Hosting.com vs Kinsta

Kinsta scores higher; Hosting.com costs less over three years. Which matters depends on whether the site earns yet.

Researched by the Host Cliff editorial team Pricing & specs checked 27 Jul 2026 · No paid placements

How we score →

Hosting.com

Formerly A2 Hosting — developer-friendly shared hosting

8.0

Very good

$2.99/mo renews $10.99/mo

Visit Hosting.com → Full Hosting.com review

Higher score

Kinsta

Premium managed WordPress on Google Cloud

8.7

Very good

$35/mo renews $35/mo

Visit Kinsta → Full Kinsta review

Three-year cost, side by side

One introductory term followed by two years at the renewal rate — the number almost nobody quotes you up front.

Hosting.com $300 $2.99 then $10.99/mo ×3.7

Kinsta $1,260 $35 then $35/mo

Over three years Hosting.com costs $960 less — about $26.68 a month averaged out. It also scores lower, so the question is whether Kinsta earns the difference.

Arithmetic on published monthly rates. Real bills vary with term length, currency, region and taxes.

Which one should you pick?

Choose Hosting.com if…

SSH and Composer even on shared plans
Anytime money-back guarantee (prorated)
Multiple selectable PHP versions
Good for Laravel on a budget

Choose Kinsta if…

Runs on Google Cloud premium tier, widely reported as the fastest here
Staging, Redis and edge caching built in
MyKinsta is the best host dashboard available
Generous 30-day guarantee at a premium price

What holds Hosting.com back

Turbo plans cost significantly more
No India datacenter
Dated cPanel experience

What holds Kinsta back

Expensive for small sites
Hard visit limits with overage fees
WordPress only

Line by line

Specification Hosting.com 4 rows ahead Kinsta 5 rows ahead

01 Editorial scores Assessments, not measurements.

Overall score 8.0/10 8.7/10

Performance 30% of the score 8.1 9.5

Support 25% of the score 7.9 9.2

Features 20% of the score 8.4 9.0

Pricing 15% of the score 7.6 5.9

Ease 10% of the score 7.8 9.1

02 What you actually pay Published rates — confirm at checkout.

Intro price $2.99/mo $35/mo

Renewal price What you pay from year two $10.99/mo $35/mo

Three-year total One intro term, two renewals $300 $1,260

Refund window 30 days 30 days

03 Specifications

Uptime SLA 99.9% 99.9%

Control panel cPanel MyKinsta

Datacenters US (MI, AZ), NL, SG Google Cloud — 37 regions

Support Live chat 24/7, phone, tickets Live chat 24/7, tickets

Free domain No No

Free migration Yes Yes

User rating — —

Plans compared

Entry plans on both sides, with what each renews at. Storage and traffic limits decide more than the brand name does.

Hosting.com 2 plans

Startup Lowest renewal $2.99/mo

SSH + Composer included

Renews at $10.99 ×3.7

100 GB SSD Unmetered 1 site

Check Startup →

Turbo Boost $6.99/mo

LiteSpeed + NVMe

Renews at $20.99 ×3.0

NVMe Unmetered Unlimited sites

Check Turbo Boost →

Kinsta 1 plan

Starter $35/mo

Edge caching + staging

No renewal increase

10 GB 25k visits 1 site

Check Starter →

Only the plans we have recorded — providers add and retire tiers often, so check the current line-up before buying. Monthly equivalents; longer terms are usually billed up front.

Compare something else

First host

Score: 8.0
From: $2.99
Renews: $10.99

Second host

Score: 8.7
From: $35
Renews: $35

16 hosts tracked — any pair works. Browse curated comparisons →

Where these figures come from

Hosting.com: a2hosting.com/web-hosting + priceworld round-up — checked 27 Jul 2026

Rebranded from A2 Hosting in 2025 after World Host Group acquired it; figures re-checked against hosting.com.

Kinsta: kinsta.com/plans — checked 28 Jul 2026

Starter plan, monthly billing. Annual billing works out near $29/mo. No intro discount, so no renewal jump.

Scores are editorial assessments, not lab measurements — see how they are built. Confirm prices at each provider's checkout before buying.