Kinsta Review: Why I had to leave Hostinger after 2 years

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Last updated on January 17th, 2025

Fun fact: Did you know that customer support is the #1 factor users value in a hosting provider? In fact, it’s 2x as important as price and 3x more crucial than performance and reliability. 

When I started with Hostinger as a new blogger, I completely underestimated how important customer service is, especially when your hosting provider messes up the core databases of your website.

In this Kinsta review, I’ll outline why I left Hostinger after two years and why you should consider switching to a hosting service with better reliability, speed, and, most importantly, better customer service.

If you’re interested in saving a few dollars by learning from my mistakes, keep reading.

What Is Managed WordPress Hosting?

If you’re new to all this online terminology, here’s a quick breakdown of what managed WordPress hosting is:

• HOSTING: a “piece of land” on the World Wide Web that houses your website
• WORDPRESS HOSTING: specifically optimized for sites that operate using WordPress
• MANAGED HOSTING: the hosting provider takes care of all the back-end aspects of your website so you can focus on content creation and growing your business.

Here are some things that you won’t need to worry about:

• security optimization
• website performance
• automatic back-ups
• automatic WordPress core updates

Kinsta is a premium hosting service, meaning it isn’t cheap. But it comes with a boatload of features that make the price tag worth it.

Performance features

• Google Cloud Platform infrastructure
• built-in CDN powered by Cloudflare
• automatic image optimization (no need for plugins like Shortpixel or Smush)
• over 35 data centers to choose from globally
• server-level caching
• free performance monitoring (detects issues like slow database queries, non-optimized plugin or theme code, and more) – anytime there’s an issue with my site, I get an instant email from them, and they even help to solve the issue without me needing to hire a developer. See an example of one of their emails below.

Security features

• free SSL certificates
• free fixes if your website is hacked
• Cloudflare’s enterprise-level firewall
• DDoS protection
• dedicated malware team that scans your site 480x/day
• free SSH access
• two-factor authentication for your account

Convenience features

• free site migration
• simple and fast set-up to get started
• easy-to-use dashboard
• 24/7 live chat support (including holidays & weekends)
• free one-click staging environment
• free daily backups (stored for 2 weeks) + 5 manual backups as needed
• additional add-ons available to boost your site (such as automatic external backups, increased PHP memory limit & disk space)
• NEW monthly newsletter with recent updates that you can make use of instantly – my favorite thing about this newsletter is seeing how many of their changes are based on user feedback.

You ask for it, and Kinsta delivers.

Here is a breakdown of their latest feature updates that users have requested:

• Selective file and database table push – During a push from staging to live, you can exclude a database table or a plugin directory to prevent overwriting recent entries or files.
• PHP memory add-on – double your PHP limit without needing to upgrade to the Enterprise plan.
• Boosted WordPress performance at select data centers – using Google Cloud’s latest C3D machines
• Bulk Site Tool actions – update your plugins, themes or change the PHP version across multiple sites at once
• New data centers – first African location, Johannesburg, South Africa
• Grant MyKinsta users DNS access at the site level – if you need to delegate DNS access on a per-site basis. Previously, DNS access was only available at the company level.
• See resource usage for all of your sites in one place – on the dashboard, you can access a list of your sites, visits, bandwidth, and disc space columns for each site. And even sort based on ascending or descending order.
• Site Reset – perform a reset that removes and reinstalls the WordPress files and database but preserves domain name configuration, backups, activity logs, and site details selected during the site’s original launch.
• New API endpoints
• Kinsta is now SOC Type II compliant – improved data security for companies

As you can see, Kinsta is a powerhouse! So you definitely get your money’s worth.

When I migrated to Kinsta, I was also changing my domain name. Kinsta made it easy to set up sitewide redirects and had one-click database changes so that all the links I had with the old domain were instantly replaced with the new one. This saved me SO MUCH time in not having to manually change all 1200 of my internal links.

But the feature that turned me into a loyal customer is their customer service. Before diving into that, here’s some context about why I appreciate their customer support so much after having been at Hostinger before.

Why I Left Hostinger After 1 Year

I started with Hostinger because it was a budget-friendly option for a newbie blogger. Despite being upsold a lot for a year, I was okay with their service.

But the straw that broke the camel’s back was when my WordPress core databases were messed up due to maintenance checks they were doing on their servers.

If you’re not tech-savvy like me, doesn’t all that random code look scary to you?? (especially when so much is in red)

I contacted Hostinger support for a resolution, but they simply stated that I would need to hire a developer myself because their expertise didn’t extend to such issues.

One of the worst things a service provider can tell a client is, “You’re responsible for fixing the issue we created.” It’s the easiest way to lose their loyalty as a customer.

After a few weeks of back-and-forth with them, trying to get them to fix these errors while trying not to worry about my website being down, I decided it was time for me to try another hosting service.

I shopped around all the mainstream providers—SiteGround, HostGator, Bluehost, Dreamhost—but despite their numerous positive reviews, several negative ones also made me hesitate.

