Top 10 Reasons WP Engine Hosting Rocks

Travis McAshanWordpress
Nov 2016

TLDR;

WP Engine is worry-free hosting for WordPress. If you have a WordPress site and you want great support, performance and peace of mind, choose WP Engine. Seriously, just do it.

Before You Continue (things to know)

I’ll refer to WP Engine henceforth as “WPE” (it just takes less to type)
I receive a commission when I refer people to WPE (because why not?)
I only refer people to services I have used, trust and believe in
WPE has NOT requested or paid me to write this post
Enjoy the CHEESY STOCK IMAGES!

And Now, the Top 10 Reasons:

#1. Speed & Performance

At GLIDE, we’ve been building strategic, custom marketing websites for over 15+ years in Austin, Texas (a technological mecca). We’ve learned a thing or two about how to make sites that look great, work great and are well.. FAST. We’re constantly looking for more efficient ways to increase performance with less effort. WPE provides out of the box, a huge array of features geared to website performance. From aggressive caching, to ONE-CLICK-CDN to powerful infrastructure to low TTFB, they are built to serve fast sites!

#2. 24/7/365 Support

One of my favorite features about WPE is their support. I’ve worked with Godaddy, MediaTemple, HostGator, 1&1, AT&T, Rackspace, Site5, BlueHost, DreamHost, InMotion, LiquidWeb, and at least 25 other smaller companies over the last 15 years. I can say, without a doubt WPE offers the best support I’ve ever experienced. I use their live chat at least once a day and EVERY tech I talk to is very friendly, very knowledgeable and I almost always walk away with a positive resolution to my issues.

#3. WordPress Expertise

WPE will roll up their sleeves and help you with your WordPress site. Is your site blank? They will help you figure out why! Did you mess up a WP core update? They will help you troubleshoot rolling it back. If it relates to WordPress, WPE Support can help. I’ve worked with a litany of hosting companies and the vast majority won’t touch your site. They just make sure the server is working and stop short of ANY WordPress support. This reason alone is enough to choose WPE.

#4. Site Security

It’s true that hackers and malicious code generally targets the weakest link. This means best practice security for WordPress is generally mundane stuff. Things like strong passwords and keeping your plugins updated. However, WPE takes it to another level from a secure hosting environment standpoint and I feel confident that common exploits are considered and accounted for without me having to spend too much time fretting about it. Less worry equals more peace of mind and that’s priceless.

#5. Tools & Features

It’s clear WPE have rolled out their admin panel over time to be as simple and easy to use as possible but still offer power where you need it. From the dashboard, with a great heads up display to the individual installs pages and page performance options, WPE offers a great balance of power and simplicity. Some folks set it and forget it but because we’re hosting hundreds of sites with WPE (and our own sites), we’re in there all the time using just about all the features they offer. We’ve been around the block and here’s a long list of things I’ve liked:

Domain management (simple but really helpful)
CDN management (did I mention it’s a single button?)
Redirect Rules (just in case you’re not a htaccess guru)
Backup Manager (supremely useful and a life saver)
Access Logs (nice for performance optimization)
Error Logs (great to find out what problems are cropping up)
GIT Push Management (good for complex DEV environments)
SSL Management (very streamlined and EASY to use)
Performance Utilities (for fine tuning during optimization)
Password Protection (for blocking DEV sites from Google)
Staging Environment (really helpful for big site changes)
Resetting File Permissions (usually this is a pain)
Easy Access to PHP MyAdmin (for database management)
Page Performance Audits (to make things faster)
User Accounts (nice for giving client’s access to WPE support)
Free SSL Certificates (if you’re a cheapskate this is clutch)
Full Multi-Site Support (for use with WordPress Multi-Site)
WP Admin (access to important WPE features from WP admin)

To see all the features check it out here

#6. Super Fast CDN

The WPE CDN (content distribution network) is powered by MaxCDN (formerly NetDNA) and we love it. Just turning this on for an average site can drop page load times by 1-2 seconds. Turning on WPE CDN requires a SINGLE-BUTTON, a single button I tell you. They must have someone waiting for that button to click that springs into action expertly configuring the CDN for your site in 5-10 minutes (or maybe it’s just a smart script). Either way, it’s nice when something that normally takes 20-30 steps (setting up a CDN is usually a pain) just works in one click out of the box! They offer 1000MB/Mo. free and the pricing after that is VERY reasonable depending on the plan you choose.

