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WP Rocket Review: Boost Your Website’s Performance with this Powerful Caching Plugin

wp rocket review

Hi and welcome to my WP Rocket review 2023. In this review, I will also show you how to optimize your WordPress site using wp rocket.

So first of all what is wp rocket and is it part of rocket.net?

WP rocket is a WordPress plugin that helps you improve site speed with just a few clicks. It's one of the most known optimizer plugins and the one I use for this site.

  • WP Rocket is basically a WordPress caching plugins
  • It offers various features to optimize website performance, including cache settings, file minification, lazy loading, CDN integration, and database optimization.
  • WP Rocket is suitable for all WordPress websites, from e-commerce sites to blogs and agencies.
  • The plugin is available at different pricing plans, starting from $59/year for one website.
  • wp rocket is a premium caching and performance optimization plugin
  • Its not a free wordpress caching plugins
  • In my eyes wp rocket is best caching plugin that also offers mobile cache. 

Since there are loads of plugins that are free many choose not to use WP Rocket but in my word, that's a bad decision if you don't already have a fast host or if you are using lightspeed servers. Then you should use the free Lightspeed plugin. If you use Chemicloud as your host then you should use the Lightspeed plugin as an example.

So how will this review work?

Instead of writing loads of text, I will instead post how you should optimize your site and how I have optimized it.

But before we do that this is my current speed without WP rocket: 

As you can see my site is already fast without this plugin. The reason is I am using rocket.net as my hosting provider. But let's say I really like to push it. Then we need to do some optimization using WP Rocket. Note: This plugin is not free so you must purchase it from their homepage.

Step 1, the wp rocket settings: This is how it looks like when you have installed it : (go to wp rocket and click settings)

Step 2 Cache: This is how you optimize wp rocket the best way – My opinion

First of all, you don't want to buy their CND so leave that out, and I don't use rocket analytics so leave that out as well, if you want. (up to you). Then click on your first tab called Cache.

This is my settings: (NOTE- Backup your site before playing with plugins)

I recommend you to leave it as it is. The only part you can consider to change is the cache lifespan. If you are working on your site or adding content then a shorter lifespan means your site gets updated more often and longer lifespans mean in theory it gets faster. But 10 hours is okay, so leave it with default or increase it if you are done with content and just want the best settings. 20 hours as an example.

Step 3: File optimization

These are my settings. Note: You will get warnings doing so, but click activate. (if you have a backup of your site) You can always go back and turn it off if your site stops working as you like. 

Step 4: Media settings

In this section, you can go wrong. Not wrong by doing something wrong, but if you mark all boxes, the lazy load is activated. Sometimes lazy load is not the best way to go. This means you must run a speed test with and without this activated. There is really no “best” settings for this other than just try and see what happens.

Step 5: Preload cache

This might already be boxed by default. If so continue if not mark them. NOTE: IF you are using rocket.net then I recommend NOT to mark the first one: Activate preloading

Step 6: Test webpage speed

The rest I leave blank. You can go to the database and click some boxes but for now, we are fine.

The next step is to find some webpage speed tests and check your speed. Remember to do a speed test BEFORE you do this so you can compare. I probably should have mentioned this in the beginning 🙂

Here are my results after wp rocket optimization

Almost final results

As you can see the improvement is almost nothing. It's not worth spending extra money on wp rocket?

Well, as I said I am using rocket.net as my host provider and they are the fastest managed WordPress hosting provider in the world so adding extra power will not make much of a difference when I already have monster power. But, what if I am on a shared plan? Or perhaps not using a fast webhost and I like to optimize my speed.

Well, let's dive into this example where I use my movearoundsite.com  (this site is meant for testing and not optimized at all. It's created for testing purposes)

Move around site is a website created for testing speed on different webhost providers. It's not optimized for speed or has any other form of optimization. It's just a dummy site I have created, edited, and worked to fit my purpose = See how hosting providers handle my movearoundsite. If you like you can go to www.movearoundsite.com and see old tests made and also see where the site is hosted at the moment 🙂 Kind of cool right? 

Anyway, here is the screenshot of the movearoundsite hosted on the Hostgator WordPress plan. (baby plan)

As you can see, the results are not good, so let's run with WP Rocket optimized. Here are the results (using settings my wprocket settings) 

As you can see it's 1.1 seconds different and that's massive even if you think it's nothing. But this test is done with hostgator and that's a totally different world than I normally live in with rocket.net. I decided to use hostgator since so many use them so I guess this is a fair test. If you are on hostgator WordPress baby plan then there is no way you will get great results if you don't work on your site and optimize images, structures, and so on. WP rocket makes a big difference but it's not a miracle cure.

I also made a larger speed test on movearoundsite with these results:

I don't know what happened to US Central. Perhaps HostGator owns the Internet lines or something like that but amazing results if it's correct. But what we can see from this table (same structure as Google pagespeed) is that if you target Australian people then you have a problem. The red circle I am not sure what it is. I guess it some kind of setup to do some kind of optimization but i get 25 no matter what site I run and I haven't bothered to figure it out. Probably I have to pay more to get that activated. Anyway…

So, final images coming up. How will my site testandreviews do it when it comes to visitors from other parts of the world? Lets rocket!!

Final tought about optimization

WP Rocket is one of the leading plugins for optimizing WordPress sites. It's clean, it normally doesn't mess up sites and it's known as one of the best plugins. Here are some short notes you should know about:

  1. Rocket must be bought, there is no free version as far as I know, but it's worth it in my eyes.
  2. Not all wordress hosting providers are rdy for use with Rocket so when you find a hosting provider you are interested in then read my reviews. I will always write what kind of plugins you should use to optimize.
  3. If you want 100 score like me then you buy the best wordpress hosting provider in the world: Rocket.net and then you buy WP Rocket. Do this and I believe you can get a 100 score
wp rocket features

How to buy WP rocket?

