Can I use my current hosting account instead of WPEngine for my WordPress site?
You aren't required to use WPEngine in our course, but we strongly recommend using a managed WordPress host. There are many things to consider when choosing a hosting provider, including the time savings and support for you as the developer as you begin to work with clients.
We love WPEngine* because it is a very feature-rich environment with great support, security, and speed. And WPEngine has a number of features we'll utilize in our course. In Skillcrush 203 (WordPress Best Practices), you'll learn a way to launch and update your WordPress sites with Git. Though not a necessity, Git to deploy is AWESOME! But a lot of hosting companies don’t have native support for it. WPEngine is one of the few who do!
Another reason we picked WPEngine is that they allow you to have both a staging state AND a production environment for your site. This makes it easy to test changes in a live (but staged and hidden) environment before pushing them into public view. 😀 There are ways to set this up on other hosts who don't offer a staging state, but it’s much harder.
WPEngine also offers transferable installs. These installs are password protected but they come with all the bells and whistles of a "regular" install (including git deploy and a staging site) and, best of all, they are free and you can have as many as you like. You can use them for class projects, to test something out, or to build a site for a client.
You can direct any domain to WPEngine. So if you have registered a domain that you love, you can always point it to WPEngine's servers.
Important: WPEngine only hosts WordPress sites, so if you have a static (HTML & CSS) site you'd like to display, you'll need to use another hosting company ( learn more about that here) for your static site or host it for free on GitHub.
*Disclosure: Skillcrush receives a small amount of compensation from anyone who uses the link here or in the lesson to purchase WPEngine hosting. However, we recommend WPEngine because it’s what we personally use and enjoy! You’re welcome to choose another hosting provider.
If this is your first time setting up a WPEngine* account, you'll likely want to purchase the Startup package. And you’re in luck! There are two great ways you can get a discount: you can get 10% off your first payment with the coupon wpe3free(so you get the biggest discount buying an annual plan) or you can try the coupon artofblog to get $25 off each of your first 3 payments (so you get the biggest discount buying a monthly plan). :)