WP Engine Review – Our Thoughts After Thorough Testing [In 2024]

WP Engine

Product Name: WP Engine

• Performance
  (4)
• Customer Support
  (4.5)
• Ease of Use
  (4.8)
• Security
  (4.7)

4.5

Summary

WPEngine is the best managed hosting service for WordPress sites. Choose WP Engine if you want to choose a hosting which is trusted by top bloggers in every industry and want a fast loading website. Here’s the full WPEngine tutorial along with features, pricing, pros and cons.

• Get 3 Months Hosting Free on Annual Purchase

In this WP Engine review, you’ll get:

• REAL Speed Test Results
• User experience and customer service
• Unbiased opinions on pros and cons
• AND Suitable alternative options

If you were looking for an in-depth guide that actually helps you decide whether or not to choose WP Engine, this is it.

So grab a cup of coffee, and stay with me for the next 5-10 minutes as I share everything you need to know about WP Engine, the pros, the cons, and the features to make the right decision.

Ready? Let’s get started!

WP Engine Review 2024: Why Choose WP Engine Host for WordPress Sites?

Quick Summary

What We Like About WP Engine

The first thing I like about WP Engine is its staging feature. Do you know staging? If you’ve ever broken your site while trying to change your theme or edit your code, you know how important this is. Let me explain:

With WP Engine, you can create an exact copy of your live site to work on. You can test out all your changes there without any risk.

If something goes wrong, no problem! Your live site stays safe. Once everything’s good to go, you can push those changes to the live site.

This is a common feature many professional bloggers and website owners use whenever they roll out any site-level changes.

Another thing that really impressed me – WP Engine is fast. Really fast. As we already discussed, in the performance and uptime aspect, WP Engine knocks it out of the park.

In our multiple tests, although both WP Engine and Kinsta performed well, WP Engine was still slightly ahead with faster website loading speed results.

Plus, not just speed but uptime is also important to make sure your website stays live all the time. As expected, WP Engine performed well in that aspect.

Another thing that’s worth mentioning is their SOLID technical support. I have already shared my experience with it.

But I also went ahead and did some research on what other users think. And I’ve got to say 8 or 9 out of 10 times; I saw a positive experience related to their support.

Offering consistent quality support to all users is not simple.

Over the years, I’ve tested so many different hosts. And though most of them excelled in all areas, support was the one where they lagged somehow.

There are only a few hosting providers in the market like WP Engine that really offer quality customer support CONSISTENTLY (and literally earning a positive general consensus among the user base). So that’s worth noting and impressed me a lot.

I also like the security features and user-friendliness of WP Engine. Since I already explained my experience with it earlier, not going into much here.

What We Didn’t Like About WP Engine

I’ve been using WP Engine for a while now, and there’s no doubt it’s a top-notch hosting platform. But no service is perfect, right? There are a few things about WP Engine that I’m not entirely impressed with.

First things first, the price. WP Engine plans start at $20 per month. Now, I know you get what you pay for, and WP Engine delivers serious value.

But when you compare it to hosts like Hostinger or SiteGround, which offer plans starting at just $2-$3 per month, it can feel a bit steep, especially if you’re just starting out or running a small blog.

Also, keep in mind that ultimately, what you would be getting is just shared hosting on all their cheaper plans except the Isolated plan – which is on the higher end. Here’s a plan breakdown to give you a rough idea:

• Startup (Shared) – Up to 25K visits
• Professional (Shared) – Up to 75K visits
• Growth (Shared) – Up to 100K visits
• Scale (Shared) – Up to 400K visits
• Isolated (Dedicated) – More than 400K visits

If you don’t like sharing your server resources and prefer having your separate servers, then you have two options: Either choose VPS (which needs some technical know-how to set up and run) or go with a Hosting like Cloudways which offers dedicated cloud servers at affordable pricing.

That being said, I do think WP Engine is worth the cost if your site is a serious business or brand and you really value performance. The performance, features, and support are truly top-notch. You’re paying for QUALITY.

Moving on, another thing that’s worth considering is WP Engine doesn’t include a free domain name. Most other hosts, even the more affordable ones (like Hostinger or GoDaddy), will give you a free domain for a year when you sign up.

