![\"New](\"https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/24325690/6dfeb46b-b104-432e-b3ee-0731c86f657b.png\" "\\"How")
\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tAs a blogger who wants to make money from your stories, choosing the right website hosting is one of your most important decisions. Your website host helps ensure a seamless and efficient blogging experience. WordPress hosting is specifically tailored for the platform that started as \u201cjust another WordPress blog.\u201d It offers a range of benefits that can enhance your blog’s performance, security, and overall success.
\n\n\n\nImagine your blog is a house; your hosting is the foundation on which you build it. With WordPress hosting, you’re not just getting a generic hosting solution; you’re investing in a platform designed specifically for the unique needs of your blog.
\n\n\n\nWould you rely on a Honda dealer to maintain your Porsche? Of course not. Don\u2019t rely on shared hosting to care for your profitable WordPress blog.
\n\n\n\nDon\u2019t have hosting? Are you using a blogging platform? On top of the backend benefits, WordPress hosting also has an advantage over private blogging networks. PBNs were once used in SEO to boost rankings through links from authoritative domains. However, Google penalizes PBNs as an unnatural link scheme. Google encourages focusing on high-quality content and white-hat link-building for sustainable growth.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201c(PBNs) can improve your SEO particularly quickly but come with certain risks because your website can be penalised at any time and then suddenly drop in the rankings. SEO is good, but only if you don’t resort to dodgy tactics.\u201d
\nNeilPatel.com
One of the main advantages of WordPress hosting is its optimized performance. Why is this important for your blog? If you want to have ad revenue, you need users. You also need ads on your site. Those ads take a major hit on your site\u2019s performance.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201cMany factors can slow down your blog, from plugins, to hosting issues, to \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 ads. Yes, ads slow down your website.\u201d
\nSmartBlogger.com
Managed, performant hosting wins hands down over shared hosting in speed, security, and support. Why? Managed hosting solutions are configured to handle the specific requirements of WordPress; they ensure faster page load times and a smoother user experience.
\n\n\n\nSlow-loading pages alone can impact your blog’s success. No one likes to wait. People are far more likely to abandon a website that takes too long to load. Performant hosting enables your blog to load quickly, keep your readers engaged, and reduce your bounce rates.
\n\n\n\nAt the end of the day, people who spend more time on your blog are more likely to engage with you and your affiliate links. Modern, performant WordPress hosting makes you money!
\n\n\n\nGoogle loves blogs hosted on Rocket.net. Faster-loading websites are rewarded with improved search engine rankings. You can help your blog rank higher with WordPress hosting. At the same time, you achieve better Core Web Vitals scores by providing your visitors with the best user experience possible.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t forget people working on your website. Don\u2019t forget your own time. How much time do you spend working on a website? A lot longer than 5 minutes, right? A slow website can kill your productivity.\u201d
\nRocket.net – Why a Slow WordPress Backend Can Kill Agency Productivity
As your blog grows in popularity it attracts more visitors. More people means more demand for resources. Bandwidth, storage, and processing power increase with each user.
\n\n\n\nWordPress hosting offers scalable solutions that can accommodate the growth of your blog. Growth is what you want, right? Ensures your blog remains responsive and accessible, especially during periods of high traffic. Additionally, managed WordPress hosting offers resource management tools that allow you to monitor and adjust your resource allocation as needed.
\n\n\n\nTurney website hosting that scales? Take my money! (I know, right?)
\n\n\n\nSecurity is a critical concern for any website, and WordPress blogs are no exception. If you want your blog to be a business, treat it like a business. WordPress hosting providers implement robust security measures to protect your blog. Potential threats including malware, hacking attempts, and other cyber attacks are covered. How? Regular malware scans, firewalls, and automatic updates to ensure your WordPress installation and plugins are always up-to-date with the latest security patches. These are security features that you don\u2019t have to think about. Focus on your writing and we\u2019ll focus on the hosting.
\n\n\n\nRocket.net hosting offers a solid WordPress security package:
\n\n\n\nWhile we\u2019re talking about security, what about AI content? How safe is that for your blog\u2019s UX and SEO?
\n\n\n\nAI content is easy and convenient, it saves time and money. Why not use AI content for your blog? This raises the question: should you hire a content marketing agency for your own content needs? The short answer is an emphatic yes \u2013 probably more now than ever before. (Plenty of writers hire editors and ghostwriters.)
\n\n\n\nIf you care about your website, there are many ways to use AI tools effectively. AI can help you create better outlines, find keyword gaps, and optimize what you already have on your site. Constantly improving your craft as a website publisher means leveraging any tools available to become a better writer. Being a better writer makes you a better content marketer. After all, you\u2019re a blogger, right? Keep on testing; keep on learning!
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201cRocket.net has been the best move I\u2019ve ever made for my blog. I truly feel like this was an upgrade and that was the whole reason behind researching hosts and migrating in the first place.\u201d
\nNatasha’s Kitchen
On the other hand, many bloggers set up their own websites, and hey, your blog may be all about PHP, right? The ease of WordPress means that you can spend more time programming examples for your readers. Bonus: you can also spend zero time programming if that\u2019s your thing!
\n\n\n\nWordPress hosting solutions are designed to integrate with the WordPress platform. This gives you a streamlined experience for managing and maintaining your blog. Many hosting providers also offer user-friendly control panels and tools specifically tailored for WordPress. Raise your hand if you just want to write and not teal with installing, updating, and managing your blog? We see you.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201cThere are multiple benefits to managed WordPress hosting, including quicker loading speed, better SEO, improved security, automatic backups, and 24/7 support. By selecting a managed WordPress hosting service, you can concentrate on developing content for your website while the hosting provider handles the rest.\u201d
\nBarn2Plugins
Managed WordPress hosting includes automatic backups, ensuring your content is safe from site-breaking errors and attacks. It also includes automatic updates, keeping your WordPress installation, themes, and plugins up-to-date with the latest versions and security patches.
\n\n\n\nWhat\u2019s more important than all the automation, the page rankings, and the security? What do you really want from a WordPress host? Right. You want someone you can talk with \u2013 a real person.
\n\n\n\nWhen it comes to WordPress, having access to knowledgeable and responsive customer support is invaluable. We like to think it\u2019s the most important consideration. If you get what you pay for, don\u2019t you want the best people watching your blog?
\n\n\n\nAt Rocket.net you won\u2019t find a more experienced, dedicated, supportive, 24/7 group of WordPress fanatics. If you can, contact them! In the meantime, drop us a line. We\u2019d love to hear more about your current situation and how we can help you out!
\n\n\n\nCheck around. Do your due diligence. WordPress hosting providers should employ teams of experts; people who are well-versed in the intricacies of the platform. Whether you’re facing a technical issue, need assistance with plugin compatibility, or require guidance on optimizing your blog’s performance, you want experts. Good support minimizes downtime and ensures your blog runs smoothly.
\n\n\n\nSuccessful blogs serve a niche. That niche allows people to follow their passions for authentic content and audience connection. As a blogger, you\u2019re consistently creating valuable content tailored to your audience while strategically monetizing through methods like affiliate marketing or products/services. The ultimate goal is to build a revenue-generating niche business. Let your interests and experience guide you while keeping profitability \u2013 like ensuring your blog is always on – in mind.
\n\n\n\nHere are the key advantages of Rocket.net\u2019s WordPress hosting for your blog:
\n\n\n\nBloggers require specialized WordPress hosting to create and maintain their revenue-generating blogs.
\n\n\n\nBy investing in WordPress hosting, you’re equipping yourself with the tools and resources necessary to build a robust, secure, and high-performing online presence. Spend your time captivating and engaging with your audience. Let your hosting take care of the rest!
\n\n\n", "content_text": "As a blogger who wants to make money from your stories, choosing the right website hosting is one of your most important decisions. Your website host helps ensure a seamless and efficient blogging experience. WordPress hosting is specifically tailored for the platform that started as \u201cjust another WordPress blog.\u201d It offers a range of benefits that can enhance your blog’s performance, security, and overall success.\n\n\n\nImagine your blog is a house; your hosting is the foundation on which you build it. With WordPress hosting, you’re not just getting a generic hosting solution; you’re investing in a platform designed specifically for the unique needs of your blog.\n\n\n\nWould you rely on a Honda dealer to maintain your Porsche? Of course not. Don\u2019t rely on shared hosting to care for your profitable WordPress blog.\n\n\n\nDon\u2019t have hosting? Are you using a blogging platform? On top of the backend benefits, WordPress hosting also has an advantage over private blogging networks. PBNs were once used in SEO to boost rankings through links from authoritative domains. However, Google penalizes PBNs as an unnatural link scheme. Google encourages focusing on high-quality content and white-hat link-building for sustainable growth.\n\n\n\n\n\u201c(PBNs) can improve your SEO particularly quickly but come with certain risks because your website can be penalised at any time and then suddenly drop in the rankings. SEO is good, but only if you don’t resort to dodgy tactics.\u201d\nNeilPatel.com\n\n\n\nWordPress Optimizes Your Blog\u2019s Performance and Speed\n\n\n\nOne of the main advantages of WordPress hosting is its optimized performance. Why is this important for your blog? If you want to have ad revenue, you need users. You also need ads on your site. Those ads take a major hit on your site\u2019s performance.\n\n\n\n\n\u201cMany factors can slow down your blog, from plugins, to hosting issues, to \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 ads. Yes, ads slow down your website.\u201d\nSmartBlogger.com\n\n\n\nManaged, performant hosting wins hands down over shared hosting in speed, security, and support. Why? Managed hosting solutions are configured to handle the specific requirements of WordPress; they ensure faster page load times and a smoother user experience.\n\n\n\nSlow-loading pages alone can impact your blog’s success. No one likes to wait. People are far more likely to abandon a website that takes too long to load. Performant hosting enables your blog to load quickly, keep your readers engaged, and reduce your bounce rates.\n\n\n\nAt the end of the day, people who spend more time on your blog are more likely to engage with you and your affiliate links. Modern, performant WordPress hosting makes you money!\n\n\n\nGoogle loves blogs hosted on Rocket.net. Faster-loading websites are rewarded with improved search engine rankings. You can help your blog rank higher with WordPress hosting. At the same time, you achieve better Core Web Vitals scores by providing your visitors with the best user experience possible.\n\n\n\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t forget people working on your website. Don\u2019t forget your own time. How much time do you spend working on a website? A lot longer than 5 minutes, right? A slow website can kill your productivity.\u201d\nRocket.net – Why a Slow WordPress Backend Can Kill Agency Productivity\n\n\n\nScalability and Resource Management for Your Growing Content\n\n\n\nAs your blog grows in popularity it attracts more visitors. More people means more demand for resources. Bandwidth, storage, and processing power increase with each user.