Hostmonster vs Kinsta: guide for 2024

Hostmonster vs Kinsta: Final verdict

Looking over HostMonster vs. Kinsta, the two services cater to different user needs and priorities, each with its distinct strengths and weaknesses.

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  Kinsta (Overall grade: 8.5)
  
  
  impresses with its advanced performance capabilities bolstered by Google Cloud Platform, stellar uptime reliability, and exceptional scalability. Its robust security features, including managed firewall and free malware removal, make it ideal for high-traffic and business-critical WordPress sites. Kinsta’s custom-built MyKinsta dashboard and dedicated support team offer a streamlined, professional experience suited for developers and large-scale businesses. However, Kinsta comes with a premium price tag and might be overkill for small businesses looking for basic hosting.
  
• 
  HostMonster (Overall grade: 7.4)
  
  
  provides a more budget-friendly option, perfect for small to medium-sized businesses. It includes a range of features such as a free drag-and-drop site builder, premium SSL certificates, and extensive email hosting capabilities. Its ease of use and extensive support resources make it accessible for beginners. Despite its strong uptime and reasonable performance, HostMonster’s pricing can increase significantly after the first year, and it falls short in offering advanced performance and security features compared to Kinsta, making it less suitable for high-traffic or complex sites.
  

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 offers exceptional reliability with consistent 100% uptime in various tests over multiple months and years.

Kinsta’s uptime guarantee and actual performance demonstrate its strong reliability. With a guarantee of 99.9% uptime, Kinsta has shown consistent 100% uptime through various tests, including a three-month period and an independent 12-month review. Kinsta employs Google Cloud Platform, enhancing its performance and security with features like DDoS protection and a high-performance CDN.

HostMonster also presents excellent uptime performance, with a few brief periods of downtime. HostMonster offers strong response times, beneficial back-end protections such as SSH access, and responsive 24/7 technical support. HostMonster ensures site stability with its technical features, despite the absence of flexible billing options and price hikes after the first year.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: A premium cloud-based hosting with advanced features.

When it comes to general performance, Kinsta outshines HostMonster significantly. Kinsta leverages Google Cloud Platform’s premium tier network, powered by the latest C2 and C3D virtual machines, to deliver exceptional speed and reliability. HostMonster offers standard performance for most plans, reserving higher performance only for their Pro tier. Kinsta also integrates Cloudflare for enhanced security and speed, while HostMonster lacks this free integration. Furthermore, Kinsta has 35 global data centers, giving it a wider footprint compared to HostMonster’s fewer data center options.

Website Speed

Kinsta’s speed optimization is a major highlight, featuring Edge Caching that significantly reduces Time to First Byte (TTFB) and automatic image optimization that converts images to WebP. HostMonster offers reliable performance but without the advanced optimization features found in Kinsta. The inclusion of built-in APM for PHP bottlenecks and code minification further sets Kinsta apart in terms of website speed and performance.

Scalability

Kinsta offers seamless scaling without the need to manually upgrade plans, making it ideal for growing businesses. Their infrastructure is elastic, automatically adjusting resources based on demand. HostMonster, on the other hand, requires manual upgrading for enhanced performance, particularly if moving from a standard to a Pro tier. The costs for scaling can be more flexible with Kinsta through its various pricing tiers, whereas HostMonster’s predefined plans may involve higher costs for substantial upgrades.

🏆 Winner
Kinsta: Kinsta offers a range of advanced security features and compliance measures tailored for WordPress sites.
Both HostMonster and Kinsta, have notable differences in their approaches to technical and operational
security, as well as in their compliance with regulations.

Technical security measures:

HostMonster and Kinsta provide several technical security features to protect their users. HostMonster offers premium SSL certificates, free generated certificates with specific plans, and supports changing PHP versions via a PHP Config Guide. Kinsta includes free SSL certificates with automatic renewals and allows PHP version selection through its MyKinsta dashboard. HostMonster supports two-factor authentication, hotlink protection, and secure shell (SSH) access. In comparison, Kinsta secures its sites behind a fully managed firewall with DDoS protection and offers force HTTPS with a single click. Both hosts offer methods to tweak PHP settings and comprehensive antivirus options, though Kinsta’s inclusion of free malware removal stands out.

