Hetzner vs Kinsta: guide for 2024

Hetzner vs Kinsta: Final verdict

Final verdict

When comparing Hetzner and Kinsta, both display unique strengths tailored to different user needs.

• Kinsta (Overall grade: 8.5) offers a high-performance hosting service that consistently achieves 100% uptime in many tests and leverages the Google Cloud Platform for top-tier performance and security. Its built-in tools cater specifically to WordPress and ecommerce sites, including Cloudflare integration, regular backups, and response times averaging 461ms. Kinsta excels in user convenience through the MyKinsta dashboard, providing proactive monitoring, robust migration support, and automatic image optimization for faster page loads. Its customer service, highlighted by 24/7 live chat and a 30-day money-back guarantee, makes it a standout choice for users seeking a comprehensive, reliable hosting experience.
• Hetzner (Overall grade: 7.9) is known for its extensive features and affordable pricing plans, making it a strong contender for those looking for value. It operates multiple data centers in Germany, Finland, and the USA, and offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee supported by Juniper backbone technology and free DDoS protection. Hetzner provides a rich feature set, including free SSL certificates, daily backups, and extensive email hosting capabilities. The konsoleH interface offers structured, user-friendly management tools, and though it may not be as intuitive as Kinsta’s dashboard, it provides comprehensive control for advanced users. Hetzner’s managed servers without long-term commitments add flexibility, but customer service might not be as responsive as Kinsta’s, impacting overall user satisfaction.

Hosting types offered

Both platforms provide a variety of hosting types, each designed to meet the different needs of users.

Although both offer a variety of hosting plans tailored to different needs, in certain cases, one platform may prove to be more suitable.

Detailed comparison

Winner Kinsta:Kinsta delivers exceptional uptime and availability through advanced technology and infrastructure.

Hetzner Online offers a competitive 99.9% uptime guarantee with data centers located in Germany, Finland, and the USA. Their network availability also guarantees a minimum of 99.9% uptime, supported by 24/7 monitoring and SMS notifications for quick issue resolution. Additionally, they provide free DDoS protection and employ Juniper backbone technology for a redundant network.

Kinsta guarantees 99.9% uptime and has consistently achieved 100% uptime in multiple tests over the past three years. Their infrastructure, built on the Google Cloud Platform and enhanced by Cloudflare integration, not only ensures high availability but also fast response times. Kinsta’s monitoring system, which checks each site every three minutes, enables quick responses to any issues, making it a highly reliable hosting service.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: High-performing hosting with advanced optimization features and extensive customer support.

Kinsta and Hetzner both offer impressive hosting services with several unique strengths. Kinsta’s hosting is built on the premium tier of the Google Cloud Platform, which ensures fast loading times via Google Cloud’s fastest C2 and C3D virtual machines. It integrates Cloudflare to enhance security and performance. Hetzner’s hosting uses high-performance hardware with Intel® Xeon® Gold and AMD EPYC™ processors and offers NVMe SSD storage, providing high read and write speeds. Kinsta has 35 global data center locations, while Hetzner’s data centers are located in Germany, Finland, and the USA. Both services offer comprehensive caching methods, but Kinsta includes application performance monitoring and PHP optimization tools.

Website speed

Kinsta’s website speed benefits from edge caching, cutting Time to First Byte (TTFB) significantly, and offers code minification to speed up load times. Hetzner, equipped with NVMe SSDs, allows for faster read and write speeds. Kinsta’s built-in image optimization automatically converts images to WebP format, aiding faster page loads, while Hetzner’s use of Juniper backbone technology ensures reliable speed with minimal latency. Kinsta’s continuous MySQL optimization and proactive monitoring help maintain speed and performance.

Scalability

Kinsta provides elastic scalability, allowing effortless plan upgrades as website needs grow, with transparent pricing based on resources used. Kinsta does not mention dedicated servers explicitly. Hetzner offers managed servers with no minimum contract period and charges for additional disk space and traffic as needed. Hetzner supports flexible invoicing for over-usage and has straightforward upgrade processes. The costs involved in scaling depend on specific needs and usages, and detailed cost information isn’t provided.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: Kinsta offers a comprehensive range of security features, robust compliance measures, and additional performance-enhancing options, making it an excellent choice for secure and efficient WordPress hosting.

Both Hetzner and Kinsta, have notable differences in their approaches to technical and operational security, as well as in their compliance with regulations.

Technical security measures:

Both Hetzner and Kinsta provide robust technical security measures, including free SSL certificates. Hetzner offers Symantec Basic SSL and Let’s Encrypt, while Kinsta supports custom and wildcard SSL certificates, with automatic renewals. Hetzner’s PHP support spans PHP5 to PHP8, accompanied by a PHP Configurator for script adjustments. Kinsta facilitates PHP version selection for each site via the MyKinsta dashboard. Both platforms offer DDoS protection, with Kinsta additionally leveraging Cloudflare’s services.

