NitroPack vs. WP Rocket: The Ultimate Speed Optimization Showdown

Last Updated on August 23, 2023

NitroPack and WP Rocket are great WordPress plugins that speed up websites and boost user experience. You might be confused about which of these plugins is more useful for you. In this comparison, I will describe the core benefits of each plugin and help you make an informed decision.

NitroPack Review

NitroPack is a performance optimization platform that improves website speed and user experience.

NitroPack can be used on many platforms, including WordPress. Hence, it is not a well-optimized solution, particularly for WordPress.

You can install NitroPack on WordPress, OpenCart, WooCommerce, or Magento websites. You can also integrate NitroPack’s PHP SDK or API for custom build websites.

NitroPack claims that after installation, most websites score 90% for Desktop and 75% for Mobile. If your score is lower, NitroPack recommends contacting their customer support for a private check.

The plugin uses a cloud-based system to compress, cache, and optimize website resources such as CSS, JavaScript, HTML, and images. This results in better page load speed. The plugin also improves SEO and user engagement.

Features of NitroPack

Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at the features of NitroPack

Caching

• Smart Caching: Intelligently caches your website’s content, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images. This helps in reducing the server load.
• Dynamic Content Support: It can cache dynamic content, such as user-specific data and shopping carts, without compromising website functionality.
• Full-Page Caching: This caching system can improve the loading speed of complex web pages. They do that by pre-generating the entire page and showing it to visitors as a static file.

CDN (Content Delivery Network)

• Global CDN: Their content delivery network (CDN) spans over 200 locations worldwide. This helps ensure fast and reliable content delivery to visitors regardless of location.
• Image Optimization: Optimizes your website’s images on-the-fly. This reduces their size and ensures faster load times without sacrificing image quality.
• Lazy Loading: NitroPack uses lazy loading to defer the loading of non-critical resources until they are needed.

CSS Optimization

• CSS Minification: Compress and minify your website’s CSS files. It helps reduce CSS file size.
• Critical CSS: It can automatically generate and inline critical CSS for your web pages. It ensures that only the necessary styles are initially loaded.
• Async CSS: NitroPack can asynchronously load non-critical CSS files.

HTML Optimization

• HTML Minification: Compresses and minimizes your website’s HTML files, reducing their size and improving page load times.
• Preloading: It can preload critical resources, such as fonts and scripts. It reduces the time it takes for them to load when needed.
• Code Splitting: Uses code splitting to separate your website’s JavaScript code into smaller, more manageable chunks. It reduces the time it takes for visitors to download and execute the code.

Image Optimization

• Lossless Compression: It uses lossless compression techniques to reduce the file size of your website’s images without compromising their visual quality.
• WebP Conversion: Automatically converts your website’s images to the WebP format. You reduce file sizes by up to 80% while maintaining high-quality visuals.
• Lazy Loading: It defers the loading of non-critical images until they are needed, improving the perceived speed.

JS Optimization

• JavaScript Minification: It compresses your website’s JavaScript files. reducing their size and improving page load times.
• GZIP Compression: It can further compress your website’s JavaScript files using GZIP. It should improve download speeds.
• Async Loading: It can asynchronously load your website’s JavaScript files, improving the perceived speed of your website without blocking other resources.

Pros of NitroPack

Easy to set up – It is easy to set up, and you can install and activate the plugin in four steps.

Cloud-based – It uses a cloud-based system that optimizes website resources remotely, reducing server load time and improving website performance.

Improves website speed – NitroPack boosts website speed, improving user experience and performance.

Improves SEO – It improves website SEO by optimizing website speed and user experience.

Free plan – NitroPack provides a free plan that allows you to optimize your website for speed. Compared with WP Rocket, this gives a slight advantage to the NitroPack because WP Rocket doesn’t offer a free plan.

Cons of NitroPack

Single Install – No matter which plans you purchase, you can only use NitroPack on a single website.

Not Optimized for WordPress – NitroPack provides its site performance platform to various platforms. Hence, NitroPack does not optimize its caching system, particularly for WordPress. We may experience some errors which are a little difficult to solve.

Limited features – It lacks features, such as database optimization, available in other WordPress optimization plugins.

Limited customization options – You will get limited customization options, which may not meet the needs of some users.

Requires an active internet connection – NitroPack requires an active internet connection to optimize website resources. This may be inconvenient for some users.

Pricing of NitroPack

NitroPack offers three pricing plans, including Business, Growth, and Scale. You can pay either monthly or yearly.

With yearly payments, you will get further discounts. All plans can only be used on a single website; that’s one drawback.

Free – The free plan allows you to optimize your website speed for up to 5000 page views per month. It also provides caching, compression, and image optimization. The free WordPress plugin of NitroPack will also include its branding in your website’s footer.

Business – The Business plan costs $21 monthly. If you pay a yearly fee, it will cost 17.50/pm. It allows you to optimize your website speed for up to 50,000 page views per month. This plan provides all the features in the Free plan and additional features such as mobile optimization, SEO optimization, and 24/7 support.

Growth – The Growth plan costs $51 per month. However, if you pay a yearly fee, you will save $102. This plan lets you optimize your website speed for up to 2,00,000 page views per month. The plan provides all the features in the Business plan and additional features such as priority support, custom branding, and a new feature Adaptive Image Sizing.

Scale – The scale plan costs $176 per month. If you pay a yearly fee, you will save $351.96. This plan lets you optimize your website speed for up to 1,000,000 page views monthly. This plan also provides all the features that are included in the Business and Growth plans. One unique feature that you won’t find in other plans is Font Subsetting.

WP Rocket Review

WP Rocket is a WordPress caching plugin that improves website speed and performance.

