WordPress Hosting · Comparison
Kinsta vs. Liquid Web
Kinsta and Liquid Web 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.
Kinsta
Premium managed WordPress hosting on Google Cloud's Premium Tier, focused on speed and developer tooling.
Liquid Web
Managed WordPress and ecommerce hosting (formerly Nexcess), on Liquid Web's own datacenters with Cloudflare Enterprise and a 100% uptime SLA.
Company facts
Headquarters
West Hollywood, CA Remote-first company; West Hollywood, CA is the registered US address
Lansing, MI Lansing, Michigan (Liquid Web HQ; Nexcess consolidated under the Liquid Web brand)
Employees
225 ~220-230 employees (distributed across 6 continents)
750 Approx. company headcount (LinkedIn 500–1,000 range, midpoint)
Pricing
Starting Monthly Price (USD)
$35 Single 20GB plan; $30/mo when billed annually ($350/yr)
$6 Spark – Launch plan, the entry managed WordPress tier (1 site, 15 GB), billed monthly
Entry Plan WordPress Sites
1 sites 1 WordPress install on the Single 20GB entry plan
1 sites 1 WordPress site on the entry Spark – Launch plan
Entry Plan Storage (GB)
10 GB 10 GB disk; entry plan meters bandwidth (20 GB server bandwidth), not visits
15 GB 15 GB storage on the entry Spark – Launch plan
Free Trial Length (Days)
0 days No standard free trial; new accounts get a first-month-free promo and a 30-day money-back guarantee
0 days No free trial offered on managed WordPress plans
Money-Back Guarantee (Days)
30 days 30-day money-back guarantee (first-time customers; excludes one-time fees, overages, dedicated-server fees)
0 days No money-back guarantee; the current Terms of Service state fees are non-refundable
Performance & infrastructure
Underlying Cloud
Google Cloud Google Cloud Platform, Premium Tier network
own datacenters Runs on Liquid Web-owned, staffed Tier-4 datacenters
Datacenter Locations
27 27 Google Cloud data center locations available for site placement
9 9 Liquid Web datacenter locations across the US, UK, EU, and Australia
Free CDN
Cloudflare-powered CDN + edge caching, free on all plans (125 GB CDN bandwidth on entry plan)
Cloudflare Enterprise CDN included on every managed WordPress plan
Web Server
NGINX NGINX-based stack
Apache Apache application server (with a Cloudflare Enterprise / NGINX edge-cache layer in front)
Built-in Object Cache
Redis object cache is a paid add-on ($100/mo per site)
Redis object caching (Object Cache Pro) enabled by default on all new sites
Latest PHP Version
8.5 PHP 8.5 generally available (selectable in MyKinsta); 7.4 through 8.5 supported
8.3 PHP 8.3 selectable via the Client Portal (newer releases may also be available)
Free SSL Certificate
Free Cloudflare/Let's Encrypt SSL, auto-provisioned and renewed; wildcard supported
Free SSL certificate included on all plans
WordPress management
Automatic WordPress Updates
Kinsta does not auto-update WordPress core; automatic plugin/theme updates are a paid add-on ($3/site/mo)
Host-managed automatic WordPress core (and security) updates
Staging Environments
One free standard staging environment on all plans, with push-to-live (selective file/DB push); premium staging is a paid add-on
Free staging site included on every plan
Automatic Daily Backups
Automatic daily backups with one-click restore; 6-hour/hourly backups are paid add-ons
Automatic daily backups on every plan
Backup Retention (Days)
14 days 14 days of daily backups on the entry plan; higher tiers retain 30 days
7 days 7-day backup retention on the entry Spark – Launch plan (30 days on Thrive/Elevate)
Free Site Migration
Unlimited free expert-handled migrations on all plans
Free self-serve migration on the entry plan (assisted migration on higher tiers)
SSH & WP-CLI Access
SSH access on all plans; WP-CLI v2 pre-installed on every server. Git supported.
SSH (Secure Shell) access with WP-CLI on managed WordPress plans
WordPress Multisite Support
Officially supported, but not on the entry plan: requires Single 40GB / Single 65k or higher
WordPress Multisite supported (subdomain or subdirectory networks)
Support & security
Uptime SLA (%)
99.9% 99.9% SLA-backed uptime guarantee (up to 99.99% on custom plans)
100% 100% uptime SLA (network and power), with service credits
24/7 Support
24/7/365 human expert support via live chat on all plans
24/7/365 support on all plans
Malware Removal / Hack Fix
Free hack-fix / malware removal under the Security Pledge (excludes nulled plugins/themes)
Malware remediation is a paid one-time service ($200/incident), not an included guarantee
WAF / DDoS Protection
Cloudflare-based managed WAF + L3/4/7 DDoS protection, free on all plans
Web application firewall + DDoS protection (Cloudflare Enterprise) included on every plan
Platform & integrations
Control Panel
custom MyKinsta custom dashboard (no cPanel)
custom Custom Sites & Stores portal (sites-portal.liquidweb.com), not cPanel/Plesk
White-Label / Agency Features
White-label WP admin, agency partner program, MyKinsta multi-client/team management
Reseller / white-label hosting and client management for partners
Email Hosting Included
No email hosting; Kinsta recommends Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 and helps add MX records
Email hosting not included; mailboxes require a paid add-on or third-party provider
The verdict
Kinsta Best for global reach on a risk-free trial
Runs on Google Cloud across 27 datacenter locations versus Liquid Web's 9, and ships the newer PHP 8.5 against 8.3. It also de-risks the higher $35/mo entry price with a 30-day money-back guarantee Liquid Web doesn't offer, plus longer 14-day backup retention and free malware removal where Liquid Web charges $200/incident.
Full profile Liquid Web Best for low-cost, hands-off managed WordPress
Starts at $6/mo against Kinsta's $35, with more entry storage (15GB vs 10GB) and a 100% uptime SLA over Kinsta's 99.9%. It bundles features Kinsta meters: Redis object caching by default (a $100/mo add-on at Kinsta), host-managed automatic core updates, and entry-plan multisite, which Kinsta gates behind higher tiers.
Full profileSources · 35 verified references
pitchbook.com liquidweb.com linkedin.com kinsta.com
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