While web hostings that were developed not specifically for WordPress work fine, a hosting solution specifically for WordPress-supported web pages is much more efficient. And it is, perhaps, the very reason as to why you are here.
WPX is among the many hosting providers available in the market today. It is known for many good reasons but mainly for its WordPress-oriented hosting services. And if you are wondering if it is the right provider that could cater for the needs of your online biz, then you are on the right page.
My in-depth WPX hosting review covers all information—from its best features to its website speed and overall performance—every customer needs to know.
What is WPX Hosting?
WPX is a premium hosting service catering mainly for entrepreneurs with WordPress-supported web pages. It was established way back in the year 2013 when Terry Kyle, the CEO and founder of WPX, felt disappointed over his web experience with then hosting companies. His dissatisfaction and frustration had then prompted him to act on it and decided to launch his own web hosting service—which is the WPX managed WordPress host.
Terry, per his account, developed with the goal of developing a web host with excellent customer experience in order to save future entrepreneurs from the dread he encountered during the old days.
Now, numerous entrepreneurs and freelancers across the US and Europe are using WPX as their web host support. From education-related biz to health and fitness, the web host managed to fulfil what web owners truly need.
What Does It Offer?
WPX, just like its competitors, is a hosting service developed to support websites essentially for freelancers, aspiring biz owners, and small to huge companies that want to market their brand, products, or services on the world wide web. The only difference is that, as mentioned already, it was created for WordPress users specifically.
Given that it is a fully managed WordPress hosting solution, WPX offers three hosting plans: business, premium, and elite. All its plans are packed with all basic to advanced technologies needed to develop and maintain a site. From its speed-boosting features to its customer service, web hosting guarantees an up to par experience for all its customers.
To give you a picture of what it is as a web host, below is an overview of what WPX Hosting offers:
- WordPress-optimized environment
- Custom-built CDN
- Lightning-fast web pages
- Unlimited site migration
- A suite of security features
- Fee site backups
- 24.7 customer support
- 30-day money-back guarantee
How Does It Differ?
Generally, WPX provides the same web tools that other hosting firms do offer.
However, if you take a closer look, there are two or three things—that I believe are also its selling points—that make it stand out and ultimately reached its targeted audience, it would be its WordPress-oriented hosting environment and its custom-built Cloud CDN.
The web host has surprisingly developed its very own Cloud CDN or Content Delivery Network. And unlike its competitors, it claims that it is “WordPress specific.” In other words, the speed and overall performance of a WordPress-supported site hosted by WPX Cloud CDN are much more efficient compared to its rivals.
And it being a managed WordPress hosting further complements it, making it stand out even more. Such a trait has helped the web hosting company narrowed down its target audience from “freelancers and aspiring business owner” to “freelancers and aspiring business owners who are using WordPress.”
What are the Pros and Cons?
To further put things in perspective, below are some of the benefits as well as the disadvantages I noticed from using WPX hosting.
The Pros
- Custom-built CDN
- WordPress-oriented web host
- Free website fixes
- Satisfactory website speed performance
- Unlimited website migration
- Free SSL certificate
- Speed optimization and analysis tool
- Staging area
The Cons
- Pricey plans
- No free domains
- Few communication channels (customer support)
All About WPX Hosting
Now that you have an overview of what WPX as a web host is, let us dive further. In this section, I will cover its top features (along with an explanation of why), its uptime and page loading speed, as well as a couple of disadvantages that I believe the web host could improve.
WPX Hosting Best Features
WPX offers a suite of technologies that many web enthusiasts find remarkable, particularly WordPress users. Although all of them serves individual purposes, there are a few features that make WPX hosting stand out among its rivals and, at the same time, an excellent WordPress web host.
Having that said, below are my WPX’s top features and tools.
WPX Cloud CDN
If I have to choose one feature that makes WPX unique, I will pick its custom-built cloud CDN.
If you are not aware yet, Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a site speed-boosting tool. It serves as a nearby mini server which helps to load web pages quickly. And it helps a lot for web owners who have audiences across the globe.
