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Cloudways vs Rocket.net: General-Purpose Platform or WordPress-Only Specialist

Rocket.net is a premium WordPress-only host bundling enterprise CDN into every plan. Cloudways is a general-purpose managed platform across multiple clouds and stacks. Real pricing on both sides, checked directly - no declared winner.

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The 30-second answer

CHOICEA'S PICK

Cloudways starts at $11/month (1GB RAM) and runs WordPress, Laravel, Magento, or custom PHP across your choice of DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, or Google Cloud. Rocket.net starts at $25/month, is WordPress-only, and bundles an enterprise-grade CDN plus a stated 99.99% uptime SLA into every plan without a separate infrastructure choice. Neither is a straight upgrade of the other - Rocket.net is a narrower, more specialized WordPress product; Cloudways is a broader, multi-stack platform.

BEST FOR

  • You run WordPress exclusively, with no plans to run anything else.
  • You want a premium CDN and a stated uptime SLA bundled by default without configuring it yourself.
  • You're comfortable paying a higher entry price for a narrower, more specialized product.

ALTERNATIVE / if your situation is different

  • You want to choose your own underlying cloud provider, or already have a preference.
  • You run (or might run) something other than WordPress — Magento, Laravel, or a custom PHP application.
  • You want the lower entry price and are comfortable configuring CDN and some performance features as separate steps rather than having them bundled by default.
  • You're not sure Cloudways is the right category at all yet — see [Who Should (and Shouldn't) Use Cloudways](/articles/should-you-use-cloudways/) for that upstream decision first.

What to check next: Check Cloudways' DigitalOcean-based plans

Most content comparing Cloudways and Rocket.net treats them as two competing answers to the same question — "which managed WordPress host is better?" That framing misses a real structural difference: Rocket.net is a WordPress-only specialist with a fixed, bundled infrastructure stack; Cloudways is a general-purpose managed platform that happens to run WordPress well, alongside Laravel, Magento, or custom PHP, across a choice of underlying cloud providers. This page checks both vendors' current pricing directly and lays out that structural fork rather than picking a winner.

Two different bets on what a "premium host" should be

Rocket.net's bet: bundle a premium CDN, caching, and a stated uptime SLA into every plan by default, in exchange for being WordPress-only with no infrastructure choice — you get exactly the stack Rocket.net has built, tuned specifically for WordPress performance.

Cloudways' bet: let you choose your underlying cloud provider (DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, or Google Cloud Engine) and run more than WordPress on the same account, in exchange for CDN and some performance features being separate add-ons rather than bundled at every tier by default.

Neither bet is objectively better — they're optimized for different buyers, which is why a single "winner" verdict misrepresents the actual decision.

Pricing — checked directly on both sides

Cloudways' cheapest Flexible plan (DigitalOcean-based "DO1GB" tier), confirmed directly on cloudways.com/en/managed-digital-ocean-hosting.php, checked 2026-08-26: $11/month for 1GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 25GB storage, 1TB bandwidth. Cloudways also offers a WordPress-specific Autonomous line starting at $99/mo (Growth tier) with autoscaling. Full tier ladder in Cloudways Pricing Explained.

Rocket.net's cheapest plan ("Starter"), confirmed directly on rocket.net/pricing, checked 2026-08-26: $25/month for 1 WordPress install, 10GB storage, 50GB bandwidth, a stated 99.99% uptime SLA, and 30-day backup retention. The next tier up ("Pro") is $50/month for 3 installs, 20GB storage, 100GB bandwidth — same SLA and backup terms. Rocket.net's pricing page shows every tier at the same 99.99% SLA and 30-day retention regardless of plan size, which is a real, checkable consistency across the whole lineup.

Rocket.net is roughly 2.3x Cloudways' entry price for a single WordPress site — but the two aren't pricing the same bundle, which the next section covers.

What Rocket.net bundles into every plan

Confirmed directly on rocket.net/pricing, checked 2026-08-26: every Rocket.net tier, from Starter to Enterprise, carries the same 99.99% uptime SLA and 30-day backup retention — these aren't reserved for higher tiers. Rocket.net's own homepage (checked the same day) states an "Enterprise CDN" is included and pre-configured on every plan, without naming the specific CDN vendor on that page.

This matters as a real structural point: Cloudways doesn't publish a blanket uptime SLA figure across all its plans the way Rocket.net does on its own pricing page — we did not find an equivalent stated percentage on Cloudways' pricing pages during this check, so we're not asserting Cloudways lacks one, only that we couldn't confirm a directly comparable published number to set against Rocket.net's stated 99.99%.