\n\n\n\nWordPress hosting offers scalable solutions that can accommodate the growth of your blog. Growth is what you want, right? Ensures your blog remains responsive and accessible, especially during periods of high traffic. Additionally, managed WordPress hosting offers resource management tools that allow you to monitor and adjust your resource allocation as needed.\n\n\n\nTurney website hosting that scales? Take my money! (I know, right?)\n\n\n\nEnhanced Security for Your Website and Your Readers\n\n\n\nSecurity is a critical concern for any website, and WordPress blogs are no exception. If you want your blog to be a business, treat it like a business. WordPress hosting providers implement robust security measures to protect your blog. Potential threats including malware, hacking attempts, and other cyber attacks are covered. How? Regular malware scans, firewalls, and automatic updates to ensure your WordPress installation and plugins are always up-to-date with the latest security patches. These are security features that you don\u2019t have to think about. Focus on your writing and we\u2019ll focus on the hosting.\n\n\n\nRocket.net hosting offers a solid WordPress security package:\n\n\n\n\nProactive Protection\n\n\n\nMalware Scanning & Removal\n\n\n\nUnlimited Free SSL Certificates\n\n\n\n\nWhile we\u2019re talking about security, what about AI content? How safe is that for your blog\u2019s UX and SEO?\n\n\n\nAI content is easy and convenient, it saves time and money. Why not use AI content for your blog? This raises the question: should you hire a content marketing agency for your own content needs? The short answer is an emphatic yes \u2013 probably more now than ever before. (Plenty of writers hire editors and ghostwriters.)\n\n\n\nIf you care about your website, there are many ways to use AI tools effectively. AI can help you create better outlines, find keyword gaps, and optimize what you already have on your site. Constantly improving your craft as a website publisher means leveraging any tools available to become a better writer. Being a better writer makes you a better content marketer. After all, you\u2019re a blogger, right? Keep on testing; keep on learning!\n\n\n\n\n\u201cRocket.net has been the best move I\u2019ve ever made for my blog. I truly feel like this was an upgrade and that was the whole reason behind researching hosts and migrating in the first place.\u201d\nNatasha’s Kitchen\n\n\n\nSeamless WordPress Integration: You\u2019re a Blogger, not a Programmer\n\n\n\nOn the other hand, many bloggers set up their own websites, and hey, your blog may be all about PHP, right? The ease of WordPress means that you can spend more time programming examples for your readers. Bonus: you can also spend zero time programming if that\u2019s your thing!\n\n\n\nWordPress hosting solutions are designed to integrate with the WordPress platform. This gives you a streamlined experience for managing and maintaining your blog. Many hosting providers also offer user-friendly control panels and tools specifically tailored for WordPress. Raise your hand if you just want to write and not teal with installing, updating, and managing your blog? We see you.\n\n\n\n\n\u201cThere are multiple benefits to managed WordPress hosting, including quicker loading speed, better SEO, improved security, automatic backups, and 24/7 support. By selecting a managed WordPress hosting service, you can concentrate on developing content for your website while the hosting provider handles the rest.\u201d\nBarn2Plugins\n\n\n\nExpert Support and Automatic Backups/Updates\n\n\n\nManaged WordPress hosting includes automatic backups, ensuring your content is safe from site-breaking errors and attacks. It also includes automatic updates, keeping your WordPress installation, themes, and plugins up-to-date with the latest versions and security patches.\n\n\n\nWhat\u2019s more important than all the automation, the page rankings, and the security? What do you really want from a WordPress host? Right. You want someone you can talk with \u2013 a real person.\n\n\n\nWhen it comes to WordPress, having access to knowledgeable and responsive customer support is invaluable. We like to think it\u2019s the most important consideration. If you get what you pay for, don\u2019t you want the best people watching your blog?\n\n\n\nAt Rocket.net you won\u2019t find a more experienced, dedicated, supportive, 24/7 group of WordPress fanatics. If you can, contact them! In the meantime, drop us a line. We\u2019d love to hear more about your current situation and how we can help you out!\n\n\n\nCheck around. Do your due diligence. WordPress hosting providers should employ teams of experts; people who are well-versed in the intricacies of the platform. Whether you’re facing a technical issue, need assistance with plugin compatibility, or require guidance on optimizing your blog’s performance, you want experts. Good support minimizes downtime and ensures your blog runs smoothly.\n\n\n\nWrapping it Up: Why WordPress Hosting Rocks Your Blog\n\n\n\nSuccessful blogs serve a niche. That niche allows people to follow their passions for authentic content and audience connection. As a blogger, you\u2019re consistently creating valuable content tailored to your audience while strategically monetizing through methods like affiliate marketing or products/services. The ultimate goal is to build a revenue-generating niche business. Let your interests and experience guide you while keeping profitability \u2013 like ensuring your blog is always on – in mind.\n\n\n\nHere are the key advantages of Rocket.net\u2019s WordPress hosting for your blog:\n\n\n\n\nFast WordPress hosting with Cloudflare Enterprise for full-page caching ideal for blogs that need high performance.\n\n\n\nBetter value and lower cost compared to overpriced web hosting companies with no upselling or price increases on renewal.\n\n\n\nAutomatic image optimization in WebP format and serving via global CDN improves loading speeds for image-heavy blogs.\n\n\n\nImproved website speed even for bloated blog themes.\n\n\n\nWordPress security with Cloudflare Enterprise WAF and Imunify360 without additional security plugins.\n\n\n\nExpert customer support to handle website issues and optimization, allowing bloggers to focus on content creation.\n\n\n\n\nBloggers require specialized WordPress hosting to create and maintain their revenue-generating blogs.\n\n\n\nBy investing in WordPress hosting, you’re equipping yourself with the tools and resources necessary to build a robust, secure, and high-performing online presence. Spend your time captivating and engaging with your audience. Let your hosting take care of the rest!", "date_published": "2024-08-08T13:54:23+00:00", "date_modified": "2024-08-08T13:54:24+00:00", "authors": [ { "name": "Jeff Trumble", "url": "https://rocket.net/author/jeff-trumble/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bd1daa25bd1ce58afd607da007b6210?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "Jeff Trumble", "url": "https://rocket.net/author/jeff-trumble/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bd1daa25bd1ce58afd607da007b6210?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/WordPress-Cruicial-Blogging.png", "tags": [ "Web Hosting" ] }, { "id": "https://rocket.net/?p=5359", "url": "https://rocket.net/blog/how-many-donations-can-your-nonprofits-website-support-on-givingtuesday/", "title": "How Many Donations Can Your Nonprofit\u2019s Website Support on GivingTuesday?", "content_html": "\nGivingTuesday is a global phenomenon and the largest donation day of the year. But will your marketing campaigns break your site when people donate? First, let\u2019s start with your donation pages.
\n\n\n\nIf you\u2019re worried about launching a giving campaign on GivingTuesday, then look to your infrastructure. Is your website up-to-date (WordPress core, plugins, and themes)? Do you have a backup of your site? Are your forms working (test, test, and test again)? Are your donation forms successfully connected to the correct bank account?
\n\n\n\nTest all the things. Test on mobile. Test while in incognito mode. Ask your mom to donate $1 to make sure it works. Don\u2019t wait until November 15 to test. Make sure it\u2019s working in advance. You\u2019ll likely be coming back from holidays with your family on GivingTuesday, so you won\u2019t have time for big problems.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHot take: \u201cStudies show that using campaign-specific messaging on a donation page can increase revenue by 420%. Even better, you can set up multiple GivingTuesday donation pages that speak to your specific donor segments.\u201d
\nNeonOne.com
Credit Cards can process 5,000 transactions a second, so you won\u2019t have to worry about Visa or Mastercard breaking. You\u2019ll need to be worried about your website hosting. This is also why we recommend accepting donations on your own website. When a third-party site like Classy or MobileCause goes down, everyone\u2019s donation forms go down.
\n\n\n\nGivingTuesday has been a successful day for nonprofits for over ten years. In 2022, 3.1 billion dollars was raised in the US alone. Twenty Million Donors participated in that $3.1b raise and for the first time ever, $1b was donated online. Yes, online. Not in person. Not with a check. Through a website form \u2013 like the one on your foundation\u2019s site.
\n\n\n\nLet\u2019s say $1b was donated within a typical workday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. That\u2019s a nine-hour time span. That averages out to $111,111,111 an hour. Per minute, that $1b is $1,851,851.85. Think about that. 1.85 million dollars was donated per minute. Per second, that works out to be $30,864.20 per second.
\n\n\n\nOkay fine. You say. If we think about the average donation on Giving Tuesday, per person, we can get a better handle on the number of transactions per second.
\n\n\n\nEarlier, we found out that 20 million people donated 3.1 billion dollars. How many dollars per donor? On average, people donated $155 on GivingTuesday in 2022.
\n\n\n\nHow many transactions per second does it take for $155 donations to add up to $30,864.20? This simple division problem leads us to 199 transactions \u2013 per second.
\n\n\n\nSo the question is, can your website handle 200 transactions per second? That\u2019s 12,000 a minute or 720,000 an hour. We bet you\u2019re thinking that there is no way any one website gets 720,000 transactions an hour. Well, maybe Amazon does.
\n\n\n\nLet\u2019s scale it back. Can your website handle 20 transactions a second? How about 10? If you\u2019re expecting to raise quite a bit of funds at $5 a pop, your site will need to be supported by a robust enterprise environment. Every sale isn\u2019t just one hit to your server. Each transaction is a bundle of requests, handshakes, and a bunch of other technical terms that don\u2019t matter \u2013 until they do.
\n\n\n\nBefore we recommend that you fully embrace the largest donation day of the year, we offer a disclaimer. GivingTuesday isn\u2019t a magic potion for solving your poor marketing and communication throughout the year. It\u2019s also not a day to ignore small donors because you have large donations from local corporations either.
\n\n\n\nKathleen Murphy Toms is the Director of Digital Strategy for GivingTuesday.org. She recommends that nonprofits invest the time to tell the stories that impact giving. You can\u2019t just make a graphic in Canva, post it on Facebook, and think that will raise funds. It just won\u2019t work. This is an opportunity to bring awareness to your nonprofit\u2019s mission. Once you\u2019ve spent the time using social media (and blog posts) to educate the potential donors (over the course of the year), they will be inspired to donate on GivingTuesday to help you meet your financial goals.\u00a0
\n\n\n\nSome people believe that GivingTuesday collects donations on behalf of your nonprofit. Not so. Instead, it\u2019s a Global Movement meant to inspire monetary donations after Thanksgiving of each year. Now, some people volunteer on GivingTuesday as well, but that wasn\u2019t the original purpose.
\n\n\n\nSo, you can have one single donation form (campaign) for GivingTuesday, sure. You\u2019ll want to separate this campaign from your normal donations \u2013 even if it goes to the same bank account. Be sure to have a fundraising goal for GivingTuesday in numbers. It\u2019s even better if your donation form shows progress. GiveWP does a very good job with multiple donation forms, campaign progress, and reporting.
\n\n\n\nAt the very minimum, you should have a donation landing page for GivingTuesday for the current year. Refer to previous years if you like to compare, and don\u2019t be afraid to have the year in the slug (eg yournonprofit.com/givingtuesday-2023). There is no need to consolidate or delete previous landing pages for GivingTuesday.
\n\n\n\nYou\u2019re running your enterprise nonprofit, interfacing with the Board, fundraising, and coordinating volunteers. You don\u2019t have time to worry if a donation campaign like GivingTuesday will break your website. You need a partner you can trust on GivingTuesday and the whole year.
\n\n\n\nChoose a performant platform that compliments the mission of your foundation, organization, or nonprofit. Summer is the time to get your technical ducks in a row for end-of-year giving.
