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I have been searching for a new web host for my high-traffic podcast network running WordPress Multisite with a massive bbPress forum. I tried WP Engine for a short time and I was impressed, but could not afford to be dazzled.
Make sure you read my initial thoughts on managed WordPress hosting to understand my needs and perspective.
WP Engine's features
WP Engine is probably the most well-known provider for managed WordPress hosting. WP Engine's unique features are a wide range of WordPress-specialized support options (tickets, chat, and phone), easy staging sites, built-in caching and CDN, and Git push.
WP Engine was easy to manage. I could create and delete my own WordPress sites, easily add redirects, and backup and restore on demand. Making a staging website took just a few clicks, and I could test new plugins or themes without breaking my public site.
WP Engine's speed
I loved my time on WP Engine. I used GTmetrix and Pingdom to test my sites after my migration. Every site loaded at least 20% faster than on Synthesis, and the WP Engine's CDN was amazingly fast.
I was having performance issues with my website on Synthesis: “404” errors on save/publish, missed cron jobs (like scheduled posts), and intermittent connectivity while editing posts. Once I was on WP Engine, all of these problems went away. (I will detail Synthesis more in my next managed WordPress hosting review.)
WP Engine's missing features
Because I'm also a web designer/developer, I have started learning how to use SSH for command-line operations. SSH is much faster for moving files, importing and exporting databases (especially a massive one like mine), monitoring server performance, and pushing my local Git changes to the live server (via Dandelion). But WP Engine doesn't allow SSH to any of their customers. Thus, my workflow was crippled and I would often have to wait on their support team to fix something, or slow down my workflow.
Managing files over SFTP was sometimes strange. I would upload plugins, then have to reset permissions before WordPress could update the plugin. SFTP and these odd permissions would also not work well with my Dandelion workflow. I probably could have accomplished similar things with WP Engine's Git Push feature, but it was initially too complicated for me to attempt (I'm still a Git beginner).
Can't afford my traffic on WP Engine
What makes WP Engine unusable for me is their method for counting “monthly visits.” This metric is tracked from unique IP visitors per 24-hour period. So if the same person visits my site every day for a month, that would count as 30 “monthly visits.” With the $99 “Professional” plan (my choice), you are allotted 100,000 “monthly visits.” If you go over, it costs only $1 per 1,000 “monthly visits.”
I looked at my highest-traffic days in Google Analytics and estimated that I would be near 100,000, so the $99 plan looked tempting compared to the $147 I was paying to Synthesis. I knew that WP Engine tracked the traffic differently, so I expected to pay occasional overages, but probably never more than $150 per month.
With just a one-week test, I quickly saw that WP Engine would be unaffordable. Where Google Analytics lead me to expect 3,000 visitors in a day, WP Engine would track 7,000 “visits.” It seemed that for every number I expected, WP Engine would track almost more than double. With just a week of testing, I was already about to burn up my 100,000 “monthly visits,” and it looked like my next month's bill would easily be $220 or more.
What I didn't try
Git is a pretty amazing technology for version control and development. WP Engine has this already built in, which may make some of you salivate. I never had the opportunity to try it.
WP Engine also offers enterprise plans for extremely popular WordPress sites. These come at a high cost, but anyone at the enterprise level would recognize the value of a stable host with quality service and great support.
I have to look elsewhere for managed WordPress hosting
Sadly, I decided I had to leave WP Engine. I absolutely loved their performance and features (except for the weird SFTP permissions problem and lack of SSH), but I couldn't justify the higher expense. After all, this whole process was inspired by a need to reduce my monthly costs while maintaining or improving my performance.
Thankfully, I could get a full refund within a 60-day window, which is very generous.
WP Engine is certainly a great managed WordPress hosting provider, and I do genuinely recommend them for hosting your sites. WP Engine provides great support, wonderful features, and amazing performance. Just be careful with your traffic if you're on a tight budget.
In my next managed WordPress hosting review, I'll review my time with Synthesis by Copyblogger, and why I left after more than a year.
Daniel – I’m curious as to why the Google Analytics and WP Engine counts were so different. Any ideas?
One thing to consider is that GA may combine one persons visits throughout a month and call that 1 unique monthly visitor. But even when you look at the daily numbers, WPE is still about double.
I won’t say that their algorithm is broken, only that they have the ability and algorithm to track what GA doesn’t. For example, I don’t think GA tracks someone who has Javascript disabled. But WPE sees the IP access the server, so they count it.
Their FAQ page about how they count monthly visits gives more details.
My case could also be unique, to do the nature of my websites.
