Domain.com vs Kinsta: guide for 2024

Domain.com vs Kinsta: Final verdict

Looking over domaincom vs. Kinsta, both platforms have their unique strengths and cater to different user needs.

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  Kinsta (Overall grade: 8.5)
  
  
  is a superior choice, particularly for WordPress enthusiasts and agencies managing multiple sites. It boasts unparalleled performance with 99.9% uptime, thanks to its Google Cloud Platform infrastructure and Cloudflare integration. Its proactive monitoring and robust security measures, including DDoS protection and a managed firewall, further enhance its reliability. Kinsta’s intuitive MyKinsta dashboard, scalability, and well-integrated staging environment make it highly user-friendly for both developers and non-technical users. Although pricier, Kinsta’s advanced features and strong support justify the cost, making it ideal for high-traffic and enterprise-level websites.
  
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  Domain.com (Overall grade: 6.5)
  
  
  provides a more budget-friendly option with straightforward shared and dedicated hosting plans. Its highlights include unlimited storage, SSL certificates, and a drag-and-drop website builder, which are beneficial for beginners or those managing multimedia websites. However, its actual performance often falls short of its 99.99% uptime guarantee, and response times can be slower under load. Domain.com’s lack of automatic scaling and less advanced security features makes it less suited for high-traffic or complex sites. While it offers some free perks like a domain for the first year, its overall value is overshadowed by limitations in speed and reliability compared to Kinsta.
  

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: Reliable uptime and excellent performance.

Kinsta stands out with its strong uptime guarantee of 99.9% and actual performance that consistently showcases 100% uptime in multiple tests. Its infrastructure, based on the Google Cloud Platform, coupled with Cloudflare integration, ensures swift and reliable availability. Monitoring every site every three minutes, Kinsta’s proactive approach enhances its reliability and performance.

Domain.com, despite its 99.99% uptime guarantee, fails to deliver on its promise, showing significantly lower actual uptime in tests. Response times are on the slower side, especially under load, making it a less dependable option. The lack of clear downtime policy details further adds to its reliability concerns, positioning it behind Kinsta in terms of both uptime and performance.

🏆 Winner
Kinsta: High-performance, cloud-based hosting with superior optimization and support.

When it comes to hosting speed, Domain.com provides unmetered bandwidth, drag-and-drop builder, and a 99% uptime guarantee across its plans. However, Kinsta outshines with its advanced infrastructure built on Google Cloud Platform’s premium tier network and fastest C2 and C3D virtual machines, along with Cloudflare integration for enhanced security and performance. Kinsta’s edge caching, image optimization, and a built-in application performance monitoring system make it significantly more optimized. Kinsta operates 35 global data centers, offering superior load times and reliability compared to Domain.com’s offerings.

Website Speed

Kinsta delivers faster page speeds due to its integration with Cloudflare, edge caching, and early hints technology, effectively reducing Time to First Byte (TTFB) by up to 50%. Continuous MySQL database optimization and automatic conversion of images to WebP make it stand out. Domain.com’s plans include basic SSL and a drag-and-drop builder but lack the extensive speed-oriented technologies of Kinsta.

Scalability

Kinsta offers elastic scaling, automatically adjusting resources as traffic increases, with transparent pricing and no hidden fees. Its plans cater to various needs with features like Nginx reverse proxy and Redis add-ons. In contrast, Domain.com requires upgrading to higher-tier plans to handle more websites, visitors, or storage, as it doesn’t offer automatic scaling. Pricing for scaling on Domain.com is fixed and might end up more expensive without the sophisticated flexibility offered by Kinsta.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: Kinsta offers an array of advanced security measures and operational tools tailored for high security and compliance needs.

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

Technical security measures:

Domain.com provides robust SSL certificates, including advanced options like Wildcard SSL, and various malware protection measures via SiteLock security. It offers encryption, authentication, and credit card protection, ensuring secure operations. Kinsta, on the other hand, offers free SSL certificates with automatic renewals, support for custom and wildcard SSLs, and proactive site monitoring, which includes checking uptime and providing security vulnerability alerts. Kinsta also features a fully managed WAF with DDoS protection, making it highly secure.

