Kinsta and SiteGround are among the top contenders when choosing reliable WordPress hosting providers. Kinsta’s managed WordPress hosting plans are at the pricier end of the spectrum, while SiteGround offers similar features at a much lower cost. So, how exactly are they different and what are you missing out on if you opt for one WordPress hosting provider over the other? Keep reading our in-depth comparison below to find out.
Kinsta vs SiteGround Web Hosting Comparison Chart
| Name | Kinsta | SiteGround |
| Â |  |  |
| Pricing | Check Pricing at Kinsta.com | Check Pricing at SiteGround.com |
| Traffic Tiers | Starter: 25,000/mo Pro: 50,000/mo Business: 100k to 600k/mo Enterprise: 1m to 3m/mo | StartUp: 10,000/mo GrowBig: 25,000/mo GoGeek: 100,000/mo |
| Storage Tiers | Starter: 10 GB Pro: 20 GB Business: 30-60 GB Enterprise: 100-250 GB | StartUp: 10GB GrowBig: 20GB GoGeek: 40GB |
| Monthly Bandwidth | Starter: 50 GB Pro: 100 GB Business: 200-500 GB Enterprise: 500-1000 GB | StartUp: Unmetered GrowBig: Unmetered GoGeek: Unmetered |
| Websites | Starter: 1 Pro: 2 Business: 5-40 Enterprise: 60-150 | StartUp: 1 GrowBig: Unlimited GoGeek: Unlimited |
| Hosting Interface | MyKinsta | Site Tools |
| Content Delivery Network | KeyCDN | Cloudflare |
| Free SSL Certificates | Yes | Yes |
| Staging Area | Yes | Yes |
| Free Site Backup | Yes | On-demand backups are available for GrowBig and GoGeek plans |
| Free Site Restore | Yes | Varies |
| Backup Retention | 14-30 days | 30 days |
| Site Transfer | Yes | WP Migrator |
| Multisite Support | Pro and up | Yes |
| Email hosting | No | Yes |
| Customer Support | 24/7 chat and ticket | 24/7 chat, phone, ticket |
| Money Back Guarantee | 30 days | 30 days |
Pricing and Plans
Kinsta’s entry-level plan costs almost twice as much as SiteGround’s
If affordability matters to you, SiteGround offers significant savings on your first year with them. Even their regular price, which will be charged upon renewal, is still much more affordable than Kinsta’s.
Kinsta offers 10 pricing tiers for its WordPress hosting plans, the Starter, Pro, Business 1 to 4, and Enterprise 1 to 4 plans. The higher the plan, the more websites you can install, and the higher the storage and bandwidth. Kinsta’s entry-level hosting plan starts at $30/month and includes one WordPress install, 25,000 monthly visits, 10GB SSD storage, and up to 50GB of free premium CDN by KeyCDN.
Meanwhile, SiteGround’s base plan, the StartUp plan, starts at $6.99/month on your first year and goes up to $14.99 upon renewal. This includes one WordPress install, 10GB storage space, around 10,000 monthly visits, unmetered traffic, and free CDN. However, SiteGround’s free CDN for the base plan is only Cloudflare’s free version. SiteGround’s higher-tier plans, GrowBig and GoGeek, offer unlimited website installs and speed boost caching through NGINX Direct Delivery. Kinsta’s second-tier plan, on the other hand, only allows up to two WordPress website installs.
Hosting Features
Kinsta promises resource isolation and has more data centers, but doesn’t offer email hosting unlike SiteGround
Kinsta and SiteGround offer similar hosting features with their different plans. These include:
- custom dashboards
- daily backups
- on-demand and automatic back-ups
- free SSL
- WP migration
- free CDN
- staging site (starts on SiteGround’s GrowBig plan)
- 24/7 customer support
SiteGround offers free email hosting so you can have a professional email using your domain (e.g. hello@website.com). With Kinsta, you’ll have to use a third-party email provider like G Suite if you want a professional email. Another difference between the two is Kinsta uses premium CDN in all its plans, while SiteGround’s entry-level plan only includes the free Cloudflare version.
Where Kinsta edges out SiteGround is it offers resource isolation, which means your websites are not sharing resources with a bunch of other websites. Kinsta’s isolated container technology makes sure your content is not shared with other website owners’. Its 24 data centers also ensure faster-loading speed as you can choose a server located where the majority of your visitors are closer to.
Reliability & Performance
Both have excellent uptime, but Kinsta is slightly faster than SiteGround
What you’re really paying for when using Kinsta are peace of mind and faster loading speed. On average, Kinsta’s loading speed is half a second faster than SiteGround for regular web pages. It might not sound like a lot, but once you use more images and elements on your page, expect the difference in loading times to be higher. At this age where people usually have a really short attention span, a page load time that’s a fraction of a second faster can make a big difference.
As mentioned above, Kinsta has 24 data centers around the world, and you can choose your preferred server location. On the other hand, SiteGround chooses the server it believes best suits your location. With that said, both managed WordPress hosting providers are reliable and have 99.99% uptime.
In terms of support, SiteGround has a slight edge if you prefer talking to someone on the phone to address your issues. Both Kinsta and SiteGround offer top-notch 24/7 live support, but Kinsta can only be reached through chat while SiteGround has both phone and chat support.
Reddit Reviews
A lot of Reddit users are satisfied with either Kinsta or SiteGround
Kinsta consistently gets good reviews on Reddit, whether it’s the top-notch managed WordPress hosting features and performance or customer service. As Reddit user Kimcha87 posts, “The speed is great and support is amazing.” This comment is consistent among different Reddit threads reviewing hosting plans.
SiteGround also has a great reputation among Reddit users, with reviews saying they’ve used SiteGround and have not encountered issues with its platform and customer support. Perhaps the major gripe Reddit reviews talk about is SiteGround’s recent change from cPanel to its custom dashboard called Site Tools. With that said, some users like the new interface, but those who are used to cPanel might not.
Verdict
SiteGround offers great value for money, but if your budget allows, go for Kinsta
If you’re looking for a hosting provider for your WordPress website, you can’t go wrong with either Kinsta or SiteGround. These managed WordPress hosting services are reliable and can handle high-traffic website requirements with no issues. With that said, Kinsta is focused on WordPress hosting and it does the job well. You may have to pay a premium price for Kinsta’s hosting plans, but the security, speed, resource isolation, and customer support they provide justify the higher price tag.
SiteGround is also an excellent hosting provider and offers better bang for your buck. At a much lower cost, you can host unlimited websites in its higher-tier plans and better speed optimization options. However, SiteGround’s managed WordPress hosting service is not yet on par with Kinsta’s, especially if you take speed, interface, and resource isolation into consideration.
FAQs
Both are great hosting providers, but if you’re looking for premium managed WordPress hosting plans, Kinsta better suits you. If you’re after a reliable platform at a lower cost, SiteGround remains a great hosting choice.
No, Kinsta doesn’t offer email hosting, but SiteGround does.
SiteGround is a lot cheaper than Kinsta, especially when you get their special price in your first year.
SiteGround currently only charges for annual plans, but Kinsta offers monthly payments.
