Are you considering using the WP Rocket cache plugin on your WordPress website? Excellent, in this WP Rocket review, we’ll take a deep look into the inner workings of the WP Rocket Cache plugin.
We examine WP Rocket features, real-time website performance, and speed optimization options, look into the pricing, and finish by giving you our opinion on whether or not it’s worth the investment.
WP Rocket started in 2013 and quickly became one of the most popular WordPress cache plugins. Right now, WP Rocket is used by over 3 million websites to make their WordPress website faster and optimize for the Core Web Vitals.
Apart from caching, WP Rocket offers several features like Database optimization, CDN integration, Heartbeat control, etc. In this WP Rocket review, we mainly focus on the pros & cons of using it with some performance test results. In case you’re looking for how to set up WP Rocket plugin, here’s a guide I made for best performance.
So, let’s get started.
Table of Contents
- WP Rocket Performance
- Pros of Using WP Rocket
- 1: User-Friendly Interface
- 2: Caching
- 3: Database Optimization
- 4: CSS/JS Optimization
- 5: CDN Integration
- 6: Heartbeat Control
- 7: Support & Documentation
- Cons of Using WP Rocket
- 1: WP Rocket Can’t host fonts & analytics locally
- 2: Remove Unused CSS needs improvements
- 3: RocketCDN lacks features & expensive
- 4: A few other things you need to know
- WP Rocket Pricing
- FAQs about WP Rocket
- What is WP Rocket used for?
- Is WP Rocket free?
- How much does WP Rocket cost?
- Is WP Rocket any good?
- How to enable gzip compression in a WP Rocket?
- Final Thoughts on WP Rocket Review
WP Rocket Performance
No one likes slow-loading websites. WP Rocket claims that by installing their plugin you can improve your website loading time by up to 80%.
What WP Rocket forgets to mention is that to achieve 80% speed improvement, you need fast-managed WordPress hosting, a lightweight theme, boat-free installed plugins, & image optimization, a good CDN, etc.
When I test my website performance with WP Rocket, my goal isn’t to reach 80% performance improvement. Rather, I mainly focus on core web vitals results. To check Core Web Vitals score you need to run your website on PageSpeed Insights. If you don’t know what core web vital is, here’s a quick explanation:
Core Web Vitals is a new initiative from Google, designed to measure a site’s performance connected to delivering a high-quality user experience. Instead of focusing on generic performance metrics like website loading time, Core Web Vitals focus on three metrics that measure speed, interactivity, and visual stability.
To test WP Rocket’s performance, I used CloudWays hosting with GeneratePress theme, Cloudflare free CDN, & ShortPixel image optimization plugin. Here’s the result:
Note: Right now, if you run this website on PSI, you’ll see this website does not qualify for core web vitals (the reason is simply a lack of organic traffic after a major Google update).
That’s all for Core Web Vitals results, now take a look at Website speed before & after comparison to see whether I can see an 80% improvement. Here’s my website loading time before & after configuring the WP Rocket cache plugin.
As you can see, my website speed decreased from 0.7sec to 1.7sec. This is a great improvement in my opinion, but as you can see it’s not 80% but good enough for my website’s overall user experience.
Now, take a look at the list of improvements after using the WP Rocket cache plugin on my website:
- PageSpeed score: increased by 21%
- GTMetrix Score: 100% (increased from 97%)
- Core Web Vital Score: 384ms (down from 720ms)
- Fully loaded time: 0.7 seconds (down from 1.7 seconds)
- Time to first byte (TTFB): 302ms (down from 702ms)
- Total page size: 289 KB (down from 610 KB)
- Requests: 6 (down from 14)
As I said, website loading time depends on various things. Just installing the WP Rocket plugin can’t improve website speed by 80%. But, if you choose to use Good hosting with a lightweight theme on your website, I can guarantee you that after installing WP Rocket you can see a significant performance improvement.
Pros of Using WP Rocket
I’ve been using WP Rocket for the last 6 years to optimize my site performance. Here are a few advantages of using the WP Rocket cache plugin on your WordPress website.
1: User-Friendly Interface
One main reason people use WP Rocket is its easy-to-use interface. Around 2016-17, WP Rocket became very popular, because they were the first to bring a full-featured and easy-to-use caching plugin to the users.
Still today, most of the free caching plugins like W3 total cache are poorly designed & hard to configure for the average user. On the other hand, WP Rocket featured a beautiful UI with enough options for speed optimization. It’s no wonder why WP Rocket is used by 3 million websites.
If you’re concerned about whether you have the technical skills to optimize your site performance, don’t worry WP Rocket simplifies enabling and managing caching for WordPress websites without needing any technical skill set.
When it comes to taking a more hands-on approach, the WP Rocket dashboard & settings are nicely organized and accompanied by clear explanations that are displayed within the user interface.
2: Caching
When you are looking for a speed optimization guide, “caching” is one of the most common terms you have heard about. In simple terms caching means, “Caching is the process of storing copies of files in a temporary storage location so that they can be accessed more quickly to improve website and system performance”.