But with WP Engine, you’ll need to purchase your domain separately. It’s not a massive issue, but it’s an additional cost to keep in mind.

Now, if you’re used to using cPanel (a type of website management software system in a hosting), then you might have to go through a learning curve because WP Engine offers SFTP (similar to FTP but more safe and secure) instead.

So basically, WP Engine doesn’t use cPanel but rather uses its own custom dashboard. It is user-friendly but can take some time to get used to, especially if you’re coming from another host.

Another thing worth noticing is WP Engine doesn’t offer email hosting. AND that means, you can’t create an email address that ends with your domain name.

Even Hostinger and Siteground include free email hosting in their plans. So it’s worth considering.

But this is not a deal breaker though. There are many services like Google Workspace and Zoho Mail through which you can easily set up custom professional email addresses. It’s just an additional thing you have to set up and pay for, separately.

For Whom It’s Not The Best Option

• Beginners on a tight budget
• Those who prefer cPanel hostings
• Those who host want to host multiple (more than 10) sites (because the highest tier plan, most WP Engine servers are shared servers only)

If you’re just starting out with your first website or blog, WP Engine might not be the best choice for you right now. It’s a bit pricier than some other hosting companies, with plans starting at $20 per month.

When you’re new to making websites, you might want to start with a cheaper host like Hostinger or Siteground. They have plans that cost only a few dollars a month. This can be a good way to learn the basics without spending too much.

WP Engine is also not the best pick if you need to host a lot of small sites. Their plans are meant for one or just a few websites that get a good amount of visitors.

If you want to host ten or more small sites, you’d be better off with a different host that has plans for that.

I recommend Cloudways or VPS hosting plans for that. Hosting multiple sites on a single hosting plan can bog down the server and consume a LOT of resources. If it’s only a few sites, then it’s okay!

If you really like using cPanel to manage your hosting, WP Engine might not be for you (for cPanel, A2 Hosting or HostGator is a better option).

WP Engine has its own dashboard instead, which works great but can take a little getting used to.

For Whom It’s The Best Option

• Businesses and brands needing high-performance
• Web designers and agencies
• Bloggers and online stores who prefer speed and reliability

If your website is a big part of your business or brand, WP Engine is an excellent choice. It’s perfect for sites that get a lot of visitors and need to be super fast and reliable.

WP Engine is also a great pick for web designers or agencies that make sites for clients. Their staging feature makes it easy to work on a copy of the site without messing up the live version.

And their support team really knows their stuff, so they can help you out if you run into any tricky issues.

Bloggers and online store owners who want the best performance should definitely consider WP Engine, too. Your site will load lightning-fast for readers and shoppers, which is super important. You won’t have to worry about your site going down during a big traffic spike.

Pros And Cons Of WP Engine

WP Engine: What You Need to Know

WP Engine is a reputable and leading managed WordPress hosting provider founded in 2010. WP Engine aims to deliver a secure, high-performance, and reliable hosting environment for WordPress websites.

To ensure the fastest hosting service, WP Engine uses Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft data centers to host its services. This provides you the flexibility to opt for the data center that aligns with the location of your target audience, thereby enhancing your website’s loading speed.

WP Engine data centers are located in:

• North America – Iowa, South Carolina, Oregon, Montreal, Virginia, Ohio, and Washington (US)
• Europe – Belgium, London, Frankfurt, Netherlands, Finland, and Ireland
• Asia/Pacific – Taiwan, Tokyo, Sydney, and Singapore
• Middle East – Tel Aviv

WP Engine Performance Test (#1 Factor While Choosing Any Host!)

We used the website speed testing tool – Pingdom to test a website hosted on WP Engine’s servers. And here are the speed test results we got.

On average, the website loading speed we got in our tests was between 2-3 seconds. The website we tested is a heavy e-commerce site with lots of product listings and images. So, it’s worth noting while analyzing the speed results. 

In my opinion, if a heavy e-commerce site can get 2-3 seconds speed results, then a lightweight, well-optimized website can easily get a loading speed between 1-2 seconds or lower.

Now, if you’re thinking about uptime, well, you get a server uptime of 99.95%. With premium hosting like WP Engine, it goes without saying that you’ll get a reliable and amazing uptime. Don’t worry!