That’s when I came across Kinsta, which had hardly any negative reviews. 

Kinsta’s Customer Service Is Hard To Beat

Kinsta understands how important customer service is.

Their customer service reps are friendly, quick to respond and go the extra mile. They have saved me from hiring a web developer so many times.

Maybe my prior poor experience with Hostinger’s customer service has left me with a biased opinion. But when you move from “we can’t fix the problem that we caused, so hire someone else” to “we have already fixed the issue, and we have put these measures in place so it doesn’t happen again,” then it’s hard to ignore the drastic change in experience.

Here are some of the issues that they have helped me with so far.

1. Improved PageSpeed Insights

Large images are the main culprit for slow-loading websites, especially for a site like mine that relies on images for aesthetics.

And a slow site is not good for Google rankings.

Kinsta improved my PageSpeed insights by optimizing my Shortpixel Image Compression plugin and adding code to the backend that serves images in the AVIF and WebP formats.

See the before and after images below for the mobile scores, which are the hardest to optimize.

2. Found Plugin Conflict

I use WP Rocket on my site, an additional plugin that helps with website speed. While trying to clear my site’s cache, I kept getting a 502 gateway server error.

Upon contacting Kinsta support, they dug into the backend and online forums to discover that WP Rocket had a plugin conflict with Query Monitor. 

After deactivating the Query Monitor plugin, everything worked great!

3. Unable To Create New Blog Posts

Kinsta support was a lifesaver when I faced a serious issue – whenever I selected “save draft” on a blog post, the content disappeared. 

From a blogger’s point of view, this was scary because it meant I couldn’t add any new content to my site.

When I contacted Kinsta, they coordinated with my web developer, and the issue was resolved within 24 hours.

So What’s The Catch?

As with all good things in life, there’s always a catch.

Here are a few cons of Kinsta’s web hosting to be aware of:

1. Expensive – basic plan starts at $30 per month when paid annually ($35 for monthly plan)
2. No email client provided – a separate email provider is required to use an email in the format yourname@yourdomain.com. I use Google Workspace for my business email setup.
3. No domain registration provided – I registered this current domain using Namecheap.
4. Banned plugins – some plugins are not allowed as they affect the hosting’s performance. I have never encountered a problem with any plugins on this list, but it’s worth checking in case you’re using one of them.

Despite these additional expenses, I love being a Kinsta customer because of my website’s performance, and subsequently, my Google rankings have been better than ever. 

Pricing

As mentioned above, Kinsta is a bit more expensive than regular hosting plans. But that’s because it offers many features that justify the price tag.

Here’s a breakdown of the plans for managed Wordpress hosting:

30-day Money-back Guarantee

If you’re still unsure, you can try their services RISK-FREE FOR 30 DAYS.

They even offer free migration services if your website is hosted on another platform.

If you’re not satisfied, you can get a full refund.

Does Kinsta Offer Coupons?

In short, no.

They outline in detail on their site about why they don’t take part in coupons and promos, but here’s the gist:

• they price their plans based on average usage data from thousands of clients, and their prices reflect the high-quality service and support they offer.
• Kinsta avoids using coupon codes as a marketing strategy because they believe that offering large discounts can cause search results to be filled with spam and create sites that unfairly promote their codes. It’s obvious they take their brand reputation seriously

Ways To Save Money With Kinsta

But it’s not all bad news. Here are some ways you can stay within your budget with Kinsta web hosting:

• free trial for Application Hosting and Database Hosting.
• 2 months of free hosting when subscribing to annual WordPress plans.
• 15% discount for nonprofit organizations & open source projects on all WordPress plans.
• 30-day money-back guarantee on all WordPress subscriptions. 

Is Kinsta Right For You?

Kinsta For Newbie Bloggers

If you’re a beginner on a budget, then Kinsta isn’t the best option for you.

There are more affordable options:

• Bluehost: $2.95/month (1 year billing)
• HostGator: $3.75/month
• Dreamhost: $2.59/month (3 year billing)

But if you’re more flexible with your budget, you can take advantage of Kinsta’s powerhouse features and avoid unnecessary headaches in the future. 

It’s also an excellent option for newbies who aren’t tech-savvy because they take care of all the back-end maintenance, the dashboard is user-friendly, and their support is available 24/7 to answer any questions.

I can’t tell you how many times I have bothered them with simple technical questions, and they have never made me feel annoying.

Kinsta For Growing Sites

For website owners experiencing rapid growth on shared hosting, you might realize that it quickly becomes a bottleneck.

As traffic increases, shared servers struggle to keep up, leading to slow page load times and frequent downtimes. And if you’re an E-commerce site, downtime can lead to a loss in revenue.

With reliable uptime, easy scalability, and high-performance features, you can trust Kinsta to have your back.

Conclusion

Kinsta offers a robust and reliable hosting solution for both new and experienced bloggers. I haven’t looked back since I made the switch from Hostinger.

While it may seem a little pricey, especially for beginners, the investment is definitely worth it if you consider the long-term benefits.