Now before we go any further, let’s discuss the types of caching first. WordPress usually uses three types of caching: Site Cache (Page Caching), Browser Cache, & Server Cache. And you don’t need to know anything about caching to improve your site performance.
By installing WP Rocket plugin, you can instantly cache your website. In addition, you can enable caching for mobile devices and logged-in WordPress users and set cache lifespan (specify when cache will be cleared automatically), etc.
3: Database Optimization
WordPress database is your website’s backbone, storing crucial information such as posts, pages, user data, comments, settings, plugins, and theme-related data. In other words, just about everything that makes up your site is located within its database.
WordPress database repositories can become cluttered with redundant data, unused tables, and bloated files over time, leading to poor site performance and hurting your search rankings. Optimizing your WordPress database is not only good practice, but it’s a necessity for most sites because it directly impacts your site’s performance, speed, and reliability.
WP Rocket made Database optimization easy for you. With a single click, you can remove all outdated post data, trashed posts, spam comments, expired Transients, & optimize database tables. You can also schedule automatic database cleanup, so you don’t have to manually clean up every week/month.
4: CSS/JS Optimization
Minifying your WordPress CSS and JavaScript files can make them load faster and speed up your WordPress site instantly. WP Rocket can help you with CSS & JS optimization easily with a few clicks.
WP Rocket several types of CSS/JS optimization:
- Minify CSS/JS files: It reduces overall CSS & JS file sizes by removing comments, white spaces, semicolons, and redundant code to ensure that the files are parsed through and delivered as quickly as possible.
- Optimize CSS Delivery: It automatically generates critical path CSS for your website in the background and adds it upon the next page load.
- Remove Unused CSS: It automatically collects all CSS stylesheets and scripts and sends files to WP Rocket’s external tool for processing. Then WP Rocket removes Unused CSS and Used CSS will be added as inline CSS.
- Load JavaScript Deferred: It allows your site to load JavaScript after the page has finished parsing and eliminates render-blocking resources.
- Delay JavaScript Execution: It automatically reduces third-party code by delaying JavaScript until user interaction.
WP Rocket CSS/Js optimization not only improves website speed but also fixes Core Web Vitals errors on PSI. Check out a more detailed guide on it.
5: CDN Integration
A content delivery network (CDN) is a geographically distributed group of servers that caches content close to website visitors. A CDN allows for the quick transfer of website assets including HTML pages, JavaScript files, CSS stylesheets, images, and videos.
By distributing content closer to website visitors by using a nearby CDN server, visitors experience faster page loading times. Along with performance improvement, CDN offers website security, Reduced bandwidth costs, Media optimization, etc.
Integrating CDN on your WordPress website can be a hassle if you’re not tech-savvy. In that case, WP Rocket can help you to solve this problem with a single click. You just need to enter your CDN CNAME and WP Rocket takes care of everything. If you’re using Cloudflare CDN on your website, you can also connect WP Rocket with your Cloudflare account for better performance.
If you’re looking for the best CDN for your website, I recommend you use BunnyCDN or Cloudflare for your website. Avoid using RocketCDN by WP Rocket.
6: Heartbeat Control
WordPress Heartbeat allows you to communicate with your server when you’re logged into the WordPress admin panel. Heartbeat functionality shows other authors that another user is editing a post. Sometimes, when you run your PSI, you may notice a significant amount of POST requests by the admin-ajax.php file, this means that you need to limit the work of Heartbeat or stop it completely.
WP Rocket allows you to control WordPress Heartbeat API with a single click. You can reduce or disable heartbeat activity on the backend, post editor, & frontend. Note: Reducing activity will change Heartbeat frequency from one hit each minute to one hit every 2 minutes & Disabling Heartbeat can affect the plugins and themes you’re using on your website.
7: Support & Documentation
Documentation is one of the main reasons why people choose WP Rocket over other cache plugins like Litespeed cache, W3 total cache, etc. WP Rocket has over 500+ articles, video guides, tips, & tutorials with easy explanations. Even if you’re a complete beginner you can easily configure WP Rocket plugin & whatever problem you may face in the future.
WP Rocket support team performs well in WordPress technical support. I’ve had an excellent experience with the WP Rocket developer team, and they were extremely friendly and offered direct answers & solutions to each question I asked. I only have a single complaint about their support is they don’t offer a live chat option. Other than that, everything is perfectly organized & accessible to WP Rocket users.
Cons of Using WP Rocket
Here are a few things I found out after using WP Rocket for the last 6 years.
1: WP Rocket Can’t host fonts & analytics locally
WP Rocket also can’t host fonts/analytics locally. For some odd reason, WP Rocket says, in their blog post it’s not good to host fonts & analytics code locally. Even though, locally hosted fonts are significantly faster and even officially WordPress recommends local fonts for better GDPR compliance.
WP Rocket does delay Google Analytics code but can’t host it locally. WP Rocket alternative plugin, FlyingPress can host font & analytics code locally using a smaller script (analytics-minimal.js) which is only 1.5kBs in total size. Note: you can use the FlyingScript plugin to host analytics code locally & using the system font on your website can solve this issue.
