Kinsta is a Google Cloud-based hosting service that is specifically aimed at WordPress agencies. While the hosting quality is great (at least when compared to cPanel-based ones), the price is the main reason to stop people from using it.
I have tested some managed hosting services for WordPress that offer cheaper plans than Kinsta and put them together on the list below.
So, if you are looking to switch away from Kinsta and prefer a cheaper solution, you can try one of the following alternatives and stick with the one that matches your needs the most.
I have also created this status page on UptimeRobot in case you want to monitor the uptime history of the hosting services on the list.
Shortcuts ⤵️
- Why are people switching away from Kinsta?
- Crucial hosting features for agencies
- Kinsta alternatives list
- Summary
Reasons Why People Are Switching Away from Kinsta
Of course, I have tested Kinsta before crafting this list. As I said in the opening section, Kinsta is a great hosting service. You will find a significant performance improvement on your website after switching from a traditional shared hosting service to Kinsta.
Especially if you were previously using a cPanel-based hosting service.
Kinsta doesn’t offer a dedicated server like, for instance, Cloudways. But your hosting resources are not shared with other users. Kinsta uses a container technology to offer isolated resources for each site.
Kinsta comes with some useful features to make managing WordPress websites a lot easier. From auto update to automatic backup.
However, everyone also knows that Kinsta is not an affordable hosting service. The cheapest hosting plan that Kinsta offers costs $35 per month.
Price is the main reason why people are switching away from Kinsta. Another reason is the limitation of the WordPress sites you can add per account.
With $35 per month, you can only add one WordPress website. As a comparison, Cloudways allows you to add as many WordPress websites as you want for only $11 per month!
So, if price is the main reason why you want to switch away from Kinsta, then you have a valid reason.
Crucial Features to Look for in an Agency Hosting
Being a hosting service designed for agencies, Kinsta offers some agency-focused features like auto update and automatic backup. With these two features alone, you will be able to save hours on managing your clients’ sites.
If you have a team, the ability to add your team members to your account is also crucial enough as you can invite them to help you to manage your projects.
Staging site management is also a crucial enough feature to consider. With this feature, you can test some changes on a staging site first before applying them to a production site so that your clients’ sites will not be interrupted if the changes don’t go well.
Here are some crucial features you need for look for looking for a hosting service for your agency:
- Team management
- Auto update
- Scheduled backup
- Ability to configure PHP
- Staging site management
List of Cheaper Kinsta Alternatives for Agencies
On the list:
1. Cloudways
Cloudways is one of the best solutions if you are looking for a more affordable alternative to Kinsta. Especially if you are an agency.
As I briefly mentioned above, Cloudways allows you to add as many websites as you want for only $11 per month. Of course, you can only add a new website if you still have enough storage space.
With $11 per month, you have 25GB storage space on your account with the transfer bandwidth of 1TB!
Cloudways itself offers two hosting types: managed cloud VPS and managed hosting for WordPress. The managed VPS allows you to add Laravel and Magento, other than WordPress.
If you want to use the managed VPS version to host WordPress websites, Cloudways offers a dedicated add-on to add an auto-update feature for WordPress core, plugins and themes.
You can read my review to learn more about the managed VPS version of Cloudways.
Cloudways itself is a cloud hosting service owned by DigitalOcean. Even so, your options are not limited to DigitalOcean. Instead, there are five cloud platform options you can choose from to power your server:
- DigitalOcean
- Google Cloud
- AWS
- Vultr
- Linode
Cloudways supports integration with GitHub and other Git platforms like GitLab and Bitbucket, which will be useful if you often create custom features to the WordPress website you develop via custom code.
One thing I love the most from Cloudways is that it adopts a pay-as-you-go pricing model for its service. Meaning that you will only be charged for the resources you use on your account.
