Finding a reliable web hosting provider is crucial for the success of any website. I’ve been using CloudWays hosting last 1.8 years now and have decided to move to Rocket.net hosting service. In this article, I will delve into these reasons and explain why Rocket.net emerged as the optimal choice for my hosting needs.
Table of Contents
1. Rising Hosting Pricing
One of the main reasons for my departure from CloudWay’s hosting was the sudden increase in hosting prices. After DigitalOcean acquired CloudWays hosting, they increased hosting pricing up to 10% – 22%.
I’m using CloudWays Vultr HF 2GB server which costs me $26 for hosting & $5 for Cloudflare Enterprise CDN (without Edge Page Caching and fewer challenge pages). After DigitalOcean’s accusation, I’ve to pay $31/month for the Vultr server and $5/month for CDN.
Not only that, CloudWays also decided to remove Vultr and Linode cloud servers. These were popular server options that offered flexibility and performance advantages. I’ve been using the Vultr server, and a sudden increase in pricing & server removal made it difficult for me to justify the cost, especially considering the value I was receiving in return. This prompted me to explore alternative options, leading me to Rocket.net.
Rocket.net hosting costs me $25/month and it also includes Cloudflare Enterprise CDN. Unlike Cloudways, Rocket.net serves 0 challenge pages to logged-out users with Edge Page Caching. Also, you can start using Rocket.net hosting for $1 for the first month to test how it works (you Don’t have to worry Rocket.net offers free site migrations).
Note: I found Rocket.net full edge page caching on average loaded 58% faster compared to pages that were served with Cloudflare partial caching enabled.
2. Slow Time To First Byte (TTFB)
TTFB stands for Time to First Byte. TTFB is a foundational metric for the measurement of how long the browser has to wait before receiving its first byte of data from your hosting server.
To put it simply, fast TTFB means your website loads faster. Generally, TTFB under 100 ms is great, but Google recommends under 200 ms for server response time. If your website hosting server TTFB is under 100 ms is not only good for your website performance, but it can also improve overall Google’s ranking.
Unfortunately, in recent times CloudWays consistently displayed slow TTFB, leading to sluggish website performance and Google core web vitals. Even though I’m using the premium cache plugin WP Rocket, & the fastest WordPress theme like GeneratePress on my website.
That’s why, after some research & Tom Dupuis’s recommendation, I decided to give Rocket.net hosting a try. And I must say, Rocket.net employs a finely tuned hosting infrastructure that ensures low TTFB and faster website loading times, enhancing my website user experience.
After moving to Rocket.net, my website’s global average TTFB is <100ms. I measured my website TTFB in 10 global locations using KeyCDN, here’s the result:
Rocket.net all plans come with the fastest NVMe SSDs, Redis Object Cache Pro, and Cloudflare Enterprise CDN with 32 CPU cores + 128GB RAM. So, you don’t have to worry about performance-related issues.
3. Constant Server-Related Issues & Mediocre Support
Another factor that played a significant role in my decision was the quality of CloudWay’s hosting support. Most of the time, I love to solve my website problems myself. I rarely used hosting support.
However, before moving to Rocket.net hosting, my website frequently faces server-related issues that can severely impact website performance. And when I contact CloudWays support, it takes hours to fix some server-related issues like 5XX errors.
I’m not saying that CloudWay’s support is completely useless. However, they lack the expertise required to resolve complex server-related issues. This left me frustrated and seeking a hosting provider that could offer more reliable and knowledgeable support, which I found in Rocket.net.
Final Thoughts
In recent years, I’ve used Kinsta, CloudWays, WPX, WP Engine, and SiteGround for my website. However, Rocket.net has proven to be a superior managed WordPress hosting provider, offering reasonable pricing, reliable support, exceptional server performance, free Cloudflare enterprise-grade CDN, with a user-friendly control panel. The switch has undoubtedly improved my website’s performance, user experience, and overall business outcomes.
That’s all. If you are looking for reliable managed WordPress hosting, I strongly recommend you to use Rocket.net hosting. If you have any questions related to CloudWays or Rocket.net let me know in the comment section.
Thank you. Have a nice day.
Excellent article! Will check out rocket net.