Kinsta vs Hostens: guide for 2024

Kinsta vs Hostens: Final verdict

Looking over Kinsta vs. Hostens, both have unique strengths and can cater to different user needs effectively.

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  Kinsta (Overall Grade: 8.5)
  
  offers a premium service primarily focused on WordPress hosting, built on the Google Cloud Platform. This infrastructure ensures exceptional speed, reliability, and scalability, making it highly suitable for high-traffic websites and businesses demanding top-tier performance. Kinsta also excels in providing advanced security measures, comprehensive backup solutions, and a user-friendly management interface. However, the service comes at a higher price point and does not include email hosting or some more common shared hosting options, which could be a drawback for smaller businesses or budget-conscious users.
• 
  Hostens (Overall Grade: 7.9)
  
  is a versatile and affordable choice, offering a wide array of hosting types, including VPS and shared hosting. It provides solid performance with a 99.95% uptime guarantee, user-friendly tools like Installatron for script installations, and competitive pricing, making it an attractive option for startups and smaller websites. Hostens also includes free domain registration, email hosting, and standard security features, but lacks some of the advanced optimizations and higher-range performance capabilities seen in Kinsta. Although it’s a strong contender in the budget category, it may not scale as effortlessly for high-traffic or resource-intensive websites.

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 provides exceptional uptime performance and reliability.

Kinsta guarantees an impressive 99.9% uptime, consistently achieving 100% in various tests over extended periods, highlighting its dedication to reliability. Built on the Google Cloud Platform and integrated with Cloudflare, Kinsta ensures high performance and fast response times, with an average of 461ms. Monitoring occurs every three minutes, allowing for swift issue resolution, ensuring uninterrupted service for users.

Hostens, with a 99.95% uptime guarantee, also offers strong reliability, reinforced by its TIER III data center infrastructure. Their quick 256ms response time and positive user reviews reflect good performance. Although Hostens demonstrates considerable uptime and has competitive features, Kinsta’s consistent 100% uptime and stellar performance metrics make it the preferred choice by a margin.

🏆 Winner: Kinsta: A high-performance hosting service built on Google Cloud Platform.

When comparing the general performance of Kinsta and Hostens, Kinsta stands out with its Google Cloud Platform infrastructure, utilizing the fastest C2 and C3D virtual machines. This, combined with Cloudflare integration, provides top-tier speed and security. Kinsta offers 35 global data centers, significantly more than Hostens’ three locations. Hostens, while providing a compelling budget option, features TIER III standard facilities in Lithuania, the USA, and Singapore, with basic features like free SSL certificates and cPanel. Both offer fast SSDs, but Kinsta’s edge caching and continuous MySQL optimization give it a notable performance boost.

Website Speed

Kinsta’s infrastructure focuses heavily on reducing Time to First Byte (TTFB) by up to 50% with edge caching. Performance monitoring tools address PHP and MySQL bottlenecks and deliver up to 30% faster page loads with Early Hints technology. In contrast, Hostens offers PHP configurations and Apache web service but lacks advanced optimization features. The inclusion of PHP execution time tuning is beneficial but doesn’t match Kinsta’s holistic speed enhancements.

Scalability

Kinsta excels in scalability with a simple approach: you can adjust resources without switching plans. They offer a range of application and database hosting services with transparent overage pricing. Elastic scaling is evident through options like increasing PHP memory or disk space. Hostens, on the other hand, provides VPS hosting with root access but doesn’t specify elastic scaling capabilities. Both offer dedicated servers, but scaling on Kinsta involves fewer manual adjustments, reflecting modern, flexible hosting needs.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: With a robust set of features, Kinsta provides a secure and performant hosting environment for WordPress sites.

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

Technical security measures:

Kinsta offers extensive technical security measures, including free SSL certificates with automatic renewals and support for custom and wildcard certificates. They provide a range of PHP versions selectable through their MyKinsta dashboard. The platform includes fully managed WAF with DDoS protection, free malware removal, and multiple backup options, such as automatic daily and hourly backups. Hostens also provides strong SSL encryption and supports multiple PHP versions, but does not offer custom or wildcard certificates. Both providers are GDPR compliant, ensuring user data privacy.

