Kinsta is a managed WordPress host: it runs your WordPress site on its own platform and handles server tuning, caching, security, backups and site migrations for you. It is one of the few managed WordPress hosts with two Canadian data centres, Montreal and Toronto. It costs more than shared hosting, it bills in US dollars, and email comes from a separate provider rather than the hosting plan.
This review covers what Kinsta costs, what its plan limits mean, what happens when you go over them, and what is included. The If you're in Canada section covers data centres, USD billing, sales tax and French support. Kinsta is our runner-up in the best managed WordPress hosting and our pick for managed WordPress in the best web hosting in Canada.
How we evaluated
This is a research-based review. We did not host a site with Kinsta. Every price, limit, fee and policy below comes from Kinsta's pricing page, add-ons page, documentation and changelog, checked in October 2026, with the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada for card conversion charges.
We judged Kinsta on what matters to a small business running a WordPress site:
- Cost: monthly and annual prices, renewal, add-ons and overage rates
- Limits: sites, visits or bandwidth, storage and CDN bandwidth
- What's included: backups, staging, CDN, security and malware removal, migrations
- Support and guarantees: channels, hours, languages and the refund policy
- Canadian fit: data centre locations, currency, sales tax and French support
We compared Kinsta with other hosts using the figures in our managed WordPress hosting and Canadian web hosting reviews.
Kinsta pricing
Kinsta's WordPress plans are priced by the number of sites and by monthly usage. All prices are in US dollars and exclude tax. Annual billing costs 10 times the monthly price, which Kinsta labels "2 months off." For every plan tier, add-on and overage rate with worked examples, see Kinsta pricing explained.
When we checked, Kinsta's pricing page listed two sets of entry plans at the same price. The older Single plans let you choose billing on server bandwidth (Single 20GB) or on visits (Single 35k). A newer Launch plan is billed on server bandwidth only and shows an estimated number of monthly visits. Kinsta's plan guide confirms that its new plans (Launch, Launch Plus, Build, Expand, Scale and Lead) are priced on server bandwidth only.
| Feature | Single 20GB | Single 35k | Launch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price billed monthly | $35/mo | $35/mo | $35/mo |
| Price billed annually | $350/yr | $350/yr | $350/yr |
| WordPress sites | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Billed on | Server bandwidth | Visits | Server bandwidth |
| Monthly allowance | 20GB server bandwidth | 35,000 visits | 15GB server bandwidth (about 75,000 visits, Kinsta's estimate) |
| Storage | 10GB | 10GB | 15GB |
| CDN bandwidth | 125GB/mo | 125GB/mo | 125GB/mo |
| Backup retention | 14 days | 14 days | 14 days |
| Marked for ecommerce or membership sites | |||
| First month free (new customers) |
Kinsta's own comparison table marks Single 20GB and Single 35k as not recommended for ecommerce or membership sites, and marks Launch, Launch Plus, Single 65k and up, and the larger multi-site plans from WP 5 up as recommended. WP 2 is not marked for ecommerce. If you run a WooCommerce store, that points to Launch or a higher single-site tier.
The next steps up for one site are Single 40GB or Single 65k at $50 a month ($500 a year) and Launch Plus at $59 a month ($590 a year), which has 25GB of server bandwidth, 25GB of storage and an estimated 125,000 visits. For several sites, WP 2 is $70 a month ($700 a year) for two sites, and Build is $69 a month ($690 a year) for two. Agency plans start at $340 a month and Enterprise at $500 a month.
Renewal. Kinsta does not show an introductory rate that jumps later. The monthly or annual list price is the price you keep paying. Its billing FAQ says unused resources do not carry over from month to month.
First month free. Kinsta's pricing page marks Single 20GB, Single 35k, Launch and WP 2 with "First month free." Kinsta's plan documentation says new customers on Single 35k, Single 20GB, WP 2 and Launch get the first 30 days free on monthly or annual billing, that you enter a card but are not charged during that time, and that billing starts at the regular rate afterwards. If you cancel during the free month, the plan ends immediately and you cannot start another free month.
