WP Engine Hosting Review

Why Do I Recommend WP Engine?

Speed

WP Engine is generally considered the fastest WordPress host online.

This is because they have a built-in CDN (Content Delivery Network) page database and object caching with international data centers to boot! Paying for a CDN separately can easily cost more than the price of WP-Engine premium hosting!

They might speed up your site considerably (they claim an average of 4x faster than other hosts!) which for most e-commerce sites generally leads to more sales. Your site is already loading pretty quick at just 3.5 seconds on first load and 1.8 on reload (http://www.webpagetest.org/result/130620_18_1P3/), but faster can only help! From their site: “Google says they lose 20% of their traffic for each additional 100 milliseconds it takes a page to load. Speed matters. Google also incorporates your page-load time into your site’s search rankings.”

Security

Also, maybe more important for you, they offer many security features, which can be very important for WordPress sites which are often the target for hacking. If your site ever gets hacked with them – they’ll fix it free!
They automatically install WordPress updates that include a security update! This could safe you from getting hacked and also save you money so you don’t need to pay me to update

Other Incredible Features

1. They guarantee 100% uptime
2. Automated daily backups – replaces the need for a backup plugin and provides more trustworthy backups (with great support)
3. One click restore points – backup your whole site with one click before making any risky change
4. OUR FAVORITE: A “staging” area so your webmaster can easily test out updates before making them live. As a client, this could save your web designer time, thus saving you money. This could make future updates less time intensive and costly.

Downsides

1. No email hosting – They recommend Google Apps premium email service or Zoho which can be configured as an email service on WP-Engine
2. No 24×7 support – This is unfortunate, but I understand. WP Engine support people are WordPress experts. Anytime ticketing. Chat support 9 AM to 6 PM CST. Telephone support only available to customers on their Pro and up levels.
3. Excluded plugins list – They block certain plugins which they believe to be unsafe

Costs

At $29/mo for a single WordPress site, WP-Engine may seem expensive if you compare it to discount hosts, but if you are running an ecommerce site or a high traffic site selling services, it could save you a lot of money.

1. Improved conversion rates from faster site speed (mobile visitors are especially notorious for leaving slow sites) Dramatically increase your site speed with a CDN (Content Delivery Network) for $19.95/mo on their Personal package or get it free with their Pro and up packages.
2. Reduced time/cost making edits or trying to undo changes with their one click staging and restore points.
3. Remove the risk of costly site hacking from insecure WordPress environments.

Leave a comment below if you have any questions.

Best,

Daniel

NOTE: We do receive a small commission for purchase made through this page, but would recommend it above any other WordPress host regardless. Click here if you want to also refer WP-Engine to your friends.