Operational security measures:

Kinsta’s operational security is high with 24/7 proactive site monitoring, checking uptime every 3 minutes, and secure remote access via SSH or SFTP. They implement secure vulnerability alerts and have an IP deny tool to block unwanted addresses. Hostens operates its own Tier III data center with round-the-clock network monitoring and redundant power and internet connections. Hostens’ control panel, cPanel, and daily and weekly backups are also notable features for operational security.

Compliance and certifications:

Kinsta excels in compliance, being SOC 2 compliant and supporting GDPR regulations. Though PCI compliance specifics are not provided, Kinsta’s infrastructure enables eCommerce sites to achieve it. Hostens, similar to Kinsta, complies with GDPR and has updated their legal documents and internal processes to reflect this. Specific HIPAA compliance information for either provider is not specified.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: An optimized hosting solution for developer-centric needs with advanced access options.

Both Kinsta and Hostens offer a wide range of features tailored for varying user requirements, yet they have distinct focal points. Kinsta emphasizes user-friendly features, providing a sophisticated website builder with extensive customization options. This makes it an appealing choice for users who prefer detailed control of their website’s design without compromising ease of use. Kinsta’s SSH and SFTP access further enhance its developer-friendly appeal, ensuring seamless file management and secure connections. The inclusivity of SSH and unique port assignments for each site reflects their dedication to providing a secure, flexible environment for developers.

Hostens, on the other hand, presents a robust suite of hosting options suited to both beginner and advanced users. While it may lack a mention of a dedicated website builder, tools like Installatron offer a quick setup for over 100 scripts and CMS platforms, making it a flexible solution for most users. Hostens also includes free domain registration with annual billing, which could be a deciding factor for users focused on cost-efficiency. Their multiple hosting options—from unmanaged VPS to professional hosting—cater to various levels of technical expertise, ensuring that users can scale their services as needed. Hostens supports full root access via SSH and includes comprehensive support and backup options, enhancing its usability for more technically inclined customers.

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 Hostens 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 offer direct email hosting or transactional email capabilities, pushing users towards third-party services. Conversely, Hostens provides email hosting, allowing users to manage email campaigns and transactional emails more effectively. They also offer a wide range of support for integrating third-party services like Google Workspace and Outlook, providing greater flexibility for business communications.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: Offers a variety of competitive hosting plans with more advanced features and flexibility.

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 Hostens offer a range of hosting plans catering to different needs. Kinsta’s plans begin at $35 per month, encompassing comprehensive managed WordPress hosting options, while Hostens offers more budget-friendly shared hosting plans starting at $2.80 per month. Kinsta excels in providing enterprise-grade features, such as high storage capacity and substantial bandwidth, which are suitable for larger websites with higher traffic. Hostens, on the other hand, offers extremely competitive pricing for smaller websites or startups that might not yet demand extensive resources. Both providers include features like daily backups and free domains, but Kinsta stands out for high-performance cloud options.

Enterprise plans

Kinsta offers enterprise plans starting from $675 per month, which includes features like more than 60 WordPress installs, over 100GB of storage, and extensive CDNs exceeding 2,000GB. These plans are optimized for high-traffic websites, providing enhanced performance and scalability. Hostens does not offer a direct equivalent but provides higher-end VPS and professional hosting plans that may cater to certain enterprise needs at a lower price point.

🏆 Winner Kinsta: Provides a seamless and feature-rich web hosting experience.

Kinsta employs the custom-built MyKinsta dashboard, known for its intuitive design and user-friendly features. It simplifies site management with one-click backup creation, easy PHP version selection, and straightforward cache management. The dashboard is praised for its accessibility, catering to both technical experts and non-technical users. The meticulously crafted interface helps users navigate various site management tasks effortlessly, making it an excellent choice for those who prioritize efficiency and ease of use.