2: Remove Unused CSS needs improvements
Removing unused CSS has a huge impact on Core Web Vitals score by decreasing FCP, LCP, and TTI. The easiest way to find unused CSS is to test your website with PageSpeed Insights. The “Remove unused CSS” warning is triggered by PSI when you have code being loaded that isn’t needed or used on your website.
Most of the popular cache plugins offer two different methods to choose from on how the used CSS is handled on your website: inline and using a separate CSS stylesheet (file). In simple terms, Inline CSS is better for core web vital scores while a separate CSS stylesheet file is faster for users.
WP Rocket automatically loads “used CSS inline”, while other plugins like FlyingPress, Perfmatters, & Litespeed Cache give you two options to choose from.
3: RocketCDN lacks features & expensive
In my opinion, RocketCDN is not worth it. It’s expensive and lacks features compared to other CDN providers. RocketCDN doesn’t compress images, has no WebP conversion, doesn’t resize images for mobile, has no EXIF removal, and most importantly there’s no full-page caching option.
Note: RocketCDN says they offer unlimited bandwidth, but if your website crosses a certain threshold WP Rocket automatically disables your RocketCDN URL.
Recently, they moved to BunnyCDN from StackPathCDN which great improvement in Global Network. Still, paying $8.99/month is way too expensive for CDN with fewer features. If you want to use CDN on your website use directly use BunnyCDN or Cloudflare.
4: A few other things you need to know
- WP Rocket Can’t Lazy Render HTML Elements, which can improve overall TBT & LCP. The “Lazy render HTML elements” feature allows for elements on a page to be skipped during rendering until the user needs them.
- WP Rocket doesn’t preload LCP images & Critical images.
- They suddenly increase their pricing & since the year 2020, they hardly add new features. Check WP Rocket changelog history.
- No live chat support, even though WP Rocket has huge documentation & video guides for beginners.
WP Rocket Pricing
WP Rocket starts at $59 for a single-site license. In total, WP Rocket offers three different pricing plans Single, Plus, & Infinite. WP Rocket Plus plan costs $119 for 3 website licenses and Infinite plan costs $299 for 50 website licenses. The only difference between the plans is the number of sites that are supported — there aren’t any feature limitations on these plans.
Note: All plans come with a 14-day money-back guarantee with one year of support and updates. It is also worth mentioning that, WP Rocket offers, get 30% off renewals if you want to continue using after the first year.
FAQs about WP Rocket
Below are some of the most asked questions related to the WP Rocket cache plugin.
What is WP Rocket used for?
WP Rocket is an all-in-one Cache plugin that does your WordPress speed optimizations, Google Fonts optimization, CSS and JS minification, database optimization, etc.
Is WP Rocket free?
No. WP Rocket is a premium WordPress cache plugin. But When you first sign up for WP Rocket, you get a 14-day refund policy. So you can try WP Rocket for 14 days free.
How much does WP Rocket cost?
WP Rocket has three standard yearly subscription plans starting at the following prices: Single – $59/year, Growth – $119/year, and Multi – $299-$599/year.
Is WP Rocket any good?
Yes. WP Rocket is an excellent & powerful cache plugin tool that gives you all the essential features to optimize your WordPress website speed, database optimizations, CDN integration, & Sitemap Preloading, etc.
How to enable gzip compression in a WP Rocket?
Yes. When you install WP Rocket on your WordPress website, GZIP compression is automatically processed. Remember, GZIP compression works if it’s enabled on a hosting server.
Final Thoughts on WP Rocket Review
After reading my WP Rocket review, you might be wondering if WP Rocket is the #1 WordPress cache plugin.
The answer is NO. Even though WP Rocket does a good job optimizing websites for core web vitals. In my experience, I found out WP Rocket lacks features and they take forever to add new trending features. After their recent price hike, I recommend you use FlyingPress (Paid) or LiteSpeed Cache plugin (free) plugin on your website before trying WP Rocket.
It’s completely up to you, whether you want to use WP Rocket or not. There must be reasons why 3 million websites use WP Rocket to optimize their website performance. Here I wrote the best WP Rocket settings you can use to pass core web vitals without breaking your website design.
So, what are you waiting for Try WP Rocket now. They offer a 14-day money-back guarantee. So, risks involved.
That’s all for the WP Rocket review. If you have any questions related to the WP Rocket cache plugin let me know in the comment section. If you’re already using WP Rocket, share your experience with other users to finalize their decision. Do you feel I left out some WP Rocket cache plugin features & optimization information? Please let me know in the comment section.
Hosting & Theme recommendation: If you want a perfect score on your Google Core web vitals test, you need Good hosting with a lightweight theme. I recommend you to use CloudWays, Kinsta, or Rocket.net managed WordPress hosting with GeneratePress or Astra WordPress theme to get the best results.
Thank you. Have a nice day.
Fantastic WP Rocket review! The in-depth analysis of pricing and performance helps a lot. The pros and cons list is very useful for evaluating if this plugin is right for me.
Welcome, Edger.
It’s always refreshing to see such a well-researched perspective, and I’m looking forward to your future posts. Thanks for sharing.
Welcome, Shoaib.