Are you having challenges trying to compare Kinsta and WP Engine?In today’s competitive world, having an online website is not sufficient — you need a blazing fast website to serve your website visitors better.But there’s a little problem …Most of us are not techie enough to make our website loads faster.Lucky for you, there’s a solution that you can use today which will make your website loads under 1.5 seconds.And the answer is this.Get a better web hosting service.
Here’s A BIG Question
What is considered as a good web hosting service?
In today’s market, you can get a cheap web hosting as low as $3 per month.
However, is the service that good?
The answer is no. Using a cheap web hosting service is always easy on your wallet but will never be a good thing in the long run.
Cheap web hosting are often:
THIS. SUCKS.
Yes, when your website is hit with malicious code or being hacked, getting support from them are tough (and super annoying).
If you are running your money blog, you should always use a better web hosting service that offers a peace of mind (hint: managed hosting).
What is a managed hosting?
Managed hosting is a web hosting service that offers better server performance, security and support compared to typical shared web hosting. While managed hosting is often time more expensive, it is common to see serious website owners use managed hosting to ensure their websites are loading at peak performance and are constantly secured.
Now, let’s talk about managed WordPress hosting.
Which is the best managed WordPress hosting today?
Actually, there are two of them.
Wut??
Here are two things you need to know:
- The best managed WordPress hosting for you is the one that fits your needs (server performance)
- The best managed WordPress hosting for you is the one that fits your hosting budget
I know …
There are dozens of managed WordPress hosting out there in the market, and I have tried nearly all of them.
But when it comes to deciding the really best managed WordPress hosting service, it only comes down to two; Kinsta and WP Engine.
But there’s something you should know about Kinsta and WP Engine
They are NOT cheap …
If you are expecting web hosting prices that starts from $3 per month, you are better off with BlueHost (seriously).
Here are the pricing structure for Kinsta and WP Engine (entry level plans).
Kinsta
Managed WordPress hosting with Kinsta starts at $30 per month.
This entry level web hosting comes with:
WP Engine
Managed WordPress hosting with WP Engine starts at $35 per month.
This entry level web hosting comes with:
Summary: Kinsta vs WP Engine
Here’s a complete comparison (summary) between Kinsta vs WP Engine.
Choose Kinsta. If you are looking for a managed WordPress hosting that doesn’t sucks, Kinsta is pretty awesome. For only $30 per month, you will be able to enjoy super fast web hosting service that is powered by Google Cloud (yes, the same type of servers that power Google Search with millions of searches each day).
Comparing to Kinsta to WP Engine, Kinsta support team is very much better and more helpful in some ways. It could be the way they respond to a question or support ticket. Kinsta is a great option for serious bloggers who want to have great server performance, security in mind and support in just a few clicks. Sign up for Kinsta here.
Choose WP Engine. WP Engine has long been in the managed WordPress hosting market and it certainly one of the best options if you have a much bigger/heavy traffic website. Comparing to Kinsta,
WP Engine has one major advantage — intuitive staging site where I find it pretty much flawless compared to Kinsta. WP Engine is geared more towards mid traffic blog to enterprise level hosting. Get WP Engine here.
Kinsta vs WP Engine Review: What are the differences?
If you want to know more about Kinsta and WP Engine, I recommend you to carry on reading about them.
Under the hood: Kinsta WordPress Hosting
If you are looking for an awesome WordPress hosting, Kinsta is definitely a great choice for both beginners and advanced website owners.
At this point of writing, this website (ReginaldChan.net) is hosted on Kinsta Business 1 plan.
Why Kinsta?
I decided to go with Kinsta instead of WP Engine was because I wanted a dedicated server.
Editor’s note
There are many misconception on managed WordPress hosting. While most managed WordPress hosting offers dedicated servers and environments, not all plans (especially entry level plans) are given dedicated environments.
Kinsta for example, offers dedicated servers to all its customers regardless of the web hosting plan. WP Engine only offers dedicated environment to customers on higher plans and not in their entry level web hosting plan (Startup).
As my website is considered mid to high level traffic, having a shared environment will affect my website loading speed. In lay man terms, the website will load slower for my visitors.
The results?
More visitors leaving = Shorter stay duration + Higher bounce rate = Lower rankings on Google
Ouch!
Here are a few more geeky Kinsta features which I dearly love.
1. Data Centers. Kinsta offers 18 Google Cloud Platform regional data centers for each of your sites.
2. Expert support. Kinsta calls their support team as developers (which is pretty cool by the way) and their expert WordPress developers will help you out with any issues you may have.
