In our previous speed comparison of GoDaddy WordPress hosting vs. WP Engine’s hosting, WP Engine showed faster page load times. Let’s expand upon that test by adding the built-in WP Engine CDN (powered by NetDNA), and see how much of an improvement we get on page load times.
Enable WP Engine’s CDN
It’s super-easy to enable WP Engine’s CDN right from their hosting control panel.
Note: A CDN is included on WP Engine’s Professional plan (and higher), but costs an extra $19.95/mo. on their Personal plan. See which plan is best for you »
WP Engine Page Speed: Pre- and Post-CDN
We’ll test two different pages, each from two different server locations (New York & Texas). The results are below.
WP Engine Page Speed Without CDN
| Page / Server Location | Requests | Load Time | Full Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homepage (New York) | 84 | 2.94s | View |
| Homepage (Texas) | 84 | 2.02s | View |
| Homepage Average | 2.48s | ||
| Article Page (New York) | 89 | 1.97s | View |
| Article Page (Texas) | 89 | 1.69s | View |
| Article Page Average | 1.83s |
WP Engine Page Speed With CDN
| Page / Server Location | Requests | Load Time | Full Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homepage (New York) | 84 | 2.64s | View |
| Homepage (Texas) | 84 | 1.68s | View |
| Homepage Average | 2.16s | ||
| Article Page (New York) | 89 | 1.73s | View |
| Article Page (Texas) | 89 | 1.39s | View |
| Article Page Average | 1.56s |
WP Engine CDN: Is it worth it?
The short answer: yes. It’s up to you whether you can warrant the additional cost, but if you’re already on a Professional plan, it’s definitely worth enabling it.
For each page tested, we saw ~0.3s decrease in page load time. That might seem like a small number, but the difference between 1.7 and 2 seconds in today’s mobile world is fairly significant.
We also tested Jetpack’s Photon service to see what kind of improvements we got with their image CDN.
Did you have a similar experience with WP Engine’s CDN on your site? Please let us know in the comments.
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