Are you confused between Nexcess and Kinsta for your website? Do you want to know the differences in their hosting features? If yes, this Nexcess vs Kinsta guide is for you.
Both Kinsta and Nexcess offer managed WordPress plans. They are premium service providers with solutions quite different from traditional hosts.
It makes them stand in the same league which makes it difficult for website owners to choose between these two hosts.
That’s why we are comparing these hosts on different aspects. We found Kinsta to be the better choice overall. However, the detailed comparison below will reveal the best host for your specific needs.
Let’s dive in.
Nexcess vs Kinsta: Overview
Nexcess is no different than any other traditional host when it comes to server infrastructure. On the other hand, Kinsta uses Google Cloud as part of its infrastructure to offer isolated server environments.
Let’s get an overview of both these hosts and look at their pros and cons below:
Nexcess Overview
Founded in 2000, Nexcess is a subsidiary of the reputed hosting company Liquid Web. It offers managed hosting plans especially optimized for eCommerce, WordPress, and Magento.
The company has multiple data centers globally to serve a large size of audience. Nexcess hosting is suitable for both small and large enterprises.
It is also a great choice for web developers and agencies creating websites in bulk.
Pros of Nexcess
- Nexcess provides dedicated managed hosting plans for Magento and WooCommerce which comes in handy when running an eCommerce store.
- The host does not place any traffic limits based on the visitor count of your website. You’ll have only bandwidth limits that can accommodate more visitors if optimized well.
- Nexcess has a cheaper entry plan when compared to its competitors like WPEngine and Kinsta.
- You will receive free SSL certificates to secure your site traffic.
- The host offers free instant access to staging that allows you to test-check your website before the launch.
- Nexcess plans come with unlimited email accounts.
- The host provides free object cache pro, cloud accelerator, image compression, and lazy loading to boost your site speed.
- All Nexcess plans include multi-site management, SEO, and marketing tools.
Cons of Nexcess
- Customer support at Nexcess is quite slow when compared to the responsiveness of support received from its competitors, including Kinsta.
- The host doesn’t include several basic security features in its managed hosting plans. So you’ll ultimately have to pay more to fully secure your site.
- Many existing Nexcess customers complain about occasional server downtime which can harm your online business.
Kinsta Overview
Founded in 2013, Kinsta offers a managed WordPress solution suitable for both beginners and experienced users. It regularly updates your website CMS (Content Management System), takes care of performance optimization, and creates account backups.
Kinsta currently offers 35 data center locations globally through the Google Cloud Platform. Its easy-to-use interface and excellent customer support make it stand out in this comparison.
Pros of Kinsta
- Kinsta servers deliver extremely fast performance to ensure excellent speed for your website.
- You get to choose from 35 data center locations spread across all continents.
- The host offers outstanding uptime and security for your website.
- You will receive well-optimized servers for high-traffic sites and eCommerce stores.
- The host is known for providing the best technical support in the hosting industry.
- Kinsta offers a staging environment for testing the changes you perform to your website before making them live.
Cons of Kinsta
- Kinsta can be a pricey option for some website owners.
- The host places multiple WordPress plugin restrictions due to compatibility issues.
- It doesn’t offer domain registrations or email hosting services.
- Kinsta doesn’t provide any phone support to resolve urgent queries.
Kinsta vs Nexcess: Features Comparison
Now that you have an overview of Nexcess and Kinsta, let’s compare their features side-by-side:
| Features | Nexcess | Kinsta |
| Premium 24×7 Support | It provides 24/7 free premium support via live chat, email, and phone. | It provides 24/7 free premium support through an online messaging system. |
| Backups | The managed WordPress plans include daily backups for your account. | It provides free automatic backups with its hosting plans. |
| Site migrations | The host offers free site migrations and has a team of dedicated experts to carry them out. | It also offers free site migrations. |
| Traffic/Bandwidth limit | Nexcess doesn’t put a limit on the monthly visitor count. However, there are bandwidth limits. The entry-level plan offers 2TB bandwidth. | Kinsta’s WordPress hosting plans put a limit on monthly visits. The Starter plan includes 25,000 visits. |
| Global Data Centers | The host has 10 data center locations globally. | It offers 35 server locations worldwide. |
| Staging Environment | Available | Available |
| Inodes/files limit | Limited | Unlimited |
| Email Hosting | You can create unlimited emails with managed hosting plans. | Kinsta doesn’t offer email hosting services. |
| Cloudflare Integration | The host ensures to provide excellent speed with global Cloudflare CDN integration. | All Kinsta plans also come with Cloudflare integration. |
| Multilingual Dashboard | It doesn’t have a multilingual dashboard. | You will get a multilingual dashboard that supports 10 different languages. |
Standout features
Let’s look at some of the Nexcess vs Kinsta standout features below:
Nexcess Standout Features
- Unlike Kinsta, Nexcess provides customer support via different channels, including phone. It helps you get your problems solved quicker and more seamlessly.
