Best hosting for smaller wp sites

[jaynkie]

So I’m tired of my host being slow, having problems, getting hacked etc.

I’m learning about ‘Managed WordPress’ sites.

I’ve heard the BEST is wpengine.com at $99/mo – Pricey!
I’ve also heard people on here talking a lot about Hostgator.com – at $12/mo ($23/mo after first year)
http://www.hostgator.com/managed-wordpress-hosting/index2

So my question is:

Is wpengine that much better than the managed wp hosting of Hostgator? And if so – why? I asked the customer sales chat girl on wpengine the same but she dodged the question. I found that odd so it makes me even more curious.

Thanks!

[David Martin – Support]

Hi,

I guess it depends on what value you put on your site.

I would recommend WPEngine, they are great at support and have a good dedicated focus on WP. They are respected and you get what you pay for.

Hostgator are also good for small sites, but a lesser quality of server/resources as expected with the price.

Thanks,
David.

[jaynkie]

Thanks David!

No doubt. I’m the type to spend 1k/mo if it’s worth it. But I also have enough things to throw good money at the moment – so I’m trying to make sure they all make sense.

I suppose I’m looking for concrete examples of how they’re different since I’m new to the hosting side of things.

Quality of servers/support makes sense, but if anyone has experience, good/bad, with Hostgator I’m all ears. I think Rui uses them?

[David Martin – Support]

Hi,

Well all our sites here are on WPEngine and I don’t think any of us would fault them, we highly recommend them and that is a recommendation without an affiliate link!

I have personally used Hostgator for almost 10 years both small plan and expensive dedicated servers. I have had issues with them on the small plans even for small sites. I have had suspensions due to traffic spikes or a long running processes from a WP plugin for example.

On HG dedicated servers I have not had any issues as such and I would not expect many with the price tag that comes with it.

If I had to start over and having used both, I’d still recommend WPEngine. They also have a free 60 day trial I think,

Hope that helps!

– David.

[jaynkie]

Thanks David – exactly the advice I was seeking. Appreciate it!

[Rui Guerreiro – SUPPORT]

No problem. Thanks David.
-Rui

[jaynkie]

Just wanted to update this after trying a few of these in case it helps others.

I now have a concreate idea of what each has over the other.

Hostgator
Terrible support (unless you don’t mind hours on hold with no other way to contact them)
Tedious migrations
Not very fast in WP backend
Not really sure how it’s ‘managed’ – didn’t seem any different than my unmanaged host

I signed up with Hostgator’s WP managed solution – and it was okay… but it just seemed… ‘okay’. The wordpress backend was a bit faster, so that was great – but migrating was tedious. The real problem was with tech support. They say they have a ticket system, phone and live chat, but when you go to enter your problem, they say only live chat or phone support is available for it.

The problem is: Chat support conveniently just never worked right in any browser – and there was no way to report it either – which just leaves you with phone support.

After about a 25 minute hold I got a young girl that sounded like they hired her right from Baskin Robbin’s and forgot to train her. Let’s just say she didn’t seem to know much or care much and after putting me on hold a few times, said she’d have to forward me to someone who knew more. This was a simple problem mind you – I just needed them to update wp memory allocation so I could upload images larger than 1024px without an HTTP error. It’s a one number change, but they have to do it, apparently.

After further HOUR and 5 minutes on hold (with annoying same music track loop telling me my call was important) – I got disconnected… … …

And I realized – I can’t do this every time I have a simple problem. I’d have to start all over again.

So I bit the bullet: went with wpengine. (side note – cancelling/refunding hostgator after two days under their ’45 day money back guarantee’ is a whole ‘nother adventure with their lack of support.)

WPEngine is, however… sublime.

The wp backend is LIGHTNING fast. Finally – working is quick again.
Their support is amazing and quick and stress free – they KNOW what they’re doing.
Their migration is super wicked easy – the way it should be. Super simple and it worked perfect the first time.
Right from the start you notice WP is different – it has notes and tips and advice + monitoring all from WPEngine. It feels ‘managed’.

I was avoiding them because $99/month just seemed a bit much for 1 or 2 small sites. But I found that you can do their $29/mo single-site plan, and add another single site to it for $14 or so more (I thought it had to be the next tier up, which included 10 sites). Coupon code ‘speedup’ takes another 20% off.

So all in all – it’s still pricier – but not as dramatic as I had thought, and super reasonable for what you get. Hope that helps.

Thanks guys for all your thoughts and especially all of your recommendations of WPEngine. It’s a joy to work with.

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

Glad you’re happy with WP Engine! No problem

– Kyle