Kinsta vs WP Engine (March 2025) – “Best for Managed WordPress? …”

Should you choose Kinsta or WP Engine for your managed WordPress hosting? 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.

Kinsta vs WP Engine: Differences

Advantages of Choosing Kinsta over WP Engine:

More Data Center Locations
Edge Caching Technology
Auto Wildcard SSL Included
Cloudflare Integration Security
DevKinsta for Local Development
Free Hosting for One Month

Advantages of Choosing WP Engine over Kinsta:

Lower Cost
Proprietary EverCache Technology
More Data Backup Retention Included
Transferable Installs and Billing Transfer
Phone Support Included with Advanced Plans
60 Day Money-Back Guarantee

Kinsta vs WP Engine: Details

Category	Kinsta	WP Engine	Comments
Setup
Control Panel
Data Centers			Kinsta has data centers in 35 different locations.
Website Speed			See Below
Security Features			Tie. Both include excellent security features.
Data Backup and Restore			WP Engine includes automatic and on-demand data backups. Data retention is 30 copies.
Automatic Updates			Tie
Servers
Network
WordPress Development			WP Engine includes Development, Staging, and Production environments.
SSL			Kinsta includes Auto Wildcard SSL.
Resources
Staging			Tie. Both offer excellent and easy to use website staging features.
Customer Support
Money Back Guarantee			WP Engine offers 60 Day Money-Back Guarantee.
Price/Value

Kinsta vs WP Engine: Features

Kinsta and WP Engine both get very high marks for the features they include with your hosting plans. In addition to automatic backups, website staging, CDNs, and proactive security features, these two excellent WordPress hosts provide all of the managed hosting functionality that serious WordPress websites should have.

While you great features with both of these hosts, Kinsta gets the slight advantage in this category based on their Edge Caching, greater selection of data centers, and DevKinsta for local development.

Kinsta vs WP Engine: Speed and Performance

Website speed and performance is outstanding with both Kinsta and WP Engine. Both our separate testing and my personal experience using WP Engine and Kinsta produced similar results. Kinsta and WP Engine provide excellent website speeds and page loading times.

Since it’s such a close call here, we have to take a deeper look at the test result data. Structurally, Kinsta is just a tad better. And, Kinsta’s LCP and fully loaded page times are better.

This category is extremely close. While in my personal experience I would call it a tie, because the numbers slightly favor Kinsta, they get a bit of an advantage here.

Here are some sample speed test results from GTmetrix:

Kinsta vs WP Engine: Website Staging

Both Kinsta and WP Engine do an outstanding job with their website staging. Staging is available in all of the hosting plans, and both function as one-click operations that let you easily create a staging environment and then copy your website changes back to your live site. This category is a tie—totally even.

Kinsta vs WP Engine: Data Backup

WP Engine provides daily automatic backups and lets you restore from your last 30 backup copies. You can also perform manual snapshot backup whenever you want to. Kinsta also includes daily automated backups, but you are limited to the last 14 backup copies for restores (unless you pay for additional backup services). Kinsta also limits you to 5 manual backup copies (again unless you opt for additional services).

One area where Kinsta does get an edge is that you do get automatic system backups when you perform tasks such as upgrading themes and plugins, etc.

This category is very close, but here WP Engine gets a slight edge based on more data retention copies being included with your hosting plan.

Kinsta vs WP Engine: Customer Support

WP Engine and Kinsta both offer 24/7 expert WordPress customer support. Again, here things are very close when comparing the two hosts. I’ve had great interactions with both support teams. Live chat response times are very good, and the support staff at both Kinsta and WP Engine have been able to answer any questions and resolve issues promptly when needed.

While it’s ultra-close in this customer support comparison, WP Engine gets just a slight edge based on their consistent responsive live chat support.

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

Choose Kinsta if:

You want a faster performing website.
You need hosting for your WordPress Agency.
You need to do local development.

> Choose Kinsta

WP Engine

Started Business: 2013
BBB Rating: B+
Data Center Location: U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia

Price: $20 mo. – $58 mo. (Premium Customized Plans also available)
Unlimited Bandwidth: Yes
Unlimited Storage: No
Unlimited Email: No
Host Multiple Domains: Yes (except Personal Plan)

Hosting Interface: WP Engine Client Portal
Server Uptime: 99.95%
Full Refund Period: 60 Days
Dedicated Hosting Available: Yes

Advantages of Choosing WP Engine:

You can try it risk free for 60 days.
EverCache technology speeds up page-load time.
Faster Performance with Google Cloud Platform Virtual Machines.
Managed upgrades and daily backups.
Staging and Development Environments
Free Let’s Encrypt SSL
Segmented Backup Downloads
Automated Security Updates
Expert support staff.
Transferable Installs and Billing Transfer

Choose WP Engine if:

You need more data backups.
You need a less expensive hosting plan.
You need WooCommerce Hosting.

> Choose WP Engine

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How Does WP Engine Compare with Other Web Hosts?

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Recommendation

If you need premium managed WordPress hosting, then both of these hosts more than qualify. While both Kinsta and WP Engine will do an excellent job allowing you to create and maintain your websites with success, overall in this comparison WP Engine is the winner based on our findings above.

See our WP Engine Review Ratings below:

Winner

9.6