When you are looking for a WordPress hosting site, you’ll find there are literally thousands of options on the market. This can make it incredibly difficult to decide what is the best option for your business. I’ve worked with dozens of different WordPress hosting sites over the years and know how important it is to make the right decision when selecting your WordPress hosting. One of the sites that has really gained a lot of attention lately is WP Engine WordPress hosting.
So, I have put together a comprehensive review of WP Engine and their capabilities to help you make an informed decision about which WordPress hosting company you should choose for your business.
For full disclosure, I am a very satisfied customer of WPengine and this very blog you’re reading is hosted at WPengine. I am also a member of their incredible affiliate program, and so while I may be compensated if you click on my WPengine links and sign up, the links also include discounts that will apply when you sign up.
With that in mind, I will try to give a general overview of WPengine as well as why I personaly use their services to host ALL of my WordPress sites.
A Little Background On WP Engine WordPress Hosting
WP Engine is an award-winning, global WordPress hosting platform that offers hosting to over 70,000 businesses across the globe. The company was founded as a customer-first business that focuses on build long-term, sustainable business options. They offer a variety of different service packages to meet a full range of needs from personal blogs to multinational businesses. WP Engine was founded in 2010 and in just a few short years they have positioned themselves as a market leader for WordPress hosting services.
The Features Of WP Engine WordPress Hosting
WP Engine has five different levels of WordPress hosting that are custom-tailored for a variety of client needs. Each of these packages offers a different tier of features based on the needs of different sized businesses. Here is a rundown of their features:
Personal: Personal is designed for personal websites such as blogs, portfolios, and CVs, as well as small startup businesses.
Key Features include:
- One install on a shared server
- Up to 25,000 visits per month
- 10 GB of storage
- Free SSL certificate
- 24/7 chat support
- Staging and transferable installs
- PHP 7
- Large FS
- Page Performance
Professional: The Professional level plan is designed for small to medium sized businesses and marketing companies that manage multiple small business clients.
Key Features include:
- Ten installs on a shared server
- Up to 100,000 visits per month
- 20 GB of storage
- Free SSL and imported SSL certificates
- 24/7 chat support
- Staging, transferable, and multisite installs
- PHP 7
- Large FS
- Page performance
- 24/7 phone support
Business: The Business level plan is for small and medium sized businesses who need flexibility and growth. It is also ideal for companies with smaller subsidiaries.
Key Features include:
- 25 installs on a shared server
- Up to 400,000 visits per month
- 30 GB of storage
- Free SSL and imported SSL certificates
- 24/7 chat support
- Staging, transferable, and multisite installs
- PHP 7
- Large FS
- Page Performance
- 24/7 phone support
- Geotarget enabled
- Content performance
Premium: The premium plan offers a dedicated server that is great for medium to large businesses or companies running a storefront.
Enterprise: Enterprise is for large corporations who have multiple business avenues and need a full-service architecture to support their business.
Both premium and enterprise are custom-tailored for the company. What’s great about these five options is that they offer customers the ability to easily scale up as their business grows, no matter how large it becomes.
My Experience With WP Engine WordPress Hosting
When I started my website on WP Engine WordPress hosting, I started with the personal plan. I wasn’t sure how much storage and visitors my small business needed, but I figured 10GB of storage and 25,000 visitors was going to be enough. I registered my domain and found that it was incredibly easy to direct my domain to WP Engine. All I had to do was follow along with a video they had on their website, which I thought was a great idea. This was definitely the smoothest domain transfer I’ve ever done.
WordPress Migration Could Not Have Been Easier!
Once I transferred my domain, it was time to migrate the website I designed on WordPress. This was probably my favorite feature of them all. I can’t tell you how many times migration has turned into a multi-day process in my life. However, WP Engine automates migration with a simple plugin, so all I really had to do was tell them how to access my WordPress design and it was up in no time at all! This alone would make me choose WP Engine over some of the other hosts I’ve worked with in my career.
Easy To Use User Portal And Dashboard
One of the things I’ve had the hardest time with is understanding the functions, features, and simply how to navigate the dashboard on web hosting sites. Most hosting services use what is called cPanel and I am not a fan of cPanel at all. You can try the cPanel demo here and see for yourself. Now, I admit that I’m not a highly technical person, so a lot of this stuff is over my head, but I have to say WP Engine’s dashboard is so user-friendly, it actually taught me a lot of skills that I was able to apply to my other hosting platforms. I feel like I finally understand bandwidth use, which is why after a year I realized I need to upgrade to the professional plan.
Upgrading My WordPress Hosting
Upgrading was also a piece of cake, I simply just added to my plan right from the dashboard. No muss, no fuss. Then with the extra hosting capabilities, I was able to make a few landing pages to improve my SEO and direct site traffic. Having just a few support sites drove my traffic immensely and luckily my site was able to handle all the new visitors.
Also, I just want to note that anytime I tweaked my site or added a new plug-in to both plans, I didn’t face any lags in load time or difficulties implementing the new feature. It was refreshing to have everything just work the way it is supposed to work.
WP Engine Was Able To Handle My Growing Business
Back when I first signed up for WP Engine, I only had one site hosted with them. I now have more than two dozen sites hosted with WP Engine and receive more than a half million site visitors per month. As my traffic increased, so did the service I rececived from WP Engine. At this point, I now have a dedicated server with them and they fully manage everything on the backend for me. I could not be happier with the level of service I’ve received. Here are my current site stats on WP Engine:
Some Final Thoughts About WP Engine
Ultimately, I have to say I am really impressed with WP Engine WordPress hosting. Of all the hosts I’ve worked with over the years with my business, I have not found an easier site to use. When they say they are customer-focused, they are not kidding. I also have to say, the price is really competitive for everything you get. I was lucky because when I registered, I was also was able to take advantage of a great sale (check for WP Engine discounts here).
Finally, I can’t really speak to the customer service, because with so many reference guides, instructional videos, and support right on the website, I always found the answer I needed right away. Their 24/7/365 chat, email, and phone support is superb. I get why WP Engine has won so many awards and collected so much buzz because it truly is a great option for WordPress hosting.
The bottom line: I not only recommend WP Engine as the best WordPress hosting service to all my friends, family, and followers, but I use them myself and have for many years. I fully support and back WP Engine.