Kinsta vs WP Engine 2019

After 12 months of live testing in 2019, let’s compare Kinsta vs WP Engine and find out which WordPress host has performed best.

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).

• 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.
• The speed WP Engine showed in USA across the 1st 5 weeks of testing was impressive, good for 2nd fastest of our hosts. Unfortunately, they dropped to the slowest host when WP Rocket was introduced across the 2nd 5 weeks. This trend continued across Weeks 11-30 in Canada & UK, initially 3rd fastest, but falling to slowest or 2nd slowest with the addition of WP Rocket. The latest results in India & Australia have been the worst for WP Engine, recording just the 2nd slowest without WP Rocket, then the slowest with.
• Kinsta is currently in 1st place, while WP Engine is 4th in our Speed Rankings.

2019 Results – USA Server

2019 Results – Canada Server

2019 Results – UK Server

2019 Results – India Server

2019 Results – Australia Server

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 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.
• WP Engine performed extremely well when it comes to Uptime across the first 40 weeks of testing, recording only 13 minutes of downtime. The landscape changed dramatically in the last 10 weeks of testing, with a very disappointing 111 minutes of downtime.
• WP Engine is sitting in 4th place, with Kinsta 6th in our Uptime Rankings.

Kinsta vs WP Engine – Overall ranking

The Overall Ranking accumulates the results from the speed & uptime tests to determine the #1 Host.

• 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).  
• WP Engine’s performance across the first 40 weeks was very impressive when it comes to uptime. However the last 10 weeks were horrendous, with multiple weeks of disappointing outages. When this is combined with the continued dropoff in speed, WP Engine has plummeted down the rankings.
• Kinsta is currently 3rd and WP Engine is 5th in our Overall Rankings.