Liquid Web vs. Rocket.net

Last verified 35 days ago · 23 sources · Updated automatically

Liquid Web 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.

Liquid Web

Managed WordPress and ecommerce hosting (formerly Nexcess), on Liquid Web's own datacenters with Cloudflare Enterprise and a 100% uptime SLA.

HQ Lansing, MI

Visit Liquid Web 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

Liquid Web

Rocket.net

Company facts

Headquarters

Lansing, MI Lansing, Michigan (Liquid Web HQ; Nexcess consolidated under the Liquid Web brand)

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

Employees

750 Approx. company headcount (LinkedIn 500–1,000 range, midpoint)

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Pricing

Starting Monthly Price (USD)

$6 Spark – Launch plan, the entry managed WordPress tier (1 site, 15 GB), billed monthly

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

Entry Plan WordPress Sites

1 sites 1 WordPress site on the entry Spark – Launch plan

1 sites Starter plan includes 1 WordPress install

Entry Plan Storage (GB)

15 GB 15 GB storage on the entry Spark – Launch plan

10 GB Starter plan includes 10 GB storage

Free Trial Length (Days)

0 days No free trial offered on managed WordPress plans

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

Money-Back Guarantee (Days)

0 days No money-back guarantee; the current Terms of Service state fees are non-refundable

30 days 30-day money-back guarantee

Performance & infrastructure

Underlying Cloud

own datacenters Runs on Liquid Web-owned, staffed Tier-4 datacenters

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

Datacenter Locations

9 9 Liquid Web datacenter locations across the US, UK, EU, and Australia

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

Free CDN

Cloudflare Enterprise CDN included on every managed WordPress plan

Cloudflare Enterprise CDN included on every plan

Web Server

Apache Apache application server (with a Cloudflare Enterprise / NGINX edge-cache layer in front)

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Built-in Object Cache

Redis object caching (Object Cache Pro) enabled by default on all new sites

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

Latest PHP Version

8.3 PHP 8.3 selectable via the Client Portal (newer releases may also be available)

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

Free SSL Certificate

Free SSL certificate included on all plans

Free SSL included and auto-renewed on all plans

WordPress management

Automatic WordPress Updates

Host-managed automatic WordPress core (and security) updates

Automated core, plugin, and theme updates

Staging Environments

Free staging site included on every plan

One-click staging clone built into the control panel

Automatic Daily Backups

Automatic daily backups on every plan

Automated daily backups on every plan

Backup Retention (Days)

7 days 7-day backup retention on the entry Spark – Launch plan (30 days on Thrive/Elevate)

30 days 30 days of backup retention on the Starter plan

Free Site Migration

Free self-serve migration on the entry plan (assisted migration on higher tiers)

Unlimited free WordPress migrations

SSH & WP-CLI Access

SSH (Secure Shell) access with WP-CLI on managed WordPress plans

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

WordPress Multisite Support

WordPress Multisite supported (subdomain or subdirectory networks)

WordPress Multisite officially supported at no extra cost

Support & security

Uptime SLA (%)

100% 100% uptime SLA (network and power), with service credits

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

24/7 Support

24/7/365 support on all plans

24/7/365 expert WordPress support on all plans

Malware Removal / Hack Fix

Malware remediation is a paid one-time service ($200/incident), not an included guarantee

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

WAF / DDoS Protection

Web application firewall + DDoS protection (Cloudflare Enterprise) included on every plan

Cloudflare Enterprise WAF + DDoS protection included on every plan

Platform & integrations

Control Panel

custom Custom Sites & Stores portal (sites-portal.liquidweb.com), not cPanel/Plesk

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

White-Label / Agency Features

Reseller / white-label hosting and client management for partners

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

Email Hosting Included

Email hosting not included; mailboxes require a paid add-on or third-party provider

No email hosting; use a dedicated email provider

The verdict

Liquid Web

Best for low entry cost and built-in caching

Starts at $6/mo versus Rocket.net's $30, with 15 GB of entry storage to Rocket.net's 10 GB. Redis object caching (Object Cache Pro) ships on by default, where Rocket.net reserves it for Enterprise. It also lists 9 datacenter locations to Rocket.net's 4 and a 100% uptime SLA. Trade-off: no money-back guarantee, and malware removal is a paid $200 add-on.

Full profile

Rocket.net

Best for included security and a risk-free trial

Bundles real-time malware scanning and removal (Imunify360), which Liquid Web charges $200 per incident for, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee against Liquid Web's none. Entry backups are retained 30 days versus 7, and it runs PHP up to 8.4 (8.3 on Liquid Web). The cost: $30/mo to start versus $6, 10 GB versus 15 GB storage, and no default object cache on the Starter plan.

Full profile

Sources · 23 verified references

liquidweb.com rocket.net linkedin.com support.rocket.net

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