Since making the switch over to a WPengine dedicated server, I’ve been blown away by the level of performance this site has been able to achieve. If you’ve been in the market for a managed WordPress hosting solution, then this review is for you.

WP Engine Review Quick Links

Why You Need A Quality Web Host Like WPengine

History of WPengine

Pros of WPengine

Cons of WPengine

WPengine Web Hosting Packages

– WPengine Managed Hosting Plans
– WP Engine Managed Hosting Plus Plans
– WP Engine Secure Hosting Plans
– WP Engine eCommerce Hosting Plans
– Custom Hosting Plans

General Features

Additional Features

WPengine FAQs

People decide to migrate over to managed WordPress hosts for a variety of reasons. However, one of the biggest reasons is to get rid of the hours of additional website and server optimization tasks you have to do every single month.

Even if you sign up for a standard web host who claims to help reduce admin work, it’s usually not very beneficial. Since these larger hosts cater to so many different hosting types and platforms, there add-on services are naturally pretty limited.

WP Engine is different in that they’re a WordPress-only platform. This enables their team to completely cater to WordPress users and site owners. This allows their team to offer a very high-level of service to WP Engine customers. All site and server admin, maintenance, and optimization tasks are 100% handled by their team of experts.

Not only does this save you time, but you’ll get an incredibly fast, secure, and high-performing site as a result.

But, this high level of WordPress managed hosting does come at a cost.

Below we dive deep into their higher priced plans, and all the bundled features and benefits, so you can dive if this style of hosting is the right move for your website.

Why You Need a Quality WordPress Web Host Like WP Engine

If you’re a WordPress site owner, then you’re going to have multiple options for hosting your site. You can use basic shared hosting, VPS, and even dedicated hosting. But, there’s one form of hosting that’s going to help you get the most out of your site, without any additional work, and it’s called WordPress managed hosting.

Managed WordPress hosting solutions came online as WordPress continued to grow in popularity. Since WordPress is a unique CMS it requires a unique hosting setup to help get the most out of your site.

In the early stages of your site, you can probably get away with shared hosting as your site won’t be getting enough traffic to warrant any customized hosting options. But, as the size and traffic of your site continues to grow you’ll want to seek out a hosting solution that’ll help to maximize your site’s performance without any additional work on your end.

This is where managed WordPress hosting comes into play.

WP Engine is unique in that they only offered managed WordPress hosting packages.

This allows them to offer a very helpful, and custom-tailored hosting experience, for WordPress site owners.

The History Of WP Engine

WP Engine was founded in 2010 by Jason Cohen. As the popularity of WordPress continued to rise, Jason, saw an opportunity to create a host solely dedicated to that platform.

Over time WP Engine has grown to become a very popular WordPress host. They’ve served over 30,000 customers across 120 different countries, including companies like Soundcloud and Microsoft.

They continue to advance their hosting offerings with cutting edge technology. They’re even funded by the company behind the creation of WordPress, Automattic.

They’re a premium WordPress host through and through. Not only due to the price point of the hosting services, but the level of quality, support, and services they provide.

The Pros Of WP Engine

WP Engine has a lot of advantages. Especially, if you’re running a WordPress site that gets a decent volume traffic.

Here are the biggest reasons you may want to consider hosting your site with WP Engine:

1. High Performing Server

If you want your site to remain competitive in today’s online landscape then you need a site that loads quickly. Lightening page load times are essential. There are a lot of different things that go into having a fast website. First, you need a host that places a focus on performance. Second, you need a website that’s been optimized for speed.

Luckily, WordPress is already an incredibly lean CMS and very fast right out of the gate. However, as your site grows you’ll probably have dozens of customization in place, widgets, plugins, and a lot more going on.

As a result, you might notice a drop in your website’s performance.

One way to greatly improve your performance is to upgrade to a better host. Now, this doesn’t always mean you’ll only need more server space. Instead, you should look for a hosting company that has a server environment fully optimized for WordPress.

This is where WP Engine comes in. They offer a completely customized server stack with aggressive caching protocols built in. Plus, they have dedicated staff whose sole purpose is to identify any performance issues with your site and take the necessary steps to fix them.

WP Engine’s load speeds are blazingly fast. Even without having the proper site optimization in place your site will still be one of the fastest loading sites out there. This is nice to have. No matter how large your site grows, page loading speeds and overall performance is never something you’ll have to worry about.

Their custom server stack and WordPress-specific customizations go a long way towards helping achieve this. But, their hosting plans also include an integrated CDN and access to a selection of global data centers. You can improve performance by choosing a data center that’s in the closest physical proximity to where your audience is located.

Finally, since it’s a managed host, speed is never something that you’ll have to personally worry about. You won’t have to fiddle around with caching plugins or other optimization plugins on your end. Just sign up for a hosting package and it’s all taken care of for you.

Over the past few years WP Engine have consistently out performed many other WordPress hosting companies in various speed tests conducted on tools such as GT Metrix or Pingdom.

