Cloudways vs Kinsta: Complete 2026 Comparison
In-depth comparison of these two hosting providers across pricing, performance, features, and support.
Result
It's a Tie!
- Both hosts are evenly matched
- Choose based on your specific needs
Category Winners
Best Price
Kinsta
$35.00/mo vs $Infinity/mo
Best Value
Tie
Similar renewal pricing
Best Performance
Cloudways
99.99% uptime, 4.2/5 rating
Best Support
Cloudways
Live chat, Phone
Best for WordPress
Tie
Similar WordPress features
Best for Developers
Tie
Similar developer features
Best for Beginners
Kinsta
Higher ease of use score (9.0/10)
Feature Comparison
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Essential Info | ||
| Hosting Type | VPS Hosting | Managed WordPress |
| Monthly Price | — | $35.00/mo |
| Renewal Price | — | $35.00 |
| Renewal Markup | 0% | 0% |
| Overall Rating | 4.2/5 | 4.5/5 |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.99% | 99.9% |
| Trustpilot Rating | 4.6/5 | 4.8/5 |
| Trustpilot Reviews | 3,600 | 1,049 |
| Free SSL | ||
| Free Domain | ||
| Free Migration | ||
| Pricing Details | ||
| First Year Cost | $168.00 | $420.00 |
| Second Year Cost | $168.00 | $420.00 |
| Money Back Guarantee | 0 days | 30 days |
| Setup Fee | Free | Free |
| Monthly Billing | ||
| Minimum Contract | — | 1 months |
| Technical Specs | ||
| Storage | 25 GB | 10 GB |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Bandwidth | 1000 GB | — |
| Max Websites | Unlimited | 1 |
| Max Databases | Unlimited | — |
| PHP Versions | 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 | 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 |
| SSH Access | ||
| Git Deployment | ||
| Staging Environment | ||
| Cron Jobs | ||
| Redis Available | ||
| Programming Languages | ||
| Node.js Support | ||
| Python Support | ||
| Ruby Support | ||
| WordPress Features | ||
| WordPress Optimized | ||
| WordPress Auto-Install | ||
| WordPress Auto-Updates | ||
| WordPress Staging | ||
| WooCommerce Optimized | ||
| LiteSpeed Cache | ||
| Object Caching | ||
| WP Multisite | ||
| WP-CLI Access | ||
| Security | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| DDoS Protection Level | Bot Protection and Firewall via Cloudflare | Enterprise-level DDoS protection via Cloudflare |
| Malware Scanning | ||
| Malware Removal | ||
| Firewall Included | ||
| Backup Frequency | Hourly to Daily (configurable: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, daily) | Daily (automatic) + On-demand |
| Backup Retention | 14 days | 14 days |
| Backup Restore Fee | Free | Free |
| On-Demand Backup | ||
| Two-Factor Auth | ||
| Wildcard SSL | ||
| Dedicated IP | ||
| Support | ||
| Support Channels | Live Chat, Ticket, Knowledge Base, Phone (Premium add-on), Slack (Premium add-on) | Live Chat, Ticket, Knowledge Base |
| Live Chat | ||
| Live Chat Hours | 24/7/365 | 24/7/365 |
| Phone Support | ||
| Phone Support Hours | Premium Support add-on only | — |
| Ticket Support | ||
| Priority Support | ||
| Support Languages | English | English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese |
| Knowledge Base Quality | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Avg Support Wait | 2 min | 2 min |
| Email Accounts | ||
| Email Account Limit | — | 0 |
| Mailbox Size | — | — |
| Webmail Access | ||
| Spam Filter | ||
| Email Forwarding | ||
| Performance | ||
| CDN Included | ||
| CDN Provider | Cloudflare Enterprise CDN | Kinsta CDN (powered by Cloudflare Enterprise) |
| Server Locations | US (Multiple), Canada, UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Singapore, Australia, Japan, India, Brazil | Iowa (US), South Carolina (US), Northern Virginia (US), Oregon (US), Los Angeles (US), Montreal (Canada), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Belgium, London (UK), Netherlands, Frankfurt (Germany), Zurich (Switzerland), Finland, Warsaw (Poland), Taiwan, Tokyo (Japan), Osaka (Japan), Seoul (South Korea), Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta (Indonesia), Mumbai (India), Sydney (Australia), Melbourne (Australia), Tel Aviv (Israel), Johannesburg (South Africa) |
