The Winner Between Hostgator vs WP Engine
Now that you’ve made it to this page, I’m assuming you’ve already read my individual reviews of Hostgator and WP Engine. If not, I recommend that you do as you’ll find a lot of information on both web hosting services. You might also want to check out my previous comparison of the two since it compares both of them against each other to help make it easier to decide between the two. Still, you’re probably interested in which one I would vote for but I need to remind you that my verdict is based on my own needs and experiences with both web hosts. You should still decide based on your own needs and the information I used to help me make my own decision will be outline to help you make yours as well. Anyway, let’s take another look at WP Engine and Hostgator before continuing on with my verdict.
WP Engine
WP Engine is a unique web hosting service. They specifically cater to websites that are powered by WordPress. This might seem like a strange move for a web hosting service to do since it limits the customers they can cater to. However, WordPress powers 18.7% of all websites and specializing in WordPress-only installs means support is specialized for WordPress installs as well. There is no need to pass through Tier 1 support where your problem is assessed and passed on to a Tier 2 rep who is qualified to address your CMS-specific issue. Instead, everyone at support that you’re able to get in touch with is an expert.
Choosing a plan is also a simplified affair:
- Personal: 1 WordPress install, 25,000 visits a month, unlimited data transfer, and 10GB local storage for $29 a month.
- Professional: Up to 10 WordPress installs, 100,000 visits a month, unlimited data transfer, and 20GB local storage for $99 a month.
- Business: Up to 25 WordPress installs, 400,000 visits a month, unlimited data transfer, and 30GB local storage for $249 a month.
- Premium: Unlimited WordPress installs, millions of visits a month, unlimited data transfer, and unlimited storage. Call for pricing.
I would immediately recommend WP Engine to anyone who has a WordPress site, whether they are just starting out or have managed their site for a long time. And if you have more than one website running on WordPress, you can simply include them under a single plan (except for the Personal plan). The only downside is that if your websites don’t run on WordPress, you’ll have to look elsewhere for hosting, but it’s not like you’ll be wanting for options, and for non WordPress sites I recommend Hostgator.
Support is easily the best part about WP Engine, but let’s not forget the other aspects that make it such a great web hosting service. First is that they use multi-server clusters to ensure that if one or more of the servers delivering your site go down, the rest of the servers in the cluster continue to serve it. Second is they also optimize their clusters so that they never exceed available RAM. So while they might host multiple sites on a single multi-server cluster, they never host too many that it slows everything down. They even migrate sites between clusters if need be to ensure optimal performance, all without ever taking any of your sites down while they’re at it. Finally, their staging area allows users to test themes, add new pages or make changes to their site without breaking their site. A copy of your site is made in a separate area from your actual area so you can test everything you want. Simpy put, your WordPress site is running on a finely tuned machine with WP Engine, and performance is their strong suit. WP Engine is the Aston Martin of Hosting, while Hostgator is more of the suits your needs Toyota.
>>>Click Here To See How WP Engine Can Help You Right Now<<<
Hostgator
If WP Engine is the best for WordPress sites, then Hostgator is the best for the rest. They offer a wide range of hosting services, from shared hosting to dedicated servers. Their shared hosting plans are the preferred choice among many site owners because of the affordable cost. Their Baby plan is a particular favorite of mine since it supports unlimited domains, unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth for less than ten bucks a month. Here’s a quick look at their plans.
- Shared hosting starts at $8.95 monthly
- VPS hosting starts at $19.95 monthly
- Dedicated servers start at $174 monthly
The best part about Hostgator is you won’t be lacking for choice. There’s a plan for everyone whether you’re an individual with a personal blog or an enterprise running a corporate website on the receiving end of millions of hits a day.
>>>Click Here To Check Out Hostgator<<<
Verdict
WP Engine and Hostgator are two of the top hosting services available today. Each has its own benefits, but I have to hand it to WP Engine for this one. As I said before, 18.7% of all websites run on WordPress, and running my money blog on WP Engine has been such a hassle-free affair. I’ve never had to be tied down due to technical issues with my site because WP Engine’s fantastic support has always done it for me. All I’ve ever had to worry about was content and any aesthetic changes that I could make to the site. The Personal plan might be expensive for an entry-level plan, but the level of support and optimizations are easily worth the money. WP Engine has since become the first hosting service I recommend to anyone who owns a WordPress blog or ten.
Of course, not everyone runs their site on WordPress. You might also find that WP Engine’s Personal plan is too expensive to start out with. If that’s the case, I would then recommend Hostgator. Hostgator’s shared hosting plans are among the best in the industry and their Baby plan allows you run several smaller blogs that you can grow with and then later on upgrade to VPS or transfer to WP Engine once any of them reaches a point where they can pay for themselves. Their shared hosting plans are only semi-managed, but you can choose fully managed VPS hosting or dedicated server and get similar levels of support as you can on WP Engine. Still, there’s something about having a support team that are absolute experts when it comes to my WordPress site that instills a certain confidence in me.
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