Add-ons
Kinsta's add-ons page lists these monthly prices in USD:
| Add-on | Price |
|---|---|
| Extra WordPress site | $30/mo per site |
| Extra disk space | $20/mo per 20GB |
| Premium staging environment | $20/mo per environment |
| Backups every 6 hours | $20/mo per site |
| Hourly backups | $100/mo per site |
| External backups to Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage | $2/mo per site plus $1/GB |
| Automatic plugin and theme updates | $3/mo per environment |
| Redis cache | $100/mo per site |
| Dedicated server | From $300/mo |
What the limits mean, and overage charges
Each plan sets a monthly allowance of visits or server bandwidth, plus storage and CDN bandwidth. Server bandwidth is the data your site's server sends; CDN bandwidth is what Kinsta's content delivery network serves from its edge locations.
If you go over, Kinsta says it will "keep your sites running but charge you an overage fee." The rates in Kinsta's overage documentation are:
- Visits: $0.50 per 1,000 visits
- Server bandwidth: $0.50 per GB
- CDN bandwidth: $0.05 per GB
- Disk space: $2 per GB per month, prorated daily
With plan limit alerts on, Kinsta emails you at 80% and 100% of your plan's usage, and again at 10% over for visits. Kinsta's billing FAQ says overage notifications are on by default. Most overages are charged at the end of the month, but server bandwidth overages above 250GB are charged at the end of the first week after the overage.
As an example from those rates, a Single 35k site that gets 45,000 visits in a month would owe about $5 in visit overage on top of the $35 plan. If you regularly go over, the next plan up or the disk space add-on is usually the cheaper route.
What every plan includes
Kinsta lists the following on all WordPress plans.
CDN and edge caching. Kinsta's CDN is powered by Cloudflare, and edge caching serves cached pages from Cloudflare's locations around the world. Both are included.
Backups. Kinsta makes a daily automatic backup of each site, plus backups generated by the system for certain events. Entry plans keep backups for 14 days; larger plans keep 20 or 30 days. You can also make up to 5 manual backups, and once a week create a downloadable ZIP of your files and database. Kinsta says backups are stored on the same host machine as your site, so the paid external backup add-on is the way to keep a copy elsewhere.
Staging. Each WordPress site gets a free standard staging environment for testing changes. Kinsta's documentation says standard staging has 2 PHP threads, no CDN, and may go to sleep after 24 hours of inactivity. Premium staging environments cost $20 a month each and get the same PHP threads as your live site, plus the CDN.
Security and malware removal. Every site sits behind a managed web application firewall with DDoS protection through Cloudflare, with free SSL certificates (including wildcard). If your WordPress site is hacked while hosted at Kinsta, its team will clean it at no charge: a deep file scan, a clean copy of WordPress core, removal of infected plugins and themes, and new SFTP, SSH and database passwords. The pledge does not cover sites using nulled (pirated) plugins or themes, or non-WordPress software. You must finish the post-cleanup steps, such as updating everything and changing passwords, within one business day; otherwise Kinsta says a future cleanup costs $100.
Migrations. Kinsta moves standard WordPress sites to its platform free, with no limit on the number of sites. It says most migrations are done within one business day, migrations run Monday to Friday only, and an expedited migration costs $49 per site, with a goal of 8 hours (refunded if missed). WordPress.com sites cannot be moved this way; only their content can be exported.
Other tools. Kinsta also lists unlimited users with access levels, an application performance monitoring tool, ongoing database optimization, bot protection, SFTP and SSH access, and an API.
Support
Kinsta's technical support is by chat inside MyKinsta, its dashboard, 24/7, for customers with an active paid plan. Support is available in 8 languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Dutch and Japanese. Kinsta does not offer phone support for technical issues. Its billing team works Monday to Friday, 1 a.m. to 11 p.m. UTC, and the migrations team Monday to Friday.
Email: what to use instead
Kinsta says plainly: "we don't provide email as part of our hosting plans." It suggests Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 (Outlook) or Zoho Mail, and if you use Kinsta's DNS, you can add Google's mail records in a few clicks.
Your WordPress site can still send transactional email, such as order confirmations, contact form notices and password resets. Kinsta's limit is 150 emails a day per plan on its entry plans, 1,000 on mid-tier plans and 3,000 on the largest. A busy store may need a dedicated sending service; Kinsta suggests SendGrid or Mailgun.
Budget for a separate mailbox for each person who needs an address on your domain. This is the biggest cost difference between Kinsta and Canadian shared hosts, which usually include mailboxes.
