MemberHost vs Kinsta for Membership and Course Sites
Looking at a Kinsta alternative for a MemberPress, LearnDash or BuddyBoss site? How Kinsta and MemberHost differ on PHP threads, object caching, plugin support and uptime terms.
Kinsta is a managed WordPress host where “Every site on our platform runs in an isolated software container” (Kinsta), sold on published plans priced by monthly visits or bandwidth, with chat support at any hour. MemberPress includes it in its list of recommended hosts. MemberHost takes a different route with WordPress membership, course and community sites: each client’s hosting is set up around the plugins it runs, and we troubleshoot WordPress problems as well as server ones.
This comparison was prepared by MemberHost from each company’s public documentation, checked on 15 September 2026. MemberHost is not affiliated with or endorsed by Kinsta or MemberPress, and both names are trademarks of their owners. Contract-specific terms may differ from what is published. If something here has changed, tell us and we will correct it.
At a glance
| Kinsta | MemberHost | |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure | An isolated container per site; on standard plans “each live site container has access to 12 CPUs and 8 GB of RAM by default” (Kinsta) | Each client gets its own node or cluster with dedicated resources, running as virtual machines on bare metal servers from data centre partners, on hardware we specify (performance) |
| Plans | Single and multiple site plans, billed on visits or bandwidth (Kinsta pricing) | No fixed tiers. Priced per site on traffic, plugin stack and support needs |
| PHP threads | 4 threads with 256MB each by default on Launch, with more PHP memory available per site through a paid add-on (Kinsta) | Configured per site (concurrent users) |
| Object caching | A Redis add-on at “$100 per month per site”, which installs the Redis Object Cache plugin (Kinsta) | Configured per site, using Redis or Relay where they suit the plugins, and tested first on MemberPress (performance) |
| Cache exclusions | Logged-in users bypass the edge cache automatically (Kinsta); Kinsta Support adds bypass rules for pages such as login and account on request (Kinsta) | Set up per site for the plugins it runs |
| Plugin and theme problems | Support will find a plugin causing a fatal error and disable it; changing plugin functionality and “Any code editing” are out of scope (Kinsta) | Looked at on the server and in WordPress together (about us) |
| Support hours | “Support is available 24/7” over chat, in 8 languages, with no phone support (Kinsta) | Not 24/7 |
| Uptime commitment | 99.9%, “unless a higher percentage is set forth in the Customer’s Order Form” (Kinsta SLA) | 99.9% (our SLA) |
MemberPress on Kinsta: two things to check
MemberPress lists Kinsta under its recommended hosts and says plainly what that rests on: “Though we don’t have any direct experience with Kinsta, their support has reached out to us to let us know that they’ve seen many MemberPress customers using their Managed WordPress Hosting without any issues” (MemberPress). The same page raises two points worth settling before you move.
Protected files. Kinsta runs “strictly an Nginx based web-server”, so MemberPress’s Apache .htaccess rewrite rules are unavailable. That only matters if you use its rules to protect “locally hosted static files like PDFs, ZIPs etc.” Everything else in MemberPress’s content protection works on Nginx, and its free Downloads add-on is the suggested alternative for protected files (MemberPress). If you sell course workbooks or downloads, check which method your site uses today.
Object caching. MemberPress writes that object caching “can still be enabled if you purchase their Redis add-on, which we do not recommend” (MemberPress), and its incompatibility list names the Redis Object Cache plugin with the advice “Disable object caching” (MemberPress). Kinsta’s add-on installs that plugin. Kinsta, speaking about hosting in general, describes a local Redis instance as “especially beneficial for resource-intensive applications such as WooCommerce stores, membership sites”, and leaves integrating it with your site as “the responsibility of each website owner” (Kinsta). So the add-on is not a default purchase for a MemberPress site. If you want object caching anyway, test sign-ups, logins, access rules and renewals on a staging copy first.
Our approach to object caching on MemberPress is to test it on the site before switching it on, and leave it off if the plugins disagree with it.
PHP threads and logged-in traffic
Kinsta’s edge cache steps aside “anywhere a user is logged in” (Kinsta), so members’ requests are handled by PHP threads. Kinsta puts it plainly: “The more dynamic a website is, the more PHP threads it will likely need.” Launch comes with 4 by default (Kinsta).
When those threads can’t keep up, Kinsta’s add-on page describes the result: “If too many PHP requests are waiting or timing out, the server returns a 502 or 504 error.” The PHP performance add-on adds memory per site at “$10 per month for an additional 500MB per site” (Kinsta), so a Kinsta site can be adjusted without changing plans. The practical question is whether anyone has worked out how much your launch day needs before it arrives.
