Kinsta vs A2Hosting – In this in-depth comparison, I compared each host’s key features, pricing, customer service, and ease of use, and A2Hosting came out on top. However, Kinsta may still be better for you depending on the kind of website you have. Read on so you can decide for yourself.

Overall Comparison Kinsta vs A2Hosting

Winner: A2Hosting

A2Hosting provides convenient hosting plans to choose from – and they are also budget-friendly. In addition, their security features and performance are unmatched.

About Kinsta and A2Hosting

	Kinsta is a web hosting company that was founded in 2013 with the mission to improve websites by providing high-quality products at affordable prices. Kinsta has evolved over time, offering cutting-edge tools for modern website builders with a focus on performance and ease of use. They also provide managed WordPress hosting, application (website) and database hosting.
	A2Hosting was founded in 2001. Despite being younger than many of its competitors, the company has quickly grown into a reputable host catering to over 110,000 people in over 200 countries worldwide. One of the things that set A2Hosting apart from other hosting companies is its focus on keeping its company values without losing touch with its growth – something that plagues the hosting world.

Round 1: Hosting features – Key Hosting Features and Services

Kinsta Features

Kinsta offers high-performance SSD storage and unmetered bandwidth on most of its plans. Automatic daily backups ensure your website data stays safe with restore points, should you lose important information.

They also provide 24/7 support from expert WordPress developers who are committed to making sure you are happy and your website runs smoothly on their platform!

A2Hosting Features

A2Hosting offers many hosting plans to suit all types of customers – shared, dedicated and reseller plans with unmetered bandwidth and 10 GB of storage for the basic plan and up to 2 TB storage on their dedicated hosting plans.

You can create a website for free using A2Hosting’s website builder, or you can install WordPress for free. A2Hosting also has WordPress-specific plans plus a very versatile suite of hosting plans for different services and business types. Host your website with A2Hosting and get high-performance SSD drives and a free SSL on all plans plus daily backups to keep your data secure.

And the winner is… A2Hosting

The plethora of features A2Hosting provides are comparatively better than Kinsta – pricing, security, and performance. Hence, A2Hosting is the clear winner!

Round 2:  Prices & Plans

Kinsta Pricing Plans

Kinsta’s main managed WordPress, application, and database hosting plans are split into four pricing tiers: Entry, Basic, Medium, and Highest Plan. Each plan is best for:

• Entry Level plans: Entry-level plans best for small businesses or personal websites.
• Basic plans: Plans priced a little higher than their entry-level plans and suited to news websites, blogs, and small agencies.
• Medium plans: Mid-range plans best for medium to large businesses.
• Highest plans: High level plans suited to large corporations who need dedicated resources and high security.

A2Hosting Pricing Plans

Unlike Kinsta, A2Hosting has a different approach to pricing their plans. They have four main types of hosting plans in each tier: Shared, WordPress, VPS, and dedicated hosting.

• Shared hosting: best suited for entry-level websites and websites with few pages.
• WordPress hosting: These plans are best for all kinds of WordPress websites.
• VPS hosting: ‘Shared plus’ plans with expanded resources and more power, best for mid-sized businesses & e-commerce stores, news websites, etc.
• Dedicated hosting: The most powerful and dedicated resources, best for large corporations and businesses that handle sensitive data

Depending on the size of your website, you can choose from entry, basic, middle, and highest plan for each type of hosting!

And the Winner Is…A2Hosting

For someone just starting out, Kinsta’s pricing may not make sense. On the other hand, A2Hosting has easy-to-read plans with well-organized prices in each tier plus it’s much more affordable than Kinsta.

Round 3: Website performance (Uptime & Speed)

Uptime is important because your website will be unavailable to visitors if the server is down, and an unreliable host can have a negative impact on your site’s search engine ranking.

Speed and load time are important factors to consider when choosing a host. The faster your website loads, the more likely visitors are to stick around; slow websites are more likely to send visitors away.

To test the server speeds of each host, we used GTMetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights.

Kinsta Uptime & Speed

Kinsta’s average server speed (TTFB) on GTMetrix was 277 ms and had an overall performance of 84%:

On Google Page Speed Insights, it had a score of 85% which is pretty decent.

A2Hosting Uptime & Speed

I tested A2Hosting on GTMetrix and the results were even better. The TTFB (time to first byte) was only 200 ms, and the performance score was 90%.

TTFB on Page Speed Insights was 600 ms and an overall performance of also 96%:

And the Winner Is…A2Hosting

For the speed and performance test, A2Hosting is the clear winner.

Round 4: Customer Support – Who Has the Best Support System?

Kinsta Customer Support

Kinsta provides 24/7 support on phone, live chat, email, tickets, a forum, and support videos. They also have a vast knowledgebase you can use to find answers to your questions.

I contacted Kinsta’s chat support, and within seconds, a very helpful agent was there to help me.

The replies were quick and the agent answered all questions I had in-depth.

A2Hosting Customer Support

A2Hosting provides top-notch support 24/7 through a phone directory, live chat, ticket and email support, as well as a vast knowledgebase.

If you’re looking for quick answers to urgent issues, A2Hosting’s phone support is the best option:

Their efficient search engine will help you find whatever you need in their extensive knowledgebase:

I saw that you could chat with an agent live on A2Hosting, without signing up yet and so, I decided to give it a try.

