WP Engine Review (2024): Best Managed WordPress Host Ever?

Have you been looking for unbiased WP Engine review? 

Here’s my honest review of this amazing web hosting provider.

WP Engine offers top-of-the-line WordPress hosting with a myriad of premium features to help you manage your WordPress website hassle-free, so you can focus on keeping your business running.

This premium web host has excellent page load speed and performance, great customer support and an easy to use platform. 

Read on to find out more about the other features that make WP Engine an excellent managed WordPress hosting provider to use this year.

WP Engine Overview

WP Engine was founded in Austin, Texas in 2010. 

The founder, Jason Cohen, saw back then that WordPress was fast becoming popular and decided to create WP Engine, a tailor-made hosting service for WordPress.  

WP Engine is now powering over 1.5 million websites in 150+ countries.

This web hosting provider caters to small and large businesses alike, and with their managed WordPress hosting, WP Engine wants you to focus on running your business and leave the technical aspect of running your website to them.

In addition to all the wonderful things this fantastic web host can do, signing up for a WP Engine hosting gives you access to the following;

Recommended:

• Read more about WP Engine Global Edge Security.

2. SSL Certificates:

WP Engine includes free SSL with every plan. 

For majority of WordPress websites, this is a great option. This is especially useful for ecommerce websites handling tons of sensitive customer data. 

Most other web hosts will require you to buy an SSL certificate after paying for your hosting, but WP Engine places greater importance on security than most web hosting services, that is why they include this certificate free with every plan.

3. Daily Automated Backups:

This is a crucial security feature to have in case your website gets hacked, and you need to restore it. Or perhaps, your website gets broken by a recent WordPress plugin update.

WP Engine allows you to create and access more than 30 backup points from your user portal, and you can easily restore your WordPress website without needing expert help.

4. 30+ Premium StudioPress Themes:

StudioPress is a WordPress themes development company founded in August 2007. 

They offer Gutenberg-ready, premium quality, feature-rich and SEO-friendly themes for WordPress websites.  

WP Engine is their parent company and they offer you these premium themes free on every plan you purchase.

5. Development, Staging and Production Environments:

WP Engine offers you 3 environments on each site. 

The development environment is a sandbox for website building. 

The staging environment creates a clone of your WordPress site and identify mistakes before publishing. 

While Production environment is the live version of your website, where your changes are reflected if you’re OK with them.

6. Automated Migration Plugin:

Do you need to migrate your WordPress website to WP Engine?

There’s no need to hire a third-party migration team or a WordPress expert.  

WP Engine provides a free plugin for that, and you can do it yourself without a hitch. 

This plugin is a quick and easy way to migrate multiple WordPress websites.

7. PHP 8.0 Ready:

Enhancing the speed and security of your WordPress site can be achieved by running an up-to-date version of PHP. 

WP Engine announced PHP 8.0 for customers who want to upgrade their PHP version. 

PHP improves your SEO, creates better conversions and retains more visitors. 

It does this by increasing your site’s performance and speeding up page loading. 

This also benefits memory usage on your site.

8. Free Page Performance Tool:

With WP Engine hosting, you get a free page performance tool that runs tests. 

If your site is down or not up to speed, this tool makes suggestions that you can use to improve your site speed.

9. GeoIP Targeting:

Still speaking of performance, the GeoIP Targeting is a performance add-on by WP Engine that further optimises your website based on your site visitor's location. 

That way, your visitor gets served from WP Engine’s web server closest to them.

10. Global CDN & 18 Global Data Centers:

WP Engine has on offer, free CDN through their partnership with Cloudflare and 18 global data centers. 

What this means is that they can provide web surfing experiences to your global audience wherever they come visiting from.

11. 60-day Money Back Guarantee:

This web hosting provider is so confident that you’ll love their service, they backup their promises with a 60-day money back guarantee. 

This means that, if for any reason you’re not satisfied with their services, you can request a refund as part of your cancellation notice, anytime within the first 60 days of buying the plan.

WP Engine Platform/User Portal

The WP Engine central hub is for managing your site/s. 

You can login, access your database, create new sites and more.

The user panel is easy to use and you can quickly find whatever you’re looking for with a quick look-around. 

The Sites page offers site and environment management tools, such as details about the environment’s status and the ability to make updates to certain assets, like plugins or themes. 

It is your central hub for managing your sites.

From your user portal, you can also quickly perform other functions such as;

• automatic rollbacks

• bulk-manage your plugins

• install SSL

• clear cache

• delete environments, etc.

The user portal also allows users to:

• manage add-ons such as smart plugin manager

• Global Edge Security

• Site Monitoring

• Instant Store Search and also 

• perform billing related activities.

Support – Do they have Helpful support?

WP Engine has excellent support staff and have won numerous awards for client satisfaction over the years.

You can quickly create a Live Chat, search the Support Center article database, view open tickets or contact their award-winning Support directly, all from your user portal.