The plugin optimizes website resources such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images, resulting in faster loading times. WP Rocket also provides other features that improve website speed, user experience, and SEO.

Features of WP Rocket

Let’s review some of the top features of WP Rocket.

Easy Setup and Use

• Quick and easy setup: It is easy to install and activate. The setup wizard guides users through the process of configuring the plugin. You can find preconfigured settings for most websites.
• Automatic best settings: WP Rocket automatically applies the best settings for the website without requiring users to change any settings. They claim that after activation of the plugin, WP Rocket applies 80% of web performance best practices right away.
• User-friendly interface: The WP Rocket interface is intuitive and easy to use, with clear settings and options.

Caching Features

• Page caching: They create static HTML pages of the website. This helps in reducing server load and improving load times.
• Browser caching: Instructs the user’s browser to cache website elements such as images, JavaScript, and CSS.
• Advanced cache rules: This allows users to customize cache rules, including which pages to cache and which to exclude.
• Preload options: Automatically caches pages in the background, ensuring that pages are always available to users with minimal delay.
• DNS prefetching: Prefetches DNS requests, improving load times for external resources.
  

Optimization Features

• GZIP compression: It can compress website files before sending them to the user’s browser.
• Image optimization: WP Rocket optimizes website images, reducing file size without sacrificing quality.
• Lazy loading: WP Rocket delays loading images and videos until the user scrolls to them. It improves load times for above-the-fold content.
• Database optimization: Optimizes the WordPress database, removing unnecessary data and improving database performance.
• Google Fonts optimization: Optimizes Google Fonts to reduce the number of requests and improve load times.
• Remove query strings: Removes query strings from static resources, improving cacheability and load times.
• eCommerce optimization: It is optimized for eCommerce websites, with support for WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and other eCommerce plugins.

Integration Features

• CDN integration: It integrates with content delivery networks.
• Multilingual compatibility: Compatible with multilingual websites, improving performance for visitors from different countries.

Control Features

• Heartbeat Control: A user can control the WordPress heartbeat API.
• Automatic updates: WP Rocket automatically clears the cache when updates are made. It ensures that changes are shown instantly.
• Rollback feature: Users can roll back to previous plugin versions. Ensuring that website performance is not affected by plugin updates.

Performance Analysis Features

• Google PageSpeed integration: Integrates with Google PageSpeed Insights. This gives you suggestions for improving website performance.
• Delay JavaScript execution: Delays the execution of JavaScript files.

Developer-Friendly Features

• Support for WordPress hooks and APIs: It offers support for WordPress hooks and APIs. This helps developers to customize the plugin to their specific needs.
• Advanced customization options: You can also find advanced customization options, including custom CSS and JavaScript. Another helpful feature for developers is to optimize website performance.

Support Features

• Knowledge base: You can find a comprehensive knowledge base helpful, with articles and tutorials to help you get the most out of the plugin.
• Support tickets: You can open support tickets to take help with any issues or questions.
• Community forum: WP Rocket has an active community forum where users can ask questions, share tips, and provide feedback.

Pros of WP Rocket

Easy to set up – It is easy to set up, and you can install and activate the plugin in a few minutes.

Designed for WordPress – Unlike NitroPack, WP Rocket is designed for only WordPress.

Improves website speed – WP Rocket boosts website speed, improving user experience and performance.

Provides advanced features – WP Rocket offers advanced features such as database optimization and CDN integration. You will find a few customization options in NitroPack.

Improves SEO – You will find decent SEO optimization features such as sitemap preloading, which improves website indexing by search engines.

Great support – WP Rocket provides excellent support, including documentation, knowledge base, and customer support.

Cons of WP Rocket

No free plan – WP Rocket does not provide a free plan, and users must purchase a license to use the plugin.

No image optimization – You won’t find image optimization features other WordPress optimization plugins offer.

Limited customization options – It comes with limited customization options, which may not meet the needs of some users.

Pricing of WP Rocket

WP Rocket provides three pricing plans: Single, Plus, and Infinite. Please note that the prices mentioned below might be different in the future.

Single – The Single plan costs $47.20 per year and allows you to use the plugin on one website. The plan provides all the features in WP Rocket and one year of support and updates.

Plus – The Plus plan costs $95.20 per year and allows you to use the plugin on three websites. The plan provides all the features in WP Rocket and one year of support and updates.

Infinite – The Infinite plan costs $239.20 per year and allows you to use the plugin on unlimited websites. The plan provides all the features in WP Rocket and one year of support and updates.

Comparison of NitroPack vs. WP Rocket

To help you choose the right WordPress optimization plugin for your website, we have created a comparison table of NitroPack vs WP Rocket. I included all their features, pricing, and pros and cons.

The comparison table shows that both NitroPack and WP Rocket provide speed optimization, caching, SEO optimization, and lazy loading.

However, NitroPack provides cloud-based, image, and mobile optimization, which are not available in WP Rocket. On the other hand, WP Rocket provides database optimization and more pricing options than NitroPack.

Which One should you use?

NitroPack is the right choice for you If you are looking for a free WordPress optimization plugin with cloud-based optimization, image optimization, and mobile optimization.

You will also get custom branding and a dedicated account manager, which you won’t get in WP Rocket.

If you are looking for a WordPress optimization plugin with database optimization, CDN integration, and more pricing options, WP Rocket is the right choice for you.

WP Rocket also provides excellent support, including documentation, knowledge base, and customer support.

The price-to-value ratio between these two is significant.

I recommend using the WP Rocket if you use WordPress and have a tight budget. NitroPack is more suitable for larger websites, and it could be annoying to see unexpected errors because it is not solely optimized for WordPress.

If you are looking for a free caching alternative, you can read my previous review about WP Super Cache and Fastest Cache.