2. Automated Backups & Updates

There’s nothing worse than realizing you’ve gone months without updating your WordPress site. Even though it’s such a central task to keeping your site secure and functioning properly it’s an easy task to forget.

When updates to the WordPress core are pushed out, you’ll want to update your site right away. These updates not only add new features, but they patch known security holes, and keep your site in alignment with the latest web standards. Failing to update your site can also lead to plugin and theme conflicts, which can actually bring your site offline.

Basically, you’ll want to always be running the latest version of WordPress, along with keeping all of your plugins and themes up to date.

Luckily, the WP Engine team will take care of this for you.

Beyond ensuring that the WordPress core is up to date their team will test the update before they apply it, to ensure that it won’t affect your site in any way. You can also elect to defer any software release. For example, maybe you don’t want the latest Gutenberg editor applied to your site.

By deferring the update you’ll give yourself 60 days to test the update before you decide to apply it to your site.

However, keep in mind that you do have to update your WordPress plugins yourself. But, this can be an advantage as some plugins won’t be ready for an upgrade straight away and can lead to conflicts.

Beyond keeping our site up to date, WP Engine will also conduct regular website backups. These backups are pretty in-depth too. When some hosts offer bundled hosting they either limit the size of the backups, or only backup certain website elements.

WP Engine will backup your site on a nightly basis, and it’s a full website backup too. Each backup contains the WordPress core, site databases, plugins, themes, site changes, and more. You can do a full site restore from every single backup.

Beyond the automated backups, you also have the option to conduct a manual backup as well. All of the backups are stored on your WP Engine dashboard, but you can also download your backups for additional storage and safety as well.

3. Daily Security Scans Included

Website security is something you should take very seriously, especially if you’re running WordPress. Since WordPress is by and far the most popular CMS this makes it a very likely target for hackers.

Sadly, maintaining website security isn’t something that’s even thought about until it’s too late. Recovering from a hack can be both a time consuming and costly process.

There are steps you can take to secure your own WordPress site, but still, the security of your site will rest squarely on your shoulders. This means that you’ll not only need to install, activate, and set up the proper plugins. But, you’ll need to always ensure these plugins are up to date. Forgetting a single link in the chain can cause your entire security wall to come crashing down.

WP Engine will take care of all of this for you. They have automated daily security scans to ensure you don’t have any active security risks. Plus, there are automated backups for disaster recovery.

They have custom security procedures in place on the server level as well. Finally, they have regular third-party security audits to ensure their practices, servers, and codebase are up to the latest security standards.

4. WordPress Staging Area

With WP Engine you’ll have your standard hosting, plus additional access to multiple WordPress staging areas.

These staging environments can be used to fully create and test your WordPress website before you push it live to the internet. Or, if you’re a developer these can be used to build your client sites and make any changes before you transfer the site to their possession.

Pushing your site live, or transferring it to a client is very straightforward as well and all takes place within the hosting dashboard.

5. Free Site Migration

Migrating your WordPress site over to WP Engine is a very easy process. Not only will you be able to migrate your entire site, but you’ll be able to do it entirely for free.

To prepare your site for the migration you’ll need to have an active WP Engine hosting account, and you’ll need to create a new site from within your hosting dashboard.

Then, you’ll install the free migration plugin on your existing site and do all of the necessary site preparation. The plugin will do all of the technical heavy lifting for you, downloading and migrating all of your site content, databases, and settings. Keep in mind that it might take a little time for the transfer to finalize.

The only thing left for you to do is update your existing DNS records to reflect your new hosting environment.

Most hosts will charge for the process above, or only migrate a portion of your site for free. With the WP Engine migration plugin you can easily migrate your site for free in the most efficient way possible.

6. Free Site Migration and Installs

If you’re switching to HostGator from another hosting provider, then this process couldn’t be simpler. All you need to do is sign up for hosting, and their team will take care of all the technical steps. This is perfect for beginners who don’t want to get their hands dirty with a complex site migration.

Also, if this is your first time using the service, then you can take advantage of the number of one-click installs they offer. Installing a CMS on your site takes nothing more than clicking a few buttons and entering the name of your site.

These tools and services make it very easy to get your site off the ground, even if you don’t have any technical skills.

7. Bundled StudioPress Themes

StudioPress, the team behind Genesis, has created some of the finest WordPress themes available on the market today. In 2018 they were acquired by WP Engine.

When you sign up for a WP Engine hosting package you’ll get access to the entire library of StudioPress themes free of charge. This will typically cost you at least $129. If you plan on hosting multiple sites with WP Engine, or are a developer who wants to use the Genesis framework to build out client sites, then this is an incredible deal.

The theme’s span a wide range of niches, from standard blogging themes, to eCommerce, news sites, health sites, and a lot more. Whatever kind of site you’re building you’ll be able to find a theme to match.

Since you have access to the Genesis parent theme you can also build your own child theme from scratch.

It can be hard to find the perfect WordPress theme for your needs. With access to the StudioPress theme library, you’ll not only simplify your search, but you’ll ensure that you’ll always be using a high quality and high-performance theme.

