Kinsta vs Hawk Host: guide for 2024

Kinsta vs Hawk Host: Final verdict

Looking over Kinsta vs. Hawk Host, it’s clear why both hosts are so popular. They have both hosted millions of
websites that run on WordPress for decades, building up a loyal customer base.

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  Kinsta (Overall grade: 8.5)
  
  excels in delivering high-performance WordPress hosting with advanced features suitable for agencies, high-traffic, and multimedia websites. Its infrastructure, backed by Google Cloud Platform, ensures superb uptime, speed, and load capacity, with enhanced security measures and continuous optimization. Offering a robust and user-friendly MyKinsta dashboard, the platform simplifies site management while expert support and comprehensive monitoring safeguard operations. However, Kinsta lacks shared and VPS hosting options and can be pricier, especially for smaller-scale businesses or individual users not needing its premium features.
• 
  Hawk Host (Overall grade: 8.4)
  
  provides a reliable and versatile hosting solution, including shared and VPS hosting along with WordPress expertise. Its services are suitable for users seeking affordable, comprehensive plans with features like unlimited domains, daily backups, and impressive customer support. The use of cPanel offers a familiar interface for traditional hosting management, emphasizing ease of use. While its infrastructure may not match Kinsta’s cutting-edge technology, Hawk Host still ensures robust performance and uptime. Its email hosting and simpler user management features make it a practical option, especially for budget-conscious users willing to sacrifice a bit of performance for cost-efficiency.

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: A highly reliable hosting service with exceptional uptime and availability.

Kinsta offers an impressive 99.9% uptime guarantee and has consistently delivered on this promise with perfect scores in various tests. Their infrastructure, based on Google Cloud Platform, ensures exceptional performance and quick response times. The integration of Cloudflare enhances security and optimizes content delivery, making Kinsta an excellent choice for those who prioritize reliability.

Hawk Host also provides a robust hosting solution with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and a comprehensive compensation plan for downtime. Their six global data centers and proactive measures like daily backups and malware scanning add to their reliability. Although their performance in uptime tests isn’t as flawless as Kinsta’s, Hawk Host remains a solid option with strong customer support and enterprise-grade server hardware.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: For users who prioritize speed and advanced technological infrastructure, Kinsta is more suitable for high-demand websites that require reliable and fast global access.

Kinsta and Hawk Host each offer strong general performance, excelling in certain areas. Kinsta leverages Google Cloud’s premium tier and utilizes cutting-edge C2 and C3D virtual machines, offering superior page load speeds and performance optimizations like Edge Caching and continuous MySQL database optimization. Hawk Host, though excellent, uses Intel Xeon or AMD EPYC processors and high-performance SSD/NVMe storage. Kinsta has an edge in CDN, integrating Cloudflare natively, whereas Hawk Host is CloudFlare optimized but not as comprehensively integrated. Kinsta provides more data centers, with 35 global locations compared to Hawk Host’s seven.

Website Speed

Both hosting services offer exceptional website speeds, but Kinsta tends to perform slightly better. Kinsta’s Edge Caching reduces TTFB by up to 50%, and they implement code minification and image optimization to improve delivery times. Hawk Host also has impressive speeds thanks to LiteSpeed Web Server and high-performance SSD/NVMe storage, but the overall optimizations and broader infrastructure of Kinsta give it a slight edge in this category.

Scalability

Scalability is where Kinsta stands out. They provide elastic scaling options and have various tiers for different hosting needs, from managed WordPress to dedicated application hosting. They support dynamic scaling with transparent overage pricing, which allows for seamless growth without manual upgrades. The cost to scale with Kinsta varies based on resource usage. For Hawk Host, scalability typically involves upgrading plans manually. Both services offer dedicated options, but detailed scaling costs for Hawk Host are not specified.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: Provides robust security features ensuring optimized performance and reliability for WordPress hosting.

Technical security measures:

Kinsta offers free SSL certificates with automatic renewals, custom, and wildcard options, while Hawk Host requires paid SSL certificates starting from $14.99/month. Kinsta’s support for multiple PHP versions can be managed easily via the MyKinsta dashboard, but Hawk Host’s PHP version information isn’t specified. In proactive measures, both providers include malware scanning, but Kinsta adds layers with a managed WAF, built-in DDoS protection, and frequent automatic backups, making it a more fortified option.

