Are you struggling to speed up your WordPress website? Have you tried everything to decrease web page load time but nothing worked? Do not worry. WP-Rocket is here to save you. Today, I am writing an article on WP Rocket Review. I had bought this plugin a few weeks ago and I am happy to see its features and impact on my blog. I was using W3 Total Cache before this and was not much satisfied and wanted to try an alternative option. I had seen many Pro bloggers suggesting WP-Rocket so thought to give it a try. After using this for a few weeks, I do agree that it is one of the best caching plugins available in the market with many advanced options.
Why Do You Really Need Caching Plugin?
We all love fast loading websites. Waiting sucks! Isn’t it true? While we are browsing the internet and we come up with any website which is taking much time to load, we do not keep patience and just close the site and move on to another site. We all do the same, right? Have you ever imagined what if people do the same for your site? You might be losing your valuable traffic and you never realized this. The WordPress Caching plugin ensures that web pages load at faster speeds and improves the overall performance of the site and provide a better user experience. If your blog is speed optimized, you can expect higher traffic and better revenue from your blog.
WP Rocket Review – An Introduction
WP-Rocket is a renowned brand in the WordPress world. It was founded by Jean-Baptiste Marchand-Arvier, Jonathan Buttigieg, and Julio Potier. They came up with the idea of providing the solution to the slowness of the websites. WP-Rocket is a premium plugin . But after using this plugin, I can confidently say that this is one of the best WordPress plugins and is worth the money. Once you start using this, you will know yourself that why it is considered the best caching plugin out there. As of today (Jan 06, 2018), a total of 330,853 websites have been optimized by the WP Rocket. Now, you can imagine how popular and reliable this plugin is. It is undoubtedly one of the best blogging tools out there in the market.
WP Rocket Review – Top 10 Features
There are a number of features provided by WP-Rocket. I am mentioning a few major features:
- Page Caching
- Cache Preloading/ Sitemap Preloading
- Images on Request (Lazy Loading Images)
- Static Files Compression
- GZIP Compression
- Browser Caching
- Database Optimization
- Remove Query Strings from Static Resources
- Defer JS Loading
- CDN/ Cloudfare Compatibility
Below is a brief description of the features:
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Page Caching
As soon as you activate WPRocket in your WordPress site, page caching is automatically activated. This page cache decreases the server calls to fetch the content every time and hence provides ultra-fast load time. It is essential to improving SEO and increasing traffic and conversions.
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Cache Preloading/ Sitemap Preloading
WP-Rocket crawlers simulate a visit to preload the cache. It instantly improves the indexing of your websites by search engines. Not only cache preloading, but it also helps in sitemap preloading as well. It preloads all the URLs in your XML sitemap to ensure that your site’s cache is always fresh. Another good thing is that it auto-detects sitemaps created by Yoast SEO, Jetpack or All in One SEO etc. It also offers the feature to ask to clear the user cache as soon as you make any change such as activating or deactivating the plugin.
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Images on Request (Lazy Loading)
We all know that images need some time (depending on the image size) to be downloaded from the server to be shown on the web page. WP-Rocket helps to load the images only when the visitors scroll down the page (i.e. lazyload) and thus improves the loading time of your website. You would have seen this feature in many of the popular sites such as Facebook, Yahoo etc and now you can use on your website too 🙂 This feature makes it an effective optimization plugin.
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Static Files Compression
WP Rocket minifies the static files of your blog. The static files such as HTML, Javascript and CSS files are minified to reduce the weight of your web page. Lighter files mean lesser time to load website pages and hence faster speeds.
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GZIP Compression
Nowadays, all modern browsers support gzip compression for all HTTP requests. Enabling gzip compression can reduce the size of the transferred response by up to 90%. It can reduce the amount of time to download the resource, reduce data usage for the client, and improve the time to first render of your pages. To optimize the rendering of the web servers and save bandwidth, it facilitates work of the browsers such as gzip compression, expires headers and eTags, etc.
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Browser Caching
Browser caching helps to store the static files (such as CSS, HTML, JavaScript etc.) in the browser itself. When the visitor goes to another page of your website (after visiting the previous page), your static content does not need to be loaded again and UI will be rendered based on the static files stored in the browser hence increasing the speed of your website.
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Database Optimization
WP-Rocket also helps to clean up your database to remove bloat and reduce the DB size which helps to improve your site’s overall performance optimization. It also allows you to schedule the cleanup activity so that you do not need to worry about doing it manually. By scheduling, you can always be sure that all things will run smoothly. (Before shifting to WP-Rocket, I was using one additional plugin ‘WP-Optimize’ to do the same thing for me. But now I do not need that plugin anymore :))
Below is the result of my scheduled database optimization:
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Remove Query Strings from Static Resources
This feature helps in improving your GT Metrix grade by removing query strings from CSS or JS files. Cache busting is retained by encoding the version number into the URL.
