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Kinsta vs Flywheel

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Kinsta and Flywheel built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 27 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Kinsta if…

WordPress sites that want each install in its own isolated container with a Cloudflare-backed CDN included, and a data centre chosen from thirty locations. Cron jobs run on the server rather than on page visits.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose Flywheel if…

Freelancers and agencies running client sites, where the workflow tools and a Fastly CDN matter more than raw resource ceilings. Bandwidth is stated rather than described as unlimited, so the plan is legible.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Kinsta: The entry plan is $35 a month for a single site, which is a large step up from shared hosting if you do not need the isolation.
  • Flywheel: The entry plan is one site at 25,000 visits and 50 GB of bandwidth. A single busy site outgrows the bandwidth line before the visit line, which is not the axis most managed hosts fail on.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Kinsta alternatives · Flywheel alternatives

14 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Kinsta documentationVisit Flywheel documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionKinstaFlywheel
Pricing
Free tierNo — Only free offer is a first month free for new customers on select plans, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee.No — Only free offering is a 14-day demo site, available to accounts that already have a paid subscription.
Kind of free offerNo free offerNo free offer
Entry paid plan
$35/month for the entry single-site plan (first month $0, then $35/month); $30/month if paid annually.
$25/month for Starter, billed $300 a year with two months free. Monthly billing is offered at a higher rate.
Pricing modelFixed monthly or annual plan tiers, each including a set number of WordPress installs; annual billing gives two months free, and visit/storage/CDN usage above the plan limits is billed as overage fees.Annual plans metered on three axes at once — sites, monthly visits and bandwidth — rather than on compute. Two months free for paying yearly.
Limits
Storage (entry plan)
10GB storage on the Single 20GB plan (cheapest paid WordPress hosting plan)
10 GB on Starter, the cheapest plan; 20 GB on Freelance
Sites or apps included
1 WordPress install on the Single 20GB plan (cheapest paid WordPress hosting plan)
1 site on Starter, the cheapest plan; up to 10 on Freelance
Monthly visits capNo visit cap on the entry plan: Single 20GB is billed on bandwidth, at 20GB a month. Kinsta offers visits-billed plans as the alternative, where the Business Launch tier estimates 75,000 visits a month.25,000 monthly visits on Starter; 100,000 on Freelance
Included bandwidth
20GB server bandwidth a month on the Single 20GB plan, plus 125GB of CDN bandwidth.
50 GB a month on Starter; 200 GB on Freelance. A stated allowance rather than the unlimited claim common in this segment.
Infrastructure
Edge networkSupportedSupported
Regions
30 data centers
Five data centers: US (Iowa), Canada (Montreal), United Kingdom (London), Europe (Belgium) and Australia (Sydney).
Compliance
SOC 2
SOC 2 Type II report, audited by BARR Advisory with Vanta as the GRC platform; copy requested under NDA from the Trust Report page.
WP Engine, Flywheel's parent company, says a SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 report are available on request from an Account Manager or Sales. Stated on WP Engine's platform security doc; it does not name Flywheel.
ISO 27001
Trust Center compliance list shows ISO 27001:2022 alongside ISO 27017 and ISO 27018; the ISO 27001 certificate is a requestable document there. Page renders client-side (Vanta portal); text read with a rendering fetch.
WP Engine, Flywheel's parent company, states its security environment is ISO 27001:2022 certified, with the certification available on request. Stated on WP Engine's platform security doc; it does not name Flywheel.
GDPR / data residency
DPA: the customer selects the data center region its applications are hosted in; some parts of the Services still require international transfers, covered by the SCCs and UK Addendum.
GDPR-compliant Data Protection Addendum published, plus internal processes to respond to GDPR data requests.
PCI DSSPCI compliance is not guaranteed and Kinsta does not audit customer sites; customers have passed third-party PCI scans while hosted on Kinsta.Meets PCI-DSS requirements only for sites that do not process, handle or store card data; Flywheel says no web host, itself included, can be PCI-compliant.
Encryption at restDPA Annex II: all Customer Personal Data stored in data centers — all Customer Applications and access logs — is encrypted at rest.Data encryption at rest and in transit, listed among the security features included in every Flywheel plan.
Role-based access control
MyKinsta roles: a single Company Owner plus three company-level roles (Administrator, Developer, Billing), and Site Administrator or Site Developer granted per site.
No granular roles: every Organization member has full owner privileges including billing; the only lesser access level is a per-site Collaborator.
Dedicated infrastructure
Dedicated virtual server with dedicated CPU and RAM, sold as an add-on to a hosting plan starting at $300 a month.
Flywheel's site states plans include dedicated resources - you are not sharing your server space with anyone else; no plan tier or hardware named. Homepage FAQ copy; WP Engine docs scope dedicated servers to its Premium/Core/Enterprise plans only.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Entry paid plan

