After 2 years, I have no plans on moving from Rocket.net and mainly recommend them for WooCommerce/dynamic sites, or a site with global users you want to set and forget (like mine).
Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround, and Cloudways (my previous host) aren’t really optimized for WooCommerce at all. Cloudways is the only other host with Cloudflare Enterprise and Object Cache Pro, but both of these integrations are poor and leave out key features like Relay. Both Rocket.net’s integrations are more powerful (with Relay) and Ben’s experience as StackPath’s Chief Product Officer makes it pretty obvious whose (free) Cloudflare Enterprise you should use.
With more powerful integrations of 2 key features for WooCommerce performance, 32 CPU cores + 128GB RAM, and no stingy limits (like Kinsta’s add-ons/PHP threads, SiteGround’s CPU limits, and 10x more monthly visits than Kinsta/WPE), this is why Rocket.net averages a 100ms global TTFB and none of these other hosts do. So, do you believe the marketing or the results?
Rocket.net’s main limit is bandwidth which is similar to Kinsta + WP Engine. Otherwise, you get significantly more resources in terms of CPU/RAM, monthly visitors, and unlimited PHP workers.
They’re also more “set and forget” since their Cloudflare Enterprise is completely automatic, control panel is easy, and support is night and day compared to other “managed” hosts who don’t actually fix problems. There are also no add-ons… besides offering Object Cache Pro on their Business plan and up (for free), it’s all-inclusive with free migrations and $1 the 1st month.
- Highly optimized for WooCommerce
- A more powerful Cloudflare Enterprise integration
- Object Cache Pro (with Relay) on Business plan and up
- 32 CPU cores + 128GB RAM, 10x monthly visits, ∞ PHP workers
- 4 GHz CPUs, LiteSpeed PHP, NVMe storage
- 8 server locations (and does this matter)?
- Ben Gabler
- Bandwidth pricing
- Top-notch support that actually manages
- Better security on both the server/CDN level
- Free WP Rocket license (but I use FlyingPress)
- 100ms global TTFB impact on core web vitals
- $1 your 1st month + unlimited free migrations
- Rocket.net vs. [Kinsta, WP Engine, Cloudways, SiteGround]
1. Highly Optimized For WooCommerce
This is mainly due to their hosting, CDN, and higher resource limits. Other hosts say “WooCommerce optimized” but it doesn’t mean much when their specs don’t reflect it.
- They use a more powerful Cloudflare Enterprise integration thanks to Ben Gabler’s experience at StackPath with a ~90% cache hit ratio. This speeds up dynamic requests through Argo Smart Routing (reduces TTFB by ~33%), priority routing, full page caching, and Enterprise WAF to help block unwanted requests. This means faster checkouts, payment processing, and dynamic product pages.
- They also use a more powerful Object Cache Pro integration (free on their Business plan and up) with Relay – a key feature to speed up the frontend, wp-admin, and can reduce CPU usage by 60%. A must for sites with heavy databases.
- You get more resources with access to 32 CPU cores/128GB RAM, unlimited PHP workers (unlike Kinsta), and 10x more monthly visits than Kinsta/WPE. And unlike Kinsta, they don’t limit PHP memory to 256MB (it’s 1GB) or staging sites to 1 core.
- They use a faster stack between 4 GHz CPUs, LiteSpeed’s PHP, and NVMe storage.
Put it all together and you get faster checkout speeds and (due to a faster TTFB which is also 40% of LCP)… better core web vitals. Even for WooCommerce sites running 61 active plugins:
Here’s an example of Rocket.net’s checkout speeds (posted by Ben).
It’s time to stop the bleed to Shopify. What if I showed you the fastest @WooCommerce install ever? Then, what if I showed you the entire 20GB store failing over to another region in 37 seconds? Serious business needs a serious solution. Let’s talk #enterprise #Woo #hosting pic.twitter.com/e5K8UGldQ3
— Ben Gabler (@ben_gabler) February 6, 2024
2. A More Powerful Cloudflare Enterprise Integration
While Cloudflare Enterprise is arguably the most powerful WordPress CDN, many hosts have poor Cloudflare integrations.
Considering Rocket.net was one of (if not the first) hosts to integrate Cloudflare Enterprise, combined with Ben’s experience as StackPath’s Chief Product Officer, I just trust theirs more.
Cloudways’ version is heavily restricted (which can lead to worse performance/compatibility) and launched their “Cloudflare Enterprise” without full page caching (it also served annoying challenge pages). And neither Kinsta or WP Engine’s is anything close to Cloudflare Enterprise. Rocket.net’s is the closest thing to true Cloudflare Enterprise, is free, and it’s 100% automatic. Ben wrote a nice post on why Cloudflare Enterprise is not an add-on if you want a deeper dive.