Money-back guarantee
Kinsta's guarantee says that if you cancel within 30 days of activating a plan, it will refund the fees of any managed WordPress hosting plan. The conditions:
- First-time customers only
- On a plan with a free first month, the 30 days start when the free month ends
- Switching plans does not restart the 30 days
- Overages, one-time fees and dedicated server fees are not refunded, and fees incurred in the first 30 days are deducted from the refund
After the guarantee period, you can schedule a cancellation to take effect at the end of your billing cycle.
If you're in Canada
Data centres in Montreal and Toronto. Kinsta lists Montreal (ca-montreal-1) and Toronto (ca-toronto-1) among its 30 data centre locations, and says its infrastructure now runs on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Kinsta's backups are stored on the same machine as the site, but your CDN cache is served from Cloudflare locations worldwide, and your email will sit wherever your email provider keeps it. If your business is in Quebec, a Montreal data centre keeps the site in Quebec; our managed WordPress hosting review covers what Quebec's privacy law asks of businesses that host data outside the province.
You pay in US dollars. Kinsta's billing FAQ says you are charged in USD, and card payments are handled by its UK branch, Kinsta Ltd. Your card issuer converts the charge and may add a fee. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada uses a 2.5% conversion rate in its example; at that rate, conversion adds about $0.88 to a $35 month and about $8.75 to a $350 year, on top of the exchange rate. Annual billing means one conversion a year instead of twelve. Kinsta's payment docs add a practical note: if your card is set to decline international transactions, the payment may fail.
Sales tax. Kinsta's prices exclude tax. Its tax documentation lists where it collects tax (certain US states, the EU, the UK, India and Nigeria) and does not mention Canada, GST/HST or QST. Keep your Kinsta invoices and ask your accountant how GST/HST applies. See GST, HST and PST rates by province for the rates.
French. Kinsta's 24/7 chat support is offered in French, and MyKinsta is available in French.
Domains. If you want a .ca address for your site, our how to register a .ca domain guide covers where to buy one and who is eligible.
What we like and what to know
Kinsta's strengths are what it includes at its entry price: malware cleanup, unlimited migrations, staging, a Cloudflare CDN and firewall, and a price that does not jump at renewal. Keep in mind that it costs more than shared hosting, bills in US dollars, does not include email, and charges overages above its entry-plan limits.
Kinsta
Strengths
- Data centres in Montreal and Toronto
- No intro-to-renewal price jump: $35 a month or $350 a year
- Free malware removal and unlimited free migrations
- Cloudflare CDN, edge caching and managed firewall included
- Free staging environment for every site
- 24/7 chat support in 8 languages, including French
Good to know
- Billed in US dollars, with conversion handled by your card issuer
- Email mailboxes come from a separate provider such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365
- Kinsta recommends Launch or higher for ecommerce; entry Single plans suit non-store sites
- Sites stay online above plan limits, with usage billed as overage
- Entry plans keep backups 14 days on the same machine; external backups are a paid add-on
- Support is by 24/7 chat rather than phone
Who Kinsta is for (and when another host fits better)
Kinsta is a good fit if you:
- Run a WordPress site that brings in leads or sales, where a hack or slow site costs you money
- Want your site hosted in Montreal or Toronto without managing a server yourself
- Run a WooCommerce store and can pay for Launch or a higher tier
- Want the host to handle migrations and malware cleanup rather than doing it yourself
- Already use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 for email
Another host may fit better if you:
- Want the lowest possible cost for a small brochure site: Canadian shared hosting starts at a few dollars a month
- Want to pay in Canadian dollars, or want email included in your hosting bill
- Need phone support
- Are not using WordPress, for example a Shopify store or a custom app (see Shopify vs WooCommerce in Canada)
Alternatives
Our best managed WordPress hosting review compares Kinsta with SiteGround, WP Engine and Cloudways, with prices checked in September 2026:
- SiteGround: $2.99 a month for the first 12 months prepaid, then $17.99 a month, with email accounts included and data centres outside Canada.
- WP Engine: Essential is $35 a month for one site and 25,000 visits, with backups kept 30 to 60 days, a Canadian dollar price option and a Montreal data centre on shared plans. Its annual renewal price is not published. See Kinsta vs WP Engine for the side-by-side.