Now, you can use other themes with WP Engine hosting if you wish. But, having a selection of quality themes right out of the gate is an incredible bonus.

8. Lengthy 60 Day Money Back Guarantee

WP Engine offers one of the most generous guarantees in the hosting game. While most hosts simply offer a maximum 30-day guarantee, WP Engine pushes this even further by extending the guarantee out to 60 days.

This means you have a full two months to test out the service to see if it’s right for you.

Canceling your account and getting a full refund is a very straightforward process. All you have to do is download your website backups, and enter your reason for canceling your account. You’re now free to move your site to another hosting service.

If you cancel your account within the 60-day window of first opening your account, then you’ll be eligible for a full refund.

The Cons Of WP Engine

WP Engine can offer your WordPress site a lot of benefits. Still, it’s not the perfect host and isn’t right for every kind of website owner.

Here are some of the biggest drawbacks of WP Engine you’ll want to be aware of:

1. They Only Offer WordPress Hosting

Hopefully, this first drawback is obvious. WP Engine only offers managed WordPress hosting services. If you want any other type of hosting, then you’re going to have to look elsewhere.

A lot of other hosts will offer a myriad of other services like, domain name registration, email management, along with will multiple forms of hosting.

With WP Engine you won’t be able to run any kind of site that isn’t a WordPress site.

This does create a very high-quality WordPress hosting service, but site owners not on WordPress will have to find a different provider to host their websites.

2. Site Customization Limitations

WP Engine has a very unique hosting setup which helps to achieve the very high levels of performance and security. But, in order to make this possible, there are a lot of site restrictions in place.

For example, there are limits on a number of plugins you can use, along with certain admin tasks that you won’t be able to complete.

This is done for a reason, in order to help your site achieve high levels of security and blazing fast speeds. But, some site owners might find this frustrating if they’re attached to using a certain plugin.

Now, there are alternative tools offered by WP Engine that you can use to accomplish the same tasks. But, some users might find this workaround interferes with their workflows.

Still, you have to think about the reason you’re making these sacrifices. By not using certain plugins and giving up certain admin actions you’re getting a host that completely takes the headache out of hosting.

3. Traffic and Storage Caps

Each of the WP Engine plans are limited by the amount of traffic your site can receive. There’s a maximum amount of traffic your site will be able to receive every month before you’re hit with overage charges.

Sites that get variable traffic levels, or run big promotions that result in a lot of traffic will find themselves paying higher monthly hosting fees.

The way they count website visitors is very straightforward, but expect to pay a lot if you ever have a post of yours go viral. The overage cost is $2 per 1,000 additional monthly visitors.

With some hosts, you’ll be able to get a lot more support for higher traffic levels while paying a lot less. Think something like VPS or cloud hosting, which can much more easily support growing or variable levels of traffic.

4. No Email Hosting

One thing is for certain, WP Engine isn’t a budget-oriented host. If you are building a website for the first time, then this probably won’t be the best form of hosting for your needs.

You should probably only consider WP Engine if you have an established website that’s getting a decent volume of traffic. Since it’s a managed host this will help to free up your time, so you can grow your site even further.

If you have a smaller budget, or this is your first time hosting a website, then you might want to go with a budget-friendly WordPress host.

This might not be a huge disadvantage. But, with WP Engine you won’t be able to send emails through their server or run any automated email marketing campaigns.

Most general hosting companies will provide you with an email inbox you can access through cPanel, or even automated email marketing software you can utilize. However, you won’t find this feature available at WP Engine.

If you want to manage emails you collect through your website, then you’ll need to use a third-party email marketing provider. This is generally the most useful approach to take anyways, but it’s still something worth being aware of.

5. High Monthly Hosting Fees

One thing is for certain, WP Engine isn’t a budget-oriented host. If you are building a website for the first time, then this probably won’t be the best form of hosting for your needs.

You should probably only consider WP Engine if you have an established website that’s getting a decent volume of traffic. Since it’s a managed host this will help to free up your time, so you can grow your site even further.

If you have a smaller budget, or this is your first time hosting a website, then you might want to go with a budget-friendly WordPress host.

WP Engine Hosting Packages Breakdown

There are several types of hosting package available from WP Engine, each with a set of specific advantages. At the lower end of the price range are the Managed WordPress Hosting Packages. Beyond this, there are Managed Hosting Plus, Secure Hosting and Ecommerce Hosting packages.

In each case, there are four different plans to choose from – startup, pro, growth and scale. There is also the option for large scale businesses to opt for a custom plan tailored to their needs. Here we breakdown the pricing to show what you get for each plan respectively.

Managed WordPress Hosting Plans

WP Engine offers four different Managed WordPress web hosting plans for you to choose from. The biggest differentiating factor between each plan is the number of monthly website visitors the plan can support and the total number of websites you can host.

If you do want to add more WordPress site’s to your plan, then you can do so for an added fee of $20 per site. However, keep in mind that every site you’re hosting will need to adhere to the plan storage and traffic limits.

