Managed web hosting services provide domain owners with a complete web hosting solution. Skilled, knowledgeable engineers and system administrators handle the day-to-day technical aspects of hosting a website properly. The pricing of a managed web hosting service is certainly not cheap, but for domain owners lucky enough to find a competent, quality web host, the cost is well worth the investment.
WPEngine is arguably one of the top managed web hosting companies on the Internet. Interestingly, the company focuses exclusively on WordPress hosting. Other content management systems such as Joomla and Drupal do not have a home at WP Engine, but rather than a burden, this concept is a boon to the company’s managed web hosting services.
Website Migration
By the company’s very nature, WP Engine aims to steer domain owners away from their current web hosting service. Start-up websites comprise a portion of the company’s business surely, but WP Engine’s own website has a dedicated section that focuses on the migration process.
Migrating a website from one host to another is a difficult task for the novice website owner. Even those with a middle-of-the-road knowledge base may have difficulty exporting and importing databases along with updating their website’s DNS to point to WP Engine’s DNS.
WPengine handles the technical details of the migration for the novice domain owner. A large number of so-called managed web hosting companies provide only minimal assistance with the migration process. WP Engine also gives advanced web users the option to migrate their content on their own. This courtesy shows that WP Engine indeed values their customer’s input, scaling services based on the skill level of each individual client.
Load Speed and Uptime
Simply stated, WP Engine has one of the fastest load times in the managed web hosting industry. Very few online customer reviews mention less-than-advertised load speeds after migrating domains over to the WP Engine platform.
WP Engine accomplishes this feat by caching a domain’s most important files on their servers. Novice domain owners may not realize that load time actually affects page rank on major search engines. In essence, migrating a WordPress website to WP Engine is guaranteed to boost a website’s search engine optimization (SEO). Given the highly competitive reality of the SEO industry, WP Engine could possibly provide an edge over the competition.
A large number of managed web hosting companies offer load speeds as fast as WP Engine, but the difference lies in the stability of WP Engine’s load speed. Domain owners may notice very few spikes in traffic after migrating over to WP Engine’s servers, and this feat is not a coincidence. WP Engine has gone through extraordinary lengths to be the fastest web hosting company on the Internet. Impressively, WP Engine very nearly accomplishes this lofty goal.
Uptime refers to the percentage of time a visitor to a website will be able to load a given web page. This simplistic definition should be enough for the beginning web user to understand the importance of 100% uptime. Every web hosting company claims to provide at least 99% uptime, but few actually follow through with this promise. WP Engine is one such company with a suburb uptime record. Again, this feat shows that WP Engine’s engineers and system administrators are rather adept professionals who value their client’s business.
Security Management
Ensuring the integrity of a website’s server requires constant monitoring in addition to possessing an advanced level of expertise. The novice domain owner most likely will not have this level of proficiency to protect their website from repeated intrusions, most notably denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.
Even the most common hacker attacks can cause a website to go dark for days, if not weeks, in the worst-case scenario. Even if domain owners have the expertise to shield their servers well from hackers, removing and repairing the damaged files may be beyond the expertise of a middle-of-the-road website administrator.
Since WP Engine focuses exclusively on security issues related to WordPress-hosted websites, the company provides top-of-the-line security protocols to protect their clients’ content. Unless the attacks on their web servers are very sophisticated and completely novel, WP Engine has the proper knowledge to repel most intrusions.
The peace of mind this level of security offers clients is well worth the price of WP Engine’s services. One of the biggest security holes in WordPress relates to having the latest WordPress update installed, which often patches the most recently discovered exploits in the platform’s code. Novice domain owners can perform this maintenance on their own, but unless website administrators remain vigilant, it is very easy to overlook this critical security vulnerability.
Customer Support
WP Engine’s customer support reputation is impressive, to say the least. WP Engine’s expertise in WordPress allows the company to provide fast, competent customer support. Most other managed web hosting companies lack this level of proficiency in any given content management system. Rather, companies that support every content management system can provide only a general level of customer support.
WP Engine even goes as far as to recommend that clients do not use certain specific plug-ins. Even a middle-of-the-road domain administrator may not realize how a poorly coded plug-in can drag down a website’s load speed. Other managed web hosting companies only provide this level of support after the fact. WP Engine advises their clients on this issue from day one, further proof of the company’s expertise in WordPress hosting.
WP Engine’s website provides a wide knowledge base of frequently asked questions and helpful articles. Other managed web hosting companies may offer clients little assistance via articles. Customers will have to contact customer support and hope for the best outcome. WP Engine keeps in mind that advanced domain owners may have a simple question that a well-written article can answer. This ethic allows their support team more time to handle the most urgent technical support issues.
The final verdict of WP Engine is overwhelmingly positive. The company’s level of expertise hosting WordPress-based websites is very impressive, to say the least. The pricing ranks among the most expensive managed web hosting companies, but the return on investment with WP Engine is well worth the high monthly service fees.
Visit: http://wpengine.com/