Rocket.net Review (2024): Is It the Best WordPress Hosting?
4.6
Ranked 12 From 5655 Webhosting
WordPress Hosting | $30.00 – $200 |
Great Britain ✓
$30.00 / mo.
- Unique approach to hosting
- Excellent global load times
- Full performance platform
- Strong security
Our first impressions of Rocket.net
As such, we like the general “vibe” of Rocket.net. It offers managed WordPress hosting that (spoiler alert) performs very well – even better than some existing companies in the space. Even though this shouldn’t matter too much, the branding is “on-point” and the whole experience feels solid and robust.
Again, we’ll come to specifics later, but we also like the host’s pricing model, core feature offerings, and thoughtful extras.
Rocket.net Review: In this digital age where every business is operating through a website, you need to do things uniquely to make your website stand out from the competition. Your business website is your best chance at creating a web presence for a wider audience globally. However, it will work only when your website is performing well with high speed and low page loading time.
The audience will not wait around for your website and its content to load. Moreover, search engines give preference to faster websites and rank them higher. So, you need to have the perfect hosting solution that can meet these requirements.
This becomes even more essential when you have a WordPress website, given that most websites on the internet are powered by WordPress, and finding the right hosting solution that would deliver the expected performance for your WordPress website is pretty challenging.
Fortunately enough, the challenge subsided a bit with the launch of Rocket.net in 2020. Rocket.net claims to be one of the fastest-managed WordPress Hosting solutions for WordPress websites. Moreover, it has a collaboration with Cloudflare CDN that ensures almost 100% uptime for the websites hosted on Rocket.net.
Now, if you’re wondering about getting Rocket.net hosting for your platform, you must be looking out for more information. Well, you’re in the perfect place!
Coming forth is a detailed Rocket.net Review to help you understand this Managed WordPress Hosting Solution in detail and make your decision about the perfect hosting solution for your WordPress website.
Rocket.net Key Features
Rocket.net hosting, not to be confused with the WP Rocket plugin, is a new breed of managed WordPress hosting that’s powered by Cloudflare Enterprise.
We’ll talk about some of the benefits of this below, but the basic idea is that Rocket.net is different than most of the other hosts you might be familiar with because so much of its functionality lives on “the cloud”.
You get quick global load times, rock-solid security, and on-the-fly performance optimizations that eliminate the need to use performance plugins.
It’s an attractive package – but is it the best spot for your sites?
Overages and extra bandwidth
If you ever experience a peek in traffic or simply have a better month, you might find yourself exceeding your monthly allowance when it comes to your main server resources. In such cases, Rocket doesn’t force you to upgrade to a higher tier right away, but some overage charges will be imposed:
- Disk space overages: $2.00 per every additional GB
- Visitor overages: $1 per every 1,000 visitors above your allowance
- Bandwidth overages: $0.10 per every GB above your allowance
The price of Rocket.net WordPress hosting
As we’ve found when writing this Rocket.net review, Rocket actually offers 18(!) different pricing tiers of their hosting. This all depends on your needs and whether you’re looking to host your own sites or other people’s as well (e.g., in an agency model).
There are three main categories of Rocket.net hosting:
Managed Hosting: For small businesses, bloggers, and website owners in general.
Agency: Designed for agencies who’d like to host their clients’ sites.
Enterprise: For large companies or businesses that need extra hosting resources.
Here’s what you need to know about each of them:
Rocket also offers WordPress Multisite support for all plans except their Starter plan. This gives you option to host your multiple WordPress websites either as standalone installs or part of a larger Multisite setup.
Also, Starter and Pro users do not get phone support – only email and live chat.
⚡ Btw. Rocket.net is running a special launch discount. You can get the first month of any Rocket.net hosting plan for just $1 by clicking here.
Hereinbelow is an overview of the complete security analysis of Rocket.net.
Cloudflare Enterprise CDN Firewall Protection
The first instance of security on Rocket.net is from its content delivery network. Cloudflare equips the website with firewall protection, thereby keeping all the malicious bots, hackers, and attackers away from your website.
