Rocket.net Review 2023: Fast and Secure, but Is That Enough?
There has been a lot of attention surrounding Rocket.net, a WordPress hosting company. Having tried numerous web hosting companies in the past and after being disappointed with my last one, I was referred to Rocket.net by Nico, a friend who hosts sites with thousands of visitors each day.
After testing out their services and hosting my website with them, I will share with you in this review article my experience with Rocket.net.
Rocket.net overview
Rocket.net is a WordPress hosting platform that combines security, performance, and reliability to provide the ultimate hosting experience. With Rocket.net, you get a state-of-the-art hosting infrastructure optimized for WordPress, lightning-fast site speeds, and a variety of plans to fit your needs - whether you're a blogger, an agency, or a large enterprise.
Based in the US, the company was founded in 2020 by Ben Gabler, who has over 20 years of experience in the hosting industry. His vision is to provide a high-performance and secure WordPress hosting solution.
He saw a need in the market for a hosting platform that could offer reliable and stable hosting services with top-notch customer support while also being scalable and affordable. With Rocket.net, he aimed to simplify the hosting experience for WordPress users and to make it easy for them to manage their websites and focus on their core business activities.
Why did I switch to Rocket.net?
One of the worst fears of a blogger is to have his website down. It's a nightmare scenario where your hard work can be erased in just a few hours because search engines perceive your site as "dead." This nightmare became a reality for my friend Nico when his site went down for a few hours. It took a whole year to recover his usual volume of traffic.
My websites had previously been hosted at Siteground, but I moved them to Johnny VPS and was very satisfied with their performance. That is, until the day I renewed my subscription, and their invoice system didn't detect the payment. I contacted them about the issue, but all of my sites were down a few days later.
Here is what the homepage of all my sites looked like…
Thankfully, I was on my phone when I received an e-mail alert telling me my websites were down. I immediately paid a second time, hoping it would resolve the situation, which it did after about twenty minutes of downtime. I contacted support for a refund because I paid two times and to report this huge error that could have cost me my business. They took days to answer to this critical situation…
Then, I realized the importance of reactive customer support for my business.
After sharing my experience with my friend, who manages numerous sites with high traffic, he told me that it wasn't normal and recommended that I switch to a more reliable host. He told me about Rocket.net, a hosting company with a solid reputation, and I decided to switch.
What happened after my switch to Rocket.net?
When I switched to Rocket.net, I had the option to choose the location of my server. They offer several cities in the US, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Singapore, and Sydney.
I then had the option to request the migration of my site. It was well done and very fast. In less than an hour, my site was running on the new server with zero downtime.
Rocket.net is a top choice to host your WordPress websites thanks to its amazing performance that outperforms all competitors, and its impressive customer service.
I tested customer support by contacting them to get an invoice in my company's name. The response time via online chat was impressively fast, and the person assisting me could send the invoice within just a few minutes.
And when it comes to site performance, I was pleasantly surprised to see a huge improvement:
My site is now loading four times faster than it did before I made the switch to Rocket.net. My speed metrics have been significantly improved, which is excellent news for my readers and the site's SEO.
Security and data
If you browse my
Rocket.net offers multiple security layers to protect your website from threats such as DDoS attacks, malware, and hackers. They also include a free SSL certificate with all hosting plans, which helps to encrypt data transmitted between your website and visitors. This is important for keeping sensitive information, such as login credentials and payment details, safe and secure.
In addition, Rocket.net offers advanced security features such as DDoS protection, malware scans, automatic backups, and website firewalls. This multi-layered approach helps to safeguard websites against a wide range of threats.
Every day, automatic backups of your site are made. If one day you have a big problem on your site, you can always restore one of these backups.
Rocket.net takes security very seriously and implements measures to ensure their customers' websites are safe and secure. Obviously, you can enable 2-factor authentication to log in, and I would recommend to anyone to enable this option.
Pricing
When it comes to web hosting, there are so many different options and plans out there that it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. I went with the "Starter" plan offered by Rocket.net. It costs $25 a month, and it gives me everything I need to get started - 1 hosted site, up to 250,000 visitors a month, 10GB of storage, and 50GB of bandwidth.
It's been an excellent choice for me so far, and I'm getting a lot of value for my money, even if it's the same price as my previous host, where I could have several sites hosted. As you can see on the "What happened after my switch to Rocket.net?" part, I have gained a lot in performance, and I have traffic peaks with 500 visitors connected simultaneously, which are not a problem for Rocket.net.
If you want to host multiple sites, you'll need to upgrade to the Pro plan, which costs $50 per month and can host up to three websites. The Business plan is available for $83/month and can host up to 10 sites, with a capacity of up to 2,500,000 visitors/month.
All plans include:
- Free migrations
- Free SSL
- CDN (Cloudflare enterprise)
- Malware protection
- WAF (Website firewall)
- Automated daily backups with 14 days of retention
For agencies, plans with no visitor limit allow you to host your clients' sites directly on Rocket.net. Finally, the Enterprise category is designed for large businesses requiring high-performance hosting services with maximum stability, especially for high traffic volume.