\n\n\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n",
"content_text": "GivingTuesday is a global phenomenon and the largest donation day of the year. But will your marketing campaigns break your site when people donate? First, let\u2019s start with your donation pages.\n\n\n\nHow Many Donations Is A Lot on GivingTuesday?\n\n\n\nIf you\u2019re worried about launching a giving campaign on GivingTuesday, then look to your infrastructure. Is your website up-to-date (WordPress core, plugins, and themes)? Do you have a backup of your site? Are your forms working (test, test, and test again)? Are your donation forms successfully connected to the correct bank account? \n\n\n\nTest all the things. Test on mobile. Test while in incognito mode. Ask your mom to donate $1 to make sure it works. Don\u2019t wait until November 15 to test. Make sure it\u2019s working in advance. You\u2019ll likely be coming back from holidays with your family on GivingTuesday, so you won\u2019t have time for big problems. \n\n\n\n\nHot take: \u201cStudies show that using campaign-specific messaging on a donation page can increase revenue by 420%. Even better, you can set up multiple GivingTuesday donation pages that speak to your specific donor segments.\u201d\nNeonOne.com\n\n\n\nCredit Cards can process 5,000 transactions a second, so you won\u2019t have to worry about Visa or Mastercard breaking. You\u2019ll need to be worried about your website hosting. This is also why we recommend accepting donations on your own website. When a third-party site like Classy or MobileCause goes down, everyone\u2019s donation forms go down.\n\n\n\nIs GivingTuesday Really A Big Fundraising Day?\n\n\n\nGivingTuesday has been a successful day for nonprofits for over ten years. In 2022, 3.1 billion dollars was raised in the US alone. Twenty Million Donors participated in that $3.1b raise and for the first time ever, $1b was donated online. Yes, online. Not in person. Not with a check. Through a website form \u2013 like the one on your foundation\u2019s site.\n\n\n\nLet\u2019s say $1b was donated within a typical workday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. That\u2019s a nine-hour time span. That averages out to $111,111,111 an hour. Per minute, that $1b is $1,851,851.85. Think about that. 1.85 million dollars was donated per minute. Per second, that works out to be $30,864.20 per second. \n\n\n\nOkay fine. You say. If we think about the average donation on Giving Tuesday, per person, we can get a better handle on the number of transactions per second.\n\n\n\nEarlier, we found out that 20 million people donated 3.1 billion dollars. How many dollars per donor? On average, people donated $155 on GivingTuesday in 2022.\n\n\n\nHow many transactions per second does it take for $155 donations to add up to $30,864.20? This simple division problem leads us to 199 transactions \u2013 per second.\n\n\n\nSo the question is, can your website handle 200 transactions per second? That\u2019s 12,000 a minute or 720,000 an hour. We bet you\u2019re thinking that there is no way any one website gets 720,000 transactions an hour. Well, maybe Amazon does.\n\n\n\nLet\u2019s scale it back. Can your website handle 20 transactions a second? How about 10? If you\u2019re expecting to raise quite a bit of funds at $5 a pop, your site will need to be supported by a robust enterprise environment. Every sale isn\u2019t just one hit to your server. Each transaction is a bundle of requests, handshakes, and a bunch of other technical terms that don\u2019t matter \u2013 until they do.\n\n\n\nHow Do I Make The Most Out of GivingTuesday?\n\n\n\nBefore we recommend that you fully embrace the largest donation day of the year, we offer a disclaimer. GivingTuesday isn\u2019t a magic potion for solving your poor marketing and communication throughout the year. It\u2019s also not a day to ignore small donors because you have large donations from local corporations either. \n\n\n\nKathleen Murphy Toms is the Director of Digital Strategy for GivingTuesday.org. She recommends that nonprofits invest the time to tell the stories that impact giving. You can\u2019t just make a graphic in Canva, post it on Facebook, and think that will raise funds. It just won\u2019t work. This is an opportunity to bring awareness to your nonprofit\u2019s mission. Once you\u2019ve spent the time using social media (and blog posts) to educate the potential donors (over the course of the year), they will be inspired to donate on GivingTuesday to help you meet your financial goals.\u00a0\n\n\n\nHow Many Donation Pages Should I Have for GivingTuesday?\n\n\n\nSome people believe that GivingTuesday collects donations on behalf of your nonprofit. Not so. Instead, it\u2019s a Global Movement meant to inspire monetary donations after Thanksgiving of each year. Now, some people volunteer on GivingTuesday as well, but that wasn\u2019t the original purpose.\n\n\n\nSo, you can have one single donation form (campaign) for GivingTuesday, sure. You\u2019ll want to separate this campaign from your normal donations \u2013 even if it goes to the same bank account. Be sure to have a fundraising goal for GivingTuesday in numbers. It\u2019s even better if your donation form shows progress. GiveWP does a very good job with multiple donation forms, campaign progress, and reporting. \n\n\n\nAt the very minimum, you should have a donation landing page for GivingTuesday for the current year. Refer to previous years if you like to compare, and don\u2019t be afraid to have the year in the slug (eg yournonprofit.com/givingtuesday-2023). There is no need to consolidate or delete previous landing pages for GivingTuesday.\n\n\n\nWebsite Hosting for Enterprise Nonprofits\n\n\n\nYou\u2019re running your enterprise nonprofit, interfacing with the Board, fundraising, and coordinating volunteers. You don\u2019t have time to worry if a donation campaign like GivingTuesday will break your website. You need a partner you can trust on GivingTuesday and the whole year. \n\n\n\nChoose a performant platform that compliments the mission of your foundation, organization, or nonprofit. Summer is the time to get your technical ducks in a row for end-of-year giving.",
"date_published": "2023-08-01T13:27:13+00:00",
"date_modified": "2023-08-01T13:27:13+00:00",
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jeff Trumble",
"url": "https://rocket.net/author/jeff-trumble/",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bd1daa25bd1ce58afd607da007b6210?s=512&d=mm&r=g"
}
],
"author": {
"name": "Jeff Trumble",
"url": "https://rocket.net/author/jeff-trumble/",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bd1daa25bd1ce58afd607da007b6210?s=512&d=mm&r=g"
},
"image": "https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/giving-tuesday.png",
"tags": [
"Web Hosting"
]
},
{
"id": "https://rocket.net/2022/07/20/high-website-traffic-wordpress-enterprise-hosting/",
"url": "https://rocket.net/blog/high-website-traffic-wordpress-enterprise-hosting/",
"title": "High Website Traffic? When Is It Time To Move Your Site To WordPress Enterprise Hosting?",
"content_html": "\nYou have a high website traffic problem, your server is constantly crashing and it’s dreadfully slow for users. Think your site wouldn’t benefit from WordPress Enterprise Hosting right about now? Do you sell products, teach courses, or publish 20 times a day? Enterprise activity requires enterprise hosting.
\n\n\n\nThen again, if you\u2019re reading this, you\u2019re already running WordPress websites for your clients, or you\u2019re at least interested in creating websites for them in WordPress. That\u2019s probably a good idea! WordPress powers almost half of all CMS-based websites today, from international companies to schools and shops, and probably even your mum\u2019s blog.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201c62% of the top 100 fastest growing companies in the US (Inc. 5000) use WordPress.\u201d
\nTechJury.net
Maybe your websites are already up and running, and traffic and sales are increasing. Congratulations!
\n\n\n\nNow you\u2019re asking yourself when is it time to move your sites into a larger place. When is it time to move to WordPress Enterprise Hosting?
\n\n\n\nIf your client\u2019s websites are big, they\u2019re probably big companies \u2013 or enterprises (enterprise CMS, enterprise hosting, Starship Enterprise — that\u2019s where the name comes from). Franchises will often have a large website or group of websites. Larger websites require a bigger and high traffic website hosting solution.
\n\n\n\nSo you\u2019ve got a big website. \u201cThat don\u2019t impress me much \u2026\u201d You know the song. Managing a large site brings with it a whole new set of problems with high website traffic. And opportunities!
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201cWeb hosting may be the internet’s most underappreciated element. Everything you love about being online lives on a server that an individual or company pays to keep up and running so that you can access it.\u201d
\nPCMag.com
That\u2019s the ten thousand dollar question. Try Googling that. It completely depends on what your website needs to do. A website isn\u2019t just about disk space, either. It\u2019s about bandwidth. And growth, and not just today but tomorrow. What will your website need to do in two years? Three years? Five?
\n\n\n\nTo launch your WordPress website, you should have an idea of what those websites are going to be doing. Here are a few examples of websites and their disk space usage:
\n\n\n\nIn addition to disk space, you need to consider bandwidth use. Bandwidth is the amount of data exchanged between users and the server throughout a given month.
\n\n\n\nFor example, if you have a page with a size of 1MB, each visit to this page will use 1MB from your bandwidth. So, per 100 visitors a day, you need 100MB daily and 3GB bandwidth monthly.
\n\n\n\nOur WordPress Enterprise hosting packages include at least 1 Terabyte of disk space and 1 Terabyte of Bandwidth with unlimited requests. That\u2019s big. That\u2019s fast, too!
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201cDoes your website have a lot of interactions? Are you running eCommerce or eLearning platforms? You know users will not want to wait around for that image to load; they also aren\u2019t going to wait for a lagging mouse event.\u201d
\nRocket.net
So, how many websites do you manage? Are these blogs? Dentist offices? Are they WooCommerce webshops? Are your clients photographers relying on images for their portfolio website or are they writers with a profile image on the author page? Before going to IKEA to buy boxes, you should know how many you need.
\n\n\n\nIf you were to start a project based on an open-source CMS like WordPress, Joomla! or Drupal, you actually hardly need more than a few hundred megabytes of disk space. WordPress out of the box is only about 9MB. Drupal is 15MB. It\u2019s once you start adding themes and plugins of course, this number will grow \u2013 fast!
\n\n\n\nWhat comes on top of the CMS will be, of course, your images, videos, and anything else your website needs. WordPress itself will be the smallest amount of space you require.
\n\n\n\nExample WordPress setup:
\n\n\n\nFunFact: SEOs are still talking about Google\u2019s news that it only goes through the first 15MB of your website\u2019s HTML. Our example website, and others, are only 3 MB. The HTML of 99% of websites is going to be very light.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201cThere are very few pages on the internet that are bigger in size. You, dear reader, are unlikely to be the owner of one since the median size of an HTML file is about 500 times smaller: 30 kilobytes (kB). However, if you are the owner of an HTML page that’s over 15 MB, perhaps you could at least move some inline scripts and CSS dust to external files, pretty please.\u201d
\nGoogle Developer
Your websites aren\u2019t using images just to make a pretty picture. Images serve to help your clients. They can save your clients a thousand words. They can save your clients a thousand words. Be careful how large those images are.
\n\n\n\nLet\u2019s see. How big are your client\u2019s websites? Choose one. You can test them on a variety of tools, such as WebPageTest.org.
\n\n\n\nOur example website breakdown was as follows:
\n\n\n\nSee all those images? They account for 60% of our website\u2019s weight. Images weighing us down is, of course, a serious SEO issue because our websites load slower. All the more important is that your WordPress hosting is lightning fast — whenever and wherever your website is viewed. Our Cloudflare Enterprise CDN not only caches your content (including those images) as close as possible to your visitors, but it also optimizes your content on the fly without the use of additional plugins.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201cSearch engines will look at your web page like you might look at a big vat of Crisco: You can\u2019t seriously be considering putting that on your website, right?\u201d
\nSearchEngineJournal
Ideally, yes. Why? WordPress needs a browser to display a website. The browser turns the PHP, HTML, Javascript etc., together with the content found in your database and the images and other files you uploaded, into your great-looking website.
\n\n\n\nFor the magic to happen, the browser looks to your server because that\u2019s where everything your site requires is stored. Finding the best hosting solution for your high traffic website needs is critical for success.
\n\n\n\nYou can run a server locally on your own computer too. XAMPP, for instance, can be installed on your own computer. This is a very common way to test your websites locally before it\u2019s uploaded to your web host. You probably do this.
\n\n\n\nIf you want your websites to be seen by the public, as we\u2019re sure your clients do, then you will probably want a hosting package offered through a hosting company. It\u2019s possible to connect your computer to the internet and use it as a server, although the configuration process may be too complicated for many people. In addition, you would need to have your computer (server) on all the time and have a really good internet connection.
\n\n\n\nHosting takes care of the physical machines, connections to the DNS server, the main web server, database, and everything else your website needs. Hosting ensures your website is up and running so you don\u2019t have to.
\n\n\n\nWhile you don\u2019t need WordPress-specific hosting, it does have many benefits. Hosting companies that specialize in a specific CMS know its tricks, trials, and tribulations. They\u2019re specialists focused on optimizing WordPress websites. You wouldn\u2019t leave your Porsche in the hands of a Hyundai mechanic, would you?