This is specifically benefitial for dynamic/WooCommerce sites specifically due to faster routing of dynamic requests and better security via multiple Cloudflare Enterprise features.
Key Features
- Full page caching – caches HTML and can reduce TTFB by ~72% alone.
- Argo Smart Routing + Tiered Cache – can reduce TTFB by another 33% by detecting real-time traffic congestion and routing traffic through faster network paths (like a GPS). Great for traffic spikes and reduces requests to the origin server. Rocket.net also uses Tiered Cache which further reduces latency + origin requests.
- Prioritized routing – optimizes paths for critical traffic and reduces latency. For WooCommerce, this can mean transactions, customer logins, and product pages.
- Load balancing – re-routes traffic from unhealthy origin servers to healthy origins.
- Enterprise WAF – scans every request before it hits your server. The Enterprise WAF has a more advanced firewall, bot protection, and custom rule set (OWASP). Cloudways also uses their Enterprise WAF, but Kinsta doesn’t. Besides blocking attacks, Rocket.net also says there’s a 90%+ reduction in comment spam. I can vouch for this and noticed my spam comments went way down after migrating.
- Early Hints – sends early preload & preconnect hints to reduce server wait time.
- Smart caching – only purges HTML when certain changes are made, which uses less server resources while also keeping your cache warm for CSS, JS, and images.
- Network – Cloudflare’s network is one of the largest and fastest with 330 PoPs (points of presence) and data transfer speeds of 321 Tbps (terabytes per second).
3. Object Cache Pro (With Relay) On Business Plan And Up
Just like Cloudflare Enterprise is specifically good at speeding up dynamic requests, Object Cache Pro is similar with database queries – something WooCommerce stores have a lot of.
Object Cache Pro (a business class Redis) and Relay (a next-generation caching layer for PHP) can be a game changer, but you really want both! This is the main reason Cloudways’ Object Cache Pro integration isn’t as powerful as Rocket.net’s – theirs uses Relay, Cloudways’ doesn’t. Kinsta charges $100/mo just for Redis (not Object Cache Pro) which is open source software :/
While WooCommerce sites significantly benefit from Object Cache Pro due to the large amount of database queries, most managed hosts still don’t offer it, have poor integrations (e.g. without Relay), or only offer Redis or Memcached.
Rocket.net includes Object Cache Pro with Relay on the Business plan and up, then Redis on lower plans. In either case, you will need to contact support to have them configure the plugin.
You can expect a faster frontend, wp-admin, reduced CPU usage, and better handling of traffic/requests without your site slowing down (e.g. simultaneous checkouts). Especially large stores with complex cart data or large inventories.
Since WooCommerce stores a lot of transient/session data and database queries related to the cart, checkout, and product pages, Object Cache Pro optimizes these in a way Redis alone can’t.
- Cart and Session Caching: these are cached efficiently, reducing database queries repeated for same session data. This can significantly speed up the checkout process.
- WooCommerce Transients: these are used for caching product variations, shipping methods, and taxes. Object Cache Pro ensures these are cached effectively and have shorter expiration times when appropriate, reducing database load. Relay significantly reduces the time it takes to fetch/write data to Redis, accelerating transient operations.
- Order and Product Query Optimization: Object Cache Pro optimizes the caching of complex queries/orders, especially on sites with large product catalogs, leading to faster loads on product pages while reducing database workload when retrieving product info.
- Smart Cache Expiration: Object Cache Pro intelligently manages cache expiration rules, ensuring cached data (like product prices, stock levels, or cart contents) doesn’t stay stale for too long. This is vital when product availability, price, and cart data change frequently.
- Intuitive Cache Invalidations: Object Cache Pro offers smarter cache invalidations for specific WooCommerce data objects, which is challenging to configure using Redis alone.
- Smart Cache Purging: for example, when price or availability changes, related cached data will automatically be purged, ensuring customers see the most updated information.
- WooCommerce Hook Integration: Object Cache Pro ensures cache invalidations and purging happens during specific WooCommerce events (e.g. new orders, stock changes).
4. 32 CPU Cores + 128GB RAM, 10x Monthly Visits, ∞ PHP Workers
They list most of these here and here.