Below we break down the differences between the four pricing tiers, so you can make the right choice for your website:

Managed Startup Plan from WP Engine – $30 monthly or $25 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount applied.

The Startup plan is the cheapest level of hosting and even that is a bit pricey, but as they say “you get what you pay for”. If you have a smaller WordPress site or blog, then this plan will be perfect. It can support up to 25,000 visitors per month. If your site is growing rapidly, then you might want to upgrade to a higher plan, as overage charges can add up quickly.

With this plan you’ll also get access to the following:

• 10 GB of site storage
• Up to 25,000 visitors per month
• 50 GB of bandwidth per month
• Support for 1 WordPress site

Additional hosting features include:

• Free Genesis framework and over 35 StudioPress themes
• Access to 24/7 chat support
• The ability 2 transfer websites
• Access to a global CDN
• Page performance optimization features
• A free bundled SSL certificate
• Access to development, staging, and production environments

Overall, the startup plan offers you more than enough storage and support for growing your site. it is packed with useful features and tools to ensure your site is always performing at the highest level possible.

This plan will cost you $25 per month, if you pay for the year in one go. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually. It will save you $60 off the yearly price of Hosting .  If you choose to pay monthly, the price jumps up to $30 per month.

Managed Professional Plan From WP Engine – $59 per month or $49.17 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount applied.

The lower middle tiered plan is the growth plan. It is nearly three times the cost of the startup plan, however, with the added fee you’re getting a lot more server resources at your disposal.  This plan can support websites that are growing quickly and will support your website up to 75,000 visitors per month.

This plan is also equipped with the following features:

• Site storage up to 15 GB
• A monthly bandwidth of 125 GB
• Support for up to 3 WordPress websites

This plan is equipped with everything in the Startup plan. Plus, it also gives you the ability to import your own SSL certificate, and you have access to 24/7 phone support.

This plan will cost you $49.17 per month, if you pay for the year in one go. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually. This will save you $118 off the yearly price of Hosting .  If you choose to pay monthly, the price jumps up to $59 per month.

Managed Growth Plan From WP Engine – $115 per month or $95.83 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount applied.

The upper middle hosting plan is the Growth plan. The biggest advantage that this plan offers you is support for up to 100,000 monthly website visitors. This should be enough for most website owners. This plan is perfect for large high-traffic websites, or also developers, or those who run a network of various WordPress sites.

This plan is equipped with the following features:

• Website storage up to 20 GB
• A monthly bandwidth of 200 GB
• Support for up to 10 websites

You’ll also get access to all of the features in the previous posting plan. With this plan, you have the option to enable additional features like WordPress multisite, GeoTarget, additional content performance features, Global Edge security, and you can add additional sites to your plan for a monthly fee.

This plan will cost you $95.83 per month, if you pay for the year in one go. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually. This will save you $230 off the yearly price of Hosting .  If you choose to pay monthly, the price jumps up to $115 per month.

Managed Scale Plan From WP Engine – $290 per month or $241.67 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount applied.

The highest level hosting plan is the Scale plan. The biggest advantage that this plan offers you is support for up to 400,000 monthly website visitors. This should be enough for most website owners. This plan is perfect for large high-traffic websites, or also developers, or those who run a network of various WordPress sites.

This plan is equipped with the following features:

• Website storage up to 50 GB
• A monthly bandwidth of 500 GB
• Support for up to 30 websites

You’ll also get access to all of the features in the previous posting plan. With this plan, you have the option to enable additional features like WordPress multisite, GeoTarget, additional content performance features, Global Edge security, and you can add additional sites to your plan for a monthly fee.

This plan will cost you $241.67 per month, if you pay for the year in one go. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually. This will save you $580 off the yearly price of Hosting .  If you choose to pay monthly, the price jumps up to $290 per month.

WP Engine Managed Hosting Plus Plans

In addition to the core hosting plans, WP Engine offers a few different package categories. The next level up is “Hosting Plus.”

Managed Hosting Plus plans include all of the same great features as the standard packages. However, they come with a slew of plugin-focused extras to keep your site running smoothly.

Like before, the most significant distinctions between the tiers within the Managed Hosting Plus category are storage, bandwidth, and monthly visitors. Here’s a pricing breakdown to help you decide which plan is right for you.

Managed Hosting Plus Startup Plan – $34 monthly or $28.33 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount applied.

Perfect for small business owners and bloggers, the Startup is more than enough to support a burgeoning online presence. It includes a single website and can accommodate up to 25,000 monthly visits. Of course, the plan also comes with access to most of the core WP engine features.

The plan also comes with:

• 10 GB of storage
• 50 GB of bandwidth per month
• Support for 1 WordPress website

Additional Hosting Plus features include:

• Automatic plugin updates
• AI-powered plugin testing
• Automatic update rollbacks
• One-click staging
• Access to EverCache
• Local developer tools
• Premium site themes

The main draw of the Managed Hosting Plus Startup plan is the plugin updates. WP Engine will handle all of the updates to ensure that your site doesn’t break.

