Rocket.net Review - The Latest WordPress Hosting Sensation

The search for the top WordPress hosting continues. Today, I present to you a relatively new player to the scene.

Despite the short amount of time Rocket.net has been around, it already offers a robust service with unique advantages. In fact, the portfolio of features impressed me so much, I decided to do a full Rocket.net review.

Want to know exactly what the provider does?

Can it outperform the big players entrenched at the top?

You don’t have to wait to find out.

Check out the review below and learn everything you need to know before trying out Rocket.net.

It might just be the best managed WordPress hosting provider for you.

What Is Rocket.net?

Rocket.net is a new company breaking out into the hosting world. It might not have that many users, but its plans indicate innovative thinking behind the scenes.

Its mission is to make the whole process as smooth as possible.  And, if you ask me, that’s just what this industry needs.

The provider focuses exclusively on managed WordPress. Putting all of its efforts into one particular specialization creates a much more optimized environment for the CMS. It’s a strategy that top-of-the-line WP web hosting services employ.

Want to know how this solution performs? Let’s dive into the review and see what it can do.

The Essentials—Speed, Uptime, and Support

I started the preparation for this Rocket.net review by testing the core aspects of the solution. The better Rocket.net performs here, the more it boosts the overall value of the service.

Let’s jump right in!

1. Rocket.net Uptime—99.99%

Uptime is the first thing you should look for in a hosting provider. A server failure takes your entire website down and is likely to anger your visitors. What you need is a solution with at least 99.9% uptime—possibly even higher for essential apps.

Coincidentally, Rocket.net likes to brag about its high uptime. I hooked up the provider to StatusCake to check these claims.

Fortunately, Rocket.net hosting exceeds all expectations. Over months of testing, it maintained near-perfect uptime, scoring upwards of 99.99%—an awesome result, all in all.

Rocket.net goes as far as guaranteeing 99.99% uptime month-to-month. The provider is quite confident in its network and it has the mettle to back it all up.

Verdict: Rocket.net has stellar uptime and assurances your website will remain up practically all the time.

2. Speed—Stellar

A quick server and a well-organized network are the basis for a fast website. Better website speeds lead to happier visitors and much higher conversion rates.

Most users who left Rocket.net reviews praise the speeds and even say they are higher than any other host can offer.

As soon as I got my Rocket.net login details, I set up a basic WP installation and ran a series of tests. I collected metrics on everything from server response times to the average time to load a whole page.

And, I have to say, Rocket.net doesn’t disappoint.

The servers record an average TTFB of 0.286 seconds from multiple locations around the US, which is satisfactory. It can deliver content with little latency across significant geographical distances.

Where all the managed WordPress hosting optimization really pays off, though, is the time to load a full page. It takes only 0.64 seconds to load up a basic one. That’s fast enough to take on speed demons like Kinsta and SiteGround!

All in all, Rocket.net proves to be among the fastest hosting services out there.

Verdict: Rocket.net has decent response times and is one of the fastest providers on the Web.

3. Support—Solid

While high speeds are important for giving your website a boost, support is essential in case of emergencies. You’ll want to go with a WordPress provider that replies quickly and has well-trained staff with real hands-on experience.

I contacted Rocket.net’s support multiple times to see what kind of WP help it offers. I asked them all sorts of questions related to WordPress caching, server configuration, and supported technologies.

It quickly became clear that Rocket.net continues the tradition of smaller independent providers offering quality customer service. I received a quick and informative answer every time and the Rocket.net support team never failed to address my issue.

Unfortunately, the knowledge base is a bit slim. It only contains 28 articles, which, admittedly, do an excellent job explaining how to use the basics. For anything else hosting or WordPress-related, you would have to do a bit of Googling.

Verdict: Rocket.net offers attentive and proficient support, though the knowledge base could be expanded.

The Pros of Rocket.net

Phew, that was quite a ride. This Rocket.net review has been extremely positive so far, but there’s more to the service than just the basics.

Let’s see how the provider performs with more advanced functions.

1. Great Global Infrastructure

Rocket.net’s speeds are among the most impressive aspects about it, but that’s only half the story. The company implements a ton of features to ensure nothing but the top speeds regardless of your location.

For starters, it has servers in 20 different places. Admittedly, most are in the US. However, the WordPress host still has a presence in three European countries, as well as Sydney and Tokyo.

That alone is enough to get Rocket.net low latency around the world. But that’s not all!

Rocket.net rents its server space inside internet exchanges. These are places where network operators, like internet service providers, exchange data with one another.