What Cloudways offers that Rocket.net structurally can't

Rocket.net's plans are described in WordPress-install counts, not server resources — there's no path to running a non-WordPress application on a Rocket.net plan based on its own current pricing page. Cloudways, by contrast, supports Laravel, Magento, and general PHP applications on the same Flexible infrastructure (see Cloudways for Magento and Cloudways vs Laravel Forge vs Laravel Cloud for two examples), and lets you choose which cloud provider your server actually runs on. If your roadmap includes anything beyond WordPress, or you have a preference about underlying infrastructure, that's a Cloudways-shaped need Rocket.net's current lineup doesn't address.

What's reported, but not confirmed on Rocket.net's own site

Multiple independent third-party reviews (not Rocket.net's own marketing pages) consistently describe Rocket.net's infrastructure as running on Google Cloud Platform's network with Cloudflare Enterprise as the CDN layer. We could not find Rocket.net's own site explicitly naming these vendors on the pages checked for this article (2026-08-26) — the homepage references an "Enterprise CDN" without naming the provider. We're reporting this as third-party-sourced, not confirmed, rather than treating repeated blog claims as equivalent to a primary-source statement. Similarly, some third-party content describes higher Rocket.net tiers as offering "unmetered" visits, which doesn't appear as a labeled figure next to the specific bandwidth-in-GB numbers on Rocket.net's own pricing page for the Starter/Pro tiers checked directly here — if unmetered-visit language matters to your decision, confirm the exact current wording directly on Rocket.net's pricing page for the specific tier you're considering.

Who Rocket.net fits

  • You run WordPress exclusively, with no plans to run anything else.
  • You want a premium CDN and a stated uptime SLA bundled by default without configuring it yourself.
  • You're comfortable paying a higher entry price for a narrower, more specialized product.

Who Cloudways fits

  • You want to choose your own underlying cloud provider, or already have a preference.
  • You run (or might run) something other than WordPress — Magento, Laravel, or a custom PHP application.
  • You want the lower entry price and are comfortable configuring CDN and some performance features as separate steps rather than having them bundled by default.
  • You're not sure Cloudways is the right category at all yet — see Who Should (and Shouldn't) Use Cloudways for that upstream decision first.

Alternatives

If you're comparing Cloudways against a different WordPress-only specialist rather than Rocket.net specifically, see Cloudways vs Kinsta or Cloudways vs WP Engine — both cover the same general "multi-stack platform vs. WordPress-only specialist" fork with different competitors.

If this option fits you

Check Cloudways' DigitalOcean-based plans

PR / This link goes to our partner's official site (affiliate link). We may earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you. Pricing and promotions may change — please check the official site for current terms.

FAQ

Is Rocket.net built on Google Cloud Platform?

Multiple independent third-party reviews say yes, but we could not confirm this directly on Rocket.net's own pricing or homepage pages as checked for this article (2026-08-26) — treat it as widely reported, not vendor-confirmed here.

Does Cloudways offer the same 99.99% uptime SLA as Rocket.net?

We did not find a directly comparable, blanket uptime SLA percentage published on Cloudways' own pricing pages during this check. This isn't a claim that Cloudways lacks one — only that we couldn't verify an equivalent published figure to compare against Rocket.net's stated 99.99%.

Can I run anything besides WordPress on Rocket.net?

Not based on Rocket.net's own current pricing page, which describes every tier by WordPress install count. Cloudways supports WordPress, Laravel, Magento, and general PHP applications on the same infrastructure.

Does CHOICEA have an affiliate relationship with Rocket.net?

No. This comparison carries a Cloudways CTA only; the pricing and structural facts above were checked directly against both vendors regardless of that relationship.

Sources

  • cloudways.com/en/managed-digital-ocean-hosting.php — Cloudways DO1GB entry-tier pricing, fetched directly and checked 2026-08-26
  • rocket.net/pricing — Rocket.net tier pricing, uptime SLA, and backup retention figures, fetched directly and checked 2026-08-26
  • rocket.net homepage — "Enterprise CDN" bundling claim, fetched directly and checked 2026-08-26
  • Third-party reviews (not primary-sourced, reported as such in this article): elementor.com/blog/rocket-net-alternatives, wp-umbrella.com/blog/rocket-net, jesscreatives.com/blog/rocket-net-hosting — Google Cloud Platform / Cloudflare Enterprise infrastructure claims, checked 2026-08-26
  • CHOICEA's own Cloudways Pricing Explained and Who Should (and Shouldn't) Use Cloudways — referenced here rather than re-derived

Checked at: 2026-08-26. Both vendors' pricing, bundled features, and infrastructure change — confirm current terms directly before deciding, especially any SLA or CDN details that mattered to your decision.