Performance
This is the part that really caught me off guard. My site's speed has skyrocketed across the globe since making the switch to Rocket.net. I opted for the London server, but my website speed is excellent everywhere, thanks to the Cloudflare Enterprise CDN included in every Rocket.net hosting.
Check out the screenshot below showcasing my TTFB test results with Speedvitals conducted in 40 locations. As you can see, my site is accessible in an instant from virtually any corner of the world.
My average TTFB with Rocket.net is clocking in at a sweet 186 ms. And since it's well under the 200 ms benchmark, we're talking excellent performance here, folks. The only downside is that the results are more average in Africa and Asia, with an average TTFB of around 312 ms. But that's to be expected. However, the best TTFB I got was in Tokyo with 49 ms!
On other testing tools like PageSpeed Insights, I also have stellar results.
A few days ago, I implemented a monitor using UptimeRobot to perform regular checks on my site's uptime every five minutes (using the free version). If there are any issues, the monitor is designed to send me an e-mail alert. I am pleased to report that since its implementation, my site has experienced no downtime. It is also an excellent testament to the stability of Rocket.net's hosting services.
Support
Let's talk about customer support at Rocket.net. If you look at all the reviews, whether it's Trustpilot or good old-fashioned comment sections of the review articles, one thing becomes crystal clear: Rocket.net support is top-notch. And let me tell you, based on my personal experience, I couldn't agree more.
In the two times I've had to reach out for support - once to request a site migration and another time to get an invoice - the response time was really fast. They've got this online chat system that's super convenient, and I got a response within a minute both times. They resolved my requests with ease and promptly, leaving me feeling like my business was in good hands.
My friend Nico had a similar experience, and even with the different time zones, you can contact them at any time, they are reactive.
Pros & Cons
Pros of Rocket.net
Free migrations: When you move from one hosting company to another, migrating your sites can be a hassle. When you move to Rocket.net, you can ask them to migrate any of your sites by giving them access to your WordPress dashboard. They migrate quickly (less than 30 minutes for me) correctly!
Fast: I have tested several hosts but never had a site as fast as Rocket.net. I have over 90% score on all metrics sites, and thanks to Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, my site is fast everywhere.
Secure: Rocket.net is very secure; each plan has a WAF (Website firewall) and anti-malware protection. You can also activate the connection by double authentication so that only you can access your dashboard.
Staging: Rocket.net's staging environment is easy to set up and manage. You can create a staging site with just a few clicks from your dashboard, and once it's set up, you can use it to test any changes before pushing them live. This is a significant pro for Rocket.net as it provides a safety net for website owners who want to make changes or updates to their site without the risk of downtime or broken pages.
Customer support: When you host your website with a hosting company, you like to have quick answers when you have questions. Rocket.net's customer support is excellent, and you get quick replies to all your questions... which is not the case with all hosting companies. This is one of the main reasons why I switched to Rocket.net.
Cons of Rocket.net
No free domain: Most hosting companies offer a free domain name for their new customers. Note that this is not the case with Rocket.net.
Mail support: If you want to switch to Rocket.net, but you have e-mails to migrate, you should know that you will have to take an additional service like Google Workspace or Zoho to host your e-mails. Because Rocket.net does not support professional e-mail hosting. This is a big drawback and I had to migrate my e-mails to Zoho. It's free and you have a paid option (less than 2$ per month) that I took to connect my e-mail on my computer's e-mail software.
Just one site for the first plan: For $25 per month, you will only be able to host one website at Rocket.net, and you will have to upgrade to the $50 per month offer to host 3 sites.
FAQ
Which hosting is better: Rocket.net or Kinsta?
Rocket.net is a newer web hosting provider, while Kinsta is a more established web hosting. But Rocket.net is a better option than Kinsta for two main reasons. First, in terms of price, Rocket.net beats Kinsta, as the $25 per month plan is the equivalent of Kinsta's $35 plan. Secondly, Rocket.net has the Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, which is superior to Kinsta's CDN. This will give your sites better performances than with Kinsta.
Which hosting is better: Rocket.net or Cloudways?
The primary distinction between Rocket.net and Cloudways is speed and hardware resources. Rocket.net boasts significantly more cores and RAM than Cloudways, with 32 cores and 128GB of RAM, versus Cloudways' cheapest plan, which offers only one core and 1GB of RAM. This translates to improved performance and faster load times on Rocket.net's hosting platform. Another important point emphasized by many users who switched from Cloudways to Rocket.net is that customer support is much better at Rocket.net. On the other hand, Cloudways is more flexible and affordable and will be better suited for smaller budgets.
Conclusion
After experiencing issues with my previous hosting, I switched to Rocket.net, a reliable and secure WordPress hosting platform. Rocket.net impressed me with its fast site speeds, efficient customer support, and advanced security features, making it an excellent choice for bloggers and business owners.
What I like the most about Rocket.net is the performance, the Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, and the fantastic customer support. Overall, I highly recommend Rocket.net to anyone looking for a top-notch hosting service.
He writes about online privacy, is constantly testing VPNs (both new and existing services) and is very interested in the difficulties of accessing certain sites and content in different regions.
In addition to his interest in VPNs, he is also a big fan of cinema and sports.
- Fastest WordPress hosting
- Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
- Stellar customer support
- Free website migrations
