My Review of WP Rocket – WordPress Caching
Server side site caching has long been a passion of mine. The speed increase for the end user combined with the lowered server resource needs simply make it a no-brainer. You need to be caching your site on the server.
Until last week I’d only worked with free plugins for caching, and been pretty pleased with my favorite, WP Super Cache. Recently however, I’ve been seeing a lot of press about WP Rocket, a plugin that costs $39. It came out about a year ago, we wrote about it back then, and I’ve kept my eye on it to see if it gets any traction. I
What I liked about WP Rocket
The first thing I noticed is that the Settings panel is amazingly simpler than either WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache. The Basic Settings page has just 6 questions, while the Advanced Settings page has only 8.
I really liked the LazyLoading feature as well, and it did a GREAT job concatenating my CSS and Javascript.
What I loved about WP Rocket
It also has some really nice built-in tools. It has the option to auto-update, so you don’t have to think about making sure it’s updated. Additionally, it has a version rollback system, so if an auto-update breaks things, you can easily revert to the previous version that worked.
It can also save and import all your settings. If you remove the plugin, your settings are lost, but if you saved them before that, you can simply import them all. This works nicely as well for setting up a default config if you create multiple sites.
One really great thing is that it cleans up after itself. W3 Total Cache leaves files and code all through your site if you remove it. WP Super Cache is better, but still leaves your cache files and .htaccess updates in place when you remove it.
Removing WP Rocket completely removes everything, which is awesome.
What I didn’t like about WP Rocket
My only real complaint centers around Multisite Networks. WP Rocket needs to be installed separately on every site on the network, and each site has its own config set up. Sure, the ability to have a config file you simply import takes the edge off, but it still means you need to install and do that every time a new site is created. If you have a Membership site where people can create their own sub-sites it simply doesn’t scale at all. WP Super Cache wins big here, it does a wonderful job.
Summary
In all I really like it, and I’m using it on my own site after using WP Super Cache for many years. If you’re well experienced with WordPress and caching in general WP Super Cache will probably still serve just as well, but if you’re NOT well experienced WP Rocket is worth every single penny you’ll spend on it.
If you’re an OSTraining member, you can get a WP Rocket discount code from the coupon area.
Thank you for the clean write up. Seems that you have switched back to super cache on this site, or are you using wp rocket on a personal site?
Thanks
I just wanted to warn people, caching is a complex concept and be careful being seduced by the wp-rocket ‘one click install’. I had various issues with minification initially which they initially solved. However, with an update to their own plugin 2 months after I bought it, images stopped loading.
I had a lot of back and forth with wp-rocket support (mind you they are not native English speakers) and there was so much miscommunication it was staggering. They did not troubleshoot my issue thoroughly and I wasted many hours on emails getting nowhere. I requested a refund. Their policy is that after 30 days refunds aren’t possible so I ended up disputing with PayPal to refund 10 months worth of wp-rocket’s value. I am waiting for PayPal to decide.
I was using W3 total cache before and have switched back after removing wp-rocket. W3 total cache is definitely faster than wp-rocket and more customizable so ultimately more powerful.
Hi Mike,
Jean-Baptiste from WP Rocket here
Thank you very much for your feedback and apologize for the mess here.
Time is precious and we really don’t want to waste yours.
I’ve just contacted Paypal to process to your refund.
Have a great day 🙂
Thanks Jean, nothing seems to be happening though. PayPal just declined my claim:
We’ve completed our review and unfortunately are not able to decide this case in your favor.
Will not be using PayPal for future software purchases that is for sure
I purchased the WP ROCKET PLUGIN from Rubbish product, it did not do anything. The team at WP Rocket are untrustworthy.
Hi,
Thank you for your feedback.
We’ve just updated our refund policy, which is now much more flexible. You can have a look at it: [url=http://wp-rocket.me/refund-policy/]http://wp-rocket.me/refund-…[/url]
Worst support staff ever. We have a high traffic website and have use varnish along with memcache. We installed this, set it up correctly to work with memcache and varnish, and ran into a myriad of problems. I then decided to ask support for help AND purchase the $200 pro configuration option to try and get some real one-on-one help with their support staff.
The next day I got zero support. One generic email from somebody asking if i had ticked various boxes in the backend, but no engineer logging in and looking things over. After a day of having a broken site and multiple 504 errors, i decided to get rid of the plugin and request a refund. At the moment, radio silence.
WP-Rocket staff – refund please?
Hi,
Jonathan from WP Rocket.
You may know that we read and reply to all emails we received. If you don’t have a reply from us, it means we will do it as soon we will be available to reply.
For your information all Pro Config are done within 2 days.
Please note that complain on Facebook, Twitter, comments on review or then by trying to call our co-founder on his own mobile phone don’t speed up the refund process.
Jonathan, that’s not something you should boast about. Complaints on social media, to your support staff, numerous back and forth emails, and even reaching out to your co-founder = SLOW TEDIOUS response from WP Rocket. I wouldn’t be boasting about that.
I have really mixed feelings about WP-Rocket. In most cases it seems to run pretty well and give you some significant speed advantage but in a lot of cases it appears to be highly unreliable and even risks your SEO. It appears you also have to try really hard to get a refund. So it is once more a situation where one like to try it out if works and then make a purchase decision. WP-Rocket does not offer this. Buy or die… Or you could null it yourself following these instructions: [url=https://gpldl.com/remove-license-code-check-wp-rocket-wordpress-plugin/]https://gpldl.com/remove-li…[/url]
This worked for me and I will see, if I get a license when I am fully convinced…