For example, if you manage a health and wellness website and your hosting’s data center is available in the US and UK only, there is a high chance that your viewers residing in Asia would experience slow loading speed. Such a situation, on the one hand, would not occur if your site is supported by a CDN.
That being said, it is perhaps the very reason why WPX hosting developed its own CDN with, of course, elements that work efficiently with WordPress. In fact, the web hosting’s Cloud CDN works differently than a standard CDN too.
Surprisingly, the team tweaks and further improves its cloud, unlike CDN companies. Here are a few more traits that make WPX Cloud CDN much more efficient:
- It can manage large amounts of web traffic
- It can further enhance your site’s security
- Mini-servers are available in more than 20 countries across the globe
WPX Cloud CDN is available in all the web host’s available plans. It would not affect your bandwidth’s allocation as well. As of August of 2020, the web hosting’s Cloud CDN endpoints are around 26 locations, including Singapore, India, Russia, and Spain.
The feature is activated by default as well.
Free site migration
For folks who are currently managing a website supported by different web hosts, good news because WPX allows site migration without additional charges.
WPX provides free website migration to all its customers. Hence, you get to avail of it even if you are subscribed to its basic plan only. But what is more remarkable about this freebie is that it is UNLIMITED, which is perfect for web enthusiasts running several pages.
Furthermore, the process takes not more than 24 hours only. And it is quite fast compared to its competitors. That said, here is a short guide on how to avail it:
- First, create an account under WPX hosting.
- Next, send your current hosting account details and WordPress credentials for the web pages you want to transfer to the team by submitting a ticket.
- Then that’s it! The team will notify you once the migration is done.
Premium security features
Aside from speed, web enthusiasts take security features seriously too when considering what web host to choose for their pages. And it is especially crucial for those who are managing an e-commerce site such as a digital store due to the high probability of data theft.
Fortunately, there are safety features built for instances like that which, also, WPX has.
The web hosting solution comes with a suite of security features that can keep your webpage protected from various digital incidents. And among these are an SSL certificate, malware detection and eradication, and DDoS protection.
Here’s how each of them works:
1. SSL certificate. SSL certificates are apps that let web pages send and receive data securely. And just like CDN, these applications are considered crucial for e-commerce websites. As a matter of fact, Google’s algorithm favors websites with an SSL certificate. And those who do not have are usually penalized.
2. Malware scan and removal tool. Unlike its competitors, WPX provides a free malware scanning and removal tool. And as a web enthusiast, it is an absolute deal.
The reason? It is because most hosting services do not offer free malware scan tools. Oftentimes, hosting companies will lead customers to plugins like Sucuri, which will cost you additional charges!
That being said, here’s an overview of what the tool can do:
- Enterprise-level DDoS protection
- System-wide malware scan
- Web Application Firewall (WAF)
- It updates security server rules every day
- Site audit by the WPX malware team
- It cleans up script injections, malicious redirects, and backdoor
3. DDoS security. WPX also provides Enterprise-level DDoS protection through Incapsula, a well-known and industry leader when it comes to security features. Essentially, it detects, mitigates, and removes DDoS attacks in real-time.
I find it an absolute steal because Incapsula costs around $300 a month! Ultimately, it is available for all WPX customers—whether you are subscribed to its cheapest or premium hosting plan.
4. Two-factor authentication. To further enhance your web page’s security, the web host installed a two-factor authentication which allows its users to add another layer of protection for better and secured logins,
To activate the feature, simply go to My Account. Click the link that says, “edit details” and activate the two-factor authentication.
Daily website backups
Technical issues that can wipe off your website’s data in an instant is inevitable. And one, perhaps the only way, to prevent such an incident from happening is to have automatic site backups. Fortunately, WPX WordPress hosting offers it for free.
WPX gives automatic site backups every day to all its customers. Essentially, it gives customers access to its backup system anytime they wish. It safely keeps backups in a separate server for around 28 days as well.
