Cloudways vs Kinsta (April 2025) – “The Better Managed Hosting is …”

In this comparison of Cloudways vs Kinsta, we take a look at two top of the line WordPress hosting providers. Kinsta specializes in managed WordPress hosting, while Cloudways is one of the best managed Cloud Hosting providers. Which one should you choose for your WordPress hosting? Let’s take a detailed look to see which host you should choose.

Cloudways vs Kinsta: Details


Choice of 3 Different Cloud Providers	Google Cloud Platform
Easy Server and Application Setup	Automatic WordPress Installation
Optimized Web and Database Servers	Server-Level Full Page Caching
Cloudflare CDN	Kinsta CDN
Free Site Migration	Free Site Migration
Website Staging with All Plans	Website Staging with All Plans
Automatic and On-Demand Data Backups	Automatic and Manual Data Backups
99% Uptime	99.9% Uptime Guarantee
Responsive and Helpful Support	Responsive and Helpful Support

Cloudways vs Kinsta: Differences

Advantages of Choosing Cloudways over Kinsta:

Choose from 3 Different Cloud Providers
Cloud Hosting Redundancy and Latency Benefits
Slightly Faster Website Performance
More Data Backup Options
Host Unlimited Websites
Full Control of Cloud Server

Advantages of Choosing Kinsta over Cloudways:

Slightly Easier to Use Interface
Exclusively Focused on WordPress
Expert WordPress Hosting Support
Built-In Application Monitoring
Better Suited for Agencies and Developers
DevKinsta for Local WordPress Development
Free Hosting for One Month

Cloudways vs Kinsta: Features

Both Cloudways and Kinsta include all of the premium hosting features you need for your mission-critical WordPress websites. Optimized performance, automated and manual data backups, website staging, and expert support are provided by both of these hosts.

While it’s a close call in this category, Kinsta is the winner by a slight margin. While Cloudways does offer more flexibility with cloud servers, with Kinsta you get features specifically tailored to premium WordPress hosting. Plus, with Kinsta you get their DevKinsta suite of tools for local development, along with the Kinsta API that adds extended functionality especially useful for agencies.

Cloudways vs Kinsta: Speed and Performance

While both Cloudways and Kinsta provide excellent website speed and performance, Kinsta is the winner in this category–by a slight margin. Kinsta produces outstanding website speeds and has posted some of the best test results that we’ve seen.

Kinsta’s optimized servers with Edge Caching Technology, along with their CDN consistently provided faster website speeds. So, they are the winner here.

Here are some of our speed test results for Cloudways and Kinsta:

Cloudways vs Kinsta: Website Staging

Cloudways and Kinsta both include effective website staging with their hosting plans. Creating your staging environment and pushing your changes back to production is an easy process. While it’s a very close call here, because website staging in Kinsta is slightly more streamlined, they get the edge here. For example, for some reason, Cloudways doesn’t include a link to the admin side of your staging website. You have to manually add the “wp-login.php” to your staging website URL.

Cloudways vs Kinsta: Data Backup

Cloudways is the winner when it comes to data backup. While Kinsta does provide a nice backup and restore function, with Cloudways you can set not only the data backup interval, but also the backup retention period. Kinsta only provides a 14 day retention period, but with Cloudways you can set the backup retention to as much as 4 weeks.

With Cloudways, you can also make local backups, as well as offsite data backups. And you can also perform on-demand backups with Cloudways. Also, Cloudways allows you to set both your data backup frequency and data retention period—up to 4 weeks.

Cloudways vs Kinsta: Customer Support

Both of these web hosts provide excellent customer support. The expert support staffs of both Cloudways and Kinsta are very knowledgeable and helpful. And, I’ve found response times to be equally good with both hosts.

While it’s a very close call in this category, because Kinsta does specialize specifically in providing expert WordPress hosting support, they get a slight edger here.

Cloudways

Started Business: 2012
BBB Rating: N/A
Data Center Location: US, CAN, EUR, ASIA, AUS, South America

Price: $12 mo. – $274.33 mo.
Unlimited Bandwidth: No
Unlimited Storage: No
Unlimited Email: No
Host Multiple Domains: Yes

Hosting Interface: Cloudways Dashboard
Server Uptime: 99%
Full Refund Period: Pay as You Go
Dedicated Hosting Available: (Dedicated Environment)

Advantages of Choosing Cloudways:

Choose from 3 Cloud Providers
Managed Offsite Backups
Enterprise Grade Security
Dedicated Firewalls
One-Click Scaling
Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
Unlimited Application Installation
Breeze Cache Plugin for WordPress
Dedicated Environment
One-Click Server Cloning
Auto Healing Services
Team Management

Choose Cloudways if:

You need cloud hosting.
You need less expensive hosting.
You need more data backup options.
You want to host unlimited sites.

> Choose Cloudways

Kinsta

Started Business: 2013
BBB Rating: A+
Data Center Location: US, CAN, EUR, ASIA, AUS, South America

Price: $35 mo. – $1650 mo.
Unlimited Bandwidth: No
Unlimited Storage: No
Unlimited Email: No
Host Multiple Domains: Yes (Except Starter Plan)

Hosting Interface: Kinsta Dashboard
Server Uptime: 99.9%
Full Refund Period: 30 Days
Dedicated Hosting Available: Yes

Advantages of Choosing Kinsta:

Specialize in Upscale Managed Hosting
Choose from 35 Different Data Centers
Powered by Google Cloud Platform
Automatic Database Optimization
Cloudflare Integration Security
Performance Monitoring Tool
Server-Level Full Page Caching
Includes Kinsta CDN
Auto Wildcard SSL
Analytics Reports
Includes DevKinsta for Local Development

Choose Kinsta if:

You want a faster performing website.
You want better customer support.
You need Managed WordPress Hosting.
You need hosting for your WordPress Agency.
You’re a WordPress developer.

> Choose Kinsta

How Does Cloudways Compare with Other Web Hosts?

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Cloudways vs SiteGround
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Cloudways vs WP Engine
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Cloudways vs WPX Hosting
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How Does Kinsta Compare with Other Web Hosts?

Kinsta vs Bluehost
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Kinsta vs DreamHost
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Kinsta vs SiteGround
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Kinsta vs WP Engine
In this comparison of Kinsta vs WP Engine, we take a detailed look at two of the best options for premium WordPress hosting. Let’s see which host is the better choice for your WordPress websites…

Recommendation

While Cloudways and Kinsta are both excellent choices for WordPress hosting, in this head to head comparison of Cloudways vs Kinsta, Kinsta is the winner.

Kinsta is specifically focused on providing the best premium managed WordPress hosting. The combination of their features such as Edge Caching Technology, their Kinsta CDN, and other WordPress tools, together with their expert support staff, put them ahead for both business websites and especially agencies and developers.

Cloudways does offer added flexibility with its cloud servers, so if that’s particularly important to your situation, then they would be the better fit.

Overall however, Kinsta is our recommendation here.

See our Kinsta Review Ratings below:

Winner

9.5