Kinsta
$35/month for the entry single-site plan (first month $0, then $35/month); $30/month if paid annually.
Flywheel
$25/month for Starter, billed $300 a year with two months free. Monthly billing is offered at a higher rate.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

Kinsta
Fixed monthly or annual plan tiers, each including a set number of WordPress installs; annual billing gives two months free, and visit/storage/CDN usage above the plan limits is billed as overage fees.
Flywheel
Annual plans metered on three axes at once — sites, monthly visits and bandwidth — rather than on compute. Two months free for paying yearly.
Sources (2) →

Storage (entry plan)

Kinsta

10GB storage on the Single 20GB plan (cheapest paid WordPress hosting plan)

Flywheel

10 GB on Starter, the cheapest plan; 20 GB on Freelance

Sources (2) →

Sites or apps included

Kinsta

1 WordPress install on the Single 20GB plan (cheapest paid WordPress hosting plan)

Flywheel

1 site on Starter, the cheapest plan; up to 10 on Freelance

Sources (2) →

Monthly visits cap

Kinsta
No visit cap on the entry plan: Single 20GB is billed on bandwidth, at 20GB a month. Kinsta offers visits-billed plans as the alternative, where the Business Launch tier estimates 75,000 visits a month.
Flywheel
25,000 monthly visits on Starter; 100,000 on Freelance
Sources (2) →

Included bandwidth

Kinsta

20GB server bandwidth a month on the Single 20GB plan, plus 125GB of CDN bandwidth.

Flywheel

50 GB a month on Starter; 200 GB on Freelance. A stated allowance rather than the unlimited claim common in this segment.

Sources (2) →

Regions

Kinsta

30 data centers

Flywheel

Five data centers: US (Iowa), Canada (Montreal), United Kingdom (London), Europe (Belgium) and Australia (Sydney).

Sources (2) →

SOC 2

Kinsta
SOC 2 Type II report, audited by BARR Advisory with Vanta as the GRC platform; copy requested under NDA from the Trust Report page.
Flywheel
WP Engine, Flywheel's parent company, says a SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 report are available on request from an Account Manager or Sales. Stated on WP Engine's platform security doc; it does not name Flywheel.
Sources (2) →
  • Service Information - SOC 2 - Kinsta® Docs ↗

    “BARR Advisory is Kinsta’s auditor, and Vanta is our GRC (Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance) Management Software. [...] A Type II report (the type of report we have at Kinsta) assesses the effectiveness of those security measures over a period of time.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • WP Engine's Security Environment ↗

    “WP Engine has a SOC2 Type II, SOC3 reports, and an ISO 27001:2022 certification available. Please reach out to your Account Manager or WP Engine Sales for more information.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

ISO 27001

Kinsta
Trust Center compliance list shows ISO 27001:2022 alongside ISO 27017 and ISO 27018; the ISO 27001 certificate is a requestable document there. Page renders client-side (Vanta portal); text read with a rendering fetch.
Flywheel
WP Engine, Flywheel's parent company, states its security environment is ISO 27001:2022 certified, with the certification available on request. Stated on WP Engine's platform security doc; it does not name Flywheel.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

Kinsta
DPA: the customer selects the data center region its applications are hosted in; some parts of the Services still require international transfers, covered by the SCCs and UK Addendum.
Flywheel
GDPR-compliant Data Protection Addendum published, plus internal processes to respond to GDPR data requests.
Sources (2) →
  • Kinsta Inc. Data Processing Addendum - Kinsta® ↗

    “You may select the data center regions where your Customer Applications will be hosted. Notwithstanding Customer’s data center region, certain aspects of the Services may require International Transfers.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

  • Flywheel and GDPR ↗

    “Processes for GDPR requests: We set up our internal infrastructure to ensure all GDPR-related data requests can be responded to and handled appropriately. [...] We updated our GDPR-compliant Data Protection Addendum (“DPA”), and made it available for you here”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