Built-in WAF
In addition to the Cloudflare Enterprise CDN WAF, Rocket.net is equipped with a built-in Immunify360 WAF that further scans and analyses all the requests coming to the website and ensures that there are no security breaches and threats whatsoever.
Malware Protection
The platform is equipped with strong malware protection software that scans the website for malware and other virus attacks and removes any malicious code or activity found on a real-time basis, thereby keeping the website secure at all times.
Free SSL Certificates
SSL certificates not only keep your website safe but also give visitors the confidence that they are using a secure network. Given that fact, Rocket.net provides unlimited free SSL certificates to keep your websites secure at all times.
So, Rocket.net has brilliant security features and functionalities, and the entire analysis shows that your website will be safe when hosted on Rocket.net.
However, one issue with the security features is that they’re all in-built and automatic. So, you will not have any control over their settings. This can act as a restriction at times. Nonetheless, everyone wants the security on their website to be top-notch, and Rocket.net ensures the same even with its automated security features and functionalities. You will hardly ever feel the need to make any manual changes to the settings anyway.
Rocket.net Pricing Review
PLAN | STARTER | PRO | BUSINESS | ENTERPRISE |
Storage | 10 GB | 20 GB | 40 GB | 50 GB |
Visits per month | 250,000 | 1 million | 2.5 million | 5 million |
WordPress Installs | 1 | 3 | 10 | 25 |
Bandwidth | 50 GB | 100 GB | 300 GB | 500 GB |
Price / mo. (billed monthly) | $30 | $60 | $100 | $200 |
Price / mo. (billed annually) | $25 | $50 | $83 | $166 |
Rocket.net offers very straightforward pricing, with no hidden promo prices or price jumps.
All of their plans are full-featured. The only difference is the resources that are available to you. The variables here are:
Number of WordPress sites
Monthly visits
Storage (disk space)
Bandwidth
Here are the prices with monthly billing:
At the time that we’re writing our Rocket.net review, they’re also offering a special promo where you can pay just $1 for your first month.
While the $30 starting price is identical to Kinsta and WP Engine, Rocket.net does have a big advantage in the resources that it gives you for that $30.
Here’s a comparison of the resources that you get on the entry-level $30 plan at all three providers:
While the other resources are identical, Rocket.net offers 10X the number of visits, which is a huge advantage if you have a high-traffic site.
There are also much higher tiers on the reseller hosting plans:
PLAN | STORAGE | WORDPRESS INSTALLS | BANDWIDTH | $ / MO. (BILLED MONTHLY) | $ / MO. (BILLED ANNUALLY) |
Tier 1 | 50 GB | 10 | 200 GB | $100 | $83 |
Tier 2 | 75 GB | 20 | 500 GB | $200 | $166 |
Tier 3 | 100 GB | 30 | 600 GB | $300 | $249 |
Tier 4 | 150 GB | 40 | 800 GB | $400 | $332 |
Tier 5 | 175 GB | 60 | 1.2 TB | $600 | $500 |
Tier 6 | 225 GB | 100 | 1.5 TB | $900 | $750 |
Tier 7 | 300 GB | 125 | 2.0 TB | $1,100 | $916 |
Tier 8 | 325 GB | 150 | 2.5 TB | $1,200 | $1,000 |
Tier 9 | 350 GB | 175 | 3.0 TB | $1,400 | $1,166 |
Tier 10 | 375 GB | 200 | 3.5 TB | $1,600 | $1,333 |
Here are the main tiers of enterprise hosting that Rocket.net offers:
PLAN | ENTERPRISE 1 | ENTERPRISE 2 | ENTERPRISE 3 | ENTERPRISE 4 |
CPU Cores | 8 | 32 | 64 | 96 |
RAM size | 64 GB | 128 GB | 256 GB | 256 GB |
NVMe storage | 1 TB | 1 TB | 2 TB | 2 TB |
Bandwidth | 1 TB | 1 TB | 2 TB | 2 TB |
Monthly billing | $649 | $1,299 | $1,949 | $2,599 |
Webhostingplanets users get an exclusive 50% off A2 Hosting’s VPS Hosting !
