SiteGround is likely one of the best web hosting suppliers and WP Engine is likely one of the best WordPress hosting suppliers however which one do you have to decide for the best small business web hosting or best ecommerce hosting?
To search out out, I migrated an internet retailer to every and ran some WordPress benchmark exams and a few efficiency exams to see which one is healthier.
SiteGround vs WP Engine options and pricing
SiteGround
Beginning at $2.99 a month for the primary yr( $17.99 a month after), SiteGround’s StartUp plan offers you a single web site, 10GB of storage, unmetered site visitors, and round 10,000 month-to-month visits. The plan is designed to accommodate spikes, fairly than be a month-to-month restrict. In case your web site recurrently breaches the restrict, you’ll be placed on a dearer plan, or your web site will face efficiency restrictions.
This plan additionally consists of free SSL, and a free area and emails. Each day backups are supplied, and the SiteGround Web site Builder can also be included This makes use of a mix of templates, themes, and AI content material era that will help you get began.
SiteGround additionally consists of velocity and safety optimization plugins, helps WooCommerce, and in addition has a WordPress “auto-migrator.” That is supposed to simplify shifting a WordPress web site from one other host.
WP Engine
Unsurprisingly given its title, WP Engine is a well-liked choice for web sites hosted on WordPress. We seemed on the Important package deal, which has 4 plans (Startup, Skilled, Progress, and Scale). The Startup choice, for $25 a month was chosen – that is paid month-to-month, or yearly ($300) with none low cost.
(I found later that WP Engine additionally gives a less expensive plan, Lite (at round $12) however there isn’t any details about this on the sign-up web page.)
WP Engine’s Startup plan offers you a single web site, 25,000 “visits” or month-to-month site visitors, 10GB of storage, and 75GB of bandwidth. This may appear excessive, however for a small web site it’s successfully unmetered (until huge quantities of knowledge are being served). Once more, each the site visitors and bandwidth limits are in place to make sure optimum efficiency throughout WP Engine’s servers.
Some web site constructing instruments – themes and blocks – are supplied, together with a staging surroundings. You additionally get SSL, DDoS safety, automated WordPress, PHP, and MySQL updates, CDN and caching, and DDoS safety. Website backups are every day and on-demand, and buyer help is out there 24/7 from WP Engine. Subdomains are permitted, however particulars on configuration and limits are sparse
Migration from one other net host is feasible utilizing the WP Engine migration plugin.
|
Siteground |
WPEngine |
|
|
Worth |
$17.99 |
$25 |
|
Web sites |
1 |
1 |
|
Subdomains |
Limitless |
Sure (see above) |
|
Month-to-month site visitors |
10,000 |
25,000 |
|
Storage |
10GB |
10GB |
|
Bandwidth |
Unmetered |
75GB |
|
SSL |
Sure |
Sure |
|
Management panel |
Proprietary |
Proprietary |
|
WordPress set up |
One-click |
One-click |
|
Free migration |
Free plugin |
Free plugin |
|
E mail accounts |
Limitless |
No |
|
Backups |
Each day |
Each day, on demand |
|
CDN |
Free |
Free |
|
Efficiency options |
SSD storage |
EverCache caching |
|
Databases |
Limitless MySQL & PostgreSQL |
Limitless MySQL |
|
FTP accounts |
Limitless |
SFTP solely |
|
SSH entry |
Sure |
Sure |
|
Area privateness |
Add-on $12 |
No |
|
Cash-back assure |
30 days |
60 days |
|
Security measures |
Malware, redundancy, DDoS |
DDoS |
|
Buyer help |
24/7 |
24/7 |
Migrated to every web site is a WordPress web site with a pre-configured WooCommerce retailer. The purpose of that is to see how effectively and reliably the hosts can deal with requests. This isn’t simply from a customer support angle, but additionally as an indication of how the internet hosting surroundings can deal with knowledge configured elsewhere.