Key Features of Cloudways:
- Multi-layer caching powered by Redis, Varnish and Memcached
- Pre-integrated with Cloudflare Enterprise
- Staging site management
- Deployment via Git
- SFTP
- SSH
- SSL
- Malware protection
- Firewall
- Vulnerability scanner
- Auto backup
- PHP manager
- Team management
Pros and Cons of Cloudways
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Super flexible pricing model | No file manager |
| Offers 3-day trial without credit card | CDN and auto backup are not available as the core features (on managed VPS version) |
| Excellent performance | No email hosting |
| Extremely easy to scale a server | |
| Multi-layer caching | |
| Multiple security layers | |
| Multiple cloud provider options | |
| Configurable PHP | |
| Offsite backup | |
| Clean control panel |
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2. Rocket.net
Rocket.net is a direct Kinsta competitor because it offers the same hosting service type as Kinsta. It is a managed hosting service designed specifically for WordPress.
Same as Kinsta, Rocket.net is not a VPS like Cloudways above. But it offers isolated resources for each website so that your websites will not be interrupted by other sites’ activities.
Being a managed hosting service for WordPress, Rocket.net offers some handy features to make it easy to manage your WordPress websites. Including auto update (for WordPress core, plugins and themes) and scheduled backup.
You can even install a new plugin or theme (as long as it is available on WordPress.org repo) directly from the Rocket.net control panel.
A file manager is also available to make it easy for you to access your WordPress files.
Unlike Cloudways, all Rocket.net features I mentioned above are available as the core features. No need to enable add-ons to use them.
Rocket.net doesn’t support integration with GitHub and the likes, but it offers WP CLI in case you prefer to manage your WordPress sites the techie way.
I have also published an in-depth review that you can read to learn more about Rocket.net.
Key Features of Rocket.net:
- CDN
- Staging site management
- SFTP
- SSH
- SSL
- Malware protection
- Firewall
- Vulnerability scanner
- Auto backup
- Auto update for WordPress core, themes and plugins
- Team management
- File manager
- WP CLI
Pros and Cons of Rocket.net
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| $1 for the first month | No email hosting |
| CDN and auto update are available as the core features | No unlimited websites |
| Excellent performance | |
| Multiple security layers | |
| Easier file access using file manager | |
| Offsite backup | |
| Free WP Rocket license | |
| Support handled directly by humans instead of bot |
3. Pressable
Just like as Rocket.net, Pressable is also arguably a direct Kinsta competitor. That’s because it is a managed hosting service developed exclusively for WordPress. You can’t run other CMS platforms on it.
Pressable is designed specifically for agencies, developers and e-commerce websites. The lowest plan that Pressable offers cost only $25 per month. More affordable than Kinsta.
The hosting service of Pressable is powered by the same technology as WordPress.com and WP VIP whereby it uses WP Cloud platform. In case you didn’t know, Pressable is owned by Automattic, the parent company of WordPress and WP VIP.
The security features of Pressable (firewall and malware protection) are powered by Jetpack, a security platform which is also owned by Automattic.
If you need email hosting, Pressable is pre-integrated with Titan. However, you need to pay extra fee to use it (Pressable offers a 90-day free trial for this feature).
If you want to integrate Pressable with GitHub and other Git platforms, you can do so.
Key Features of Pressable:
- CDN
- Staging site management
- SFTP
- SSH
- SSL
- Malware protection
- Firewall
- Vulnerability scanner
- Auto backup
- Auto update for WordPress core
- Team management
- Git
- WP CLI
- Email hosting
Pros and Cons of Pressable
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| CDN and auto update are available as the core features | No file manager |
| Excellent performance | No unlimited websites |
| Multiple security layers | |
| Built exclusively for WordPress | |
| Offsite backup | |
| Pre-integrated with an email hosting |
4. Bluehost Cloud
Bluehost Cloud is one of the hosting services from Bluehost which can also be a great solution to replace Kinsta if you are an agency. As you may already know, Bluehost is one of the most notable names in the hosting industry.
The Bluehost Cloud hosting service specifically targets WordPress agencies. It offers no plan for a single site. The lowest plan, Cloud 10, is designed to run 10 WordPress websites. The plan costs only $75 per month. Cheaper than Kinsta which charges $188 per month for the same number of websites.