Hostens, on the other hand, utilizes its standard control panel services supported by the Installatron tool. This tool offers an easy installation experience for over 100 scripts and CMS, useful for different user expertise levels. While it may not be as advanced as Kinsta’s custom dashboard, Hostens’ approach allows for a straightforward, quick setup process. The inclusion of a free website builder makes it accessible to users who need to create a website with minimal hassle.

Both Kinsta and Hostens provide migration tools, but Kinsta stands out with its detailed and supportive migration process. Kinsta offers basic and premium migration services accessible through their MyKinsta dashboard, which simplifies moving your site from another host. Hostens facilitates an easy service setup post-payment, but its migration services are less detailed compared to Kinsta.

Kinsta’s help center is comprehensive, offering in-depth guides, live expert support, and a community forum for static sites. Their knowledge base covers a wide range of topics and is accessible 24/7. Hostens also has a solid knowledge base with extensive articles and answers on numerous hosting-related queries, supported by live chat, tickets, and email support. Both help centers are valuable, but Kinsta’s proactive monitoring and use of experienced support staff give it an edge.

🏆 Winner
Hostens: Offers comprehensive user management and scalability.

When it comes to managing user roles and permissions, both Kinsta and Hostens provide a range of options tailored to different user needs. Kinsta focuses heavily on user responsibility with roles such as Company Owners, Company Administrators, and Company Developers, each with distinct levels of access and management capabilities. Hostens, on the other hand, provides a broader variety of user roles through services like professional hosting, unmanaged VPS hosting, shared hosting, and reseller hosting. Hostens gives customers cPanel Admin privileges for website management, ensuring a flexible and customizable user experience, especially for those looking to scale their hosting needs.

User interfaces and tools for managing users are robust in both platforms. Kinsta’s MyKinsta dashboard provides a user-friendly environment for enabling Two-Factor Authentication, managing user settings, and monitoring account security. Hostens employs cPanel for most of its hosting types, offering tools like Installatron for script installations and updates, creating an intuitive user management experience. Both interfaces are designed to simplify user and role management, but Hostens’ cPanel integration gives it an edge in ease of use and versatility.

Access control measures on both platforms are efficient but differ in execution. Kinsta emphasizes individual responsibility and offers tools like 2FA and strict credential management protocols to ensure security. It’s suitable for companies with distinct roles and a need for hierarchical access control. Hostens, offering root access with unmanaged VPS and cPanel Admin access in shared and reseller hosting, provides a scalable solution that can efficiently handle a growing user base. The ability to upgrade for more cPanel accounts and manage multiple client accounts makes Hostens highly adaptable as user needs expand.

Kinsta user roles table:

Hostens user roles table:

🏆 Winner
Kinsta: Kinsta offers a wide range of multilingual support and human-only expert assistance.

When comparing customer support between Kinsta and Hostens, Kinsta stands out with its extensive multilingual support available through multiple channels. Kinsta offers 24/7 live chat support for paid customers, email support for both general and sales inquiries, and WhatsApp for sales. The average response time for customer inquiries is impressively under 2 minutes. In addition, Kinsta’s support is human-only, with no AI or chatbots, ensuring a personal touch in every interaction. The added benefit of proactive site monitoring every 3 minutes further enhances the support experience.

Hostens also provides robust customer support with 24/7 availability through live chat, a ticket system, and email support. The addition of a comprehensive knowledge base and a frequently updated blog helps users find quick solutions and stay informed. However, Hostens does not offer phone support or dedicated enterprise support. Response times are generally quick, with the contact form typically answered within an hour, but it lacks the same level of rapid, human-only interaction found at Kinsta.

Kinsta vs Hostens: User feedback

Users generally appreciate the hosting provider for its reliable uptime and responsive customer support. Many reviewers highlight the ease of setup and user-friendly interface as significant positives. However, some users have expressed concerns over occasional slow server speeds and higher pricing compared to competitors. Overall, the hosting service receives favorable reviews, but there is room for improvement in performance consistency and cost efficiency.

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.

Kinsta vs Hostens: FAQ