Kinsta vs GreenGeeks – Hard to Choose, but I Did [2024]

Putting two powerful hosts against each other is tough as old boots, but not impossible. Both Kinsta and GreenGeeks are among the most highly recommended web hosting services on the market. But they are very different.

GreenGeeks offers an array of affordable green hosting options ideal for eco-conscious small to medium-sized websites. Meanwhile, Kinsta provides a truckload of managed WordPress hosting packages that fit almost anyone – from single websites to enterprises and agencies.

To make a fair comparison between these two different hosting services, I thoroughly tested their most similar hosting product: WordPress hosting. I compared each in five categories: pricing, features, performance, security, and support. GreenGeeks put up a great fight but lost in three out of five rounds.

Keep reading to find out what makes Kinsta the winner of this comparison. Or discover why GreenGeeks may actually be the better fit for you.

Plans and Pricing

You Get Lower Prices with GreenGeeks Even Without Discounts

Unlike Kinsta (which specializes in database, application, and managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting), GreenGeeks covers more hosting services. These include shared, reseller, VPS, WordPress, dedicated server, and application (CMS) hosting. To keep things simple, I’ll just be comparing Kinsta and GreenGeeks’ WordPress hosting packages.

Kinsta offers ten managed WordPress hosting plans from simple to enterprise-level. GreenGeeks only has three WordPress hosting packages. With GreenGeeks, you can choose to subscribe monthly, annually, biennially, or triennially. Kinsta allows you to sign up on a monthly or annual basis (includes 4 months free).

GreenGeeks offers much lower rates for WordPress hosting than Kinsta. For example, the most expensive GreenGeeks package costs less than Kinsta’s Starter plan. In saying that, Kinsta provides more WordPress-optimized services (details in the Features section).

Both hosts provide free website migration and a 30-day money-back guarantee. GreenGeeks also gives you a free domain name, but Kinsta doesn’t.

The winner? GreenGeeks wins the pricing round by offering discounted rates and cheaper package renewal costs than Kinsta.

Features

Kinsta Is Designed for WordPress Hosting – GreenGeeks Sticks to the Basics

A couple of common features come as standard with Kinsta and GreenGeeks’ WordPress hosting plans. These include a free SSL certificate, free CDN, SSD-based storage, daily backups (nightly backups with GreenGeeks), and a staging environment.

Now, for the differences. With Kinsta, you get from 1 to 150 hosted websites, 10 GB to 250 GB disk space, and 25,000 to 2.5 million monthly visits. GreenGeeks gives you from 1 to unlimited hosted websites, 50GB to unlimited webspace, and 50 to unlimited email accounts.

Kinsta has the edge over GreenGeeks, as Kinsta WordPress packages are hosted on the powerful Google Cloud Platform. It also offers a multi-user environment that lets you assign and manage users by giving them access to your websites and billing. Using Kinsta’s 1-click site cloning feature, you can clone any of your live websites or staging environments to build a template for a client.

Use the detailed table below to compare Kinsta and GreenGeeks further:

The winner? Kinsta. While GreenGeeks has all the essentials for a functioning WordPress site, Kinsta provides more high-end features and tools for serious WordPress users and demanding businesses.

Performance

GreenGeeks Can’t Catch Up with Kinsta’s Impressively Fast Speeds

Kinsta taps into Google Cloud’s global network of servers spanning more than 30 locations. These include the U.S.A., Canada, Brazil, the U.K., Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, and Switzerland. GreenGeeks, on the other hand, only has servers in the U.S.A, Canada, the Netherlands, and Singapore.

Both Kinsta and GreenGeeks use SSD storage with all plans. SSD storage performs much faster than regular HDD storage. In return, this reflects directly on your website’s stability, loading speeds, and overall performance. You’ll get a free CDN with all plans from both hosts. However, Kinsta uses an in-house CDN powered by Cloudflare (Kinsta CDN) and GreenGeeks uses the standard Cloudflare CDN.

Both hosts have an uptime guarantee of 99.9% and both exceeded this mark during our testing period. In Kinsta’s full review, the loading speed tests showed no slow locations at all. When testing GreenGeeks, it performed slightly worse. GreenGeeks’ review shows the detailed results. However, GreenGeeks has since added a Singapore data center to its portfolio, likely improving loading speeds in Oceania and Asia.

Security

You Get More Security Features with Kinsta

Both Kinsta and GreenGeeks implement 24/7 server monitoring, DDoS/Brute-Force protection, spam protection, and strong firewalls. Kinsta also has a safety pledge in place, two-factor authentication, and GeoIP blocking. It also automatically bans IPs with more than six failed login attempts in a minute (IPs with suspicious behavior).

Both hosts use container technology on all plans. Kinsta uses LXC containers, while GreenGeeks uses Hosting Account Isolation. These systems securely isolate your account from others on the same server to protect it against threats targeting those accounts.

Another benefit of the free CDN is its DDoS/Brute-Force protection to protect the entire network, including your website, against such attacks. Free CDN and SSL certificates come as standard with both hosts, in addition to free automatic daily backups. Both hosts take security seriously, but Kinsta offers more features to secure your website, making it the winner.

Support

It’s Easier to Get Help from GreenGeeks

Kinsta has 24/7 customer support via live chat, email, contact form, and an integrated ticketing system. However, the live chat is only available from the dashboard to subscribed customers. The live chat agents are well-trained and helpful. They were able to answer all my questions promptly and professionally.

GreenGeeks support is also available 24/7, but through more channels, including live chat, phone, email, and support ticket. However, the phone channel is only available Mon-Sun: 9 AM – 12 AM EST. Unlike Kinsta, live chat is available to everyone, even if you’re not a customer (pre-sales chat). I was instantly connected, and the agent was quite helpful in answering all my questions.

Both hosts comprehensive and well-organized knowledge bases, as well as offer highly responsive customer support. However, GreenGeeks offer more communication channels, and all are available pre-sale, making it slightly more reliable than Kinsta.

Kinsta Outperforms GreenGeeks

Kinsta and GreenGeeks are both listed among the best web hosting services and for all the good reasons. GreenGeeks is great for shared hosting, but when it comes to WordPress hosting, GreenGeeks falls behind Kinsta’s robust managed WordPress hosting packages.

As you can see, Kinsta won the features, performance, and security challenges. On the other hand, GreenGeeks remains the more eco and budget-friendly option, especially for small website owners or less demanding businesses.

FAQ

Is Kinsta better than GreenGeeks?

Kinsta is definitely a better option for WordPress hosting than GreenGeeks if you’re a developer or own a heavily trafficked website. However, I’d recommend GreenGeeks for casual WordPress users or SMBs that get light to moderate traffic.

Does Kinsta offer VPS hosting?

No. Kinsta specializes in managed WordPress hosting, as well as WooCommerce, database, and application hosting. If you need VPS, GreenGeeks is an option, as it offers VPS and cloud hosting plans.

Does GreenGeeks offer a free domain?

Yes. GreenGeeks offers a free domain name (.com, .net, ,org, .info, and .biz only) with its shared and application hosting packages, but only for the first year and with annual subscription terms. When signing up for GreenGeeks hosting, you’ll be prompted to link an existing domain or select one for purchase.

Is GreenGeeks hosting good?

Yes, GreenGeeks is a very good option for smaller websites especially. Its envrionmental policies help it stand out in an industry that consumes massive amounts of energy, while its excellent customer support is ideal if you’re new to hosting. However, if your performance needs are more intensive, you may want to consider Kinsta or another one of our top hosting providers.