Website hosting reviews are… difficult. The very nature of the business; tech service, high volume, low cost means that reviews for the large providers like WP Engine will be mostly positive, making determining “the best” hosting provider for you… difficult.
Where & How to find WPEngine Reviews
Before this post I don’t even know where I’d go to find reviews for web hosting as I haven’t “shopped” for quite a few years (more on that later). Quite obviously I “Googled” it, and here’s what I found:
- Reddit – The first result (non-personalized results) is a 2023 thread on Reddit comparing WPEngine to Digital Ocean. Overall the reaction from the community was mostly positive, with several comments stating you pay for the “added features” rather than pure hardware or speed. While not a perfect, direct comparison, comparing WP Engine with traditional shared hosting like Digital Ocean is valid.
- Trustpilot – Skipping over individual reviews, I recognized Trustpilot not because of quality but rather they’ve been around for years and seemingly host many reviews. WP Engine scores a respectable 4.8 / 5 stars. To add to their legitimacy, WP Engine includes their Trustpilot rating in the footer of their marketing emails.
- WP Engine vs – Typically when I search for reviews, I use the “versus” or “vs” trick in Google. You let Google autocomplete tell you what the competitors are by using the following format: “wp engine vs” and then look at the autocomplete list Google provides.
- PC Mag – While technically this is an individual review (which I mostly skipped) PCMag seems to make a good effort to review the major hosting providers and provide recommendations. WP Engine makes their recommendation list for WordPress hosting. The only cons were no email or domain registration service.
My Personal WP Engine Review
Reviews are typically positive for almost any product, or service. It’s when things go badly, or become challenging that the quality of the service is tested.
In our 7+ years of being a WPEngine customer I can honestly say the quality of the team is superb. When we first moved our client assets to WP Engine it was transformative. Managed WordPress hosting is now commonplace, but the support and technical team behind WP ENgine is what continues to set them apart.