NitroPack vs. WP Rocket: Which Is Better For Your Website?
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Page speed, responsiveness, and visual stability are the three most important factors contributing to a website’s overall performance. Channeling your focus on improving these characteristics is the secret to improving both your site’s SEO ranking and user experience.
Nitropack and WP Rocket are two all-in-one optimization tools designed to boost the loading speeds and performance of your WordPress website. These plugins are some of the best in the market, boasting top-of-the-line features and specs.
To help you choose which plugin is best for your website optimization needs, we have developed a comprehensive guide outlining all the details. In this article, we will discuss the various pros and cons of using Nitropack and WP Rocket so you can decide which one will suit your business the most.
Read on to find out more.
Why is Speed Optimization Important?
About a decade ago, site speed was not a priority for most businesses. Lag and slow responsiveness were the norm, with high performance being viewed as a luxury feature used by top websites like Google and Amazon.
However, the internet landscape has changed immensely in ten years, resulting in an environment where slow sites are intolerable and often harmful. But what is speed optimization, and why is it so important?
Simply put, page speed is the rate at which a browser can load a complete webpage from a website. Also known as website performance, this aspect can have a great effect on the overall user traffic of a site.
It can also drastically impact a site’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which boosts search engine ranking and visibility. Speed optimization is a factor that is often overlooked by marketing teams when creating strategies for increased revenue.
For example, websites that lag or have slow response times can make users lose interest and click away faster. This contrasts with high-speed sites, which provide a better user experience. This improved experience will have a positive effect on the number of conversions, which will, in turn, increase revenue.
What is Nitropack?
Nitropack is a cloud-based solution for page speed optimization, powering over 200,000 websites all around the world since its launch in 2012.
The service aims to revolutionize speed optimization as a service, with advanced features like Cache Invalidation, image optimization, and built-in CDN (Content Delivery Network), all offered by the extension. It is compatible with multiple website platforms such as Shopify, WordPress, Magento, and more.
Little to no coding knowledge is required to use Nitropack, making it an easy, out-of-the-box service. The extension also includes a built-in script manager which delays Javascript based on the optimization level that has been selected.
I have tested Nitropack’s free version on my personal website and see how it performed:
What is WP Rocket?
WP Rocket is a top WordPress caching plugin used to enhance the speed and performance of websites. Launched in 2013, WP Rocket is a premium service used by 2,600,000 websites globally. Standout features offered by WP Rocket include page and browser caching, magnification of various code such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript, lazy loading of images and videos, and Rocket CDN,
In addition, WP Rocket is exclusively designed for use with WordPress and provides 3 different types of licenses depending on the number of websites that you have. It also offers extensive documentation where all features are explained in detail, and support is provided on common setup issues.
Plans and Pricing
Both NitroPack and WP Rocket offer a diverse set of plans to their customers, all offering different levels of services at contrasting price points. Before discussing each in detail, it is important to note that the two differ in terms of pricing model.
NitroPack uses a subscription-based model with monthly and yearly plan options. WP Rocket, on the other hand, has only yearly plan options. NitroPack also offers a free version while WP Rocket’s plans are all paid.
Nitropack
The following is a summary of the plans offered by NitroPack and their pricing.
- Business ($21/month, $17.5/month in yearly plan): Offers 1 website, 50,000 pageviews a month, 25GB CDN bandwidth a month, and 1 team member.
- Growth ($51/mo, $42.50/month in yearly plan): Offers 1 website, 200,000 pageviews a month, 100GB CDN bandwidth a month, 3 team members, and adaptive image sizing.
- Scale ($176/month, $146.67/month in yearly plan): Offers 1 website, 1,000,000 pageviews a month, 500GB CDN bandwidth a month, 10 team members, adaptive image sizing, and font subsetting.
NitroPack also offers a 14-day money-back guarantee if customers are not satisfied with the quality of their purchased service.
WP Rocket
The following is a summary of the plans offered by WP Rocket and their pricing.
- Single ($59): Offers 1 year of support and updates for a single website. Features include quick setup, and powerful web performance features, broad compatibility, eCommerce compatibility, multilingual compatibility, advanced support, and more.
- Plus (119): Offers 1 year of support and updates for 3 websites. Features include quick setup, and powerful web performance features, broad compatibility, eCommerce compatibility, multilingual compatibility, advanced support, and more.
- Infinite ($299): Offers 1 year of support and updates for an unlimited number of websites. Features include quick setup, and powerful web performance features, broad compatibility, eCommerce compatibility, multilingual compatibility, advanced support, and more.
WP Rocket offers a 14-day money-back guarantee if customers are not satisfied with the quality of their purchased service.
Final Verdict: Plans and Pricing
When compared, WP Rocket has lower prices than NitroPack. It is also much more straightforward, with simple flat yearly fees, while NitroPack’s subscription model can be costly if your business plans to scale. However, NitroPack users can request a free trial, a feature that WP Rocket currently does not offer.
If you are a smaller-sized company that may scale in the future, WP Rocket is a good option. For established companies that prioritize CDN bandwidth and pageviews, NitroPack is the better alternative.
Caching
The most prominent element of page speed optimization is caching. Defined as a high-speed storage layer that stores website data, a cache is responsible for storing multiple copies of a webpage’s data in a temporary area. Access and retrieval times are much faster when these files are copied and kept away at a secondary location.
