wp engine review for wordpress
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Searching for a genuine WP Engine review based on real-world testing and evaluation? You’ve come to the right place.

In this review, we delve deep into WP Engine’s user interfaces, check out the customer support options, test the load times and uptime of our test website, and also see how approachable it is to launch a new WordPress website with WP Engine.

Most importantly, we look into how sensible it is to pay more for WP Engine, when there are more than enough cheaper WordPress hosting options out there. Let’s dive right in!

WP Engine

4.7 out of 5

WP Engine is a managed WordPress hosting provider that focuses on delivering reliable and secure hosting solutions for websites and applications. Its advantages include a robust platform with excellent uptime, expert WordPress support, and an easy-to-use interface for managing websites.

User Rating
4.4 out of 5
Reliability
4.8 out of 5
Performance
4.9 out of 5

Pros

Plenty of WordPress-specific features

Solid performance

Expert support

Cons

Plans are pricey

Most plans use shared hosting

An overview of WP Engine

Load times 0.69s (US avg.), 1.65s (EU), 2.08s (Asia)
Uptime 100% (avg. over 3 months)
Support 24/7 support via chat, phone, and priority support (depending on plan)
Key features security patching and plugin risk scans, advanced DDoS and managed WAF, automated WordPress updates, automatic backups, auto-renewing SSL
Apps SSH access, global CDN, 10 premium themes included, one-click staging
Price From $20.00 / month, host 1-30 websites, 25k-400k monthly visits supported, 99.99% SLA
Best for WordPress users who have outgrown their traditional hosting setups. WordPress and WooCommerce sites that want to scale.

WP Engine vs main competitors

WP Engine Kinsta Rocket
Rating 4.7 / 5 4.8 / 5 4.9 / 5
Load time avg. 1.24s 1.23s 0.61s
Uptime avg. 100% 100% 100%
Price from $20.00 $29.17 $30.00
Free domain
Free email hosting
Free SSL
Easy staging
Security Advanced DDoS, managed WAF, 40-day backup retention DDoS protection, 14-day backup retention WAF, malware protection, 14-day backup retention
Infrastructure Own hosting stacks Google Cloud Platform Own hosting stacks
Visit WP Engine Kinsta Rocket
WP Engine compared to market average
WP Engine market avg.
Load times US 0.69s 1.13s
Load times EU 1.65s 1.03s
Load times Asia 2.08s 2.04s
Uptime 100% 99.98%

WP Engine review for WordPress – specific features ⚙️

WP Engine review

If you want to ensure that your website is optimized, secure, and fast-loading – without doing a lot of work yourself – managed hosting is an option worth considering. When it comes to best managed WordPress hosting, WP Engine is one of the top names.

Its service offers quite a few WordPress-specific features, including:

  • Quick and easy migrations from your old host.
  • A free Secure Socket Layers (SSL) certificate, which is an important security measure.
  • Support for setting up staging sites.
  • Plenty of performance tracking and diagnostic options.

Support options 🖱️

WP Engine plans come with plenty of support included. You’ll get 24/7 access to dedicated help via phone, email, or live chat. Support options are easy to access right from your user portal once you’ve signed up.

We took a test drive of the live chat to get a feel for the support staff:

An exchange with the WP Engine live chat.

Agents were quick to respond, helpful, and seemed knowledgeable about the platform. They were able to answer our questions without any trouble. For even more assistance and information, there’s also a resource center and a comprehensive knowledge base with lots of well-written documentation and tutorials.

Performance 📉

Features and support are important, but performance is what makes or breaks a web host. Fortunately, WP Engine offers plenty of performance-enhancing features, such as:

What’s more, WP Engine offers a lot of server locations. We won’t list them all out (there are 19), but they include data centers in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

All of this should translate to excellent real-world performance. Let’s see if that’s the case!

First, let’s look at the sort of load times that WP Engine has managed to get.

