Rocket.Net vs WP Engine Hosting Comparison In 2025

Rocket.net and WP Engine both offer fully managed WordPress hosting services. However, they are expensive compared to regular shared and VPSs.

So why fully manage WordPress hosting?

I don’t like them, but shared hosting is slow because you have to share the same server with hundreds of other websites. Servers can become sluggish, crash, and restart due to various security issues. It is more noticeable when traffic is high.

But fully managed hosting is an ideal option for average users who are afraid to mess with a private web server (VPS or dedicated). There are many such hosting providers, including Kinsta, WP Engine, BigScoots, SiteGround, and many more.

Regular web publishers use WP Engine, but Rocket is specifically designed for modern users. WPE utilizes regular SSDs despite using Google Cloud. Read-write speeds on NVMe are faster than SSDs. Web hosting performance affects how fast your site can operate and handle traffic.

WP Engine is more mature than Rocket.net, but Rocket has more features, like Redis PRO, increased monthly visits, and fully integrates with Cloudflare Enterprise.

I wouldn’t recommend WPEngine or Rocket.net to newbies or small sites. Also, they’re unsuitable for users with high bandwidth or storage requirements.

It may be more practical to compare WP Engine vs. Rocket using charts because their differences are clearly visible.

TL;DR Rocket.net vs WP Engine

I will share the pros and cons of both hosting in detail in the remaining sections. But if you don’t have time to read the whole thing, I’ve put the key points in this table:

Rocket.net

I prefer Rocket.net over most of the other managed WordPress hosting I have tried because it is modern and keeps up with the latest developments.

It has gained attention for robust Cloudflare integration with Edge caching. All plans include unlimited PHP workers, ideal for large and medium-sized sites that receive a high volume of dynamic requests.

Similar providers, such as WP Engine and Kinsta, typically limit the number of PHP workers. Using Rocke.net for my website hosting, I achieved impressive speed metrics and a positive user experience. They accomplish this by utilizing full-page caching with other optimizations.

Rocket Web Hosting offers a magic login feature that enables users to access WordPress websites without passwords.

That said, I don’t optimize websites solely for page speed metrics because a site’s naked-eye speed should be the speed that matters, without including elements that are swiped into page speed test tools.

But here are some screenshots of the page speed metrics using Rocket with the FlyingPress cache plugin optimization:

The good thing is that there aren’t any restrictions on WP plugins, so you can even use security and cache plugins.

I am not a fan of WP Rocket because FlyingPress is a better overall option. However, Rocket-Net allows you to use the WP Rocket plugin for free.

Rocket-Net features a helpful reporting section that allows you to view metrics such as bandwidth usage, visitor count, IP addresses, and device information. Additionally, I appreciate how it displays data such as top referrers, cache status, and WAF history.

You can view the cache hit ratio and requests handled by the Edge or Origin servers in the CDN section. If you’re running WordPress, you’ll need a reliable web host.

How Does Rocket.net Pricing Work?

Rocket.Net is expensive for beginners, but it is simple to use and works smoothly. The cost starts at $ 30/month for one site and increases to $200/month for 20 sites.

If you pay annually, you’ll get two months free. It can be affordable for a few sites, but it becomes pricey for several small ones.

It depends on how much bandwidth and storage you need, so the more you use, the more you’ll pay. Even the starter plan offers more than 250K monthly visits, making it thrive compared to others. The first month costs $1, excluding enterprise.

Rocket offers hosting for sites of all sizes. They offer Level 1 packages for small sites, with enterprise hosting prices starting at approximately $ 2,000 per month.

Cloudflare Enterprise Features

RocketNet is notable for its full integration with Cloudflare Enterprise, and it has become a trend for most other hosts to implement the same solution.

And Rocket.net doesn’t limit staging sites like WPE. I’ve used Cloudflare Enterprise directly, and most features are unnecessary.

The enterprise plan comes with 2,700 Cloudflare rules, and Rocket integrates very nicely with custom rules. Instead of CF APO, they use cache rules to cache entire pages and bypass some functions. That is why most other hosting providers lack full integration with CF Enterprise. They don’t know how to integrate accurately.

This is good because most of your website traffic goes through Cloudflare CDN servers instead of the hosting server.

