WP Engine vs Netfirms: guide for 2024

WP Engine vs Netfirms: Final verdict

Looking over WP Engine vs. Netfirms, it’s clear why both hosts are so popular. They have both hosted millions of
websites that run on WordPress for decades, building up a loyal customer base.

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  WP Engine (Overall grade: 8.6)
  
  
  stands out for its exceptional performance and specialized WordPress hosting solutions. Known for superior uptime, advanced security measures, and impressive speed, it provides extensive features like EverCache® technology and a global CDN. Additionally, WP Engine excels with its 24/7 specialized support and comprehensive security options. These premium features come at a higher price point, making it ideal for businesses that prioritize quality and reliability over cost. The user-centric admin panel, automated migration tools, and detailed user roles further enhance its appeal, ensuring it meets the stringent demands of high-traffic, multimedia, ecommerce, and agency websites effectively.
  
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  Netfirms (Overall grade: 7.3)
  
  
  offers a more basic and cost-effective solution appropriate for smaller businesses or budget-conscious users. Specializing in shared hosting, Netfirms provides scalable bandwidth and unlimited storage, making it a practical option for users seeking affordability. Despite lacking some advanced features and having limited geographic data center reach, Netfirms does deliver decent uptime and customer support. The familiar cPanel interface, basic security features, and affordable plans make it accessible, though it may not satisfy users needing high performance or extensive WordPress-centric features. Overall, Netfirms suits simpler hosting needs but falls short on providing the premium capabilities seen in WP Engine.
  

Hosting types offered

Both platforms provide a variety of hosting types, each designed to meet the different needs of users.

Although both offer a variety of hosting plans tailored to different needs, in certain cases, one platform may prove to be more suitable.

Detailed comparison

🏆 Winner WP Engine: Superior uptime and availability make WP Engine a top choice for hosting solutions.

WP Engine excels in uptime monitoring and performance. Offering 24/7 monitoring and alerts via email or Slack, their platform ensures continuous availability. The impressive 100% uptime over a two-month period and a stable server response time of 489ms highlight their commitment to reliability. Backed by a 99.99% SLA, WP Engine is well-suited for high-traffic sites needing consistent uptime.

Netfirms, while reliable, does not match WP Engine’s uptime guarantee and detailed monitoring. Netfirms offers a 99.9% uptime claim and showed 100% uptime in a brief testing period, but lacks an explicit guarantee on their site. Their limited data centers in New York and Toronto also fall short of WP Engine’s global reach. Nonetheless, Netfirms provides strong customer support and a decent uptime performance.

🏆 Winner WP Engine: Top-tier performance and comprehensive features for high-traffic sites.

When comparing WP Engine and Netfirms, WP Engine stands out for its superior speed and performance metrics. WP Engine offers fast page load times, thanks to its EverCache® technology and global CDN with over 200 points of presence. The latest PHP version helps serve up to three times more requests per second. Its data centers span the US, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. In contrast, Netfirms provides a more basic yet cost-effective solution, focusing primarily on affordability for smaller companies. Netfirms does offer scalable bandwidth and basic CDN services, but its overall performance metrics fall short of WP Engine’s.

Website Speed

WP Engine ensures your website loads quickly with fast page load times, EverCache® technology, and a managed CDN. It also uses the latest PHP version and is optimized for Core Web Vitals, making it a top choice for speed. Netfirms, although offering decent speed with scalable bandwidth, does not match the advanced performance-enhancing features provided by WP Engine.

Scalability

WP Engine offers scalable architecture to accommodate any traffic spikes seamlessly. It includes isolated resources for optimized performance and reliability. Details about automatic plan upgrades were not provided. Netfirms offers both shared and dedicated hosting plans that are scalable based on your site’s needs, but specifics on the cost and automation of scaling were not provided.

🏆 Winner
WP Engine: Offers comprehensive security with enterprise-grade technology and proactive threat detection.

Both WP Engine and Netfirms, have notable differences in their approaches to technical and operational
security, as well as in their compliance with regulations.

Technical security measures:

WP Engine uses enterprise-grade technology that automates threat detection, blocking 72 million attacks daily. It features a Global Edge Security system with managed WAF, advanced DDoS mitigation, Cloudflare CDN, and SSL. In contrast, Netfirms provides different levels of SSL certificates, from basic domain validation to advanced eCommerce SSL with significant warranties. While Netfirms also offers SiteLock security plans that include daily malware scans and DDoS protection, WP Engine’s offerings are more robust with additional features like automatic core WordPress updates and proactive security management.