- 2 x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2667 v2 @ 3.30GHz (32 Cores)
- 128GB RAM
- RAIDED NVMe SSDs (they switched in 2022 after the post was written)
- 32 CPU cores + 128GB RAM: Kinsta and SiteGround’s Jump Start cloud hosting only have 8GB RAM (16x less) and Cloudways also charges ~2.2x what’s listed on the DigitalOcean/Vultr sites. Cloudways has CPU usage problems (partly due to their bloated control panel) and SiteGround has similar issues with CPU seconds.
- No staging limits: Kinsta limits staging sites to 1 CPU core and Rapyd.cloud limits them to 2 GB RAM. Rocket.net doesn’t, meaning you’ll still have access to 32 cores.
- No PHP worker limit: Rocket.net doesn’t limit PHP workers like Kinsta/WPE/WPX. Read this case study for a site with 1M+ visitors per 60 minutes where the need to scale PHP workers was eliminated. Kinsta only has 2 PHP workers on their lowest plan and recommends WooCommerce sites start at $115/mo due to workers/visits.
- 10x more monthly visits: this is compared to Kinsta/WPE. These (and Rocket.net) all count visits which include unknown bots and users with ad blockers (~32.8% of people). Rocket.net’s starter plan has 250k/mo which means ~168,000 visitors/mo.
- 1GB memory limit: it’s 256MB on Kinsta and Servebolt and 512MB on WP Engine.
5. 4 GHz CPUs, LiteSpeed PHP, NVMe Storage
Rocket.net’s processors (Intel Xeon E5-2667 v2) have higher base/turbo frequencies than DigitalOcean Premium and Vultr High Frequency at Cloudways. SiteGround uses the Google Cloud N2 machine family which has a choice of 2 processors. While I wasn’t able to get their processor model, neither have higher clock speeds than E5 v2. Kinsta’s processors don’t either.
LiteSpeed PHP
Rocket.net uses LiteSpeed’s PHP which outperforms FastCGI (used on SiteGround/Kinsta) and FPM on Cloudways. Even PHP.net says “LSAPI is similar to FCGI, but is more efficient” and that it’s a “highly optimized API.” WordPress is built on PHP, so it’s a big performance win for Rocket.
NVMe SSDs have about 6x faster read-write speeds than SATA SSDs which are used on most shared/cloud hosts. If you’re paying $100/mo and not using NVMe storage, what are ya doin’?
These tests were done by Rocket.net using WP Hosting Benchmark. The plugin runs tests on CPU/memory, filesystem, database, object cache, and network tests (try it out)!
6. 8 Server Locations (And Does This Matter)?
Rocket.net has 8 server locations found on their status page.
They don’t own these data centers, instead, they own their own cloud. Server location hardly matters when TTFB is ~100ms globally. The main exception is if you need a location for GDPR which Ben explained in our video interview. If TTFB is slow due to poor hosting/CDN, it matters.
7. Ben Gabler
Ben’s background is one of the main reasons I tried Rocket.net in the first place. Previously COO at HostGator, Chief Product Officer at StackPath, Senior Product Manager at GoDaddy, and now CEO of Rocket.net. Ben and Patrick Gallagher (from GridPane) did an interview together at Admin Bar which is completely non-promotional and 100% informative. Totally worth watching.
8. Bandwidth Pricing
Rocket.net’s pricing is essentially by bandwidth usage.
Once you learn how much bandwidth you need, choose a plan. Then subtract the costs of add-ons, CDNs, unexpected upgrades, time dealing with bad support, and lower conversions from a slower site. I’m not here to sell you on paying more for hosting, but it’s definitely worth it for me.
Rocket.net uses soft limits, meaning they’re not going to shut down your site and lock you out of wp-admin like some hosts do, but you will eventually need to upgrade or reduce bandwidth usage. Monthly visits usually aren’t a problem considering you get 10x more than Kinsta + WPE.
9. Top-Notch Support That Actually Manages
Definitely one of the biggest complaints of “managed” hosting:
- Cloudways charges $100/mo for “advanced” support.
- Rapyd.cloud also charges $100/mo (except on Performance plans).
- SiteGround’s scope of support doesn’t get better on their cloud hosting.
- Like Cloudways/SiteGround, Kinsta/WP Engine also have lots of complaints.
- Migrations aren’t always free or reliable, and support doesn’t help with web vitals.
First off, the amount I need on Rocket.net’s support is little because everything just works. I don’t need to bug them about server crashes, downtime, plugin compatibility, CDN issues, control panel bugs, and they don’t constantly change things up by releasing buggy products prematurely. Many of these hosts can’t even “manage” to keep their own infrastructure stable.
