WP Engine Review | The Best WordPress Hosting Service in 2024?

WP Engine WordPress Hosting Review — Updated April 2024

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WP Engine Benefits and Features 

You’re looking for a hosting company that will be able to supply high-quality hosting services for your WordPress website. In this case, you’ll want to find a hosting provider that’s able to provide a lot of features that you can take advantage of and use for your website. 

If your web host has a lot of features, but they don’t benefit you, then you may want to find a new hosting provider that has features that you’ll be able to use with your WordPress website. This way, you’ll get the most benefit out of your web host. 

We reviewed WP Engine, and we found many features and benefits that you’ll be able to take advantage of when you work with them as your web host. Here’s what we were able to find:

1. Fast Hosting for WordPress Websites 

If you want your website to be a success online, then you’ll want to make sure that your website is fast. If your site is slow, then this will frustrate your viewers, and they will leave your website without spending much time on your website. 

After a while, your bounce rate will start to be affected, and search engines such as Google will drop your SERP rankings because your bounce rate is too high. Your website must be fast because you’ll be able to keep your audience engaged, and this will help your website become a success. 

There are many different ways that you can make your website faster, but if your web host is slow, then there’s little that you can do to speed up your site because your hosting partner’s server speeds aren’t within your control. This underlines the importance of selecting a hosting partner with blazing fast hosting speeds from the very beginning.

We have tested the hosting speeds of over 30 different hosting companies, and we have found that the average load time within the hosting industry is 700ms. When we tested WP Engine, we were happy to find that they beat the industry average by recording a load time of just 42ms-338ms depending on the server location. 

This is very fast, and the slowest that we were able to record was still less than half a second. This time would beat the majority of hosting providers for speed, and it’s one of the fastest WordPress hosting companies that we have been able to find. 

2. Good Server Uptime 

When you’re trying to find a hosting provider, then you’ll want to look at the uptime records of that particular hosting company. If the hosting company has a low uptime record, then this may be a forecast of future performance. This may result in your website being unavailable on the internet for long periods.

This downtime can cause a lot of damage to you and your business. If your customers are trying to find you online, but they can’t open your website, then you’ve likely lost their business, and they will go to the competition. You can also frustrate your audience and lose viewership when your site has a low uptime rate.

When you work with WP Engine, you’ll be able to rely on their consistent uptime records of over 99% for the last year straight. This is a reliable indicator that they can be trusted to keep your website active and limit the amount of downtime that you’ll experience.

WP Engine is so confident in its hosting servers that they have issued an uptime guarantee of 99.95%, which means that they promise never to have an uptime record below this number. 

3. Reliable Customer Support

If you’ve ever dealt with a support team that didn’t know what they were doing and had no clue about their products or services, then you can understand how frustrating this experience can be. Poor customer support is especially frustrating in the tech space, where you tend to rely on a company’s support technicians for their knowledge of the product or service.

An excellent support team can be the difference between endless hours of support calls or a simple live chat that has your issues solved within 30 minutes. If you want to have a pleasant experience with customer support, then you’ll want to pick a company that has a reliable support team. 

We value customer service, and so we put WP Engine’s support team to the test. Within 2 minutes, we were connected with their support staff, who promptly directed us to the correct support department.

Their support members were quick to explain our situation and the different ways that they could help resolve the issue. We found their support staff to be very knowledgable, friendly, and prompt to seek out and provide answers to our questions. Before ending the chat, they took time to summarize our interaction and ensure that we understood the steps to take, moving forward.

We found that WP Engine’s support staff went beyond what was required to resolve our problem and provide a “human element” throughout the entire interaction.

4. Scalable Hosting Plans 

When you’re looking for the best hosting company to work with, then you’ll want to take a look at a company’s hosting plans to ensure that you’re able to scale your hosting plans as your website begins to grow.  

If your hosting partner’s plans aren’t scalable, then you’ll get locked into a hosting contract that’s too small for your website. This can limit the growth of your website and become a huge frustration.

When you work with WP Engine, you’ll be able to use their scalable hosting plans to upgrade or downsize your hosting plan with a click of a button. This will allow you to choose a hosting plan that fits your needs and then as your website grows, you’ll be able to increase your plan size quickly.

Scalable hosting is a nice feature to get from any hosting provider, and it will help you save a lot of money on hosting by limiting the excessive data that you’re paying for but not using. 