I liked that you’d be told how long you have to wait and how many people are ahead of you on the queue.

And I had to wait a good while before the agent joined. She, however, responded to my questions very professionally. It still took some time for her to get back to me between each question.

And the Winner Is…Kinsta

Kinsta’s customer service is outstanding. I was amazed at how quickly they responded to my inquiries and how professional their staff was.

Round 5: Ease of use – Which Platform Is Easier to Use?

Kinsta Ease of use

Kinsta’s has a simple and aesthetically pleasing website you’d have no problem finding your way around. It doesn’t have weird colors or cramped fonts – the design is very concise and everything is placed where you expect it to be. I personally liked how they have only focused on what’s important on the landing page,

The MyKinsta dashboard (alternative to cPanel), is a feature that makes Kinsta stand out from the rest.  Besides being functional, it’s very well-designed, intuitive, and has all the necessary tools to manage your backend conveniently even if you don’t have coding experience. Since I have been reviewing hosts, I’d say Kinsta has one of the best UIs I have seen.

It gets frequently updated with new features (most recently, performance monitoring to identify potential issues).

A2Hosting Ease of use

A2Hosting’s website has a nice green and orange color scheme – which looks quite classy overall. Functionally, you can see the hosting categories grouped toward the top of the screen without needing to scroll down. You can contact their live chat or place a call immediately.

The dashboard has a very professional design with a strong focus on support features. It’s a pretty decent dashboard with no tacky design and colors – easy and intuitive for beginners!

A2Hosting uses a modern cPanel for its backend, and is integrated into your main dashboard. The cPanel may feel familiar to experienced users, but it may be slightly intimidating for hosting beginners or audiences who are not technical.

And the Winner Is…Kinsta

The Kinsta dashboard UI (MyKinsta Dashboard) is far better designed and beginner-friendly than the average cPanel offered by A2Hosting.

Round 6: Security – Which Platform is More Secure?

Kinsta Security

Kinsta offers DDoS protection, hardware firewalls, and uptime monitoring for security. Its plans also include free CDN to boost your website performance, as well as another layer of DDoS protection. They also provide automatic daily backups.

A2Hosting Security

Although the most basic plan of A2Hosting doesn’t include automatic daily backups, all other plans come with this feature, DDoS protection and an impressive built-in firewall. You also get free SSL and a malware scanner that runs periodic checks to ensure website integrity.

A2Hosting also allows you to activate Brute Force Defense for extra security. You can set up Sucuri Firewall (a cloud-based WAF) to prevent hacks & DDoS attacks.

And the Winner Is…A2Hosting

A2Hosting stands out in this round as it provides some of the best security features on the market. With all those extra layers of security, you can focus on what’s important – your business!

Round 7: Server locations

It’s important to think about where your host’s servers are located. Some hosts have data centers in several parts of the world, while others don’t. Remember, your site will load faster if it is hosted close to where your visitors are.

Kinsta Server Location

Kinsta has a wide network of data centers spread globally:

Asia:

• Changhua County (Taiwan)
• Hong Kong
• Tokyo, Osaka (Japan)
• Seoul (South Korea)
• Mumbai, Delhi (India)
• Jurong West (Singapore)
• Jakarta (Indonesia)

Europe

• Warsaw, Poland
• Hamina, Finland
• Madrid, Spain
• St. Ghislain, Belgium
• London, United Kingdom
• Frankfurt, Germany
• Eemshaven, Netherlands
• Zurich, Switzerland
• Paris, France

USA

• Las Vegas
• Salt Lake City
• California
• Oregon
• Texas
• Ohio
• Virginia
• Lowa
• South Carolina

Other Locations

• Tel Aviv, Israel
• São Paulo, Brazil
• Santiago, Chile
• Melbourne, Australia
• Canada (Toronto, Montréal)

A2Hosting Server Location

A2Hosting has its datacenters located in the USA (Michigan, Arizona), Europe (Amsterdam), and Asia (Singapore).

The host provides special hosting packages by server location in 35 countries.

And the Winner Is…Kinsta

Kinsta is a clear winner in this round since it has more servers and data centers across the globe than A2Hosting.

Kinsta vs A2Hosting: Final Recommendations

When to Choose Kinsta?

Kinsta is an excellent hosting provider and you should choose them if you want:

• User-friendly dashboard for those who are less tech-savvy
• You’re okay with Google Cloud Platform as your cloud hosting option
• You have a WordPress website
• Your audience is spread all across the globe (multiple server locations)
• You want basic security features like DDoS protection, hardware firewalls, uptime monitoring, and daily backups out-of-the-box
• You want quick customer support that always solves problems.

With an easy-to-use dashboard, 24/7 support, and server locations around the globe, Kinsta is the perfect hosting provider for businesses that need speed and reliability.

Go for A2Hosting if you:

A2Hosting wins this matchup and is best for you if:

• You are outgrowing your shared hosting plan and want VPS hosting
• You’re on a smaller budget and are looking for affordable plans
• You’re just starting out with hosting
• You want plenty of storage space
• You’re very serious about your site security and need top-notch features
• You don’t mind using the traditional cPanel.