ScalaHosting vs Kinsta
ScalaHosting and Kinsta compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. ScalaHosting scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
ScalaHostingWins overall
Dallas and Sofia host with its own SPanel, an anytime prorated refund and a credit table that reaches 100 percent
Managed WordPress hosting from $30 a month with flat renewals, 30 data centers, edge caching and 14-day backups
ScalaHosting wins 2 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (8.1 vs 7.9).
How do the scores compare?
ScalaHosting leads on 2 sub-scores, Kinsta on 2. Higher is better.
| ScalaHosting | Kinsta | |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Uptime | 8.5 | 8.5 |
| Support | 8.5 (better) | 8.0 |
| Features | 8.0 | 8.5 (better) |
| Value | 7.5 (better) | 6.0 |
| Ease of use | 7.5 | 8.5 (better) |
Which one is faster and more reliable?
| ScalaHosting | Kinsta | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 8.1 (better) | 7.9 |
| Uptime (published)Kripesh Adwani 365 d vs HostingStep 366 d; methods differ | 99.99% | 100.00% (better) |
| Response time (published)WPBeginner vs HostingStep; methods differ | 526 ms | 525 ms (better) |
Which one costs less?
On renewal, ScalaHosting is cheaper ($11.95/mo vs $30.00/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| ScalaHosting | Kinsta | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | Mini | Single 20GB |
| Intro price | $2.95/mo (better) | $30.00/mo |
| Renewal price | $11.95/mo (better) | $30.00/mo |
| Required term | 36 months | 12 months (better) |
| Websites | 1 | 1 |
| Storage | 10 GB | 10 GB |
| Money back | 30 days, then prorated at any time (better) | 30 days |
What does each include?
| ScalaHosting | Kinsta | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | Start, Advanced and Entry Cloud; not on Mini | No |
| Free SSL | Yes | Wildcard certificates through Cloudflare on every plan |
| Automated backups | Daily, 7 restore points kept for the last 7 days | Not stated |
| Free migration | Website and email migration | Unlimited migrations by Kinsta's team |
| Control panel | SPanel (free, with SShield security and spam protection) or cPanel | Not stated |
| CDN | CDN integration | Not stated |
| WP-CLI and SSH | Yes | Not stated |
| Malware protection | Real-time, on every plan | Not stated |
| Staging | Not listed on the plan cards | Free one-click staging environments on every plan |
| Uptime guarantee | 99.9%; credits from 10% at 99.8% up to 100% below 99%, claimed through billing | 99.9% per month in the SLA updated 25 September 2025, with credits as a percentage of the monthly value once downtime passes 43 minutes; up to 99.99% on custom plans |
| Money-back guarantee | Full refund within 30 days; prorated refund of unused time at any time after that; new clients only; web, reseller and VPS hosting | Not stated |
| Choice of data center | Dallas, New York, Seattle or Sofia on ScalaHosting's own infrastructure; partner cloud and AWS regions for cloud plans | Not stated |
| Phone support | Yes | No |
| Windows hosting | No | No |
| Backups | Not stated | Daily automatic backups kept 14 days on the entry plans (20 or 30 days higher up), plus manual, downloadable and hourly add-on backups |
| Free CDN | Not stated | Cloudflare CDN with edge caching, 260+ points of presence per the pricing page; 125 GB of CDN bandwidth a month on the entry plans |
| Caching | Not stated | Server-level caching and edge caching through Cloudflare |
| Not stated | No | |
| Resource limits | Not stated | Each site runs in its own container; plans are sized by server bandwidth or visits, storage and CDN bandwidth, with PHP worker counts in the compare table |
| Data center choice | Not stated | 30 locations chosen per site at creation |
| Security | Not stated | Fully managed WAF with DDoS protection, bot protection, free malware removal, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 |
| Developer tools | Not stated | SSH, WP-CLI, Git, DevKinsta local environment, Kinsta API, built-in APM |
Company facts
| ScalaHosting | Kinsta | |
|---|---|---|
| Control panel | SPanel (ScalaHosting's own) or cPanel | MyKinsta (Kinsta's own dashboard); no cPanel |
| Data centers | 5 (better) | 1 |
| Support channels | chat, ticket, phone, knowledge-base | chat, ticket, knowledge-base |
| Founded | 2007 | 2013 |