WPX Hosting Review : Fastest Managed Hosting?
Managed WordPress Hosting is very popular nowadays. Earlier, bloggers used to start their journey with shared hosting and then slowly migrate to premium hosting.
Now, Bloggers do not want to take a chance and choose the best hosting from the start. That’s why we see so many managed WordPress hosts in the market.
Out of all those web hosts, if there is one web host that is making a lot of noise, it is WPX Hosting.
WPX claims that they are the fastest-managed host in the market. Are they? Let’s find out the answer in this article.
So, in this article, we will do an unbiased and detailed WPX Hosting Review and find out if the claim WPX made is true or false with facts.
Table of Contents
WPX Hosting Overview
You might have heard that ” Necessity is the best driver for innovation.” That’s how WPX was born.
Terry Kyle was fed up with the slow speed of his website, and the lack of security took his frustration to a different level. So, he decided to start Traffic Planet Hosting back in 2013.
In 2016, Traffic Planet Hosting was rebranded to WPX Hosting to get an edge in the business. As of 2020, Terry Kyle is the founder and Owner of WPX hosting. WPX hosting is based in Sofia, Bulgaria.
WPX Hosting Business Portfolio
Like other premium hosts, WPX offers only WordPress hosting. In one way, that’s good. When you have one product to sell, you can concentrate more on improving it and supporting it at its best.
You can also buy domains or transfer domains to WPX through their domain registration service. As of 2020, there is no dedicated server hosting or any enterprise hosting in the WPX portfolio.
WPX Hosting Features
Here are a couple of key features that WPX Hosting offers. WPX offers nothing unlimited. Because unlimited is a wrong concept and an old concept of doing business. Nothing is unlimited in this world, especially in the hosting business.
1. SSD only Cloud
You may know that SSDs are almost 4-5 times faster than traditional hard disks. WPX uses SSD as the storage medium. But nowadays, every company offers SSD hosting. What’s the big deal?
Well, WPX uses NVMe SSDs, which are almost 5 times faster than traditional SATA SSDs. That is why WPX Hosting is faster than any traditional shared hosting.
2. Lite Speed Server
Lite Speed Servers are known for speed. It is a premium web server that is much faster than Apache and NGNIX.
With WPX, all plans are powered by the LiteSpeed server. On top of that, they have their own custom-built CDN. This is a very good combination to enhance your website speed.
3. Enterprise-Grade WPX Cloud CDN ( XCDN)
WPX has developed its in-house CDN called WPX cloud CDN ( Also called XCDN) that can improve your website speed. You can choose WPX Cloud CDN or another CDN of your choice.
Currently, WPX cloud CDN has 30 endpoints as of December 2022 ( And Growing) with one endpoint in Mumbai, India as well. So, even if your target audience is in India, you don’t need to worry.
Now, the big question is, why is WPX cloud CDN so special?
The reason is that WPX cloud CDN is developed and managed by WPX itself.
They can tweak and improve the CDN the way they want. For other third-party CDNs, you need to depend on them when they fix bugs and tweak them to give optimum speed.
Please note that WPX CDN can not deliver dynamic content. If you have an e-commerce store or a news blog, WPX CDN won’t be able to help you. For that, you need a CDN that supports full-page caching.
For Full Page Caching, you can use Cloudflare CDN with Super Page Cache For Cloudflare Plugin or use Cloudflare Enterprise, offered for FREE by Rocket.net
4. Unlimited Site Migration
Usually, other web hosts only migrate 3-5 websites per account, but WPX migrates all your websites from other hosts if your plans allow sufficient space.
All you need to do is to raise a ticket with your WordPress admin details and FTP information.
They also assure that your website will be transferred within 24 hours, which is great as most other hosts take a couple of days to transfer websites.
5. Enterprise-Grade Security
Security is one of the prime concerns of every website owner. Unfortunately, most web hosts overlook this main issue.
In case of any malware attack, you lose all the hard work and effort that you spend to build your blog or website.
