Hostinger.com vs Rocket.net, Or Jalopy To Rocket Launch

I started Technoogies.com back in 2008, ran a computer support service since 1996, and have had the same email address since 1995. Why am I telling you this? I’ve deleted a lot of junk! One particular email almost got deleted, but coming from my Technoogies contact form I started to read it because they are often people asking technical questions, but most of the time they’re not. Why did this one get my attention? Because it proposed a unique approach to enterprise level hosting at an entry level cost, and to try it for free. No brainer! So, Hostinger.com vs Rocket.net, a speed comparison.

I have a bunch of domains that I have sat on for decades and did nothing with them (anybody want to buy iopro.com?). I picked Hostinger to start developing them on for the good price and range of features. The Hostinger shared hosting I started with however isn’t exactly what I’d call hosting. Bluehost is superior at the entry level compared to Hostinger. Anyhow, nothing fancy, I just needed something to host my sites while I build and develop them. I kept having to boost the hosting package via pricy upgrades to get it to a point where I could actually get some work done. My point in this line of commentary, My hosting package with Hostinger is pretty good, but not super. I was definitely open to a faster, more efficient delivery of technoogies.com.

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Hostinger.com vs Rocket.net Revue

These screenshots represent three stages of the move and show the GTMetrix scores of each stage.

• The condition of the site before the move
• The condition of the site right after the move
• The condition of the site after some optimizing changes to the site

Pre-Move

So at this time it was averaging just over 3 seconds to an interactive state.
Here’s a little detail about the the site at this time.

• I was running on StudioPress Genesis, the Navigation Pro theme with a lot of extra CSS to change the look.
• Google and Amazon ads, Google fonts, Font Awesome Icons, Google Tag
• Hostinger.com Cloud Professional plan
• Cloudflare free plan
• Plugins for optimization
  • W3 Total Cache
  • FVM – Fast Velocity Minify
  • Robin Image Optimizer
• Other Plugins
  • Wordfence Security
  • BPS Pro – Bullet Proof Security

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Post-Move (No changes)

As you can see, just the move alone made some serious gains. The one thing that puzzled me though was the CLS (Content Layout Shift) issue that cropped up. Looking at the snapshots, I don’t see anything shifting, and when I looked into the code that PageSpeed flagged, it was a div wrapper that had the Google ad at the top of the content column. More on getting Googed in another article.

Web Core Vitals

Simply putting your WordPress site on Rocket.net your Google Web Core Vitals will be halfway complete without lifting a finger. For example, technoogies.com had a 60% performance increase, 76.9% decrease in LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), a 64.8% decrease in TBT (Total Blocking Time). That was by simply moving the site to Rocket.net. A little fine tuning and you can get even better results.

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Post-Move (Optimized)

For post move optimization these are the only things that changed after the initial move, everything else stayed the same.

• Since Rocket.net has a WAF (Web Application Firewall), I removed the security plugins
• I replaced W3 Total Cache and FVM with WP Rocket

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This was achieved while running 68 active plugins, so don’t tell me plugins are evil or that you can only use 10 (Or whatever).
There are good plugins, and bad plugins.

Choose wisely.

About Rocket.net

WordPress Only Hosting

If you’re not building in WordPress, you can stop reading here; Rocket.net will likely not be the host for you, but if you are a designer, developer, or website owner and run your sites are built on WordPress, then your gonna’ love Rocket.net, I guarantee it, and so do they.

Rocket.net Features

Just a few key features from their site. (See their site for more detail)

WordPress Control Panel

Create your site in seconds

Deploy the latest version of WordPress powered by Cloudflare Enterprise with just a few clicks.

Choose from 20+ Locations

Pre-install WooCommerce

Enable multisite

SSO to WP-Admin

Free Migration Service

Free Temporary Domain

Built-in and always-on Enterprise Security

• Global Website Firewall
  Powered by the Cloudflare Enterprise WAF, we can block malicious requests before they even get close to your WordPress installation.
• Local Website Firewall
  Powered by Imunify360, each and every server will scan all incoming requests to further protect from brute force attacks, weak password usage, and more.
• Real-time Malware Scanning & Patching
  Should malware be found on your site, it will automatically be patched/quarantined at no additional cost.

Keep your clients safe and secure with their free Website Security Suite. Each and every WordPress install is protected by an Enterprise Website Firewall, real-time Malware scanning, brute-force prevention, and much more.

Website Firewall (WAF)

Malware Scanning

Malware Patching

Brute-force Protection

Weak Password Prevention

Automated Bot Protection

Powered by Cloudflare Enterprise

• Full Page Caching
• Cookie Cache Bypass
• Per Device Caching

• Image Optimization
• JavaScript Optimization
• Third-party Script Proxying

• Always-on, Everywhere
  It’s as simple as pointing your DNS to Rocket.net! With zero configuration required, your site will immediately benefit from the Enterprise Cloudflare Network ($6,000 value!)
• No PHD Required!
  Configuring Cloudflare can be confusing. That’s why we’ve already taken care of that for you! Everything is perfectly optimized and configured for WordPress out of the gate.
• Already using Cloudflare?
  No problem! Chances are you’re either using the Free tier or the Pro plan. Both are drastically different than Enterprise… so save some money and keep the Free tier and let us handle the rest.

About Cloudflare Enterprise Plan

Only the Rocket.net guys touch the Cloudflare config, so not all of these features apply, but still, you get the same performance and uptime. I don’t know if their agreement with Cloudflare has every Enterprise feature either, like image compression for example. I put a strike through on the things I know you won’t have access to or be able to change and what remains are just features that are set in stone.

This is the short list from Cloudflare

• Web application firewall (WAF)
• SSL / TLS 1.2 & 1.3 with shared or multiple custom upload
• 125 page rules
• Minimum edge cache expire TTL at 30 seconds or less
• Audit logs and Enterprise Raw Logs with destination integrations
• Analytics time-range at 1 minute scope
• Prioritized customer support: 24x7x365 by phone, chat, and email support
• 100% uptime SLA up to 25x reimbursement
• Role-based account control
• Single-Sign-On support
• Network prioritization
• Enterprise Bot Management
• Layer-3 Network DDoS protection with Magic Transit
• Spectrum (for TCP/UDP)
• SSL/TLS for SaaS
• China Network access

Cloudflare protects and accelerates any website online. Once your website is a part of the Cloudflare network, its web traffic is routed through it’s intelligent global network. Cloudflare automatically optimizes the delivery of your web pages so your visitors get the fastest page load times and best performance. They also block threats and limit abusive bots and crawlers from wasting your bandwidth and server resources.