I signed up for WP Engine yesterday and spent time today migrating this domain, www.sridharkatakam.com from HostGator to WP Engine. Migration process is pretty straight forward and relatively well documented. To put in a nut shell: Export and import database, transfer custom content in wp-content directory over, edit hosts file so domain name points to the IP and update DNS (A record).
After doing the above steps when I visited the site it was showing WP install screen. Came to know from this article that table names should not have a prefix before wp_. I edited the exported sql file using Sublime Text 2 to remove the pre-prefix that was present and imported that. Then everything went well.
Personal WP Engine accounts do not have in-built maxCDN, a commercial Content Delivery Network. I have a starter account with MaxCDN that was not being utilized. Initiated live chat with MaxCDN support and the rep logged into my accounts (WordPress, NameCheap) per my request and did the needful by creating a pull zone in MaxCDN, adding CNAME records in NameCheap followed by installing W3 Total Cache and configuring CDN in it.
Before installing W3TC, I created a Backup Point by a single click which took all of 6 seconds to complete. And I can just easily restore to this backup point again by a single click. I am already feeling the zippiness in page loading. Now that this site’s speed and security are in safe hands, I can just concentrate on publishing the content.
If you have been thinking about switching to a fast and secure managed WordPress hosting for your main/business/money-site, there is literally no better time than today (the coupon code expires today) to utilize the massive $250 discount.
Click on the button below and sign up for a plan. I chose the PERSONAL one.
[symple_callout button_text=”Go to WP Engine” button_color=”blue” button_url=”http://www.sridharkatakam.com/go/wp-engine/” button_rel=”nofollow”]Use coupon code: WCSF13
Ends Monday (29th July).[/symple_callout]
Update:
Apparently W3 Total Cache is in the list of not-allowed plugins and hence I deactivated it. Here is the reply from WP Engine regarding this:
These types of plugins do not work with WP Engine and they are not necessary either. In all actuality, it will slow your site down if we allowed users to use this plugin on our platform. The reason being is because we cache at the server level. This would be a redundant and unnecessary process to allow such plugins. Here is a link to what plugins we do not allow.
http://support.wpengine.com/disallowed-plugins/
I have tried WP Engine, Web synthesis and finally settled with Nodeki now. Nodeki comes with the traditional cPanels and is more affordable to host multiple sites with huge traffic too. Their support is great.
Thanks Ravi.
I have pre-paid for 3 years at HostGator and find them quite fine for the “not-so-mission-critical” websites that I host. I may consider Nodeki when my HostGator plan expires.