WPX offers daily malware scanning so that it can check and clean all known malware. In case your website is attacked by any unknown malware, that would be cleaned by the WPX team free of cost. So, you would be saving thousands of dollars on security plugins.
Apart from malware removal, they also offer advanced DDoS protection to protect your website from any virus or automated bot attacks.
6. Dedicated Staging Area
You may notice that WordPress themes and plugins get updated frequently. So, there is a high chance that your website may break due to any issue with your themes or plugins.
A dedicated staging area helps you test those changes before you make them live. WPX offers a dedicated staging area.
7. Highly intuitive easy to use Custom Dashboard
No more boring C Panel interface. WPX will present you with a highly intuitive, easy-to-use custom Dashboard.
Very smooth navigation and all the options you need for your day-to-day website management are in place. Although I still believe that the SiteGround interface is the best to date.
8. 30 Seconds Support Response Time
WPX promises that all your support issues will be addressed in 30 Seconds through live chat.
I tried their support, and surprisingly, they responded within 30 seconds. However, during peak hours, you may see some delays.
9. No Excess Renewal Charge
This is a common business tactic by web hosting companies to offer an 80-90% discount when you are a new customer.
But at the time of renewal, they charge a bomb. With WPX, you will pay the same amount even during renewal. So, no more unpleasant surprises.
10. Spam Free Email Hosting
Yes, WPX offers email hosting as well. However, I do not favor email hosting and website hosting, as your emails will eat your hosting INODE limits.
WPX uses a special spam protection mechanism with full SPF and DKIM support so that all your website emails go to the inbox and not to the spam folder.
WPX Hosting Plans And Pricing
WPX Hosting
WPX offers three hosting plans under Managed WordPress Hosting. Like other hosts, nothing is unlimited in any of the plans except the Elite plan, where the bandwidth is unlimited.
Here are the features that are common across all plans.
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSL
- Free access to WPX Cloud CDN
- Free unlimited Site Migration service
- Free malware scanning and malware removal
- Advanced DDoS protection
- Spam-free email hosting
- Dedicated staging area
- 30 days money-back guarantee
15 GB Space
200 GB Bandwidth
30 GB Space
400 GB Bandwidth
60 GB Space
Unlimited Bandwidth
WPX Business Plan
This is the basic plan that allows you to install up to 5 websites. You will get 15 GB of SSD space, and the bandwidth will be limited to 200 GB.
WPX will optimize one of your websites for Free under this plan. Additional optimization will cost you $139 per site.
WPX Professional Plan
This plan comes with 30 GB of SSD space, where you can install up to 15 websites. However, the bandwidth is limited to 400 GB.
With a little over forty dollars per month, this is a great value-for-money plan for the few medium-sized blogs
WPX Elite Plan
This is the topmost plan in the WPX portfolio. Comes with a massive 60 GB SSD space where you can install up to 35 websites. The bandwidth is unlimited in this plan.
WPX Hosting Review [ Performance And Test Results ]
I tested WPX hosting for over a month, and the results were not bad. I tested the speed with one of my test websites, which is NOT properly optimized for speed, but still got a decent speed.
1. Speed Test
We tested our test website on GTMetrix, Pingdom Tools, and Google Page Insights. On all three platforms, the result is very decent
We also tested how fast the website loads from different locations, and it seems like it takes the same amount of time to load it from different locations.
2. Uptime Test
We tested the uptime data of the test website, and it looks like there is no downtime. However, long-term data is still pending. Will update this page when I have that data.
3. Server Speed Test
We tested the website on Bitcacha to check how fast the server responds. To our surprise, the server responded quickly and got an A+ score.
4. Load Impact Test
We got a really impressive result from the load impact test. The server responded in just 11ms for around 5K traffic with 20 traffic/ second.
5. Time To First Byte ( TTFB) Test
We tested the TTFB in KeyCDN, and the TTFB data is not promising from all locations. A TTFB of less than 200 ms is considered good. Unfortunately, for WPX, it is close to half a second.
Few Negatives Of WPX Hosting
As a tradition, we never spare any web host if they have something that should have been better. Ultimately, we are here to give you unbiased and transparent information.