(this discount will be applied automatically)
VPS Disk Space 150 GB
A2 Hosting vs. HostGator
We’ve all heard that it’s impolite to brag, but when comparing hosting providers, we typically let this rule slide.
See full comparison »
Rocket.net FAQ's
How does Rocket.net caching work?
Instead of using page caching to cache your site’s pages on its local server, Rocket.net uses full-page caching and then caches those pages on the global Cloudflare Enterprise network.
Is managed WordPress Hosting better than unmanaged?
A managed WordPress plan comes with many benefits. Usually, WordPress will be installed, optimized, and secured for you. However, some hosts go a step further, providing premium features such as AI-driven plugin management and uptime monitoring. Check out our list of the best managed WordPress hosts to learn more.
Does it matter where you host your website?
The location of your site’s server matters a great deal. Visitors close to the server will enjoy faster loading times, while visitors far away may experience a long wait. Thankfully, Rocket.net features plenty of data centers throughout the world. For the best results, choose a data center close to your target audience.
Who owns Rocket.net hosting?
Rocket.net’s founder is Ben Gabler, with Josip Radan as the co-founder. Ben was formerly the Chief Product Officer at StackPath, so he knows a thing or two about serving up content from the cloud. The company’s headquarters are in West Palm Beach, Florida, but the team is located all around the world.
Is Rocket.net expensive?
Rocket.net certainly isn’t cheap, with prices rivaling some of the most expensive managed WordPress hosts. If you’re looking to save some cash, our coupon page offers great deals on our top-rated managed WordPress hosts.
Does Rocket.net include email hosting?
No, Rocket.net does not include email hosting. You’ll need to use a separate email hosting service like Google Workspace or MXroute.
Should You Use Rocket.net WordPress Hosting in 2024 and Beyond?
Now for the most important question of our Rocket.net WordPress hosting review – should you use it to host your WordPress sites?
The main reason to choose Rocket.net over similar managed WordPress hosts is if you like the way Rocket.net builds on Cloudflare Enterprise.
As we covered in the review, there are a lot of benefits to this approach:
You get very fast global load times no matter where visitors are browsing from because Rocket.net is caching full pages to Cloudflare’s global network.
Your site is protected by Cloudflare’s enterprise-level firewall.
You can benefit from Cloudflare’s other performance features such as automatic real-time image optimization, JavaScript optimization, Google Fonts optimization, and so on.
The second reason would be pricing, especially for high-traffic sites. While Rocket.net is in the same price range as other premium managed WordPress hosts like Kinsta and WP Engine, Rocket.net’s visit limits are ~10X those hosts for the same money (though the other limits are generally pretty similar).
If you have a high-traffic site, this can save you a lot of money vs using Kinsta or WP Engine.
You won’t get the benefit of Rocket.net’s Cloudflare Enterprise approach, but you can find high-performing hosts for less money. Here are some good budget options to consider:
Cloudways (our review and coupon)
Another reason could be if you prefer to go with a more established host. Again, Rocket.net has not had any issues so we don’t think this is something to worry about. However, we still feel obligated to point out that Rocket.net has been around for less than two years at the time that we’re writing our review.
If you’d prefer a more established player, you might want to go with a name like A2 Hosting (our review and coupon) or Kinsta (our review).
Pros & Cons of Using Rocket.net Hosting
Pros
- Enterprise-level CDN
- Web application firewall (WAF)
- Automatic WordPress plugin, theme, and site updates
- Around-the-clock customer support
- ISP direct peering
- Automatic WordPress database defragmentation
- Daily backup, on-demand backup, and 14-day backup retention
- Hack and malware removal
- Free SSL
Cons
- No free trials
- High cost compared to other hosts
- No support for the latest version of PHP
- No unlimited resources for plans