3. Highly secure network. Worried of the security of your website? So do I! Kinsta WordPress hosting comes with active/passive security protocols, firewalls, daily backups and uptime checks, to name a few.
4. Built for speed. Kinsta inbuilt Nginx, LXD containers, PHP 7, and MariaDB on Google Cloud Platform will power your website and make it load at lightning speed (seriously!). Plus, Kinsta uses KeyCDN to manage all their CDN services that makes your website loads even faster!
5. Staging areas. Kinsta has staging area for development, testing or tweaking and tuning which you can turn it on in a single click.
6. Powerful administration. Managing multiple websites is NOT a hassle with Kinsta. All customers have access to the famous and custom Kinsta admin that is packed full of great features and is easy to use.
Should I use Kinsta hosting?
If you are looking for a hosting environment that sits on Google Cloud, doesn’t sucks and comes with awesome customer support, Kinsta is definitely a must have!
With pricing starts at only $30 per month, there is no denial that Kinsta is definitely worth the money (and better than WP Engine).
Under the hood: WP Engine WordPress Hosting
While I love Kinsta a lot, I got to admit that I secretly love WP Engine.
And it is NOT because of its awesome affiliate program.
It is because WP Engine is really powerful and I seriously have no issues recommending them to anyone who is looking for a serious managed WordPress hosting that rocks.
So, why WP Engine?
It’s $35 dollars a month ($5 per month more than Kinsta and $30 more than a typical shared web hosting on BlueHost).
Am I nuts to recommend WP Engine??
The answer is “Yes!”
WP Engine is not your average managed WordPress hosting solution provider.
P.S. Did you noticed their new rebranding on their website?
WP Engine new tagline is “Your WordPress Digital Experience Platform” and this makes all the sense.
Let me tell you why …
There are around 37,500,000 self-hosted WordPress today and the numbers are constantly growing each day.
With such numbers, we cannot afford to have just another WordPress website.
We need to have a website that represents us!
Why?
A website is a digital experience for many users and in most cases, people will visit your website first before actually stepping into your store (that if you have a brick and mortar business).
What will the digital experience be if your website is slow, looks bad as hell or compromised by hackers?
Here’s a stat taken from Cloud Living.
I don’t know you but this gives me the chills.
Being in this industry since 2004, I know a lot of cheap web hosting companies that don’t give a sh*t about your website security.
Do you really want your website to be hacked or compromised in any matter?
This is where WP Engine comes into play with another popular promise.
Shall your website ever been hacked or compromised during your time with WP Engine, the WP Engine team will fix it for you and resolve the issue without charge.
Let me ask you a question.
Does this makes you feel better?
I bet it does, right?
And without further a due, here’s what you will get when you host your website on WP Engine.
1. Free automated migration. This is the CORE reason why I move to WP Engine. Hassle-free! Using the free WP Engine Auto Migration plugin, you can now move to WP Engine in just a few clicks (and saves a whole lot of developer fees).
2. Performance-boosting insights. Start boosting engagement with powerful insights from WP Engine Content Performance, and even better, improve your site speed with the free Page Performance tool that comes with all WP Engine plans.
3. Enterprise-grade security. When you host your website on WP Engine, you don’t only get bulletproof security — You’ll get managed WordPress updates plus threat detection and blocking with the constant guidance by WP Engine dedicated security team.
4. CDN and SSL included. Get ready to improve your site speed, security, and SEO with a global CDN and automated SSL certificates included in all plans.
5. Agile developer environments. You can now manage all your workflows with dev, stage, and prod environments and accelerate deployment cycles with WP Engine one-click tools. #SayYes to productivity!
6. 60-days of trial period. WP Engine comes with a massive, 60-days money back guarantee. If you are unconvinced that WP Engine is right for you, this is the best time to try it out with its no question asked policy.
Should I use WP Engine hosting?
WP Engine is definitely one of the best managed WordPress hosting in the market. The best part — WP Engine is a very safe bet because it comes with server performance, excellent staging area and friendly support.
Plus, you literally gets bulletproof security features with WP Engine hosting!
Recap: Kinsta vs WP Engine
Are you deciding which is a better choice?
For starters, you won’t be wrong with either Kinsta or WP Engine.
Bottom line, both of them are very different (in terms of features) and it is best to go with your personal needs.
You should go for Kinsta if you are looking for an affordable managed WordPress hosting with superior uptime and Google Cloud servers.
WP Engine is a better choice if you are looking for a safe bet in managed hosting, powerful (and easy to scale) hosting servers and excellent staging features. Plus, WP Engine owns StudioPress where you will get unlimited access to all the popular themes!
