WordPress Hosting · Comparison
Flywheel vs. Kinsta
Flywheel and Kinsta compared across Company facts, Pricing, Performance & infrastructure, WordPress management, Support & security and Platform & integrations — every fact sourced and re-verified from each vendor's public material.
Flywheel
Managed WordPress hosting built for designers and creative agencies; now part of WP Engine.
Kinsta
Premium managed WordPress hosting on Google Cloud's Premium Tier, focused on speed and developer tooling.
Company facts
Headquarters
Austin, TX Flywheel is a WP Engine product; WP Engine is headquartered in Austin, TX
West Hollywood, CA Remote-first company; West Hollywood, CA is the registered US address
Employees
1.1k Headcount of parent company WP Engine (~1,100 globally)
225 ~220-230 employees (distributed across 6 continents)
Pricing
Starting Monthly Price (USD)
$25 Starter plan billed monthly; $300/yr (2 months free) if annual
$35 Single 20GB plan; $30/mo when billed annually ($350/yr)
Entry Plan WordPress Sites
1 sites 1 WordPress site on the Starter plan
1 sites 1 WordPress install on the Single 20GB entry plan
Entry Plan Monthly Visits
25k 25,000 monthly visits on the Starter plan
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Entry Plan Storage (GB)
10 GB 10 GB disk on the Starter plan
10 GB 10 GB disk; entry plan meters bandwidth (20 GB server bandwidth), not visits
Free Trial Length (Days)
0 days No free trial; free demo sites and a 60-day money-back guarantee instead
0 days No standard free trial; new accounts get a first-month-free promo and a 30-day money-back guarantee
Money-Back Guarantee (Days)
60 days 60-day money-back guarantee (excludes Agency and Custom plans)
30 days 30-day money-back guarantee (first-time customers; excludes one-time fees, overages, dedicated-server fees)
Performance & infrastructure
Underlying Cloud
Google Cloud Runs on the Google Cloud Platform
Google Cloud Google Cloud Platform, Premium Tier network
Datacenter Locations
5 5 data center regions worldwide
27 27 Google Cloud data center locations available for site placement
Free CDN
Free global CDN powered by Fastly on all plans
Cloudflare-powered CDN + edge caching, free on all plans (125 GB CDN bandwidth on entry plan)
Web Server
NGINX NGINX serving static files and reverse-proxying PHP-FPM
NGINX NGINX-based stack
Built-in Object Cache
Page caching only (FlyCache); no persistent object cache
Redis object cache is a paid add-on ($100/mo per site)
Latest PHP Version
8.2 PHP 8.2 (default for new sites); 7.4 also selectable
8.5 PHP 8.5 generally available (selectable in MyKinsta); 7.4 through 8.5 supported
Free SSL Certificate
Free Let's Encrypt SSL (Simple SSL) with any plan
Free Cloudflare/Let's Encrypt SSL, auto-provisioned and renewed; wildcard supported
WordPress management
Automatic WordPress Updates
Automatic major and minor WordPress core updates
Kinsta does not auto-update WordPress core; automatic plugin/theme updates are a paid add-on ($3/site/mo)
Staging Environments
One-click staging sites included on all plans
One free standard staging environment on all plans, with push-to-live (selective file/DB push); premium staging is a paid add-on
Automatic Daily Backups
Automatic nightly backups with one-click restore
Automatic daily backups with one-click restore; 6-hour/hourly backups are paid add-ons
Backup Retention (Days)
30 days 30 days of nightly backups retained
14 days 14 days of daily backups on the entry plan; higher tiers retain 30 days
Free Site Migration
Free site migrations included
Unlimited free expert-handled migrations on all plans
SSH & WP-CLI Access
SSH gateway with WP-CLI on all Cloud Platform sites
SSH access on all plans; WP-CLI v2 pre-installed on every server. Git supported.
WordPress Multisite Support
Multisite requires Freelance, Agency, or Custom plan; not on the entry Starter plan
Officially supported, but not on the entry plan: requires Single 40GB / Single 65k or higher
Support & security
Uptime SLA (%)
99.9% 99.9% uptime
99.9% 99.9% SLA-backed uptime guarantee (up to 99.99% on custom plans)
24/7 Support
24/7/365 chat support on all plans
24/7/365 human expert support via live chat on all plans
Malware Removal / Hack Fix
Free malware cleanup / hack fix if your site is infected on-platform
Free hack-fix / malware removal under the Security Pledge (excludes nulled plugins/themes)
WAF / DDoS Protection
Fastly-based WAF and DDoS protection at the edge, included on all plans
Cloudflare-based managed WAF + L3/4/7 DDoS protection, free on all plans
Platform & integrations
Control Panel
custom Custom Flywheel dashboard (replaces cPanel)
custom MyKinsta custom dashboard (no cPanel)
White-Label / Agency Features
Billing transfer to clients, collaborators, and multi-site management for agencies
White-label WP admin, agency partner program, MyKinsta multi-client/team management
Email Hosting Included
No email hosting; Flywheel recommends a dedicated provider like Google Workspace
No email hosting; Kinsta recommends Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 and helps add MX records
The verdict
Flywheel Best for hands-off, lower-cost managed WordPress
Flywheel starts cheaper at $25/mo vs Kinsta's $35, and is the more set-and-forget option: it auto-applies WordPress core updates (Kinsta does not, and bills plugin/theme updates as an add-on). It also retains 30 days of backups to Kinsta's 14 and backs a 60-day money-back guarantee vs 30.
Full profile Kinsta Best for global reach and the newest PHP stack
Kinsta offers 27 Google Cloud data center locations for site placement versus Flywheel's 5, a clear edge for geographically distributed audiences. It also runs PHP 8.5 to Flywheel's 8.2. The trade-offs: a higher $35 entry price, no automatic core updates, and 14-day backup retention.
Full profileSources · 35 verified references
wpengine.com pitchbook.com getflywheel.com kinsta.com
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