Your website speeds can determine how long visitors stay on your website. An ideal website load time should be about 2 seconds. So, improving site speed is mandatory.
Therefore, most websites use NitroPack and WP Rocket plugins to improve speed and pass the Core Web Vital metrics. But, if you compare NitroPack vs. WP Rocket, which is the best option? Both NitroPack and WP Rocket offers excellent features that serve different purposes.
However, if you want to choose one, you must understand how they operate. In this article, we’ll compare the prominent features, user experience, pros and cons, performance, and pricing, to help you make an informed decision.
NitroPack vs. WP Rocket: Overview
NitroPack
Image source: NitroPack
NitroPack is an all-in-one performance solution designed for speed optimization. As of 2022, the tool was used by more than 160,000 websites for performance optimization. Since its establishment in 2018, this tool has grown its user base; companies like SmartBlogger, Partnerize, DevriX, and Voices use it.
This performance optimization tool helps businesses save time and money by providing features such as built-in CDN, image optimization, speed improvement, lazy load, code minification, and file optimization. In addition, you can use this tool to avoid manual configuration by selecting the automatic settings that work for your website.
WP Rocket
Image source: WP Rocket
WP Rocket is a WordPress plugin to improve PageSpeed score, optimize Core Web Vitals and boost the loading time. Unlike NitroPack, which is much newer, WP Rocket has existed since 2013 and has more than 2 million users. Known for its stability and excellent performance in the WordPress community, this plugin delivers the desired results.
It’s easy to set up, making it popular among WordPress users. Additionally, WP Rocket includes the best optimization options with 3-5 plugins.
NitroPack vs. WP Rocket: Features
NitroPack and WP Rocket have overlapping features, especially code and file optimization. However, some of the features are different such as image optimization. Therefore, before picking one of the tools, you must compare the features to get the best one for your business.
Let’s examine the notable features of both plugins.
1. Caching
Caching is an unignorable feature in the plugins. The site speed depends on the caching ability, and the caching distinctions between the Nitropack and WP rocket are.
NitroPack
NitroPack has an advanced caching system. It has a high cache hit ratio thanks to features like smart cache invalidation, device and cookie-aware caching, automatic cache warmup, and browser and session-aware caching. Additionally, it has cache warmup, which preloads pages in the background for users.
Compared to WP Rocket, NitroPack has a few exclusive cache features. For instance, you get a graph overview with analytics of cache usage. This feature helps you gauge the site’s performance and the hit ratio.
Furthermore, NitroPack has smart cache invalidation, which updates your web pages in the background without deleting the older versions from the cache. NitroPack handles this process automatically, giving it an edge over WP Rocket.
WP Rocket
On the other hand, WP Rocket caches content automatically -users don’t have to turn on any features. It offers mobile caching, page caching, and browser caching. In addition, it also has preloading cache options, which makes web pages load much faster and enhances user experience.
Users can specify which URLs they don’t need to cache, such as landing pages. Once you activate WP Rocket, you can deploy 80% of the settings to boost performance and speed. It also has fewer caching features than NitroPack.
2. Image Optimization
For your website, optimizing the images play a big role in the site speed. Though both these plugins have their individual image optimization results, the notable differences are discussed below.
NitroPack
One of the key features of NitroPack is image optimization. Once you deploy this plugin to your website, it activates image optimization and compression. NitroPack has lossy and lossless image compression to reduce image sizes without affecting quality. It also offers advanced lazy loading, which includes background images.
Additionally, you get adaptive image sizing which automatically resizes the image file to fit your site. Therefore, this ensures that your image elements are within the correct width and height. It also improves the site speed and fixes the Google PageSpeed error messages. NitroPack enables WebP conversion if the browser supports this. With this tool, you have all the features in one plugin, so you don’t have to install another image optimization plugin.
WP Rocket
Unlike NitroPack, WP Rocket does not have an in-built image compression or optimization feature. It only has a lazy loading option and is compatible with WebP. To optimize images, you have to purchase a separate plugin – Imagify. This means you’ll incur extra charges to use image optimization. Therefore, NitroPack has an advantage over WP Rocket.
3. File Optimization
Both Nitropack and WP rocket have significant differences in file optimization. And the detail of the differences are:
NitroPack
NitroPack does better at CSS, HTML, and JavaScript file optimization than WP Rocket. It has more advanced optimization code delivery options. It has more customization options, and users can define more advanced rules if they need to exclude files. For instance, if you usually display ads on your website, you can optimize the delivery to avoid blocking the initial page rendering.
This tool has advanced features if you have CoreWeb Vitals problems. For example, there’s a setting that you can use to remove render-blocking features and the option to create custom CSS rules.
WP Rocket
WP Rocket also has optimization tools for CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. You can remove unused CSS and minify JavaScript files to make your website load much faster. Additionally, you can reduce HTTP requests by combining JavaScript and CSS files. Once you do this, you get smaller files and fewer hosting operations, positively impacting the website speed.
Alternatively, you can improve the performance of your website by delaying or deferring JavaScript execution on a web page until the user interacts with the content.
4. Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A content delivery network (CDN) stores all your website content on multiple servers globally. Therefore, when a user visits your site, the CDN looks up the IP address and loads your website from the nearest server. Consequently, it’s essential for good web performance and faster speeds.
