In-depth Managed WordPress Hosting Review With Kinsta
This Kinsta review is my first managed hosting review for 2019 and the stakes are high because I don’t want to disappoint you in anyway possible. This post is going to be long and I recommend you to bookmark this post for future references.
If you are looking for answers for “What makes Kinsta different from other managed WordPress hosts?” — you are doing to find it here in this post. We will not only go deep into Kinsta hosting review, we will also discuss on Kinsta CDN, Kinsta DNS, Kinsta data centers, daily backups and even Kinsta staging environment.
As a WordPress website owner, our biggest concern (apart from making money online) is web hosting. Generally, web hosting can be really cheap – costing you less than a cup of coffee (latte, macchiato or any of your favorite caffeine beverage) a month.
The cheapest web hosting package is shared hosting and that can easily costs you under $5 a month. However, hosting your WordPress site on shared hosting giants such as BlueHost and SiteGround may not be sufficient for your needs. Regardless it is the server performance, website loading speed, support or security, the alternative to shared hosting is managed WordPress hosting.
The first impression most bloggers and website owners is this: Managed WordPress hosting is expensive. And I totally get it.
The truth is pretty much the opposite. Managed WordPress hosting may be more expensive than generic shared hosting, but it is certainly not as expensive as you think!
As a matter of fact, managed WordPress hosting such as Kinsta is really affordable and highly scalable based on your website traffic.
More information about Kinsta managed WordPress hosting.
What Is Managed WordPress Hosting?
Managed WordPress hosting is similar to other web hosting services in many ways – with a twist.
According to WPBeginner, managed WordPress hosting is a concierge service where all technical aspects of running WordPress is managed by the host.
The idea behind managed WordPress hosting is to offer a completely hassle-free experience, so you can focus on running your business and doing what you are good at.
One of the best parts about Managed WordPress hosting is the premium support. Your support is provided by real WordPress experts with lots of experience rather than someone who is reading a support manual.
What Are The Advantages Using Managed WordPress Hosting?
- Blazing Fast – Managed WordPress hosting servers are configured specially for WordPress. Therefore, these servers are really fast and are able to sustain even when hosting high traffic websites.
- Security – Your website is practically hacker-proof when you go with a managed WordPress hosting provider. The super tight security layer that actively scans for malware on a daily basis and block all hacking attempts will secure WordPress websites.
- Expert Support – Unlike other web hosts, majority (if not all) of the staffs are highly knowledgeable in WordPress. They will be able to advise you against using plugins that impact performance, solve your website problems faster, and many more. It is like having an army of WordPress experts on your side for assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
- Daily Backups – Automatic daily backups and multiple restore points are available to you if you ever want to revert (great for developers and anti-hacking activities,
- Automatic Updates – You don’t have to worry about updates because they are done automatically.
- No downtime – No matter how much traffic your site gets, your website will probably never go down – like N.E.V.E.R. ever.
- Dev Tools – Although it varies with different managed WordPress hosting service providers, you will find some useful dev tools such as staging area, version control, etc. within the dashboard.
What Are The Disadvantages Using Managed WordPress Hosting?
- Price – Price is the biggest turn down for many website owners. Managed WordPress hosting is significantly more expensive when compared to shared hosting. The most basic WordPress hosting plan usually starts around $15/mo. where as shared hosting plan starts at $2.95/mo. But if you factor in the cost of running a large website and the salary of system admin, then this will sound like a pretty darn good option.
- Limits – Because the server architecture is specialized for WordPress, often you are limited to run only WordPress based sites. But that’s what you were looking to do anyways. There is also the possible that you Are not able to run all your favorite WordPress plugins. Managed WordPress hosting providers block plugins that slows down your site. So this is not entirely a disadvantage, but it can be an issue for larger companies.
- Less Control – Since someone else is managing all the technical aspects, you don’t have nearly as much say as to what gets changed. But isn’t that the point? You don’t want the hassle of managing things yourself.
Now that we had completed the advantages and disadvantages of using a managed WordPress hosting, let’s start the Kinsta managed WordPress hosting review.
My Experience After Moving To Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting
Apart from providing a review on Kinsta hosting, I have incorporated my personal experience using Kinsta. If you are managing a growing blog and you often find yourself stuck in technical hosting jargon, this article will be a life-changer for you.
I started my first website back in 2014 and it was hosted on the Blogger platform. Within a year, I moved to the entire website to my first shared hosting service on HostGator. My traffic wasn’t really a big shout to be honest but I realized a much bigger problem – technical aspect.
As you can see, I wasn’t entirely an experience website developer back then. For major changes on my site, I would require assistance from the web hosting company to get the job done for me without charge. Sure, I live by that rule for some good years until one day where I decided that enough is enough because my site was hacked.
That was the turning point.
I was making decently on my site but just like many bloggers out there, I wasn’t ready to increase my monthly web hosting spending. After doing extensive surveys and research, I concluded that using managed WordPress hosting is the best bet for me.
For the record, I have used several managed WordPress hosting such as WP Engine, FlyWheel and Pagely to name a few. But nothing interests me as much as Kinsta does.
Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting Review: Ultimate Speed
Kinsta is one of the managed WordPress hosting that runs on Google Cloud Platform and that contributed a lot to the fast website loading speed.
Kinsta is not only fast. Kinsta is blazing fast.
I have tested many web hosting including VPS, but nothing really come close to what Kinsta can offer. Take a look at the speed tests I done below.