You can also choose to email or reach their support on the phone.

All plans come with a 24/7 live chat support, but 24/7 phone support is reserved for their higher tier plans.

For the live chat support, users wait an average of 120 seconds to receive support.

Their support staff are very knowledgeable with WordPress and regularly undergo training on the latest WordPress trends and industry best practices.

WP Engine User Reviews – What Real Users Are Saying

• “We’ve worked with WPEngine for a number of years now across a range of hosting needs, from shared to dedicated and monolithic WordPress to headless WordPress. Their dedication to great customer support and top-tier technical assistance is second to none. Their openness to feedback and commitment to constant improvement in their service and technologies are even better. A great company to work with all around!” – Tayo Onabule (trustpilot.com)

• “What don’t I like? First, migrating sites to  WP Engine could not be easier. Managing my sites is so easy. Backing up and restoring my site is easy. Setting up SSL is easy. All of these things are so much harder on all other web hosting platforms I have worked with.” – Seth P., Web & Media Developer (www.g2.com)

• “We made the right choice by choosing  WP Engine to host our website and client website. It has fulfilled all our expectations. Our website was loading very late due to hosting problem but after using WP Engine, it’s loading smoothly. Response from their support have always helped us to get things done in a timely and appropriate manner.” – Verified User (trustradius.com)

WP Engine Performance

3. Time To First Byte (TTFB):

Time to first byte is a metric for measuring page speed. 

It is a measure of how much time it takes to load all the content on a particular web page. 

During a study, WP Engine pulled 6 months of data from approximately 1 million websites from HTTP Archive’s Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX).

WP Engine then compared TTFB data from all these websites, filtering WordPress-specific hosts, and adding performance bands.

The result?

Of all the WordPress-specific hosts that had TTFB under 200ms (fast websites), WP Engine was the fastest, both on desktop and mobile! 

You can read more on that study in this report.

WP Engine Pricing

WP Engine has three hosting solutions;

• Managed WordPress

• eCommerce Solutions for Woo

• Advanced Solutions. 

But since we’re more concerned about Managed WordPress, we will delve deeper.

WP Engine Managed WordPress Hosting

WP Engine’s Managed WordPress category has 5 pricing tiers namely;

1. Startup ($23/month)

2. Professional ($44/month)

3. Growth ($86/month)

4. Scale ($218/month)

5. Dedicated (custom price)

Here's a brief breakdown of what you get with the different tiers.

1. Managed WordPress Startup

• Price: $23/month

• Best For: Bloggers, small businesses

• Sites Included: 1

• Storage: 10GB

• Bandwidth: 50GB

• Monthly Visits: 25,000

2. Managed WordPress Professional

• Price: $44/month

• Best For: Professionals, growing businesses

• Sites Included: 3

• Storage: 15GB

• Bandwidth: 125GB

• Monthly Visits: 75,000

3. Managed WordPress Growth

• Price: $86/month

• Best For: Fast-growing businesses

• Sites Included: 10

• Storage: 20GB

• Bandwidth: 200GB

• Monthly Visits: 100,000

4. Managed WordPress Scale

• Price: $218/month

• Best For: Medium to large scale businesses

• Sites Included: 30

• Storage: 50GB

• Bandwidth: 500GB

• Monthly Visits: 400,000

5. Managed WordPress Dedicated

• Price: Custom

• Best For: Agencies and larger-scale businesses

• Sites Included: 30+

• Storage: 50+ GB

• Bandwidth: 500+ GB

• Monthly Visits: 400,000+

Who is WP Engine Managed Hosting For?

If you’re a blogger or just a small business owner or a web designer setting up a site for a client who is keen on site security, this host’s managed hosting plan is for you. 

The managed WordPress hosting is their most popular plan, with different packages and even custom options. 

There are also higher-level Plus and Secure hosting versions you can choose from.

But WP Engine also has ecommerce hosting plans. They call it Ecommerce Solutions for Woo.

WP Engine Pros & Cons

Pros

• Very helpful and knowledgeable technical support

• Excellent page loading speed

• Reliable and consistent performance

• 60-day money-back guarantee

• Advanced security measures

• Top-notch staging environment

Cons

• Higher-end pricing

• Exclusive to WordPress websites

• Doesn’t allow some WordPress plugins

• Doesn’t host emails

WP Engine FAQs

1. What Is WP Engine Used For?

WP Engine is primarily a WordPress hosting service that offers brands a solution to create fast and secure websites on the most used content management system in the world – WordPress.

2. Why Should I Use  WP Engine?

If you’re a small business owner or an ecommerce website or even an agency, and you’ve probably tried VPS or Shared hosting and it’s not working for you, you should try WP Engine.

If you’re also concerned about site security and performance, this hosting service is one of the best options out there to manage your website and feel secure while doing so.