Operational security measures:

Kinsta ensures site integrity with automatic daily backups, manual backups, and proactive site monitoring every 3 minutes, as well as hourly backups for frequently changing sites. Hawk Host also offers complimentary daily backups and proactive malware scanning. Secure remote access via SSH or SFTP is available on both platforms, though Kinsta’s extra features like Edge Caching and code minification improve overall performance.

Compliance and certifications:

Kinsta is SOC 2 compliant and GDPR compliant, catering to stringent enterprise-level security and privacy standards. While PCI compliance details are robust but not specific, Kinsta’s infrastructure supports secure transactions. Hawk Host is GDPR compliant but does not specify SOC 2 or PCI compliance explicitly. This absence of detailed compliance information can be a limitation for businesses requiring thorough regulatory adherence.

🏆 Winner
Kinsta: A short one-sentence description.

When comparing Kinsta and Hawk Host, both providers offer robust features to meet diverse hosting needs. Kinsta provides more cloud-based, cutting-edge hosting services with an emphasis on performance and security, ideal for growing businesses looking for managed WordPress hosting. Its platform includes a website builder that is user-friendly and allows for considerable customization. On the other hand, Hawk Host uses the cPanel control panel, offering the LiteSpeed Web Server and a host of features, such as CloudFlare optimization and malware scanning. While both offer a good range of free services like SSL certificates and daily backups, Hawk Host might be more appealing to those looking for the cPanel familiarity and autonomous control.

Kinsta’s unique selling points include its managed WordPress services and the ability to handle complex and high-traffic sites with ease. It also provides seamless SSH access directly from the hosting control panel, making it ideal for developers. Hawk Host stands out with its unlimited domains and MySQL databases, and integrated tools like Softaculous for one-click installations. While Kinsta excels in user-friendliness and developer-centric features, Hawk Host provides a more comprehensive package for those looking for a more traditional, cPanel-based experience. Each provider’s features can accommodate different user needs, making it easier for potential customers to decide based on specific requirements.

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 Kinsta and Hawk Host 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:

Kinsta does not provide native email hosting services, focusing instead on web hosting and offering suggestions for third-party email services. In contrast, Hawk Host offers unlimited email accounts with enterprise-level spam filtering through SpamExperts. This makes Hawk Host a more suitable option for users looking to manage email directly through their hosting provider, especially for those requiring extensive email hosting capabilities.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: Offers a diverse range of feature-rich hosting plans ideal for business and enterprise 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. Additionally, although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.

Kinsta and Hawk Host present unique offerings across their pricing plans. Kinsta’s Managed WordPress Hosting provides comprehensive features at higher price points, including extensive CDN, premium migrations, and long backup retention periods. Conversely, Hawk Host offers more budget-friendly options with unlimited bandwidth and domain support in their Shared Hosting plans, alongside daily backups and proactive malware scanning. In VPS and Cloud Compute Hosting, Hawk Host delivers competitive pricing with full root access. Kinsta’s varied Application Hosting and Database Hosting plans cater to different business needs, providing flexible and optimized solutions for both small and large applications.

Enterprise plans

Kinsta’s Enterprise Plans start at $675/month, featuring over 60 WordPress installs, more than 1 million visits, 100+GB storage, and extensive CDN and backup options. Hawk Host lacks enterprise-specific solutions directly comparable to Kinsta’s offerings. Kinsta

🏆 Winner Kinsta: Offers an award-winning custom-built dashboard and streamlined site management.

Kinsta features a custom-built MyKinsta dashboard, designed to streamline site management for users. Its one-click backup creation, easy cache management, and simple PHP version selection make it user-friendly for both technical and non-technical users. The dashboard’s layout and accessibility facilitate a smooth experience for managing WordPress, static sites, applications, and databases. On the other hand, Hawk Host utilizes the industry-standard cPanel control panel, which is known for its robust functionality. cPanel offers a familiar interface that includes a wide variety of tools such as email management, file management, and script installers, appealing to users who prefer a traditional hosting management experience.

