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Every website owner and digital marketer will vouch for the importance of a fast-loading website. Even the best layout and high-quality content would be of no use if your website takes too long to load. It can drive your potential customers away and take a toll on your conversion rates. Moreover, it hurts your website’s search engine ranking.
An effective way to ensure that your website loads at lightning-fast speed is to use a caching plugin. If you have a WordPress website, you will find a plethora of WordPress caching plugins in the market. You have also likely come across the name “WP Rocket”. While many WordPress plugins are available for free, WP Rocket is a premium caching plugin.
In this review of WP Rocket, we will take a closer look at its features and find out it is worth the cost.
What is WP Rocket?
As mentioned earlier, WP Rocket is a feature-rich premium caching plugin for WordPress websites. Simply put, it stores the static files of a web page in a cache. Whenever a user wants to access the web page, these files are directly delivered from the cache. This eliminates the need to wait for the database or server to respond and thus, improves the loading time.
What sets WP Rocket apart from other caching plugins is that it is extremely easy to install and configure. The user-friendly dashboard lets you get started in minutes and is ideal for beginners. At the same, WP Rocket offers a plethora of advanced features for experienced website developers. This versatility is something that most WordPress caching plugins lack.
WP Rocket, however, isn’t just an average caching plugin. It provides you with several other important features that work in tandem to improve your website’s overall performance. These include database optimization, code minification, image optimization, mobile caching, etc. This often eliminates the need to install and configure individual plugins for each of these tasks.
The only catch is that WP Rocket is a premium plugin with prices starting from $49 per year. It doesn’t offer a free trial or free version. However, you get a 14-day money-back guarantee. This gives you some room to test the plugin on your website and make an informed decision.
Pros:
- User-friendly dashboard
- An all-in-one plugin that improves website performance
- Compatible with various web hosting providers
- Suitable for beginners as well as professionals
- Top-notch technical support
Cons:
- No free trial or free version
- Works only on WordPress websites
- No telephone or chat support
In the following section, we will delve deeper into what WP Rocket offers and whether its features justify the pocket pinch.
Features & Benefits
WP Rocket’s strength lies in using a combination of different sophisticated features to boost your website’s speed. Here is a list of the most distinguishing features:
Cache Options
Apart from conventional page caching, WP Rocket also performs browser caching. This means it stores your website’s static resources on a user’s web browser to improve site speed. Moreover, you can use the dashboard to include/exclude certain web pages from caching. You can also exclude a specific piece of content from the cache.
Likewise, the plugin lets you exclude certain browsers or users from ever viewing the cache. WP Rocket regularly monitors your website and updates the cache every time you edit a web page or publish a new blog post. It also updates the cache every time you publish a new blog post or update an existing one. Moreover, you can set a custom cache lifespan to decide how long a page remains cached before the cache is flushed.
Cache Preloading
Most caching plugins only build the cache when a user visits a particular web page. This, in turn, can cause minor delays in loading your website. WP Rocket eliminates this delay by using cache preloading. This means it builds and updates the cache to ensure that every web page is served at a lightning-fast speed.
Moreover, WP Rocket offers two different preloading options:
- Sitemap preloading – It lets you preload the cache based on your website’s sitemap. The only catch is that it doesn’t cache new or recently updated content.
- Preload bot – It scans your website and caches newly published or updated content. While this method is slightly more resource-intensive, it ensures that your cache is up-to-date.
Code Minification & Concatenation
The source code of your website could be one of the reasons behind its sluggish performance. WP Rocket eliminates this problem by optimizing the source code including Javascript, PHP, and CSS files. While minification removes unnecessary characters (blank spaces, comments, etc.) from the code, concatenation combines multiple Javascript/CSS files. Both minification and concatenation can be instrumental in boosting your website’s speed.
Image Optimization
One of the reasons most websites experience longer load times is the presence of large image files. WP Rocket solves this by compressing all images without interfering with their quality. It also enables lazy loading wherein below-the-fold images aren’t loaded unless a user scrolls down the web page.
Database Optimization
As your site grows older, your database accumulates plenty of discarded drafts, deleted blog posts, and trash/spam comments. All this junk could potentially slow down your website. WP Rocket breathes new life into your database by letting you delete all the junk in a single click. Additionally, you can schedule automatic daily, weekly, or monthly cleanups to ensure that your database remains optimized.