To purchase wp rocket you can click on this link :WP Rocket and you will be sent to their official website. Once you've completed the purchase, you'll receive a zip file containing the plugin. Log in to your WordPress dashboard, go to ‘Plugins', and click on ‘Add New'. Then, click on the ‘Upload Plugin' button and select the WP Rocket zip file that you downloaded. Click ‘Install Now', and once the installation is complete, click ‘Activate' to activate the plugin.

WP Rocket pricing at $59/ year for one site, wp rocket offer two other packages with $119/y for 3 sites and $299/y for unlimited websites.

How to Configure the Plugin Settings

After you have installed and activated the plugin you come back here and follow my setup and that's it. WP rocket dashboard is really simple as you have seen from the screenshots. 

WP Rocket alternatives

When it comes to choosing a caching plugin for your WordPress website there are so many to choose from. Since I only use WP rocket for sites without lightspeed I haven't had time to review others and I have no plan do start looking at other plugins at the moment. I do however know 2 others that I will write about.

FlyingPress

Some say FlyingPress is even faster than wp rocket. I will run a comparison using movearoundsite one day so stay tuned for that. It might be really interesting to see who is the king of cache plugins.  FlyingPress stands out in many ways. It effectively eliminates CSS preloads pages. Employs lazy loading for images and iframes. FlyingPress is often at the forefront when it comes to introducing features. Plugins like Gijos Flying Scripts and Flying Pages were the first to incorporate functionalities such as JavaScript delay and intelligent page preloading, which WP Rocket later adopted. FlyingPress already offers capabilities that other cache plugins lack. On the other side. If one plugin offers something the other does not, then I am pretty sure they include it in their next update. 

They also offer FlyingCDN which might be faster and more reliable than RocketCDN.

To be short, Flypress offers more advanced features that you can tweak to make your site even faster but again, if you are using a fast host then it's the same if you choose Flyingpress or WP Rocket. Depends if you like the advanced or simple layout

If you use LiteSpeed Cache and are, on LiteSpeed servers then you should use the LiteSpeed plugin and not flypress or wp rocket. Chemicloud is the best-shared hosting provider I know of and offers LiteSpeed servers. But true powers come from the best server providers rocket.net, kinsta, or servebolt. You can find my reviews on all of them here at testandreviews.

LiteSpeed Cache

LiteSpeed Cache is another popular caching plugin that offers excellent performance optimization. It provides server-level page caching, object caching, image optimization, and GZIP compression. LiteSpeed plugin is a good choice for websites hosted on LiteSpeed servers, as it is specifically built for litespeed servers. So in other words, it's not a competitor for WP Rocket but since you can use WP Rocket on litespeed servers I guess they still are but then again, go with litespeed on litespeed servers.

Conclusion

Keep it simple. Buy wp rocket or flypress to get best results or get a server provider with LiteSpeed servers and get the litespeed plugin for free.

In this review, I have focused on the wp rocket that I use. I am really happy about their product and think it's fantastic and straightforward. So if you not using it then I recommend you start using the wp rocket plugin, I think its the best best wordpress caching plugin.

I hope you enjoyed this review, take care, and see you soon!!

FAQ:

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Q: What is WP Rocket?

A: WP Rocket is a premium caching plugin created for WordPress websites to improve loading times and overall performance. The idea is to speed up wordpress sites.

Q: How does WP Rocket improve website speed?

A: WP Rocket works by creating cached versions of web pages, optimizing CSS and JavaScript files, and implementing other performance-enhancing techniques to reduce loading times.

Q: Is WP Rocket easy to use for beginners?

A: Yes, WP Rocket is user-friendly and can be easily set up and configured even by those who have little technical knowledge about caching and website optimization.

Q: What features does WP Rocket offer in 2023?

A: In 2023, WP Rocket offers features such as lazy loading for images, compatibility with the latest WordPress versions, mobile cache optimization. They also updated the plugin, so everything worth having will probably come in future updates.

Q: How does WP Rocket compare to other caching plugins like wp super cache and wp fastest cache?

A: WP Rocket offers more advanced features and a more user-friendly setup compared to other free caching plugins. You can find good free plugins that will speed up your WordPress website, but they might cause problems and conflict with other plugins you might have.

Q: Can WP Rocket be used for any type of WordPress website?

A: Yes, WP Rocket is suitable for all types of WordPress websites, including blogs, e-commerce sites, business websites, and more, due to its customizable settings and broad compatibility. wp rocket is a great option for someone who not have that much knowledge. Just follow my 

Q: Does WP Rocket offer any discounts?

A: WP Rocket sometimes offers special discounts and offers, especially during promotional periods and events. If they do, I will post it here on testandreviews.com. You can find free alternatives, but I recommend going with paid versions since it's stable and you get fewer problems, in my experience. You do get 30 days money-back guarantee. WP Rocket doesn't offer a free version.

Q: How does WP Rocket handle caching for logged-in users on a WordPress website?

A: WP Rocket offers options to manage caching for logged-in users, ensuring that dynamic content is appropriately displayed without compromising on performance for returning visitors.

Q: How can I activate WP Rocket on my WordPress website?

A: To activate WP Rocket, simply install and activate the plugin through the WordPress dashboard, and then follow the setup/ my guide to configure the caching options

Q: Is WP Rocket worth it and will it increase website speed and performance?

A: Yes, WP Rocket is definitely worth it. WP Rocket is the best caching plugin for WordPress and gives you roc

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