- Nexcess offers email hosting and domain registrations. You can, therefore, purchase domains and emails from the host itself to keep everything in one place. With Kinsta, you’ll have to use a third-party solution for your emails and domains.
- The support executives at Nexcess are very knowledgeable. They are well-versed in e-commerce hosting solutions, including Magento.
Kinsta Standout Features
- Kinsta doesn’t have any inode limit as it uses ZFS storage. Its disk space is not limited by the number of files that you can store in your account.
- The host provides advanced security features to protect any data loss and your website overall. Your hosting includes hack & malware removal, automatic DB optimization, and self-healing technology.
Kinsta vs Nexcess: Ease of Use
Both Nexcess and Kinsta provide a custom control panel with their Managed WordPress plans. However, there are a lot of differences between the Nexcess Client Portal and MyKinsta dashboard.
Let’s check out the ease of using them.
Nexcess Interface
The proprietary Nexcess Client Portal serves the purpose of the admin panel. It allows managing multiple websites from the same place. The host enables you to make changes to a specific website through the website management dashboard.
The host provides a decent user interface but not the best one. It becomes difficult for a newbie to navigate through the panel and find all the aspects of site management. So Nexcess needs to improve its user interface to make it more beginner-friendly.
Kinsta Interface
Kinsta offers a simple, clean, and easy-to-use control panel. It is intuitive, beginner-friendly, and has well-arranged features. You can view detailed analytics of your site performance, bandwidth, and website visitors from MyKinsta.
Additionally, MyKinsta loads quite fast, thereby adding to the overall user experience. The host’s well-designed interface is a real treat for Kinsta customers.
Kinsta vs Nexcess: Performance
Nexcess utilizes a regular shared server for your website while Kinsta uses Google Cloud infrastructure. Let’s see how this impacts the performance delivered by these two hosts:
Nexcess Performance
Your website will be sharing server resources when using Nexcess WordPress plans. The host uses a shared hosting environment with NGINX reverse proxy.
We tested Nexcess performance via LoadFocus to check how it behaves in a high-traffic situation. Here is the test result when 20 virtual users concurrently visit a Nexcess site in a time frame of 60 seconds.
As seen above, Nexcess performs well in its load test. It delivers an average response time of 0.4 seconds or 400 milliseconds which is quite impressive!
Kinsta Performance
Your website will receive an isolated environment with Kinsta. The host runs every website on its platform in a separate software container. This container carries all the resources to run the site, including PHP, Linux, MySQL, and NGINX.
Kinsta doesn’t use the same software to run two sites, so it is 100% private and won’t even be shared between your own websites.
Like Nexcess, we also tested Kinsta’s performance under heavy load. With the same number of concurrent visitors, the average response time came out to be 456 milliseconds.
Thus, Kinsta has higher load times than Nexcess when in stress.
The host utilizes Linux containers and Google Cloud as infrastructure for the underlying container technology. These powerful technologies allow Kinsta to deliver excellent network timings:
So Kinsta provides great performance for your website. It is possible to easily get below 500 ms response time with proper settings.
Nexcess versus Kinsta: Support
Both Nexcess and Kinsta do not outsource their support services. Instead, they maintain internal customer support departments to efficiently handle your queries. Let’s highlight the differences between support of Nexcess and Kinsta:
Nexcess Support
Nexcess provides 24/7 support via phone, email, live chat, and support tickets.
The support executives are knowledgeable and quite helpful as well but they are very slow to respond.
You might not receive a response to your support ticket for hours or even days. Their phone support and live chat also take 8 to 10 minutes to connect.