Operational security measures:

Hetzner emphasizes secure connections through FTPS/SFTP, SSH access, and encrypted admin interfaces. It includes a comprehensive mail security setup with DKIM, SPF, and ClamAV virus scanning. Kinsta, similarly, offers SSH and SFTP access, automated malware removal, and hourly backups, catering specifically to WordPress users. Both hosts have automated defense mechanisms and system integrity checks, although Kinsta’s proactive monitoring includes uptime checks every 3 minutes and security vulnerability alerts.

Compliance and certifications:

Compliance is a strong point for both hosting providers. Hetzner adheres to GDPR standards, with data processing agreements and ISO 27001 certified data centers. Kinsta matches GDPR compliance and achieves SOC 2 compliance for enterprise-grade security. While PCI compliance details are not specified for either, Kinsta’s infrastructure supports robust security measures that aid in PCI compliance efforts.

🏆 Winner Hetzner: Offering extensive features and robust services for a reliable hosting experience.

When comparing Hetzner and Kinsta, users will find that both provide a range of hosting services to meet diverse requirements. Hetzner stands out with its comprehensive feature set that includes a free domain, robust security options like DDoS protection, and extensive email hosting capabilities. Kinsta, while also proficient, offers website staging environments, which are ideal for users who require a testing ground for their updates before they go live. However, it lacks the built-in free domain registration that Hetzner bundles with its plans. For users looking at the customization aspect, Hetzner provides more control with various PHP versions and a combination of modern technologies, which is a significant benefit for developers who seek flexibility in their server environment.

User-friendliness is also a key factor. Hetzner’s konsoleH graphical interface makes it accessible even to less tech-savvy users. This ease of navigation could overshadow Kinsta’s offering for users not comfortable with multiple-step processes to access features like SSH. Kinsta does offer notable perks like its MyKinsta panel, which is tailored to simplify the management of hosting services. Users who value convenience and pre-configured environments might lean towards Kinsta. Extra costs such as Kinsta’s unique fee structures for backups and reinstalls, as well as the additional domain registration charges at Hetzner, could influence cost-conscious users. However, Hetzner’s no minimum contract period offers greater flexibility to those who want the freedom to migrate without long-term commitments.

Both providers support a range of users from beginners to experts with user-friendly website builders and WordPress staging areas. However, in terms of developer tools, both Hetzner and Kinsta offer robust options including SSH access, support for multiple programming languages, and Git for version control, thus appealing to developers looking for advanced capabilities.

Email services:

Hetzner offers robust email hosting capabilities with up to unlimited mailboxes, extensive email forwarding options, synchronization protocols, and features like autoresponders. Kinsta, on the other hand, does not provide native email hosting services but allows integration with third-party services like Google Workspace. Transactional emails are managed via third-party services. Users needing comprehensive email hosting might prefer Hetzner, while those looking for integration with external services might find Kinsta adequate.

🏆 Winner Kinsta:Kinsta excels in managed WordPress hosting plans with a wide array of features catering to various business needs.

Evaluating the pricing of plans among various hosting providers can be complex due to their differing pricing and renewal strategies. Additionally, certain plans require annual commitments, which adds to the difficulty of making comparisons. The prices listed are based on monthly commitments; plans requiring annual commitments are indicated. Although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.

Hetzner offers a variety of affordable hosting plans including web hosting, cloud hosting, and managed server plans. Their prices range from €2.09/mo for basic web hosting to higher priced managed server options starting at €40.46/mo. Kinsta, on the other hand, specializes in managed WordPress hosting and application hosting with the Starter plan priced at $35/mo and enterprise-level plans scaling up significantly. Kinsta offers more generous storage and backup solutions, premium migrations, and comprehensive support and security features compared to Hetzner.

Enterprise plans

Kinsta’s enterprise plans start from $675/month and offer significant resources, including more than 60 WordPress installs, over 100GB storage, 2TB CDN, premium migrations, and 30-day backup retention. These plans are tailored for businesses needing extensive website management and advanced security features. Hetzner does not provide enterprise-specific hosting plans directly comparable to Kinsta’s offerings but offers robust cloud hosting and managed servers that can cater to high-demand scenarios, with prices starting from €40.46/month.

🏆 Winner: Kinsta:A user-friendly and versatile hosting platform with exceptional support.

Hetzner utilizes the konsoleH administration interface, which allows users to manage domains, email addresses, websites, and other data. Its structured interface appears straightforward, making it navigable for users with varying degrees of technical expertise. From creating accounts to managing server configurations, the interface is efficiently designed to support both simple and complex tasks. However, its reliance on traditional setup processes may pose slight challenges to non-technical users.

