WP Engine Affiliate Program Review: Is It Worth It?

Affiliate marketing can earn you money by promoting another company’s product on your website.

For each sale you make as an affiliate partner, you will get a commission from the company.

WP Engine’s affiliate program has one of the highest commission rates in the industry.

On the surface, WP Engine affiliate program is worth it. They have monthly commission payouts, high earnings for businesses, cookie tracking, and monthly bonuses. But you have to look beyond and also assess the other features and potential issues, such as customer complaints with WP Engine itself.

In this article, we will explore what WP Engine is, how and if you should become an affiliate, along with the pros and cons, and other possible alternatives.

What Is WP Engine?

When deciding whether or not to become a WP Engine affiliate, you should be fully aware of what the service offers and be willing to recommend it to your audience.

In their own words, WP Engine is a web hosting provider for “fast, reliable, and secure WordPress sites.”

They promise speed, reliability, scalability, and security for your WordPress website.

The idea behind this managed web hosting is to make owning a website easy for everyone, even non-tech people.

They handle the security and any updates, allowing the user to focus on their site and their customers.

Web Hosting

Websites containing HTML, CSS, images, etc. need to be housed on a server in order to be viewed online.

Web hosting is a service through which a company rents or sells space on a web server. This allows your website to be made available on the internet.

Servers are computers that connect users to web pages all around the world.

Web hosting services will usually offer a choice of shared or private server use.

Depending on the size of your business, a shared server may not be enough to handle your company’s needs.

Shared web hosting – new or personal websites are often best suited to shared web hosting. In this case, it is a cheaper option, and you will be sharing the server with other businesses.
Virtual Private Servers (VPS) – VPS hosting is similar to shared hosting in that you are sharing the server with other companies. However, with this option, you are given a virtual server that is customizable.
Dedicated hosting – when there is a lot more traffic and control needed, managed to host is the next step up. By renting an entire server, a business has more control over the security and software provided.

What Does WP Engine Offer?

WP Engine is a digital platform that offers much more than just web hosting.

Given that more than 30% of all websites currently run on WordPress, it makes sense to look at their services first for your own WordPress site.

Creative Agility

Build your website fast. Their open-source technology and global network streamline and simplify the whole process.
Manage your online business with ease. WP Engine offers automated updates and easy to use administrative tools to help manage your site and grow your business.
Tailor your website to your customers. Use WordPress plugins to target your costumes based on location and individual needs.

Enterprise Performance

Partner with industry leaders to give your customers the best experience possible. Global data centers allow access to your site securely and with speed regardless of where your customer is.
Powerful WordPress solutions to keep your site running. Data protection and extensive security systems ensure your site runs smoothly every time.
Get faster access to your site. WP Engine won’t compromise site speed, even in times of high traffic.
Top security features for the little guy. Even smaller businesses have access to the same top-level of security features, including threat detection and traffic encryption.

Actionable Intelligence

Development analytics to improve performance. Look closer to see what works and what needs to be changed.
Code visibility for developers. Make things easier for your developer to find issues and fix problems faster.

Ecosystem Integration

Easily integrate your WordPress websites. Spend less time on the back end and focus on your business.
Curate your experience for better results. Use any of the thousands of plugins to help improve your results.

How Much Is WP Engine?

WordPress is an established industry leader, and their platform is extensive and well run.

However, because of this, it is also one of the most expensive options out there.

	Cost When Paying Monthly	Cost When Paying Annually
Start Up-Plan	$30/per month	$25/per month
Growth Plan	$115/per month	$95.83/per month
Scale Plan	$290/per month	$241.67/per month

For a new business or blog, the starter plan is more than sufficient and will give you access to their platform and almost all of the benefits.

Though you wouldn’t have access to the 24-hour support, as a smaller site, the features provided should be more than enough.

WP Engine offers a lot in their digital platform, and it’s not a surprise that it is a market leader.

If you are using WP Engine and are happy with their service, it would make sense to become an affiliate. But what does that entail?