So you cannot rely on Nexcess when you need an urgent solution to your problem.
Kinsta Support
Kinsta provides all its customers with 24/7 live chat support directly from its dashboard. You can also contact Kinsta experts through the company’s social media channels or email.
For sales support, the host allows you to connect via live chat, email, WhatsApp, phone, and online appointments.
Here are some distinctive features of Kinsta support:
- You will receive a reply from the host’s live chat within a minute or less.
- The technical support team of Kinsta is the best in the industry. It has experienced professionals, including sysadmins and WordPress experts.
- All customer care executives at Kinsta are very friendly and go the extra mile to resolve both site-level and server-level issues to help you out.
Nexcess and Kinsta: Security
Both Nexcess and Kinsta provide multiple security features to protect your website. Let’s compare them below:
Nexcess Security
Nexcess gives access to the iThemes Security Pro plugin with all its Managed WordPress plans. It also provides free SSL certificates to secure your website traffic.
The host does not offer any Web Application Firewall (WAF) and DDoS protection with any of its plans.
Kinsta Security
Kinsta offers free DDoS protection, automated backups, Cloudflare firewall, and uptime monitoring for your website.
Kinsta isolates all its server resources with Linux containers to fully secure each website. It also offers 2FA support to enhance your account security.
It implements software-based restrictions and supports only encrypted SSH and SFTP connections.
Nexcess Versus Kinsta – Pricing Comparison
Both Kinsta and Nexcess are premium service providers offering Managed WordPress hosting plans. Here we analyze some important cost-related factors and the pricing difference between the entry-level plans of these two hosts:
Nexcess Pricing
- Nexcess provides special offers like free 2-month hosting with its annual plans.
- You will receive a 30-day money-back guarantee with all Nexcess plans.
- You will get more server resources than Kinsta with Nexcess plans.
Methods of payment: Nexcess accepts payments via American Express, Visa, Discover, and Mastercard. It also allows setting up and using PayPal for plan payments.
Starting Price: The entry-level WordPress plan at Nexcess costs $21 per month.
Kinsta pricing
- Kinsta offers several special discounts to its customers. For instance, its annual WordPress hosting plan comes with free 2-month hosting. Also, the host refunds the unused portion of your yearly hosting price if you cancel the plan after a few months.
- The host allows you to try its services risk-free by offering a 30-day money-back guarantee with all its plans.
- Kinsta happily refunds your plan amount within the allowed period and has a pretty seamless refund process.
Methods of payment: Kinsta accepts American Express, Visa, Discover, Mastercard, and Maestro. You can also purchase its annual WordPress hosting subscriptions via ACH and wire transfers.
Starting Price: The WordPress Starter plan at Kinsta costs $35 per month.
Conclusion
Nexcess and Kinsta are considered premium hosting providers, so expect to get the best quality from both.
However, our research and comparison reveal that Kinsta leaves Nexcess behind with a slight margin. If you are still confused, here are the use cases of both of these hosts:
Use Nexcess if:
- You are a web development agency or an individual managing a website portfolio.
- You are looking for an affordable Managed WordPress solution.
- You are planning to run a single or multiple eCommerce stores with high traffic.
- You want to build a Magento site.
Use Kinsta if:
- You are a web development agency handling dozens of websites.
- You expect the need of urgent customer support that can respond within a few seconds.
- You are planning to host a single money-making website.
- Server reliability and speed are the most important factors for your online project.
- You will be hosting eCommerce websites or other medium-to-large WordPress websites receiving high traffic.
FAQ (frequently asked questions)
What type of hosting is Kinsta?
Kinsta is a database, application, and managed WordPress hosting platform. It offers powerful hosting features and performance using Google Cloud infrastructure.
Does Kinsta have a cPanel?
No, Kinsta does not have a cPanel. Instead, it provides you with a proprietary control panel called MyKinsta which is quite easy to use even for beginners.
Is Kinsta faster than Bluehost?
Yes, Kinsta is faster than Bluehost because of many reasons. It is better optimized for WordPress, uses Google Cloud servers & compute-optimized C2 machines, and provides isolated server resources to each website.
Kinsta also offers built-in edge caching and Cloudflare CDN that contributes to faster speeds.