Operational security measures:

WP Engine ensures continuous monitoring with automated updates and proactive threat detection, blocking over 26 billion attacks annually. It offers real-time security management by a live team, along with 24/7 global customer support. On the other hand, Netfirms focuses on providing around-the-clock support and offers domain security alerts to notify users about unauthorized changes. While both platforms provide reliable operational support, WP Engine’s always-on monitoring and live team involvement offer a higher level of security and customer satisfaction.

Compliance and certifications:

WP Engine meets SOC-2 standards for security and availability and is ISO 27001-2013 certified. It ensures compliance with various regulatory requirements, including PCI standards, though results may vary due to customized components. Netfirms complies with GDPR, providing EU residents with rights such as data access and rectification. It also offers PCI compliance through automatic scanning by SiteLock. While both platforms comply with essential regulatory requirements, WP Engine’s broader certifications make it more compliant across multiple standards.

🏆 Winner: WP Engine: A premier choice for managed WordPress hosting with advanced features and optimal performance.

WP Engine offers a range of hosting plans targeting different user needs, from small businesses to large enterprises. Their Essential WordPress plan is perfect for those just starting, while the Enterprise WordPress plan is designed for mission-critical sites. Unique features such as EverCache® technology for site speed enhancement, proactive WordPress security, and a global CDN for edge content delivery stand out. The inclusion of a free automated migration plugin and comprehensive developer tools like local WordPress development and WPGraphQL provide additional flexibility. On the other hand, Netfirms provides more budget-friendly options starting at $3.95/mo with their Plus Plan. Key benefits include a free domain name for the first year, scalable bandwidth, and unlimited disk space in the higher-tier plans. However, the offerings lack some advanced features found in WP Engine, such as isolated resources for optimized performance and WordPress-optimized WAF.

For those prioritizing a user-friendly website builder with substantial capabilities, WP Engine facilitates this with its optimized environments for WordPress, while Netfirms does not explicitly mention a built-in website builder. Both providers cater to eCommerce needs, but WP Engine’s Essential eCommerce plan focused on WooCommerce efficiency is specifically noteworthy. Netfirms’ plans offer features like unlimited websites and storage in their Advantage and Business plans, making it a solid choice for those requiring numerous websites at a lower price point. Moreover, while both offer SSL certificates and FTP access, WP Engine includes advanced security options such as DDoS mitigation and managed WAF, alongside premium support services, distinguishing it from Netfirms’ more basic offering.

Both providers support a range of users from beginners to experts with user-friendly website builders and WordPress staging areas. However, in terms of developer tools, both WP Engine and Netfirms offer robust options including SSH access, support for multiple programming languages, and Git for version control, thus appealing to developers looking for advanced capabilities.

Email services:

WP Engine does not provide traditional email hosting or email marketing services, focusing more on web hosting performance and security. For transactional emails, third-party integrations would be necessary. Netfirms similarly does not offer built-in email hosting or marketing tools but may be compatible with third-party services. Both hosting providers do not include their own email hosting, necessitating external solutions for users needing comprehensive email functionalities.

🏆 Winner
WP Engine: Offers extensive managed WordPress hosting plans with priority support and development environments.

Evaluating the pricing of plans among various hosting providers can be complex due to their differing pricing and renewal strategies. Additionally, certain plans require annual commitments, which adds to the difficulty of making comparisons. The prices listed are based on monthly commitments; plans requiring annual commitments are indicated. Additionally, although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.

When comparing WP Engine and Netfirms, WP Engine stands out for its managed WordPress hosting solutions with a strong focus on performance and security. Starting at $20/month for a single site with automatic updates and 24/7 support, it goes up to $600/month for custom plans with advanced features. Netfirms, on the other hand, primarily offers shared hosting plans starting at $3.95/month with scalable bandwidth and free SSL. For businesses that require robust managed WordPress hosting with premium support, WP Engine provides more value, whereas Netfirms caters to users looking for affordable shared hosting solutions.

Enterprise plans

For enterprises, WP Engine offers scalable managed WordPress hosting with a focus on security, performance, and priority support. Their custom plans starting at $600/month offer advanced features such as dedicated technical account managers and optional add-ons like advanced DDoS protection. Netfirms lacks comparable specialized enterprise solutions; its shared hosting plans, while affordable, do not offer the specialized features required for large-scale business operations.

🏆 Winner
WP Engine: In terms of ease of use, WP Engine stands out due to its flexible and affordable site migration options, intuitive custom admin panel, advanced setup features, and a highly praised help center.

