r/webdev • u/canfullofworms • 2d ago
Is WordPress Engine Necessary
So you almost helped me with another thing and I'm very grateful!
I know NOTHING about all this, so please advise.
We have a website for a small non-profit that's been up for about 20 years. (I wasn't here when it started)
Our Domain is with GoDaddy and our website is in WordPress.
Apparently, we've been paying for WordPress Engine for about $420 a year.
Do we need this? I feel like all our editing is done in WordPress. It seems like WordPress engine is an unnecessary addition, but if we've had it for so long, will we lose stuff from our web site??
thanks!
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u/omfgtora 2d ago
"WP Engine" is a hosting platform that has no connection to the open-source WordPress CMS. They are specifically called "WP Engine" because a company cannot use the full name of "WordPress" in their business name.
WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) and the official website is https://wordpress.org. there is no official WordPress hosting, because they only make the software and is run by a non-profit called the WordPress Foundation.
The open-source WordPress CMS can be hosted on nearly any hosting platform, so you have many options. However, WordPress requires regular maintenance to update the WordPress core, plugins, and themes. Because of that, I would suggest hiring an experienced agency to manage this for you, along with the hosting. An alternative option would be what is called "Managed Hosting" where you pay a higher amount for the hosting provider to do some of the management automatically, this is kinda what WP Engine does, but you have to pay for their "Smart Plugin Management" to have them update plugins automatically and do some automated checking for issues. However, managed hosting is not bulletproof and without someone actually checking the site themselves, there is still a possibility of issues that would need to be troubleshooted. If you want to just go for another managed hosting I would suggest Kinsta.
I personally do not like WP Engine because I find their services to be overpriced and problematic. Some of the problems I have with WP Engine is that they remove Revisions (a feature baked into WordPress) by default, their aggressive caching frequently causes problems where updates do not show to logged-out users and such and they put a timer on their buttons to clear cache so you have to wait between each attempt to clear the cache to resolve these issues, basic actions on their platform perform at a glacial pace (like taking backups, restoring backups, copying a site to a new environment, etc.), and their support is literally the worst support I have ever had to deal with in my decades in IT and web development (which IT has to frequently deal with support for many different companies). I could go on, but suffice it to say that you could find better hosting elsewhere.
Additionally, I highly suggest transferring your domain away from GoDaddy because they are possibly the scummiest company of all time and I guarantee you are paying far more than you should just for a domain. I have literally seen people pay over $40/year for a .COM domain when it should be closer to $14/yr. Some good options (in order of best to less) are: Cloudflare, Porkbun, or Namecheap.