Now that WordPress.com is offering website plans that include hosting, are they a better option than the other managed WordPress hosting options? In this comparison of WordPress.com vs Rocket.net, we take a detailed look at Automattic’s WordPress.com hosting plans against one of the best choices for fast, premium managed WordPress hosting, Rocket.net. Which one is should you choose? Let’s take a look.
Advantages of Choosing WordPress.com over Rocket.net:
Advantages of Choosing Rocket.net over WordPress.com:
Rocket is geared towards those site owners that want ultra-fast, secure, and enterprise performance hosting. WordPress.com is tailored more for a wider array of website owners for personal, business, and eCommerce sites. They do also have their WordPress VIP for enterprise situations, however those plans are far more expensive and not part of this comparison.
With their Business and Commerce plans, WordPress.com includes the advanced features you need for more serious WordPress hosting, including global edge caching, global CDN, high-frequency CPUs, website staging, security scanning, and more. Note that you don’t get these features with the cheaper Personal and Premium plans at WordPress.com.
Rocket includes premium WordPress hosting features with all of their hosting plans. They include enterprise-grade servers, enterprise CDN, full-page caching, over 275 worldwide Edge Locations, enterprise firewall and security, Imunify360 scanning and patching, and responsive expert support.
We’re impressed with the features included by both of these hosts, but Rocket gets the edge here.
With their optimized WordPress environment and other features mentioned earlier, Rocket is one of the very best web hosts when it comes to website speed and performance. Core web vitals were especially good in our testing. Website performance and structure were perfect.
WordPress.com also impressive with their website speed and performance—also implementing edge caching and a global CDN. While this category was a bit closer than we thought it would be, Rocket is the winner here. See our sample speed test results below.
Rocket is also the winner in the customer support category. We had good experiences interacting with the support teams from both Rocket and WordPress.com. However, with Rocket, you get real live chat support up front. Response times are excellent and the support agents were always professional and helpful.
With WordPress.com, you initial go through automated chat. If you need further assistance, you can put in your request and you are contacted later via email. In our experience it took at least a few hours for a response. With the Business and Commerce WordPress.com plans, you do get priority support. However, we still give the advantage to Rocket here.
Started Business: 2005
BBB Rating: A+
Data Center Location:Data Centers: Global
Price: $4 mo. – $45 mo. (Enterprise Plans also available)
Unlimited Bandwidth: Yes
Unlimited Storage: No
Email: Yes
Host Multiple Domains: No
Hosting Interface: WordPress Dashboard
Server Uptime: 99.999%
Full Refund Period: 14 Days
Dedicated Hosting Available: No
Advantages of Choosing WordPress.com:
Choose WordPress.com if:
Started Business: 2020
BBB Rating: A+
Data Center Location: North America, Europe, Asia, Australia
Price: $25 mo. – $166 mo.
Unlimited Bandwidth: No
Unlimited Storage: No
Unlimited Email: No
Host Multiple Domains: Yes (Except Starter Plan)
Hosting Interface: Rocket Dashboard
Server Uptime: 99.99%
Full Refund Period: 30 Days
Dedicated Hosting Available: Yes
Advantages of Choosing Rocket.net:
Choose Rocket.net if:
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If you’re more of a newbie or less experienced with WordPress, then we would recommend choosing WordPress.com. Creating your website is easier and you still get great website performance.
However, in this comparison Rocket is the winner. Rocket provides faster website performance, more premium WordPress hosting features with all plans, and includes faster responding live chat support. For the better overall managed WordPress hosting experience, Rocket is the way to go.
Enterprise applications and WordPress agencies in particular are better off with Rocket in our opinion. You get more value for the money when you need WordPress hosting for multiple websites. See our Review Ratings below.
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