| Server Location Count | 65 | 37 |
| Choose Server Location | ||
| HTTP/2 Support | ||
| Brotli Compression | ||
| Uptime SLA Credit | ||
| Platform Support | ||
| Drupal Support | ||
| Joomla Support | ||
| Magento Support | ||
| Laravel Support | ||
| Django Support | ||
| Next.js Support | ||
| Rails Support | ||
| Static Site Support | ||
| Control Panel | ||
| cPanel Included | ||
| Control Panel | Cloudways Platform | MyKinsta |
| Softaculous | ||
| Website Builder | ||
| Builder Name | — | — |
| Migration | ||
| Migration Websites Limit | 1 | Unlimited |
| Migration Turnaround | 2 days | 1 days |
| Paid Migration Cost | — | Free |
| Migration Quality | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Compliance | ||
| GDPR Compliant | ||
| PCI Compliant | ||
| HIPAA Compliant | ||
| Data Center Certs | SOC 2, ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 |
| Ratings | ||
| Value for Money | 3.5/10 | 3.0/10 |
| Performance Rating | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Support Quality | 4.5/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Security Rating | 4.5/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Features Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Ease of Use | 3.5/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Transparency Rating | 4.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Suitability Scores | ||
| For Bloggers | 3.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| For E-commerce | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| For Agencies | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| For Developers | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| For Beginners | 2.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| For Enterprise | 4.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Policies | ||
| Bandwidth Overage | Pay-as-you-go; bandwidth included varies by plan (1TB base); overage charged at provider rates | Visit-based OR bandwidth-based pricing (customer choice since Nov 2025); $0.50/GB server bandwidth OR $0.05/GB CDN bandwidth; $0.50 per 1,000 visits overage |
| Storage Overage | Pay-as-you-go; can upgrade server size or add block storage | Disk space overage $2/GB/month (prorated daily) |
| Adult Content Allowed | ||
| Gambling Sites Allowed | ||
| Crypto Sites Allowed | ||
| Reseller Hosting | ||
| White Label | ||
| API Access | ||
| Company Info | ||
| Year Founded | 2011 | 2013 |
| Headquarters | Malta | United States |
| Parent Company | DigitalOcean (acquired September 2022 for $350M) | Independent (privately held; founded by Mark Gavalda) |
| Green Hosting | — | |
| Instant Activation | ||
| Managed WordPress | ||
| Managed WP Available | ||
| Pricing Model | — | visits |
| Monthly Visit Limit | — | 25,000 |
| Visit Overage Cost | — | $0.50 |
| PHP Workers | — | 2 |
| Plugin Restrictions | — | — |
| Dev Environment | — | |
| Dev Env Name | — | DevKinsta |
| Regional Info | ||
| Best Countries | United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, Australia | United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Brazil, India |
| Local Currencies | USD, EUR, GBP | USD, EUR, GBP |
| Support Languages | English | English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese |
| Data Sovereignty | GDPR, SOC 2 | GDPR, SOC 2 |
| External Ratings | ||
| G2 Rating | 4.7/5 | 5.0/5 |
| BBB Rating | N/A (Malta-based, no US BBB listing) | NR |
| Advanced Technical | ||
| Inode Limit | — | — |
| Max DB Size | — | — |
| Max Upload Size | — | — |
| Database Type | MySQL/MariaDB | MySQL/MariaDB |
| Elasticsearch | ||
| Image Optimization | — | |
| PHP Switching | ||
| Subdomains | Unlimited | — |
| FTP Accounts | Unlimited | — |
| Additional Pricing | ||
| Free Domain Duration | — | — |
| Money Back Exclusions | No money-back guarantee; pay-as-you-go model means you only pay for resources used; unused prepaid funds can be refunded within 3 months of adding funds | 30-day money-back guarantee; Custom enterprise plans may have different terms |