Free site fixes
Technical issues that may cause your page to crash is, more often than not, unavoidable. And for that very reason, WPX decided to deploy its own technical team to oversee site issues.
The web host essentially provides FREE website fixes when a site is down. The cause is not limited as well. Whether it be hosting-related issues such as server maintenance and crashed servers or unforeseen situations like plugin updates and web traffic overload, the technical team will fix your webpage as soon as possible.
To avail of the feature, simply reach out to any WPX representatives through live chat or by submitting an email report.
Staging area
For entrepreneurs who always aim to improve, having a staging area for free along with your web host is a perfect deal. Essentially, it is a platform wherein you can change, test, and implement web elements on your site safely. And unlike WPX, such a feature is not always present in other hosting solutions in the industry today.
But what makes WPX’s staging area more commendable is that it enables users to combine both the staging site and the live version.
To put it plainly, it means the feature automatically keeps old data such as the latest blog comments and recent edits a user made for a post or a page. The process also automatically adds new changes made in the staging area.
Supports animal-life initiatives
If another hosting company like A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting promises ethical, and green hosting solutions as an effort to fight climate change, WPX supports animal-life initiatives.
The web host has supported almost eight initiatives since it was established until the present. From buying lands to build a no-cage shelter for homeless dogs to repairing damaged facilities in shelters (in Slatina Puppy Shelter, to be exact).
Aside from that, it provides food for more than 500 homeless cats and dogs every day as well!
Thus, if you are a pet lover or you simply sympathize with the initiative, then supporting WPX by using it as your site host would be a great way.
Performance
Among the many crucial aspects of WPX hosting service—aside from its features and technologies—is how well a site performs under it. And if you are a newbie, you should make careful deliberation in the said matter before you purchase a plan. It is particularly important with the uptime and page loading speed.
That being said, I ran several speed tests to determine whether WPX has reliable performance. And, as it promises, a page hosted by it exhibits impressive results.
Wondering what the results are?
Uptime
WPX hosting promises an average uptime of 99.95%; not much but not low as well. So, I tried to run a test using the application called UptimeRobot to see whether the web host stands true to its claims.
And based on the result I gathered, a site hosted by WPX can deliver an average uptime of 99.95%.
If you are, say, a freelancer, and only needs a page to display your credentials and services, then such availability is good enough. In fact, it is a decent uptime if compared to non-WordPress specific hosting providers. However, I find it kind of risky for e-commerce sites, especially those with high web traffic.
But does a 99.95% uptime mean your site will never experience downtime?
Generally, the answer is no. Technical situations that may cause downtimes—like server upgrades and server maintenance—are inevitable. Outages that are beyond WPx’s control could also interrupt your web page’s availability.
All in all, WPX yields the uptime results it promises.
Page Loading Speed
As good as its uptime performance, WPX yields an admirable loading speed as well. Again, I ran a couple of site tests to determine the web host’s speed. I used the apps called BlazeMeter and WebPageTest and below are the results.
- WebPageTest. For context, WebPageTest is a tool to determine how long a website takes to load for a single visitor. And based on the test I ran, the median page loading time is approximately 1.5 seconds—a score good enough for e-commerce sites.
- BlazeMeter. BlazeMeter, on the other hand, is an application that tests a site’s speed under multiple visitors or high web traffic. And based on the result I gathered, I found out that for every 20 viewers, the last one has the slowest loading speed. Not too bad since the delay is only about 0.17 seconds.
Customer Support
The most remarkable thing about WPX’s customer service is that it created a system that would benefit WordPress users mainly. If you can remember, I mentioned earlier that the web host has a technical team that can help you in case you encounter an issue. Hence, if you are a newbie and looking to use WordPress as your CMS, then WPX is an excellent web host to partner with.
Technical issues are unavoidable, and as an inexperienced WordPress user, it would be a pain to fix something you are not knowledgeable about (yet, at least). It is free too so it truly is an absolute deal.