\n\n\n\n![\"Looking](\"https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/24325690/9e0cf38b-066a-44da-abe3-14b14b5a9e19.png\" "\\"High")
\n\n\n\nOf course, WordPress is a great solution for enterprise-level websites and the best solution for them is enterprise hosting. The following companies use WordPress:
\n\n\n\nOur WordPress Enterprise Hosting Platform powers many of the world\u2019s highest traffic websites.
\n\n\n\nFrom WooCommerce stores processing thousands of orders and key government officials to large media and ad tech websites, Rocket provides the fastest and most secure infrastructure for your business.
\n\n\n\nWordPress itself is unlimited in terms of how much traffic it can handle. That goes for other CMS, too. What\u2019s important when it comes to traffic is your server\u2019s ability to withstand heavy traffic.
\n\n\n\nHow much traffic does your website have each day? Don\u2019t be shy. More than 50% of local business websites get less than 500 visits a month (Search Engine Journal).
\n\n\n\nLet\u2019s say your website has 10,000 visitors, and maybe they all come at once. Then your server needs to handle 10,000 concurrent users.
\n\n\n\nThese websites get millions of visits each day, and they all run on WordPress:
\n\n\n\n(April 2022 source: semrush.com)
High website traffic tends to be the tipping point from Managed WordPress Hosting to Enterprise WordPress Hosting, but it is just one of the reasons you should consider enterprise-level hosting. Peace of mind is the other. Getting your clients\u2019 websites into a hosting package that is future-safe makes you look good. Remove one of those pain points so you can focus on helping your clients with their next content marketing campaign. Let someone else do the heavy server lifting.
We\u2019d Love to Show You How Our WordPress Enterprise Hosting Benefits Your Agency or Business!
\n\n\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s talk about how we can help your enterprise clients and migrate your portfolio of client sites to Rocket.net, the fastest WordPress hosting in the world.
In 2018, I was the Chief Product Officer for one of the world’s largest CDNs. Even though our product was excellent, every day I saw WordPress customers struggling to properly implement the CDN and WAF that my employer provided. In this space I saw the need for simplifying and automating the process as much as possible. My solution was to start Rocket.net.
\n\n\n\nWhen Rocket.net launched in 2020, we immediately started gaining traction in the market. Our customers recognized that Rocket.net was able to provide unmatched speed, security, and overall customer experience.
\n\n\n\n![\"How](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Fast-Benchmarks-min-1248x368-1-1024x302-1.png\" "\\"Cloudflare")
With the emerging significance of core web vitals, many of Rocket.net’s early adopters were migrating to us for the best performance possible compared to other WordPress hosting alternatives. With unequaled performance, security, and service, the legend of Rocket.net was born.
\n\n\n\nRocket.net builds trust with customers with one simple promise: We are never done. We\u2019re constantly improving the platform by introducing unique and useful features like WordPress Activity Logging and Smart Caching, just to name a couple.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“Customers don’t know what they want until you show it to them”
\nSteve Jobs
While I admire Steve Jobs a great deal, I believe this particular theory to be only partially true. None of Rocket.net’s customers knew they wanted Cloudflare Enterprise with Full Page Caching, but they knew they wanted faster websites. We\u2019ve worked tirelessly to make that happen… and then some.
\n\n\n\nFirst, I’d like to do a little of what I like to call Edge Education. Cloudflare Enterprise is a term you may have seen hosting companies throw around quite a bit lately… but what is it exactly? Don’t worry, you’re not alone, I’ve been trying to help define the Edge for almost five years now.
\n\n\n\nSo let’s ignore that Enterprise part for a second and talk a bit about Cloudflare. At its roots, Cloudflare has built an amazing platform that a lot of us hosting veterans were responsible for helping scale in it’s early days.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSome may not know this, but Cloudflare’s initial growth strategy heavily involved partnering with hosting companies to maximize the reach to websites without having to have a massive marketing budget (genius right?).
\n
Ultimately, the Cloudflare platform provides secure content delivery and dozens of other services at the Edge of the cloud.
\n\n\n\nWhat does the Edge of the Cloud REALLY mean?
\n\n\n\nThat’s a great question and depending on who you ask, it has varying answers.
\n\n\n\nSimply put, the Edge of the cloud is as close as you can possibly get to the end-user (in our case the website visitor). In the CDN world, these users are referred to as the “eyeballs”. Traditionally, the Edge was located at the Internet Exchanges where every ISP in your region will terminate and tunnel traffic through.
\n\n\n\nYou see, the internet was not built to handle the scale it needs to handle over the long haul network and increasing the pipes throughout the internet would cost billions and billions of dollars. That’s really why CDN was born in the first place, large file delivery without breaking the internet by delivering it as close to the end-user network.
\n\n\n\nLet’s take Netflix for example… Netflix effectively broke the internet as it scaled to the point where ISP’s were begging them to send little black boxes into their central offices so they could deliver Netflix one hop away from their subscribers (meaning traffic never left the ISP’s internal network which is much easier to scale). If they didn’t do this, the internet simply would not function as it does today as it would be saturated with streamers, leaving no bandwidth for anyone else.
\n\n\n\nLet’s visualize this… imagine if Netflix were delivering all of their catalog out of a single Google Cloud data center (you know the only ones our competitors talk about) and let’s say streamers in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio all want to watch the new season of Ozark:
\n\n\n\n![\"What](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CF-Enterprise-Edge-One-Texas-min.png\" "\\"Cloudflare")
In the above scenario you can see all three major cities are going through the same internet exchange, then to a Google Cloud data center.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nInternet Exchanges act like the freeway interchanges of the Internet. They are where all providers come together with their connectivity and hand off and direct traffic. Think of it as the place where several local and interstate freeways come together with thousands of cars working to follow the correct road signs.
\n
This may not seem so terrible, but if you add scale even to those three cities that pipe between the internet exchange and Google Cloud will eventually max out and you’ll see the spinner of death when trying to stream.
\n\n\n\nCan you imagine if the whole country was trying to stream with this approach?
\n\n\n\n![\"Internet](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CF-Enterprise-Edge-Multiple-min.png\" "\\"Cloudflare")
Not only would this create a terrible experience for streaming, it would take down the internet.
\n\n\n\nHow do we solve this?
\n\n\n\nIt probably seems extremely obvious how to solve this today when looking at the above illustrations, but years ago it was not so obvious. Some very smart people started to realize that this was not sustainable, so the World’s first CDN (Content Delivery Network) was born in Internet Exchanges around the globe, ultimately providing the ability for everyone to cache their content as close as possible to the end-user:
\n\n\n\n![\"Cloudflare](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/close-pops.png\" "\\"Cloudflare")
Problem solved!… Sorta… Lately it seems a new streaming service is popping up every day, effectively creating the same problem as before, but at the Internet Exchanges.
\n\n\n\nWhen you have three major metropolitan areas like Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio all running through a single Exchange in Dallas, there becomes a problem. In fact, I’ve even seen traffic from Houston routed all the way to Miami or Atlanta due to saturation between Houston and Dallas alone.
\n\n\n\nThis is where the ISP’s come in to help solve the issue by pushing content even closer to the eyeballs, commonly referred to as Telco Cloud. My good friend Ron Lev is one of the Telco Cloud Pioneers with their platform Cox Edge. How will this help things? Imagine Cloudflare having a PoP in your local ISP with your WooCommerce store being delivered in the same neighborhood as your shoppers… it’s coming ![\"\ud83d\ude42\"](\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f642.png\")
What does all this mean for WordPress?
\n\n\n\nI know that was a lot of information above, but I promise I’m going somewhere with it. The truth is, most people may not even know what Cloudflare/Edge is and why they need it.
\n\n\n\nBetween Google pushing Core Web Vitals and other hosting providers pushing “Cloudflare Enterprise” with no substance other than the buzz words, you may not realize just how important the Edge is for your website.
\n\n\n\nYour WordPress website is no different than Netflix when it comes to end-user expectations. Just like no one wants to see “buffering” when trying to watch a show, no one wants to wait 1-8 seconds for a web page to begin to load (TTFB)… including Google and other search engines.
\n\n\n\nAt the end of the day, WordPress is a Content Management System that users use to build a website that ultimately spits out HTML/CSS/JS/Images to construct the website. Each and every asset is cacheable in some form, effectively allowing us to deliver said website as close as physically possible to the visitor vs having to proxy back to a single location.
\n\n\n\nWhile there are dynamic needs as well (WooCommerce, BuddyPress, etc) static content will still be delivered as close as possible to the visitor, allowing the dynamic requests to leverage Argo Smart Routing. Argo Smart Routing utilizes Cloudflare’s private backbone to route requests exactly where they need to go vs traversing the public internet and making more hops, reducing unnnecessary latency and slowness.
\n\n\n\nThe Flare of the Cloud
\n\n\n\nNow, lets get back to Cloudflare… Over the years, Cloudflare has built a gigantic platform built at the Edge of the cloud ultimately delivering content as fast and secure as possible to end-users.
\n\n\n\n![\"Cloudflare](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/network-map-1-1024x444.png\" "\\"Cloudflare")
As you can see above, Cloudflare has built an enormous network over the last twelve years. While having a large network is extremely important for various reasons, for us it wasn’t just about the size of the boat, but the motion in the ocean.
\n\n\n\nSince launching Rocket.net, I’m commonly asked… “Why Cloudflare? You helped build a different CDN, why not use that one?” and the answer is simple – Cloudflare has specialized in Website delivery since 2010. As a Product guy trying to perfect website delivery, I constantly looked at Cloudflare best practices because I knew they’d seen it all.
\n\n\n\nFor example, what’s a good origin timeout to use for WordPress? Well Cloudflare’s default is 180 seconds, I wonder why it’s not 60 seconds? The answer? That’s the timeout that will cover over 90% of traffic needs based on the gigantic amount of data they’ve delivered in the last 12 years.
\n\n\n\nI’ve also tested every CDN under the sun from a competitive analysis standpoint, so it was a no brainer… not to mention Matthew, Michelle, Dane, and team are some pretty amazing people!
\n\n\n\nDon’t forget: Enterprise!
\n\n\n\nOne thing a lot of people didn’t or don’t realize is that Cloudflare Enterprise is almost an entirely different product within itself when compared to traditional Cloudflare. Not only is it the only way to take advantage of the entire Cloudflare footprint, but it has some amazing features like Argo Smart Routing, Tiered Caching, and dozens of others we take advantage of on every request at Rocket.net.
\n\n\n\nWith all that said, in 2022, Cloudflare Enterprise aka the Edge should never be looked at as an add-on or feature, but the evolution of WordPress/website/content delivery.
\n\n\n\nAt Rocket.net, the Edge is simply the foundation for the platform we’ve been focused on building just like a true SaaS provider over the last two years.
\n\n\n\nWe’ve talked a lot about Cloudflare, the Edge, etc to the point that some might think that Rocket.net\u2019s Unique Selling Point (USP) is that we have Cloudflare Enterprise with full page caching. Based on that, we knew it was just a matter of time before our competitors up in the clouds would launch a similar looking product to stay competitive- But that\u2019s okay! Just as there are many cars that look similar to a Tesla, there is only one genuine Tesla. And there is still only one Rocket.net. Why can we say this?
\n\n\n\nWe have built our platform from the start with an Edge-first mentality due to years and years of extensive Edge experience. Since launching, Rocket.net has been honing what’s arguably the most robust and flexible integration with Cloudflare Enterprise.
\n\n\n\nThere is more to our implementation of Cloudflare Enterprise than simply proxying a site through it.