WP Engine Affiliate Program

The affiliate marketing industry is growing at such a rate that some publishers are making more than $50,000 a year just by promoting products on their websites.

Akin to a referral service, you can make passive income from your blog or website simply by providing links to products or services to your audience.

If they make a purchase, you get a commission.

Research has shown that 65% of merchants make 5-20% of their total income through affiliate marketing, with more than $5 billion spent worldwide.

The Pros of the WP Engine Affiliate Program

WP Engine has a lot of pros, and the same can be said for their affiliate program.

High commissions – if one of your users purchases a WP Engine plan, you will receive $200 (or the equivalent of the first month’s amount – whichever is higher). Business referrals will earn you $249 a month, plus StudioPress purchases will earn a 35% commission. These are some of the highest commission rates in the industry.
Monthly payouts – once your referrals have passed the 62-day refund window, you will begin to receive your commissions monthly.
Tracked referrals – WP Engine uses tracking cookies to follow link clicks to make sure you get your commissions.
180-day cookie duration – unlike some other companies that only track cookies for 30 days, WP Engine will track link clicks for 180 days, extending the windows for potential referral purchases.
Sub-affiliates – this two-tier affiliate program allows you to earn commissions from users to whom you referred the affiliate program. For every user they refer, you get $50 commission.
Sales bonuses – the more referrals you send in a month, the more you can make in potential bonuses. For example, by sending just 5 in a month, you will earn an added $100 in bonuses, and more than 25 referrals will earn an additional $625.
Banners and co-branded landing pages – WP Engine offers a number of links and banner ads for you to include on your website. In addition, you can request a landing page to be provided featuring co-branding logos and information.
Established branding – regardless of the size of your audience, you can rely on people knowing the WordPress brand. Chances are they have their own WordPress site, so encouraging the move to WP Engine should not be too difficult. They are well established and highly regarded in the industry.

The Cons of the WP Engine Affiliate Program

Of course, no service is perfect. The following are some of the drawbacks of the WP Engine affiliate program.

Only for WordPress – as the name would suggest, this service is only available to WordPress users. Although a high number of websites are currently running on WordPress, this still limits your audience.
Most expensive web hosting – WP Engine is by far one of the most expensive web hosting services out there today. Although their features are impressive, for new businesses and smaller blogs, that high price tag might be a turn-off.
Limited plan options – with only three plans to choose from, a small business owner needing more than a single site will have to pay almost four times as much for the next plan.
No commissions on further purchases or upgrades – even though the commission rates are quite generous, you are not given any commissions on further purchases by your referrals, such as upgrades to their services.
Have to wait 62 days (refund window) – although the payouts for commissions are monthly, you will not receive anything until the refund window has expired. When someone uses your link to purchase WP Engine, they are given a 60-day refund window, and you can only get your commission once that time has passed.

Check Out A Complete List Of My Favorite Affiliate Programs

Should You Become an Affiliate?

The WP Engine affiliate program has a lot to offer partners and their customers/audience. But is it right for you?

A Higher Commissions Means a Higher Cost to Your Audience

The high commission rates are very hard to ignore in this case. Although some other companies offer similarly higher rates, many offer less than $100 per referral.

However, they can offer these rates because they are charging more for their service.

As the face of your website, you should take into account your audience and whether or not they can afford to buy the service.

If you are producing content for small blogs or businesses, you may not find too many referrals. Whereas a blog targeting larger companies would likely see more link clicks.

You Will Be Promoting an Established and Trusted Brand

WordPress has established itself as a market leader, and WP Engine is a well-reviewed platform with a recognizable brand.

Unlike some smaller web hosting services, chances are your audiences will have heard of them,

Are You Willing to Put in the Effort?

Unlike with physical products, promoting a service like WP Engine can be a little more involved.

This is a substantial investment you are asking your readers to look at, so providing them with your honest opinion is vital. They need to know you actually use the service and like it.

This can include blog posts and updates with newer features, along with reviews and keeping your eye out for ways to promote the service organically.