This plan will cost you $34 per month. With the annual plan, you can pay $340 per year and save $68. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually.

Managed Hosting Plus Professional Plan – $63 monthly or $52.50 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount applied.

The Professional plan in the Managed Hosting Plus category is a significant jump in price. However, you’re getting a lot more resources to support your site. This plan is geared towards growing online businesses that need a little more than what the Startup plan offers.

The plan comes with everything that the Startup plan does. However, it can accommodate 75,000 monthly visitors. It also includes:

• 15 GB of site storage
• 125 GB of monthly bandwidth
• Support for three WordPress websites

The Managed Hosting Plus Professional plan costs $63 per month. But, you can save $126 a year if you pay the annual price of $630. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually.

Managed Hosting Plus Growth Plan – $125 monthly or $104.17 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount applied.

The Scale plan offers an even more considerable boost in server resources. It’s one of the best WordPress hosting plans for sites experiencing significant traffic growth.

This plan comes with support for up to 100,000 monthly visitors. You also get:

• 20 GB of site storage
• 200 GB of monthly bandwidth
• Support for up to 10 websites

As always, signing up for this plan gives you access to all of the great WP Engine features like EverCache, up-to-date PHP, and automatic plugin updates. The plan costs $125 per month. Annual plans come in at $1,250 a year and offer $250 in savings. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually.

Managed Hosting Plus Scale Plan – $310 monthly or $258.33 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount applied.

The penultimate package in the Managed Hosting Plus category is the Scale plan. WP Engine does offer custom plan options with dedicated architecture and scalable resources. But the Scale plan is the highest you can get with predesignated features.

The plan supports 400,000 monthly visitors and comes equipped with:

• 50 GB of site storage
• 500 GB of monthly bandwidth
• Support for up to 30 WordPress websites

Pricing for the Managed Hosting Plus Scale plan is $310 per month. Like always, you can save money with the annual plan. It costs $3,100 per year and provides $620 in savings. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually.

WP Engine Secure Hosting Plans

All of WP Engine’s hosting packages offer some impressive security features to provide peace of mind and smooth performance. However, the plans in the Secure Hosting category take those safety measures to another level.

These plans build upon the previous ones. So, in addition to new security-focused systems, you’re also getting everything from the Managed Hosting and Managed Hosting plus plans!

Check out the pricing breakdown below.

Secure Hosting Startup Plan – $53 monthly or $44.17 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount applied.

The bottom-tier plan for the Secure Hosting category is the Startup plan. While it’s the entry-level option, it comes with tons of fantastic features. It’s anything but basic and offers security systems to keep websites safe from malicious traffic and digital attacks.

Like other Startup plans, this one comes with accommodates 25,000 monthly visitors. You also get:

• 10 GB of site storage
• 50 GB of monthly bandwidth
• Support for 1 WordPress website

Additional Secure Hosting features include:

• Protection from DDoS attacks
• Security firewall (Web Application Firewall)
• Automatic plugin updates
• Threat detection and blocking
• Updated PHP
• Access to CDN and EverCache
• Daily backups

The Secure Hosting Startup plan is perfect for small-scale sites that are vulnerable to malicious attacks. The integrated safety systems provide peace of mind and let you focus on content rather than digital security.

The Startup plan costs $53 per month. The annual plan is billed yearly at $530. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually. It offers $106 in savings over the monthly plan.

Secure Hosting Professional Plan – $90 monthly or $75 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount applied.

Next up is the Professional plan. The Secure Hosting Professional plan provides more server resources to support growing websites that exceed the entry-level offering. It accommodates 75,000 monthly visitors.

The plan is equipped with:

• 15 GB of site storage
• 125 GB of monthly bandwidth
• Support for up to three WordPress websites

Of course, you’re also getting access to WP Engine’s staging and production environments, minimal downtime, and performance-boosting features.

The Professional plan in the Secure Hosting category will set you back $90 per month. However, the annual plan of $900 per year will save you $180. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually.

Secure Hosting Growth Plan – $150 monthly or $125 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount applied.

The Secure Hosting Growth plan costs three times as much as the base-level package in this category. However, WP Engine provides significantly more resources. It supports up to 100,000 monthly visitors and keeps your site protected along the way.

The package also comes with:

• 20 GB of site storage
• 200 GB of monthly bandwidth
• Support for up to 10 WordPress websites

The Growth package has a lot to offer flourishing websites. Its abundant resources make all the difference. Plus, you can customize your plan with additional sites, paid extras, and more.

This plan costs $150 per month. Annual plans provide $300 in savings and will cost you $1,500 per year. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually.

Secure Hosting Scale Plan – $350 monthly or $291.67 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount applied.

The Scale plan is the highest pre-configured option in the Secure Hosting category. It can support up to 400,000 monthly visitors. Great for websites that experience a lot of global traffic, this plan has the extra security perks to ensure that you’re safe no matter what.