Operational security measures:

Both HostMonster and Kinsta have distinct operational security approaches. HostMonster emphasizes a basic site security checklist that includes removing malicious files, updating scripts, changing passwords, and more. Kinsta ensures multiple backup options like daily and hourly automated backups, alongside proactive site monitoring that checks sites every three minutes. HostMonster provides daily vulnerability scanning through SiteLock, while Kinsta offers free malware removal and timely alerts about vulnerabilities. Kinsta also offers an IP deny tool to block unwanted IP addresses and continuous MySQL database optimization to maintain performance.

Compliance and certifications:

When it comes to compliance, both HostMonster and Kinsta meet GDPR requirements, providing data protection for EU residents. HostMonster has been GDPR compliant since May 25, 2018, detailing data handling practices in its privacy policy. Kinsta is not only GDPR compliant, but also SOC 2 compliant, making it suitable for enterprises. For PCI compliance, HostMonster supports PCI compliance on all accounts for A and B levels. Kinsta’s detailed PCI compliance information is unspecified, although its robust infrastructure can support it for eCommerce sites.

🏆 Winner HostMonster: A robust array of features with notable value-added services.

When it comes to hosting providers, both HostMonster and Kinsta bring commendable features to the table, but they cater to different user needs. HostMonster impresses with its free drag-and-drop site builder, which makes website creation a breeze for beginners, allowing for swift and straightforward customization. The inclusion of a free domain name for the first year can be a significant incentive for new users looking to establish their online presence without additional costs. In contrast, Kinsta focuses on developers and high-performance sites, albeit with a more complex setup. Though Kinsta doesn’t label a specific free website builder, their platform supports extensive customization through WordPress, appealing to users proficient in coding or advanced website design.

Unique selling points set each provider apart. HostMonster’s unlimited disk storage and domain hosting stand out, catering to users who need extensive resources without worrying about additional fees. Conversely, Kinsta emphasizes performance and security with SSH access and a unique SFTP setup for each site. Kinsta’s support for changing the SFTP/SSH password directly in MyKinsta lends an extra layer of convenience and security. While HostMonster strives to offer extensive free services upfront, such as a free domain and website builder, Kinsta’s strengths lie in its advanced user control and robust security measures.

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 HostMonster 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:

HostMonster provides extensive email hosting capabilities, with both POP3 and IMAP support, along with unlimited email accounts and webmail solutions, making it ideal for users needing comprehensive email services. Kinsta, although not primarily focused on email hosting, integrates well with third-party email services like Google Workspace. This makes it a suitable choice for users who prefer to manage their email through these established platforms rather than hosting it directly through their web provider. HostMonster’s robust offering in the email department stands out, especially for small businesses looking for a full-suite hosting service.

🏆 Winner Kinsta:Kinsta scores slightly higher overall, mainly due to the robust features included in their plans and the transparency of what’s included.

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.

HostMonster offers a variety of shared hosting plans ranging from $12.99 to $33.99 per month, focusing on flexibility and unmetered bandwidth with basics like one free domain registration and free SSL certificates. On the other hand, Kinsta’s managed WordPress plans range from $35 to $450 per month, offering premium features like high storage, free CDN, and premium migrations with a higher price point tailored for WordPress optimization. While HostMonster provides entry-level affordability with broader applications, Kinsta emphasizes performance, particularly for WordPress sites, through their managed services.

Enterprise plans

HostMonster’s Pro plan at $33.99 per month features unlimited websites, high performance, unmetered bandwidth, free dedicated IP, and comprehensive security with premium SSL and backups, making it suitable for mid to large-sized enterprises on a budget. Kinsta, starting from $675 per month, offers extensive options with over 60 WordPress installs, 100+ GB storage, 2,000+ GB CDN, and 5+ premium migrations. Kinsta’s solution is optimized for high-traffic enterprise needs with robust backup retention and high storage capacity, positioning it as the premium choice for enterprises looking for extensive resources and dedicated WordPress hosting.

🏆 Winner: Kinsta: A hosting provider with a user-friendly, custom-built dashboard and proactive monitoring.

HostMonster uses a standard cPanel, which is well-known and widely used in the industry. This makes it accessible to users who have prior experience with cPanel. For those who are new, the interface can be somewhat overwhelming due to its wide range of options and features. However, HostMonster mitigates this with a comprehensive getting started guide and video tutorials. The inclusion of 1-click WordPress install and free site builders also eases the setup for non-technical users.