Positioning servers there and partnering with various carriers lets Rocket.net deliver web pages quickly regardless of the client’s ISP. This allows for much faster speeds around the world.

Rocket.net hosting also uses Cloudflare Enterprise, letting it deliver cached content from 200+ locations around the world. This gives an extra boost to content delivery times, especially when your users are far from the original servers.

The infrastructure is not only fast but also great for targeting users all around the world.

2. Heavily Optimized for WordPress

Rocket.net has a singular mission—to make WordPress as powerful as possible. As you can expect, there are a ton of features specifically for that purpose.

For starters, you get automatic updates across the board. You can enable them for WordPress core, themes, or plugins in one click. Unfortunately, the Rocket.net control panel doesn’t allow you to choose which specific plugins to auto-update, which more advanced users might enjoy.

It takes almost no effort to spin up WP websites. You just need to enter some basic info and you’re good to go.

A nice touch is that Rocket.net asks you to set up your WordPress login credentials before deploying. This stops anyone from trying to exploit the default logins if you don’t change them in time.

The provider takes care of some extra tasks, like defragmenting your database and applying various security patches. This is fairly technical work that should make your site more reliable.

Rocket hosting installs some handy plugins automatically. This includes OptinMonster, WPForms, Google Analytics, and Akismet—generally useful stuff.

You can log into the WordPress admin directly from the client dashboard, making everything even faster.

The service helps you get the most out of WP effortlessly.

3. User-Friendly Interface

The first thing you see when you sign up for Rocket.net is its custom control panel. In fact, this is what most Rocket.net reviews praise.

The interface is very clean, with the main dashboard giving you the most important stats about your sites. Finding a particular site, handling billing, or contacting support takes only a few clicks.

The provider strives to let users manage as much as possible from its own dashboard instead of the WP one. You can change themes, manage plugins, and much more from here and with less effort.

From the panel, you can also handle standard managed WordPress hosting features like backups, reporting, database and PHP configuration, cron jobs, etc. It essentially does everything you would need cPanel for and more.

All in all, it’s a straightforward solution that does the job well.

4. Very Secure

It’s always key to choose the most secure hosting setup possible, especially if you operate with sensitive data.

Rocket.net relies on Cloudflare for its enterprise-grade firewall and DDoS protection. The CDN will protect your website from suspicious traffic.

But that’s not all. Rocket hosting implements Imunify360, which is the top OpSec tool for web hosts. It monitors your site for security vulnerabilities while catching spam and blacklisting malicious IP addresses.

The platform frequently scrubs your website and everything uploaded to it for malware. Rocket.net even guarantees it will remove any present malware when you migrate your site, which only a few best WordPress hosting providers do.

If you need to process sensitive data, Rocket.net has automatic PCI-compliance assistance. You don’t need extra WooCommerce plugins to process the data securely.

If you’d like to get a nice overview of everything, Rocket.net offers comprehensive security reports. They are very easy to read and can give even beginners a pretty good idea of what’s going on.

5. Unlimited Migrations

If you’re not a server expert, it’s a real pain to migrate a website. All hosting services run different configs, which can really mess up the functionality of your website once you move it.

Fortunately, Rocket.net can help you out. The WordPress web hosting provider offers unlimited free WordPress migrations. No matter if you run one big website or an agency with dozens of sites, you can move the entire operation for free.

The host will handle the migration in a few minutes to a few hours. There is no downtime—you can move without risk.

The migrations are a generous addition for those managing existing websites.

6. Superb Speed Optimization

Rocket.net doesn’t specifically optimize usability and security. I tested the overall server speeds, but the WordPress hosting service includes so many other technologies for even more of a boost.

For one, there is very robust caching. When enabled, it can increase static content delivery manifold. The provider goes as far as caching Google Fonts scripts into its CDN to eliminate the wait time when requesting the data.

It also uses Brotli compression instead of regular Gzip. Many companies turn to Brotli for its improved compression of static data and Rocket.net joins that bunch.

And that’s without even taking into account the robust CDN, latest PHP version, image optimization, and other features Rocket.net adds.

You can expect excellent speeds from the Rocket.net WordPress services, even with demanding websites.

7. Free Daily Backups

Backups are your lifeline in case a website breaks or something happens with the server.

The WordPress host does nightly backups, ensuring you’ll always have a recent point to roll back to. Even though the backups are free, it retains the past 14 copies of your site, which is double what you normally get.

You’ll also find an entire section of the client dashboard dedicated to backups. You can make on-demand backups, browse past snapshots, and choose which one you potentially want to restore.