The plan is equipped with

• 50 GB of site storage
• 500 GB of monthly bandwidth
• Support for up to 30 WordPress websites

The Scale plan is a top-tier option that will support large sites before they enter custom plan territory. It costs $350 per month. The annual plan is billed yearly at $3,500, which provides savings of $700. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually.

WP Engine eCommerce Hosting Plans

When you’re running an eCommerce store, it pays to have added functionality. WordPress is flexible enough to support a slew of store-related plugins. However, the most widely-used is WooCommerce.

The WP Engine eCommerce Hosting plans are chock-full of features. They come with everything you need to build and run a thriving online store. Not only are you getting the basics, but innovative tools and advanced features can take your shop to the next level!

As always, WP Engine doesn’t skimp on the goods. The eCommerce Hosting category is a natural evolution of the existing plans. You get everything from the previous plan types on top of sales-specific extras.

Here’s a pricing breakdown to help you find the right eCommerce plan to suit your store.

eCommerce Hosting Startup Plan – $36 monthly or $30 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount

While the most basic of the eCommerce Hosting plans, the Startup package has a lot to offer. It’s catered to smaller stores. However, it has the elements to support continued growth and rising sales. Compared to competitors, even the entry-level plan stands out.

This plan comes with resources to support 25,000 monthly visitors. It also includes

• 10 GB of site storage
• 50 GB of monthly bandwidth
• Support for 1 WordPress website

Additional eCommerce Hosting features include:

• One-click WooCommerce store creation
• Optimized themes
• WooCommerce templates
• Automatic plugin updates
• Enhanced security and performance with Google Cloud
• 24-hour customer support
• Access to global CDN and EverCache

As a whole, the Startup plan is a fantastic choice for new online stores. It has more than enough resources and tools to bring your shop to the next level!

The Startup plan costs $36 per month. With the annual payment of $360, you can save $72 on your yearly costs. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually.

eCommerce Hosting Professional Plan – $75 monthly or $62.50 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount

The Professional plan in the eCommerce category takes things up a notch. In addition to all the features in the Startup package, you’re getting access to Instant Store Search. Powered by ElasticPress, this feature creates an exciting and convenient experience for shoppers.

The plan supports 75,000 monthly visitors and also comes with:

• 15 GB of site storage
• 125 GB of monthly bandwidth
• Support for up to three WordPress websites

The added perks of Instant Store Search and other extra make the Professional plan worth the investment. It costs $75 per month. However, the annual plan will save you $150 with a yearly payment of $750. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually.

eCommerce Hosting Growth Plan – $140 monthly or $116.67 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount

Great for online stores that need a little more, the Growth Plan comes with significantly more resources. It’s designed to support businesses on their way to the top! It can accommodate 100,000 monthly users.

The plan is also equipped with:

• 20 GB of site storage
• 200 GB of monthly bandwidth
• Support for up to 10 WordPress websites

Like the previous plan, you’re getting access to Instant Store Search. This tier also comes with all WP Engine basics, such as a free SSL, daily backups, and free site migration.

The eCommerce Hosting Growth plan costs $140 per month. The annual option is billed at $1,400 per year and provides $280 in savings. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually.

eCommerce Hosting Scale Plan – $350 monthly or $291.67 per month ( Paid annually ) with discount

The highest pre-set tier in the eCommerce Hosting category is the Scale package. Like all other hosting options, WP Engine does provide custom plans. They can support millions of monthly visitors thanks to custom architecture and server configurations.

The Scale plan, however, is a little more accessible to bigger online stores. It supports 400,000 monthly visitors and comes with:

• 50 GB of site storage
• 500 GB of monthly bandwidth
• Support for up to 30 WordPress websites

As always, you get access to all of the tremendous eCommerce-focused tools and features. This top-tier plan will set you back $350 a month. The annual plan offers $700 in savings when you pay for the entire year up front at $3,500. This includes the 2 months free discount that you get for billing annually.

Custom Hosting Plan From WP Engine

If the Scale plan doesn’t provide your site with enough storage, bandwidth, number of supported sites, or can’t support the volume of monthly traffic you receive then you might qualify for a custom enterprise plan.

The Custom hosting plan is built for very large and high-traffic websites. Or, WordPress sites that have very specific hosting needs and require a very high level of service. These servers will offer unparalleled performance, a managed onboarding experience, and the fastest support response possible.

A Custom hosting plan can support millions of monthly website visitors, offer you up to 1TB of storage, have a monthly bandwidth of 400GB and beyond, plus support for hosting 25 different WordPress websites. This is ideal for enterprise level hosting requirements.

The pricing for this level of hosting is dependant on your overall configuration and the features that you require.

Is WP Engine Just Too Expensive For You?

For most people looking for managed WordPress hosting, WP Engine’s price points are a stumbling block, even though their WordPress hosting service is worth every penny.

So what are the alternatives to WP Engine?

Well there are quite a few. Here’s my own top 5 WP Engine alternatives:

#1 Cloudways – Low costs – Exceptional Support – Ideal for serious new bloggers

#2 Kinsta – Excellent service – Good Price

#3 FlyWheel – Expensive, but you get what you pay for.