| Payment Methods | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal |
| Auto Renewal Default | ||
| Domain Privacy Included | — | — |
| Domain Privacy Cost | — | — |
| SSL Provider | Let's Encrypt | Cloudflare SSL (wildcard included) |
| Dedicated IP Cost | — | — |
| Additional Support | ||
| Phone Support Countries | United States | — |
| Priority Support Cost | — | — |
| Community Forum | ||
| Support Outsourced | ||
| Object Cache Type | Redis/Memcached | Redis |
| Business & Affiliate | ||
| Affiliate Program | ||
| Commission Type | Recurring | Recurring |
| Commission Amount | Up to $125 per referral or lifetime 7% recurring; 90-day cookie | 5-10% recurring commission for life of customer; 60-day cookie |
| Additional Policies | ||
| File Hosting Allowed | ||
| Proxy/VPN Allowed | ||
| Bandwidth Overage Cost | — | $0.50 |
| Account Suspension Policy | Account suspended for TOS violations; servers still billed until deleted; fraud prevention enforcement active | Violation of ToS; non-payment; excessive resource usage |
| Malware Removal Cost | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Downloadable Backups | ||
| Additional Platforms | ||
| PrestaShop | ||
| Ghost | ||
| Shopify Migration | ||
| Wix Migration | ||
| Squarespace Migration | ||
| Webflow Export | ||
| Editorial Info | ||
| Best For | Developers and agencies needing managed cloud hosting; WordPress/WooCommerce sites needing scalable performance; Users wanting flexibility across AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode; Teams needing staging environments and Git deployment; Growing businesses that need to scale quickly; Users who want cloud power without server management | WordPress sites needing premium performance; Agencies managing multiple WordPress sites; WooCommerce stores needing speed; Users wanting Google Cloud infrastructure; Sites needing 37 global data center options; Users who value developer-friendly features |
| Avoid If | Need email hosting included; Want traditional shared hosting pricing; Prefer cPanel; Need domain registration; Budget-conscious with predictable monthly costs; New to web hosting (steeper learning curve) | Budget-conscious users; Need email hosting included; Want phone support; Need dedicated IP addresses; Running non-WordPress applications; Small personal blog (overkill); Need general web hosting |
| Known Issues | Email hosting not included (requires third-party add-on at extra cost); No domain registration; Backup storage charged separately at $0.033/GB; DNS hosting is paid add-on; Premium Support with phone/Slack costs extra; Pay-as-you-go billing can be confusing; Charged in arrears for previous month; Some users report billing issues and being charged after cancellation; No cPanel (proprietary panel); Post-DigitalOcean acquisition some users report declining support quality | Premium pricing (starts $35/mo - expensive for small sites); No email hosting included; No phone support; No dedicated IPs; Strict content restrictions; No reseller/white-label options; WordPress-only (no general hosting); Overage charges can add up; Visit-based limits on some plans |
| Unique Selling Point | Managed cloud hosting across 5 providers (AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode) with pay-as-you-go flexibility | #1 G2 WordPress host with Google Cloud Platform, 37 data centers, and Cloudflare Enterprise CDN |
| Ideal Customer | Developer or agency wanting managed cloud power without server administration complexity | Business or agency needing premium managed WordPress with best-in-class performance and support |
| Best Alternative To | WP Engine | WP Engine |
| Primary Competitors | Kinsta, WP Engine, Flywheel | WP Engine, Flywheel, Cloudways |
We strive for accuracy, but pricing and features change frequently. Some data may be outdated. Report an error and we'll update it promptly.
Our Verdict
Choose Cloudways if you...
- Need phone support
- Want more server locations (65 available)
Choose Kinsta if you...
- Want higher-rated hosting (4.5/5)
- Are new to web hosting
- Need enterprise-grade features