Operational security measures:

Domain.com includes 24/7 security support, malware protection, automatic malware removal, and a web application firewall in higher-tier plans. They also provide a comprehensive range of SSL certificates and PCI compliance scanning for sensitive transactions. Kinsta offers advanced operational security with free malware removal, automatic hourly backups, IP deny tools, secure remote access over SSH or SFTP, and cloud infrastructure protection via the Google Cloud firewall. Kinsta also supports application performance monitoring and image optimization for better performance.

Compliance and certifications:

Domain.com ensures GDPR compliance, providing data protection and privacy for EU residents. It also supports PCI compliance for credit card transactions. Although it does not specify HIPAA compliance, Domain.com adheres to significant security requirements. Kinsta is SOC 2 compliant, offers GDPR compliance, and supports PCI compliance through its robust infrastructure. There is no specific mention of HIPAA compliance for Kinsta.

🏆 Winner
Kinsta: Kinsta stands out with a higher score and more advanced features.

Both Domain.com and Kinsta offer a selection of hosting services, but their capabilities and unique offerings cater to different user preferences. Domain.com provides a drag-and-drop website builder that is user-friendly and ideal for those who prefer quick, visual customization without deep technical knowledge. However, on the flipside, Kinsta doesn’t mention a built-in website builder, which can be a crucial factor for beginners. Domain.com also offers a free domain for the first year using promo code DOMFREE, which can be a valuable freebie for newcomers setting up their first website. Domain.com’s hosting services also include unlimited bandwidth and storage, SSL certificate for the first year, and multiple types of hosting to suit various needs.

Kinsta, by contrast, is known for more specialized technical features that are advantageous for more advanced users. Kinsta’s strong point lies in its advanced SFTP and SSH details, which are clearly outlined and accessible under each site’s Info tab within the MyKinsta dashboard. With Kinsta, users benefit from precise control over file management and security with individual SSH ports for each site, thereby enhancing security. Although Domain.com also offers unlimited FTP accounts, the lack of clear SSH access details might make it less appealing for developers who require this functionality. Moreover, Kinsta’s use of a staging environment is another sophisticated feature that enables users to test websites before going live, a significant advantage for developers and larger businesses.

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 Domain.com 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:

Email services at Domain.com includes traditional email hosting, which allows users to set up custom email accounts using their domain name. Kinsta lacks built-in email hosting but offers third-party integrations like Google Workspace for users who need professional email solutions. This setup could be a drawback for those seeking an all-in-one hosting solution with email included. On the other hand, Kinsta’s collaboration with third-party services may offer more robust email functionalities and integrations.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: Offers a variety of advanced hosting plans with numerous features, making it an excellent choice for professional websites.

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. Additionally, although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.

Comparing the pricing plans, Domain.com offers a flat rate of $3.75 per month across all their plans, making it a budget-friendly option with numerous inclusions like free domains and SSL certifications. Kinsta, on the other hand, provides more specialized and higher-tier options starting from $35 per month, offering advanced features such as higher storage, premium migrations, and extended backup retention periods. Kinsta’s plans cater more to enterprise-level needs with greater bandwidth and professional support options.

Enterprise plans

Kinsta targets enterprises with plans starting at $675 per month, offering extensive features that include over 60 WordPress installs, more than 1 million monthly visits, 100GB+ storage, and premium support options, making it ideal for large-scale websites and traffic-heavy environments. Domain.com lacks specialized enterprise plans, limiting its appeal for larger businesses needing high-capacity and feature-rich hosting solutions.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: A highly user-friendly hosting platform with comprehensive support.

Domain.com offers a standard control panel with features like a drag-and-drop website builder and AI-powered site creation tools. The control panel is designed to be intuitive, especially for those who are less tech-savvy. It integrates Google Workspace and provides pre-installed plugins for WordPress hosting, making it easier to manage various aspects of a website. Domain.com prioritizes simplicity and accessibility, resonating well with users seeking a straightforward experience.