Bluehost uses the WP Cloud platform to power its Bluehost Cloud hosting service. In other words, Bluehost Cloud uses the same hosting infrastructure as Pressable. Most of its features (including security and backup) are also powered by Jetpack.
Bluehost Cloud is especially a nice option to replace Kinsta if you are a Yoast user because every WordPress website you add to your account is pre-installed with Yoast Premium.
No wonder because Bluehost and Yoast are under the same parent company, Newfold Digital.
Key Features of Bluehost Cloud:
- CDN
- Staging site management
- SFTP
- SSH
- SSL
- Malware protection
- Firewall
- Vulnerability scanner
- Auto backup
- Auto update for WordPress core and plugins
- Yoast Premium
Pros and Cons of Bluehost Cloud:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| CDN and auto update are available as the core features | No file manager |
| Pre-installed with Yoast Premium | No unlimited websites |
| Multiple security layers | No email hosting |
| Built exclusively for WordPress | |
| Offsite backup | |
| Pre-integrated with an email hosting |
5. ChemiCloud
ChemiCloud offers several hosting types, just like Bluehost. If you want to use it to replace Kinsta, you can use the Managed WordPress Hosting one which is designed specifically for WordPress.
The Managed WordPress Hosting service from ChemiCloud comes with some performance-focused features. Including built-in CDN, lazy load and automatic WebP conversion. The CDN feature of ChemiCloud is powered by QUIC.cloud.
On the security aspect, ChemiCloud offers DNS-level reCAPTCHA to protect your websites from bot traffic. Other security features offered by ChemiCloud include CDN-level firewall, malware scanner, and DDoS protection.
ChemiCloud is especially a great solution to replace Kinsta if you are looking for a hosting service that uses LiteSpeed as its web server.
Key Features of ChemiCloud:
- CDN
- Redis Object Cache
- Edge caching
- Staging site management
- SSH
- SSL
- Malware protection
- Firewall
- Auto backup
- Auto update for WordPress core
- WP CLI
- Automatic WebP conversion
- Team collaboration
Pros and Cons of ChemiCloud:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| $1 for the first month | No file manager |
| CDN and auto update are available as the core features | No email hosting |
| Multi-layer caching | No unlimited websites |
| Multiple security layers | |
| Built exclusively for WordPress | |
| Support is handled directly by a human via live chat | |
| Free domain for one year |
6. GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks also has a WordPress-focused hosting service which you can use to replace Kinsta. It doesn’t charge as much as Kinsta for this type of hosting. To host 10 websites, for instance, you only need to pay $17.95 per month.
The managed WordPress hosting service from GreenGeeks only consists of three plans: Lite, Pro and Premium.
The Pro and Premium allows you to add as many WordPress websites as you want as long as the storage is still available. The Pro plan offers 50GB storage, while the Premium plan offers 100GB storage.
The core features that GreenGeeks offers for this hosting service include CDN (powered by CloudFlare), auto update for WordPress core and plugins, automatic backup, WP CLI and Git.
GreenGeeks uses LiteSpeed as the web server for its hosting service.
Key Features of GreekGeeks:
- CDN
- Staging site management
- SSH
- SFTP
- SSL
- Auto backup
- Auto update for WordPress core and plugins
- WP CLI
- Git
- Team collaboration
Pros and Cons of GreenGeeks:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| CDN and auto update are available as the core features | No file manager |
| Optimized for WordPress | |
| Support is handled directly by a human via live chat | |
| Free domain for one year |
Summary
Price is the main reason why users want to switch away from Kinsta. For potential customers, it is also the main aspect that stops them from being a Kinsta customer.
Cloudways and other hosting services on the list above can be the solutions if you are looking for a Kinsta alternative.
Cloudways is a perfect Kinsta replacement if you prefer a VPS, while Rocket.net and Pressable are great if you need a managed WordPress hosting in which the core features include CDN and auto update.
Kinsta itself is a hosting service that includes CDN, auto update and automatic backup as the core features. If you need these features, I strongly recommend you to make a careful calculation to find out how much extra money you need to spend on these features if they are not available as the core features.
