When we take on new clients for WordPress web site projects, we always highly recommend hosting the site with WPEngine. To be honest, I nearly insist on it.
But does it really matter? Yes.
Aren’t all hosting providers about the same? Not in my experience.
Why WPEngine:
- Staging Area – Like a proof site where you can test theme updates, new plugins or large site revisions in a non-live area. With one click you can copy the Staging site over to Live.
- Backups – Not only complete daily backups, but you have the ability to do on-demand backups, allowing you to do a site backup before updating plugins or themes in case there is an issue. The site can be restored from your backup with one click in seconds. WPEngine also backs up the Staging site too.
- Tight Security – Real-time security threat detection and malware scans. No regular FTP, only SFTP (Secure) FTP protocols allowed. WPEngine monitors what plugins you install and examines them for security holes. If your site is hacked WPEngine will fix it for free.
- Caching that actually works properly – Many hosting environments that provide caching are cumbersome to use in practice. WPEngine’s system can tell when you make a change and clear the cache quickly. With other hosts you have to often manually clear the site cache to make the changes show up.
- WPEngine allows you to temporarily defer WordPress core updates, giving you a chance to make sure your theme and plugins are up-to-date before upgrading. Others, GoDaddy for instance, update WordPress core without giving you a choice.
- Awesome Support – The tech support people are “all” WordPress geeks. Other hosts do all kinds on hosting, so often you get someone who really doesn’t understand WordPress very well.
- WPEngine only hosts WordPress sites. So, their servers are optimized for WordPress only. No servers trying to run WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc., all in the same environment.
- Long-term costs savings – In time, you save money in development and maintenance costs because the developer can do his/her work more quickly and efficiently.
I’ve built and maintained WordPress sites on “many” hosting platform. In my experience, WPEngine stands head and shoulders above the rest.
I sleep better at night because I use it.
This post courtesy of Web Developer Kerry Wolfe.