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On contrary, most shared web hosting could probably load around 1.3 seconds even on the most optimized servers. This is what I mean.
My experience had taught me something deep about website hosting. Shared hosting is really cheap but in terms of website loading speed, it is not even close to managed WordPress hosting service.
>> Click here to read on the top 10 fastest WordPress hosting in 2019 <<
Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting Review: Datacenters
It is no accident that WordPress websites hosted on Kinsta loads a fraction of the speed. The answer lies within the Google Cloud Platform. To be exact, it is the huge list of datacenters (15 of them) which you can choose from.
Here are the datacenters that you can choose from using Kinsta.
I’ve used many managed WordPress hosting and while they too offer datacenter choices, I have not seen one that offers that many datacenters as Kinsta does.
Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting Review: Website Management Using MyKinsta
MyKinsta is Kinsta’s customized website management system. You can also consider MyKinsta as the control center for your sites. From tracking bandwidth, visitor stats to creating SSL certificates, all the tools you need are in one convenient location.
This is how it looks like on the backend:
MyKinsta dashboard lets you track important data for each of your sites separately; such as visitors, bandwidth usage, response times, and more.
MyKinsta was built from the get-go as a companion to our services. It allows you to manage your sites with the ease and precision you would expect from Kinsta.
As you can see below, there are many dev tools you can access on Kinsta’s backend system, including creating Let’s Encrypt SSL, clearing the cache and even enabling/disabling Kinsta CDN services.
In short, MyKinsta is built from ground up to make sure you have an excellent time managing your websites.
>> More information about Kinsta managed WordPress hosting. <<
Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting Review: How Secure Is Kinsta?
Kinsta managed WordPress hosting is close to bulletproof. When you add your website to Kinsta hosting, you are in safe hands and Kinda’s security feature is close to Fort Knox.
Kinsta security guarantee includes:
- An inspection of the site and deep scan of the sites files to identify malware.
- Repair of the WordPress core by installing a clean copy of the core files.
- Identification and removal of infected plugins and themes.
While Kinsta provides over the top security features and malware scanning, it is important for website owners like you to understand how WordPress websites are hacked.
Basically, there are two common methods which will make your site prone to hacking cases:
- Exploits targeting WordPress: using outdated or poorly coded plugins and themes or using outdated versions of the WordPress core.
- Compromised credentials: an attacker captures your WordPress admin, MyKinsta, database, SSH, or SFTP credentials.
Therefore, securing WordPress websites are job for both you and and the web host (in this case, Kinsta) to make the perfect team.
If you want to know how secure it is using Kinsta hosting, I would say it is pretty damn good – assuming that you taking simple steps to secure your WordPress (such as using strong password and updating the themes/plugins regularly).
Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting Review: How Good Is The Support Level?
Do you know the feeling when you need help (like super urgent) and you can’t seem to find one?
At Kinsta hosting, this will never happen to you, EVER. Kinsta support team is available around the clock and the fastest way to reach them is through the live chat option (available by default when you login to MyKinsta).
The best part about using Kinsta live chat and support system is the automatic email notification.
How does the live chat system works?
Click on “New conversation” and the chat will start instantly. If you close the browser or leave abruptly in the middle of the support, you will be notified immediately via email when there is a response from the support team.
With the support team working around the clock 365 days a year, I would say this is probably the best WordPress support you can get!
Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting Review: How Much Does Kinsta Costs?
The smallest plan starts at $30 per month and you can easily scale it up to higher plans based on your website needs.
Here’s the full list of Kinda managed WordPress hosting pricing:
If you are looking for Kinsta coupon or discount, you can use this link to sign up and get 2 months free hosting (when you pay annually).
Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting Review: Inbuilt Cache, Kinsta CDN, Site Cloning and Staging Area
Most of us use managed WordPress hosting because we don’t want to get our hands dirty with web hosting matters. If that’s the case for you, you are going to love Kinda’s inbuilt cache, Kinda CDN, site cloning and staging area.
When you use Kinsta hosting, you don’t have to setup cache plugins such as W3 Total Cache. The server and inbuilt cache are optimized for your website to load at blazing speed and you can focus on your business more!
If you are a website developer, you are going to love the Kinsta staging environment feature. Take a look at the image below.
In just a few clicks, your staging environment will be ready and you can test out new themes, layouts or codes without worrying of breaking your site.
Lastly, if you are a big fan of website loading speed like I do, you are 100% going to appreciate the Kinsta CDN feature. Kinsta CDN is available on all hosting plans and you can easily activate it from the settings.
The usage of Kinsta CDN will ensure that static files will be served to your website visitors faster and through the datacenters closest to them. As a result, your website will load faster for them.
Summary: Is Kinsta WordPress Hosting Worth It?
Kinsta hosting review conclusion – should you choose Kinsta?
This is the most important question to answer before I wrap up Kinsta managed WordPress hosting review. Based on my personal experience using Kinsta (as well as the features offered), Kinsta hosting is definitely worth it. As a matter of fact, I even host all my sites with Kinsta hosting.
Kinsta managed WordPress hosting is packed full with features and tons of geeky tools to make other web hosting companies look bad. It’s cloud platform allows WordPress sites to load super fast and comes with bulletproof security as well.
With its data centers located around the world, you can easily choose the ones that are closest to you (for even faster loading speed).
Overall, Kinsta WordPress hosting is not only affordable but extremely powerful and suits small and large websites.
>> More information about Kinsta managed WordPress hosting. <<