That is the conversation we have during onboarding. We can also copy your site to staging and load test the paths members use, so you can see how the setup copes before launch day. For more on why logged-in pages behave this way, read our membership site speed guide.
Support: where the line sits
Kinsta’s support team does look into slowdowns. Its scope includes “Investigation of duplicatable performance issues to rule out server or platform configuration as the cause”, after which it points you to its APM tool to find bottlenecks your developer can fix. It will also “identify a PHP file generating a fatal error and disable the problematic plugin or theme to get your site back online”, but “fixing the code to resolve the error is up to the developer of that specific plugin or theme” (Kinsta).
When a lesson page slows down or checkout breaks on a MemberHost site, we check the server and the plugins handling that request. That work draws on MemberFix, our sister agency and a membership site specialist since 2011 (about us).
On availability, Kinsta is ahead: its chat runs day and night in eight languages. MemberHost is not 24/7.
Uptime terms
| Kinsta | MemberHost | |
|---|---|---|
| Commitment | 99.9% of each monthly billing period, unless the order form sets a higher figure | 99.9% of each monthly billing period |
| What it covers | “Live Applications” | “Necessary Services” needed for your site to be reachable |
| Main exclusions | Maintenance in a daily 2am to 5am window (data centre local time), emergency maintenance, scheduled outages, force majeure including “outages caused by external service providers”, traffic beyond the plan’s capabilities, customer code and configuration | Third-party services, maintenance in a daily 2am to 5am window (data centre local time), emergency maintenance, scheduled outages, force majeure including external service providers, traffic beyond the plan, client code and configuration, changes by other parties, and WordPress or plugin downtime while the server itself stays up |
| Remedy | Credits as a percentage of the monthly subscription value once downtime passes 43 minutes under the 99.9% commitment (4 minutes under 99.99%), scaled by the share of sites affected, capped at the month’s value, claimed within 30 days, and the “sole and exclusive remedy” | Credits applied to future invoices, capped at the month’s value, never paid in cash, requested within 30 days, and the SLA’s remedies are the sole remedy |
| Source | Kinsta SLA | Our SLA |
Same percentage on both sides, and close to the same carve-outs. One exclusion in ours matters on a page about plugin help: downtime caused by WordPress or plugins while the server stays up is support work for us, not an SLA event. Credits won’t cover the sales an outage costs you, so our reliability guide concentrates on reducing that risk.
Kinsta may fit better when
- You want chat support at any hour, in English or seven other languages.
- You want to pick a region yourself from Kinsta’s “30 global data centers” (Kinsta).
- You want to try before committing. First-time customers who cancel “within 30 days after activating it” get their hosting plan fees back, excluding overages, one-time fees and dedicated servers; on plans with a free first month, the 30 days start at renewal (Kinsta).
- Your developer handles plugin code and would use an APM tool to track down slow queries.
- You like to choose a plan from a list and start the same day.
MemberHost may fit better when
- Plugin-level problems are the ones that hurt, and you want the host to dig into them with you.
- You run MemberPress and want object caching decided by testing on your site.
- Launches are when your site struggles, and you want capacity worked out ahead of time with the people who run the server.
- You want a synced clone standing by, available on our clustered setups (uptime).
MemberHost is not for you if you need support in the middle of the night, want a price list to compare, host something other than WordPress, or want to launch a site tonight without a conversation.
What switching looks like
Kinsta says “Kinsta migrations are free”, runs them Monday to Friday, and tells owners of membership sites to “plan for maintenance mode” during the move to prevent data loss (Kinsta). That advice holds whichever way you are moving.
Switching to us starts with a review of your plugin configuration, and the migration is included in onboarding at no charge. If you’d like evidence first, we can load test a staging clone on logins, lesson views or checkout before you commit. We grant all reasonable refund requests, and if you ever move on, we will fully assist with migrating your site elsewhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does MemberPress recommend Kinsta?
Yes, it lists Kinsta among recommended hosts, while noting it has no direct experience with Kinsta and that the recommendation is based on what Kinsta’s support team reported. It also advises against Kinsta’s Redis add-on (MemberPress).
Should a MemberPress site buy Kinsta’s Redis add-on?
MemberPress says it does not recommend it, and lists the Redis Object Cache plugin the add-on installs as a known incompatibility. If you want object caching on a MemberPress site with any host, test it on a staging copy before going live.
Does Kinsta fix plugin problems?
Kinsta will investigate performance issues to rule out its platform, and will disable a plugin that causes a fatal error. Changing plugin functionality and editing code are outside its scope of support (Kinsta).
Does MemberHost offer 24/7 support?
No. Kinsta’s chat runs around the clock, so if that matters more than plugin-level help, Kinsta is the better fit.