5. Automatic Website Backups 

If you’re building your website with WordPress, then you’ll want to set measures in place that will help safeguard your work and provide a recovery option in case of an accident. When you’re building your website, you’ll understand that it takes a lot of time and effort, which you don’t want to be erased by mistake. 

While you never want a mistake to happen, they tend to occur from time to time, and you don’t want these types of errors to become permanent.

One of the beautiful features of WP Engine is the fact that they have put preventive measures in place, which will reduce the damage from these types of mistakes. One of the steps that they have taken is an automatic backup for your website that will be performed on a daily basis. 

If your website happens to crash, then you can simply log into your dashboard and use the ‘one-click’ restore option, and it will automatically restore your site to a previously-saved recovery point. 

This feature is extremely helpful when you’re in the process of building your website because you can iron out any mistakes by going back in time and restoring your website to an older version before you made a mistake. 

6. Access to Global Data Centers 

One of the features that you can benefit from when you use WP Engine as your hosting provider is the global data centers that you’ll have access to when you work with WP Engine as a hosting partner. 

If you have a global audience, then you’ll want to make sure that you’re using a CDN or ensure that your web host has data centers all around the world so that you can provide a faster viewing experience to your audience. 

When someone tries to access your website, your hosting provider will determine their approximate location, and then select the closest server to handle that request. This reduces the amount of time that it takes for your audience members to view your website, which means that your audience has a faster viewing experience. 

WP Engine currently has data centers in America, Europe, and Asia, which means that your website will be faster for your global viewers. A wide array of server locations will allow you to provide a consistent viewing experience to your audience no matter where they live.

7. Free WordPress Website Migration 

If you’ve been working with a hosting company that hasn’t met your expectations and you’re looking to switch hosting providers, then you’ll need to perform a website migration to transfer your website to another web host. 

Website migration can be a tricky process that causes a lot of headaches unless you know what you’re doing. Website migration can also be quite costly, and some hosting companies will even charge up to $150 for website migration.

When you work with WP Engine, however, you’ll be able to take advantage of their free website migration service for WordPress websites. This is a nice feature because it means that you’ll be able to switch hosting providers without any hassle or having to pay a penny. 

 8. 35+ Premium StudioPress Themes 

One of the reasons that people use WordPress as their Content Management System (CMS) is the fact that they can quickly build their website and manage it through the WordPress dashboard. 

You don’t need a ton of coding experience to build a WordPress website because you’re essentially customizing a pre-built theme. Nonetheless, you also can code-in some custom features if you know how to. This makes WordPress ideal for beginners and even better for anyone who has some experience with web development.

You’ll quickly discover that WordPress themes can get costly, especially if you’re trying to buy a premium theme that has the best functionality and features for you to use. 

When you work with WP Engine, you’ll be given complimentary access to over 35 premium themes from StudioPress, which will help you save money while also providing you with a premium WordPress theme to use for your website.

9. Free CDN and SSL Certificate 

If you’re trying to build a website that will become successful in a competitive online environment, then you’ll want to make sure that your website is fast and secure. WP Engine knows how important it is for your website to be fast and secure, which is why they offer a free CDN and SSL certificate to each customer. 

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a network of databases that will store a cached version of your website on different servers around the globe, reducing the time it takes to load your site.

If you’re trying to make sure that your website is safe to use, then you’ll probably want to start by using an SSL certificate. This is an extra security level that will help encrypt any information that may be transferred, and it will ensure that your audience members are safe while they are on your website. 

Both an SSL certificate and a CDN are features that you would typically have to pay for, so it’s a bonus that WP Engine provides these add-ons for free. WP Engine takes steps to help make your website faster and more secure, while also saving you the cost of these extra features.

10. Security Scans On a Daily Basis 

If you’re using WordPress, then you’ll want to make sure that you take your website’s security very seriously. WordPress is the largest CMS on the market, which means that it’s the ideal target for hackers or online attacks.

There are many plugins and tools that you can use to help combat these attacks and make your website more secure. If you have the right security measures in place, then your WordPress website can become one of the safest sites on the internet. One of the ways that you can make your site safer is by choosing a hosting provider that can protect you and prevent attacks from happening.

When you work with WP Engine, you’ll be able to take advantage of the daily security scans, updates, and security patching that they’ll perform on your website to prevent any attacks from happening. They will search for any malicious attacks and try to prevent them from happening before they even begin. 

WP Engine has had a lot of success with its security measures, and they prevent almost 2 million attacks per day, which is a reliable indicator that you’ll be safe when you use hosting from WP Engine. 

