How to Host Your Website on Kinsta?

If you’re planning to launch a WordPress site and want premium performance and reliability, Kinsta WordPress hosting is one of the top options available today.

In this detailed Kinsta tutorial, we’ll show you exactly how to host a website on Kinsta—from setting up a fresh WordPress install to testing it live. Whether you’re a beginner or a developer, this guide simplifies the process and includes a smarter Kinsta alternative.

What is Kinsta Hosting?

Kinsta is a premium managed WordPress hosting provider that leverages the power of Google Cloud Platform to deliver high-speed performance, security, and scalability. Instead of using cPanel, Kinsta offers its own custom dashboard called MyKinsta for site creation and management. It includes built-in CDN, automatic daily backups, malware protection, and staging environments—all optimized specifically for WordPress.

You don’t need a domain name to get started—Kinsta hosting gives you a temporary domain to test and configure your website before going live.

Check out here how an agency is able to host sites faster and better with the best Kinsta alternative.

How to Host Your Website on Kinsta

Follow these steps to create a WordPress site with Kinsta and go live within minutes.

Step 1: Choose a Kinsta WordPress Hosting Plan

The very first step to host a website on Kinsta is to choose the plans. There are 3 groups of Kinsta hosting plans with different sub-plans and price ranges. You can access all Kinsta hosting plans from the Pricing page. 

For a fresh WordPress site, you should buy the $35 ($350/year) Kinsta single-site hosting plan. You can choose to pay monthly or annually. For small agencies and freelance WordPress developers, this is a costly affair. This is why they prefer affordable managed hosting plans over Kinsta plans.

Must Read: Best Managed WordPress Hosting Plans

Once you’ve made up your mind on the type of hosting plan you need, fill out the form that follows with the appropriate information and click the Continue button.

Step 2: Create a Site on Kinsta via MyKinsta

Now that you have successfully created an account with Kinsta, it’s time to add a new site to your Kinsta account.

Log in to your Kinsta account, and from the WordPress card, select Create a Site. Alternatively, you can select WordPress sites > Add Site from the left sidebar. Then click on Create new site. 

You will be provided with three choices:

1. Install WordPress: This option automatically installs and sets up a WordPress site for you.
2. Empty Environment: This option provides all the essential resources of a WordPress hosting server, including the server itself, but without a WordPress site’s automatic installation or setup.
3. Clone an Existing Environment: This option lets you create an exact copy of an existing WordPress site, whether it’s in a live or staging environment.

We will create a fresh WordPress site for this guide, so we will choose the first option.

Step 3: Complete the WordPress Hosting Setup

After selecting the Install WordPress option, you will be taken to a page to fill out a form with all the details required to set up your WordPress site.

Some of the information you need to provide includes:

• Site Name (as to be shown in your Kinsta dashboard)
• Data center location
• Site Title
• WordPress Admin Username
• WordPress Admin password
• WordPress Admin email
• Site Language
• Optional Installs: Multi-site, WooCommerce, Yoast SEO

When you’re done, click ADD and allow the process to complete. 

Check out this Kinsta alternative that offers more easier WordPress hosting process.

Step 4: Migrating Your Site to Kinsta

There are various ways by which you can migrate your site to Kinsta. Here are a few commonly used methods:

Method 1: Migrate Using WordPress Backup & Migration Plugins

You can use backup and migration plugins for migrating a WordPress site from an old hosting provider to Kinsta. If you’re comfortable handling files, this is a quick way to perform a full site transfer into Kinsta WordPress hosting.

Backup plugins will allow you to download a copy of your site database and files. You can then upload these files to your account in the new hosting provider.

Now, here’s the migration process to Kinsta:

• Backup your site using a backup plugin and download the database and compressed site file.
• Create a new site from your Kinsta dashboard. Select the empty environment option instead, i.e., Do not install WordPress.

• Upload your site files to the new site and configure the wp-config.php file to the new hosting WordPress database name, username, and password.

Alternatively, some backup plugins like UpdraftPlus allow you to back up your site to a remote storage or cloud like Google Drive and restore the site from the backup in the remote storage, eliminating the need to save your site files and database locally.

You can take advantage of this feature by creating a fresh WordPress site in Kinsta, installing and activating UpdraftPlus on the new site, and restoring the backup from Google Drive. The backup will override the fresh WordPress site with all the data and files from the old hosting.

Method 2: Requesting Free Migration with Kinsta Support

Kinsta offers free migration assistance to its customers. From your Kinsta dashboard, go to WordPress Sites > Add Site > Request migration.

You will be able to choose one of two migration options offered by Kinsta’s team:

• Request a migration from another host
• Request a migration from a backup

Please select the option and complete the process, providing the correct details. Kinsta’s team will then handle the migration for you.

🛡️ If you’re unsure which method to choose, this is the safest option for hassle-free onboarding into Kinsta WordPress hosting.

Method 2: Use InstaWP’s One-Click WordPress Migration Tool

If you’re looking for the fastest, safest way to migrate, use InstaWP’s integrated WordPress migration tool—no files to download or upload. Migration with this tool is easy, free, and remote, eliminating the need to download any files.