As I noted above, I don’t think what you were seeing is unusual at all. My sites range from 2x to 4x with one approaching 10x (WP Engine:Google Analytics metrics). It’s basically the difference between trying to account for real traffic vs real visitors.
Hey Matthew. Read the page Daniel linked above to how WP Engine measures traffic. The big difference is that GA is focused on users. WP Engine is focused on traffic. For example, all the spiders that come to index the site won’t be counted by GA. GA tries not to count all the spam attempts and non-real-user type traffic as well. WP Engine wants to include that stuff, as it, just like a real visitor, puts real load on the server.
So, I can totally understand why they measure it like they do. And, as Daniel noted, WP Engine is pretty expensive in terms of $ for x traffic, at least until you get to the level of having your own server where you can decide how much traffic you’re willing to allow on it for the money.
That said, I think this is how they keep the super speeds up. To put it bluntly, most shared hosting simply throws WAY more sites on each server… which is how they can charge so much less. And, then there is the almost non-existent support in comparison. All that stuff cost money. You get it at WP Engine, but you also pay for it.
In my experience, Daniel came out pretty well with only about a 2x traffic to real user (i.e.: GA measurement) ratio. One of my sites is around 10:1… but the domain has also been around for over a decade and has been used for many purposes (the e-mail account for that domain also gets like 20 or 30x the spam my other e-mails get too. Most of the sites fall in the 2x to 4x range.
So, I agree with Daniel, even though I’ve chosen to go the WP Engine route. It’s great, but expensive. (Which is really problematic if you have a high-traffic site that can’t directly monetize that traffic.) I’ve built the expense into my business model, but I’m sure that hurts me when clients see hosting for $9.95/mo. from my competitors. I just try my best to get them to understand that’s not apples to apples. I’m hoping when I get to my own server one day, I can take a bit of an edge off the costs and still maintain most or all of the performance. But here’s the thing… on average, most of my clients aren’t those high-traffic sites, but they get the benefits of world-class hosting.
It’s a tough decision, and I’m not sure what advice to give Daniel. I think he’ll find that managed WP hosting is going to cost roughly that much, even though others use different metrics to measure the traffic. The alternative is a VPS or your own full server, but then you’re doing all or most of what WP Engine does on your own… which is really what you’re paying for. That’s where I was before I moved to WP Engine. I spent many weekends and nights fixing things or patching security and I never accomplished anywhere near the level of great features I now have. The upside… it was relatively cheap in terms of $ per traffic.
I was on a VPS and then dedicated server (up to $180/month) before I moved to Synthesis. I now understand a lot more about how to run a server than I did back then, so I’m able to optimize things.
But keeping stuff updated for security is a little concerning to me. I’m back on VPS, and I think I’ll manage now.
Yea, performance is easier than security IMO unless you’re under pretty heavy loads. And, then now with stuff like DIsqus comments and a few other tricks, that load can be further reduced (I’ve been considering Disqus, but I’m just not sure I want to turn that over to a 3rd party yet.)
I was fortunate, in that a friend with a pretty uber box was giving me ‘free’ space in trade for help maintaing it. It was a great deal but a lot of work as well. I didn’t end up gaining a ton of performance with the move to WP Engine, actually… and the backend is slower on WP Engine. But, I gained back a lot of time I spent mucking with stuff, high end features and CDN, and then there is peace-of-mind for my client’s sites, some of which have grown quite a bit in importance. It’s different when it’s your own stuff, but for their sake, I eventually decided to make the move.
If I ever get a high-traffic client who can’t or isn’t willing to justify the costs, I might have to seek out an alternative. I’m just hoping I can get to the Enterprise level before that happens! But that’s a good $ jump from where I’m at right now.
What provider are you using now and has it beat your experiences and cost compared to WP Engine and Synthesis ?
Spoiler: I’m back to my own, unmanaged VPS. I’m hosting on Vultr for about 1/10th the cost of what I was paying at Synthesis, but my performance and stability are actually a little better.
I’ll explain this choice and comparisons to Linode and DigitalOcean more in the future.
Since I now have the skills to run my own VPS, I’m at a place where I’d rather do that and save the $1,500+ per year on hosting from Synthesis.
(I’m also planning to move My Podcast Reviews from Amazon EC2 to Vultr and save about $15/month).
WP engine makes the word press technology so more attractive and most of the people are now like to get more uses from here. So i think it will be so more well for the word press users.
WP engine makes the word press technology so more attractive and most of the people are now like to get more uses from here. So i think it will be so more well for the word press users.