Each hosts supply devoted migration plugins which might be designed to make this course of simple. To make the comparability honest, I migrated the info from the identical supply.
SiteGround
Utilizing the proprietary SG Migrate plugin wasn’t so simple as hoped. The thought is to put in the plugin on each the supply and vacation spot net hosts, copy a key generated on the supply to the vacation spot, and look ahead to the info to switch throughout. Sadly, the SG Migrate instrument failed on each try. After attempting All in One Migration and UpdraftPlus (and working into restrictions over backup dimension and storage location, and making an attempt to extend the add limits within the wp-config file), I discovered one other instrument, Backup Migration, which executed a key-based knowledge migration completely.
Initially it appeared as if the supply of the migration (Hostinger’s Premium Net Internet hosting plan) might need been proscribing the info. However given how easy Backup Migration accomplished the method, it will appear that SG Migrate isn’t suited to this explicit migration supply.
SiteGround gives a paid migration service in case you’re in need of time.
WP Engine
The WP Engine Website Migration plugin is out there shortly after signup, designed to repeat database and web site recordsdata and migrate them WP Engine internet hosting in a single go. Once more, it’s merely a case of putting in the identical plugin on each the supply and vacation spot hosts.
Using an identical key-based migration technique, the method with WP Engine was completely flawless, finishing in just some minutes. No timeouts, no connection drops, only a easy, simple course of. That is actually encouraging, as not like SiteGround, WP Engine doesn’t supply migration as a service. As a substitute, it’s all in your arms, and whether it is all the time this simple, that shouldn’t matter.
Understand that the supply web site was the identical in every case – I’m drawn to suspect there is a matter with SG Migrate.
Assist
You don’t wish to end up out of choices when your web site goes improper. How do these net hosts measure up on the subject of answering and resolving help requests?
SiteGround
Whereas I had some issue with SiteGround for migration, our use of its customer support involved a much less pressing matter.
The handbook migration course of with SiteGround was just too irritating. Whether or not a fault of the plugin, the host, or the supply host, I used to be getting nowhere. Sure, given the comparative simplicity of the duty, I used to be too proud to ask for assist from the help crew. Discovering an answer was a aid, but it surely shouldn’t have been so tough.
A basic view of SiteGround’s help crew, primarily based on our experiences, is that superior help requests can take a while to be adequately handled. This shouldn’t be a difficulty with the vast majority of WordPress tasks, nevertheless.
WP Engine
As you might have gauged from the desk above, WP Engine skimps on a couple of options, equivalent to Area Privateness and electronic mail internet hosting. These are each issues that different hosts supply. Studying about these comparative omissions was made simple by the AI-powered chat instrument, accessible from inside the WP Engine web site portal (basically a cPanel model interface).
Additional exploration results in the intensive knowledgebase, and the place extra particular info is required, the 24/7 help brokers will be summoned. They’re very educated, and I discovered their responses to be fast and correct. Entry to help is out there if not logged in, however a consumer PIN must be entered earlier than you will get assist from WP Engine.
Efficiency Testing
Web sites are subjected to varied threats to stability, from site visitors spikes to focused assaults. Shared internet hosting means different websites are hosted on the identical server, so hosts ought to guarantee all web sites are in a position to ship net pages effectively. Extended or repeated site visitors spikes can result in websites being slowed down deliberately. Can WP Engine and SiteGround deal with a rising quantity of site visitors? We used a pair of testing instruments, Siege, and WordPress Benchmark, to seek out out.
WordPress Benchmark is a plugin that runs in WordPress admin and benchmarks the CPU, reminiscence, filesystem, and database, together with the thing cache and the community velocity of the location. It offers particular person scores for every of those, together with a remaining benchmark rating.
