WP Engine

Crafted With Code is back with another batch of Webby-worthy projects! The second phase of this year’s showcase, Code that Scales, spotlights Webby-recognized experiences built to evolve—whether digitally, creatively, or strategically.

Now in its sixth year, Crafted With Code is a collaborative showcase created by WP Engine and the Webby Awards. It celebrates the innovation, craftsmanship, and collaboration behind some of the internet’s most extraordinary sites—all built on WordPress^®[1].

This year, 30% of all Webby-recognized projects in the Websites & Mobile Sites category were built on WordPress, and 43% of those WordPress sites were powered by WP Engine, demonstrating how WordPress and WP Engine are empowering builders to scale bold ideas into world-class digital experiences.

Read on to discover how these Code that Scales projects are pushing boundaries of design, performance, and storytelling.

Code that Scales: Building for Growth

Code that Scales celebrates the sites and creators building future-ready digital architecture through flexible, scalable sites crafted to perform beautifully as audiences, technologies, and ambitions grow.

“Scalability is about more than just traffic or speed—it’s about creating future-proof digital foundations that adapt as a company’s vision and their customers’ demands evolve,” said Regina Yuan, WP Engine Director of Brand.

“These projects show how designers and developers combine creativity with technical sophistication to build sites that will evolve alongside each of the brands they serve.”

The following Code that Scales participants—each powered by WP Engine’s platform—represent just a few of 2025’s Webby-recognized experiences built to grow, adapt, and endure over time.

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Webby Winner | Food & Drink

Flavorful design peppered with personality

Gelato La Boca is bringing authentic Argentinian gelato to Dallas. The team at Matchbox Studio developed a component-based design system blending rich interactivity with performance-driven efficiency to bring their bold vision to life online.

The site captures the vibrant colors and textures of La Boca, the iconic neighborhood in Buenos Aires from which the company took its name, using 3D elements, subtle motion, and immersive visuals to express the brand’s equally vibrant identity.

Every interaction feels intentional, inviting visitors to explore flavors and connect with the brand’s story. Behind the scenes, the scalable foundation of the site ensures that Gelato La Boca’s digital presence can grow right along with it.

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Webby People’s Voice Winner | Travel & Lifestyle

Scalable storytelling meets spirited design

The world’s best bourbon experiences come from Kentucky, and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail^® website makes finding them easy. Built by Lewis, the site connects visitors to Kentucky’s legendary distilleries, tourist destinations, and hospitality through an immersive, scalable design.

As bourbon tourism continues to boom, the site was designed for growth and flexibility, using a modular content system and a future-ready architecture that streamlines the onboarding process for new partners and distilleries. 

Lewis created a digital experience that mirrors the human journey of finding great bourbon, inviting users to explore, sip, and savor every stop along the way. Kentucky Bourbon Trail’s new, scalable travel hub can now evolve alongside the bourbon industry it celebrates, delivering craftsmanship and storytelling worthy of America’s native spirit.

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Webby Nominee | Architecture, Art & Design

Architectural excellence meets cinematic interactivity

For nearly six decades, Olson Kundig has been designing architecture defined by true artistry. Their new website, crafted by the team at Civilization, invites visitors behind the curtain of one of the world’s most respected architectural design firms.

Built as a cinematic digital experience, the new site mirrors the firm’s ethos of experimentation and transparency. A dynamic, personalized timeline traces the evolution of Olson Kundig’s work from its origins in Seattle through its modern projects across six continents.

The Play section reimagines content discovery as a streaming-style experience where visitors can easily browse videos, interviews, and podcasts. The new site will continue to scale alongside the firm’s legacy while elevating how design storytelling is shared online, balancing beauty, functionality, and depth in perfect proportion.

Scale your success on WP Engine

Want to hear more about how these scalable, standout experiences were created?

Head to the Crafted With Code YouTube playlist to watch exclusive behind-the-scenes videos, or visit the Crafted With Code site to explore all the Webby-recognized projects in the showcase.

If you’re ready to build future-proof sites that scale with your business, learn how WP Engine’s platform is ready to help you scale for success in this recent webinar!

Advanced Custom Fields 6.6 is here, bringing a powerful new way to build and edit custom blocks

Building custom blocks with Advanced Custom Fields has always been about giving developers powerful tools while keeping the content editing experience simple and intuitive. With the just-released Advanced Custom Fields version 6.6, that promise gets even better.

The headline feature is ACF Blocks V3—a powerful evolution of how developers build custom blocks and how content teams use them. This isn’t just an incremental update; it’s a foundation for the next generation of ACF block development that benefits everyone involved in creating and managing WordPress sites.

Why ACF Blocks V3 matters

For years, editing an ACF block meant the preview would disappear, replaced by an inline form. You’d make your changes without seeing how they fit into the page around them. It worked, but it wasn’t ideal—especially as blocks became more complex with nested fields, repeaters, and galleries.

ACF Blocks V3 for ACF PRO solves this. Block fields now open in a spacious sidebar panel while the block preview stays visible in the editor. Content editors can see their changes in context, and they have room to work with even the most sophisticated field configurations.

For agencies and development teams, this means happier clients who find the editing experience more intuitive. For content teams, it means less guesswork and more confidence that what they’re building will look right on the page.

Built for how WordPress works today (and tomorrow)

ACF Blocks V3 establishes the technical groundwork for upcoming features like inline editing—where you’ll be able to edit block content directly in the preview itself. This is the kind of modern, polished editing experience that makes WordPress sites a joy to manage.

The new architecture takes full advantage of WordPress’s modern block rendering system, ensuring your blocks work reliably across different themes and editing contexts. As WordPress continues to evolve, ACF Blocks V3 positions your custom blocks to adapt seamlessly.

Upgrade on your timeline

We know change can be disruptive, especially when you’ve built dozens of custom blocks that clients depend on daily. That’s why ACF Blocks V3 is completely opt-in at the block level.

Your existing blocks will continue working exactly as they do now. There’s no rush, no breaking changes, no emergency updates required. You can upgrade blocks strategically—maybe starting with new projects or blocks that would benefit most from the expanded sidebar space—and roll out the new experience at a pace that works for your team and your clients.

That said, we encourage developers to start planning their migration to V3. WordPress core is moving toward requiring iframe-based blocks in future versions, and V3 ensures your blocks will be ready. More importantly, upgrading unlocks access to the modern editing features and upcoming inline editing capabilities that will define the next generation of WordPress content management.

More enhancements to streamline your workflow

Beyond the blocks revolution, ACF 6.6 delivers two other key updates that improve the usability of ACF for both developers and content teams. 

Clearer field groups with display titles

Have you ever created a field group with a name that made sense to you but confused your clients? ACF 6.6 now lets you set separate display titles for field groups. This new title is what your content authors will see when they’re editing a post or page, providing a more user-friendly label without changing the underlying field group name you use for development. No more field groups named “Homepage_Hero_Settings_v2” confusing your clients—they’ll see “Homepage Banner” instead.

Custom color palettes for a consistent brand

The Color Picker field now offers more flexibility and control. You can define a custom color palette using a comma-separated list of hex codes, ensuring that content authors only use brand-approved colors. You can also disable the color wheel entirely, restricting users to only the colors in your palette.

These updates streamline workflows by saving training time, reducing confusion, and improving alignment.

Why this matters for modern WordPress development

At WP Engine, we see thousands of sites built with ACF—from traditional WordPress installations to cutting-edge headless applications on our Headless WordPress platform. What stands out is how ACF has become foundational to building sophisticated, content-rich WordPress experiences.

ACF 6.6 reinforces that position. It shows a commitment to evolving alongside WordPress itself, ensuring that the tools you rely on today will be even more powerful tomorrow. Whether you’re building client sites, managing enterprise content operations, or pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with WordPress, ACF continues to be the reliable foundation you can build on.

Get started with ACF 6.6

To begin using ACF Blocks V3, you’ll add “blockVersion”: 3 to the “acf” object in your block’s block.json file. The full release notes provide complete technical details and migration guidance.

Note that ACF 6.6 requires WordPress 6.2 or higher, which was necessary to support the modern capabilities that power these new features.

Connect with the ACF community

Want to dive deeper into what’s possible with ACF and connect with developers who are building incredible WordPress experiences? Join our Builders community for events, resources, and conversations with fellow WordPress professionals who are as passionate about great development as you are.

ACF 6.6 represents an exciting step forward—one that makes building with WordPress more powerful, more enjoyable, and more aligned with where the platform is headed. We can’t wait to see what you build with it.

WP Engine’s success is driven by a combination of deep technical expertise and an unwavering dedication to our customers. 

Whether they are a product expert gaining a better understanding of our customers’ needs, an engineer building the tools and platform enhancements that will help customers grow exceptional digital experiences, or support specialists troubleshooting a site issue, each member of WP Engine’s global team plays a vital role.

In this edition of Meet the Experts, we’re excited to introduce WP Engine Senior Product Manager Luke Patterson. Based in Houston, Texas, Luke has been with WP Engine for more than seven years, helping shape the company’s approach to customer-inspired innovation and the responsible use of artificial intelligence.

Say hello to Luke!

Luke is an avid reader, Houstonite, and senior member of our Product team who’s leading AI innovation across our platform and products. His role is about understanding the needs of our customers and finding new ways to build tools that connect the dots between those human needs and technical innovation. In fact, it was a human connection that led Luke to WP Engine in the first place.

“A former colleague had just been hired at WP Engine and couldn’t stop talking about the culture,” he recalls. 

“She said it was a place full of brilliant people who trusted each other and were working toward a customer-focused mission. She kept saying, ‘The people are so amazing, I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop!’ For me, it never did.”

Seven years later, Luke still finds that the best part of WP Engine is, indeed, the people behind the scenes. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever been at a company with such a high concentration of wonderful humans,” he says. 

“The low barriers to collaboration and how easily you can reach across departments make WP Engine such a great place to work.”

Outside of work, Luke is a writer and poet who recently finished a collection based on his time as an EMT in Houston, which he called, “another career from what feels like a million years ago.”

When he’s not writing, he’s likely exploring Houston’s vibrant food scene, which he calls “the most underrated in America.”

Luke’s career journey

Luke’s professional path is a testament to following curiosity and building expertise through experience. As Senior Product Manager for WP Engine’s AI Product Line, Luke leads efforts to integrate AI across the company’s platform in ways that align with customer goals.

“My job is to take a Customer-Inspired approach to how we build AI into our product offerings,” Luke explains. 

“First and foremost, it’s about understanding what our customers need and how we can help them succeed online. Only after that do we ask, ‘How can AI help us do that better?’”

