We rely on web host a lot.
And when our website goes down, we lose money, traffic and of course, endless headaches.
In the past, I had experienced first-hand on countless web hosting services — which I’m sure you had a few for yourself, right?
Here’s the thing.
There is no perfect web hosting company and what really matters often boils down to website performance (speed), fixing issues and customer support.
Among the above three, my biggest concern is always performance.
This website itself serves over 150,000 visitors in a month. I need blazing fast servers that don’t buckle when a handful of people are viewing my website at the same time.
So, will WPX hosting be any different from other managed WordPress hosting services?
Keep on reading this review to find out more!
Do you know that WPX Hosting is one of our top 10 WordPress hosting services that we truly recommend?
Game Changer for Managed WP Hosting?
WPX Hosting is one of our top 10 WordPress hosting services that we truly recommend.
Before WPX Hosting
Prior to using WPX Hosting for hosting my money sites, I was using Kinsta.
And make no mistake.
Kinsta offers (almost) everything I needed in a web hosting service:
- Blazing speed thanks to Google Cloud Platform
- Premium CDN (which is known as KinstaCDN) for faster delivery of resources
- 24/7/365 live chat support which solves all my problems, every time without complaining
- Nightly backup securely saved in servers around the world
- 1-click staging, restore and backups for some development works
Well, it was close to perfect …
Except for the payment part.
As you can see, here’s what Kinsta plans and pricing structures look like:
I took up the Business 1 plan that consists of 5 WordPress installs, 100,000 monthly visits. 15 GB of disk space and 200 GB of Kinsta CDN.
But with over 150,000 monthly visits in a month, I’m constantly paying overages at $1/1,000 visits.
While I don’t mind paying for the overages, I felt it is not worth the money.
Just like any other bloggers, I decided to find for other web hosting alternatives that are more affordable (that don’t cost a bomb) and comes with superior server performance.
I did a full list and decided these are the best alternatives to Kinsta.
- SiteGround
- Cloudways
- Bluehost Pro
- WPX Hosting
SiteGround
I used SiteGround for quite some time and I love what they do. Beautiful website, great support team and above average server performance (with very decent web hosting price).
The only problem I had with SiteGround was with my translation plugin. For every post I publish, the plugin will translate into various languages.
And make no mistake. Other languages are driving a lot of traffic for my website.
Take a look at the analytics here.
While SiteGround is a great choice, I still have doubt on it.
I wouldn’t want my website to be penalized simply because of any over usages.
You can also read this post (on why I moved out of SiteGround).
Nonetheless, SiteGround pricing really unbeatable at only $12 for a super optimized and fast web hosting servers. You can check out their features here.
Cloudways
I thought about Cloudways a few times and used them over the years too. Cloudways is a fully managed VPS service that fits perfectly well for WordPress websites.
I love their pricing and I can even choose hourly or monthly charges (hourly comes handy in development mode).
But again, I had some issues with them and to be exact, it was on April 2018.
I took up a powerful server on Cloudways (sitting on Digital Ocean) with 4 cores. After ensuring the website can last through the heavy traffic, I shut down my laptop and went for a nice three days trip to Langkawi Island, Malaysia.
I came back home hoping to see a few hundred dollars in advertisement and affiliate sales …
But I was badly disappointed.
The server crashed and while Cloudways promoted that there are automatic reboot after crashes, it didn’t happen for mine.
And with that being said, I still have doubts using Cloudways especially when it comes to hosting money sites.
You are looking for affordable WordPress VPS hosting, Cloudways is still a good option. With VPS services that starts from $10 per month, you can’t really complain. Seriously.
Read more about Cloudways here.
BlueHost Pro
I talked about BlueHost Pro a lot and this was definitely in my mind.
BlueHost Pro is not like BlueHost shared hosting. Everything is way much better and the support is awesome too.
I thought of moving my money site to BlueHost Pro and after some considerations, I decided not to use BlueHost Pro.
Here’s why.
“BlueHost Pro is good for many people, but not for me.”
– Reginald Chan –
For example, I don’t use Jetpack and thus, Jetpack Pro wouldn’t be beneficial to me. I don’t require BlueHost SEO because I am happy using Yoast SEO. Finally, I don’t require 100 free premium WordPress themes because I’m happy with StudioPress + Thrive Architect.
While BlueHost Pro is really a great choice, I don’t see myself using it that much. You can check out the entire BlueHost Pro feature (by clicking on this) or read the review here.
WPS Hosting
Finally, WPS Hosting.
I heard about WPX Hosting and even used for my own non-money websites.
But now, I’m my money site to WPX Hosting. This is entirely a different ball game because there are more at stake.
My first impression of WPX Hosting is pretty bad. Firstly, I’m hoping for a professional business-look homepage. Instead, WPX Hosting is pretty much cartoon-like concept which isn’t really my taste.
However, I read about what Matthew Woodward talked about WPX and I even had some of my sits hosted on it. So, there goes the benefit of the doubt.
Because I was capping around 150,000 visits in a month, I had to go with a bigger plan, Professional plan at $49.99 per month or $41.58 per month when I pay annually.
This plan comes with a whopping 20 GB storage, 200 GB bandwidth and WPX Cloud CDN. Here’s the full pricing structure.
I signed up for a brand new account around 10.54am and I submitted the request for a single website migration. I got an email at 10.59am to notify me that the work is in progress (and they require a little bit more information of my previous web host).
I was impressed that they are really that fast in replying to me.
Okay, I used to think that the customer support at WPEngine and Kinsta are rock solid. Now, WPX Hosting is also in the list!