\n\n\n\nFor Rocket.net, the stack starts with WordPress itself. WooCommerce, themes, plugins, third party integrations- all of them require custom rules to work properly. Simply enabling even the best CDN available is not enough. The whole system has to be tuned in order to benefit- and that\u2019s what Rocket.net has been doing since day one.
\n\n\n\n![\"How](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Static-Dynamic.svg\" "\\"Cloudflare")
To further the point, the only way to make full use of Cloudflare Enterprise and the Edge is to control delivery end-to-end with heavily optimized and tuned origins. This level of control allows us to provide something that our competitors cannot: sub-100ms TTFB worldwide and a fine-tuned experience for our customers with zero configuration required.
\n\n\n\nControlling the end-to-end delivery also allows us to enhance security far beyond the Cloudflare Enterprise WAF. The Cloudflare Enterprise WAF is an amazing product, but it only protects web traffic. What about FTP, SFTP, and other protocols? I’m glad you asked!
\n\n\n\n![\"How](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/User-WAF-Origin.svg\" "\\"Cloudflare")
With every host node running Imunify360, Rocket.net gives our customers yet another layer of protection with more granular WAF rules (including real-time updates to these rules to protect from 0day exploits like the recent Elementor debacle) and real-time malware scanning.
\n\n\n\nRocket.net has years of experience dealing with the struggles of providing CDN and WAF services for WordPress from behind the scenes. This puts us in an excellent position because we know exactly how to solve these problems.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“If Cloudflare Enterprise isn’t an add-on or feature, then what is your USP?”
\n
Simple – Customer Experience!
\n\n\n\nRocket.net is far from just a hosting company. We’ve built a true SaaS platform that specializes in WordPress. Not only is everything modernly built with a developer friendly API-first approach, but we’re constantly adding new features based on customer feedback.
\n\n\n\nSomething I’ve always stood behind in my career is whatever we build has to be easy. No CTO in the world will ever get frustrated for something being too easy (don’t worry CTOs we have APIs, CLI tools and all kinds of fun stuff for you too), but a blogger might get confused and frustrated when presented with a complex experience.
\n\n\n\nAfter creating your Rocket.net account, it takes just a few clicks and about 45 seconds to launch your first WordPress site. The best part? It’s already accelerated and secured off the get go on a fully functional Rocket.net URL, allowing you to immediately start creating.
\n\n\n\nIf you have an existing site, just let our team of experts know, and we’ll have everything cloned to your Rocket.net temporary URL within minutes of creating your account.
\n\n\n\n![\"Rocket.net](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Simple-Fast-Secure-WordPress-Hosting-Rocket.net_-1024x585.png\" "\\"Cloudflare")
Once situated, everything you could ever need to manage your WordPress site(s) is at your fingertips in our hand crafted customer-oriented control panel. From CDN, WAF, and activity reporting to plugin, theme, and backup management – you’re always a few clicks away from everything.
\n\n\n\nWhile it’s true that things like Cloudflare Enterprise and security are important, it’s also very hard to configure and understand. That’s why we’ve built everything from the ground up with an always-on and zero configuration required mentality to make things as easy as possible.
\n\n\n\nWith our speed and security problems solved, it allows us to focus where it really counts – bettering our customers day to day experience with their business otherwise known as Product Development.
\n\n\n\nCustomers asked for them, and we’ve provided features like Image Resizing, Smart Caching, and WordPress Activity Logging. Just like the rest of our platform, all of these features are simple, easy to use, and pre-configured. After all, what good are all of those features if they are make life more complicated than it needs to be?
\n\n\n\nNow that’s where we really shine! For our team, “Industry Leading Support” isn’t just some buzzword we throw around to try to sound trendy. Instead, it describes who we are as a company. You can think of it as a mission statement and a description all in one- why? Because a Rocket.net, there’s one thing we have that you won’t find at a traditional hosting type of company: cold hard experience. Several members of our team have over twenty years of hosting experience, lending a perspective and quality to support that can’t be had any other way.
\n\n\n\n![\"Rocket](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/mark-rating-png-783\u00d7125-png-742\u00d7116-1.png\" "\\"Cloudflare")
Our support staff experience ranges from developer level troubleshooting to customer service experts who elevate Rocket.net\u2019s 24×7 Technical Support and Customer Service well past competitive. Our Support is in itself an industry leader, and we\u2019ve written entire blog posts on the subject that you can read – How Rocket.net Raises The Bar For The Best WordPress Hosting Support In The Industry.
\n\n\n\nThese features, optimizations, and forward thinking innovations are the reason that Rocket.net has been and will continue to be a leader in the Managed WordPress space. We’ve left traditional web hosting in the past, and elevated into a new level of technology and customer service that one can only find in the SaaS realm.
\n\n\n\nSeeing other hosts adding Cloudflare Enterprise to their line-up of addons only proves that Rocket.net is more competitive than ever. We’re glad that other companies are starting to see the value of an Edge-first approach that’s being taken by Rocket.net, because it’ll raise the bar in the WordPress space overall, and that can only be of a benefit for all.
\n\n\n\nIn the end however, there is, and will ever be, only one Rocket.net. We’ll be here to help you elevate your WordPress experience too.
\n\n\n", "content_text": "In 2018, I was the Chief Product Officer for one of the world’s largest CDNs. Even though our product was excellent, every day I saw WordPress customers struggling to properly implement the CDN and WAF that my employer provided. In this space I saw the need for simplifying and automating the process as much as possible. My solution was to start Rocket.net.\n\n\n\nWhen Rocket.net launched in 2020, we immediately started gaining traction in the market. Our customers recognized that Rocket.net was able to provide unmatched speed, security, and overall customer experience. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWith the emerging significance of core web vitals, many of Rocket.net’s early adopters were migrating to us for the best performance possible compared to other WordPress hosting alternatives. With unequaled performance, security, and service, the legend of Rocket.net was born.\n\n\n\nRocket.net builds trust with customers with one simple promise: We are never done. We\u2019re constantly improving the platform by introducing unique and useful features like WordPress Activity Logging and Smart Caching, just to name a couple.\n\n\n\n\n“Customers don’t know what they want until you show it to them”\nSteve Jobs\n\n\n\nWhile I admire Steve Jobs a great deal, I believe this particular theory to be only partially true. None of Rocket.net’s customers knew they wanted Cloudflare Enterprise with Full Page Caching, but they knew they wanted faster websites. We\u2019ve worked tirelessly to make that happen… and then some.\n\n\n\nWhat is Cloudflare Enterprise? What is the Edge?\n\n\n\nFirst, I’d like to do a little of what I like to call Edge Education. Cloudflare Enterprise is a term you may have seen hosting companies throw around quite a bit lately… but what is it exactly? Don’t worry, you’re not alone, I’ve been trying to help define the Edge for almost five years now.\n\n\n\nSo let’s ignore that Enterprise part for a second and talk a bit about Cloudflare. At its roots, Cloudflare has built an amazing platform that a lot of us hosting veterans were responsible for helping scale in it’s early days. \n\n\n\n\nSome may not know this, but Cloudflare’s initial growth strategy heavily involved partnering with hosting companies to maximize the reach to websites without having to have a massive marketing budget (genius right?). \n\n\n\n\nUltimately, the Cloudflare platform provides secure content delivery and dozens of other services at the Edge of the cloud. \n\n\n\nWhat does the Edge of the Cloud REALLY mean?\n\n\n\nThat’s a great question and depending on who you ask, it has varying answers. \n\n\n\nSimply put, the Edge of the cloud is as close as you can possibly get to the end-user (in our case the website visitor). In the CDN world, these users are referred to as the “eyeballs”. Traditionally, the Edge was located at the Internet Exchanges where every ISP in your region will terminate and tunnel traffic through.\n\n\n\nYou see, the internet was not built to handle the scale it needs to handle over the long haul network and increasing the pipes throughout the internet would cost billions and billions of dollars. That’s really why CDN was born in the first place, large file delivery without breaking the internet by delivering it as close to the end-user network.\n\n\n\nLet’s take Netflix for example… Netflix effectively broke the internet as it scaled to the point where ISP’s were begging them to send little black boxes into their central offices so they could deliver Netflix one hop away from their subscribers (meaning traffic never left the ISP’s internal network which is much easier to scale). If they didn’t do this, the internet simply would not function as it does today as it would be saturated with streamers, leaving no bandwidth for anyone else.\n\n\n\nLet’s visualize this… imagine if Netflix were delivering all of their catalog out of a single Google Cloud data center (you know the only ones our competitors talk about) and let’s say streamers in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio all want to watch the new season of Ozark:\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn the above scenario you can see all three major cities are going through the same internet exchange, then to a Google Cloud data center. \n\n\n\n\nInternet Exchanges act like the freeway interchanges of the Internet. They are where all providers come together with their connectivity and hand off and direct traffic. Think of it as the place where several local and interstate freeways come together with thousands of cars working to follow the correct road signs.\n\n\n\n\nThis may not seem so terrible, but if you add scale even to those three cities that pipe between the internet exchange and Google Cloud will eventually max out and you’ll see the spinner of death when trying to stream.\n\n\n\nCan you imagine if the whole country was trying to stream with this approach?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNot only would this create a terrible experience for streaming, it would take down the internet.\n\n\n\nHow do we solve this?\n\n\n\nIt probably seems extremely obvious how to solve this today when looking at the above illustrations, but years ago it was not so obvious. Some very smart people started to realize that this was not sustainable, so the World’s first CDN (Content Delivery Network) was born in Internet Exchanges around the globe, ultimately providing the ability for everyone to cache their content as close as possible to the end-user:\n\n\n\nGlobal Edge Delivery\n\n\n\nProblem solved!… Sorta… Lately it seems a new streaming service is popping up every day, effectively creating the same problem as before, but at the Internet Exchanges. \n\n\n\nWhen you have three major metropolitan areas like Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio all running through a single Exchange in Dallas, there becomes a problem. In fact, I’ve even seen traffic from Houston routed all the way to Miami or Atlanta due to saturation between Houston and Dallas alone.\n\n\n\nThis is where the ISP’s come in to help solve the issue by pushing content even closer to the eyeballs, commonly referred to as Telco Cloud. My good friend Ron Lev is one of the Telco Cloud Pioneers with their platform Cox Edge. How will this help things? Imagine Cloudflare having a PoP in your local ISP with your WooCommerce store being delivered in the same neighborhood as your shoppers… it’s coming \n\n\n\nWhat does all this mean for WordPress?\n\n\n\nI know that was a lot of information above, but I promise I’m going somewhere with it. The truth is, most people may not even know what Cloudflare/Edge is and why they need it.\n\n\n\nBetween Google pushing Core Web Vitals and other hosting providers pushing “Cloudflare Enterprise” with no substance other than the buzz words, you may not realize just how important the Edge is for your website.\n\n\n\nYour WordPress website is no different than Netflix when it comes to end-user expectations. Just like no one wants to see “buffering” when trying to watch a show, no one wants to wait 1-8 seconds for a web page to begin to load (TTFB)… including Google and other search engines.\n\n\n\nAt the end of the day, WordPress is a Content Management System that users use to build a website that ultimately spits out HTML/CSS/JS/Images to construct the website. Each and every asset is cacheable in some form, effectively allowing us to deliver said website as close as physically possible to the visitor vs having to proxy back to a single location. \n\n\n\nWhile there are dynamic needs as well (WooCommerce, BuddyPress, etc) static content will still be delivered as close as possible to the visitor, allowing the dynamic requests to leverage Argo Smart Routing. Argo Smart Routing utilizes Cloudflare’s private backbone to route requests exactly where they need to go vs traversing the public internet and making more hops, reducing unnnecessary latency and slowness.