Kinsta Security Review (2021): How Secure is Kinsta?

Kinsta is one of the most popular managed WordPress hosts in the market. They are known for their excellent performance and top-notch customer support. However, what truly separates them from other WordPress hosting companies are the set of advanced features that they offer. Security is one of them. Today, we’ll be detailing how Kinsta ensures the safety of your site, as well as look at some Kinsta-approved plugin recommendations to further improve the security measures already in place.

Kinsta WordPress Plans Comparison Chart

Security Features

Kinsta offers basic and advanced security features to ensure your site’s safety.

WordPress is one of the most popular Content Management Systems on the internet. In fact, it is used by about 30-40% of all websites online, so naturally, it is a frequent target for hackers and individuals or groups with malicious intent. Having security measures that can prevent these attacks is essential if you want to safeguard your website data and personal information.

That said, here are some of the security features that you will get with Kinsta.

Basic Security Features

• Daily Backups – Having daily backup points will allow you to restore your site to the most recent working version if you ever have to. You can easily restore your site with Kinsta’s one-click restore.
• Let’s Encrypt SSL – An SSL certificate is important for both security and performance. It provides a layer of security for your visitors, and being HTTPS compliant makes your site favorable to Google.
• IP Banning – Kinsta instantly bans an IP address after six failed login attempts to prevent brute-force hacking.
• 2-Factor Authentication – 2FA is an extra layer of security that will prevent unauthorized access to your account if ever your password is compromised.
• DDoS Attack Detection and Prevention – Kinsta will detect if there is a DDoS attack and alert you promptly. Once you are alerted, you can use their GeoIP blocking software to block the region where the attack is coming from.
• Live Site Monitoring – Your site is always monitored so that they are aware if there are any security risks.
• Updated versions of PHP – Kinsta does not run old and/or unsupported versions of PHP because they no longer get security updates and these will pose unnecessary risks to your sites.
• Automatic WordPress Security Patches – Kinsta will automatically apply any WordPress security patches that are rolled out.

Advanced Security Features

Aside from basic security features, Kinsta takes additional steps to ensure your site safety with some advanced security features.

• Google Cloud Platform Security – Google Cloud Platform has their own security measures in place, and all your sites hosted in Kinsta will enjoy this benefit.
• Built-in Hardware Firewall – Having a hardware firewall in place prevents malware and unwanted traffic from entering the network.
• Encrypted SFTP and SSH – Kinsta does not allow the use FTP, only SFTP and SSH connections are permitted. SFTP adds a layer of security during file transfer, and it is more secure than FTP.
• Malicious Code Prevention – Kinsta’s open-basedir restrictions disallows execution of PHP in common directories.
• Hack Free Guarantee – Even though Kinsta has a number of security measures in place, there is still a very small chance that you can be hacked. In any such case, Kinsta offers hack fixes free of charge. Do take note, if the problem is caused by the user, for instance, installing nulled themes or plugins, this free fix offer is withdrawn.

WordPress Banned Plugins

There are a few banned plugins that are not compatible with Kinsta.

WordPress offers flexibility to its users by giving them access to thousands of free and premium plugins that can improve their site’s functionality. However, due to how Kinsta’s platform is optimized, there are some plugins that are currently banned. Some of these plugins are redundant, some can interfere with your performance, and some will simply not work. Kinsta, however, are working with the developers of these plugins, so that these plugins can be compatible with their platform in the future.

Here are some plugins that may interfere with Kinsta’s security. If you want a complete list of currently banned Kinsta plugins, go here.

Backup plugins are redundant because Kinsta already offers automatic daily backups. Also, you can manually backup your sites via the MyKinsta dashboard. Furthermore, these plugins can interfere with with your site’s performance.

• WP DB Backup Made
• All-in-One WP Migration
• WP DB Backup
• BackupBuddy
• Updraftplus
• BackWPup
• Snapshot

Some security plugins will not work in Kinsta because of how they optimized their platform. Also, these plugins can interfere with your site’s performance, just like the banned backup plugins above. As of now, Kinsta only has one banned security plugin—Login Wall.

Nulled Plugins and Themes

Kinsta does not prevent you from using nulled themes and plugins. However, if your site is compromised because of doing so, their hack-fix guarantee will not apply. For those unfamiliar, nulled themes and plugins are premium WordPress themes and plugins that have been hacked so that users don’t have to pay for them. Additionally, some of these nulled themes and plugins contain exploits that can compromise your data and security.

Verdict

Kinsta offers excellent security for your WordPress sites.

Kinsta

Kinsta is not your average web host. They are a top-tier managed WordPress host that provides top-notch performance, expert WordPress support and excellent security features. While they do charge a premium for their hosting plans, they more than make up for it by offering exclusive features that you won’t find on other premium hosting companies. As for their security, they offer a lot of basic and advanced features so that your site and your personal information are protected. Furthermore, they also went and banned a few plugins to make sure that your site’s performance and security are not compromised. All in all, you will be happy with Kinsta as your hosting provider, if you choose to go with them.

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