To use InstaWP to migrate your site to Kinsta, follow the quick steps highlighted below:

Install and activate InstaWP Connect on the live site you want to migrate. Then, go to Tools > InstaWP and connect the live site to InstaWP.

Return to your live site and confirm that it has been connected to InstaWP. Then click on Create Staging Site.

From the type of staging, select Full Staging since we are doing a full-site migration.

From the following step, you might want to select to create the staging site with only active plugins and themes. This will reduce the staging site size and speed up the staging process. 

For the Exclude step, you can choose to exclude files and tables in the database that may not be important or necessary for your site. If there are none, then you can skip this step.

Finally, confirm your settings and click the Create Staging button. 

Once your staging site has been created, take the staging site for a spin to ensure everything was properly copied and that the staging site is free of errors.

You can then proceed to migrate that staging site to Kinsta. Here’s how: 

Return to Kinsta and create a new site. Select the Install WordPress option. Copy the temporary URL for the newly created WordPress site.

Then, log into your InstaWP dashboard and go to Staging.

Click on the rocket icon next to the staging site and select Go Live.

A prompt telling you that the site is already connected to a live site will come up. Click on Disconnect. 

Click on the rocket icon (Go Live) again. This time, you will see a prompt asking you which type of migration you want to perform.

Select the Migrate via URL option.

Enter the temporary URL for the new WordPress site on Kinsta and click on the Connect Website button.

You will be taken to the site and asked to authorize access to the new site. 

After authorizing and connecting InstaWP, click the Begin migration button, and the staging site will be seamlessly migrated to the new WordPress site.

Post-Migration Verification and Adjustments

• Before pointing your domain name to Kinsta, visit the temporary URL for the WordPress site to ensure that the migration was done properly.
• Compare the live site on the old hosting with the temporary site on Kinsta to verify that the migration went smoothly.
• Check your thumbnails and image resolution, most recent posts and uploads, check pages, check the look and feel of your theme, etc, and make adjustments on the new site where necessary.
• When you are finished and verified, all that needs to be done is to update your domain name’s nameservers to Kinsta and link the domain to the site on Kinsta.

Challenges of Hosting with Kinsta

While Kinsta WordPress hosting is fast, secure, and reliable, it does come with certain limitations, especially for agencies and developers managing multiple sites or requiring advanced flexibility. If you’re wondering how to host a website on Kinsta but aren’t sure it’s the perfect fit, these challenges are worth considering.

1. High Pricing for Beginners and Freelancers

Kinsta’s entry-level plan starts at $35/month, which may be costly for personal projects or new freelancers. Compared to other WordPress hosting solutions, this price-to-resource ratio is high, especially when you need to create multiple WordPress sites with Kinsta.

2. No Email Hosting Included

Unlike traditional web hosts, Kinsta WordPress hosting doesn’t include email services. You’ll need to configure and pay for a third-party solution like Google Workspace or Zoho Mail—an extra step and added cost.

3. Learning Curve with MyKinsta Dashboard

Kinsta’s custom control panel (MyKinsta) is clean and modern, but first-time users may find it unintuitive compared to cPanel or more visual builders. This slows down the onboarding process when you create a site on Kinsta for the first time.

4. Limited Backup Control

Kinsta does provide automatic daily backups, but the number of backups and retention period are plan-restricted. You can’t fully customize backup frequency or use third-party tools freely due to plugin restrictions.

5. No Built-in WordPress WAF

While Kinsta uses Cloudflare Enterprise for general protection, it lacks a dedicated WordPress-optimized Web Application Firewall (WAF). This means more advanced threats like SQL injection or XSS specific to WordPress may require third-party security plugins or services.

All these shortcomings of Kinsta WordPress hosting force its users to look for better Kinsta alternatives. Gladly, we have one.

InstaWP Live: Best Kinsta Hosting Alternative

InstaWP Live is a fully managed WordPress hosting solution built on top of the powerful InstaWP platform. While InstaWP originally became popular for spinning up instant WordPress sandboxes, InstaWP Live adds blazing-fast, production-ready hosting to the mix, turning the toolset into a complete end-to-end WordPress management environment.

While Kinsta is known for premium managed WordPress hosting, InstaWP Live goes several steps further. Built on the same cloud-grade infrastructure powering WordPress.com (Automattic Cloud), InstaWP Live combines developer-first workflows with production-ready hosting, making it a smart Kinsta alternative for modern WordPress users.

There are many reasons why developers, agencies, and creators are moving from Kinsta WordPress hosting to InstaWP:

🔄 Instant Site Launch – Spin up live WordPress sites in seconds, without touching cPanel or DNS

🚀 Cloud-Optimized Performance – Backed by Automattic Cloud, InstaWP Live rivals Kinsta in speed and uptime

🔐 Enterprise Security Layer – Get a native WordPress WAF, 2FA, SFTP/SSH, and vulnerability scans

🧪 Built-In Staging Workflows – Clone, test, and deploy changes without breaking your production site

⚙️ More Control – Unlike Kinsta, InstaWP Live gives you tools to build WaaS products, templates, and demos

💸 Affordable Scale – Host 10+ sites for as low as $9/month—perfect for agencies or product teams

So if you’re wondering how to host a website on Kinsta, consider whether you’re just looking for hosting, or a complete WordPress workflow platform that also happens to host brilliantly.