\n\n\n\nThe Flare of the Cloud\n\n\n\nNow, lets get back to Cloudflare… Over the years, Cloudflare has built a gigantic platform built at the Edge of the cloud ultimately delivering content as fast and secure as possible to end-users.\n\n\n\nCloudflare Network\n\n\n\nAs you can see above, Cloudflare has built an enormous network over the last twelve years. While having a large network is extremely important for various reasons, for us it wasn’t just about the size of the boat, but the motion in the ocean.\n\n\n\nSince launching Rocket.net, I’m commonly asked… “Why Cloudflare? You helped build a different CDN, why not use that one?” and the answer is simple – Cloudflare has specialized in Website delivery since 2010. As a Product guy trying to perfect website delivery, I constantly looked at Cloudflare best practices because I knew they’d seen it all. \n\n\n\nFor example, what’s a good origin timeout to use for WordPress? Well Cloudflare’s default is 180 seconds, I wonder why it’s not 60 seconds? The answer? That’s the timeout that will cover over 90% of traffic needs based on the gigantic amount of data they’ve delivered in the last 12 years. \n\n\n\nI’ve also tested every CDN under the sun from a competitive analysis standpoint, so it was a no brainer… not to mention Matthew, Michelle, Dane, and team are some pretty amazing people! \n\n\n\nDon’t forget: Enterprise!\n\n\n\nOne thing a lot of people didn’t or don’t realize is that Cloudflare Enterprise is almost an entirely different product within itself when compared to traditional Cloudflare. Not only is it the only way to take advantage of the entire Cloudflare footprint, but it has some amazing features like Argo Smart Routing, Tiered Caching, and dozens of others we take advantage of on every request at Rocket.net.\n\n\n\nWith all that said, in 2022, Cloudflare Enterprise aka the Edge should never be looked at as an add-on or feature, but the evolution of WordPress/website/content delivery. \n\n\n\nAt Rocket.net, the Edge is simply the foundation for the platform we’ve been focused on building just like a true SaaS provider over the last two years. \n\n\n\nRocket.net Is a Cloudflare Enterprise Entrepreneur\n\n\n\nWe’ve talked a lot about Cloudflare, the Edge, etc to the point that some might think that Rocket.net\u2019s Unique Selling Point (USP) is that we have Cloudflare Enterprise with full page caching. Based on that, we knew it was just a matter of time before our competitors up in the clouds would launch a similar looking product to stay competitive- But that\u2019s okay! Just as there are many cars that look similar to a Tesla, there is only one genuine Tesla. And there is still only one Rocket.net. Why can we say this? \n\n\n\nWe have built our platform from the start with an Edge-first mentality due to years and years of extensive Edge experience. Since launching, Rocket.net has been honing what’s arguably the most robust and flexible integration with Cloudflare Enterprise. \n\n\n\nMaking Cloudflare Enterprise Work Is More Than Turning On A Switch\n\n\n\nThere is more to our implementation of Cloudflare Enterprise than simply proxying a site through it. \n\n\n\nFor Rocket.net, the stack starts with WordPress itself. WooCommerce, themes, plugins, third party integrations- all of them require custom rules to work properly. Simply enabling even the best CDN available is not enough. The whole system has to be tuned in order to benefit- and that\u2019s what Rocket.net has been doing since day one.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTo further the point, the only way to make full use of Cloudflare Enterprise and the Edge is to control delivery end-to-end with heavily optimized and tuned origins. This level of control allows us to provide something that our competitors cannot: sub-100ms TTFB worldwide and a fine-tuned experience for our customers with zero configuration required.\n\n\n\nSecurity, Security, and more Security!\n\n\n\nControlling the end-to-end delivery also allows us to enhance security far beyond the Cloudflare Enterprise WAF. The Cloudflare Enterprise WAF is an amazing product, but it only protects web traffic. What about FTP, SFTP, and other protocols? I’m glad you asked!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWith every host node running Imunify360, Rocket.net gives our customers yet another layer of protection with more granular WAF rules (including real-time updates to these rules to protect from 0day exploits like the recent Elementor debacle) and real-time malware scanning. \n\n\n\nRocket.net has years of experience dealing with the struggles of providing CDN and WAF services for WordPress from behind the scenes. This puts us in an excellent position because we know exactly how to solve these problems.\n\n\n\n\n“If Cloudflare Enterprise isn’t an add-on or feature, then what is your USP?”\n\n\n\n\nSimple – Customer Experience!\n\n\n\nRocket.net is far from just a hosting company. We’ve built a true SaaS platform that specializes in WordPress. Not only is everything modernly built with a developer friendly API-first approach, but we’re constantly adding new features based on customer feedback.\n\n\n\nThe Rocket.net Customer Experience\n\n\n\nSomething I’ve always stood behind in my career is whatever we build has to be easy. No CTO in the world will ever get frustrated for something being too easy (don’t worry CTOs we have APIs, CLI tools and all kinds of fun stuff for you too), but a blogger might get confused and frustrated when presented with a complex experience. \n\n\n\nLess clicking, more creating\n\n\n\nAfter creating your Rocket.net account, it takes just a few clicks and about 45 seconds to launch your first WordPress site. The best part? It’s already accelerated and secured off the get go on a fully functional Rocket.net URL, allowing you to immediately start creating. \n\n\n\nIf you have an existing site, just let our team of experts know, and we’ll have everything cloned to your Rocket.net temporary URL within minutes of creating your account. \n\n\n\nRocket.net Control Panel – Powerful yet Simple and Intuitive to use\n\n\n\nOnce situated, everything you could ever need to manage your WordPress site(s) is at your fingertips in our hand crafted customer-oriented control panel. From CDN, WAF, and activity reporting to plugin, theme, and backup management – you’re always a few clicks away from everything. \n\n\n\nPower Without Complexity\n\n\n\nWhile it’s true that things like Cloudflare Enterprise and security are important, it’s also very hard to configure and understand. That’s why we’ve built everything from the ground up with an always-on and zero configuration required mentality to make things as easy as possible.\n\n\n\nWith our speed and security problems solved, it allows us to focus where it really counts – bettering our customers day to day experience with their business otherwise known as Product Development.\n\n\n\nCustomers asked for them, and we’ve provided features like Image Resizing, Smart Caching, and WordPress Activity Logging. Just like the rest of our platform, all of these features are simple, easy to use, and pre-configured. After all, what good are all of those features if they are make life more complicated than it needs to be?\n\n\n\nWhat if I need help?\n\n\n\nNow that’s where we really shine! For our team, “Industry Leading Support” isn’t just some buzzword we throw around to try to sound trendy. Instead, it describes who we are as a company. You can think of it as a mission statement and a description all in one- why? Because a Rocket.net, there’s one thing we have that you won’t find at a traditional hosting type of company: cold hard experience. Several members of our team have over twenty years of hosting experience, lending a perspective and quality to support that can’t be had any other way. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOur support staff experience ranges from developer level troubleshooting to customer service experts who elevate Rocket.net\u2019s 24×7 Technical Support and Customer Service well past competitive. Our Support is in itself an industry leader, and we\u2019ve written entire blog posts on the subject that you can read – How Rocket.net Raises The Bar For The Best WordPress Hosting Support In The Industry.\n\n\n\nMore Than Just Hosting: Service!\n\n\n\nThese features, optimizations, and forward thinking innovations are the reason that Rocket.net has been and will continue to be a leader in the Managed WordPress space. We’ve left traditional web hosting in the past, and elevated into a new level of technology and customer service that one can only find in the SaaS realm.\n\n\n\nSeeing other hosts adding Cloudflare Enterprise to their line-up of addons only proves that Rocket.net is more competitive than ever. We’re glad that other companies are starting to see the value of an Edge-first approach that’s being taken by Rocket.net, because it’ll raise the bar in the WordPress space overall, and that can only be of a benefit for all.\n\n\n\nIn the end however, there is, and will ever be, only one Rocket.net. We’ll be here to help you elevate your WordPress experience too.", "date_published": "2022-04-21T14:57:00+00:00", "date_modified": "2023-05-12T17:45:44+00:00", "authors": [ { "name": "Jeff Trumble", "url": "https://rocket.net/author/jeff-trumble/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bd1daa25bd1ce58afd607da007b6210?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "Jeff Trumble", "url": "https://rocket.net/author/jeff-trumble/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bd1daa25bd1ce58afd607da007b6210?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CF-Enterprise-Edge-min.jpg", "tags": [ "WordPress Hosting", "Web Hosting" ] }, { "id": "https://rocket.net/2021/07/15/this-rocket-ship-just-got-a-whole-lot-faster/", "url": "https://rocket.net/blog/this-rocket-ship-just-got-a-whole-lot-faster/", "title": "This Rocket ship just got a whole lot faster!", "content_html": "\nWhen we launched Rocket.net, we set out to create the world’s fastest, most secure, and easiest to use platform on the planet. While we’ve always used Enterprise hardware behind our Cloudflare Enterprise edge setup, I’m excited to share that we’ve made some major improvements to further enhance performance on Rocket.net.
\n\n\n\nWhen we initially launched Rocket.net, we used the following Enterprise server configuration:
\n\n\n\n2 x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2667 v2 @ 3.30GHz (32 Cores)
128GB RAM
RAIDED SSD Hard Drives
Now, since the beginning, we’ve constantly been benchmarking our platform vs the competition and cloud platforms in general.
\n\n\n\nUsing common methods available on the web, we started to compare things ranging from CPU utilization, to disk speed.
\n\n\n\nHere is an example of our READS and WRITES on the Gen 1 Rocket.net configuration directly hitting the filesystem:
\n\n\n\nWrite Speed
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 5.11571 s, 210 MB/s
Read Speed
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 0.340014 s, 3.2 GB/s
WP Benchmark Plugin Results
\n\n\n\n![\"image](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image.png\" "\\"This")
Now, the above write speed may seem low, but generally speaking hosting is majority reads vs write. With our server fleet only seeing 5-10% of traffic total, we were still light years ahead of the competition… at least we thought.
\n\n\n\nWhile we thought we performed extremely well compared to the rest, we really needed to have an unbiased third party take a crack at testing the platform.
\n\n\n\nAbout 8 months ago, we decided to partake in the world-renowned speed tests held by Kevin Ohashi and Reviewsignal.com. Now, your first thought may be “they’re just trying to use Reviewsigal’s report to sell more WordPress hosting”… but I can assure you it’s much more than that for us.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nI’ve always said, at Rocket.net we’re never “done” when it comes to our performance and security. When we launched over one year ago, according to our customers we had the fastest WordPress hosting on the planet…. almost.
\n
When it comes to running static websites, we have a 90-98% cache hit ratio on Cloudflare, but we all know not all websites are static. We still have some incredible cache hit ratios for dynamic sites like WooCommerce, as well as great server performance, but great just doesn’t cut it for me.
\n\n\n\nAfter receiving Top Tier status in Kevin’s tests (https://wphostingbenchmarks.com/company/rocket-net/), we were able to really dive into where we still fell short against the rest on server-side performance.
\n\n\n\nAfter analyzing the test results, everything aligned perfectly with our previous findings. Our bottleneck was not CPU or RAM… but it was disk I/O! This means 5-10% of our traffic (aka dynamic requests) were receiving a subpar experience, while the static websites were receiving the best experience.
\n\n\n\nWe had two options:
\n\n\n\nAdd more SSD’s and change our RAID configuration
or
Switch to NVMe drives
So we got to work and did some testing. As I’m sure you already know, the winner by far was NVMe. With the same CPU and RAM configuration, we were able to achieve the following results:
\n\n\n\nWrite Speed
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 0.685464 s, 1.6 GB/s
Read Speed
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 0.160424 s, 6.7 GB/s
WP Benchmark Plugin Results
\n\n\n\n![\"image](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image-2-1024x826.png\" "\\"This")
As you can see above, we had a 661% increase in write speed and a 109% increase in read speed directly on the filesystem. When in came to the WP Benchmark tests, we saw:
\n\n\n\n1152.54% increase in File System Write Ability
1331.25% increase in Small file IO test
8.7% increase in Local file copy and access speed (expected because of the RAID on both setups)
1.7 second faster Importing large amount of data to database
Now, the above numbers may not seem all that impressive for NVMe storage when it comes to the direct file system results, but there’s a reason for that.