He credits his success to empathy—a trait he considers the most important skill for anyone responsible for managing updates to digital products. 

“You build these products for people, not for yourself. Understanding their needs, hopes, dreams, and experiences is the most important part of the job,” Luke says. 

Luke’s love of learning (and reading!) has also been key to his growth as a product leader. Early in his career, he was deeply influenced the book Inspired by Marty Cagan—a book his current VP of Product, Keith Fafel, brought to the office years before Luke joined his team. 

“That book hooked me on product management,” Luke says. 

“One of the ideas that’s always stuck with me is that if you’re not up for talking with customers literally every day, being a product manager isn’t for you.”

Navigating the rapidly changing AI landscape comes with challenges, but Luke stays grounded by focusing on what matters most: the customer. 

“It’s impossible to keep track of every new development in AI, but you don’t have to,” he says.

“If you’ve interviewed 100 customers in the last 100 days, you’ll know exactly what to do next.”

Words of wisdom: Find inspiration in real relationships

When it comes to career advice, Luke’s philosophy is simple but powerful: relationships are everything.

“It really is a small world, so how you treat people matters,” he says. 

“That includes your colleagues, your customers, and your bosses. The more trust you can build with people along the way, the more dividends you’ll see as you grow.”

Luke is also a big believer in learning by doing. 

“When you’re immersed in solving problems for customers, you’re learning every day,” he says. 

“I’ve learned that curiosity, experimentation, and even failure are what build real expertise. Try things, fail a lot, dust yourself off, and keep going.”

Among the many lessons he’s absorbed from mentors over the years, one remains the most relevant reminder for him as a product manager: “That’s a great idea—how many customers have you talked to about it?”

Powered by people

For Luke, WP Engine’s people and culture are what make the company truly exceptional. 

“Every day I get to work alongside talented, thoughtful, and collaborative people who genuinely care about helping our customers succeed,” he says. 

Interested in joining Luke and the rest of the global team that’s powering confidence online? Explore WP Engine’s current openings and find out how you can grow your career with us.

For eCommerce businesses, site speed, checkout simplicity, and stability during high-traffic periods aren’t just nice-to-haves—they’re make-or-break factors that directly impact revenue. 

Unfortunately, all the extra time you spend optimizing and maintaining your digital storefront results in less time for other critical aspects of running a business.

That’s why WP Engine has reimagined an eCommerce solution for managed hosting with the launch of our eCommerce Performance Pack.

Built for empowering eCommerce growth in WooCommerce^Ⓡ[1] and beyond, this add-on delivers automation, performance, and intelligent tools designed to help you sell more while spending less time managing your site.

What is the eCommerce Performance Pack?

The new eCommerce Performance Pack is a complete repackaging of our eCommerce offering, moving eCommerce functionality from the account-level to a site-level add-on, so you get exactly what you need, no more, no less. 

This shift provides the flexibility for our customers to purchase a pre-packaged suite of eCommerce-specific tools for any single site, at any time, on any managed hosting plan.

eCommerce Performance Pack includes a number of powerful WP Engine tools that eCommerce store owners already know and love, including:

This suite of features delivers intelligent automation, freeing you from tedious, manual work to provide a streamlined experience that accelerates store performance, simplifies your workflow, and ultimately helps you drive more sales. 

What does eCommerce Performance Pack do for WP Engine customers?

It’s common knowledge that when sites take too long to load, or when they load incorrectly, customers will quickly abandon their carts. Fixing these issues can mean the difference between making a bad first impression and making a sale.

eCommerce Performance Pack directly addresses a few major challenges for businesses using the WooCommerce plugin, like performance slowdowns, plugin conflicts, and a lack of built-in automation. 

The suite enables seamless eCommerce optimization by providing a few key benefits, including:

Accelerated speed and performance

Store owners on WP Engine can effortlessly optimize site speed and reduce load times with the tools and features included in the eCommerce Performance Pack. 

Dynamic Plugin Loading reduces page size by more than 30% on average, and EverCache for Woo can serve 90% more pages up to two times faster than standard WooCommerce setups. 

Meanwhile, Page Speed Boost, powered by NitroPack, delivers an average 30% increase in desktop performance scores and 128% increase for mobile. When combined, these tools supercharge speed and performance with a single click.

Streamlined operations

Automate manual tasks like plugin updates and site monitoring to save yourself time and reduce friction. 

Smart Plugin Manager conducts an 18-point visual regression test that helps keep your site up-to-date, but we heard feedback from eCommerce customers who were hesitant to use the tool due to downtime potential. With the introduction of eCommerce Performance Pack, we enhanced Smart Plugin Manager, so store owners can now run the visual regression test on a staging site first to ensure they can fix any issues before pushing to the live environment.

Plus, our Site Monitoring tool will monitor all sites with eCommerce Performance Pack enabled to confirm that your products are always accessible to your customers.

Searchability, security, and simple checkout

Through Smart Search AI with AI-Powered Recommendations, eCommerce Performance Pack enables more intelligent search and product recommendations to help customers find the products they want—and ones they didn’t know they wanted—with ease. 

Specialized payment options, like the Stripe Connect and Stripe Checkout integrations, can also simplify checkout for customers to create a secure, seamless experience from first click to final payment.

By combining many of the existing WP Engine tools and features that boost eCommerce site performance, streamline maintenance, and simplify the shopping experience, eCommerce Performance Pack helps ensure your online store remains fast and stable, even during high-traffic events like flash sales or holiday shopping.

What does this change mean for my eCommerce store?

Existing customers on WP Engine’s legacy eCommerce hosting plans will not experience any disruptions to service and will remain on their current plans.

Existing customers on any other plan across WP Engine’s Managed Hosting Platform can purchase the eCommerce Performance Pack directly from the User Portal.

If you’re an existing WP Engine customer using WooCommerce for one or more of your sites and you would like to purchase eCommerce Performance Pack:

• Head to the Products section in the User Portal.
• Search for and purchase “eCommerce Performance Pack.”
• Click “Add site.”
• Select the site you wish to apply the license to.
• Click “Activate” and now your license is applied!

For new customers interested in purchasing eCommerce Performance Pack, please reach out to our team; we’d be happy to assist you! 

Stay open for business with our eCommerce Performance Pack!

With the new eCommerce Performance Pack, we’ve created a solution that’s more than just hosting; it’s a comprehensive approach to eCommerce success. 

By helping you optimize your online store, eCommerce Performance Pack empowers you to focus on what you do best: growing your business with confidence. 

If you have questions about this new offering, talk to your account manager or check out the eCommerce Performance Pack page. If you’re a WooCommerce store owner looking to supercharge your site and sales with this new suite of tools, reach out to our team to learn more!

^{1WP Engine is a proud member and supporter of the community of WordPress® users. The WordPress® trademarks are the intellectual property of the WordPress Foundation, and the Woo® and WooCommerce® trademarks are the intellectual property of WooCommerce, Inc. Uses of the WordPress®, Woo®, and WooCommerce® names in this website are for identification purposes only and do not imply an endorsement by WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc. WP Engine is not endorsed or owned by, or affiliated with, the WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc.}

Imagine building a custom AI assistant for your brand that never gives an outdated answer, because it’s hooked into your content and documentation in real time. No more referencing a three-year-old blog post or a discontinued product line. The Smart Search AI MCP Server is a powerful new feature in WP Engine’s AI Toolkit that transforms your WordPress site into a dynamic, real-time knowledge base for any external Large Language Model (LLM) you connect to it.

One of the biggest challenges facing developers and agencies building with generative AI is the “stale data” wall. Models like ChatGPT and Claude are powerful, but their knowledge is limited to the static, historical data on which they were trained. They can’t, by themselves, know the details of your latest product launch or the content of your most recent company update.

Setting the architectural standard

This launch is about defining the architecture of tomorrow’s web experiences. Embracing the Model Context Protocol (MCP) ensures WP Engine remains at the forefront of AI innovation, setting a new standard for how LLMs interact with WordPress data.

Ramadass Prabhakar, WP Engine’s Chief Technical Officer, emphasizes the strategic importance of this architectural commitment. “At WP Engine, our mission is to constantly evolve the platform to meet the future of the web,” he says. “The introduction of the Smart Search AI MCP is a pivotal step in that journey. By embracing the Model Context Protocol, we are providing the essential architectural layer that ensures our customers can put content to work for them and build the next generation of scalable, data-accurate, and high-performance AI experiences directly on WordPress. This is how we power the freedom to create in the age of generative AI.”

The intelligent bridge to real-time data

Smart Search AI MCP is an advanced API layer that solves the stale data problem directly. It uses MCP, a universal language that allows external AI agents to communicate with your website’s most current information.

As Senior Product Manager Luke Patterson notes, Smart Search AI MCP eliminates one of the most painful limitations developers have faced in this area. “The biggest hurdle for developers building custom AI tools is outdated data. Large language models are powerful, but they are limited by the static information they were trained on, or what they’re able to scrape from the web” he says. “The Smart Search AI MCP server solves this directly. It acts as an intelligent bridge, allowing AI agents like ChatGPT or Claude to query your site’s live, in-real-time accurate content via our Semantic Search and Vector Database. This fundamentally shifts your website from a static display to a dynamic, real-time knowledge base for any AI application you choose to build.”

How Smart Search AI MCP works

Smart Search AI MCP is a special component that runs as part of WP Engine’s existing Smart Search service. When enabled (it is disabled by default and requires user opt-in for security), it exposes your site’s content as callable “tools” for any connected LLM.

The process is fast and precise:

1. The Query: A user interacts with an external AI application—perhaps a custom customer support chatbot built using a model like Claude.
2. The Tool Check: The AI model recognizes it needs current, specialized information. It then recognizes it has access to a new “tool” via the MCP, which is your website’s search function.
3. The Real-Time Search: The AI model sends a standardized search or fetch request to your unique MCP server address.
4. The Response: The MCP server receives the request, uses the speed and accuracy of our integrated Semantic Search and Vector Database to find the absolute most relevant and recent content on your site, and sends that fresh data back to the LLM.
5. The Accurate Answer: The LLM uses this real-time, accurate content to formulate a relevant, up-to-date answer for the user.

For highly technical customers and agencies, this feature is essential for building mission-critical AI applications, such as internal business intelligence tools, bespoke custom AI assistants, or vertical-specific chatbots that rely on a high-performance, scalable solution.

Join the AI journey

Our commitment is to innovate responsibly, which is why we are launching this in a managed, Closed Alpha. We invite our technical customers and agency partners to help us explore its capabilities in a secure environment. For this initial phase, the AI is designed to work exclusively with public, published data from our search index, ensuring a safe and productive foundation for your testing. It is not currently available for general use.