WP Engine offers a custom admin panel specifically designed for WordPress users. This makes it highly accessible and user-friendly, catering to both technical and non-technical users. The admin panel is intuitive and includes features that simplify WordPress site management, such as easy access to frequently used tools, performance insights, and security settings. Moreover, advanced users would appreciate developer tools like Git Push and SSH Gateway setups directly from the panel.

Netfirms, on the other hand, uses a more standard cPanel interface, which is widely recognized and familiar to many users. While cPanel is robust and feature-rich, it may not be as tailored to WordPress-specific needs as WP Engine’s admin panel. However, the familiarity of cPanel can be an advantage for users who have prior experience with web hosting management. Overall, it’s user-friendly enough for most users but might require some learning for complete beginners.

Both WP Engine and Netfirms offer migration services for websites, but their approaches and costs differ. WP Engine provides free automated migrations for WordPress sites specifically within the first 30 days after purchasing a new shared hosting plan. For non-WordPress sites, however, WP Engine charges $149 for migration services, although users have the option to undertake manual migrations, which demand considerable technical expertise. On the other hand, Netfirms offers both automated and manual migration options for WordPress and non-WordPress or custom sites alike. Their paid migration service is considerably more affordable at approximately $30.

The platforms provide extensive knowledge bases filled with guides, how-to articles, and instructional content. WP Engine offers a wide range of resources alongside 24/7 chat and phone support. Netfirms also boasts a detailed help center with an intuitive search function and around-the-clock support via live chat, phone, and ticketing, ensuring comprehensive user support.

🏆 Winner: WP Engine: Offers extensive user management capabilities with detailed role-based access control.

WP Engine stands out with its comprehensive approach to managing user roles and permissions. The platform provides a broad array of user roles that are specifically designed to cater to various levels of access needs, from full administrative rights to limited environment-specific access. WP Engine enables intricate customization of user roles, allowing for precise control over who can access what, a stark contrast to Netfirms’ simpler, more content-focused user roles in WordPress. Netfirms offers basic roles like Administrator, Editor, and Author, which are easy to use but lack the detailed customization found in WP Engine.

When comparing user interfaces and tools for managing users, WP Engine provides a more streamlined and professional environment through its User Portal. Users can easily navigate through adding, editing, and removing users with clear, defined steps. Netfirms, while straightforward and functional for basic needs, operates within the WordPress Dashboard, which may be familiar to many but doesn’t offer the same level of dedicated user management features. WP Engine’s User Portal offers a specialized, focused approach, making it more efficient for administrative tasks.

Assessing the effectiveness of access control measures, WP Engine excels with its defined user roles and granular permissions, making it suitable for growing numbers of users and complex site management needs. The ability to manage SFTP logins, Git keys, CDN, and SSL certificates within specific environments ensures that WP Engine can handle a scalable and dynamic user management environment effectively. Netfirms, though adequate for smaller teams and simpler websites, may struggle with the efficiency and detailed access control needed for larger operations.

WP Engine User Roles Table:

🏆 Winner
WP Engine: Known for its extensive WordPress expertise and high customer satisfaction.

WP Engine and Netfirms both offer 24/7 support through multiple channels, including phone and live chat. WP Engine provides specialized assistance for WordPress users, complete with a comprehensive knowledge base and premium support options. Additionally, their enterprise-grade security features and 60-day money-back guarantee make them an attractive option for those seeking robust security and flexibility.

Netfirms also delivers prompt and knowledgeable support, with a less than one-minute wait time for phone consultations and fast responses via live chat. They offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, and their highest-tier plan provides prioritized support. However, some customers have reported issues with their billing and cancellation processes, which could be a consideration when choosing between the two providers.

Overall, while both WP Engine and Netfirms provide efficient and accessible support, WP Engine edges out as the better option for users seeking specialized WordPress support and enhanced security features.

WP Engine vs Netfirms: User feedback

WP Engine exudes excellence in managed WordPress hosting, boasting top-notch technical support that’s often highlighted as a standout feature. Users appreciate the user-friendly dashboard, seamless migration tools, daily backups, and solid security measures, all of which contribute to high performance and reliability. However, the service does come at a higher price point, which some users find steep, especially for entry-level plans or smaller projects. Despite occasional concerns about costs and some technical nuances, WP Engine’s premium service quality justifies the expense for many, making it a highly recommended solution for businesses and developers alike.

Based on user reviews, the hosting provider appears to offer decent uptime and moderately reliable customer support. However, users frequently report slow server performance and connectivity issues that significantly hamper the experience. While some appreciate the low costs and basic domain registration services, others criticize the clunky system, confusing server setup, and unreliability, especially when working with CMS tools. Overall, the service seems better suited for those with low budgets and high patience.

WP Engine vs Netfirms: FAQ