Kinsta features the MyKinsta dashboard, a custom-built and award-winning admin panel. It’s praised for its ease of use, featuring one-click backup creation, easy cache management, and PHP version selection. The dashboard is accessible to both technical and non-technical users, offering a streamlined experience for site management. Kinsta’s staging environments for testing changes before going live add to its appeal for developers.

Domain.com allows users to migrate their websites but doesn’t specify if this service is free. The control panel includes an option for users to manage this process themselves. Kinsta, on the other hand, excels with a straightforward migration process that includes both basic and premium migrations through the MyKinsta dashboard. Users only need to provide details about their current hosting provider or use a backup file. This service is designed to be hassle-free, making it appealing for those looking to move their websites with minimal effort.

Domain.com provides a comprehensive knowledge base and a help center that includes articles, live chat support, and a blog. The 24/7 support team is available to assist users. Kinsta also offers a detailed knowledge base, community forums, and guides and tutorials. Their support is available 24/7/365 via live chat, staffed by experienced developers and engineers. Kinsta’s proactive monitoring and expert support make it stand out in terms of quality and accessibility.

The platforms provide extensive knowledge bases filled with guides, how-to articles, and instructional content. Domain.com offers a wide range of resources alongside 24/7 chat and phone support. Kinsta also boasts a detailed help center with an intuitive search function and around-the-clock support via live chat, phone, and ticketing, ensuring comprehensive user support.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: Kinsta offers streamlined and secure user management features tailored for modern WordPress hosting needs.

Domain.com provides a structured yet straightforward approach to user roles within WordPress, with predefined roles such as Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber. This structured approach makes it easy for site administrators to assign and manage roles with clearly defined permissions. In comparison, Kinsta offers a more customizable user management system that extends beyond basic WordPress roles. Company Owners and Administrators at Kinsta have enhanced capabilities to manage user access and permissions, offering more flexibility in defining user roles. Kinsta’s system gives users more control to tailor permissions according to their specific needs, making it a versatile option for businesses with unique requirements.

When it comes to user interfaces, Domain.com leverages the standard WordPress dashboard for managing users. This familiar interface enables easy navigation, making it accessible even for users with basic technical skills. The process of adding a new user is straightforward, involving a few clicks from the WordPress dashboard. Conversely, Kinsta provides an enhanced user experience via the MyKinsta dashboard. This interface not only allows for typical user management tasks but also integrates security features like Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). The MyKinsta dashboard is designed for both simplicity and efficiency, providing all user management tools in one centralized location.

In terms of access control measures, Domain.com’s predefined user roles offer reliable access management for varying levels of responsibility and tasks, ensuring content creators and site managers can perform their roles without over-reaching permissions. However, for growing businesses, Kinsta’s focused approach on access control stands out. With roles like Company Owners and Company Administrators responsible for adding and removing users, Kinsta ensures that only authorized personnel can alter access levels. This structured delegation combined with security features like 2FA enhances Kinsta’s capability to manage an expanding user base efficiently.

Kinsta user roles table:

🏆 Winner Kinsta: Kinsta stands out for its superior multilingual support and enterprise-grade security features.

Domain.com and Kinsta both offer 24/7 live chat support. Domain.com also provides 24/7 phone support, connecting you with a representative in under three minutes, but lacks dedicated email support. The availability and responsiveness of Kinsta’s multilingual support, combined with proactive site monitoring, further enhance its attractiveness.

Kinsta impresses with its email support and multilingual capabilities, including support in languages like French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish at various times. The human-only expert support at Kinsta is a clear advantage, with no AI or chatbots involved. Additionally, Kinsta’s enterprise-grade security, proactive site monitoring, and SOC 2 compliance add significant value to their offerings.

Domain.com vs Kinsta: User feedback

User feedback for this hosting provider reveals a mixed experience. Many users appreciate its user-friendly platform, straightforward domain registration process, and reliable customer support. However, significant criticisms include poor customer service practices, confusing pricing and add-ons, and outdated or slow web interfaces. While some users praise the affordability and efficiency of domain management, others warn of hidden costs and problematic service.

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.

Domain.com vs Kinsta: FAQ