If you are excited about the potential of real-time, data-grounded AI and want to be among the first to experience the Smart Search AI MCP, please contact your account manager to learn more.

Imagine building a custom AI assistant for your brand that never gives an outdated answer, because it’s hooked into your content and documentation in real time. No more referencing a three-year-old blog post or a discontinued product line. The Smart Search AI MCP Server is a powerful new feature in WP Engine’s AI Toolkit that transforms your WordPress^Ⓡ[1] site into a dynamic, real-time knowledge base for any external Large Language Model (LLM) you connect to it.

One of the biggest challenges facing developers and agencies building with generative AI is the “stale data” wall. Models like ChatGPT and Claude are powerful, but their knowledge is limited to the static, historical data on which they were trained. They can’t, by themselves, know the details of your latest product launch or the content of your most recent company update.

Setting the architectural standard

This launch is about defining the architecture of tomorrow’s web experiences. Embracing the Model Context Protocol (MCP) ensures WP Engine remains at the forefront of AI innovation, setting a new standard for how LLMs interact with WordPress data.

Ramadass Prabhakar, WP Engine’s Chief Technical Officer, emphasizes the strategic importance of this architectural commitment. “At WP Engine, our mission is to constantly evolve the platform to meet the future of the web,” he says. “The introduction of the Smart Search AI MCP is a pivotal step in that journey. By embracing the Model Context Protocol, we are providing the essential architectural layer that ensures our customers can put content to work for them and build the next generation of scalable, data-accurate, and high-performance AI experiences directly on WordPress. This is how we power the freedom to create in the age of generative AI.”

The intelligent bridge to real-time data

Smart Search AI MCP is an advanced API layer that solves the stale data problem directly. It uses MCP, a universal language that allows external AI agents to communicate with your website’s most current information.

As Senior Product Manager Luke Patterson notes, Smart Search AI MCP eliminates one of the most painful limitations developers have faced in this area. “The biggest hurdle for developers building custom AI tools is outdated data. Large language models are powerful, but they are limited by the static information they were trained on, or what they’re able to scrape from the web” he says. “The Smart Search AI MCP server solves this directly. It acts as an intelligent bridge, allowing AI agents like ChatGPT or Claude to query your site’s live, in-real-time accurate content via our Semantic Search and Vector Database. This fundamentally shifts your website from a static display to a dynamic, real-time knowledge base for any AI application you choose to build.”

How Smart Search AI MCP works

Smart Search AI MCP is a special component that runs as part of WP Engine’s existing Smart Search service. When enabled (it is disabled by default and requires user opt-in for security), it exposes your site’s content as callable “tools” for any connected LLM.

The process is fast and precise:

1. The Query: A user interacts with an external AI application—perhaps a custom customer support chatbot built using a model like Claude.
2. The Tool Check: The AI model recognizes it needs current, specialized information. It then recognizes it has access to a new “tool” via the MCP, which is your website’s search function.
3. The Real-Time Search: The AI model sends a standardized search or fetch request to your unique MCP server address.
4. The Response: The MCP server receives the request, uses the speed and accuracy of our integrated Semantic Search and Vector Database to find the absolute most relevant and recent content on your site, and sends that fresh data back to the LLM.
5. The Accurate Answer: The LLM uses this real-time, accurate content to formulate a relevant, up-to-date answer for the user.

For highly technical customers and agencies, this feature is essential for building mission-critical AI applications, such as internal business intelligence tools, bespoke custom AI assistants, or vertical-specific chatbots that rely on a high-performance, scalable solution.

Join the AI journey

Our commitment is to innovate responsibly, which is why we are launching this in a managed, Closed Alpha. We invite our technical customers and agency partners to help us explore its capabilities in a secure environment. For this initial phase, the AI is designed to work exclusively with public, published data from our search index, ensuring a safe and productive foundation for your testing. It is not currently available for general use.

If you are excited about the potential of real-time, data-grounded AI and want to be among the first to experience the Smart Search AI MCP, please contact your account manager to learn more.

WP Engine’s mission to power confidence online is fueled by the expertise and dedication of more than 1,000 global employees.

Every individual plays a key role in our continued growth, whether they’re supporting our customers by troubleshooting technical challenges, using their engineering and development talents to innovate across our platform and products, or building lasting relationships with our customers by learning about and supporting their goals.

Our Meet the Experts series shines a light on the people behind the platform, exploring their careers, their lives, and the ways they make an impact at WP Engine.

In this feature, we’re excited to introduce Anna Rogert, a Key Account Executive based in Lincoln, Nebraska, about 60 miles from WP Engine’s Omaha office, who has been with the company since 2020.

Say hello to Anna!

Meet Anna Rogert, a sales professional with more than two decades of customer service experience.

Anna joined WP Engine in 2020 after hearing great things about the culture and career growth opportunities from some of her former colleagues who had already joined the team.

“I’ve always enjoyed switching up industries between roles, and Flywheel and WP Engine offered something very different from my previous companies,” Anna says. 

“Plus, WordPress^Ⓡ itself was clearly on a strong growth trajectory at the time, so I knew I’d be joining a thriving, future-focused industry.”

Outside of work, Anna loves to travel, go golfing with her husband, and relax with her guilty pleasure: reality TV. Some of her favorite shows include Real Housewives, Vanderpump Rules, and Summer House.

She’s also a true crime enthusiast, which makes her favorite work-related book, Never Split the Difference—a sales book written by an FBI hostage negotiator—all the more fitting.

Anna’s career journey

Anna’s path at WP Engine has had a few turns. She started as a Sales Development Representative before becoming an Account Manager and eventually taking on her current role. 

Now, she is a Key Account Executive on WP Engine’s Agency Acquisition team, where she partners with agencies to bring client sites onto the WP Engine platform and establish long-lasting relationships. She credits her initial roles with providing insight into both the business challenges and technical challenges facing agencies, making her a more effective partner to the people she works with every day.

“Because of my background, I often know more about servers and hosting infrastructure than many of the agencies I work with,” Anna explains. 

“My team’s mission is simple: remove the tedious, time-consuming tasks from an agency’s plate so they can focus on what drives revenue—winning and growing new business.”

A strong proponent of leading with empathy, Anna believes that understanding the issues facing agencies is what allows her to build trust with agency partners, and that trust is vital as she works with them to identify the right solutions for each partner and help tailor those solutions to support their goals. 

Words of wisdom: Embrace adaptability and build trust

Throughout her career, Anna has learned to embrace adaptability as one of the most valuable skills in sales.

“Being comfortable with pivoting and workshopping outreach is a skill that applies to any role,” she says. 

“Knowing when to adjust, and doing so quickly when something isn’t working, has been a critical part of my success.”

When asked for the best advice she’s received in her career, her answer was surprising. She states it’s important to “embrace awkward silences.” 

She explains that, especially in sales conversations, silence often creates the space for deeper honesty and better understanding.

“Never assume anything. Ask questions; lots of them,” she says. 

“Trust is built when you’re solving problems, listening closely, and showing you care. Even if your solution is exactly what a customer or prospect needs, trust has to come first.”

Trust-building is also the reason one of WP Engine’s core values feels more important to Anna than all the rest.

“I’ve been in some form of customer service for over 20 years now. By embracing ‘Customer Inspired,’ you put customers first. If you can do that, sales will always come when the time is right for the customer,” she says. 

“Truly caring about their needs is what will lead to longevity and growth for both parties.”

Powered by people

For Anna, the people are what make WP Engine an exceptional place to work.

“My favorite part of working at WP Engine has been the people I have worked with along the way. I’m even still in contact with people who have left the company,” she says.

“There is such a strong spirit of collaboration throughout the company, and I really appreciate that as I’m a huge proponent of collaboration, both within a team and cross-functionally.”

Want to find out more about what it’s like to work at WP Engine? Visit our careers site to explore current openings and check out our blog for more inspiring stories from WP Engine’s experts!

Your business is growing. You’re driving more traffic, launching new campaigns, and expanding your digital footprint. Your website, no matter how it started, is now a mission-critical asset. But are you just maintaining it, or is it a tool built to accelerate what’s next? An inadequate host puts your business at risk by preventing you from capitalizing on new opportunities, stifling innovation and growth before it even begins.

For many businesses, the hosting solution that once sufficed is now holding them back. These limitations can create significant, often unseen, friction, leading to frustrating performance bottlenecks, security anxieties, and missed opportunities.

This isn’t just about server uptime. It’s about business continuity, ensuring a site can handle a sudden traffic spike from a successful marketing launch, providing a team with the tools to innovate without being held back, and having an expert partner to rely on when things go wrong.

The following sections explore the critical pain points that are likely impacting your business right now, how to identify these challenges, and how a hosting partner built for growth can help solve them.

The anxiety of unreliable performance and downtime

Every second your website is down is a direct hit to your bottom line. Without the right host, businesses that rely on their websites for revenue generation, lead capture, and brand reputation face a constant, underlying anxiety. 

A catastrophic site outage during a peak traffic event like a product launch, a major marketing campaign, or a holiday surge can translate into immediate lost sales and a damaged brand image that takes years to repair. Even slowdowns, while less dramatic, can drive up bounce rates, frustrate users, and erode trust, costing you conversions and frustrating your team.

This is a problem that can’t be solved with a simple caching plugin or a server upgrade. It requires a hosting platform built from the ground up for performance and scalability.

Solution: A foundation engineered for performance and growth

A platform like WP Engine addresses these performance anxieties with a multi-layered, purpose-built architecture designed specifically for high-traffic WordPress sites. It’s not just about a single feature; it’s a holistic approach that ensures your site performs flawlessly, no matter the demand.

• Proprietary caching technology: Unlike generic caching plugins that can be complex to configure and may conflict with other parts of a site, EverCache® is a finely tuned caching system that works at the server level, optimized exclusively for WordPress. This intelligent system handles hundreds of millions of hits per day, serving pages to visitors lightning-fast while drastically reducing the strain on a site’s resources. The result is a site that can handle massive traffic spikes with grace and without manual configuration.
• Global content delivery network: If your audience is global, their experience shouldn’t be limited by their physical location. WP Engine’s fully managed global CDN, included with every plan, disperses a site’s static assets (like images, CSS, and JavaScript files) to servers around the world. This ensures visitors load assets from a nearby data center, not one on the other side of the planet, providing a consistently fast experience and improving SEO.
• Scalable architecture: Growth should never be a risk. The WP Engine platform is engineered with scalability at its core, allowing a site to seamlessly handle unexpected traffic surges. Instead of being locked into a single server with hard limits, its container-based infrastructure dynamically allocates resources as needed. This means whether a site is experiencing a routine traffic day or a massive influx of visitors from a viral campaign, its performance remains consistent, eliminating the fear of capacity failure and the lost revenue that comes with it.

