Flywheel vs. Rocket.net

Last verified 35 days ago · 23 sources · Updated automatically

Flywheel and Rocket.net compared across Company facts, Pricing, Performance & infrastructure, WordPress management, Support & security and Platform & integrations — every fact sourced and re-verified from each vendor's public material.

Flywheel

Managed WordPress hosting built for designers and creative agencies; now part of WP Engine.

HQ Austin, TX

Visit Flywheel Full profile

Rocket.net

Managed WordPress hosting with Cloudflare Enterprise on every plan, focused on raw speed.

HQ West Palm Beach, FL

Visit Rocket.net Full profile

Attribute

Flywheel

Rocket.net

Company facts

Headquarters

Austin, TX Flywheel is a WP Engine product; WP Engine is headquartered in Austin, TX

West Palm Beach, FL Remote-first; HQ in West Palm Beach, Florida

Employees

1.1k Headcount of parent company WP Engine (~1,100 globally)

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Pricing

Starting Monthly Price (USD)

$25 Starter plan billed monthly; $300/yr (2 months free) if annual

$30 Starter plan, billed monthly; 2 months free on annual billing

Entry Plan WordPress Sites

1 sites 1 WordPress site on the Starter plan

1 sites Starter plan includes 1 WordPress install

Entry Plan Monthly Visits

25k 25,000 monthly visits on the Starter plan

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Entry Plan Storage (GB)

10 GB 10 GB disk on the Starter plan

10 GB Starter plan includes 10 GB storage

Free Trial Length (Days)

0 days No free trial; free demo sites and a 60-day money-back guarantee instead

0 days No free trial; 30-day money-back guarantee instead

Money-Back Guarantee (Days)

60 days 60-day money-back guarantee (excludes Agency and Custom plans)

30 days 30-day money-back guarantee

Performance & infrastructure

Underlying Cloud

Google Cloud Runs on the Google Cloud Platform

own datacenters Bare-metal private cloud behind Cloudflare Enterprise (no public hyperscaler)

Datacenter Locations

5 5 data center regions worldwide

4 Site placement across North America, Europe, Australia, Asia

Free CDN

Free global CDN powered by Fastly on all plans

Cloudflare Enterprise CDN included on every plan

Web Server

NGINX NGINX serving static files and reverse-proxying PHP-FPM

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Built-in Object Cache

Page caching only (FlyCache); no persistent object cache

Object Cache Pro / Relay are Enterprise-tier only; not default on the Starter plan

Latest PHP Version

8.2 PHP 8.2 (default for new sites); 7.4 also selectable

8.4 PHP up to 8.4 selectable (also 5.6, 7.4, 8.0-8.3)

Free SSL Certificate

Free Let's Encrypt SSL (Simple SSL) with any plan

Free SSL included and auto-renewed on all plans

WordPress management

Automatic WordPress Updates

Automatic major and minor WordPress core updates

Automated core, plugin, and theme updates

Staging Environments

One-click staging sites included on all plans

One-click staging clone built into the control panel

Automatic Daily Backups

Automatic nightly backups with one-click restore

Automated daily backups on every plan

Backup Retention (Days)

30 days 30 days of nightly backups retained

30 days 30 days of backup retention on the Starter plan

Free Site Migration

Free site migrations included

Unlimited free WordPress migrations

SSH & WP-CLI Access

SSH gateway with WP-CLI on all Cloud Platform sites

SSH access plus a web-based WP-CLI terminal for all customers

WordPress Multisite Support

Multisite requires Freelance, Agency, or Custom plan; not on the entry Starter plan

WordPress Multisite officially supported at no extra cost

Support & security

Uptime SLA (%)

99.9% 99.9% uptime

99.99% 99.99% uptime guarantee (plus a marketed 100% uptime claim during traffic spikes)

24/7 Support

24/7/365 chat support on all plans

24/7/365 expert WordPress support on all plans

Malware Removal / Hack Fix

Free malware cleanup / hack fix if your site is infected on-platform

Real-time malware scanning and removal/patching (Imunify360)

WAF / DDoS Protection

Fastly-based WAF and DDoS protection at the edge, included on all plans

Cloudflare Enterprise WAF + DDoS protection included on every plan

Platform & integrations

Control Panel

custom Custom Flywheel dashboard (replaces cPanel)

custom Custom-built Rocket.net WordPress Control Panel (Mission Control)

White-Label / Agency Features

Billing transfer to clients, collaborators, and multi-site management for agencies

White-label control panel, reseller tiers, WooCommerce client provisioning/billing

Email Hosting Included

No email hosting; Flywheel recommends a dedicated provider like Google Workspace

No email hosting; use a dedicated email provider

The verdict

Flywheel

Best for the lowest entry price and risk-free trial

Flywheel starts at $25/mo versus Rocket.net's $30, and backs it with a 60-day money-back guarantee against Rocket.net's 30. Backed by parent WP Engine (~1,100 staff), it runs on Google Cloud with a Fastly CDN. The Starter plan caps at 25k visits and excludes Multisite, so single-site projects fit best.

Full profile

Rocket.net

Best for Multisite, newer PHP, and a higher uptime SLA

Rocket.net supports WordPress Multisite at no extra cost, where Flywheel's entry Starter plan does not. It offers PHP up to 8.4 (Flywheel tops out at 8.2) and a 99.99% uptime SLA versus Flywheel's 99.9%. Sites run on its own datacenters behind a Cloudflare Enterprise CDN and WAF. Entry price is $30/mo with a 30-day guarantee.

Full profile

Sources · 23 verified references

wpengine.com rocket.net getflywheel.com support.rocket.net

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