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Defer JS Loading
It decreases web page load time by loading the JavaScript files after the end of the rendering of the page. Hence, it helps in speeding up your website.
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CDN/ CloudFlare Compatibility
WP Rocket allows you to use most CDN (Content Delivery Network) services such as MaxCDN etc. to reduce the latency of HTTP requests. It also lets you integrate your blog with CloudFlare to get better performance. You just need to have one free Cloudflare account. You won’t face any compatibility issues.
Other features being offered are – DNS Prefetching, Mobile Detection, Multisite and Multilingual Compatibility, Mobile Caching etc.
Below is the comparison of WP-Rocket with W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, and Hyper Cache features.
Configuring the WP-Rocket Plugin
Setting up the WP-Rocket plugin is very easy. You can search & install wp rocket. Once you have installed and activated the plugin, just go to WordPress dashboard –> Settings –> WP Rocket (If you are logged in users). All you have to do is select/unselect the features you wish to (You do not need to have any coding skills at all to set up this plugin).
Basic Settings
CDN Settings
Database Settings:
Advanced Settings:
Preload Settings:
Tools Setting:
Static Files Setting:
It is difficult to show/explain each and every setting, you can watch the video to check settings and how to enable caching & configure them.
WP Rocket Review – Experiment With WP Rocket Caching Plugin
As mentioned before, I was using W3 Total cache free plugin before switching to WP-Rocket. I have performed various speed tests so that I could compare the performances of the plugin and figure out which is the better plugin. You can see the difference in LOAD TIME after trying WP-Rocket.
Test on GT Metrix:
Before
After:
Test on Pingdom:
Before
After
I am still experimenting with other features and combinations to decrease load time as much as I can do. Hope, I will be able to do soon 🙂
You can use these 5 tools to check website speed for free.
WP Rocket Review – Pricing & Plans
There are three plans/licenses available for WP-Rocket.
- SINGLE: $39 (1 site)
- PLUS: $99 (3 sites)
- INFINITE: $199 (unlimited sites) (Can be used for your client sites also)
You can buy WPRocket with any of the three licenses.
Its licenses come with one year of support. The Support team responds to the queries very quickly and is always available to show you how much value their product holds. I am using the SINGLE license for my website. If you are having multiple WordPress sites, you can go for PLUS or INFINITE licenses. All licenses are subject to a 14-day money-back guarantee (100% – No-Risk) if you’re not happy. But I can bet if you start using this, you will feel happy.
Note 1: WP-Rocket will continue working on your site, even after your license expires. The license covers access to support and updates, so if you want to ensure uninterrupted access to those benefits, you must renew your license. Renewals are currently offered at 50% off.
Note 2: If you would like to add more sites to your account you can upgrade your license at any point of time. You will just pay the difference in cost.
WP Rocket Review – Final Thoughts
After reading all the features, you will agree with me that WP Rocket is the “BEST” caching plugin. I know that there are many free caching plugins available (such as WP Fastest Cache, W3 Total Cache, etc) in WordPress inventory, but not any of them provides the features that WP Rocket provides. Also, they will require additional overhead in setting up and fixing in case if any issue comes. If you are serious about blogging and looking for a long time commitment and ok to spend a few bucks, WP rocket would be my personal recommendation. It is a highly effective caching solution package with top-notch support. It is really very impressive and provides great results 🙂 So, what are you waiting for? Start Caching 🙂
Also Read: OptinMonster Plugin Reviews
That’s all in this article – WP Rocket review. Do not forget to share it with your friends 🙂
Are you using any caching plugin for your blog? Have you used or are using WP Rocket already? What is your experience with this? What did I miss to mention in this WP Rocket review article? Do let us know in the comment section below 🙂
You can connect with me on Instagram Or Quora And Linkedin as well.
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thanks for sharing.
Hello,
I would like to disagree here a little bit as I am fan of W3TC. I Agree that WP Rocket is great for beginners. But the Combo or Cloudflare + MaxCDN + W3TC is unbeatable.
It not just speeds up my site, but also improves CPU usage and optimizes Bandwidth significantly.
Hi Collins,
Thanks for your comment. Yes, even my experience with WPRocket is very good so far. Looking to try out more options with this now 😉
Great review of WPRocket. We use it on all our sites and couldn’t be more happy with it.
no doubt WP rocket plugin is awesome because it assists bloggers to index articles in short time
Hi Robin,
Thanks for your comment. Yeah, I bought it recently and so far my experience is good. Trying few experiments with this now. Hope to see better result soon 🙂
Hi Mohit,
It looks like that WP rocket is an amazing plugin. And also you have done review perfectly.
Thanks for the share.
Have a good weekend.