This integrated approach puts slow load times and growth limits behind you. Your business can confidently pursue aggressive marketing and growth strategies, knowing its hosting platform is a reliable accelerator, not a bottleneck.

The risk of a security breach

An attack on your website can create a full-blown crisis, just as it would with any critical business asset. An acute security incident, such as a data breach, malware infection, or a DDoS attack, can result in significant financial and reputational damage. The cost of remediation can be high, but it often pales in significance compared to the erosion of customer trust. 

Relying on generic, reactive security measures leaves your business vulnerable and can create a persistent sense of anxiety that you’re one bad bot away from disaster.

Solution: Proactive, enterprise-grade security

WP Engine provides a comprehensive, multi-layered security environment designed to proactively defend your site and data. The platform is engineered to prevent threats and deliver peace of mind to site owners.

Security isn’t an afterthought at WP Engine. It’s a foundational component of the hosting platform, backed by industry-leading certifications. The base-level security environment applies to all WP Engine plans.

• Proactive threat monitoring and management: The platform employs a proprietary firewall and continuously scans for and blocks malicious traffic, including bots and other common threats. It automatically disables plugins with known vulnerabilities to prevent them from being exploited.
• Encrypted data: All data on the platform’s servers is encrypted both at rest and in transit, ensuring your and your customers’ information is protected.
• Strict access controls: The platform limits disk write access to prevent malicious code from embedding itself in a site’s file system, even if a theme or plugin has a vulnerability.
• Certifications for peace of mind: These security measures have been formally tested and recognized by third parties. WP Engine maintains SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2022 certifications, a testament to its commitment to robust security standards and processes.

For businesses that require an even higher level of protection, WP Engine offers Global Edge Security (GES). This powerful add-on is an enterprise-grade security solution offered in partnership with Cloudflare. It takes a site’s security to the network edge, allowing a server to focus on performing for real visitors.

• Managed Web Application Firewall (WAF): This intelligent firewall blocks the most common vectors for website attacks, including Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and SQL injection, using a WordPress-specific ruleset that is continuously updated to keep up with the latest threats.
• Advanced DDoS mitigation: Leveraging Cloudflare’s massive global network, GES provides unmetered DDoS protection at all layers, silently dropping malicious traffic before it ever reaches a server. This ensures that even the largest-scale attacks are neutralized far from your digital storefront.
• Origin IP protection: GES obscures the IP address of a site’s origin server, preventing bad actors from bypassing the firewall and sending traffic directly to the site.

By combining WP Engine’s built-in security features with the advanced, edge-level protection of GES, you get a full-stack security strategy that protects your brand, revenue, and customer trust.

The frustration of unresponsive and generic support

For a growing business, the moment you need support is often a moment of crisis. This is why your hosting provider can’t treat support as a generic, reactive service where you’re just another ticket in the queue. 

This level of “support” can lead to ineffective, delayed, or unspecialized assistance, especially when a critical incident threatens your site’s functionality. A lack of expert, timely support can have a devastating impact on continuity and your ability to respond during pivotal moments.

Solution: A strategic partnership

WP Engine shifts the support paradigm from transactional to strategic. Its team of WordPress experts is a true extension of your own, offering a level of deep specialization and availability that general hosting providers can’t match. 

They understand the nuances of the WordPress ecosystem and are equipped to address CMS-specific challenges, ensuring you have a reliable partner you can turn to for help.

24/7/365 expert support

An award-winning support team is available around the clock, every day of the year, via live chat and phone. This ensures that no matter when an issue arises, you have access to a knowledgeable professional who can provide immediate assistance.

Specialized and in-scope assistance

The support scope is highly focused on the WP Engine platform and the WordPress core. The team provides hands-on help with proprietary features like EverCache, security, and migrations, as well as general WordPress configuration.

This specialization means you’re backed by a team of true experts in the areas that matter most to your site’s performance and stability.

Clear channels for help

WP Engine offers a variety of ways to get in touch. Live chat is available for immediate needs, and for plans that include it, direct phone access ensures a real-time conversation. For more complex issues, the support team can open a ticket on your behalf, providing a detailed record of the conversation. Support is also secured with a unique Support PIN for each user, so your account information remains private and secure.

This model ensures you receive a high level of personalized support tailored to your unique business needs. The support team acts as a partner, not just a service, ensuring your site is always in the most capable hands.

The limits of inefficient developer workflows

Your development team is the engine of your digital growth, building new features, launching products, and making crucial updates, but their momentum can be stalled by an outdated hosting environment that acts as a bottleneck. Inefficient workflows lead to a cascade of problems, including delayed launches, missed deadlines, and stifled innovation. 

This forces developers to spend valuable time on infrastructure management, debugging frustrating manual processes, and working with missing or outdated tools, rather than focusing on building a better digital experience for your customers.

Solution: A developer-friendly environment built for velocity

WP Engine is built for the way modern development teams work. It gives them the modern tools and infrastructure they need to not only compete today, but to get ahead tomorrow. 

The robust and flexible suite of tools automates tedious tasks and creates a streamlined workflow, empowering developers to focus on what they do best: building and innovating.

• Version control and Git integration: Say goodbye to manually uploading files and hoping for the best. With seamless Git integration, your team can use their preferred version control system to manage code. This allows for collaborative development, easy tracking of changes, and a more reliable deployment process.
• One-click staging and development environments: Testing and development are crucial to prevent live site errors. The WP Engine platform provides one-click staging and development environments that are exact replicas of your live site, allowing your team to safely test new features, plugins, and updates in a sandboxed environment before pushing them to production.
• Automated workflows: WP Engine automates the heavy lifting of infrastructure, handling server maintenance, performance tuning, and security patching, so your team doesn’t have to. It also provides scalable, Git-based deployments that simplify the process of moving code from your development environment to the live site, reducing the risk of errors and accelerating your time to market.

This developer-first approach transforms hosting from a source of developer frustration into a powerful tool that accelerates your team’s productivity and innovation. It’s the difference between maintaining your business and truly building what’s next.

The scalability challenge: When growth outpaces your infrastructure

Your business is designed for growth, but is your hosting infrastructure? A hosting solution with rigid, fixed resources can become a major constraint. The moment your site can no longer keep pace with a traffic surge from a successful marketing campaign or a period of rapid expansion can be a watershed moment. 

Lost revenue and missed opportunities due to capacity failure force your team to find a new solution under pressure. Your hosting should be a strategic asset that enables agility, not a liability that creates urgent, reactive, and often costly action.

Solution: Infrastructure engineered to scale with you

The WP Engine platform is designed to eliminate scalability as a pain point. Its architecture is built to handle significant spikes in traffic and rapid expansion without any manual intervention on your part. This allows you to focus on your business strategy, not on whether your infrastructure can keep up. With WP Engine, you can confidently pursue aggressive growth strategies and ambitious campaigns, knowing your digital experience will remain fast and reliable.

The platform’s approach to scalability is rooted in a robust, auto-scaling architecture that dynamically allocates resources as your needs grow. Instead of tying your site to a single server with fixed limits, the infrastructure automatically adjusts to meet demand, ensuring your site’s performance remains consistent and your customers’ experience is seamless, no matter how much traffic finds its way to your homepage.

This built-in scalability gives your business the agility to capitalize on opportunities as they arise, without the fear of your infrastructure failing under pressure. It transforms hosting from a reactive cost center into a strategic asset that supports and enables your continued growth.

The path forward: A partner, not just a host

Performance concerns, security vulnerabilities, support frustrations, developer bottlenecks, and scalability limits aren’t isolated issues; they are all symptoms of an outdated approach to hosting that forces you to constantly maintain a static presence instead of empowering you to build for the future. An inadequate hosting foundation hinders your business today and prevents you from innovating tomorrow. 

You don’t have to accept these limitations as the cost of doing business.

Propel your business forward with WP Engine, a partner that can deliver the performance, security, and expert support you need to grow with complete confidence.

WP Engine’s managed hosting for WordPress provides a seamless, stress-free path to a better digital experience, from its automated migration tools to its dedicated team of WordPress experts and beyond. The smart, low-risk move is to partner with a platform that is built for your success from day one.

Ready to stop managing your host and start accelerating your business? Talk to an expert today or request a demo to see how a purpose-built platform can transform your digital presence.

WP Engine is excited to sponsor this year’s LoopConf, a dedicated event for WordPress^Ⓡ[1] developers and engineers. 

For the past decade, LoopConf has brought together the brightest minds in the WordPress space, offering attendees a chance to learn from experts, share ideas, and connect with peers—all in one action-packed day in London.

Read on to learn more about the conference and where to find WP Engine when you get there!

What is LoopConf?

First launched in 2015, LoopConf is a one-day conference designed for developers and engineers who are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with WordPress.

This year’s conference will take place at the historic Bishopsgate Institute in the heart of London on September 25.

WP Engine at LoopConf

WP Engine is proud to sponsor LoopConf and excited to connect with the developer community. Throughout the day, you can find WP Engine at our booth, where our team will be on hand to discuss your current projects and share insights about how our tools and platform are helping agencies and businesses worldwide thrive on WordPress.

We’re also thrilled to have one of our very own software engineers, Ross Wintle, presenting during the event. With a career spanning more than 25 years encompassing freelance, agency, and corporate work for aerospace, telecoms, charities, and more, Ross has learned a lot about both technology and people. His session will deliver 25 lessons in 25 minutes, including inspiring insights and practical takeaways from his experiences throughout the years.

Schedule of events

LoopConf opens its doors at 9:00 a.m. BST, with opening remarks followed by eight unique sessions led by open-source leaders, agency experts, and web developers. After a full day of learning and collaboration, closing remarks will begin at 5:30 p.m.—but the conversations won’t end there.

LoopConf has also invited attendees to reconvene at The Oyster Shed at 7:30 p.m. for valuable networking time with peers, speakers, and sponsors.

See you in London!

If you’re attending LoopConf, be sure to stop by the WP Engine booth. We’d love to hear about the projects you’re working on, share how we can support your goals, and connect with you in person. See you at LoopConf!

AUSTIN, Texas and DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—September 10, 2025—WP Engine, a global web enablement company providing premium products and solutions for websites built on WordPress®¹, today announced it has expanded its EMEA presence into the UAE by launching its enterprise-grade platform locally in Dubai. Large-scale enterprise customers and agencies can now choose Microsoft Azure to build and scale WordPress experiences with WP Engine, meeting advanced IT and technology requirements for scaled performance and certified security.  

