Web Hosting comparison
Cloudways vs Kinsta
Managed cloud against managed WordPress. Cloudways runs your stack on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud from $11/month billed hourly, with free migration, staging and a three-day trial, but no uptime commitment on the pricing page. Kinsta is a WordPress-only platform from $35/month with staging, visit allowances and an uptime SLA.
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Cloudways Managed Cloud
Managed servers on five clouds from $11/month with hourly billing, free migration, staging and a three-day trial — and no shared-hosting renewal trap.
6.5
Basic
Choose it for
- Hourly billing from $11/month with no term
- Choice of five clouds and nine regions
- Free migration and staging included
- Three-day trial with no card
Kinsta Managed WordPress
Managed WordPress from $35/month (or $350 billed annually) with staging, CDN bandwidth allowances and an uptime SLA of up to 99.99%.
5.8
Basic
Choose it for
- Uptime SLA of up to 99.99% stated
- Visit, storage and bandwidth allowances per plan
- Free one-click staging
- Annual billing saves two months ($350 vs $420)
Our verdict
Choose Cloudways if you want to pick the cloud and the region and pay by the hour. Choose Kinsta if you want WordPress managed end to end with a stated SLA.
Specifications
Side by Side
A trophy marks the product that is better on a criterion. Ties and non-comparable rows are left neutral.
| Criteria | Cloudways Managed Cloud Better on 4 of 6 | Kinsta Managed WordPress Better on 2 of 6 |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $11/month | $30/month |
| Free trial | ||
| Money-back guarantee | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Websites on the entry plan | — | 1 sites |
| Storage on the entry plan | 20 GB | 10 GB |
| Daily backups | ||
| CDN included | ||
| Free SSL certificate | ||
| Staging environment | ||
| Uptime commitment | — | up to 99.99% |
| Free SSL | ||
| Built-in CDN | ||
| Daily backups | ||
| Control panel | Cloudways platform | MyKinsta |
| Our score | 6.5 · Basic | 5.8 · Basic |
| Best for | Developers and agencies who want managed cloud without long contracts | Business WordPress sites that need managed infrastructure |
Cloudways Managed Cloud: Strengths and Weaknesses
What we liked
- Hourly billing at the published monthly rate — no long term and no renewal step
- Free migration, free SSL, staging and automated backups are included
- You choose the underlying cloud (DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud) and the region from nine locations
- A three-day trial with no credit card is stated
What we did not
- You manage applications yourself; this is not beginner shared hosting
- No e-mail hosting and no uptime commitment are stated on the pricing page
- No money-back policy is stated (the trial replaces it)
Kinsta Managed WordPress: Strengths and Weaknesses
What we liked
- Prices are published for every tier, including the annual discount ($350 billed annually)
- Free one-click staging environments on every plan
- Plans state visit allowances, storage, CDN bandwidth and server bandwidth separately
- Uptime SLA of up to 99.99% and 24/7 support
What we did not
- Ten to twenty times the price of shared hosting: this is not a beginner's first plan
- No mailbox service is stated — e-mail is a separate provider's job
- No money-back window is stated on the plans page
