Rocket.net vs. WordPress.com

Last verified 35 days ago · 22 sources · Updated automatically

Rocket.net and WordPress.com 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.

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

WordPress.com

Automattic's hosted WordPress service, from a free tier up to managed, plugin-enabled business plans.

HQ San Francisco, CA

Visit WordPress.com Full profile

Attribute

Rocket.net

WordPress.com

Company facts

Headquarters

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

San Francisco, CA Automattic (WordPress.com's parent); a fully distributed company.

Employees

—

1.5k Automattic (parent company) headcount, ~1,450 across 80+ countries.

Pricing

Starting Monthly Price (USD)

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

$9 Personal plan, the cheapest paid tier; bandwidth is unmetered on all plans.

Entry Plan WordPress Sites

1 sites Starter plan includes 1 WordPress install

1 sites Personal plan hosts a single WordPress site.

Entry Plan Storage (GB)

10 GB Starter plan includes 10 GB storage

6 GB Personal plan includes 6 GB of storage.

Free Trial Length (Days)

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

0 days No free trial; WordPress.com offers a money-back guarantee instead.

Money-Back Guarantee (Days)

30 days 30-day money-back guarantee

14 days 14-day refund window on annual plans (7 days on monthly).

Performance & infrastructure

Underlying Cloud

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

own datacenters Automattic-operated infrastructure, 28+ data centers across 6 continents.

Datacenter Locations

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

4 4 site-placement regions: US West, US Central, US East, EU West.

Free CDN

Cloudflare Enterprise CDN included on every plan

Global edge cache / CDN included on all plans at no extra cost.

Web Server

—

NGINX NGINX-based stack.

Built-in Object Cache

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

Persistent object cache (Memcached) enabled by default on all plans.

Latest PHP Version

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

8.4 PHP 8.4 selectable (8.2, 8.3, 8.4 supported).

Free SSL Certificate

Free SSL included and auto-renewed on all plans

Free SSL certificate auto-provisioned on all plans.

WordPress management

Automatic WordPress Updates

Automated core, plugin, and theme updates

WordPress core and security updates are managed by the platform automatically.

Staging Environments

One-click staging clone built into the control panel

Staging sites require the Business plan; not available on the entry (Personal) plan.

Automatic Daily Backups

Automated daily backups on every plan

Automated real-time backups/restore (VaultPress) require the Business plan; not on the entry (Personal) plan.

Backup Retention (Days)

30 days 30 days of backup retention on the Starter plan

—

Free Site Migration

Unlimited free WordPress migrations

Free 'Do it for me' expert migration plus free content import; full plugin/theme site migration needs the Business plan.

SSH & WP-CLI Access

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

SSH and WP-CLI require the Business plan; not on the entry (Personal) plan.

WordPress Multisite Support

WordPress Multisite officially supported at no extra cost

WordPress Multisite networks are not supported; each site needs its own plan.

Support & security

Uptime SLA (%)

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

99.999% 99.999% uptime SLA.

24/7 Support

24/7/365 expert WordPress support on all plans

24/7 priority support requires the Business plan; Personal gets email + weekday/extended live chat, not full 24/7.

Malware Removal / Hack Fix

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

Daily malware scanning with automatic fixes, built into every site.

WAF / DDoS Protection

Cloudflare Enterprise WAF + DDoS protection included on every plan

Web Application Firewall and DDoS protection built into every site at no extra cost.

Platform & integrations

Control Panel

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

custom Custom WordPress.com dashboard (Calypso); no cPanel.

White-Label / Agency Features

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

Automattic for Agencies: unified multi-site dashboard, consolidated billing, client referrals, bulk discounts.

Email Hosting Included

No email hosting; use a dedicated email provider

No mailbox hosting on the entry plan; Professional Email / Google Workspace is a paid add-on (free for 1 year only on Business/Commerce).

The verdict

Rocket.net

Best for developer access and managed features on the entry plan

At $30/mo the Starter plan bundles staging, daily backups (30-day retention), SSH and WP-CLI, multisite, and 24/7 support. WordPress.com gates all of these behind its Business tier. Rocket.net also gives more entry storage (10 GB vs 6 GB) and a longer money-back window (30 vs 14 days).

Full profile

WordPress.com

Best for lowest entry cost and a managed single site

The Personal plan starts at $9/mo versus Rocket.net's $30, with a built-in object cache and a higher 99.999% SLA (vs 99.99%). It suits a single managed site that does not need staging, backups, SSH/WP-CLI, multisite, or 24/7 support on the entry tier, since those require the Business plan.

Full profile

Sources · 22 verified references

rocket.net automattic.com wordpress.com developer.wordpress.com support.rocket.net

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