“Entering into the UAE is a pivotal step in expanding our EMEA presence. The UAE is known as a global hub for business and technology, and localizing our platform brings faster, more secure WordPress experiences to enterprises that can’t compromise on performance,” said WP Engine SVP and Managing Director, International, Fabio Torlini. “This expansion underpins our ongoing commitment to bringing innovation to the region, while helping accelerate growth for the large-scale businesses and agencies within it.” 

Leading brands such as ITP Media Group, Dubai Duty Free, and Emaar Real Estate use WP Engine to fuel their digital transformation efforts, achieve higher performance, better scalability, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). 

“For a content business like ITP Media Group, speed and stability aren’t optional — they’re essential to audience growth, search performance, and revenue,” said Charlotte Cijffers, chief digital officer at ITP Media Group. “Bringing WP Engine’s platform onshore gives our brands a clear performance advantage: faster load times, improved reliability, and a seamless user experience. With 24/7 monitoring and support, we have the peace of mind to focus on what matters: driving forward our digital evolution.”

WP Engine has experienced remarkable growth among enterprise brands and web design and development agencies in the UAE. Big Bite, one of WP Engine’s Strategic Agency Partners, is trusted by some of the world’s biggest publishers, including ITP Media Group, to dramatically improve how they create and share digital content.

“Having local access to WP Engine’s managed platform was instrumental in our ability to seamlessly migrate ITP Media Group’s existing self-managed setup, and we were easily able to streamline the hosting infrastructure and preserve integrations without interruption,” said Big Bite CTO and Co-Founder Jason Agnew. “More importantly, WP Engine’s enterprise feature set has helped enhance the speed, security, and resilience of ITP Media Group’s site, while keeping them compliant with always-evolving data sovereignty requirements.” 

Furthermore, as the UAE and other Gulf countries evolve digital regulations, data sovereignty and compliance are increasingly important. Having a localized WP Engine platform can better keep businesses in compliance with data storage and handling.

For over a decade, WP Engine has been at the forefront of WordPress optimization, serving more than 1.5 million sites across 150 countries. WP Engine is well-positioned to help businesses in the Gulf region achieve their digital ambitions with WordPress. 

To find where WP Engine’s platform is located globally, click here. To learn more about WP Engine’s platform and solutions, visit wpengine.com.

About WP Engine 

WP Engine empowers companies and agencies of all sizes to build, power, manage, and optimize their WordPress websites and applications with confidence. Serving 1.5 million customers across 150+ countries, the global technology company provides premium, enterprise-grade solutions, tools, and services, including specialized platforms for WordPress, industry-tailored eCommerce and agency solution suites, and developer-centric tools like Local, Advanced Custom Fields, and more. WP Engine’s innovative technology and industry-leading expertise are why 8% of the web visits a WP Engine-powered site daily. Learn more at wpengine.com.

^{[1] The WordPress® trademark is the intellectual property of the WordPress Foundation. WP Engine is not endorsed or owned by, or affiliated with, the WordPress Foundation.}

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Media Contact:

Dana Marruffo

[email protected]

AUSTIN, Texas—August 26, 2025—WP Engine, a global web enablement company providing premium products and solutions for websites built on WordPress®¹, today announced it has successfully achieved ISO 27001:2022 certification for its Information Security Management System (ISMS). Issued by A-LIGN upon completion of a formal audit process, WP Engine’s platform demonstrated it has met rigorous standards for managed hosting for WordPress and headless WordPress. This new certification builds on its SOC 2 Type standard (2020), giving customers and agencies added peace of mind knowing the platform is architected and operated in a secure and reliable manner.

“At WP Engine, innovation in security and performance means continually pushing boundaries to deliver exceptional digital experiences with the highest levels of reliability, speed, and protection,” said Ramadass Prabhakar, CTO at WP Engine. “This latest international certification marks a significant milestone, underscoring the maturity of our security framework and practices.”

WP Engine continuously invests in its information security, data privacy and data governance practices, first achieving compliance with SOC 2 Type 2 in 2020 and ISO 27001:2013 certification in 2021, further building trust and assurance among customers and agencies.

Powering 1.5+ million sites built with WordPress, WP Engine’s suite of products fuels digital experiences and websites that engage, convert and help scale businesses and agencies of all sizes. With enterprise-grade security and proactive monitoring, WP Engine’s managed hosting platform keeps WordPress sites safe and secure with: 

• Advanced DDos mitigation and trusted security tools.
• Proactive and reliable monitoring with 24/7 threat detection, addressing issues before they impact a site.
• Compliance standards such as managed SSL certificates, secure data handling and alignment with global industry standards.

To better understand how WP Engine’s enterprise-grade security can safeguard your online business, click here.

About WP Engine 

WP Engine empowers companies and agencies of all sizes to build, power, manage, and optimize their WordPress websites and applications with confidence. Serving 1.5 million customers across 150+ countries, the global technology company provides premium, enterprise-grade solutions, tools, and services, including specialized platforms for WordPress, industry-tailored eCommerce and agency solution suites, and developer-centric tools like Local, Advanced Custom Fields, and more. WP Engine’s innovative technology and industry-leading expertise are why 8% of the web visits a WP Engine-powered site daily. Learn more at wpengine.com.

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Creating meaningful social change isn’t the work of a single person or organization—it’s the result of collaboration. Nonprofits, agencies, and digital platforms must work together to tell compelling stories, expand reach, and inspire action.

That spirit of collaboration was the focus of Crafted Future: Code for Good, a virtual event exploring what it takes to design digital experiences that move people to make a difference.

From storytelling to strategy, attendees learned how a new website for Brooklyn Org reinvigorated the nonprofit’s digital presence to inspire community action, and even earned a Webby Award for its efforts.

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What is Crafted Future?

Crafted with Code, now in its sixth year, is an annual showcase sponsored by WP Engine that highlights impressive Webby-recognized projects built on WordPress^Ⓡ[1].

Crafted Future is a virtual event series that dives deeper into Crafted with Code stories, sharing unique insights into key considerations for planning, producing, and optimizing Webby-worthy projects.

You can find all the previous Crafted Future discussions on The Webby Awards’ YouTube channel.

Meet the panel

The Webby Awards General Manager Nick Borenstein moderated this Crafted Future panel and was joined by WP Engine Senior Manager of Agency Partnerships Suzi Gaiser, Teal Media Technical Director Austin Whipple, and President & CEO of Brooklyn Org Jocelynne Rainey.

Together, they recounted how their teams collaborated to bring Brooklyn Org’s mission to life online.

What does it mean to code for good?

The panel opened with a broad discussion of what it actually means to code for good. Teal Media has 16 years of experience doing just that as an agency with a reputation for producing “creative with a conscience.”

Rainey was quick to point out the intricacies of what coding for good truly entails, as the digital presence of a nonprofit—much like the individuals who work for it—has to fulfill various needs.

“I think building for good is understanding that you have a lot of different stakeholders that you’re bringing to the table through your website,” said Rainey. 

“You want to make sure that there’s something there for everyone—there are donors, folks who want to volunteer, nonprofits, people looking for services, staff members, and board members—so it has to be a place where everyone is welcome.”

Creating a well-branded website that shares an organization’s message and fulfills essential user needs is no small task, so the conversation drilled in on how Teal Media worked with Brooklyn Org and WP Engine to craft a clear, compelling message on a foundation built for growth.

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The Brooklyn Org project

The new Brooklyn Org project came from a stroke of genius sprinkled with luck. The organization, formerly named Mother New York, was looking for a way to narrow its message and speak more directly to residents of Brooklyn, a borough with a population large enough to make it the third-largest city in the United States.

“My Chief of Staff had been keeping an eye on the brooklyn.org URL, which had not been purchased, recognizing that it was a great opportunity for us to reach a larger audience,” said Rainey. 

“We went through a rebranding process, and the website inspired the new name. We consider ourselves Brooklyn’s organization, so this helped us tell our story a lot better.”

With a new name and a domain to match, the organization partnered with Teal Media to start conceptualizing its new digital home.

“While we’re the experts in some aspects,” said Austin Whipple, “it’s really the clients who are the most expert in their own communities, so it’s about pairing our knowledge together.”

Using WordPress as the core CMS, a new custom theme, and a large library of flexible components, all built upon WP Engine’s managed WordPress hosting, Teal Media was able to build a digital solution that meets the various needs of Brooklyn Org. 

The new site espouses Brooklyn Org’s mission in a way that speaks to its vast network of nonprofits, donors, volunteers, and individuals seeking resources or assistance.

A digital home with connection at the core

Collaboration between Brooklyn Org, Teal Media, and WP Engine was vital in keeping the development of the new site on track, and everyone had their roles to play. 

The Brooklyn Org team, being closest to the mission, worked closely with Teal Media to ensure every element felt intentional. WP Engine also worked closely with the agency from a technical perspective to meet their needs.

“The way that I always give the analogy is that WP Engine is essentially the plot where someone wants to build their dream website,” said Suzi Gaiser. 

“We then work with agencies like Teal Media, the digital architects who can build that dream site. Our platform is where the house lives, so we want to ensure it’s performant, scalable, and secure.”

Teal Media—the architects of Brooklyn Org’s new digital home—then have to make judgment calls about how to provide the best experience, both for end users and for the individuals who will continue to make updates and create new content down the line.

“It’s about setting reasonable guardrails. There are a lot of WordPress page builders out there, and you can do a lot of good with those or a lot of damage. Not every organization has dedicated website management folks,” said Whipple.

“We build sets of components which are then used to compose individual pages. It’s like a page builder but slightly more restrictive, so we’re not asking a busy comms staffer to sit down for an hour and craft a press release,” he continues. 

“We just ask for the content a page needs to contain, check a couple of boxes for taxonomy, click publish, and it’s up there. It’s related to other relevant content and matches the brand standards we set out at the start of the project.”

With the foundation in place and the architects happy with the build, the organization can continue to expand upon a clear, authentic, and consistent message. Even as they grow, find new audiences, and publish new content, the Brooklyn Org site will still feel deeply connected to and rooted in its community.

“Being clear, being concise, and being true to who you are as an organization is really important,” said Rainey. 

“Making sure folks have a place to go to hear your story is critical.”

Keep crafting the future of the web with WP Engine

Thank you to our partners at the Webby Awards for your continued partnership, and to Dr. Rainey and Austin Whipple for sharing your time and insights. We’ll continue to share more Crafted With Code stories throughout the year, so stay tuned to the WP Engine blog to check out even more Webby-worthy projects!

Looking for a plot to build your next great digital destination? Join us this Thursday to learn why digital architects trusted WP Engine as the foundation for 43% of Webby-nominated sites built with WordPress this year!

