After 12 months of live testing in 2019, let’s compare Flywheel vs Kinsta and find out which WordPress host has performed best.
Flywheel vs Kinsta – Testing Method
- Prior to testing, I have setup identical content on all 6 Live Test Sites
- Each week over 60,000 speed & uptime tests are run using independent tools, GTmetrix & Pingdom
- Test results below are from 07 Jan 2019 to 04 Jan 2020
Test #1: Speed
The GTmetrix Speed Test checks how long it takes for a website to fully load using a desktop internet browser. This test is then repeated every hour throughout the week (1,080 times).
- Flywheel was solid in USA testing across Weeks 1 to 10 with a 3rd place finish. When we moved our servers to Canada & UK, Flywheel experienced a step improvement in speeds along with 2nd place finishes. Then in the latest results in India & Australia, Flywheel jumped up again to be the fastest host across Weeks 31 to 50.
- Kinsta absolutely blitzed our speed test, comfortably outpointing all our other hosts across the 1st 30 weeks of testing in 2019. However, the last 20 weeks of testing from India & Australia has seen a noticeable drop in speeds, leading to a 4th & 3rd placed finish respectively. While Kinsta still holds the lead across 2019, their margin to the competition has shrunk considerably.
- Kinsta is currently in 1st place, while Flywheel is 2nd in our Speed Rankings.
2019 Results – USA Server
2019 Results – Canada Server
2019 Results – UK Server
2019 Results – India Server
2019 Results – Australia Server
View the Weekly Speed Tests
Test #2: Uptime
The Pingdom Uptime Test confirms that the website is actually accessible to visitors. This test is then repeated every minute throughout the week (60,480 times).
- The uptime performance for Flywheel across 50 weeks has been exceptional. With only 29 minutes of downtime across that time, they have successfully avoided long outages.
- The uptime performance for Kinsta started off impressively, with just 1 minute of downtime across the first 10 weeks of testing in 2019. This picture dramatically changed in Week 152 when they experienced a whopping 223 minutes of downtime!! Impressive results have returned in Weeks 21-50 with just 3 minutes of downtime.
- Flywheel is sitting in 2nd place, with Kinsta 6th in our Uptime Rankings.
View the Weekly Uptime Tests
Flywheel vs Kinsta – Overall ranking
The Overall Ranking accumulates the results from the speed & uptime tests to determine the #1 Host.
- Flywheel have recorded consistently impressive uptime throughout. And after a solid start with their speed results early in 2019, things have really taken off in the last 45 weeks, consistently taking out top 3 finishes. Being the fastest host in India & Australia has propelled Flywheel into the coveted #1 ranking.
- Kinsta’s ultra impressive speed has been offset with the worst uptime performance across all hosts. It is worth noting that the poor uptime all related to 1 horror week, the remaining uptime has been exceptional. While there’s been a dropoff in speed across the last 20 weeks in India & Australia, Kinsta’s performance across the year has been very impressive (even more so if you forgive their horror uptime week).
- Flywheel is currently 1st and Kinsta is 3rd in our Overall Rankings.
Hi, I'm Clint!