Kinsta offers the MyKinsta dashboard, known for its intuitive and visually appealing design. The dashboard boasts features like one-click backup creation, easy cache management, and simple PHP version selection. Its customizable and user-centric approach makes it accessible to users with different levels of technical knowledge. Kinsta’s dashboard significantly simplifies server management, providing a smooth experience for both novices and seasoned developers.

Both Hetzner and Kinsta provide tools for site migration. Hetzner offers detailed step-by-step guides and support for domain, website, mail, and database migrations. However, the process may require more manual input compared to Kinsta. Kinsta’s migration process is more straightforward; users can request migrations directly through the MyKinsta dashboard by providing details about their current hosting provider or using a backup file. Kinsta offers both basic and premium migrations, which highlights its flexibility and ease of use in this area.

Hetzner’s help center is comprehensive, offering detailed documentation, guides, and 24/7 email and telephone support. Users can also contribute to the Hetzner Community for additional credit incentives. Kinsta provides a robust knowledge base complete with guides, tutorials, and 24/7/365 live expert support via chat. Kinsta’s support emphasizes direct access to experienced developers and engineers, ensuring high-quality assistance.

🏆 Winner Hetzner: A reliable solution for comprehensive user management.

Hetzner and Kinsta offer unique approaches to user management, focusing on different aspects of control and accessibility. Hetzner provides a well-defined method for creating groups and user roles, offering significant control over user permissions and quotas through its interface. Kinsta, on the other hand, simplifies user management by offering predefined roles with clear responsibilities but places much of the onus on customers for managing their access levels and content. Hetzner’s ability to create custom groups provides a higher degree of flexibility compared to Kinsta’s predefined roles.

Hetzner employs a detailed user interface for managing users, featuring dedicated settings for adding users, setting quotas, and creating groups. The process involves navigating through user settings and making specific adjustments for each user role. Kinsta, by contrast, offers a straightforward interface through MyKinsta, emphasizing user responsibility in managing their credentials and enabling Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). While Kinsta’s tools are user-friendly, they lack the detailed role customization available in Hetzner’s interface.

When it comes to access control measures, Hetzner offers efficient tools to create, manage, and monitor user activities. The platform allows administrators to track user activities through a dedicated overview and apply specific storage quotas, thereby managing a growing number of users effectively. Kinsta, meanwhile, provides a basic framework for managing access through its predefined roles of Company Owners, Administrators, and Developers. This framework simplifies management on Kinsta but doesn’t offer the detailed access controls seen in Hetzner, making it potentially less scalable for complex user management needs.

Hetzner user roles table:

Kinsta user roles table:

🏆 Winner Kinsta: Kinsta offers extensive 24/7 live chat support, proactive site monitoring, multilingual support, and a 30-day money-back guarantee, making it a superior choice for hosting.

Hetzner Online and Kinsta both provide a range of customer support options, but Kinsta generally offers more comprehensive service. Hetzner’s support includes email, ticketing, and limited phone support, but lacks live chat which is often preferred for its immediacy. Documentation is available for self-service, and support is in multiple languages, but some users report slow responses for billing and account issues. Furthermore, there is no money-back guarantee or free trial period, leaving users with a more rigid service policy.

Kinsta, on the other hand, has multiple support channels available including 24/7 live chat for all paid customers, which sets it apart. The support is available in several languages with quick average response times of under 2 minutes. Kinsta also offers enterprise-grade security, proactive site monitoring, and comprehensive documentation and community support. Adding to that, the 30-day money-back guarantee provides users with a risk-free opportunity to try their services, clearly showcasing a customer-centric approach.

Hetzner vs Kinsta: User feedback

Users generally find the hosting provider to be cost-effective with robust performance capabilities, able to handle demanding tasks reliably. Many reviewers appreciate the competitive pricing, ease of use, and the fast, reliable infrastructure. While customer support is often praised for its availability and helpfulness, some users believe it could still see improvements. The platform’s dashboard and additional features could benefit from enhancements, but overall, users are satisfied with the value and quality of service provided.

Kinsta is highly recommended by users for its reliable and easy-to-use hosting services, particularly for WordPress sites. Customers appreciate the fast and responsive customer support, impressive speed, and robust security features provided by the platform. The user-friendly dashboard and extensive documentation also stand out as significant advantages, making it easy for both novices and tech-savvy individuals to manage their sites. However, some users find the pricing to be on the higher side, and a few have suggested improvements like expanding data center locations and providing direct access to all integrated services. Overall, Kinsta is praised for delivering a high-quality, dependable hosting experience.

Hetzner vs Kinsta: FAQ