From our award-winning team of support specialists who troubleshoot technical challenges to the engineers who drive innovation across our platform to the passionate professionals who build connections with our customers and partners, every member of our globally distributed team is vital to the success of WP Engine as well as the thousands of brands and businesses we serve.

WP Engine’s mission is to power our customers’ confidence online. Our Meet the Experts series shines a light on some of the individuals who bring this mission to life through their work every day.

In this feature, we’ll introduce you to Erika Sentz, our North American Lead Events Manager based in Baltimore. She oversees planning and strategy for the in-person events WP Engine attends and sponsors throughout North America, as well as our many virtual events throughout the year!

Say hello to Erika!

For Erika, life is about finding balance. She lives just outside downtown Baltimore, which keeps her close enough to enjoy the city’s food scene, but not too far from the countryside either. While she enjoys the city, she also spends a lot of time at a horse farm near her home in Pennsylvania, often starting her mornings in the barn or in the saddle.

“It’s my reset button and my happy place,” she says. “Being remote-first means I never have to give that up.”

Outside of the stables, Erika is an avid learner. Her 35-minute commutes to the farm are often spent listening to audiobooks and podcasts like Lenny’s Podcast, From A to B, and Think Fast, Talk Smart.

“I’ve lost count of how many real-world problems I’ve solved thanks to an insight I picked up while listening to one of these,” she says.

Erika’s career journey

Erika’s path to WP Engine started with a desire for change. She was looking for a role that aligned with her passions for both technology and creating human connections.

“I had a job alert turned on for experimentation-based roles, and one day WP Engine popped up,” she recalls. “At the time, WP Engine was one of my ‘dream’ companies: tech-focused, remote-first, and a brand I already knew well from my days freelancing and building websites for small businesses.”

The hiring process moved quickly. A recruiter reached out on a Friday, and just one week later, she had an offer in hand. “Leaving my old company and my friends there wasn’t easy, but I knew this was the right move for my career,” she says.

Today, Erika leads strategy and execution for events created by, sponsored by, or attended by WP Engine. Her role oversees everything from large-scale conferences and high-touch roundtables in North America to reimagining our webinars to make them more impactful for attendees. 

Her background as a web strategist and CRO practitioner informs her approach, so every touchpoint is intentional, data-informed, and designed to be tested and optimized over time.

“I treat every event like an experiment: define the goal, test the approach, measure the results, and refine for the next time,” she explains. “That mindset ensures our events don’t just happen—they evolve, delivering more value with every iteration.”

Her role also makes her one of WP Engine’s frontline ambassadors. Whether she’s representing the brand at an in-person conference or designing virtual events that educate and inspire, Erika helps connect WP Engine with current and prospective customers, agency partners, developers, and the WordPress^Ⓡ[1] community more broadly.

Words of wisdom: Say yes, then figure it out

Erika is more than just a learner; she’s a doer. So, when asked about her best professional advice, she focuses on embracing new opportunities. “Say yes, then figure it out,” she says.

“That’s not to say you should take on everything,” she explains, “but I’ve learned that saying yes to opportunities that scare me a little has always pushed me to grow. Moving to the events team was one of those moments. I didn’t have all the answers on day one, but I trusted myself to learn, adapt, and make an impact.”

She also finds inspiration in one of WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner’s oft-repeated mantras: Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

“As a lifelong perfectionist, that’s been a huge mindset shift,” Erika says. “Events, web, and experimentation all demand agility—sometimes you just need to launch, learn, and adjust.”

Erika is passionate about seeing beyond the tactical skills of a project, emphasizing the importance of telling the full story behind your work.

“Being able to connect the dots between what you did and why it matters to your audience will set you apart,” she says. 

Powered by people

When asked what she loves most about WP Engine, Erika’s answer echoes the sentiment shared by many of the other experts we’ve interviewed: it’s the people.

“The sheer expertise in every ‘room’—virtual or otherwise—constantly levels me up, both professionally and personally,” she says.

Erika’s work helps connect WP Engine to communities across North America and beyond as she creates intentional, thoughtful experiences that leave a lasting impact, but she credits the company with creating a culture of connection in-house as well. That collaborative, inclusive culture is especially important in a virtual-first environment.

“You can be remote and still feel deeply woven into the fabric of the company,” she says.

Want to find out more about what it’s like to work at WP Engine? Visit our careers site to explore current openings and check out our blog for more inspiring stories from WP Engine’s experts!

At WP Engine, we are committed to providing our customers with innovative technology and solutions that empower them to succeed online. 

Today, we are proud to announce that WP Engine has been honored with a MarTech Breakthrough Award for Best Overall Web Hosting Service, which recognizes our WordPress^Ⓡ[1] Managed Hosting platform and dedication to innovation, performance, and delivering a world-class customer experience.

“The MarTech Breakthrough Award is a testament to our team’s relentless pursuit of innovation and our unwavering commitment to our customers,” said WP Engine CMO Darcy Kurtz.

“This award celebrates the efforts of our teams who help build, optimize, and support our customers as we work to ensure our managed hosting product becomes the most trusted platform for WordPress builders and users.” 

Read on to learn more about the MarTech Breakthrough Awards and how our services, tools, and support made this recognition possible.

What are the MarTech Breakthrough Awards?

The mission of the MarTech Breakthrough Awards is to celebrate innovation, inspire progress, and foster excellence by recognizing standout solutions that push the boundaries of marketing technology. The program highlights the companies and individuals driving significant advancements in marketing, sales, and advertising through breakthrough technology.

Judging for the MarTech Breakthrough Awards includes a detailed, multi-step process that evaluates solutions and achievements across various categories, including marketing automation, AI-powered insights, and customer experience. 

Entries are submitted by organizations globally and undergo an initial screening before entering evaluation. A panel of industry experts chooses winners based on core criteria: innovation, performance, ease of use, functionality, value, and impact. 

After careful review and scoring narrows the field to a shortlist of finalists, one winner is chosen per award to ensure that only the most impactful companies are recognized.

A history of performance and innovation

This award underscores WP Engine’s position as a leader in providing highly trusted WordPress products and solutions for businesses, brands, and agencies of all sizes. 

Our managed platform for WordPress offers specialized solutions for all types of site owners and builders, including eCommerce solutions, enterprise-grade performance, and headless site solutions, alongside developer-centric tools. Our focus on performance, innovation, and expertise empowers customers to create, manage, and optimize their WordPress websites with confidence.

WP Engine’s unmatched performance is a cornerstone of the user experience. Our platform guarantees speed and reliability with a 99.95% + server uptime (equivalent to less than five hours of annual downtime). WP Engine is consistently ranked among the top managed hosting providers for its backend server response times and proactively blocks billions of attacks annually.

Our commitment to relentless innovation is demonstrated by our focus on improving usability, productivity, and capabilities on WordPress. Most recently, the launch of our new Smart Search AI and AI-Powered Recommendations and Managed Vector Database offerings is helping our users deliver faster, more accurate on-site search results while keeping site content AI-ready automatically and effortlessly.

Powering the freedom to create through hosting excellence

We are honored to receive this MarTech Breakthrough Award, which validates our brand promise and instills confidence in our customers. Our mission is to power the freedom to create, and we will continue to innovate and deliver the best possible managed hosting experience. 

Whether you’re hosting your own website or trying to get your hosting at budget prices, your hosting plan may be costing you more than you know—whether it’s in hard costs like infrastructure or security, or hidden costs like losing valuable time to tedious updates. 

Talk to an expert today to learn how WP Engine’s managed hosting for WordPress can help reduce the total costs associated with operating and maintaining your WordPress website to help unlock the next stage of your growth, whatever it looks like! 

Crafted With Code is back for another year! The first showcase of 2025’s highlighted sites, Code for Good: Crafting Change, amplifies digital experiences created to drive positive change in the world.

Now in its sixth year, Crafted With Code is a collaborative showcase created by WP Engine and The Webby Awards. It explores the stories, tools, and strategic planning that go into building some of the internet’s most inspiring sites—all built on WordPress^Ⓡ[1].

This year, 30% of all Webby-recognized sites in the Websites & Mobile Sites category were built on WordPress, and 43% of those WordPress sites were powered by WP Engine!

Read on to learn more about the Code for Good showcase and dive into a few of the featured sites.

Code for Good: Crafting Change

The first edition of the 2025 Crafted With Code showcase, Code for Good, celebrates high-impact, emotionally resonant websites that support important causes, elevate human stories, and spark social good—both online and IRL. These mission-driven brands used WordPress to craft experiences designed with empathy and built to move people.

“Code for Good shines a light on creators who aren’t just building websites—they’re building momentum for causes that matter,” said WP Engine Director of Brand Regina Yuan.

“These projects show what’s possible when mission-driven storytelling meets the flexibility and power of WordPress.”

The following Code for Good participants—each built on WP Engine’s fully managed platform for WordPress—represent just a few of this year’s many standout Webby-recognized experiences that are using technology to make the world a better place.

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#BeKind365

Webby Nominee | Joyful, vibrant design inspires daily kindness

Did you know that 94% of young people say small acts of kindness can make a big difference?

That belief is the foundation of #BeKind365, a year-round program from Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation that’s helping build more connected communities and improve mental wellness, one act at a time.

The Webby-nominated site has already helped connect more than 50,000 participants with daily opportunities to spread kindness in their communities. Designed with a vibrant, Y2K-inspired aesthetic, the experience includes interactive tools like the Gratitude Postal Service for sending anonymous messages of encouragement and a Kindness Generator that provides simple, actionable ideas to practice kindness every day.

The site also invites visitors to take the Kindness Pledge: a commitment to treat others with compassion and care. Explore the joyful design and make your pledge to #BeKind365.

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Brooklyn Org

Webby Winner | Powerful photography and videography promote equity in action

Brooklyn Org is a community-based organization with a bold goal: to mobilize resources for equity, justice, and opportunity across Brooklyn.

To help support that mission, Teal Media redesigned the organization’s website as a digital hub for action, investment, and impact. 

The new site creates a space for storytelling and community engagement, highlighting initiatives related to housing and civil rights, environmental justice, economic opportunity, civic participation, and more.

Whether you’re looking to donate, get involved, or simply learn more, the Brookly Org site serves as a powerful entry point for Brooklynites and allies alike to build a more just and vibrant borough.

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Think Big for Kids

Webby Nominee | Simple site navigation empowers the workforce of tomorrow

Think Big for Kids is a national nonprofit on a mission to break the cycle of poverty by equipping students with the skills and support they need to thrive in the workforce.

To bring that mission to life, Roger West Creative & Code developed a beautiful, performance-optimized site that serves as a one-stop shop for students seeking guidance on career exploration and post-grad planning, mentors eager to share their experience, and companies looking to invest in the next generation of talent.