Ben, Chad, and their team run a lot more complex sites than mine, so migrating my site was a breeze. After requesting a free migration, the only thing I did initially was upgrade PHP versions + ask support to install Redis. Besides asking about specs, I probably use support 3 times a year.
While I didn’t need help optimizing core web vitals, they will help you with it. Many of their agents have 20+ years experience. They’re obviously picky who they hire and I appreciate that.
Go read complaints in other host’s 1-2 star reviews, then start a live chat with Rocket. You’ll see.
10. Better Security On Both The Server/CDN Level
On the server level, you get Imunify360’s firewall and real-time malware scanning. Hosts like SiteGround/Cloudways use their own “custom” security instead of an established security suite. Hence, why they have security complaints in TrustPilot reviews. As soon as your site is moved to Rocket.net’s platform, it’s automatically scanned/patched for malware. No need to deal with SiteGround’s $2.99/mo Site Scanner, WAF plugin on Kinsta, or bots/security risks on Cloudways.
On the CDN level, you can monitor Cloudflare Enterprise’s WAF in Rocket.net’s dashboard which scans every request before it hits the server. You get features like DDoS mitigation, bot management, and Page Shield. They’re also one of the only cloud hosts that is PCI compliant.
They’re also more proactive:
11. Free WP Rocket License (But I Use FlyingPress)
I still use FlyingPress since it has advantages, but you also get 1 free WP Rocket license which may work better on Rocket.net (this is what Rocket.net’s team will probably steer you towards). Totally up to you! Here’s the same set up I use and I’ve confirmed several settings with Ben/Gijo:
FlyingPress
If you’re not using FlyingPress yet, it does a better job with core web vitals and real world browsing compared to WP Rocket and other optimization plugins with new features added regularly. Configure everything normally. Page caching will remain on to serve as a fallback cache in case it misses Cloudflare. Do not add Rocket.net’s CDN URL to the FlyingPress CDN settings, and there’s no need to use FlyingCDN with Cloudflare Enterprise. You can read my FlyingPress tutorial or click the thumbnails to view screenshots of settings, but you should read the tutorial since lazy render, delay JS, and preloading fonts require manual configuration.
Screenshots (click to enlarge):
Perfmatters
The only feature you’ll need is the script manager to disable plugins where they’re not being used (which helps remove unused CSS/JS) and possibly preloading Gutenberg’s CSS or other CSS/JS files. You could also use a free plugin like Asset CleanUp, but Perfmatters’ interface is cleaner. You’ll enable test mode to prevent the script manager from breaking your site by only showing changes to logged in admins. Then, start disabling plugins where they don’t need to load. Disable test mode when you’re done. Leave all other settings off (including CDN settings).
12. 100ms Global TTFB Impact On Core Web Vitals
Google says TTFB is 40% of LCP and impacts FCP + other metrics.
They also say your hosting/CDN are the 2 main ways to optimize TTFB.
So when you upgrade to both a faster host/CDN, it can improve all these:
SpeedVitals and KeyCDN both measure TTFB in multiple locations. Whatever tool you use, test your site 3 times to ensure resources are cached and served from the CDN’s closest data center.
13. $1 Your 1st Month + Unlimited Free Migrations
Getting started:
- Sign up for $1 your 1st month.
- Talk to Ben or request a Zoom demo if you need an intro.
- Benchmark your TTFB in SpeedVitals and your LCP/FCP in PSI.
- Update DNS or TXT records, or request a free migration from their team.
- Upgrade to the latest compatible PHP version, then ask support to install Redis.
- Remove any security or CDN plugins (Cloudflare Enterprise already handles this).
- Configure FlyingPress, then retest your core web vitals (specifically TTFB, LCP, FCP).
Submit your site to Chrome’s HSTS Preload list. Use that site to see if yours supports it and if not, try this plugin. Rocket.net’s support will probably do it for you, but try to do it yourself first.
14. Rocket.net vs. [Kinsta, WP Engine, Cloudways, SiteGround]
You can also search TrustPilot to see where people are moving to and from. Lots of people are moving from similar hosts to Rocket. But if you search these other host’s reviews, not 1 person moved from Rocket to Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround, or Cloudways. That tells you something!
You can search keywords like “TTFB” or “Cloudways.” to get specific reviews which tend to be more legit than generic ones often solicited by hosting companies. But as far as I can tell, all Rocket.net’s reviews are legit and usually mention something specific, like performance/TTFB.
Here’s more feedback:
I don’t write glowing reviews for everyone (just read some of my other hosting reviews). But Rocket.net stands out as arguably the best option for fast, hands-off WooCommerce hosting.
Try them for $1 your first month.
Cheers,
Tom
