans have their differences when it comes to the number of traffic received per month, the number of local storage, bandwidth and websites included.
The packages are as follows:
- Startup – With this tier, you are given support for up to 25,000 visitors per month, 10 GB of local storage, 50 GB in bandwidth per month and one website. This package starts at $35 USD per month.
- Growth – With this tier you are given support for up to 100,000 visitors per month, 20 GB of local storage, 200 GB in bandwidth per month and 5 websites. This package starts at $115 USD per month.
- Scale – With this tier you are given support for up to 400,000 visitors per month, 30 GB of local storage, 400 GB in bandwidth per month and 15 websites. This package starts at $290 USD per month.
- Custom – This last tier gives you support for unlimited visitors per month, 100 GB – 1 TB in local storage, 400 + GB in bandwidth per month and 25+ websites. In order to receive an accurate quote for this tier, you will have to talk to one of the sales specialists at WP Engine.
These plans come with tons of features that make it a good bang for the buck. They have these available add-ons :
- WordPress Multisite
- GeoTarget
- Content Performance
- Global Edge Security
- Additional Sites
- Smart Plugin Manager
If you choose the annual prepay you will be given 2 months free!
The Pros and Cons to WP Engine
Let’s get straight to the positives and negatives of having a WP Engine account. Here they are:
Pros:
- Excellent customer support – They have staff specifically trained in WordPress
- Optimized for WordPress
- 97% customer satisfaction
- Incredible Loading Times
Cons :
- It can become pricey – when compared to other competitors WP Engine can become more expensive.
- No in-house Domain Registration -This means you will have to register your domain outside of WP Engine.
Is WP Engine a Good WordPress Managed Hosting Platform?
Whew, that was a lot to take in! At Least you now have a good understanding of WP Engine and why it is one of the leading experts in the WordPress Managed hosting space.
So is it really as good as the critics say? Well…
Despite the plans not being the cheapest out there and the lack of in-house domain registration, WP Engine still provides a quality experience and service.
For more information on WP Engine visit their website at www.wpengine.com.
If you’re still unsure of whether you should give WP Engine a try, give our article “ The Best Web Hosting Providers in 2020”
If you’re looking specifically for a WordPress Managed Hosting Platform, check out our review on FlyWheel, “The Best WordPress Managed Hosting Platform in 2020”.
If you are an active user of WP Engine, write a comment below!