My choice for choosing WPX Hosting for my money site is simple. There are many web hosts which are terrible. They offer unlimited plans that are severely limited when you actually read the fine print. Not cool at all.
They cram as many customers into each server as possible without considering performance.
So, when simultaneous visitors land on a site, page load times skyrocket and user experience is ruined.
Not sure if WPX Hosting is for you?
Take a look at what WPX Hosting can offer right now!
WPX Hosting Review Part 1: A Simple Interface That Simply Works
One issue that I find with a lot of web hosts is that for first time users, or even some more experienced users – the interface can be unnecessarily complex.
This is what the common and simple cPanel hosting looks like.
WPX Hosting interface is simple and very straightforward. This is how it looks like on the backend.
I came from Kinsta with custom dashboard, so it’s nothing much to “wow” about for me. But for other bloggers and website owners, this new interface is definitely a game changer.
WPX Hosting Review Part 2: Handle Traffic Spikes Without Affecting User Experience
This … is … golden.
WPX Hosting infrastructure are designed to host large, resource intensive ecommerce websites. Therefore, hosting big websites aren’t a problem at all.
Do you know that WPX Hosting typically leave 50% of a servers resources available? This results in fantastic performance and the ability to deal with traffic spikes.
And not only that!
As soon as the number of customers on a machine could potentially impact performance, they’re moved to another machine.
WPX Hosting Review Part 3: How Does WPX Hosting Performs Under Load?
Impressive is the word.
With minimal optimization and a little help from MaxCDN (now StackPath), This is the kind of performance that’s possible:
The above image is a test ran with LoadImpact.com that tests how page load times are impacted with multiple visitors on the site at the same time.
Most visitors experienced loading times of under 1 second, which is incredible.
Here’s the good news:
From November 2018 onwards, WPX Hosting offer their own CDN with 20+ endpoints around the world.
It’s built by them – this isn’t just some other CDN slapped on the side. This means they can tweak and optimize it for better performance.
And it is absolutely free!
Yes, WPX CDN is included in all hosting packages.
WPX Hosting Review Part 4: Beyond Excellent Customer Support
I am a tough customer to handle, and I am not afraid to admit that.
WPX Hosting support teams are well-trained and are very experienced. They know WordPress and they know managed hosting — and these make all the difference.
Here’s an example of scenario which a web hosting company I no longer use and recommend:
- My website was broken and I need fast resolution, only to wait for 20 minutes in queue for the live chat agent
- The live chat agent was okay, but she wasn’t able to resolve the matter (and the ticket is escalated to the level 2 support)
- They said they need to check on the problem, and they will get back to me via email
- After two hours, my website is still down and they finally got back with the ticket — telling me that they would need to charge me $100 to do the needed repair (at this point, I went “WTF)
Now, here’s what happens when you reach out to WPX Hosting support via live chat:
- A warm greeting and response back to you under 60 seconds (super cool)
- Attentively listen/read my concern and given assurance it is being looked at
- Minutes later, I’m being responded via email or live chat that the job is done/resolved at no cost
Time is money and a website that is down … is not going to generate any sales for you.
WPX Hosting Review Part 5: Website Security Like No One Else
I choose managed WordPress hosting because of two things; website speed (performance) and security.
WPX hosting provides free SSL and unlimited website migrations at no cost.
If at this point you think that you can find this on any other web hosting companies, take a look at this email from them.
I was reaching out to the support team over at WPX Hosting to check on the status of my website migration. They responded to me and even told me that one of my money site is affected with some malicious codes.
This is where I go “WTF” — and my previous web hosting company didn’t notice anything about it!
Before I was stomping the ground, I was pleased that the WPX Hosting team said that they will take care of everything. Now, that’s a huge relief!
WPX Hosting Review Part 6: Is WPX Hosting Worth The Money?
I decided to move all my websites to WPX Hosting because it is affordable and comes with superior support.
As shared above, I’d looked at other WordPress specialist web hosts but the technical limitations and pricing structure put me off.
WPX Hosting gears their plans around a monthly maximum bandwidth, which can be offset even further by using a CDN like MaxCDN (now StackPath).
Here’s a closer look at their pricing plans:
For more information on their plans & pricing, click here.
WPX Hosting Review Part 7: Advantages & Disadvantages Using WPX Hosting
There are a lot of good things that WPX Hosting offers, and here are the most important ones.
- Built to handle traffic without sacrificing page load times
- Fast and effective support
- Amazing pricing in comparison to competitors
- Supports emails (unlike some WordPress hosts)
- Easy to use interface (all the important stuff is 1 click away)
- Can support other content management systems (not just WordPress)
- Enterprise level DDoS protection
- Malware scanning and cleanup
Just like any other managed WordPress hosting services, WPX Hosting is not protected from some disadvantages too.
- Interface is lacking on features but this could be classed as a pro since the interface is easier to work with
- No phone support (but live chat & email is very fast)
- Dashboard not showing stats (compared to Kinsta)
Summary: WPX Hosting Review 2019
I host multiple websites (even clients’ websites) on WPX Hosting, and the experience had been great.
But it gets better because they keep adding new features without adding to the cost. For example, they offer free malware cleanups and a free in-house built CDN.
The bottom line is this.
They really seem to care about their customers, unlike a lot of the big web hosts out there. And their page load times are impressive, and they have the support to match.
WPX Hosting Review: Performance + Security + Affordability
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that WPX Hosting is definitely worth the money. Ranked number one on G2Crowd for web hosting, I’m sure WPX Hosting had “wow-ed” more customers than just me. Want to give WPX Hosting a run? Click the button below and give WPX Hosting a run for your money. Plus, you get 30-days (iron clad) money back guarantee if it fails to impress you.
