When doing speed optimization projects, I often hear clients ask which plugin is better — FlyingPress or WP Rocket?
That shouldn’t come as a surprise, as when it comes to premium solutions for optimizing WordPress websites, the debate often boils down to FlyingPress vs WP Rocket. Both plugins aim to speed up sites, enhance user experience, and improve Core Web Vitals.
But which one delivers better results?
In this detailed comparison, we’ll dive into the features, performance, real-world tests, and pricing of the latest versions of FlyingPress and WP Rocket to help you make an informed choice.
Overview of FlyingPress and WP Rocket
VS
FlyingPress and WP Rocket are two top-tier caching plugins designed to supercharge WordPress performance. While they share a similar goal—making your website faster—each plugin has its strengths, and choosing the right one depends on your website’s specific needs and the amount of grease elbow you are willing to invest.
- FlyingPress is known for its lightweight design, advanced image optimization, and seamless integration with FlyingCDN (CloudFlare Enterprise). This combination can result in significant speed improvements, especially for sites with a global audience.
- WP Rocket, on the other hand, is the veteran in the caching space, offering a user-friendly interface with a robust set of features that work out of the box. Its widespread adoption is a testament to its reliability and performance.
It’s worth mentioning that if you are not a technical person who don’t understand WordPress CMS, and you’d like to get the most out of these plugins, you’ll need to consult or hire someone who does (for a speed optimization project).
Detailed Feature Comparison — FlyingPress vs WP Rocket
This table should give you a clear and up-to-date comparison of both plugins, making it easier to see which aligns best with your needs.
Caching and Preloading
- WP Rocket: Offers comprehensive page caching and preloading capabilities. It can delay JavaScript execution and remove unused CSS to optimize page speed effortlessly. Its database optimization tools help keep things tidy and efficient.
Often its easier to use, and works out-of-the-box, and their community/support will help if you get stack. - FlyingPress: Focuses on lightweight and efficient caching. It allows for advanced control over JS delays and lazy loading settings, providing fine-tuned optimizations.
When paired with FlyingCDN, it preloads pages globally, resulting in better performance for international visitors.
Image Optimization
- FlyingPress: Excels in image optimization with FlyingCDN, serving images in WebP format and compressing them on the fly. This reduces image sizes significantly, contributing to faster load times.
- WP Rocket: Offers lazy loading for images and videos and integrates well with third-party image optimization plugins like ShortPixel or Imagify. However, their CDN of choice — RocketCDN is subpar to Cloudflare Enterprise CDN.
Ease of Use
- WP Rocket: Known for its user-friendly interface and automatic optimizations, making it ideal for those who want quick results without deep technical knowledge. At least until you get stuck, then you’ll have to learn a bit more, or ask community/support to help you. Which they gladly will.
- FlyingPress: Offers more customization options for those who want granular control over performance settings. It’s straightforward for a technical person but may require more setup time for optimal results.
Pricing
- WP Rocket is a premium plugin with different pricing tiers depending on the number of sites you want to use it on. Starting point is $59/year for a single license. And additional price tag on their RocketCDN of $8.99/site/month.
- FlyingPress also comes with a premium price tag of $49/year for a single website, but is competitively priced against WP Rocket. Its license includes access to all features, and it integrates seamlessly with FlyingCDN, although using FlyingCDN comes with an additional cost of $5/100GB/site/month.
IRC it was more expensive then WP Rocket in the past, but it has lower its price since the last year. Certainly, in an effort to grab a bigger market share, something we as end users can only salute to.
Pricing Comparison — FlyingPress vs WP Rocket
In the past WP Rocket was known to provide a Black Friday discounts. Will FlyingPress respond? We’ll find out soon enough.
Black Friday offers
In this BF (valid until November 30, 2024), WP Rocket is 40% off this year (check the image above).
The FlyingPress responded with its first-ever Black Friday sale (30% off), running from November 26th to December 2nd.
If you were contemplating about getting one of them, now’s your chance!
Latest Features of FlyingPress and WP Rocket (2024 Updates)
Their list of features continuously evolve, and as FlyingPress was historically faster to issue new functionality, WP Rocket with it’s last major versions (3.16 and 3.17) added some long awaited improvements (Preloading of LCP and Automatic lazy rendering).
WP Rocket 3.17.x Highlights
- Lazy Render Content: Automatically optimizes how content is rendered, improving load times for complex pages.
- Enhanced Database Optimizations: Improves how database tables are managed, reducing resource usage.
- Updated Action Scheduler: Better scheduling for background tasks, ensuring smoother plugin performance.
- Bug Fixes: Addressed issues with CSS LazyLoad for Safari and fixed various compatibility problems with themes.
FlyingPress 4.9.0 Highlights
- Cache Purging Strategy: More efficient cache management ensures faster load times after content updates.
