DreamHost vs. Flywheel vs. Kinsta

Dreamhost was previously a great web host with reliable service and top-notch features, but I can no longer recommend them. If you're looking for web hosting on a Linux platform (such as running PHP or platforms like Wordpress, Jooma, or Drupal), with simple pricing services, then this is the great service for you. One big downside is lack of phone customer support. This is especially frustrating because of their many issues the last few weeks, which aren't easily resolved or addressed by their team.

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Flywheel is particularly well-suited for hands-on WordPress managed hosting. It's also perfect for developers who build site's locally on Local and then want an effortless way to import them into their managed hosting environment. Flywheel particularly excels in scenarios where a customer needs managed. WordPress hosting that handles daily backups and offers test and live environments for a reasonable price.

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I currently haven't found any scenarios whereby Kinsta is not well suited. Kinsta is suited to a variety of WordPress websites from business brochures to eCommerce. Kinsta's support is second to none, so if you lack technical knowledge, this is a great host to be with, especially if you need Managed WordPress hosting.

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• Customer service is industry-best. We've never had a problem that wasn't solved by them almost immediately.
• Their dashboard is extremely easy to use and doesn't cause any confusion at all.
• Their website speeds are good but not great. In an age when speed is important, they are good enough, especially for the price.
• They have a great backup feature.

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• Customer Service
• User Interface
• User Experience
• Creative Support

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• Developer friendly; WP-CLI; SSH access
• Amazing support - I never have to wait more than a minute or two to get a response!
• Kinsta is also willing to troubleshoot issues that are not their own. They don't just say "It's not our problem" without helping to debug the issue.

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• They could have better deploy solutions for not so experienced users
• More integration with external services to automate some tasks
• Better ways to track hosting performance
• The user management could be easier to understand

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• Flywheel is more expensive than many hosting companies

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• No email solution provide resulting in having to find some other solution
• Some clients find the price point difficult
• Some clients find the lack of phone support difficult (although we find their online support great)

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We have every intention of staying with Dreamhost, but we are a tad concerned with the company's recent involvement in high profile litigation and controversial topics. While we don't take a position one way or another on what type of content they should host, one concern we have is that repeated attacks on their infrastructure have caused significant downtime during business hours for us, and that's something we'll have to take into consideration going forward.

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This is an extremely solid hosting product that I have yet to find clients who use it disappointed. I have had clients move from other competitors several times in search of something more reliable and scalable but not after they moved to Kinsta.

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Their dashboard is really well layed out and simple to use for most users. I also really appreciate the fact that our clients are able to collaborate with us by granting us access. Their site migration tool is straightforward and painless to use as well!

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We never had any major downtimes with our service, and I believe that's because it's based in a cloud-based network so therefore our system is being shared amongst multiple points.

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As mentioned before the performance was amazing and pages were loading quickly. They also provide other tools to help you improve further.

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Whether we're calling in on the phone, live chatting or emailing, we get immediate high-quality, native English-speaking support. This cannot be overstated when it comes to hosting, because support tickets are usually time sensitive and high stress. I've always had great experiences with the limited times we've needed to use DreamHost support. We've dealt with support for many other providers and no one comes close to DreamHost.

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They are quick to respond, very knowledgeable and I don't have to be escalated to get my problems resolved quickly. They have an efficient chat system that allows for support requests to be handled quickly and easily picked up by another specialist if the need arises. They are always there when I need them.

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Not really it's a really easy to use system and straightforward!

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We've tried a few other WordPress-specific hosts, as well as other shared hosting providers (Rackspace, WPEngine, and others). We have found that DreamHost gives the best balance of cost, performance, and features, for our needs. All vendors have their own pitfalls and shortcomings, and DreamHost isn't without its own, but it works for us.

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Compared to WP Engine and Pantheon, Flywheel offers the most affordable and easy-to-use managed hosting platform for WordPress websites. I actually prefer Flywheel's UI a bit more to WP Engine's. Media Temple simply doesn't offer an affordable hosting option that particularly caters to WordPress websites. Flywheel has become my favorite among managed hosting platforms that are targeted on servicing WordPress developers.

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GoDaddy is the one that drove me nuts. Downtime, poor performance, abysmal customer service. I switched to Kinsta because they looked like they’d do right everything GoDaddy did wrong (and they have). Hostinger is a company whose services I still use and am pleased with them. Their shared WordPress hosting is a good value and where I put experimental sites and low-traffic things that don’t justify the purchase of better hosting at this time. They also provide good email hosting and customer service has been good. My second-favorite service provider.

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We worked with clients who have major surges of visitor hits on a Buddhist website, and Kinsta was definitely up to the job. They were able to handle this and still provide excellent performance. As well, it was easy to track down other barriers for Google Ratings using their system to further improve the performance of these clients.

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• The service can really be a positive value with its very solid performance and lack of downtime issues found with other services.
• For those with limited hosting or web development knowledge, the service can be a challenge to fully utilize. Sometimes this may mean additional training.
• The service also provides a number of expansion opportunities for growing with greater functionalities.

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• Fast/easy to create new sites with blueprints
• Easy to work locally with Local

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• Our website was up and running in less than a day
• Despite not doing a huge advertising drive yet (we're still not ready at the moment), we've noticed a steady increase of organic visitors to the site, at least by 30%, which still isn't a lot in overall numbers at the moment, but that is expected
• Cost is higher, so we've had to separate a budget just for Kinsta

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