Hello everybody. So, over the years, I’ve used quite a few different hosting providers. On paper, all of them look great, but when it comes to using them, not everything is so smooth. First, there is a lot of risk when we choose the wrong one. Hosting is the foundation of our website, and if something goes wrong with it, it enables a chain reaction. The server is not responding, we’re too slow, people can’t go on our site, and we lose money.
Second, as website developers, entrepreneurs, and marketers, we want efficiency. We don’t want to spend more time or more money than we actually need to. So, when choosing a hosting provider, that’s what it comes down to: reliability, efficiency, and overall value. That’s why today I want to talk about Kinsta. I want to share my perspective and experience using it since 2018 for all of our websites and building websites for our clients.
Also, for full transparency, I did become their affiliate partner because I love the product, and I stand 100% by it. I would never share anything I don’t use or I don’t absolutely love. So, this is an honest review. With that said, there are a few issues I want to address so you have a complete picture of what Kinsta is and whether it’s right for you. But before I dive deep into what’s good and bad about Kinsta, smash that like button. It really helps my channel.
Let’s first talk about the value. Kinsta is packed with professional features. I don’t want to repeat what’s already out there, so I’m going to link some useful articles in the description. In short, you get incredible speed and performance, premium content delivery network, hashing, 24 data centers from Google Cloud Platform to choose from, staging websites, security, daily backups, and much more. But do we need it all, and are they actually worth 30 to 1500 bucks a month? In short, yes and yes. This is exactly what we need, and that’s worth the price. In the digital age, these features aren’t nice to have; they’re must-haves. We need good speed, performance, security, reliability, and ease of use if we want to succeed online. Kinsta makes it easy, fast, and less expensive to develop and manage websites on a daily basis. We used to pay about three times more to use third-party tools just to have the same features. If you closely look at what Kinsta offers, you will see that they only offer the features we actually need and use, without inflating the price like others. All their features are standard on all plans. The only difference is the amount of installation disk space, visits, and PHP workers, which is completely understandable. You typically don’t need as much resources for a starter website that you would have needed for an enterprise website. Overall, without a doubt, Kinsta offers more value, comfort, and peace of mind than they charge for.
Let’s discover why. Number one is saving time and money. As a marketing and web development agency, we really care about efficiency. Saving time saves us money, which saves us even more time, which saves us even more money. Every extra minute or hour we spend on developing and managing a website, we’re losing time which we could be using on something else like a different project. Before using Kinsta, we used to spend hours, sometimes even a day or two, setting up the hosting and installing third-party tools just to get it to what Kinsta offers out of the box. Connecting CDNs, managing DNS, adding SSL certificates, optimizing speed and performance. Now with Kinsta, it takes us 10 to 15 minutes to do what it took us hours and sometimes days. Then throughout the month, we just come there to create backups when we update our websites.
Next, let’s talk about the dashboard. Though we’re spoiled with nice interfaces, Kinsta’s dashboard isn’t just nice-looking; it’s intuitive. The first time I went there, it felt like I already know where to click. Connect CDN, bam. Enable cache, bam. Generate or add custom SSL, create a staging environment, create or restore backup, bam, bam, and bam. They made it so easy. My wife, who doesn’t know anything about hosting, has launched a website on Kinsta in less than 10 minutes. There are tooltips everywhere, so even if you don’t know something, there is a description right there. And though it’s easy to use, it packs a lot of pro features. They have Kinsta PM for performance monitoring, IP deny debugging tool, New Relic monitoring, and much, much more.
Next, let’s talk about speed and performance. Kinsta advertises as a lightning-fast hosting provider, which is a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s fast. Most of the websites we build on it load in less than a second. Even the biggest, heaviest ones usually have 1.2 to 1.5-second load time, which is great for SEO and e-commerce. Every time we move our clients to Kinsta, we see conversion rates go up, and traffic starts growing almost immediately. And here’s an example: before and after switching to Kinsta. Before, we used to spend a lot of time and paid plugins to optimize site performance. After we switched to Kinsta, we stopped using plugins like WP Rocket and other speed optimization plugins. I’m not the smartest guy in the room when it comes to optimizing speed and performance, but I noticed that websites hosted on Kinsta perform much better without WP Rocket and other paid plugins. Now, most of the plugins we use are free.
Next, security. Security was one of the first reasons I considered and started using Kinsta. WordPress isn’t the most secure out of the box, so we always had issues with security. But they were manageable until in August 2018, a lot of our client websites got malware. One by one, they got infected with a script that was redirecting to other sites every third click or refresh. We’ve always taken security seriously, and we’ve always vetted the plugins we used, so that was really weird. Just imagine my frustration when our clients’ websites got hacked. Some of them were e-commerce sites with paid traffic. Our hosting provider at that time told us to use security, which was 200 to 500 bucks per site. That would have cost us over 4 to 10 grand or something we shouldn’t even have had issues with in the first place. That was an expensive mistake in terms of money, stress, and reputation. Fortunately, we lived through it and made it up to our clients, so we had to find a reliable hosting, which was Kinsta. I was looking at WP Engine as well, but Kinsta just seemed like a better option, and since we moved to Kinsta, we haven’t had a single issue in three years. And I know if our websites get hacked, Kinsta will fix it for free. Okay, did I say that Kinsta is super fast? And now I’m not talking about speed or performance; I’m talking about adding new features and smashing that like button. For example, when PHP 8 was announced, almost immediately, Kinsta had it, where most others, to this date, are still on PHP 7.4. So, that’s actually funny too. So, Kinsta is always on the edge of WordPress technology.