1. Only 3 Datacenters
Many will argue, but it’s a fact that data center location matters even with a CDN. This is 2023, and WPX still offers only 3 data centers. Come on WPX!
The harsh truth is that if your target audience is not from the countries listed above, then my advice will be to stay away from WPX, as you will never get good speed. Choose Rocket.net instead.
2. No Object Cache ( Redis or Memcached)
I am surprised! WPX does not offer object cache ( At least not advertised, so I assume they don’t). Even cheap shared hosting companies offer object cache.
I hope and wish that WPX offers an object cache soon; otherwise, it will be too late to retain existing customers.
3. No Clear Mention Of Resources And Limits
WPX does not reveal the configuration of its servers, nor does it mention the resource limits.
Don’t be surprised if you get an email suddenly saying that your hosting account is suspended as you have utilized more than 100% of your resources.
Transparency is very much important.
4. WPX CDN Does Not Support Full Page Caching
Without full-page caching, the TTFB ( Time To First Byte) will always be high. If TTFB is high, the website loading time will also be high.
WPX CDN does not cache dynamic content. It can only cache static files such as CSS, Javascript, images, etc. It can not cache dynamic HTML pages.
So, if you have an e-commerce store or a dynamic website or blog, WPX hosting may not be suitable for you.
How To Host A Blog On WPX Hosting
Hosting a website on WPX is a straightforward task. If you follow the below steps, you will be done in 10 minutes.
1. Buy A Hosting Plan
First of all, you have to choose a hosting plan. To do that, click on this link, which will take you to the WPX hosting home page.
Then, you can click on Pricing-> WordPress Hosting, which will take you to the pricing page. There, you can choose any plan that meets your requirements. Once you decide on the plan, click on ” Buy Now.“
Don’t forget to choose the billing cycle. If you go for yearly billing, you will get a discount.
2. Choose A Domain Name
WPX does not offer free domain names. So, please buy the domain name somewhere else and connect it with WPX. However, you can buy a domain name on the fly in WPX if you want.
3. Choose A Data Center
Choose the data center closest to you. Currently, there are only three options. The USA, UK, or Australia.
4. Checkout And Place Order
Once you choose the data center, the system will take you to the checkout page, where you must enter your personal and payment information.
Once done, hit the checkout button
5. Login To Dashboard
Once you log in to the dashboard, go to Services -> Select the service. Once you have selected the service, the service details will be shown. Click on Manage Service to go to the control panel area.
6. Update Nameserver
You will get all the information about your account in the control panel. Please note the nameserver and update that for your domain registrar.
7. Install A Website
Before installing a new website, click on ” Website/ SSL ” and ” Add website.”
The domain that you added while buying the service will be added automatically.
Then, click on ” Install WP,” which will install a copy of WordPress in that directory
You need to install an SSL certificate for all domains. You can install it before WordPress installation, or you can install it afterward.
8. Activate WPX Cloud CDN
Once SSL is installed, click on ” WPX Cloud ” and make sure it is turned on. If not active, then “Activate” it. It takes about an hour to copy website content and serve from the CDN for new websites.
Now, we are done with the basic steps. If you want to transfer a website, you can use the WP Vivid plugin.
However, if you are uncomfortable with it, you can always create a ticket for the WPX support team to do the transfer.
Please note that the file manager in the WPX control panel is a bit different than the traditional C panel. Here is a snapshot of the file manager.
WPX Hosting Positives And Negatives
Positives
- Lite Speed Web Server [ Best for speed and performance]
- Excellent customer support
- 30 days money-back guarantee
- 28 days data backup
- Multiple layers of security to protect your website
- Spam-free email hosting [ Ensures that emails reach inbox and not Spam]
- Free website migration [ No hassle of moving your website]
- Fully managed intuitive user control panel [ May feel pleasing to your eyes ]
- SSD Storage in all plans [ Better speed than HDD]
- User account isolation [ Ensures better safety]
- Less number of clients per server [ That ensures faster load time]
Negatives
- A bit expensive for a beginner
- WPX CDN is not that effective for dynamic websites like eCommerce stores
- Only 3 datacenters
- No object cache
- No transparency in resource allocation
Conclusion: WPX Hosting Review
Is WPX the fastest managed hosting? The answer is No. The competition is very tight, and companies like Cloudways and Rocket.net offer a better speed than WPX.