⚠️ Note: we’re testing our example website, built with the Neve theme, and running a couple of popular plugins and demo content – to emulate a real site as closely as possible.

👉 Here are the load times:

WP Engine loading times 🔃
East Coast USA: 0.99s ⭐West Coast USA: 0.46s ⭐
Central USA: 0.62s ⭐London, UK: 1.36s
Paris, France: 1.93sMumbai, India: 2.08s

Similarly, here’s what the uptimes look like based on our test data. The data shows the average uptime across a three-month period:

WP Engine uptime 📶
December 2023January 2024February 2024
100.00% ⭐100.00% ⭐100.00% ⭐

As you can see, these results are solid from the most popular locations and markets.

Pricing 💵

While WP Engine only offers one type of service – its managed WordPress hosting – it also provides a number of tiered plans to choose from. These plans differ dramatically in how many resources they offer and the number of sites they cater to, which means you’re getting a very scalable service.

Let’s run through each of the WP Engine plans quickly:

  • Startup ($20.00 per month): With this entry-level tier, you get support for up to 25,000 visits per month, one website, 10GB of storage, and 50GB of bandwidth. You’ll also get an SSL certificate, access to a global CDN, and a few other key features.
  • Professional ($40.00 per month): This plan allows you to set up three sites and welcome up to 75,000 visitors a month. You also get 15 GB of storage.
  • Growth ($77.00 per month): This plan increases your traffic support to 100,000 and provides you with ten sites. In addition to more resources, you get access to 24/7 phone support and can import your own SSL certificates.
  • Scale ($194 per month): This tier is largely identical to the last. It simply provides even more resources, bumps your site count up to 30, and supports up to 400,000 visits per month.
  • Premium and Enterprise: These are custom plans, so pricing will vary. They provide lots of additional resources and support, and move your hosting from a shared setup to dedicated servers.

These plans aren’t cheap, but they do provide plenty of features and lots of room for your site to grow. If you’re looking to build one or more serious business or ecommerce sites, this service is worth a look.

Overall pros and cons 👍👎

For the final step in our WP Engine review for WordPress, let’s sum up the key pros and cons of this hosting provider.

Pros

Well-optimized for WordPress users.

Well-optimized for WordPress users.

Simplifies the process of managing your website.

Provides solid, consistent performance.

Offers plenty of dedicated and expert support.

Cons

Won’t fit into everyone’s budget.

Only offers managed hosting on shared servers (or dedicated servers on the custom plans).

Alternatives to WP Engine hosting

WP Engine is a solid hosting choice if you have a decent budget. However, it’s fairly expensive (especially on the higher tiers).

If you like WP Engine in theory, but it just isn’t in your price range, there are some alternatives you can check out. SiteGround is a great WordPress-specific provider, for example, and DreamHost offers managed hosting that’s pretty affordable. For more information, you can take a look at our full article on alternatives to WP Engine.

Conclusion 🧐

WP Engine plans don’t come cheap – there’s no sugar-coating that fact. However, you’ll get a quality managed hosting service in exchange for your investment.

This provider offers lots of vital WordPress-specific features, solid performance, and reliable support. If WP Engine does fit your budget, it’s worth serious consideration.

Who should use WP Engine

WP Engine is an ideal solution for WordPress users who have outgrown standard hosting services, especially for those running WordPress and WooCommerce sites poised for growth.

It offers scalable, high-performance hosting tailored to handle increased traffic and complex site demands. With features like enhanced security, swift load times, and stability under high traffic, WP Engine ensures that growing sites remain efficient and reliable.

Additionally, its managed hosting plans are optimized for WordPress users who don’t want to get their hands dirty under the hood – providing automated updates, daily backups, and specialized support.

Do you concur with the findings of our review of WP Engine? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!

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Android Explained
June 16, 2018 1:16 am

Way too expensive. You can get full managed dedicated servers with the amount they’re charging for their growth tier.

I recently switched from one of those managed servers at 1and1 over to DigitalOcean and ended up saving a lot of money

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