#4 Bluehost – Affordable alternative to services mentioned above.

#5 Siteground – Good WordPress hosting alternative to WP Engine.

I have written many hosting reviews over the years and reviews of WordPress specialist hosting companies if you wish to learn more, but if you are just starting out with your first WordPress website I would suggest you to go with to look into shared hosting like InMotion Hosting or A2 Hosting, or one of the others I mentioned above.

General Features From WP Engine

By now you should have a better understanding of some of the biggest advantages that WP Engine can offer your site, as well as a few things to look out for.

Below we dig deeper into the overall feature set, so you can determine if this host has everything you need to help your site succeed.

Easy To Use And Setup Your Site

WP Engine is a very intuitive hosting platform. Plus, since it’s a managed host there aren’t a lot of hosting-related tasks that you’ll actually need to accomplish.

Once you’ve signed up for a hosting account you can install WordPress in a number of clicks, or copy a WordPress site from an existing installation (if you’re a developer). Then, if you’d like you can select from one of many high-quality StudioPress themes to build out your site.

When you install WordPress you’ll also have a suite of useful plugins pre-installed on your site. Then, all that’s left to do is start building.

Beyond the tasks that you’ll complete within your site’s WordPress dashboard, you’ll also have access to an account portal on the WP Engine site. Here you’ll be able to do things like enable the included CDN (content delivery network), activate your SSL certificate, create manual backups, and more.

If you’re upgrading to WP Engine from a shared host, then you’re probably used to cPanel. You won’t find that here. Instead, you’ll have access to their custom user panel which lets you quickly accomplish site management tasks. It might be a greatly stripped down version of what you’re used to, but since it’s a managed host there are way fewer tasks that’ll require your attention.

WordPress Staging Sites

Everytime you install WordPress on a site, you’ll have access to a staging environment or staging area as some call it. Think of this as a behind-the-scenes realm where you can make changes before pushing them out live to the internet.

Here you’ll be able to test plugins, make code changes, experiment with new themes, and more. Think of it as your playground, where you can experiment with your site without having it reflected online.

If you’re a developer then this gives you the freedom to build, test, and showcase client sites without having to create a separate hosting environment. Not only does this help to improve your workflow, but you can easily transfer over client sites if they also have a WP Engine hosting account.

Automated Site Migrations

WP Engine offers an automated site migration tool that makes transferring your existing WordPress site a breeze. All you have to do is install their WordPress migration plugin on your existing site, and follow the migration checklist. There’s also a wealth of support materials that’ll help guide you through the entire process.

If you do require additional help during migration, then you can reach out to their helpful and responsive support staff who can guide you through any issues you might currently be experiencing.

Site Security

WP Engine takes security very seriously. They have a number of security practices in place to help protect your site from any risks lurking online.

First, you’ll find custom firewalls that’ll help to keep out outside threats. There’s also daily malware and virus scans, so any new threats can be detected and eliminated. Plus, if your site does become infected while it’s being hosted with WP Engine their team of experts will work to eliminate the threat and restore your site to its original condition, entirely for free.

The included monitoring service will also keep you up to date on any security risks that could potentially affect your site, whether it’s a datacenter issue, maintenance upgrade, or a necessary security update for a theme or plugin.

The site staging area also gives you the freedom to test out new site features, customizations, and plugins, so you can catch any bugs before you push them out to your main website.

Here’s a quick breakdown of all the security features you’ll get when signing up for WP Engine:

• Daily virus and malware scans powered by Sucuri
• Firewall monitoring and updates for threat protection
• Bundled SSL certificates on all plans
• Regular automated backups for site restore
• One-click restore function for quick site recovery
• Free site recovery if your site is hacked
• 24/7 technical support for security question

Website Backups

WP Engine includes high quality, automated backups on every hosting plan.

A lot of hosting companies that offer bundled backups tend to skimp on the quality, depth, or frequency of the backups. But, not WP Engine.

You’ll get automated daily backups that encompass your entire WordPress site. You’ll be able to do a full website restore from any of these backups, if the need arises.

You can also create manual backups, if you want to backup your site before a plugin upgrade, theme change, or some other large-scale site change.

All of your backups will be accessible within your WP Engine admin panel, or you can individually download each backup to create even more system restore points.

Customer Support

WP Engine provides a wealth of different 24/7 customer support team options, including, live chat, email, and phone support. Their live chat support team is incredibly responsive and helpful and most of the support staff are experienced WordPress experts.

By having WordPress experience their team will be able to help you with things like plugin and theme conflicts, loading and performance issues, and other WordPress-specific problems. Their response times are very quick and are more than happy to help.

If you do require more advanced technical support, then you can quickly reach a member of the engineering team who can field your questions.

In the past, some users reported experiencing issues with the quality of support. However, this was a temporary issue due to the company growing so quickly. The issue has since been remedied and users can expect the quality of support they’re used to.

Note that 24/7 phone support isn’t available on the entry-level Starter plan.