11. 60-Day Refund Policy 

If you’re looking for the best hosting company, then you’ll want to choose a hosting provider that’s able to provide a lengthy refund period. This will help protect you from being forced to work with a company that you’re unhappy with.

You never want to get locked into a contract with a hosting provider that you’re unhappy with or don’t want to work with on a long term basis. When there’s a long refund period, then you’ll be able to test the company’s services to see if they meet your standards.

Many hosting providers will give you a 30-day refund period. WP Engine, however, offers its customers a longer time to make their final decision. Their 60-day refund period will provide you with enough time to set up a website and test their WordPress hosting services and then make a final decision based on your own experiences. 

Disadvantages of WP Engine

When you’re looking for a WordPress hosting provider to host your WordPress website, you’ll want to weigh the pros and cons and then make an educated decision on which company is the best for you. While some hosting providers may look like the best hosting company, they’ll still have flaws within their company, which could affect you and your website in the long run. 

We took a critical look at WP Engine hosting, and we found some of the reasons that you may not want to use them as your hosting provider. Here’s what we found:

1. WP Engine is More Expensive — But Not Really

If you’re going to start using WP Engine, then you’ll need to make sure that your website has enough visitors to be able to use their hosting plans. When you work with other hosting providers, you’ll find that they offer starter plans which cost a few bucks for a plan that has limited data. 

WP Engine has decided that its hosting plans will target the premium WordPress hosting niche. Even their most elementary plan is large enough to handle an intermediate website comfortably, and handle up to 10,000 viewers every month without any drawbacks on your bandwidth or performance. 

While their hosting plans may be more expensive to get started with, they’re not overly expensive when you compare their hosting plans to other hosting options, such as cloud hosting plans offered by other hosting providers. 

2. Extra Charges for Data Overages 

If you’re using WP Engine as your hosting provider, then you should be aware that there are overage charges which will be billed to your account if you use more data than your plan permits every month. 

If you use too much data on your hosting plan, then you will be charged $2 for every 1000 visitors that come to your website. While this fee could be seen as a disadvantage, it’s much cheaper than upgrading your hosting plan and paying for an excessive amount of hosting data that you aren’t using. 

WP Engine Plans and Pricing 

When you’re looking for a hosting provider to host your website, you’ll want to take a look at the hosting plans to ensure that you’ll get the features that your website needs and at a price that you can afford. 

Your ideal web host should have WordPress-specific features that your website can use and also be within your price range. 

If you’re using a WordPress website, it only makes sense that you use a hosting provider that’s able to offer hosting plans that are optimized and built for WordPress websites. 

This will give your website the best chance for success, and you’ll have access to features that are designed to help your WordPress website grow. 

When you use WP Engine, you’ll be able to choose between four premium WordPress Hosting Plans such as:

• Startup Plan — Starting from $29.15 per month 
• Growth Plan — Just $95.83 per month 
• Scale Plan — From $247.67 per month 
• Custom Hosting Plan — Contact Support

When you purchase any of these hosting plans, you’ll have access to lots of free features such as 35+ premium website themes from StudioPress, an SSL Certificate, and a complimentary CDN. These and other features will help you provide a fast, safe viewing experience to your audience. 

You’ll also be able to access the WP Engine support team on a 24/7 basis so that your problems can be resolved at any time of the day or night. 

When you use WP Engine, it doesn’t matter whether your website is getting under 10,000 viewers per month or several million viewers because WP Engine has a wide variety of hosting plans that can be customized and scaled to fit your needs. 

Do We Recommend WP Engine? 

Yes, without a doubt! We are happy with what we saw from WP Engine and their hosting services, and we would recommend them to anyone who needs a high-quality web host for their WordPress website. 

WP Engine can offer some of the fastest hosting speeds that we have tested, and they have an exceptionally high uptime record, which is also back by an uptime guarantee of 99.95%. 

If you enjoy customer service that’s fast and helpful, then you’ll likely want to use WP Engine. We found that their customer support was quick to connect, well-educated on hosting related topics, and friendly throughout the entire interaction. 

WP Engine also offers a lot of free features that will help you save money on your hosting plan and stay within your budget, as you launch a website for your personal use or business. 

From our experience, we would say that WP Engine is one of the best WordPress hosting providers on the market. If you need a premium WordPress hosting provider, then we would recommend that you try using WP Engine as your web host.