Overall, I’m quite satisfied with the performance results – a 9/10 score after this testing!

Advanced Site Building Features With WP Engine

WP Engine acquired StudioPress WordPress solutions in 2018. After that, WP Engine started offering both Genesis Framework and StudioPress themes for free to all its customers, which otherwise cost $50 to $200 for a single theme.

WP Engine’s “Site Building” feature empowers you to create, design, and refine your websites with ease. You get free access to premium themes, Genesis Blocks, and staging environments.

1. 10 Premium Themes Included: You get a collection of 10 premium themes with its hosting plan for free. These themes are designed to give your website an attractive and professional look. Users can choose from various styles and layouts to match their brand or content.
2. Genesis Blocks for Easy Site Creation: WP Engine incorporates Genesis Blocks, a WordPress block editor plugin that offers a wide range of pre-designed blocks and templates. You can easily customize your websites by dragging and dropping these blocks, allowing for quick and hassle-free site creation.
3. 1-Click Staging and Development Environments: You can duplicate your existing website with just one click. These staging environments are isolated from the live site, enabling you to experiment, test updates, or make changes without affecting the main site. Once satisfied, you can deploy the changes to the live website.

Customer Support – You Never Know When You’ll Need Their Help

WP Engine customer support is AWESOME!

You get email, live chat as well phone support. Usually, I prefer live chat because it’s just easier to share the issues and get it resolved on the fly.

Whenever I’ve had a question or issue, WP Engine’s customer support team quickly helped me out – within 5-10 minutes through live chat.

For instance, once I was about to set up a new feature on my site. So I hopped on a live chat with their support and they guided me through the whole process. They even sent me helpful links to articles in their knowledge base for future reference.

I’ve contacted their support probably a dozen times over the past couple years. And every single time, I’ve come away happy with the help I received. It’s clear that they really care about making sure their customers are taken care of.

I’m happy to give a 9.5/10 score!

Ease Of Use – Is It Really Easy To Use (Even If You’re Not A Tech Savvy)?

The interface is clean, intuitive, and doesn’t overwhelm you.

You don’t need to be a developer to figure things out. All setup starts from a single easy-to-use dashboard called – User Portal. From there, you get ALL the options you need to manage your sites, add new sites, view the billing details, access support, your account details, and more.

The whole dashboard and working area has a minimalistic design which I REALLY enjoyed while testing. Everything felt easy on the eyes.

Managing plugins and themes from their dashboard was also effortless. I barely need to touch any code.

Their support is top-notch too. Whenever I had questions, their expert team patiently walked me through with simple and helpful instructions.

In my experience, you don’t need to be tech-savvy to use WP Engine. It’s built to make managing your WP site simple for everyone.

Overall, I give WP Engine a 9/10 for ease of use.

Security – Does It Offer Stable And Secure Servers?

Security is rock-solid with WP Engine. Every site you host with WP Engine gets a free SSL certificate (which is a bare minimum security level expected with every hosting nowadays.)

But that’s just the beginning. They’ve got enterprise-grade firewalls protecting your site 24/7. 

WP Engine also keeps an eye out for any strange traffic. If they spot something fishy, like a DDoS attack, they jump into action. It’s called managed WAF (Web Application Firewall). Basically, they filter out the bad traffic so it doesn’t take down your site. Cool, huh?

And you know how WordPress is always releasing updates? WP Engine handles those for you too. No more worrying about your site getting attacked or exploited because you didn’t update it on time. Phew!

Plus, there’s the daily automatic backup feature, which takes a backup of your site. This means even if your site gets down for some reason, there’s always a backup available to restore it in one click. Booyah!

So the overall score? 9.5/10 – yes, seriously! We’re talking about premium hosting with enterprise-level security checks.

Migration Process

WP Engine provides a free “WP Engine Automated Migration” plugin that you can use to migrate any number of websites on WP Engine free of cost.

The whole migration process is so simple that you don’t need any technical knowledge.

You can migrate your websites with just 3 steps.

Step 1 – Add the site on WP Engine that you want to migrate and generate the SFTP credentials

Step 2 – Install and activate the “WP Engine automated migration” plugin into your current website

Step 3 – Enter the SFTP credentials and click on the migration button to initiate the migration process.