The result is a fast, intuitive experience that makes it easy to find career training and resources, connect with mentors, and apply for scholarships. 

Think Big for Kids partners with schools and companies across the United States, helping teens and young adults set meaningful goals and access the tools they need to succeed.

Dive into the goodness

Want to hear more about how these sites were brought to life? 

Head over to the Crafted With Code YouTube playlist to learn more about the processes behind the creation of a Webby-worthy digital project, or head to our Crafted With Code page to learn more about some of the featured sites hosted on WP Engine!

From our award-winning customer support team to the engineers who keep our platform and services fast and performant, each one of WP Engine’s more than 1,000 employees is vital in fulfilling our mission to power confidence online.

We take pride in our team’s expertise, whether in technical troubleshooting for WordPress^Ⓡ[1] sites, driving relentless innovation across our fully managed hosting platform, or providing exceptional support for our agency partners.  

Our Meet the Experts series is an opportunity to peek behind the curtain, learning more about the roles, areas of expertise, and contributions individuals are making to drive success for WP Engine and our customers.

In this feature, we’ll introduce you to Karissa Zuroski, a Sales Director and Small Business Brand Account Manager based in Omaha, Nebraska. 

Say hello to Karissa!

Karissa has always had an eye for opportunity, even when it wasn’t exactly what she expected. Fresh out of college, she was working as a corporate event planner when she applied to be a “happiness engineer” at Flywheel, thinking it was an office assistant role.

“I was eager to move on from events, and Flywheel had such a strong brand in Omaha,” she says. “I ended up being recruited for their small sales team because of my background in event sales.”

Though she had avoided other sales opportunities, she quickly found her place in the company’s collaborative sales model. 

“My dad is a career salesman, and I never thought I’d follow in his footsteps,” she says, “but I fell in love with the partnership-based, consultative approach we use here.”

Based in Omaha, Karissa’s role gives her the opportunity to build, refine, and scale processes that support long-term customer value and retention.

“My favorite part of working here is the autonomy. I feel trusted to make decisions, solve problems, and drive meaningful solutions across the business.”

When she’s not focused on customer success or team performance, Karissa is all about family. “I have two young kids, so outside of work, I’m usually on a bike ride, cooking dinner, or hanging out with cousins.”

Karissa’s career journey

Over the past nine years, Karissa has helped lead and scale high-performing sales teams by focusing on what matters most: coaching talent, building process-driven systems, and making hard decisions quickly.

She has built a reputation for leading high-performing teams and navigating change with empathy and clarity.

She currently leads the Brand Account Management team, where she’s responsible for building a sales model that’s rooted in value and long-term customer success.

“The way we sell has changed drastically,” she explains. “I was brought into this role to design a value-based selling model that prioritizes great outcomes for our customers, which in turn drives retention.”

A key part of her work is motivating and supporting the team through constant change. “It’s hard to build momentum when things are always shifting. We’ve adopted a ‘slow down to go fast’ mindset, and that’s been a game-changer.”

When it comes to team building and leadership, one lesson in particular stands out:

“Not every investment pays off, and that’s okay,” she says. “It takes maturity to recognize when something isn’t working and make a change. But on the flip side, when you spot coachable, high-impact talent that aligns with your mission? Go all in.”

As for how she continues to grow her own skills? “Omaha has a great network. I stay connected through conversations and local peers. I’m also always willing to take on new challenges. That’s been one of the biggest personal growth levers for me.”

Words of wisdom: act with intention

Karissa has received a lot of advice throughout her career, but a quote from her father has stuck with her and shaped her mindset, both in sales and in life.

“Some will, some won’t, what’s next?” she says simply.

“It reminds me not to waste energy on things that don’t serve me. It’s especially great advice in sales where keeping a level head is everything.”

To those considering a similar career path, her advice is simple but powerful:

“Don’t delay the inevitable, act with intention, and embrace clarity over comfort.”

For those considering a career at WP Engine, Karissa underscores her team’s collaborative approach. 

“Make connections. The WordPress community is incredibly welcoming,” she says, “and the people you meet can open doors to amazing opportunities.”

Powered by people

WP Engine is powered by people just like Karissa. When asked to identify her favorite aspect of her job at WP Engine, her answer reflects a culture where individuals are empowered to make an impact.

“My favorite thing about working at WP Engine is being trusted with autonomy. I can control outcomes by solving problems and driving solutions across all areas of the business.”

Want to find out more about what it’s like to work at WP Engine? Explore our current openings and check out our blog for more inspiring stories from WP Engine’s experts!

AUSTIN, Texas—July 15, 2025—WP Engine, a global web enablement company providing premium products and solutions for websites built on WordPress®^[1], today announced the launch of its new AI toolkit, purpose-built to integrate seamlessly with WordPress websites. Featuring Smart Search AI, AI-Powered Recommendations, and Managed Vector Database with an open-source chatbot framework, the toolkit was developed to make advanced AI capabilities accessible to the WordPress community at scale, lowering the barrier to entry and unlocking sustainable, continuous, daily value from existing assets. 

WP Engine’s AI toolkit is designed to work seamlessly with websites built on WordPress, drawing on a site’s existing structured content, metadata, and traffic patterns already present and automatically detect, normalize, extract, map, index, and host vectorized WordPress data. With just three clicks, site owners can activate intelligent search with no coding, deep technical knowledge or third-party tools required.

“At WP Engine, our mission has always been to power the freedom to create. With the launch of our AI toolkit, we’re extending that mission by making advanced AI capabilities accessible to creators, regardless of their technical expertise,” said Ramadass Prabhakar, Chief Technology Officer at WP Engine.

“By integrating AI seamlessly with the WordPress website experience, we’re enabling our customers to enhance their digital presence in meaningful ways, fostering innovation and inclusivity across the web.”

Smart Search AI: Powerful, Contextualized Search in Just Three Clicks

Smart Search AI automatically syncs a site’s WordPress database—posts, pages, tags, metadata, and ACF fields—and runs the content through a multi-step processing pipeline to make website searches more powerful without manual re-indexing. It combines natural-language semantic (vector) search with basic keyword search to contextualize user queries and deliver the information visitors need quickly and efficiently.

• Improves site conversions and reduces bounce rates with machine learning and a natural-language search experience.
• Operates efficiently without impacting site performance under a unique flat-rate pricing model with no overage fees.
• Fully implemented in just a few clicks rather than taking weeks of indexing.
• Customizable and extensible with API access for technical use cases.

AI-Powered Recommendations: Personalization that Works Out-of-the-Box

Shoppers who engage with recommendations are far more likely to convert for increased sales and engagement. The new AI-powered recommendations tool leverages historical and session data to make personalized recommendations in order to increase average cart size for eCommerce customers by highlighting similar products and increase ad revenue for media sites by keeping visitors on site and viewing more recommended content. Launched on July 8, AI-powered recommendations are currently available to Smart Search AI customers at no additional cost.

• Drives higher engagement and conversion by showing users what they’re most likely to value.
• Recommendations are rendered server-side and build internal linking for an additional SEO boost.

Managed Vector Database: Simplify AI App Development for websites built on WordPress

Managed Vector Database enables developers to build AI applications for dynamic digital experiences that are powered specifically by the site’s WordPress data—from custom chatbots to generative tools—by handling data extraction, vectorization, and real-time updates behind the scenes. It is currently deployed for all WP Engine customers.

• Provides structure for developers to use to build AI products or API connections, including an open-source chatbot framework. 
• Machine learning models remember previous inputs, allowing for more intelligent search, recommendations, and text generation.
• Trained exclusively on the owner’s WordPress site to make existing content AI-ready, without any extra work.

“We didn’t build this to ride the AI wave, we built it to help our customers succeed on WordPress,” said Prabhakar. “By integrating AI capabilities that streamline workflows directly within a WordPress website, we’re empowering creators to transform their content into smarter, more personalized digital experiences. This allows them to build real AI-powered apps without needing to be AI experts, ensuring customers’ sites remain relevant.”

“WP Engine’s Managed Vector Database would easily save us a week’s worth of work spent trying to configure our own solution to build an AI tool,” said Jeremiah Harris, Chief Technology Officer, Integrity, an XD Agency. 

WP Engine’s AI toolkit debuted at DE{CODE} 2025, the company’s annual conference, where thousands of innovators come together to explore the future of WordPress. This launch marks a strategic milestone in WP Engine’s mission to democratize powerful technologies and reinforce the WordPress project’s foundational role in powering the internet.

Visit wpengine.com to learn more about WP Engine’s AI toolkit and how it can help you take your website to the next level.

About WP Engine

WP Engine empowers companies and agencies of all sizes to build, power, manage, and optimize their WordPress websites and applications with confidence. Serving 1.5 million customers across 150+ countries, the global technology company provides premium, enterprise-grade solutions, tools, and services, including specialized platforms for WordPress, industry-tailored eCommerce and agency solution suites, and developer-centric tools like Local, Advanced Custom Fields, and more. WP Engine’s innovative technology and industry-leading expertise are why 8% of the web visits a WP Engine-powered site daily. Learn more at wpengine.com.

^{[1] The WordPress® trademark is the intellectual property of the WordPress Foundation. WP Engine is not endorsed or owned by, or affiliated with, the WordPress Foundation.}

Contact: [email protected] 

WP Engine’s mission to power confidence online relies on the passion and expertise of more than 1,000 globally distributed employees.

Every team member—from the WordPress®[1] support specialists troubleshooting technical challenges to the engineers driving innovation across our User Portal and suite of additional products to the passionate professionals pouring their talents into our Agency Partner Program—ensures the continued growth and success of WP Engine and our customers alike.

Our Meet the Experts series shares the stories of some of the individuals who bring this mission to life through their work every day.

In this feature, we’re proud to introduce Adam Łapiński, a Senior Software Developer based in Łapy, Poland, whose work is helping elevate frontend excellence across our platform.

Say hello to Adam!

Adam joined WP Engine in 2022 after receiving an intriguing opportunity while on vacation. What began as a casual glance at a LinkedIn message quickly became a deep dive into WP Engine’s culture, people, and purpose—and the rest is history.

“I didn’t have a grand plan; I just happened to have some free time and took a closer look,” Adam says. 

“The more I learned about the company, the more convinced I became that it would be a fantastic place to work.”

In the three years since, he has become an invaluable member of the WP Engine team. As a Senior Software Developer, Adam leads frontend development on his team, bringing technical skill and a people-first perspective to everything he builds.

“I specialize in frontend, but I’ve worked on backend too, and I sometimes lend a hand with backend tasks,” he says.

