{"id":5930,"date":"2018-09-11T10:35:11","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T05:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedevcouple.com\/?p=5930"},"modified":"2018-09-11T10:42:20","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T05:42:20","slug":"wp-rocket-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedevcouple.com\/wp-rocket-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"WP Rocket Revisited \u2014 Rich New Features & 5 Years of Success!"},"content":{"rendered":"

WordPress plugins arena is supersaturated, but at the same time, new entries always make their\u00a0way which is quite promising and overwhelming at the same time. It takes sheer amount of persistence<\/strong>, strategic<\/strong> planning<\/strong>, and hours<\/strong> of<\/strong> hard<\/strong> work<\/strong> to get in and thrive. And the plugins which stay in WordPress economy definitely worth the effort.<\/p>\n

One of such plugins is WP Rocket<\/a>,<\/strong> launched in 2013 in the presence of big names and stayed since then. WPCouple reviewed WP Rocket<\/a>\u00a0over a year before, and since then it has gone through substantial growth and changes<\/strong>. I have been using it throughout this period, and it’s quite exciting to see how it has shaped up.<\/p>\n

Today, I am going to review the changes WP Rocket<\/a> has gone through during this period. I will be taking a look at the new features<\/strong>, incredible new achievements<\/strong>, and does it worth your money even today or not? <\/strong>So, let’s get started!<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude80\u00a0WP Rocket 3.1<\/h2>\n
\"Main<\/a><\/div>\n

WP Rocket<\/a> is a five years old\u00a0high-end premium WordPress caching plugin<\/strong> which helps you optimize your site with minimal efforts. As mentioned earlier, it was launched back in late 2013, and since then it has gone through exponential growth<\/strong> to reach this point.<\/p>\n

\n

\ud83c\udf1f<\/h2>\n

Currently, it serves 512,000+customers\u00a0<\/strong>and rocks a 92% satisfaction rate<\/strong> based on 2,311 ratings from 28%<\/strong> of their userbase.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\ud83c\udf96\ufe0f\u00a0The incredible developers behind WP Rocket \u2014\u00a0Jonathan Buttigieg<\/a>, Jean-Baptiste Marchand-Arvier<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a0Julio Potier<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and the whole team deserves the credit for this success. Minimal Configuration<\/strong>, great Support<\/strong>, Database<\/strong> Optimization<\/strong>, Cache<\/strong> Preloading<\/strong>, Browser<\/strong> Caching<\/strong>, CDN<\/strong> Support<\/strong>, Lazy<\/strong> Loading<\/strong>, and eCommerce<\/strong> Support<\/strong> has always been key features of WP Rocket. But during the last year, it has grown strategically<\/strong>, and the team worked\u00a0exhaustively to enhance the UI and UX<\/strong>. It helped in userbase growth and consolidated its position in the market.<\/p>\n

During this period of 5 years, WP Rocket managed to win clients like\u00a0Yoast<\/strong>, WPEngine<\/strong>, AdminColumns<\/strong>, and SiteGround<\/strong>. Also, it got honorable mentions by the press like\u00a0WPMU<\/strong> DEV<\/strong> and Elegant<\/strong> Themes<\/strong>. Not only this, but it also got endorsements from many big names. For example, Chris Lima says:<\/p>\n

When it comes to performance WP Rocket beats virtually all of the competition. <\/p> \u2014 Chris Lima<\/cite><\/a><\/blockquote>\n

\ud83e\udd84\u00a0Revamped UI & UX<\/h3>\n

One of the major change is the UI and UX change<\/strong> in this year. Smart minds at WP Rocket<\/a> worked closely with the support team<\/strong> to identify the grey areas<\/strong> and figure them out. They worked for months on the feedback to research out a better UX along with a great UI. Also, they conducted a series of interviews<\/strong> to shape the new user experience.<\/p>\n

And if you ask me, I loved the revamped UI<\/strong> ever since it’s launch. Rarely, you encounter such robust<\/strong>, modern<\/strong>, clean<\/strong>, and simplified\u00a0<\/b>interfaces. Everything is sorted out and adjusted at an appropriate place. Take a look at the few screenshots below:<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/a><\/div>\n
\"Screenshot<\/a><\/div>\n
\"Screenshot<\/a><\/div>\n

The very first thing to notice is, the color scheme which is similar to their website and they’ve done a great job in keeping it consistent. It probably makes use of AJAX<\/strong> to provide a fast and responsive dashboard. You don’t have to refresh the page<\/strong> to switch between different tabs, make the changes and hit Save Changes<\/strong> button \u2014 you’re all set.<\/p>\n

On the left, there’s a sidebar to navigate throughout the settings quickly. And I liked the way they have restructured and categorized the settings<\/strong>. All the items are quite self-explanatory and not ambiguous, which is great. And even inside each of them, the settings are grouped rationally<\/strong>. Thumbs up for it. \ud83d\udc4d<\/p>\n

The fact that it’s so clean depicts the amount of effort put by the team on it. Because it’s super hard to create a product which looks simple and clean. On the top of that, it’s super fast to navigate between different settings and get the stuff done. Take a look at the GIF below:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n

Another thing worth mentioning about their new dashboard is that it shows useful tips and links<\/strong>\u00a0on the right side. They link to the detailed blog posts by WP Rocket<\/a> which helps you understand the settings<\/strong> and set up the best practices<\/strong>. Also, it links to the documentation page to quickly navigate you through your queries.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd25\u00a0Kinsta & WP Rocket<\/h2>\n