PCI DSS

Kinsta
PCI compliance is not guaranteed and Kinsta does not audit customer sites; customers have passed third-party PCI scans while hosted on Kinsta.
Flywheel
Meets PCI-DSS requirements only for sites that do not process, handle or store card data; Flywheel says no web host, itself included, can be PCI-compliant.
Sources (2) →
  • Reference - Technical FAQ - Kinsta® Docs ↗

    “We do not guarantee PCI compliance, and we are not able to audit your site to verify that you’re doing things right, either. [...] we have many clients who have worked with third-party auditors to pass PCI compliance scans”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Flywheel and PCI-DSS Compliance ↗

    “Flywheel meets PCI-DSS requirements for sites that don’t process, handle, or store credit card data. [...] It’s impossible for any web hosting company, Flywheel included, to be PCI-compliant. [...] PCI-DSS compliance is the responsibility of the site owner”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

Encryption at rest

Kinsta
DPA Annex II: all Customer Personal Data stored in data centers — all Customer Applications and access logs — is encrypted at rest.
Flywheel
Data encryption at rest and in transit, listed among the security features included in every Flywheel plan.
Sources (2) →

Role-based access control

Kinsta
MyKinsta roles: a single Company Owner plus three company-level roles (Administrator, Developer, Billing), and Site Administrator or Site Developer granted per site.
Flywheel
No granular roles: every Organization member has full owner privileges including billing; the only lesser access level is a per-site Collaborator.
Sources (2) →
  • Company Settings - User Management - Kinsta® Docs ↗

    “We offer a number of roles to allow you to fine-tune user access. [...] There are three company-level user roles to choose from, each with varying levels of access based on their role.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Members of an Organization ↗

    “Every member of an Organization has full owner privileges for each site owned by the organization. [...] If you do not want somebody to have this level of access, consider adding them as a Collaborator to the site instead.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

Dedicated infrastructure

Kinsta
Dedicated virtual server with dedicated CPU and RAM, sold as an add-on to a hosting plan starting at $300 a month.
Flywheel
Flywheel's site states plans include dedicated resources - you are not sharing your server space with anyone else; no plan tier or hardware named. Homepage FAQ copy; WP Engine docs scope dedicated servers to its Premium/Core/Enterprise plans only.
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

When you exceed a capKinsta: Sites stay online and are billed an overage fee of $0.50 per 1,000 visits; disk space overage is prorated at $2 per GB per month
Max request durationKinsta: 300 seconds (default PHP max_execution_time)
Git deploymentKinsta: Limited
ContainersKinsta: Supported
Scheduled jobsKinsta: Supported — Real server cron jobs per site container; the minimum interval is 5 minutes.
Persistent storageKinsta: Supported
Managed databasesKinsta: Supported
Backup retentionFlywheel: Nightly backups. Flywheel does not state a retention period on the pricing page.
Support on entry paid planKinsta: 24/7 human support in 8 languages, on every plan including the cheapest.
HIPAAKinsta: No HIPAA-compliant hosting product and no Business Associate Agreements; Kinsta says PHI should not be stored or transmitted on the platform.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Kinsta or Flywheel?

Kinsta: $35/month for the entry single-site plan (first month $0, then $35/month); $30/month if paid annually.

Flywheel: $25/month for Starter, billed $300 a year with two months free. Monthly billing is offered at a higher rate.

Included bandwidth: Kinsta or Flywheel?

Kinsta: 20GB server bandwidth a month on the Single 20GB plan, plus 125GB of CDN bandwidth.

Flywheel: 50 GB a month on Starter; 200 GB on Freelance. A stated allowance rather than the unlimited claim common in this segment.

Storage (entry plan): Kinsta or Flywheel?

Kinsta: 10GB storage on the Single 20GB plan (cheapest paid WordPress hosting plan)

Flywheel: 10 GB on Starter, the cheapest plan; 20 GB on Freelance

Should I choose Kinsta or Flywheel?

Pick Kinsta if WordPress sites that want each install in its own isolated container with a Cloudflare-backed CDN included, and a data centre chosen from thirty locations. Cron jobs run on the server rather than on page visits.

Pick Flywheel if Freelancers and agencies running client sites, where the workflow tools and a Fastly CDN matter more than raw resource ceilings. Bandwidth is stated rather than described as unlimited, so the plan is legible.

Provider pages

KinstaManaged WordPress hosting that runs each site in an isolated Linux container, with a Cloudflare-powered CDN and a choice of 30 data center locations.FlywheelManaged WordPress hosting aimed at freelancers and agencies, sold on annual plans metered by monthly visits, storage and bandwidth, with a Fastly-backed CDN.

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Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.