But apart from that, WPX WordPress hosting also provides a separate technical support team—via a live chat, to be specific—with an average response time of 30 seconds. You can reach any of its representatives via submitting a ticket as well, particularly if you need a detailed answer or solution to a specific problem. Although do take note that such an approach is slower compared to the live chat.
The web hosting service also has a comprehensive knowledge base that customers can access anytime they need. It contains articles covering topics like site speed optimization, security, site setup, and other WordPress-related questions.
WPX Pricing and Plans
Unlike its competitors, WPX offers three—all are WordPress-oriented—web hosting programs only. Each plan varies in price and comes with a different set of tools and perks. To put things in perspective, below is a brief explanation of each plan.
1. Business. A business plan is WPX’s basic and cheapest hosting program. For the price of $24.99 a month, customers will receive 10GB storage, 100GB bandwidth, a WPX Cloud CDN. It lets you host up to five websites as well.
2. Professional. A professional plan contains the same features a business plan has. The only difference is the quantity. So instead of 5 websites, the plan enables you to host 15 sites. The storage goes from 10 to 20 as well, while the bandwidth is 200. The plan costs $49.99 per month or yearly.
3. Elite. WPX’s premium plan suits perfectly for veteran web enthusiasts, and are managing multiple websites. Customers will receive unlimited bandwidth, a 40GB total of storage, and 35 sites to hosts. It costs $99 per month.
Aside from the mentioned features, each plan includes high-speed CDN, PHP 7.X, 30-second live chat response (24/7, and all the top features I covered in the earlier sections.
The web hosting provider guarantees a 30-day money-back guarantee as well. It means customers who wish to pull out their subscription can get a refund if they cancel the plan before the 30 days limit. It provides two payment options only as well: via PayPal and via a credit card.
Things to Take Note Of
WPX is not a perfect web host. And just like its competitors, it lacks a few aspects too that (I believe) could be further improved—fortunately. That said, I enumerated below a couple of things that I think the web hosting firm should change or, at least, improve.
1. Pricey hosting plans. WPX is known as a premium WordPress hosting solution. And thus, when it comes to its price, it charges more compared to its peers. I find nothing wrong with that. However, this could be a bit of a struggle for some customers, beginners specifically.
WPX offers its three hosting plans at not-so-affordable prices, and I find it sort of impractical for newbies. Its basic and cheapest (Business) plan, for instance, costs around $20 per month which is three to five times higher if compared to other WordPress hostings.
On the one hand, it does not mean that it is worth its price. The same plan, for example, lets you host five web pages (which ultimately explains the cost). And that is quite a lot for a beginner.
Thus, I find it too pricey and impractical for folks who are just starting.
2. No free domain. Unfortunately, the web host does not provide a free domain for new customers. And for a beginner—and even veterans—having to receive a free (1) domain for half a year or more is a big deal. It is why I find WPX hosting sort of disappointing on this part as it does not offer a free domain even for a few months.
That said, if you want to save money by opting for hosting with a free domain, then WPX is not quite a fit for your web needs.
3. Customer support lacks communication channels. A reliable and easy-to-access customer is one of the many crucial traits technical products should provide. And while WPX has one, it only has two communication channels: via a live chat and via submitting a ticket.
It might be good enough for some. But it would be better to have multiple channels just what InMotion Hosting offers.
The Verdict
Is WPX worth a try?
The answer is a yes if you are a WordPress user. Otherwise, it would be a waste. As mentioned, WPX was developed specifically for WordPress-supported web pages. From its speed optimization tools to its customer support, compatibility is like a car to fuel—the former is useless without the latter.
Keep in mind too that its hosting plans are quite expensive compared to its competitors. Its basic plan, for example, costs around $20 but will allow you to host up to five websites. It is worth it, I would say.
However, as a beginner, is it practical to receive five websites to host? In the end, it’s still your call. Will you spend that much on premium WordPress hosting? Or would you rather purchase a cheaper hosting with fewer WordPress-specific features?
All in all, WPX is an excellent hosting for entrepreneurs and freelancers.