- Cloudways: pay-as-you-go cloud servers from $11 a month, with Toronto and Montreal options depending on the cloud provider; the CDN, malware protection and email are paid add-ons. See our Cloudways review and Cloudways vs Kinsta.
Our best web hosting in Canada review covers Canadian hosts that bill in CAD and include email, including Web Hosting Canada, CanSpace and HostPapa. For a small site that needs mailboxes on the same bill, they cost far less than Kinsta. Kinsta is the managed WordPress pick there for businesses that want WordPress handled for them on Canadian servers.
Our verdict
4.5Kinsta is a strong choice for a Canadian business that wants its WordPress site fully managed and hosted in Montreal or Toronto. At USD $35 a month or $350 a year, the entry plans include malware cleanup, unlimited migrations, staging, a Cloudflare CDN and firewall, and a price that does not rise at renewal. It rates 4.5 rather than 5 because billing is in US dollars, email is a separate cost, Kinsta recommends Launch or higher rather than the entry Single plans for stores, and traffic above your plan is billed as overage. For a WooCommerce store, budget for Launch or higher plus a mailbox service.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Kinsta cost?
Kinsta's entry WordPress plans cost USD $35 a month billed monthly, or $350 a year billed annually, for one WordPress site. The next single-site tiers are $50 and $59 a month, and the WP 2 plan for two sites is $70 a month. Prices exclude tax. Kinsta shows no separate renewal price, so the list price is what you keep paying (checked October 2026).
Does Kinsta have data centres in Canada?
Yes. Kinsta lists Montreal (ca-montreal-1) and Toronto (ca-toronto-1) among its 30 data centre locations for WordPress hosting. Kinsta says its infrastructure now runs on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). A Quebec business that wants its site hosted in Quebec would pick Montreal.
Can I pay for Kinsta in Canadian dollars?
No. Kinsta's pricing page says prices are in USD, and its billing FAQ says you are charged in US dollars, with any conversion done by your card issuer. Kinsta accepts Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, American Express and Discover, plus wire transfer and ACH on annual plans.
Does Kinsta include email hosting?
No. Kinsta says it does not provide email as part of its hosting plans and suggests Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 (Outlook) or Zoho Mail. Kinsta does send transactional email from WordPress, such as order confirmations, up to 150 emails a day per plan on its entry plans.
What happens if my site goes over Kinsta's visit or bandwidth limit?
Kinsta keeps your site online and bills an overage: $0.50 per 1,000 visits, $0.50 per GB of server bandwidth, $0.05 per GB of CDN bandwidth, and $2 per GB of disk space per month, in USD. With alerts on, Kinsta emails you at 80% and 100% of your plan's usage. Most overages are billed at the end of the month.
Does Kinsta offer a free trial or money-back guarantee?
Kinsta offers the first month free on select entry plans for new customers, with a credit card required at signup. It also has a 30-day money-back guarantee for first-time customers on WordPress hosting plans. If you start with a free month, the 30 days begin when the free month ends. Overages, one-time fees and dedicated server fees are not refunded.
Does Kinsta charge GST/HST to Canadian customers?
Kinsta's tax documentation lists the places where it collects tax (some US states, the EU, the UK, India and Nigeria) and does not mention Canada, GST/HST or QST. Kinsta's prices exclude tax. Ask Kinsta's billing team and your accountant how GST/HST applies to your account.
Sources
- Kinsta pricing (plans, prices, first-month-free labels, ecommerce recommendation, included features; checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: choosing the right WordPress plan (new plans priced on server bandwidth only; checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: first month free (checked October 2026)
- Kinsta add-ons (checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: overages (checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: billing FAQs (USD billing, overage notifications; checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: payment methods (checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: tax, VAT and GST (checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: money-back guarantee (checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: data centre locations (checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: infrastructure upgrades (Oracle Cloud Infrastructure; checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: WordPress hosting features (CDN, edge caching, backups; checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: backups (checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: staging environments (checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: malware removal (checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: migrating to Kinsta (checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: contact support (checked October 2026)
- Kinsta: email (checked October 2026)
- Kinsta changelog: application, database and static site hosting moving to Sevalla (checked October 2026)
- Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: How credit cards work (foreign currency conversion example; checked October 2026)