3. Can I Use WP Engine to Host a Non-WordPress Site?

Simple answer? No. 

WP Engine’s managed hosting plans is built exclusively for WordPress websites and will not accommodate yours if it is built on any other content management system.

4. Why Is WP Engine Better?

Apart from having excellent technical support for when you run into issues, WP Engine also has great page loading speed and even greater performance metrics. 

You can focus more on driving your business and less on the technical aspect of running your website.

5. Does WP Engine Have a Firewall?

Yes, WP Engine has a proprietary firewall. 

WP Engine offers Global Edge Security which includes managed Web Application Firewall (WAF), Cloudflare CDN, SSL and advanced DDOS mitigation. 

With this firewall, WP Engine automatically directs good, bad and malicious traffic. 

6. What Are Best WP Engine Alternatives?

WP Engine is in a world by itself and is one of the best managed hosting services out there. 

However, some of the best alternatives to WP Engine include;

• Bluehost

• Hostinger

• AccuWeb Hosting

• DreamHost

• InMotion Hosting. 

7. Is WP Engine A Server?

No. WP Engine is not a server. 

WP Engine is a premium dedicated WordPress hosting platform. 

WP Engine uses dedicated servers for its managed WordPress hosting.

8. Does WP Engine Have Phone Support?

Yes. WP Engine has 24/7 phone support for all their plans except the Starter plans. 

Starter plan users receive only Live Chat support. 

If your issue isn’t resolved over chat or phone, WP Engine’s experienced technical support will issue an internal support ticket so they can follow through until they resolve it.

9. How Many Data Centers Does WP Engine Have?

To help power your website, WP Engine has shared or dedicated servers in over 20 global data centers. 

These Global data centers are spread across four continents, including Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. 

Their primary data centre is in Houston, Texas.

10. How Many WordPress Websites Can I Use with One WP Engine Account?

With WP Engine, users can manage multiple domains with one WordPress installation. 

But note that this is not allowed on their basic Personal plan.

WP Engine achieves this using their WordPress multi-site feature that allows you to install more than one domain on one WP Engine account.

11. Does WP Engine Offer Automatic Migration?

Yes. WP Engine offers a free migration plugin to help you migrate your website to their platform in one to two hours, depending on the size of your website. 

Larger websites can take up to 48 hours for automatic migration to be completed.

12. Does WP Engine Plan Come with Free SSL?

Yes. Unlike most other hosting providers, all WP Engine’s hosting plans come with free SSL certificates. 

There’s also room to upload a custom third-party SSL certificate to your WordPress website if you wish.

13. How Does WP Engine Keep My WordPress Website Safe?

WP Engine’s advanced enterprise-grade technology automates threat detection on your website and blocks over 70 million threats daily. 

WP Engine’s continuous monitoring, automated updates, proactive threat detection and edge protection helps to block over 26+ Billion attacks yearly.

14. Does My WP Engine Plan Get A CDN?

Yes. WP Engine have partnered with Cloudflare CDN to provide CDN for all environments. 

WP Engine’s Enterprise or Premium plans automatically get up to 1 TB CDN usage.

Alternatives to WP Engine Managed WordPress Hosting Service

While WP Engine is outrightly the best managed WordPress hosting service out there, it won’t hurt to check out alternatives. 

Comparing these alternatives side-by-side can help you decide on which managed WordPress hosting is right for your business.

Here goes;

• Kinsta – Best Managed WordPress Hosting Powered By Google Cloud

• Bluehost – Easiest WordPress Host Powering over 2 Million Websites

• DreamHost – Best WordPress Hosting With 97-day Money Back Guarantee

• InMotion Hosting – Best Cheap Managed WordPress Hosting Services

• Nexcess – Fully Managed WordPress Hosting With Best Introductory Price

WP Engine might be expensive compared to other web hosts on this list, but considering what you get when you signup with them, like 24/7/365 security monitoring and their 99.95% uptime guarantee, their pricing is reasonable.

WP Engine Review | The Conclusion

This WP Engine review makes a lot of promises, and it’s easy to see why.  

WP Engine is the best managed hosting service, with a sole focus on WordPress. 

That aside, they performed highly on every testing metric like reliability (availability), uptime, and loading speed.

Also, their exceptional technical support, and excellent security features add another level of confidence in their ability to deliver superior and high-level WordPress hosting.

If you’re a business looking to get more than one WordPress website on one plan, you won’t go wrong with WP Engine.

If search engine performance and SEO is your concern, WP Engine’s fast servers will make sure your website passes all Google’s speed test and improve your search engine rankings, thereby boosting your traffic. 

Their eCommerce Solutions For Woo makes sure your ecommerce website is up to 40% faster and up to 18% better at driving online sales.

Final Verdict

Forget about the price, if your website or business is already generating money, or you have already outgrown your current host and are looking for an upgrade, you should definitely try WP Engine.