That’s it. Once the migration process is completed, you will see a successful migration message.

At any point in time, if you face any issue while migrating your site on WP Engine, you can contact their 24×7 support staff.

Words on WP Engine Pricing

WP Engine offers 2 hosting services: Managed WordPress Hosting and an E-commerce solution for Woo. You also get a 3rd custom plan option to get customizable hosting based on your resource requirements.

Let’s take a look at all WP Engine hosting options.

1. Managed WordPress Hosting

Managed WordPress hosting is the most popular WP Engine, designed specifically for WordPress websites. It provides a fully managed hosting environment optimized for WordPress, offering premium features and top-notch performance.

WP Engine-managed WordPress hosting offers you the following pricing plans.

• Startup
• Professional
• Growth
• Scale
• Custom

1. Startup plan: This is the primary and cheapest hosting plan from WP Engine hosting, which costs you $20 per month, and you can install only 1 website. You will get superior performance and managed WordPress hosting from WP Engine.

Here’s what you get with the startup plan from WP Engine.

• Up to 25,000 visits
• Up to 10 GB of local storage
• Up to 50 GB of bandwidth
• Manage 1 site

2. Professional plan: If you want to install multiple websites, this plan is an excellent choice for you. This plan costs you $40 per month. You can install up to 3 websites with this plan, which can handle up to 75,000 visits per month.

Here’s what you get with the Professional plan from WP Engine.

• Up to 75,000 visits
• Up to 15 GB of local storage
• Up to 125 GB of bandwidth
• Manage up to 3 sites

3. Growth plan: This is suitable for small businesses and eCommerce stores. This plan costs you $77 per month. You can install 10 sites with this top-rated plan, which can handle up to 100,000 visits per month.

Here’s what all you get with the growth plan from WP Engine.

• Up to 100,000 visits
• Up to 20 GB of local storage
• Up to 200 GB of bandwidth
• Manage 10 sites

4. Scale plan: If you have a high-traffic website, this plan is just for you. This plan costs $194/month. With this plan, you’ll also get access to their 24/7 phone support (along with 24/7 live chat).

Here’s what else you’ll get with the scale plan from WP Engine.

• Up to 400,000 visits per month
• Up to 50 GB of local storage
• Up to 500 GB of bandwidth
• Manage 30 sites

5. Custom Plan: WP Engine also offers custom hosting plans that deliver high performance with managed onboarding and the fastest support response for large-scale businesses. You need to contact their sales specialist to get your custom quote details for hosting. This plan costs start from $600/month.

Here’s what else you’ll get with the custom plan from WP Engine.

• 400K+ visits per month
• 500GB+ bandwidth per month 
• 50GB+ storage
• 30+ sites included

2. E-commerce Solution for WooCommerce

WP Engine E-commerce hosting is tailored for e-commerce websites using WooCommerce, the popular WordPress plugin for online stores. You get specialized features like 2x page speed, Stripe payments integration, and Auto-plugin updates to enhance the performance of WooCommerce sites.

WP Engine offers 5 E-commerce hosting plans;

1. Startup plan: This is the basic E-commerce plan that costs you $24 per month, and you can install 1 store.

Here’s what you get with the startup plan from WP Engine.

• Up to 25,000 visits
• Up to 10 GB of local storage
• Up to 50 GB of bandwidth
• Manage 1 store

2. Professional plan: If you want to install multiple stores, this plan is an excellent choice for you. This plan costs you $50 per month. You can install up to 3 stores with this plan, which can handle up to 75,000 visits per month.

Here’s what you get with the Professional plan from WP Engine.

• Up to 75,000 visits
• Up to 15 GB of local storage
• Up to 125 GB of bandwidth
• Manage up to 3 stores.

3. Growth plan: This suits small businesses and eCommerce stores. This plan costs you $94 per month. You can install 10 stores that can handle up to 100,000 monthly visits.

Here’s what all you get with the growth plan from WP Engine.

• Up to 100,000 visits
• Up to 20 GB of local storage
• Up to 200 GB of bandwidth
• Manage 10 stores

4. Scale plan: If you have a really high-traffic store, this plan is for you. This plan costs $234/month. You can install up to 30 stores that can handle up to 400,000 monthly visits.

