In the big world of WordPress blogs there are those big ones on the high end (Techcrunch) where a paid staff can provide all the help you need. On the low end, hosted WordPress is perfect for many. But what about the middle? In that big middle ground you want to customize WordPress just enough that they can’t host it for you, but you’re not big enough to afford someone to maintain your blog, apply the latest updates and plug potential security holes.

That’s where WP Engine comes in. They host WordPress for you, provide the best practices that avoid security issues, have a list of pre-vetted plugins, and provide one more thing that is usually tough to do – a staging and testing area for changes. All for $50 a month. No wonder the waiting list is already long.

The team behind WP Engine is top notch too. Jason (Smart Bear) Cohen, Cullen Wilson, and Aaron Brazell who works on the WordPress core code. They really aren’t launching or promoting the service yet. But word is starting to get out on sites like Mashable.

Everyone hopes that someday a certain blog post will get referenced in the New York Times, mentioned in TechCrunch, or go viral. WP Engine makes sure that if that happens, your site will actually be up and responsive.