\n\n\n\nWe have our NVMe drives setup in a RAID configuration to ensure maximum reliability and we also have real-time malware scanning happening on every single file write to the system as well as every single PHP request.
\n\n\n\nBased on these results, we’re able to provide a MAJOR improvement to our disk performance when it comes to PHP and WordPress.
\n\n\n\nWe’ll be rolling out the Gen 2 configurations in every location as we continue to add capacity. In the mean-time, if you would like to test the NVMe storage, you can do so by deploying your sites in our Atlanta location.
\n\n\n\nKeep in mind, if your site is a static website, it’s unlikely that you’ll notice a difference in performance. This improvement is really meant for highly dynamic sites like WooCommerce, Learndash, and any other sites requiring dynamic requests.
\n\n\n", "content_text": "When we launched Rocket.net, we set out to create the world’s fastest, most secure, and easiest to use platform on the planet. While we’ve always used Enterprise hardware behind our Cloudflare Enterprise edge setup, I’m excited to share that we’ve made some major improvements to further enhance performance on Rocket.net.\n\n\n\nInitial deployment and testing\n\n\n\nWhen we initially launched Rocket.net, we used the following Enterprise server configuration:\n\n\n\n2 x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2667 v2 @ 3.30GHz (32 Cores)128GB RAMRAIDED SSD Hard Drives\n\n\n\nNow, since the beginning, we’ve constantly been benchmarking our platform vs the competition and cloud platforms in general. \n\n\n\nUsing common methods available on the web, we started to compare things ranging from CPU utilization, to disk speed. \n\n\n\nHere is an example of our READS and WRITES on the Gen 1 Rocket.net configuration directly hitting the filesystem:\n\n\n\nWrite Speed1024+0 records in1024+0 records out1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 5.11571 s, 210 MB/s\n\n\n\nRead Speed1024+0 records in1024+0 records out1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 0.340014 s, 3.2 GB/s\n\n\n\nWP Benchmark Plugin Results\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNow, the above write speed may seem low, but generally speaking hosting is majority reads vs write. With our server fleet only seeing 5-10% of traffic total, we were still light years ahead of the competition… at least we thought.\n\n\n\nTime to get some external testing!\n\n\n\nWhile we thought we performed extremely well compared to the rest, we really needed to have an unbiased third party take a crack at testing the platform. \n\n\n\nAbout 8 months ago, we decided to partake in the world-renowned speed tests held by Kevin Ohashi and Reviewsignal.com. Now, your first thought may be “they’re just trying to use Reviewsigal’s report to sell more WordPress hosting”… but I can assure you it’s much more than that for us.\n\n\n\n\nI’ve always said, at Rocket.net we’re never “done” when it comes to our performance and security. When we launched over one year ago, according to our customers we had the fastest WordPress hosting on the planet…. almost. \n\n\n\n\nWhen it comes to running static websites, we have a 90-98% cache hit ratio on Cloudflare, but we all know not all websites are static. We still have some incredible cache hit ratios for dynamic sites like WooCommerce, as well as great server performance, but great just doesn’t cut it for me.\n\n\n\nAfter receiving Top Tier status in Kevin’s tests (https://wphostingbenchmarks.com/company/rocket-net/), we were able to really dive into where we still fell short against the rest on server-side performance. \n\n\n\nTime for the next hardware generation at Rocket!\n\n\n\nAfter analyzing the test results, everything aligned perfectly with our previous findings. Our bottleneck was not CPU or RAM… but it was disk I/O! This means 5-10% of our traffic (aka dynamic requests) were receiving a subpar experience, while the static websites were receiving the best experience. \n\n\n\nWe had two options:\n\n\n\nAdd more SSD’s and change our RAID configurationorSwitch to NVMe drives\n\n\n\nSo we got to work and did some testing. As I’m sure you already know, the winner by far was NVMe. With the same CPU and RAM configuration, we were able to achieve the following results:\n\n\n\nWrite Speed1024+0 records in1024+0 records out 1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 0.685464 s, 1.6 GB/s\n\n\n\nRead Speed1024+0 records in1024+0 records out1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 0.160424 s, 6.7 GB/s\n\n\n\nWP Benchmark Plugin Results\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAs you can see above, we had a 661% increase in write speed and a 109% increase in read speed directly on the filesystem. When in came to the WP Benchmark tests, we saw:\n\n\n\n1152.54% increase in File System Write Ability1331.25% increase in Small file IO test8.7% increase in Local file copy and access speed (expected because of the RAID on both setups)1.7 second faster Importing large amount of data to database\n\n\n\nNow, the above numbers may not seem all that impressive for NVMe storage when it comes to the direct file system results, but there’s a reason for that.\n\n\n\nWe have our NVMe drives setup in a RAID configuration to ensure maximum reliability and we also have real-time malware scanning happening on every single file write to the system as well as every single PHP request.\n\n\n\nBased on these results, we’re able to provide a MAJOR improvement to our disk performance when it comes to PHP and WordPress. \n\n\n\nWhat’s next?\n\n\n\nWe’ll be rolling out the Gen 2 configurations in every location as we continue to add capacity. In the mean-time, if you would like to test the NVMe storage, you can do so by deploying your sites in our Atlanta location.\n\n\n\nKeep in mind, if your site is a static website, it’s unlikely that you’ll notice a difference in performance. This improvement is really meant for highly dynamic sites like WooCommerce, Learndash, and any other sites requiring dynamic requests.", "date_published": "2021-07-15T13:19:15+00:00", "date_modified": "2023-05-12T18:16:41+00:00", "authors": [ { "name": "Jeff Trumble", "url": "https://rocket.net/author/jeff-trumble/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bd1daa25bd1ce58afd607da007b6210?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "Jeff Trumble", "url": "https://rocket.net/author/jeff-trumble/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bd1daa25bd1ce58afd607da007b6210?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/NVMe-min.png", "tags": [ "WordPress Hosting", "Company Journey", "Web Hosting" ] }, { "id": "https://rocket.net/2020/12/17/should-i-use-shared-or-cloud-hosting-heres-how-to-decide/", "url": "https://rocket.net/blog/should-i-use-shared-or-cloud-hosting-heres-how-to-decide/", "title": "Should I use Shared or Cloud Hosting? Here\u2019s how to decide", "content_html": "\n![\"Frame](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Frame_10-1024x536.png\" "\\"Should")
Choosing the wrong hosting for your website is like going into space without a spacesuit. Without the proper support for your mission, your website will come crashing back down to Earth. But how do you choose which hosting is right for you? You can read about that here, but in this post, we\u2019ll go into more detail about what kind of server you should be looking for: cloud hosting or shared hosting.
\n\n\n\nA long time ago (like in the late 90s) someone figured out how they could host multiple websites from a single web server and thus “shared” host was born. In fact, a whole industry that powers most of the internet was born from websites that lived, shared, and spread out the cost everything needed to have a website on the internet.
\n\n\n\nFast-forward 20 years and technologies like Cloud Linux, cPanel & WHM, Plesk have evolved to include a more stable hosting environment, often times isolating your website and/or providing allocated resources that are not shared among other websites.
\n\n\n\nMost shared hosting includes a control panel to allow you to manage aspects of your website such as managing files, databases, applications, and e-mail, with the most common one being cPanel & WHM.
\n\n\n\n![\"Frame](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Frame_11-1024x536.png\" "\\"Should")
Cloud Hosting evolved when players like Google, Amazon & Microsoft decided they wanted into the hosting game. New providers such as Digital Ocean, Vultr, and Linode are also viable options, but what you are buying is virtual machine on their cloud platform. Utilizing their virtual storage, networking, security, data centers, containers and other technology that you pay for.
\n\n\n\nLike shared hosting this technology has evolved to the degree you can purchase cloud specific applications like WordPress and even companies like Cloudways & Gridpane offer management layers to help assist.
\n\n\n\nCloud Hosting isn’t for the average user and requires knowledge on operating systems, cloud technologies, and some understanding of how it all works to be successful.\u00a0 Cloud companies have been trying to break these barriers by offer large initial credits to attract new users, but in the end you will either need to be savvy in Cloud or have a deep desire to learn about it.\u00a0
\n\n\n\nChoosing between shared hosting and cloud isn’t as difficult as it used to be and the good news is with the evolution of hosting technology, you’ll have plenty of options to to select from. If your selection is to try Cloud, spend some time understanding it, testing it, and developing the skill sets or team you will need to manage it’s more complex and robust feature set. However, if you are seeking a solid hosting provider here are 12 tips to find the best.
\n\n\n\n![\"Frame](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Frame_12-1024x536.png\" "\\"Should")
At least 50,000 other people have asked themselves that very same question. They\u2019ve done what you\u2019re about to do, so how hard can it be? I won\u2019t bore you with generic answers; instead, here\u2019s a practical recipe that will get you from dreaming of setting up a hosting company to launching and selling services.
\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s a simple recipe with four components.
\n\n\n\nYou will need:
\n\n\n\n1 x cPanel & WHM VPS or Server ($250/month)
1 x WHMCS License ($20/month)
1 x Method of Payment
1 x Marketing Website with a domain name
You might have heard that it\u2019s best to get a reseller account, but don\u2019t forget that just with shared hosting, you\u2019ll be fighting for resources. I\u2019d suggest getting a cPanel & WHM VPS server, which allows you to automate server management. Some providers will even pre-install cPanel & WHM for you. If you\u2019re not a Linux admin, find a provider who will help you in times of need and be your cPanel & WHM expertise. If you spend $500 per month, you should be able to get something like the following:
\n\n\n\nBare metal Dedicated Server, 16-Cores, 32GB of RAM, 500GB SSD x 2, hosted in a great data center with plenty of bandwidth, IP addresses, and support. Shop around, though, and match your skill level with the service they provide. Unmanaged means you\u2019re on your own. Be ready to manage every aspect yourself.
\n\n\n\nOnce you have access to your cPanel & WHM, configure it with your private nameservers, add additional software (such as Softaclous), and define hosting packages (limit). Again, if you are not familiar with this, choosing the right provider is vital. A good managed provider will help you set things up, review your settings, and provide insight on security.
\n\n\n\n![\"Frame](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Frame_8-1024x536.png\" "\\"How")
Don\u2019t get WHMCS confused with cPanel & WHM. While they are similar, they are two completely different pieces of software. WHMCS provides an ordering, billing, and customer service solution that your clients will use to pay and interact with you.
\n\n\n\nA license will set you back about $20/month, but with it, you\u2019ll be able to do the following:
\n\n\n\nA.) Have a hosting shopping cart with whois lookup
B.) Sell domains, SSL, and other services
C.) Handle recurring payments & invoices
D.) Automate new account setups, including domain registration
E.) Provide customers with a help desk to ask questions
F.) Integrate with 100s of other providers to offer additional services
G.) Provide a login area for clients to manage everything
WHMCS is a PHP app and a straightforward install; it will also integrate directly with your cPanel & WHM server, meaning that when a client purchases a service from you, it can be automatically provisioned on your cPanel & WHM server.
\n\n\n\nIf you want to make money, you need a way for clients to pay. There are 100s of merchants out there, but two of the most straightforward options are PayPal and Stripe. You can even handle mail-in payments – there are a bunch of 3rd-party possibilities available, so the sky\u2019s the limit.