NitroPack
NitroPack has its own CDN services powered by Cloudflare. Since Cloudflare has a network of global data centers in 100 countries, it’s one of the fastest content delivery network service providers. Therefore, if you have Cloudflare, you must configure your API and domain settings in NitroPack. In addition, this is the only CDN service used by NitroPack, so if you want to use another provider, there might be better options than NitroPack.
WP Rocket
Unlike NitroPack, WP Rocket does not have an in-built CDN. However, you can configure it with CDNs like Cloudflare, BunnyCDN, and others. WP Rocket provides RocketCDN on its website. The downside is that it costs $7.99 monthly.
Ease of Use
Both plugins are easy to set up; therefore, it won’t take much time, even if you are a new user. Here’s how the two compare.
NitroPack
If you want to use NitroPack, opening an account is a straightforward. On the website, you’ll need to select a plan. You’ll then need to complete the registration by entering your personal details.
Once you enter these details, your account will be up and running. You can then connect your WordPress blog to NitroPack using the connector plugin. You’ll see the activated optimization features at the bottom of the page.
WP Rocket
On the other hand, if you have picked WP Rocket, you’ll be directed to the pricing page to pick your plan. Once you pick your preferred plan, you’ll fill in the registration details on the next tab. Next, download the plugin to your computer and upload this zip file to your website to activate it. The license will be automatically activated.
Once the account is active, WP Rocket deploys 80% of the default settings to help you improve your WordPress speed and performance. However, you can also adjust some settings to fit your goals.
Customer Support
Both plugins have similar customer support system, which includes help documents and tickets.
NitroPack
Although NitroPack charges more money, it does not offer priority support to its customers. However, if you need assistance from NitroPack, you can use the help button on the home page or check the knowledge base for answers.
WP Rocket
WP Rocket also has documentation with details you can use in case you are stuck. They also have an FAQ section that you can use to find help.
Customer Reviews
Based on customer reviews, both plugins meet the user’s needs. Here’s how they compare.
NitroPack
A quick check on Trustpilot shows that NitroPack has a 4.8 out of 5-star rating.
WP Rocket
WP Rocket has a 4.9 out of 5 stars rating. The customers talk positively about the quality of optimization tools and customer service.
Pricing
One of the major differences between NitroPack and WP Rocket is the pricing.
NitroPack
NitroPack is available in four pricing options.
- Business plan at $21 per month
- Growth plan at $51 per month
- Scale plan at $176 per month
- Custom plan
However, you can pay annually for a discount for two months. Additionally, you can upgrade, downgrade or cancel your subscription plan anytime. They also offer a full 14-day Money Back Guarantee and no fixed-term contracts.
If you want to try out the plugin before committing, you can sign up for the free plan, which allows one website, 5,000 page views per month, and 1.00GB CDN bandwidth.
WP Rocket
On the other hand, WP Rocket has three pricing plans.
- Single at $59 per year
- Plus, at $119 per year
- Infinite at $299 per year
This pricing does not include features like CDN and image optimization.
If you compare pricing between the two plugins, WP Rocket is the better option. It does not bill based on the bandwidth consumed or the number of page views; therefore, it’s more affordable. On the other hand, NitroPack only allows one website in all the premium plans, which is only ideal for some users with more than one website.
NitroPack Vs. WP Rocket: Pros and Cons
Both tools have benefits and downsides that you should consider before selecting one. Here are the pros and cons of each.
NitroPack Pros
- It’s a convenient and excellent solution for website performance optimization.
- It’s easy to use and deploy.
- NitroPack offers guaranteed PageSpeed scores.
- NitroPack can be used on WordPress and other e-commerce sites like Magento and Opencart.
- It’s easy to contact customer service.
- NitroPack uses the global network Cloudflare that improves load speeds despite the user’s location.
NitroPackCons
- NitroPack is costly.
- There’s a bad history of server problems.
- Their customer support services are not up to par with their pricing.
- NitroPack takes longer to display changes after an update.
WP Rocket Pros
- As one of the most popular plugins, it’s used by thousands of professionals globally.
- It’s easy to use.
- WP Rocket is more affordable than NitroPack.
- It has a pricing plan for unlimited websites.
- WP Rocket offers guides and documentation to help users who have questions.
WP Rocket Cons
- Features such as image optimization and CDN are considered add-ons.
- It’s restricted to WordPress only.
- It doesn’t offer a free version.
NitroPack Vs. WP Rocket: Which is the Best Option?
If you are looking for an affordable solution, WP Rocket is a good option; however, you’ll need to pay for additional features. On the other hand, NitroPack is more costly but has more advanced features, so you should consider your business needs and budget before choosing one.
FAQs
Is NitroPack Better Than WP Rocket?
Nitropack will optimize your website performance better than WP Rocket. It has better speed optimization and more advanced features.
Is WP Rocket Safe To Use?
Although there were reports of vulnerabilities in older versions, the bugs have been resolved. In addition, with the recent updates, the user rating has improved significantly.
Conclusion
NitroPack and WP Rocket are excellent plugins if you want to increase your website page speed and optimize performance. However, to compare NitroPack vs. WP Rocket, you must examine the features, pricing, ease of use, customer support, and past reviews.
