Rocket.net Review and Benchmarks 2025

Rocket.net is the popular entrant in the ever growing Managed WordPress hosting space.   Unlike typical Rocket.net reviews which talk about specification and features, our review puts Rocket.net through a standardized benchmark testing along with its competitors to determine whether they’re really worth the hype.

As a part of our benchmarking, I bought a Rocket.net starter plan in October 2020, installed a test site and started measuring its performance. For this Rocket.net review, I have considered the performance data from January 1, 2024 to December 31,2024, thus providing you the data about how Rocket.net performs in real world conditions.

Quick Verdict

Performance Snapshots:

• TTFB(Server Response Time): 335ms (Elite tier)
• Uptime: 99.99% 
• Load Test: Not available
• WPBench: 8.1/10
• Global TTFB: 177ms

Testing Methodology:

• Test Plan: Starter plan ($30/month)
• Testing Period: January 1, 2024 – December 31, 2024.
• Test site Configuration: WordPress Twenty Twenty-Four Theme with essential plugins.
• View Our hosting purchase invoice

Pros of using Rocket.net

Fastest TTFB (Including Global TTFB)

When it comes to TTFB Speed, Rocket.net is exceptional. Based on year long data obtained from our test site, Rocket.net recorded an average TTFB of 335ms, ranking at #1 out of 17 WordPress hosts we’ve benchmarked so far. To put this in perspective, Rocket.net is faster than its competitors like WP Engine (462ms) and Kinsta (466ms).

The other thing that sets Rocket.net apart is their global TTFB performance. Tested from 40 global locations, Rocket.net got an impressive score of 177ms, top scorer among all our hosts. These impressive results are due to their integration with Cloudflare Enterprise, which is the best version of Cloudflare CDN. While other hosts say they use Cloudflare, we don’t know which version of Cloudflare they talk about. Rocket.net Cloudflare Enterprise integration gives you access to all Cloudflare edge networks, resulting in faster page load times for its visitors.

Reliable Uptime (99.99%)

Uptime testing is my favourite part of benchmarks because we consider 1-year of uptime data rather than a week or month, bringing you the most accurate reliability score of a company. The test sites are set to measure the uptime 24/7 from 22 North American locations and the results are impressive.

In the last 365 days, Rocket.net maintained an uptime of 99.99% with only one minute of total downtime. They scored a similar uptime in the last four years, making them a consistent performer in the uptime test.

Offers WP Rocket Plugin for Free

One of the most interesting developments with Rocket.net is the addition of WP Rocket plugin free for its customers. WP Rocket, which usually costs $49/year for a single site, goes beyond a traditional caching plugin and helps you to do a series of WordPress optimizations. 

This addition made Rocket.net more valuable because most hosts include a premium caching plugin for free, all they include a simple caching plugin just to enable/disable the caching.

Excellent WPBench Scores

When it comes to test raw hardware performance, I use WPBenchmark plugin to see how hosts handle different types of operations like CPU, Memory, database and Network. Rocket.net have scored 8.1/10 putting them in the elite category.

Lets benchmark their score to other premium hosts:

• Rocket.net: 8.1/10
• Kinsta: 8.5/10
• SiteGround: 8.3/10
• Hostinger: 8.0/10

Rocket.net scores are impressive, however, they’re slightly behind Kinsta’s 8.5/10 and SiteGround 8.3/10. The differences are minimal and not noticeable in real-world usage.

Load Handling?

Unlike my other reviews of WP Engine and Kinsta where I could run load tests, Rocket.net security measures prevented our load test. So, we couldn’t evaluate how good their load performance was compared to WP Engine and Kinsta, though I believe it should be good but we don’t have absolute numbers.

Cons of using WP Rocket

Not a clean WordPress installation

During my testing, one thing about Rocket.net that concerned me is their approach to WordPress installations. If you are setting up a new site, they automatically enable you to install several third party plugins.

Though, they do provide an option to disable these plugin installations, they are absolutely not necessary to do at first step. These plugins might be popular but what they do offer is a basic free version and when installed the WordPress dashboard is queued up with a list of notifications to upgrade to its premium versions.

These installations are more of a business partnership rather than a user’s needs. It also adds unnecessary bloat, slowing down the site, despite Rocket.net offering a faster service. Comparing this to WP Engine and Kinsta, they offer clean installations, choose exactly what you need to have.

Rocket.net Plans and Pricing

Features at a glance

We have listed the most common features in a simple list instead of covering them under the pros and cons section.

Site Migrations: Unlimited site migrations done manually. Get an account, request a free migration through their dashboard, and the migration will be completed by the team.

Backups: Stored for 14 days irrespective of the plan.

Data center locations: Dallas, Ashburn, Phoenix, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Singapore, Sydney

CDN: Cloudflare Enterprise

Conclusion

After years of continuous monitoring of Rocket.net, I have to say, I’m thoroughly impressed with everything, be it pricing, performance and features. 

Their TTFB performance is top notch throughout the globe, making the initial page load faster, enabling faster user experience and also helps with core web vitals score. The recent addition of WP Rocket is unexpected, making their pricing even attractive.

You can’t get a free domain, email hosting, etc., on similar lines with other Managed WordPress hosts, so nothing to complain here. Their dashboard is simple and neat but not comparable to industry standard with many advanced features missing.

Should you use Rocket.net? If you are looking for a high performance hosting and tired of all other hosting solutions, then they’re a solid choice. Their combination of Clouflare Enterprise itself brings value for the money spent by you. However, if you are looking to enjoy the premium Managed WordPress hosting features, then go with WP Engine or Kinsta.