Hear from a real-time InstaWP Live user what the difference it makes when it comes to optimized WordPress hosting.

Kinsta Vs. InstaWP Live Managed WordPress Hosting

InstaWP Live is a managed WordPress hosting solution. It’s one of the best, fastest, and most reliable, and it’s also a perfect Kinsta hosting alternative.

Here’s a summarized comparison between Kinsta VS InstaWP, managed WordPress hosting:

1. Speed and Performance

Kinsta: Kinsta’s speed and performance are excellent due to the use of Google’s cloud premium tier infrastructure, CDN, and edge caching.

InstaWP: InstaWP also offers very impressive speed and performance due to the use of Automattic’s Cloud platform, built-in CDN, and edge caching.

2. Security

Kinsta: Kinsta security comprises Cloudflare integrations such as Enterprise-level firewall DDoS protection coupled with SSL and  HTTP/3 isolated container technology. But as already pointed out, Kinsta lacks WordPress WAF.

InstaWP: InstaWP security comprises DDoS Protection, Web Application Firewall (WAF), SFTP/SSH access control, and SSL.

3. Support and Customer Rating

 Kinsta: Kinsta provides 24/7/365 support via live chat. They have a 4.6/5 star rating on Trustpilot.

InstaWP: InstaWP also provides 24/7 priority support for hosting via live chat. However, InstaWP has a 4.7/5 star rating on Trustpilot.

4. WordPress Site Development Environment

Kinsta: Kinsta provides a free development tool called DevKinsta for local site development. DevKinsta allows you to build a WordPress site from the ground up for free on your local device and then push it to live with your preferred Kinsta hosting plan.

InstaWP: InstaWP provides a free remote WordPress staging or sandbox environment that allows you to create a WordPress site within seconds and build it from the ground up. After development, you can easily push the site to live with any InstaWP Live managed WordPress hosting plan.

5. Site Migration

Kinsta: Migrating a site from another host to Kinsta is quite complex. You have to use a third-party WordPress migration plugin, as Kinsta doesn’t have its own WordPress migration tool.

InstaWP: Migrating a site from another host to InstaWP is very basic. You simply connect the site to InstaWP and create a staging account using the InstaWP Connect plugin. Then, you can use the Go Live rocket icon to push the site to InstaWP Live by selecting your preferred hosting plan.

Both Kinsta and InstaWP provide free migration support.

5. Pricing and Resources

Kinsta: Kinsta plans are quite expensive, starting at $35/month ($350 yearly) for 10GB storage space and 25,000 visits.

InstaWP: InstaWP managed WordPress hosting plans are more affordable and considerate, starting at just $18/month for 40GB and 400,0000 visits. This price gets slashed to $9/month when you host up to 10 sites.

🔍 Key Takeaways

• If you want high-speed WordPress hosting with hands-off management, Kinsta is a strong choice.
• If you’re an agency, freelancer, or WordPress product company needing fast prototyping, multi-site control, and smart automation, InstaWP Live delivers far more at a lower cost.

And while Kinsta focuses solely on hosting, InstaWP brings together hosting, staging, development, testing, and deployment—all in one streamlined workflow.

Added Benefits of Hosting with InstaWP Live

InstaWP is not just a managed WordPress hosting provider. InstaWP is a tool for instant WordPress sandbox creation, staging site creation for testing changes and troubleshooting errors, WordPress site migration, WordPress product testing and demos, multiple site management, and a collaboration hub for team members.

InstaWP also offers WaaS (Website-as-a-Service), which allows developers and agencies to sell WordPress sites with hosting as a service to their customers in return for recurring payments.

These features are included in the InstaWP platform and give you more control and extended capabilities than any other hosting provider can offer.

Leveraging InstaWP for Pre-Migration Staging

As already demonstrated, you can use InstaWP to create a staging site before migration. This staging site can serve as a transition medium or a backup before migrating your site from one hosting to another.

Using InstaWP for Testing and Optimization Post-Migration

After migration, you may have to test and optimize your site on the new hosting server. To mitigate risks, you can easily create a staging site post-migration. There, you can carry out performance checks and optimization, SEO checks, and make updates, theme changes, or plugin installation.

Final Thoughts: Should You Host on Kinsta or InstaWP Live?

If your only goal is to host a website on Kinsta, you’ll get solid performance, reliability, and support. But if you’re a modern WordPress professional, developer, agency, or product builder, InstaWP Live gives you more power, flexibility, and speed.

From instant site creation to advanced staging and live deployment tools, InstaWP Live isn’t just a WordPress hosting platform—it’s your entire workflow.

🚀 Ready to launch better WordPress sites, faster?
👉 Try InstaWP Live and host your next project with confidence—at half the cost and double the agility.

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