We at WPCouple love Kinsta<\/a> \u2014 coz why not? They provide a high end Managed WordPress hosting<\/strong> service powered by Google Cloud<\/strong>. On the top, they rock incredible support team<\/strong> and a super awesome dashboard<\/strong>. We even wrote a detailed review on why we love Kinsta as Managed WordPress hosting<\/a> and why it’s dashboard is one of the best<\/a> you can ever wish for.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, WP Rocket<\/a> is the leading cache and performance plugin. One of the main highlights of the past year is Kinsta & WP Rocket partnership<\/strong>. Kinsta doesn’t usually allow any cache plugin cause they conflict with some of their built-in solutions. But the team at WP Rocket<\/a> worked with Kinsta to make it compatible.<\/p>\n

\"Wp<\/a><\/div>\n

With these two combined you make your sites load crazy fast. You can take advantage of both the built-in cache of Kinsta<\/strong> and the performance features of WP Rocket to optimize<\/strong> your site. You can read more about it here<\/a>. So, if you’re a Kinsta<\/a> customer, you can happily try out WP Rocket<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another fun fact about Kinsta<\/a> & WP Rocket<\/a> is that they both support open source work generously<\/strong>. And both of them happen to be WPCouple partners<\/a> as well. Helping us in building and maintaining awesome open source products<\/a>.\u00a0\ud83d\udcaf<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcd6\u00a0Updated Documentation<\/h2>\n

I always prefer to rely on the documentation instead of writing emails to the support team. It saves me a lot of time, and I can get stuff done quickly. From the beginning, I used the WP Rocket documentation to get to know stuff whenever needed. But after the major overhaul of the dashboard, docs became obsolete.<\/p>\n

So, the team at WP Rocket<\/a> wrote all the documentation from scratch<\/strong>. You can find up-to-date documentation on their docs page<\/a>. Every bit of it has been updated, and they’ve extensively documented every aspect of the plugin.<\/p>\n

Just in case if you have not checked the documentation of WP Rocket<\/a>, you should definitely check it out. It’s covered in detailed and is pretty awesome. They contain around 300 articles<\/strong> which cover different sections step by step with screenshots<\/strong>. There’s even a section for developers to help them extend the plugin easily. Check out the GIF below for the documentation section and a sample article.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n

\ud83d\udcc8\u00a0Data Analysis & GDPR Compliance<\/h3>\n

Another interesting change which WP Rocket<\/a> team has brought in the plugin is data collection. Now, they collect user data to plan the next update and make critical decisions<\/strong>. But they\u00a0explicitly ask you for data collection<\/strong> when you install the plugin.<\/p>\n

In case you’re wondering, it doesn’t collect or misuse any personal data<\/strong>. It takes information like server type<\/strong>, WordPress version<\/strong>, current language<\/strong>, theme<\/strong>, and which features of the plugin<\/strong> you’re using. So, yeah, it’s GDPR compliant<\/strong>, data is collected anonymously, and requires your permission \u2014 no worries!<\/p>\n

Last year in December, they used\u00a0MixPanel to implement the data analytics. Also, they shared<\/a> how they used the data to decide whether they should drop the CDN feature<\/strong> or not? 25% of the customers were using the CDN<\/strong> feature so they couldn’t simply drop it. Also, they use this data to decide the minimum WordPress and PHP requirements<\/strong>. \ud83e\udd1e<\/p>\n

\"Data<\/a><\/div>\n

\ud83e\udd16\u00a0WP Rocket’s Add-Ons<\/h2>\n

One of the tabs of the newly re-structured WP Rocket’s dashboard worth discussing is the Add-Ons tab. Under this tab, you can find all the different 3rd party add-ons<\/strong>. For example currently, it offers three add-ons<\/strong> \u2014 Google Analytics<\/strong>, Varnish<\/strong>, and Cloudflare<\/strong>. It’s nice to have a separate section for 3rd party add-ons, this way they have a proper place to integrate more add-ons in future.\u00a0\ud83d\udcaf<\/p>\n

\"Add<\/a><\/div>\n

\ud83d\udcb8\u00a0Affiliate System<\/h2>\n

Another new feature introduced by WP Rocket<\/a> is the affiliate system<\/a>. So you can join it for free and can earn 20% of every sale<\/strong> generated via your\u00a0affiliate link. WP Rocket relies on\u00a0ShareASale<\/em> for their affiliate program. So, if you’re a blogger, or have a huge following, you can earn some extra bucks by partnering up with WP Rocket!\u00a0\ud83d\udc4c<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcb0\u00a0Pricing<\/h2>\n

There’s nothing new to the pricing, but there’s this fact that WP Rocket<\/a> is still priced the way it was a year before \u2014 dope! The single pack starts at $39 for 1 site for 1 year of support & updates<\/strong>, and it goes up to $199 for unlimited sites with 1 year of support & updates<\/strong>. So, you can enjoy the newly revamped WP Rocket plugin with all the new features and performance features for the same price it was a year before. Isn’t cool?<\/p>\n

\"Wp<\/a><\/div>\n

\ud83e\udd84\u00a0What’s Next?<\/h2>\n

WP Rocket<\/a> is definitely a competitive and reliable cache plugin which has grown tremendously during the past five years<\/strong>. In particular, during the last year, it went through an extensive UI\/UX revamp<\/strong> and strategic growth<\/strong>. One of the key highlights is the fact that they maintained their standards while keeping the pricing the same.<\/p>\n

Making its way to the compatible cache plugins list of Kinsta is also an achievement worth mentioning. WP Rocket is still working to provide better features and experience for their customer. Their next version includes the following goals:<\/p>\n