Kinsta, on the other hand, offers a custom-built MyKinsta dashboard which is lauded for its user-friendliness. This dashboard is designed to be intuitive for users of all skill levels, offering one-click backup creation and easy cache management. The aesthetic and functional design helps users manage multiple sites and perform advanced tasks without much hassle. The high degree of accessibility and streamlined interface makes MyKinsta superior for both technical and non-technical users.

HostMonster provides instant setup for new accounts and offers a 1-click WordPress install feature, which simplifies the process for beginners. The comprehensive Help Center includes popular articles, video tutorials, and 24/7 support via phone and chat. These elements assist users in migrating their sites, although the level of hands-on support during the migration process is less pronounced and may involve some manual effort from the user.

Kinsta excels in the migration process by offering straightforward migration services directly through the custom MyKinsta dashboard. Users can request a migration by providing details about their current hosting provider or using a backup file. Kinsta offers both basic and premium migrations as part of their service, making the process smoother and more accessible. The focus on providing detailed migration steps and support elevates the user experience significantly.

The platforms provide extensive knowledge bases filled with guides, how-to articles, and instructional content. HostMonster 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: Offers detailed user management and access control, ensuring security and efficiency for its users.

In comparing the ability to manage user roles, permissions, and accessibility, Kinsta emerges as the more comprehensive platform. Kinsta provides a clear division of responsibilities among Company Owners, Company Administrators, and Company Developers. This detailed structure allows customers to define and grant access at various levels, ensuring precise control over user permissions. HostMonster, on the other hand, uses a modified version of cPanel, which generally includes basic user account management and permissions. However, it lacks the specific segregation of roles and responsibilities found in Kinsta. The intricate roles and access control offered by Kinsta provide more flexibility and robust management for larger teams and businesses.

When it comes to user interfaces and tools for managing users, Kinsta’s MyKinsta dashboard stands out with its user-friendly design and integrated tools. The dashboard includes features like Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) and easy navigation to user settings, enhancing security and convenience. HostMonster’s cPanel, while functional and widely known, doesn’t offer the same level of intuitive design or advanced features seen in MyKinsta. The ability to manage user roles through a more modern interface gives Kinsta an edge, making it more suitable for users seeking efficiency and ease of use.

Assessing the effectiveness of access control measures, Kinsta’s structured approach to user roles and its emphasis on security protocols such as 2FA provide a secure and scalable solution for growing user bases. The responsibility assigned to customers for ensuring correct access levels further promotes accountability and tailored access control. HostMonster’s reliance on cPanel offers basic user management, but it may not be as effective in handling a rapidly expanding number of users with varying permissions. Kinsta’s capability to manage numerous users efficiently makes it more adept at supporting larger organizations with stringent access requirements.

Kinsta user roles table:

🏆 Winner Kinsta: Kinsta provides expansive multilingual support and faster average response times, making it an excellent choice for diverse customer needs.

HostMonster and Kinsta both offer a variety of customer support options to assist their users. HostMonster provides 24/7 technical support via phone, with sales support available during specified hours. It also offers email support and live chat for inquiries. This range of options ensures customers can find help when needed, though their lack of specific enterprise-level support may be limiting for some businesses.

Kinsta, on the other hand, stands out with its multilingual support available for specific languages and extended hours. It offers human-only expert support with an average response time of under two minutes and proactive site monitoring. Kinsta’s support is accessible 24/7 through live chat for paid plans, enhancing the overall support experience significantly compared to HostMonster. Additionally, Kinsta includes enterprise-grade security features, providing a comprehensive solution for businesses requiring priority support and advanced security.

Hostmonster vs Kinsta: User feedback

HostMonster receives mixed reviews from users, with positive feedback highlighting its affordable pricing, reliable uptime, and quick website loading times. Users also appreciate the extensive range of features such as addons for security, easy integration with MySQL, and a generally good customer service experience. However, many users find the user interface to be difficult to navigate, particularly for non-technical individuals, and note that technical support can be inconsistent, often more focused on sales than solving issues. Additionally, unexpected costs and technical limitations like frequent PHP updates and challenges with deploying large applications have also been pointed out as significant drawbacks.

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.

Hostmonster vs Kinsta: FAQ