I am moving away from Bluehost. They’re fine for small static sites but get any sort of community going and you’ll be throttled, even on pro. Lots of 504 errors, slow servers, weak technical support. If you’ve got a site that your income depends on, move away from Bluehost. I am.

It should be noted that changing the table prefix may not be the easiest solution for everyone, but if you are dead set on changing it, make sure you understand the task involved.

Using WP Engine is like the ultimate WordPress extension. They have such an integrated system that the WP Engine service and WordPress work hand in hand. They provide you with a customized version of WordPress that has a control panel that makes some tasks like “CDN Control” much simpler.

Their servers are secure and they guarantee that if your site is hacked that they will pay to get it cleaned up (Hacker Cleanup Guarantee).

Criticism of WP Engine is simple. It’s just expensive. This is serious hosting. We would say for the professional blogger. Or even just someone that takes their site seriously. However, you get what you pay for, and then some.

Speed:
We have been astounded by the speed of WP Engine. They really do get it right and make it fast. We have seen our page speeds increase by 350ms since signing up with WP Engine. Nothing else has changed except the hosting.

Control Panel:
Their account control panel located on their website at WP Engine is not the most pretty control panel in the world, but you can manage some important things here. Some tools in the admin area are: account user manager, website restore points, SFTP users, domain management, billing, error log, and support. We don’t have any serious complaints, but they should really update the look of this control panel. It’s a little too simple looking. That beings said, everything functions fine.

Support:
We have an excellent time dealing with the tech support at WP Engine. So far, every time we have talked with tech support, we have never been ‘elevated’ to a higher support level. All of the staff are knowledgeable and we have end up dealing with the same technician from start to finish. It’s a small knit group that handles support and they are very professional and knowledgeable. We know most of them by name at this point.

Wrapping up:
WP Engine is for serious WordPress users. You will spend a pretty penny, but their service is excellent.

Pagely works pretty well. They get everything set up. But I need more control over my server environment so I will be moving to something that gives me access to that.