Also, here is something a bit personal. I think at Gazizov Digital, we’ve always created great websites. We use the latest technology, modern design, and relevant content. But only when we started using Kinsta, I began to believe we can build world-class websites. And it’s not just about technical stuff; it’s about how they make you feel. In the beginning, I was excited just to log in to Kinsta dashboard, which is weird. What can possibly be exciting about hosting? Maybe it was because I saw the positive contrast between Kinsta and what we used before. Maybe because I was just happy how easy and fast things were. With that said, this excitement faded away with time, and I started taking it for granted until we had to move a client from another hosting to Kinsta. Going from Kinsta’s dashboard to cPanel or other dashboards feels like going from the newest iPhone to the first generation iPhone. You stop appreciating what you have until you go back.
Next, their support is incredible. I haven’t seen better support anywhere, not just hosting providers. It feels like you’re messaging a nice friend who genuinely cares about helping you. Before Kinsta, I hated contacting customer service. They made me feel stupid for asking questions. They were slow. I had to spend hours on the phone and would still not get the answers. They would refer me to help articles which I’ve already seen a dozen times. Also, I hated the automated responses and generic answers like, “Dear customer, we have received your message and will be with you shortly. All of our support managers are busy at the moment. If you need support, you can email us.” When you log into MyKinsta dashboard, there is a chat. The most I’ve waited was two minutes for every play, but typically, it’s almost instant. They get straight to the point as well as go above and beyond to help you, and they do it fast. The longest it took was about 10 to 15 minutes. It was a very technical thing. The guy had to look deep, so it makes sense. Also, one time I mentioned them on Twitter, saying that they are amazing. Their social media team reached out to me, saying thanks and made friendly with me. A week later, they sent me a branded mug and a hat just like this one. And though I don’t wear hats and I use a different cup, it felt kinda nice. So, overall, I feel that they have my back when it comes to hosting and WordPress support.
But okay, not everything about Kinsta is perfect. There are some things that might not work for you. Number one, you can’t host your emails, which could be kind of a deal breaker for some. With that said, we are completely fine with it. We use Google Suite and other secure providers for email. Next, you can only host WordPress websites, which in my opinion is perfect because all we want from them is high-quality managed WordPress hosting. For everything else, we use Google Cloud or Amazon Web Services. Another little issue is that they don’t have an in-browser file manager. Since we always connect through SFTP or SSH via FileZilla, it’s okay though. Sometimes it’s nice to manage and edit files in the browser. So, Kinsta, if you’re watching this, it will be nice if you added an in-browser file manager. Next, with the basic plan, you only get two PHP workers, which Kinsta says isn’t ideal for e-commerce. We have used the Starter plan for clients who are just starting e-commerce or membership sites. Everything worked well, and we didn’t see any issues. Once their traffic and sales grew, we’ve upgraded to a plan with more visits, storage, and PHP workers.
So, is Kinsta really that good? As you can tell , I think Kinsta is incredible, but it depends on your goals, budget, and needs. In my opinion, it’s great for everyone who is serious about their online business and presence. It’s definitely not for people who just need any website. For those purposes, there are Wix and Squarespace. We use it as an agency to build websites for all types of clients, from local businesses through e-commerce to complex enterprise websites. We have peace of mind that our websites are always secure and up and running. If you’re a beginner to intermediate, you will appreciate how easy it is to use and the features that were only available to experts before. If you’re an expert, on the other hand, you will appreciate how powerful it is. You’ll save tons of time and money on development and management. If you love Kinsta, but your budget doesn’t allow yet, I recommend starting with SiteGround. Of course, in my opinion, it’s not as good, but in my experience, it’s definitely better than most. Just make sure to choose managed WordPress hosting. I’ll share a link below. Then when you grow your site and start making money and outgrow SiteGround, switch to Kinsta. They will move your site for free in a couple of hours to a day.
So overall, Kinsta is the best hosting I’ve ever seen and used so far. It’s easy, it’s powerful, and it works. As always, if you like this , don’t forget to smash the like button. It really motivates me to make more like this one. If you have any questions regarding Kinsta or digital marketing, let me know in the comments below. I’d be happy to help. Also, don’t forget to follow me on my Instagram, where I share my daily life and behind the scenes. And if you’re new on my channel, here, I talk about all things self-development, entrepreneurship, marketing, and everything in between. That’s it for today. See you next time.