CDN Compatibility
A content delivery network (CDN) is another proven way of improving site speed. The good news is that WP Rocket is compatible with most CDNs available in the market. This ensures that your website loads fast irrespective of where a user a located.
Mobile Caching
WP Rocket lets you enable caching for mobile devices. Additionally, you can create separate caches for mobile device users. This is particularly useful considering a major fraction of your visitors will likely use their smartphones to access your website.
Web Hosting Compatibility
Many web hosting providers offer their built-in caching plugins. While WP Rocket is compatible with most hosting providers, some of its functionalities might be disabled to make room for the built-in plugin.
E-commerce Compatibility
Unlike most caching plugins, WP Rocket works perfectly fine with most WordPress e-commerce plugins. This is because it automatically excludes certain web pages such as the cart and checkout pages. It ensures that your e-commerce website functions smoothly while leveraging all the benefits of a caching plugin.
Support
Installing and configuring WP Rocket is like a cakewalk. Even if you don’t have any prior technical expertise, you can get started in a few simple steps. It is just as easy as installing any other WordPress plugin. Additionally, most steps are accompanied by comprehensive video tutorials to handhold you through the platform.
WP Rocket also boasts a responsive and experienced tech support team. The best part is that you can directly contact them from your WordPress dashboard instead of going to the WP Rocket website. You can get in touch with them using the ticketing system or through email. However, the addition of live chat and phone support would be a nicer touch.
Pricing
WP Rocket is a premium plugin that lets you choose from three different membership plans. The pricing starts at $49 per year and automatically renews after the first year. You have the option to disable the auto-renewal feature.
The only drawback is that WP Rocket doesn’t come with a free version or free trial. You can, however, leverage the 14-day money-back guarantee policy to test the plugin before committing. If you aren’t satisfied with its performance, you can ask for a prompt and courteous refund.
WP Rocket Vs Other Cache Plugins
I am running multiple blogs and websites for many years. I have used and tested various WordPress Cache Plugins like W3C Total Cache, WP Super Cache, WP Fastest Cache, Cachify and many others (free and Premium).
But I can say that WP Rocket is the most impressive WordPress Cache Plugin to load your website faster. WP Rocket has more advanced features according to the latest trends and technologies. For example, it supports new image formats like Webp and others, but most of the other WordPress cache plugins don’t have these features.
These advanced features make it a must-use plugin to make your wordpress site lighter. Also, it is compatible and recommended by most of the reputable hosting and theme companies like WPEngine, MyThemeShop, and many others
My Experience With WP Rocket
I had bought WP Rocket Plugin for one Site (Single site license) But when I tried it on my site and analyze the improvement results then I upgraded my WP Rocket Plan to multiple sites.
With WP Rocket, my website started loading around one second from 2 seconds. This means WP Rocket helps me to improve 1 second in page load time. Before that, I was using W3C Total Cache plugin but didn’t saw any improvement for my Website load time.
I’m using WP Rocket on various hostings like Kinsta, WPX Hosting, WPEngine, and Siteground as well as different themes like Studiopress Genesis and MythemeShop Themes. I have noticed Improvements for my sites after using WP Rocket.
It is Working well for my all sites without any issues with various other plugins like Woocommerce, Akismet, Thrive Themes Plugins, MonsterInsights, WPForms, and Many Others.
Final Verdict: Should You Buy WP Rocket?
WP Rocket delivers on its promise of being a sophisticated all-in-one solution that improves your website’s performance. It does more than just build and store caches of key web pages. However, the advanced features are tied with a significantly steep price tag. Whether you should purchase WP Rocket or settle for a free plugin depends on your needs and preferences.
Having said that, you should choose WP Rocket if you don’t want to go through the hassle of finding and configuring individual plugins. Additionally, you should have a clear picture of the long-term purpose of your website. The intuitive and straightforward dashboard makes it ideal for beginners as well.
It is also worth mentioning that WP Rocket is strictly a WordPress plugin. Therefore, you can’t use it if your website is custom-coded or built on a different platform.
Conclusion
WP Rocket is one of the most advanced WordPress caching plugins available in the market. The higher price point is justified by the diverse array of features that it offers. From image optimization and code minification to cache preloading and database optimization – WP Rocket offers everything that your website needs to improve its speed. If you are looking for an all-in-one plugin to propel your WordPress website, WP Rocket is made for you.
What are your reviews about WP Rocket? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