While cPanel is powerful and widely recognized, Kinsta’s custom-built dashboard aims to provide an even more user-friendly experience. The MyKinsta dashboard focuses on minimizing the technical complexity often associated with website management, thus offering an enhanced level of accessibility. Conversely, Hawk Host’s cPanel, though feature-rich, may require a slight learning curve for those unfamiliar with its extensive capabilities. Therefore, Kinsta’s specially crafted dashboard offers a seamless experience for site management tasks, positioning it well for users of all skill levels.

When it comes to migration tools, Kinsta provides both basic and premium migration services directly through the MyKinsta dashboard. Users can request a migration by providing details about their current host or using a backup file. The service is straightforward and includes in-depth support throughout the process. Hawk Host also offers migration tools, including free migration for cPanel-to-cPanel transfers and support for SQL databases. Both services make migrating sites easier, but Kinsta’s approach to the process, coupled with expert support, gives it an edge.

Kinsta’s knowledge base is comprehensive, covering a wide array of topics from billing to development environments. It includes detailed guides and tutorials, and users can access 24/7/365 live expert support via chat. The support team consists of experienced developers and engineers, ensuring high-quality assistance. Hawk Host offers a robust knowledge base with articles on various categories and multiple support options such as support tickets, live chat, and email. However, Kinsta also provides a community forum for static site hosting and proactive monitoring, adding a layer of support that enhances user experience.

🏆 Winner Hawk Host: Hawk Host excels in user management with its intuitive interface and flexible permission settings.

Kinsta and Hawk Host offer user management features, but their approaches differ. Kinsta allows company owners, administrators, and developers to manage user roles, ensuring specific permissions like adding, removing, and granting access. Hawk Host simplifies this process by allowing the primary owner to invite new users via email, with options to grant all permissions or restrict access. Kinsta’s layered roles provide targeted control, but Hawk Host’s approach is more straightforward, ensuring ease of user invitation and permission customization.

Kinsta’s user interface for managing roles involves navigating through various layers within MyKinsta, making it slightly complex but comprehensive. Hawk Host provides a more direct user management experience via its client area. Users can swiftly invite others and manage permissions through an intuitive “User Management” page. While Kinsta’s interface is robust, Hawk Host’s simplicity and ease of use stand out, making it more user-friendly for managing access.

When assessing access control measures, both hosting providers are effective but differ in scalability. Kinsta ensures secure access with options like Two-Factor Authentication and detailed role assignments at various levels. This suits businesses with extensive team hierarchies. Hawk Host, while lacking advanced security features like 2FA, still offers strong permission settings that facilitate efficient user management as businesses grow. Kinsta’s structure supports detailed oversight, but Hawk Host’s efficient management meets the demands of growing user numbers with less complexity.

Kinsta User Roles Table:

Hawk Host User Roles Table:

🏆 Winner
Hawk Host: Hawk Host surpasses Kinsta by offering extensive customer support options and free migration services.

Both Kinsta and Hawk Host provide a wide range of customer support options, including 24/7 live chat support, phone support, and email/ticket support. Kinsta stands out with its human-only expert support and multilingual capabilities, offering support in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish at various dedicated times. Additionally, their advanced proactive site monitoring and enterprise-grade security features demonstrate a strong focus on reliability and security.

On the other hand, Hawk Host shines with its 24/7/365 support availability through multiple channels, including a telephone, live chat, ticket system, and even Twitter. Hawk Host’s free migration support and satisfaction-focused approach, evidenced by their money-back guarantee, resonate well with users who value straightforward and accessible customer service. Multiple positive customer reviews underscore Hawk Host’s commitment to user satisfaction.

Kinsta vs Hawk Host: User feedback

User feedback for Kinsta highlights its exceptional speed, reliability, and user-friendly interface, making it a top choice for WordPress hosting. Users appreciate the responsive and knowledgeable customer support, daily backups, and smooth site migration process. However, some reviewers noted the relatively high pricing and limitations in monthly traffic for lower-tier plans, which can be a concern for budget-conscious users. Overall, Kinsta’s robust performance and effective support have earned it high praise and a loyal customer base.

Based on the reviews, customers find this hosting provider to be a highly reliable solution, particularly appreciating the smooth transition process from other hosts and the helpful, efficient support. While some note that the hosting packages are slightly more expensive, they believe the superior quality of support and services justifies the cost in the long run. Overall, users feel that the company offers a stress-free and worthwhile hosting experience.

Kinsta vs Hawk Host: FAQ