All in all, the way Rocket.net handles the backup portion is very smooth and effective.

8. Optimized for Agencies

If you build websites for others and want to throw hosting into your packages, Rocket.net has an attractive offer. In fact, many positive Rocket.net reviews are left by agencies.

For one, the admin dashboard is designed to allow access to multiple users. Even if you run a massive agency, employees can work simultaneously through their own subaccounts.

It only takes a single click to clone a website to a staging environment. You can make all the changes you need and only push them to production when needed.

Then there are all the standard features devs need when setting up a website on Rocket.net, baked right into the control panel. This covers git support, database optimization tools, cron, file management, and more. The provider can even automate some optimization procedures for you.

9. Discounted Deals and Money-Back Guarantee

Rocket.net sells high-end premium hosting, but it still tries to incentivize new buyers with discounts.

If you go for annual payments, you’ll get between $5 and $34 off the monthly price for the life of your subscription. It’s a small discount relative to the total cost, but it’s a nice bonus if you can prepay for a longer period.

If you prefer more manageable payments, Rocket.net has another treat. Your first month will cost only $1, whichever plan you pick. That is by far the largest Rocket.net discount—$199!

Additionally, Rocket.net offers the standard 30-day refund policy. It gives you a nice chance to start out with an annual deal and still try out the platform risk-free.

10. Decent Reputation

Rocket.net is still pretty fresh, but it does have a few dozen positive Rocket.net reviews. Most of them praise the speed of the platform and the user-friendliness. The technical team even got a bit of a reputation for handling migrations very quickly.

There are really no negative comments yet. So far, Rocket.net is doing everything right.

The Cons of Rocket.net

Rocket.net sure is a reliable service, but there are a few things to watch out for. Here’s what I found out during the making of this Rocket.net review.

1. No Email or Domain Names

Most companies aimed at beginners take care of a few non-hosting services as well. That way, new users can get hosting, domain management, and emailing all in a single control panel.

Not Rocket.net, though. The provider focuses solely on that one aspect, so there are no domains, premium Rocket.net SSL certificates, or email hosting from a separate company.

Now, this isn’t a con per se. In fact, many users prefer to get their services separately so they can get the best quality and prices. Also, it makes it tougher for a provider to lock you in.

Still, if you prefer getting everything in a single big package, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

2. Relatively Pricey

Rocket.net does have pretty good discounts. However, the starting WordPress hosting costs are quite high.

The cheapest you can get is $25/month—and that’s with annual payments. That’s a pretty high entry cost compared to shared hosts starting between $3 and $6 per month.

Now, Rocket.net does offer much more resources, powerful infrastructure, and features. This makes the deals absolutely worth it if you can take advantage of the improved performance, stability, and ease of use.

If you’re a first-time blogger, though, a more affordable WordPress hosting service might be a better choice.

3. Misleading Visitor Caps

Rocket.net lists the maximum number of monthly visitors you can get per account, which is pretty standard. The numbers are quite high, too, ranging from 250,000 to 5,000,000, depending on the plan.

The issue is that you’re unlikely to ever reach these limits. Rocket.net WordPress hosting imposes an additional cap on bandwidth, ranging from 50GB to 500GB.

If you do the math, to reach the viewer caps, your page size on the smallest plan would have to be 200Kb and each visitor would only get to see one page of your website. The largest plan brings it down even further to 100Kb page size.

That’s pretty tough to achieve since even a lightweight website has at least 500Kb per page. Even worse, most websites are somewhere around twice or four times that.

Now, 50GB is by no means bad. WP Engine, for instance, has almost the same bandwidth caps. However, the proposed number of visitors on WP Engine is ten times lower (and more realistic).

Again, the resources can take you quite far, but it’s important not to get misled by some of the claims.

Rocket.net Pricing at a Glance

Rocket.net provides four tiers and one custom option.

Do We Recommend Rocket.net?

Absolutely!

Rocket.net has the right mix of innovation and powerful features you want in a new hosting provider.

It makes it extremely easy to manage WordPress and WooCommerce sites and is one of the fastest and most secure solutions. On top of that, while making the Rocket.net review, I found it to be great for beginners, devs, and agencies alike.

It’s worth pointing out that this is a premium service with a ton of benefits but also a higher cost. It’s more suitable for experienced users and online merchants than first-time bloggers.

Still, young as it is, Rocket.net is doing everything right, as evidenced by the testing data from this 2022 Rocket.net review. If you like rooting for the underdog, Rocket.net is the company to keep an eye on.