“I believe in being adaptable, so I’m always ready to help solve problems wherever they arise.”

Outside the office, Adam is an active father who loves power walks with his daughters, resistance training to stay healthy, and even ice swimming in the river near his home during winter months! WP Engine’s remote-first work environment allows him the freedom to raise his girls near family in the small town he loves.

“Łapy is a small, calm town without a lot of noise. It’s close to nature, with a national park, a river, and plenty of forests nearby—perfect for unwinding,” he says.

“I have everything I need right here, and much of my family lives nearby, which is incredibly important to me.”

Adam’s career journey

Adam’s previous experience working directly with customers helps inform his unique perspective on software development. By understanding how people actually use digital tools, Adam ensures his work is rooted in meeting the needs of real users.

Balancing those user needs with technical constraints is no easy task, but Adam embraces the challenge, collaborating closely with other engineers and leaning on data and user feedback to guide the way.

“I deeply understand user needs, which allows me to focus on delivering a positive experience that directly addresses their needs and drives satisfaction,” he says.

“It’s a process of making informed trade-offs that ultimately benefit the user.” 

Adam’s deep technical knowledge is just one benefit he brings to the WP Engine team. As a mentor to two former interns, both of whom now work full time at WP Engine, his investment in the growth of his peers has had a lasting impact on the company.

“Seeing them succeed and contribute to their teams makes me proud because sharing knowledge is one of the most valuable things we can do,” he says.

Words of wisdom: Focus on the fundamentals

Over the years, Adam’s perspective on software development has evolved. Once laser-focused on clean abstraction and reusable code, he now puts user value front and center.

“It’s not that clean code isn’t important,” he explains, “but getting a great experience into users’ hands quickly is often more important than getting every piece of the architecture perfect on the first try.”

For Adam, the key is simplicity. 

“When you solve a problem in a simple, elegant way—even if it’s not the most abstract—you deliver real value.”

That mindset also helps him stay sharp in a fast-moving digital landscape. Despite having two young daughters at home, he still carves out time for learning with a simple strategy: do what you can when you can.

“While balancing professional development with two daughters can be challenging, I make it a point to experiment with new technologies whenever I have spare time, even if it’s just in short bursts,” he says.

With AI evolving the software development landscape, Adam encourages aspiring developers to prioritize depth over speed.

“Don’t just chase trends. Understand the fundamental concepts behind the tools you use,” he advises. 

“Pick something you love and dive deep because that foundational knowledge will always be valuable, even as technology shifts.”

Powered by people

When asked what he loves most about working at WP Engine, Adam doesn’t hesitate: it’s the people.

“I primarily work remotely, but whenever I have the opportunity to meet colleagues in person, I’m always struck by the kindness and genuine connection, including from leadership,” he says 

“Even though I’m not based in Kraków, the kindness and openness are so palpable that you can feel it 500 km away.”

For those considering a career at WP Engine, Adam’s advice is simple but powerful:

“Be proactive. Be collaborative. Be kind. People notice, and opportunities will come your way when you contribute.”

Want to find out more about what it’s like to work at WP Engine? Visit our careers site to explore current openings, and check out our blog for more stories about WP Engine’s diverse pool of experts!

AUSTIN, Texas—June 16, 2025—WP Engine, a global web enablement company providing premium products and solutions for websites built on WordPress®^[1], today celebrates its 15th anniversary, a milestone that marks the company’s evolution from a local startup in Austin to a global platform helping businesses win online through open technology and trusted partnerships. 

WP Engine has remained dedicated to helping businesses win online through powerful, secure, and scalable digital experiences. Over the past 15 years, the company has welcomed several industry-leading companies into the fold—including Flywheel, StudioPress, Delicious Brains, and most recently, NitroPack—each one enhancing WP Engine’s capabilities and reach. WP Engine continues to invest in the open web and the customers who power it, launching more than 50 product enhancements in the past six months alone across its core offerings in managed hosting for WordPress, composable, and eCommerce solutions. 

“We’re living through a defining moment for the web where creativity, technology, and human connection converge at unprecedented speed. At WP Engine, our mission is to power the freedom to create, and this is more pivotal now than ever before,” said Heather Brunner, Chairwoman and CEO of WP Engine. “The digital frontier is transforming, and we’re investing deeply in the tools, platforms, and partnerships that help our customers and agency partners to keep pace and lead the way.”

WP Engine has seen tremendous growth since its founding in 2010 with a modest 30 paying customers, into a global platform serving over 6 million web requests per day from over 1.5 million websites across 150+ countries. Today, WP Engine powers more than 200,000 active customers, partners with nearly 12,000 agencies, and employs over 1,000 employees across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

This growth has been driven by a team deeply committed to WP Engine’s values, with more than 60 employees celebrating over a decade at the company. Since 2013, these values have been deeply embedded in WP Engine’s culture and in 2020 the company revisited and reaffirmed its core values to ensure they scaled alongside its evolving mission. The company also remains deeply focused on delivering best-in-class support, earning over a dozen Stevie Awards for excellence in customer service.

“Looking back at the past 15 years, I feel a truly overwhelming sense of pride,” said Jason Cohen, WP Engine’s Founder. “It’s not just about the scale we’ve reached or the impact we’ve had on our customers. What stands out to me is that we have accomplished all of this as a team, driven by the strength of our shared values. Thank you to everyone who has joined us on our journey so far—our gratitude cannot be overstated.”

As the company looks ahead, it’s channeling these commitments into its next phase of growth. Entering this new chapter, WP Engine has strengthened its executive bench over the past two years with the appointments of Darcy Kurtz as Chief Marketing Officer, Ramadass Prabhakar as Chief Technology Officer, Sam Monti as Chief Financial Officer, and Simon Lemos as Senior Vice President of North America Sales. This positions the company for long-term success, signifying a renewed focus on customer experience, technical innovation, and global growth.

As WP Engine celebrates this milestone, it does so with a clear eye on the future—one where the open web continues to thrive, creators remain empowered, and values-led innovation drives what’s next. To learn more about WP Engine, visit wpengine.com.

About WP Engine

WP Engine empowers companies and agencies of all sizes to build, power, manage, and optimize their WordPress websites and applications with confidence. Serving 1.5 million customers across 150+ countries, the global technology company provides premium, enterprise-grade solutions, tools, and services, including specialized platforms for WordPress, industry-tailored eCommerce and agency solution suites, and developer-centric tools like Local, Advanced Custom Fields, and more. WP Engine’s innovative technology and industry-leading expertise are why 8% of the web visits a WP Engine-powered site daily. Learn more at wpengine.com.

^{[1] The WordPress® trademark is the intellectual property of the WordPress Foundation. WP Engine is not endorsed or owned by, or affiliated with, the WordPress Foundation.}

Unexpected outages can cost businesses thousands—if not millions—in lost revenue, productivity, and customer trust. When disaster strikes, your website needs to remain operational. 

That’s why we built WP Engine Failover, a new, enterprise-grade disaster recovery solution that ensures 99.99% uptime by seamlessly rerouting traffic to an alternate data center within minutes.

With WP Engine Failover, your business stays online—even in the face of critical infrastructure failures. No lost data. No customer interruptions. No surprises. Just seamless continuity.

Read on to learn how WP Engine Failover addresses downtime and ensures your business’ digital open sign is always set to “on.”

The problem: Downtime disrupts continuity

For businesses relying on their websites to drive revenue and customer engagement, even a few minutes of downtime can have a significant impact. 

Unfortunately, many companies struggle with:

• Complex disaster recovery setups: DIY failover solutions require extensive infrastructure, monitoring, and ongoing management.
• Slow recovery times: Traditional disaster recovery solutions often take hours to restore full functionality.
• Risk of data loss: Without a failover system in place, businesses risk losing valuable data between backups.
• Compliance and vendor requirements: Many industries require redundancy solutions to meet regulatory and security mandates.

Traditional backup solutions help restore lost data after a disaster, but they don’t prevent real-time data loss or the issues they can cause. 

WP Engine Failover goes beyond a backup to ensure optimal uptime by automatically rerouting traffic in the event of an interruption.

The solution: Enterprise-grade failover disaster response with WP Engine

WP Engine Failover is designed to eliminate downtime by transferring traffic to an alternate data center within minutes in the event of an outage. 

Built for mission-critical industries like eCommerce, finance, and media, it keeps your website operational, always.

Here’s how WP Engine Failover works:

• Automated failover: If your primary data center goes offline, traffic is automatically rerouted to a backup data center to ensure minimal disruption. Failover is built on WP Engine’s Azure infrastructure, providing near-instant recovery with an estimated RTO (Recovery Time Objective) of just 7 minutes.
• No data loss: With an RPO (Recovery Point Objective) of zero, your most recent data is always protected and restored in real time.
• Multi-zonal redundancy: Your site data is stored securely across multiple locations, protecting against localized failures and natural disasters.
• Hands-free management: WP Engine’s team handles the failover process automatically, so you can focus on your business instead of disaster recovery planning.

Why WP Engine Failover?

Unlike DIY disaster recovery solutions that require costly infrastructure, manual intervention, and ongoing maintenance, WP Engine Failover is a fully managed, automated solution that protects you against lost revenue, customers, and productivity due to unexpected outages.

This enterprise-grade failover solution ensures compliance with industry regulations and security standards while reducing potential downtime from hours to minutes, keeping your digital experiences seamless.

Failover enables compliance

While failover support for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plans is not typically required as an independent element of compliance for most industries, it is an essential component in fulfilling existing compliance objectives. 

For example, enterprise-grade failover solutions enable organizations to meet the requirements of FedRAMP and GovRAMP (formerly StateRAMP) frameworks. Both frameworks are based on NIST SP 800-53, which requires compliant websites to have alternate processing capabilities, secure data backups, contingency plans, and recovery testing. Failover makes this possible.

Other compliance standards, like SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001, require system resilience, security, and recoverability, which many organizations find difficult to achieve without a robust BCDR foundation. BCDR solutions like failover can strengthen operational resilience while helping organizations meet demanding security and availability standards through downtime reduction and secure data replication and recovery.

Failover serves as a crucial stepping stone to meeting compliance, even though it stands apart from the actual requirements themselves. WP Engine has made our failover option hassle-free, hands-free, and ready to work seamlessly on any environment hosted with us.

Stay ahead of the unexpected with WP Engine Failover

Outages happen, but they don’t have to cause extended downtime. Whether you’re running an eCommerce store, a financial platform, a media site, or any other type of digital experience, WP Engine Failover keeps your business online.

Want to learn more? Speak with a representative today to talk about your website’s potential uptime, performance, and resilience when paired with WP Engine Failover.