- Improved Compatibility: Enhanced integration with Perfmatters, EWWW Image Optimizer, and ShortPixel.
- Advanced Image Optimization: Supports serving WebP images through FlyingCDN, reducing image sizes without sacrificing quality.
- Cloudflare Enterprise Integration: Through FlyingCDN, it offers edge caching for global performance, minimizing latency for international users
Key Updates:
- WP Rocket’s Automatic Lazy Rendering and Preload LCP Image are now available in recent versions, ensuring that large images are loaded only when needed, improving LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) metrics.
- FlyingPress excels with its integration with FlyingCDN, offering edge-caching through Cloudflare Enterprise, which is particularly effective for globally distributed audiences.
So, as you can observe, both are quite busy issuing new features and capabilities.
Conclusion: FlyingPress vs WP Rocket
When comparing FlyingPress and WP Rocket, both plugins deliver significant performance improvements for WordPress sites, but each caters to different needs.
To say which one is clearly better is an impossible task, as both keep evolving over time. And they are close enough to make this one a close call.
- FlyingPress is ideal for users looking for a lightweight solution with a focus on detailed performance control. Its integration with FlyingCDN (powered by Cloudflare Enterprise) allows for optimized global content delivery, making it particularly effective for sites with international audiences.
Furthermore, it excels in flexibility and advanced optimizations, making it a solid choice for those who prioritize maximum control over speed improvements.
- WP Rocket stands out for its ease of use and comprehensive feature set. It offers seamless configuration and immediate performance boosts, making it a go-to choice for beginners and those who prefer a “set it and forget it” solution.
With RocketCDN (leveraging BunnyCDN) as an option, it provides a robust combination of speed and simplicity, suitable for sites that want a straightforward setup without diving into too many details.
Ultimately, I feel that your decision between FlyingPress and WP Rocket should depend on your website’s specific needs, technical comfort level, and budget.
Both plugins offer excellent support, regular updates, and the ability to improve page load times, ensuring a better user experience and higher search engine rankings.
For users focused on maximum control and global performance, FlyingPress may be the better choice due to its better CDN, while WP Rocket shines as a versatile, user-friendly option for those seeking a hassle-free setup with great results.
They truly are an excellent choice for speeding up your website.
Both offer a 14-day money-back guarantee, so if you are on the fence, nothing stops you from trying them both. And they are the current pinnacle of speed optimization premium plugins.
And if you are on the LiteSpeed server, I’d recommend LiteSpeed Cache as another worthy opponent to these two. You can read more about it and a little bit more on WP Rocket and FlyingPress on our 3-best-caching-plugins-for-wordpress article.
TLDR; Key Takeaway
- FlyingPress is a great choice for users looking for maximum speed and control, especially when paired with FlyingCDN. It excels in scenarios where image optimization and edge caching are vital.
- WP Rocket provides a smoother setup experience with excellent out-of-the-box optimizations. It’s a solid option for those who want reliable performance improvements without the need for detailed configuration.
If you got all the way down here, you probably know that having an ultimate cache plugin doesn’t mean much if your web host is inadequate, and you might appreciate our WordPress Hosting Services Compared article.
FAQ
Both plugins are suitable, but FlyingPress has an edge with faster logged-in user caching, which can be beneficial for eCommerce stores with many returning customers. WP Rocket also offers great support for WooCommerce, making it a reliable choice.
Yes, both can be used independently. However, CDN enhances its performance by reducing latency and improving image delivery, and I’d recommend it if you have a broader audience.
WP Rocket has a larger user base and more established support channels. Their Facebook channel can be very helpfull.
FlyingPress, while smaller, provides responsive support and frequent updates, especially for users who need tailored optimizations.
Use the one that suits your needs better. If one don’t work well with your website, and you haven’t been able to set it up properly despite supports help — try another. They both have 14-days money guarantee.
Besides that — use the cheaper one.
Disclaimer: This is NOT a paid article; no one paid me for it. However, this article may contain affiliate links that help WPservice.pro, and you may get a discount.
Founder of WPservice.pro
Dalibor is a master of web excellence. With a Bachelor of Science (BS) in civil engineering, Dalibor had an unusual road to end up in IT. Cultivating deep expertise in WordPress website speed optimization, meticulous maintenance, development, and search engine optimization (SEO) while preserving his engineering approach to problem-solving.
Having completed over 90 projects and achieved a top-rated status (on Upwork) in the highly competitive digital niche, Dalibor is a proper authority on enhancing performance and ensuring websites look exceptional and perform flawlessly.
Dalibor is a published writer and an avid learner who continually explores and embraces the latest digital trends. With a commitment to quality and a keen eye for detail, Dalibor is your trusted guide to achieving web success.