#7. Easy & Painless Migration

We build, launch and migrate websites all the time. I’m always amazed at how easy WPE has made the process. They even have their own WPE WordPress plugin specifically for migration. Combined with the fact that they specialize in WordPress, you have quite possibly the easiest migration process you could imagine. The excuse of migration being a pain is no longer a valid excuse for not wanting to make the move.

#8. Backup & Restore

During a recent redesign of the GLIDE site, I was working on some deep-level database optimizations (stuff I’d never do on a client’s site). I got a bit overzealous in my optimizations and killed some important database tables. Needless to say, the entire site went blank. After a bit of panic, I hopped on with WP Live Chat and bam, I was back up and running in less than 5 minutes. Since they backup daily by default and it’s not a manual process I have to perform, I was saved!

#9. Community & Content

From my experience, WPE is doing things right across the board. One area is in the creation of high-quality content catered to helping site owners. Whether it’s hosting security, WordPress performance, content publishing or any other aspect about being a successful site owner, WPE is pouring a load of resources into supporting their customers and partners. I challenge you to go take a look the WPE blog and tell me if you can’t find at least one article that will help you in some tangible and potentially bottomline increasing way!

#10. Affiliate Program

I’ve learned if you truly believe in what you are selling it’s MUCH easier to sell. With WPE, we’ve had such a phenomenally positive experience, it’s easy to want to tell people about it and of course recommend and offer it to all our clients and friends. It’s the type of circumstances I always want to be a part of, a deal where EVERYONE involved wins! In this case, my clients and referrals receive great hosting, WPE lands a wonderful new paying customer and we receive the credit for a great recommendation PLUS a commission in the process. Win, win, win… and win!

I am NOT a Shill (the fair and balanced)

There’s no such thing as perfect, or at least that’s what I tell my kids and I don’t want to come off as all roses and no thorns for WPE. They are great, superlative even, but with all things in life, balance is key. Here’s a few nitpicks that have cropped up after a long and healthy relationship with WPE well past the honeymoon phase:

1. Install Name Restrictions – I’m OCD, and it does bug me that when I’m installing multiple sites on my account, I’m limited in the number of characters I can use to name the sites. Since we host a number of clients through WPE, this results in concatenation of names. Stuff like “coloradomateri” instead of “coloradomaterials”. Minor I know but I did say these were just nitpicks!

2. Live Chat Disconnects – I’ve made friends with half the staff of WPE through LIVE CHAT. My favorite way to start a new chat is “YO!”. Secondly, every support tech has been great. They are friendly, knowledgeable and have saved the day countless times for me. But occasionally, I’ll throw across a bomb of a question and I’ll get the familiar, “Let me check on that” and radio silence while they go figure things out. Sometimes, for whatever reason, the chat disconnects during the wait. I’m not sure if it’s an internal protocol that if nobody is posting during that time it auto-disconnects but I’ve grown accustomed to typing things like “How’s it going over there…” while I wait just to make sure I don’t get disconnected. In spite of this, WPE Live Chat is still one of my favorite things about WPE hosting.

3. Restricted Plugins – WPE is one of the only hosts that I know that puts a damper on your plugin hoarding extravaganza. If you’re the kind of person to download and install 75 plugins, there’s a 100% chance at least 4-5 of those are on the WPE “disallowed plugins” list. To be fair, the vast majority of the plugins they don’t allow are because they aren’t necessary (i.e. WPE offers the feature the plugin provides) or they hog server resources (which you really don’t want) or finally, they are just crappy and you shouldn’t be using them anyway! Check the full list here

Next Steps!

The real question is, should I (the reader) take the time, energy and money to host with WPE (or switch to WPE). The answer to that question, in my professional opinion is A) if you have a WordPress site… B) YES, 100% host with WPE. If this is you and you’d like to save on your first payment then get started by clicking the link below. I’d also like to hear your feedback of your experience with WPE or anyone else you’d recommend in the comments. THANK YOU!

USE OUR SPECIAL OFFER LINK

Be the first to comment

Related Posts

Related Posts

Pin It on Pinterest