Kinsta sells you hosting without email. WPShift includes both.
Kinsta runs the infrastructure and sells you space on it. WPShift configures a server that stays in your own cloud account, and puts your mailboxes, DNS and backups in the same place as your sites.
Free plan available. Paid plans include a 7-day trial. Server costs are separate.
What WPShift includes
Hosting is more than a server. Mailboxes, backup storage and DNS come with every plan, including the free one. Not one of the products on this page bundles mail with your sites.
- Mailboxes on your own domainsReal inboxes with webmail, on every plan including the free one. None of the products compared here offer this: hosts point you at Google Workspace, and server panels do not handle mail at all.
- Off-server backup storageBackup storage is included on every plan, held away from the server it protects, with the allowance set by your plan. Or point it at your own S3-compatible storage and use none of it.
- DNS hostingFree DNS on every plan. Point your domain at WPShift and manage its records next to the sites and mailboxes that use them, while the domain stays with your own registrar.
- AI CopilotAn assistant that reads your own servers, sites and operation records and waits for your approval before it acts. Available on the higher plans.
How the two models differ
Mailboxes on your own domainIncluded with WPShift
WPShiftIncluded on every plan, including the free one. Real inboxes with webmail, and the mail DNS records managed alongside them.
KinstaNot offered. Their documentation states plainly: "we don’t provide email as part of our hosting plans", and recommends Google Workspace, Microsoft Outlook or Zoho instead. Transactional sending from the site is included; receiving mail is not.
Root accessIncluded with WPShift
WPShiftYes. SSH and root on a server you own, because it is yours.
KinstaSSH and WP-CLI are provided, but Kinsta states it does not offer root access, because doing so would undercut the guarantees a managed platform makes.
Backup storageIncluded with WPShift
WPShiftIncluded on every plan, off the server it protects, or pointed at your own S3-compatible storage.
KinstaBackups are part of the platform, held within it. Storage is an allowance of your plan tier rather than somewhere you choose.
Who the infrastructure belongs to
WPShiftYou. The server is created in your cloud account and stays there.
KinstaKinsta. You buy a hosting plan rather than a server; their platform runs on Google Cloud with sites isolated in containers.
How capacity works
WPShiftYou choose the server size at your provider, and change it there.
KinstaYou choose a plan tier; sites, storage and bandwidth are allowances of that tier.
If you stop paying
WPShiftThe server keeps running in your own account.
KinstaThe hosting ends, because the hosting was the product.
How each one charges
WPShift
A plan for the software, covering mailboxes, backup storage and DNS, and a separate bill from your cloud provider for the server. WPShift adds nothing to that second bill.
WPShift pricingKinsta
One bill covering platform and infrastructure, priced by site count with storage and bandwidth allowances per tier. Mail is not part of it and is bought elsewhere.
Kinsta pricingWhen Kinsta is the better choice
- You want one company accountable for the whole thing, with support that will engage with the site itself and not only the server. That is a real service and it is most of what the price difference buys.
- Your traffic is large and spiky and you would rather someone else absorbed that than size a machine for it.
When WPShift fits better
- You want your mail and your sites in one place. Kinsta says outright that it does not provide email; with WPShift, mailboxes on your own domains are included on every plan.
- You want root on the machine your sites run on, and the server to survive any change of vendor.
- You want the infrastructure bill to follow your own choices at your provider’s list price, rather than being packaged into a plan tier.
Questions
Does Kinsta include email hosting?
No. Their own documentation says "we don’t provide email as part of our hosting plans" and points customers to Google Workspace, Microsoft Outlook or Zoho Mail. They do send transactional mail from your site. WPShift includes real mailboxes with webmail on your own domains on every plan, including the free one.
Is WPShift cheaper than Kinsta?
Usually the two bills together come to less for the same number of sites, because you buy the server at your provider’s list price, and mail and backup storage are already included rather than bought separately. Count what you give up too: managed support that engages with the site itself.
Can I move from Kinsta without downtime?
You copy the site to a WPShift-managed server and check it on a temporary address while Kinsta keeps serving the live site. Nothing changes for visitors until you move DNS. Plan for orders and form entries arriving between the copy and the switch.
Other comparisons
- WPShift vs FlyWPThe closest comparison, and where the two stop being alike.
- WPShift vs Laravel ForgeA general deployment panel against WordPress hosting with mail and DNS included.
- WPShift vs RunCloudA general PHP control panel against WordPress hosting with mail included.
- WPShift vs WP EngineA managed platform that leaves out mail and DNS, against hosting that includes them.
Try it before you leave Kinsta
Copy a site to a WPShift-managed server and check it on a temporary address. Your current setup keeps serving the live site until you move DNS.
Free plan available. Paid plans include a 7-day trial. Server costs are separate.