\n\n\n\n![\"Frame](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Frame_7-1024x536.png\" "\\"How")
WHMCS and most payment gateways provide test mode functionality. It\u2019s a great idea to enable it and walk through the ordering process multiple times to ensure everything fires off as expected. Imagine how sad it would be to launch, only to find out your customers can\u2019t place an order!
\n\n\n\nBefore you launch, you need a marketing website to start promoting your new services. Luckily for you, you can find hundreds of templates and themes on sites such as Template Monster & Theme Forest, so you have a good starting base.
\n\n\n\nBecause you are competing with 50,000 hosting providers, you need to stand out, develop your value proposition, harness the power of packaging, put a unique twist on your service, and go to market. If you get stuck, www.webhostingtalk.com is always a great place to hang out.
\n\n\n\nThat should give you a base for starting your own web hosting company. Have you ever thought about doing it yourself? Perhaps you already have? Share your thoughts, tips, and challenges below.
\n\n\n", "content_text": "At least 50,000 other people have asked themselves that very same question. They\u2019ve done what you\u2019re about to do, so how hard can it be? I won\u2019t bore you with generic answers; instead, here\u2019s a practical recipe that will get you from dreaming of setting up a hosting company to launching and selling services.\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s a simple recipe with four components.\n\n\n\nYou will need:\n\n\n\n1 x cPanel & WHM VPS or Server ($250/month)1 x WHMCS License ($20/month)1 x Method of Payment1 x Marketing Website with a domain name\n\n\n\nHere\u2019s how to put them together:\n\n\n\ncPanel & WHM VPS or Server\n\n\n\nYou might have heard that it\u2019s best to get a reseller account, but don\u2019t forget that just with shared hosting, you\u2019ll be fighting for resources. I\u2019d suggest getting a cPanel & WHM VPS server, which allows you to automate server management. Some providers will even pre-install cPanel & WHM for you. If you\u2019re not a Linux admin, find a provider who will help you in times of need and be your cPanel & WHM expertise. If you spend $500 per month, you should be able to get something like the following:\n\n\n\nBare metal Dedicated Server, 16-Cores, 32GB of RAM, 500GB SSD x 2, hosted in a great data center with plenty of bandwidth, IP addresses, and support. Shop around, though, and match your skill level with the service they provide. Unmanaged means you\u2019re on your own. Be ready to manage every aspect yourself.\n\n\n\nOnce you have access to your cPanel & WHM, configure it with your private nameservers, add additional software (such as Softaclous), and define hosting packages (limit). Again, if you are not familiar with this, choosing the right provider is vital. A good managed provider will help you set things up, review your settings, and provide insight on security.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWHMCS (Web Host Manager Complete Solution)\n\n\n\nDon\u2019t get WHMCS confused with cPanel & WHM. While they are similar, they are two completely different pieces of software. WHMCS provides an ordering, billing, and customer service solution that your clients will use to pay and interact with you.\n\n\n\nA license will set you back about $20/month, but with it, you\u2019ll be able to do the following:\n\n\n\nA.) Have a hosting shopping cart with whois lookupB.) Sell domains, SSL, and other servicesC.) Handle recurring payments & invoicesD.) Automate new account setups, including domain registrationE.) Provide customers with a help desk to ask questionsF.) Integrate with 100s of other providers to offer additional servicesG.) Provide a login area for clients to manage everything\n\n\n\nWHMCS is a PHP app and a straightforward install; it will also integrate directly with your cPanel & WHM server, meaning that when a client purchases a service from you, it can be automatically provisioned on your cPanel & WHM server.\n\n\n\nMethod of Payment\n\n\n\nIf you want to make money, you need a way for clients to pay. There are 100s of merchants out there, but two of the most straightforward options are PayPal and Stripe. You can even handle mail-in payments – there are a bunch of 3rd-party possibilities available, so the sky\u2019s the limit.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTest, Test, Test\n\n\n\nWHMCS and most payment gateways provide test mode functionality. It\u2019s a great idea to enable it and walk through the ordering process multiple times to ensure everything fires off as expected. Imagine how sad it would be to launch, only to find out your customers can\u2019t place an order!\n\n\n\nMarketing Website\n\n\n\nBefore you launch, you need a marketing website to start promoting your new services. Luckily for you, you can find hundreds of templates and themes on sites such as Template Monster & Theme Forest, so you have a good starting base. \n\n\n\nBecause you are competing with 50,000 hosting providers, you need to stand out, develop your value proposition, harness the power of packaging, put a unique twist on your service, and go to market. If you get stuck, www.webhostingtalk.com is always a great place to hang out.\n\n\n\nThat should give you a base for starting your own web hosting company. Have you ever thought about doing it yourself? Perhaps you already have? Share your thoughts, tips, and challenges below.", "date_published": "2020-12-04T11:09:28+00:00", "date_modified": "2023-05-12T18:29:09+00:00", "authors": [ { "name": "Jeff Trumble", "url": "https://rocket.net/author/jeff-trumble/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bd1daa25bd1ce58afd607da007b6210?s=512&d=mm&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "Jeff Trumble", "url": "https://rocket.net/author/jeff-trumble/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bd1daa25bd1ce58afd607da007b6210?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Frame_6.png", "tags": [ "HostingService", "Web Hosting", "wordpress", "WordpressHosting", "WordpressWebsites" ] }, { "id": "https://rocket.net/2020/11/27/how-do-i-choose-the-best-web-hosting-service/", "url": "https://rocket.net/blog/how-do-i-choose-the-best-web-hosting-service/", "title": "How do I choose the best web hosting service?", "content_html": "\n![\"0F8CA4BB](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/0F8CA4BB-2C9B-473B-99EE-4468F8B51254-1024x536.png\" "\\"How")
Repeat after me: if my hosting provider costs less than 5% of my phone bill, I shouldn\u2019t expect out-of-this-world service. Don\u2019t be that person who pays $100 per month for good coverage for a single cell phone but blows a fuse when their $4/month hosting goes down for 30 minutes.
\n\n\n\nHigh-standard hosting comes at a price, and it isn\u2019t always easy to find. But Josip Radan of Rocket.net is here to guide you through the asteroid field that is the web hosting market to help you find hosting that fits your website and has your back. Read on for his advice.
\n\n\n\nLet\u2019s start with the basics. Any novice cybernaut knows that one of the first things you need is a domain name. Once you\u2019ve got that, and you\u2019ve chosen which platform to launch your website from, you need hosting to get it online. Here\u2019s how to find a web hosting provider that you can rely on and won\u2019t disappear like a shooting star at the first sign of trouble.
\n\n\n\nDon\u2019t think for one minute that typing it into Google will help. Most results are pay-to-play affiliate sites trying to pull you into their orbit with $4/month hosting, empty promises, and promotions. Their gravity\u2019s pretty strong, but, at least in this case, resistance isn\u2019t futile.
\n\n\n\nStart your mission someplace like hostadvice.com, which has reviews of many providers. Find 10-20 providers that pique your interest and do brand-specific searches using resources such as Reddit, TrustPilot, and Web Hosting Talk.
\n\n\n\nWhen searching for the perfect domain name, you\u2019ll be tempted by offers that are almost too good to refuse. This will include promotions for free domains, bundled hosting, and your first year at a low introductory rate. That product could well renew at an astronomical price. You might even be forced to purchase extra privacy options so your inbox isn\u2019t inundated with spambot alien invaders.
\n\n\n\nI prefer to pay a few extra dollars (and I mean $2-3) to have full privacy, ownership, and control of my domain. At Rocket.net, we also offer an all-in-one service for WordPress, so you\u2019re completely in control, security is included and our mission experts are always on hand if you get stuck.
\n\n\n\n![\"21BDF16C](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/21BDF16C-DA8D-4D41-87D7-F45F437B790A-1024x536.png\" "\\"How")
Some days, it feels as though there are as many web hosting services as there are stars in space. But as we know, some stars shine brighter than others. Here\u2019s how to tell them apart, find the ones that suit you, and make the final choice.
\n\n\n\nThink about your website\u2019s purpose, and what your requirements are for a web hosting provider. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
\n\n\n\nAs you do more research, you might add to these questions. Developing your list is the final piece of your puzzle, and Google is not the answer. The top search results across most search engines are dominated by affiliates who want to suck you into a black hole of reviews, ads, and healthy commissions from the hosting they advertise.
\n\n\n\n![\"BC3E3633](\"https://rocket.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/BC3E3633-29F4-4B34-89BF-D578A9AFD3BF-1024x536.png\" "\\"How")
Once you have concrete answers to the above questions, start your research. While typing \u201cwhat\u2019s the best hosting for WordPress\u201d into Google is counterproductive, there are other ways to find the most suitable hosting for your website. Here are a few to try:
\n\n\n\nThe above should give you a satellite view of the brands you have previously selected and allow you to narrow them down to 2-3 providers. Check out their social media, live chat with them, and start asking them your predefined questions.
\n\n\n\nFinding the right web hosting involves more than just typing \u201chosting\u201d into Google. Suppose you\u2019re serious about making your website work. In that case, you have to be down-to-Earth about your expectations, budget, and requirements. Follow the above, and your website will be ready for blastoff in no time.
\n\n\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re tempted to try an all-in-one web hosting provider for WordPress with multiple pricing plans and out-of-this-world customer service, click here to blast off with Rocket.net today.
Are you really happy with your current WordPress hosting provider? If they aren’t there for you when you really need it (like when your website breaks) and don’t respond to help right away, it might be time to think about changing who you trust your site with. Whether you have a single website or manage multiple WordPress sites, changing your hosting provider is a cinch and you should demand more from your web hosting company!
\n\n\n\nWelcome to the Rocket.net galaxy. Here\u2019s our rundown on hassle-free migration to help you to move your website with a hosting company that takes the time to understand your business needs and ready to ‘step up’ when something does come up.
\n\n\n\nThere are lots of reasons to change your hosting provider. Perhaps you need to streamline your hosting. If you\u2019re an agency managing multiple WordPress sites, having them floating all over cyberspace is a nightmare. You waste time having to remember hundreds of passwords and visiting a different provider\u2019s login screen every time you want to tweak something. The Rocket control panel makes it easy to manage your website with a simple and powerful interface every time you login into your account.
\n\n\n\nYou should never take our word for it either, read the Rocket.net TrustPilot Reviews from our other happy clients and know you are in good company.
\n\n\n\nYour customers deserve reliable service. With one hosting provider, you offer consistency of service to all of your clients. Additionally, if your hosting provider seems to disappear every time you need help, it\u2019s time to find a new one.
\n\n\n\nRocket.net offers a fast and money-back WordPress migration service. There are no strings attached, as you have 30 days to claim your money back if you\u2019re not satisfied. Rocket offers free WordPress migrations that you can rely on without breaking your website.
\n\n\n\nRocket prides itself on providing the best customer support, founder and CEO Ben Gabler has 20 years of industry experience and always willing to help with anything your need. Don’t look for a good WordPress hosting company, it’s time to meet the best WordPress hosting company that’s willing to go the extra mile and make sure you are always taken care of.
\n\n\n\nIt couldn\u2019t be simpler to migrate your WordPress website(s) to Rocket.net\u2019s streamlined hosting. Here\u2019s your mission:
\n\n\n\nHere are just a few benefits that Rocket.net\u2019s WordPress migration service offers:
\n\n\n\nOur team of experts is standing by. Most website owners have switched hosting providers multiple times over the history of their site. We\u2019re confident that you won\u2019t look back once you make the switch to Rocket.net.
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The best customer support 24/7, super fast speed, ease-of-use, and access to top tools and industry-leading resources should always come standard. We\u2019re revolutionizing the way your WordPress site gets served up to the world, and we look forward to partnering with you in growing your business.