How to Sign Up for the WP Engine Affiliate Program

The good news is that the WP Engine Affiliate Program is easy to sign up to.

Fill out the form with the relevant information for your website or blog.
Follow the directions to ShareASale and create your account.
Wait for approval from WP Engine.
Start promoting with your affiliate link.

The program is managed by Share A Sale, a third-party company responsible for tracking and paying out commissions from affiliate marketing.

As a world leader, they provide end-to-end services, data testing, and a clear analysis of your business.

Top Tips

In order to get the most out of your partnership, you need to work at creating relevant content for your audience, along with honest recommendations for the service.

Find Pain Points

Rather than trying to sell to your audience, look for pain points or problems that you can help to solve with the recommendation.

Read comments, send out surveys, check in with social media, and look through other sites and reviews.

By establishing your audience’s problem, you can more accurately tailor your recommendations.

For example, if a blogger has been using WordPress for a few years and is seeing their traffic grow, a problem may be a lack of speed on their older website to accommodate a higher level of traffic.

With that in mind, you can recommend WP Engine as a way to not only dramatically increase the speed of their website, but also to help with management and updates more easily.

Write Relevant Blog Posts

Writing a blog post with a thorough review of WP Engine will not only help to inform your audience of the service but will show them that you are actively using the service and are knowledgeable, rather than simply looking for a commission.

Since this would not be a small investment, be honest with your audience. Talk about all the ways WP Engine has helped, but also mention how it could improve.

Provide Updates

If WP Engine makes a big announcement, or releases a brand new feature, write about it.

Keep your audience up to date with what’s happening.

Relevant information will look better for traffic coming to your site along with helping in google searches.

Use Call-to-Action Buttons

In some cases, having CTA’s big and bold is more inviting for consumers. Provided you are being upfront about your affiliation, having promotional links can often be more inviting than links within the text.

Get Creative

You don’t just have to promote WP Engine in a WordPress specific blog post. If you have a blog, there are other ways you can subtly add links.

If it comes in organically as a problem-solving solution, place a link in the text.

Similarly, read your comments. Chances are someone has expressed a problem and is looking for a solution.

If you can provide them with a link to a service you personally recommend, they will more than likely check it out.

What Are the Rules for WP Engine?

There are a few things to keep in mind when looking at promoting your affiliate link:

Affiliate links can only be placed on a domain that you own. When looking to promote via Facebook or YouTube, for example, you will need to provide a landing page onto which your audience will be directed. You can then place your banners and affiliate links on that landing page.
Per their website, “direct linking is expressly forbidden.” If you are found to be using this practice, you will no longer be an affiliate partner, and any pending commissions will be voided.

What Are Alternatives to WP Engine?

There are a number of alternatives available for WordPress web hosting services. Depending on the level of service you need, some start as low as $2.95/per month.

Bluehost – Where WP Engine is only available to WordPress users, Bluehost is available to a wider variety of customers. They provide shared and virtual private servers, as well as dedicated hosting, and are recommended by WordPress themselves. For new businesses and blogs, they have ample features available for a much cheaper price.
Kinsta – Kinsta is on a similar price point to WP Engine, though it is slightly cheaper. Overall, the speed and service provided are very close. However, due to their slightly lower price and a couple of extra features, Kinsta is often considered to be a better option. Also, unlike the flat fee from WP Engine, Kinsta offers commissions from $50-$500 depending on the plan purchased through the link.

Learn How To Make A Full-Time Income With Affiliate Marketing, Using Nothing But Your Social Media Profile!

Conclusion

WP Engine is a fantastic platform that provides support, security, ease of use, and scalability. As an affiliate, you would do well to promote such a well-established service that you and your customers can have faith in.

However, WP Engine is not for every budget level. As the owner of your site or blog, it is up to you to decide if you think your audience can afford the service. If not, you will likely not see too many clicks.

For more budget-friendly options, such as Bluehost – which starts at just $2.95/per month – you can still earn a decent amount of commissions, and it might be more attainable to your audience.