Do you recommend WPX?
Yes, of course.
But only if you want something better than traditional shared hosting and you want email hosting for free. Cloudways and Rocket.net do not offer email hosting.
You can choose WPX when you have too many websites, as the WPX elite plan is cheaper than Cloudways and Rocket.net offers.
If you want to get a good deal on WPX hosting then you should look for WPX hosting Black Friday deals where you will get exclusive offers.
WPX Hosting Review
WPX Hosting is one of the best Managed WordPress Hosting providers in 2023. They offer exclusive WordPress hosting with in-house WPX Cloud CDN, Lite Speed Server, and outstanding technical support. It is assured that your website will get an excellent speed if you choose WPX Hosting
Price: $24.99
Price Currency: USD
Operating System: Linux
Application Category: Web Hosting
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WPX Hosting Alternatives
We never review any web host without discussing the alternatives. Based on my experience and reviews, I believe Cloudways and Rocket.net services are very good and can be a good alternative.
Rocket.Net
Rocket.net is a fairly new company that was established in 2020. But they have some excellent plans that can even beat Kinsta. Like Kinsta, Rocket.net also uses the NGNIX web server, but the real trump card is the Cloudflare Enterprise Plan.
All rocket.net customers get the Cloudflare Enterprise plan for free. On top of that, you will get Sectigo Premium SSL for free, which will save you almost $700 per year.
Apart from that, Rocket.net uses an edge cloud that is much faster than the traditional cloud.
I recently reviewed Rocket.net, and the speed simply blows me away. The support of the Rocket.net team is also awesome.
The pricing is almost similar to WPX and Kinsta. Even the topmost plan for $200 is a great deal for high-traffic blogs. You can try any of the rocket.net plans by paying just $1 for the first month.
Rocket.Net Hosting 99% off
Cloudflare Enterprise
Bullet Proof Security
Cloudways
Cloudways is a cloud hosting platform where you can choose from different cloud service providers to host your blog. It is different from shared hosting because you will be allotted dedicated resources.
In Cloudways, you can choose from Digital Ocean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud as your cloud service provider. All these providers are equally good and very popular.
You can start your journey with Cloudways for as low as $10 monthly. You can host multiple blogs, and you will get ample SSD space and bandwidth.
You will also get Cloudway’s in-house developed cache plugin called Breeze. Redis cache is available on all servers, and for security, they have Malware security.
You will get a speed boost when you host your blog with Cloudways. I have been using Cloudways for a long time, and I must say that Cloudways is one of the best and most cost-effective web hosting solutions out there.
Cloudways Hosting 80% off
Vertical Scaling Possible
Excellent Pricing
FAQs | WPX Hosting Review
What Is WPX Hosting?
WPX Hosting is a premium managed WordPress hosting company offering web hosting and domain registration services.
Does WPX Offer A Free Domain?
No, however, you can buy a domain on the fly when you buy any hosting plan.
Does WPX Hosting Offer A Free CDN?
Yes, WPX Hosting has developed its own CDN called WPX CDN, which is available for free with all plans. It has 30 POPs as of December 2022
Does WPX Hosting Offer Free Email Hosting?
Yes, All plans come with free email hosting.
What Is WPX Hosting ‘Fixed For You’ Guarantee?
WPX Hosting’ Fixed For You’ Guarantee is a free service that ensures that whenever you have a technical problem, WPX will solve it for free.
How Good Is WPX Hosting?
WPX Hosting is better than traditional shared hosting with its own CDN, lite speed server, DDoS protection, and other bells and whistles. However, it is not in the Cloudways, Kinsta, or Rocket.net leagues.