Here’s what else you’ll get with the scale plan from WP Engine.

• Up to 400,000 visits per month
• Up to 50 GB of local storage
• Up to 500 GB of bandwidth
• Manage 30 stores

5. Dedicated Custom Plan: WP Engine also offers custom E-commerce hosting plans for large-scale businesses. You need to contact their sales specialist to get your custom quote details for hosting. This plan costs start from $800/month.

Here’s what else you’ll get with the custom plan from WP Engine.

• 400K+ visits per month
• 500GB+ bandwidth per month 
• 50GB+ storage
• 30+ sites included

3. WP Engine Custom Solutions

WP Engine offers custom hosting solutions for clients with unique hosting needs. These plans are tailored to specific requirements, offering flexibility and scalability.

This plan costs $600/month and provides the following features.

• Scalable for dynamic traffic
• 99.99% uptime SLA
• Isolated resources
• White glove migration & launch support
• Priority support

Why Is WP Engine Hosting Expensive?

WP Engine hosting offers you managed WordPress hosting that makes it expensive compared to other web hosts such as Bluehost and HostGator.

You’ll find cheaper plans from web hosts like Bluehost because they offer shared hosting. In shared hosting, your hosting resources, such as bandwidth and storage, are shared with others.

In managed WordPress hosting, fewer people share the resources, which means an increase in performance and speed and literally no downtime issues.

Here are a few more solid benefits of using managed WordPress hosting.

• Optimized hosting exclusively for WordPress
• Top-notch customer support assistance
• Automatic backups
• Staging feature
• Superior website performance and faster loading times
• Bulletproof security

The above are the reasons why managed WordPress hosting platforms like WP Engine hosting cost you more than other web hosts.

WP Engine – What Sets It Apart? (+ Comparison And Alternatives)

Well, here’s what really sets WP Engine apart, in my opinion: the backup and staging tools.

I’ve tried other hosts like SiteGround and Kinsta. And while they’re decent, they can’t match WP Engine in this area.

Siteground staging is good for the price. But it’s okay – overall.

Now, Kinsta is on the premium end of the spectrum. So you do get high-quality servers with great performance.

But it still struggles a bit to deliver good performance if we consider just the staging version (because the staging version in Kinsta has limited server resources).

The only other host that comes close is Cloudways. Their cloning, staging, and scaling features are pretty great. But for pure WordPress hosting, in my opinion, WP Engine is still the best overall.

That said, budget is the only major thing to consider while choosing WP Engine. If you have a tight budget and want similar performance then InMotion Hosting or Cloudways is a better option.

Other Web Hosting Reviews:
Scala Hosting Review: Is it the best hosting for your site?
Kinsta Review 2024: Is it worth The Money?
HostArmada Review: Is it a Game-Changing Web Host?
Namecheap Hosting Review: Is It The Cheapest Hosting For WordPress?
Hostinger Web Hosting Review 2024: Should We Give a Try to This Host?

FAQ’s

Here are a few questions you might have before grabbing the WP Engine coupon. So make sure to refer them if you want to buy hosting from them.

Recommended: WP Engine vs WPX Hosting: Which host to pick in 2024?

Recommended Web Hosting Resources:

• Hosting Offers [Special Deals on Big Hosting Companies] 2024
• Best Dreamhost alternatives to choose in 2024
• How to start a blog in 2024?
• Comparison of best web hosting sites by BloggersPassion
• WPX Hosting Review with 50% OFF
• Kinsta vs WPEngine: Which is Better Managed Hosting?

Final Thoughts – Is Choosing WP Engine Worth It?

So, is WP Engine worth the investment? For serious website owners who want the best possible performance, support, and security, I say absolutely yes.

Sure, it costs a bit more than budget hosts. And, like any other hosting provider, it’s not totally perfect and comes along with a few downsides as well. So I already shared a bunch of alternatives earlier in this post.

But it all boils down to this: you really do get what you pay for. The speed and reliability of WP Engine are top-notch, which is crucial for any business or brand site.

Downtime and slow loading can cost you a lot, resulting in lost sales and frustrated visitors.

The staging feature alone is a huge time-saver and stress-reducer. And when you factor in the excellent support and added security, I think WP Engine is a GREAT choice.