NitroPack
NitroPack offers a quality cache service with many additional features that help decrease website load times. It utilizes server-side caching that offers advanced services like smart cache invalidation, automatic cache warmup, device (desktop vs mobile) and cookie-aware caching, and browser and session-aware caching.
WP Rocket
Like NitroPack, WP Rocket also offers top caching services, with the extension featuring an advanced browser caching mechanism that improves the speed and performance of your website. Some of these services include browser caching, page caching, and cache preloading.
For the most part, these features are similar to NitroPack. However, WP Rocket offers some extra options for mobile caching, allowing users to configure lifespans and define user cache permissions. However, these changes must be done manually.
Final Verdict: Caching
Both NitroPack and WP Rocket offer quality caching as a part of their services. One main difference between the two is in the caching approach. WP Rocket implements a client-side approach while NitroPack uses a server-side caching method. The latter allows for cached files to be retrieved from its servers rather than being freshly generated on every site’s server.
Server-side caching also removes the burden from your website’s server. The downside of server-side caching is that Nitropack increases the price based on the bandwidth served via their cache servers.
In this way, NitroPack offers a more efficient caching service. However, while WP Rocket may not as productive, it offers a greater level of customization to its users
Image Optimization
Images are often the biggest culprit behind slow page speeds, with their large sizes and high qualities making the process of retrieval much more time-consuming. Image optimization attempts to resolve this by delivering high quality in the correct format, resolution, and dimension in compressed file size.
NitroPack
NitroPack offers an advanced automatic image optimization stack with many top-of-the-line features. One major feature is lossy and lossless image compression which reduces file size without compromising on file quality. Other features are advanced lazy loading and preemptive image sizing, browser-dependent WebP conversion, and adaptive image sizing.
All image optimization is done on NitroPack’s own servers using a server-side approach. In this way, there is no load on the website’s resources which has a positive effect on overall performance.
WP Rocket
Unlike NitroPack, no image optimization stack works on image compression and adaptive image sizing built within the WP Rocket extension. Lazy loading for images is supported with WP Rocket, but advanced features are not a part of its service list.
However, WP Rocket is compatible with many third-party applications that provide image optimization solutions, such as ShortPixel and Imagify. This is an alternative option for WP Rocket users who are looking for image optimization services.
Final Verdict: Image Optimization
NitroPack is the clear winner when it comes to image optimization services, with a full stack of solutions dedicated to this feature. This is a clear problem that has a major impact on loading times, and NitroPack has made the effort to include it as a featured service.
Although WP Rocket users can also access similar features through third-party tools, it is not the same as having it already built into the system.
Customer Support
NitroPack and WP Rocket are both software that are prone to technical glitches and setup errors. In these situations, it is customer support who will make sure issues are resolved and the customer is satisfied.
NitroPack
NitroPack has an extensive customer support system in place, with guidance being offered through multiple channels. The team at NitroPack includes technical experts who are available to help with all platform-specific problems.
These experts can be contacted through the ticketing system, email, or live chat feature on the platform’s website. It also has a detailed knowledge base with many articles providing self-support to users stuck on a particular issue.
WP Rocket
WP Rocket also has a dedicated support team for its customers, providing accurate timely resolution of issues. It also features a ticket-based system that allows users to submit queries in detail to the platform’s support team.
In addition, WP Rocket’s site features a technical knowledge base filled with all the necessary information for users to self-diagnose problem areas.
Final Verdict: Customer Support
Both NitroPack and WP Rocket have proper customer support channels in place to help struggling customers get the attention they require. They also have active support forums and online communities where customers can consult others facing similar issues.
Final Verdict: NitroPack vs WP Rocket
For smaller companies that are on a budget, NitroPack with its free version is a good option to consider. If you are a smaller company but don’t have any budget constraints, then WP Rocket might be better suited for you as the alternative can be difficult to scale.
If your website is very image-heavy, with high-resolution images causing lots of lag and speed issues, then go for NitroPack, as it offers an entire speed optimization stack. If your priority is mobile caching, then WP Rocket is your best bet.
NitroPack and WP Rocket are two of the finest speed optimization platforms available on the market today. Which one is best for you depends on multiple factors including budget, size of company, customization preferences, and technical expertise.
Frequently Asked Questions
As soon as the WP Rocket plugin has been installed and activated, your website will see an improvement in page loading speed. The entire setup will take about 3 minutes, making it one of the fastest services on the market.
Lazy loading is a technique used to decrease the loading times of a webpage. Images and other web content are not loaded until needed rather than done all at once.
I’m founder of BizStack at Cagri Sarigoz LLC and a passionate advocate for entrepreneurs.
With over 14 years in tech, marketing, and AI, including my role as Head of SEO at CitizenShipper and co-founder of TaleBot at Intale AI, I’m dedicated to sharing genuine, useful product insights and tips.
At BizStack, I aim to cut through the digital noise to provide clear, actionable advice.
And more than all else, I’m a father to a (always) little girl and a husband.
Contact me at [email protected] for assistance.
Co Authors :
Ana is a content writer at BizStack and ensures our content meets and goes beyond our readers’ expectations.