Siege is a command line instrument that exams for response time, concurrent requests, and returned knowledge, in addition to what number of hits and the quantity of knowledge (in bytes) it sends to the location.
|
SiteGround |
WP Engine |
|
|
CPU & reminiscence |
||
|
Operations with giant textual content knowledge |
6.36 |
6.9 |
|
Random binary knowledge operations |
8.04 |
7.93 |
|
Recursive mathematical calculations |
7.52 |
5.06 |
|
Iterative mathematical calculations |
7.98 |
7.9 |
|
Filesystem |
Row 6 – Cell 1 | |
|
Filesystem write capability |
9.21 |
7.79 |
|
Native file copy and entry velocity |
9.31 |
8.25 |
|
Small file IO check |
10 |
9.76 |
|
Database |
||
|
Importing great amount of knowledge to database |
6.74 |
1.94 |
|
Easy queries on single desk |
9.26 |
6.66 |
|
Advanced database queries on a number of tables |
6.26 |
5.78 |
|
Object cache |
||
|
Persistent object cache enabled |
0 |
0 |
|
Community |
||
|
Community obtain velocity check |
10 |
9.5 |
|
Server rating |
7.4 |
6.4 |
Varied exams are grouped by sort. We’re principally within the CPU & reminiscence, filesystem, and database exams, together with the ultimate rating.
As demonstrated right here, SiteGround scores larger than WP Engine. Whereas the filesystem write is marginally higher, the primary distinction is the database benchmarking. Right here, WP Engine performs poorly as compared.
|
SiteGround |
WP Engine |
|||
|
5 concurrent |
9 concurrent |
5 concurrent |
9 concurrent |
|
|
Transactions |
12941 |
22396 |
9583 |
17028 |
|
Availability |
99.92 |
100.00 |
96.28 |
96.31 |
|
Elapsed time |
299.21 |
299.45 |
299.70 |
299.33 |
|
Knowledge transferred |
125.87 |
217.56 |
106.63 |
189.25 |
|
Response time |
0.11 |
0.12 |
0.15 |
0.15 |
|
Transaction fee |
43.25 |
74.79 |
31.98 2 |
56.89 |
|
Throughput |
0.42 |
0.73 |
0.36 |
0.63 |
|
Concurrency |
4.96 |
8.98 |
4.84 |
8.51 |
|
Profitable transactions |
12941 |
22396 |
9578 |
17028 |
|
Failed transactions |
10 |
0 |
370 |
652 |
|
Longest transaction |
0.48 |
1.34 |
2.25 |
5.67 |
|
Shortest transaction |
0.08 |
0.08 |
0.09 |
0.08 |
Testing with Siege to see how the server handles transactions and concurrency, I ran two exams on every web site, each at peak occasions. One check simulated 5 guests, and the opposite simulated 9 guests.
Based mostly on this testing WP Engine appears to be round 25% slower than SiteGround. Utilizing these outcomes as a information, you’ll anticipate guests to a web site and retailer working on WordPress with SiteGround internet hosting to expertise sooner web page loading and responses (equivalent to including objects to a cart, finishing orders, and so forth.)
Nevertheless, whereas these outcomes are beneficial in the direction of SiteGround, remember that varied elements can affect the rating, not least the out there assets of the shared servers on the time of testing.
Verdict
I’ve spent fairly a while with every of those WordPress internet hosting suppliers, and each fulfill that position completely. However do I’ve a desire?
Previous to testing, I used to be leaning in the direction of WP Engine, however in evaluating the price range choices of every host, SiteGround is clearly the higher choice.
WP Engine is dearer, and its customized, tailor-made WordPress-focused internet hosting does appear to overlook out a couple of options which might be frequent with different net hosts, equivalent to electronic mail. In its favour, the migration was simple, the management panel is quick, and it feels extra suited to WordPress internet hosting.
However SiteGround did higher with each WordPress Benchmark and Siege, and it’s extra reasonably priced. Migration could be a difficulty, however hopefully you observe my lead and use a selected third social gathering instrument.
So, in order for you one thing that feels extra suited to WordPress, and you’ve got the price range, WP Engine is an efficient selection. In any other case, SiteGround’s low cost signup and velocity is the higher choice.
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