You’ll also find a ton of online resources, blog posts, tutorials, and an extensive knowledgebase which can help to guide you through any issues you’re currently experiencing.

Additional Features From WP Engine

Beyond the more general features highlighted above, you’ll also find a handful of unique and useful features. We explore what these useful feature are below:

GeoTarget Tool

GeoTarget is a useful feature if you want to serve your visitors location-specific content. This tool will determine the location of your site visitors based upon where in the world they’re physically located and then serve up a version of your site dependant on that location.

GeoTarget is a plugin that gives you access to a series of shortcodes you can use to define the types of location-specific content you’d like to display. This can be very beneficial to help provide your website visitors with a highly custom and relevant site experience. Which, will go a long way towards improving conversions and giving your visitors an incredible user experience.

Now, this feature is a paid add-on. But, it’s one of the only options for seamlessly delivering location and multilingual content to your site visitors. There are other plugins that can accomplish the same task, but this plugin works in accordance with their caching technology to ensure there aren’t any performance or deliverability issues.

Client Site Transfer (for Developers)

If you’re a developer then you can take advantage of the transferrable site feature. This allows you to create WordPress sites that you can easily transfer over to clients once they’re complete.

When you create a transferable site you’ll have the option to build a development, staging, or production site. This route you choose depends upon the level of access you want to give your clients.

Transferrable sites have the benefit of being completely secure and password protected. There’s no way to make the site public until the site has actually been transferred over to the client.

As a developer, this feature can be incredibly advantageous as you’ll have multiple setup configurations to choose from. For example, you can use a WordPress installation that you’ve already customized with plugins, theme changes, and settings tweaks, so you don’t have to repeat the task. Or, if the site is completely unique you can use a completely fresh WordPress installation to give yourself a clean slate.

You can show your client site progress via the demo link. Once the design is complete you can then transfer the site over the client. For them to push the site live they’ll also need a WP Engine hosting account. But, the process is seamless and can be done entirely within your hosting dashboard, no complex steps necessary.

WP Engine FAQs

Hopefully, the information above has answered your most pressing questions about WP Engine. Still, there might be a few elements of their service you still have questions about.

Here are some of the most common questions about WP Engine hosting we’ve received over the years:

Does WP Engine offer any kind of guarantee?

Yes. They offer a 60-day money-back guarantee for all of their hosting packages. This gives you a full two months to test out the service to see if it’s right for you and your website goals.

Can you manage more than one WordPress site?

Yes. On every plan except the Startup plan you’ll have access to the WordPress multisite function. This allows you to manage multiple different WordPress websites from a single dashboard. If you’re managing a roster of websites for yourself, or a handful of client sites, then this can greatly streamline your workflow.

How does WP Engine handle site migrations?

If you’re looking to migrate your existing site over to WP Engine, then you’ll be using the migration plugin. All you have to do is install this plugin on your existing site, follow the steps to properly prepare your site for transfer, and the plugin will do the rest.

How does managed hosting differ from other forms of hosting?

When you’re on any other form of hosting that isn’t managed it’s up to you to properly maintain, configure, and optimize your site and server environment. Essentially, you not only have to grow your website, but you have to take care of all the IT tasks as well. With a WordPress managed host you don’t have to worry about WordPress upgrades, site backups, maintaining security, optimizing your site and server, and more. All of it is taken care of for you. It’s like having a team of WordPress experts manage your site for you.

Do I Recommend WP Engine?

100% YES! I host this website on a dedicated WP Engine server.

WP Engine is a high-performing, stable, and scalable WordPress hosting provider. If you run a WordPress site that gets decent traffic you won’t go wrong choosing WP Engine.

As a managed hosting provider they exist to make your life easier, and WP Engine excels at that. For starters they offer a very high-performing hosting environment, this means that your site will always load at lightning fast speeds and you’ll experience incredible uptime.

Beyond site performance, there are also additional features like automatic backups, WordPress core and plugin updates, plus regular security scans. With all of these taken care of all that’s left for you, is to focus on running and growing your website.

If you’re a WordPress developer, then hosting with WP Engine will give you access to some very useful tools like the included WordPress staging area. This staging area allows you to fully build out and showcase client sites before you push them live to the web. Plus, the bundled client site transfer features make it very easy and efficient to transfer completed sites over to your clients.

By now you’ve hopefully come to the conclusion that WP Engine is not a discount hosting service. You will pay a premium for hosting your site with them, but for that price you’ll get access to premium hosting features.

If you demand features like best-in-class performance, expert customer support, and blazing fast loading speeds, all in a managed WordPress hosting environment, then WP Engine might just be the perfect host for your needs.

Even with the higher monthly fees, instead of it being a sunk cost, you’re truly investing in your business. You’re getting your time, and getting a high-performing, fast, and secure WordPress site in exchange.

If you have a high-traffic WordPress site, then WP Engine should be one of the top hosts on your list.

Are you currently using WP Engine to host your WordPress website? What features are your favourite, and what drawbacks have you come across? Please share your experiences in the comments below!