Using Rocket.Net, you don’t need WordPress security, cache, image optimization, or any other plugin. And it’s not just for CDN or security reasons; you’ll get helpful enterprise features, such as:

• Argo Smart Routing: Argo can significantly reduce latency and improve speed when handling requests through Cloudflare’s network (using the fastest routes).
• Image Optimization: Rocket optimizes images and removes unnecessary attributes without compromising quality, utilizing Cloudflare’s Polish and Mirage image optimization. You do not need to use image optimization plugins.
• Enhanced Protection: Enterprise plans include additional security measures. Your website is secure, both by the host and CDN, without requiring plugins.
• Load Balancing and Prioritized Routing: Cloudflare’s load balancing is a subscription-based feature that supports various mechanisms for traffic distribution. The result is lower latency and faster routines on each server. Prioritized routing helps reduce traffic overload, peaks, and outages.
• Various caching: Rocket offers additional caching features, including tiered cache and full-page caching. Also includes various server-side caching layers.

Rocket.net utilizes Cloudflare Enterprise to extend security features such as SQL-XSS prevention, malicious files, directory traversal, unauthorized access, anti-spam, etc. (FlyingCDN, for example, uses Cloudflare Enterprise).

Provide protection against the most common threats to your WordPress site. The server features an Imunify firewall that detects malware in real-time.

You can view the current status of your website’s security in real-time and find detailed information about incidents on the website.

Pros:

• No limits on PHP workers.
• High-quality customer service.
• All plans include unlimited monthly visits.
• Modern hosting infrastructure and enterprise CDN.
• Enhanced security with Cloudflare Enterprise’s firewall.
• Full-page caching with Global TTFB under 100 milliseconds.

Cons:

• No email hosting.
• Seven server locations.
• Users need to manually clear the cache after making changes.
• It can become expensive if you require a large amount of bandwidth.

WP Engine

WP Engine is a mature, managed WordPress hosting company. It is a big name, but it’s slow, especially for heavy websites. Marketing makes it pricey—instead of focusing on quality, they focus on marketing.

WPEngine has a list of disallowed plugins; most are banned because they’re large or have vulnerabilities, but Rocket hasn’t banned any plugins or themes.

Catch how much it costs to host one site on WPE with 100K visits a month, almost $100/M. For that price, I can host multiple websites with unlimited visitors on a cloud VPS like Vultr.

I think WP Engine is overly expensive, and the cost is largely due to its brand and marketing tactics rather than the quality of its service.

However, many other reputable providers still offer more competitive rates. Almost all web hosts use trick marketing strategies – but WPE’s marketing is too fancy for me. And scheduled maintenance isn’t included in uptime guarantees.

There is usually a safe and reliable configuration on managed hosts. Most blogger publishers recommend them because they pay big affiliate commissions.

Compared to VPS, WPEngine is like a shared host—it’s popular with novices but hated by techies. But it’s a long-running managed hosting service.

Pros:

• Offers more bandwidth than Rocket.
• It uses Google Cloud infrastructure (SSD).
• Good customer service and tech support.
• An established WP-managed hosting service.

Cons:

• No Redis.
• Strict limits on server resources.
• Instead of focusing on quality, they prioritize branding.
• Old stacks, such as SSD, Memcached, and Apache.

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Managed WordPress hosting is typically a form of shared hosting. It often utilizes servers from Google or AWS, which is why they limit your disk space, bandwidth, and other resources. Despite the limits, these hosts outperform typical shared hosts.

VPSs offer more flexibility because the resources are reserved exclusively for your site. You can approach things a little differently and make adjustments as needed.

For this reason, I recommend hosting most of your websites on a VPS. You can run your development websites on cheap VPSs like Starlight and Webdock.

To Sum It Up

Rocket.net definitely wins when it comes to features compared to WP Engine. Both use Cloudflare, but Rocket.net utilizes Cloudflare Enterprise, which offers additional features like smart routing and full-page caching.

While WP Engine uses Memcached, Rocket uses Redis PRO as its object cache. Rocket uses LiteSpeed as the PHP handler, while most others use FastCGI.

When searching for a good web host, you’ll come across many sites that claim some are rubbish and not worth it. However, there are numerous satisfied customers.

Others have really positive reviews and suggestions, but they’re garbage. Many people opt for cheap hosting with discounts.

But you can trust your own experience with hosting firms. Let’s end this WP Engine vs Rocket.net comparison. Changing your web host, such as moving from shared hosting to a fully managed host like Rocket.net, can increase your website’s speed.

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