Kinsta Launches Free Static Site Hosting for Up to 100 Websites, Including WordPress
Kinsta, a leading managed WordPress hosting provider, has recently launched its static site hosting product. This move marks Kinsta’s entry into the market, offering a free tier that competes with established solutions from Vercel, Netlify, and GitHub Pages. With the ability to host up to 100 static sites for free, including static WordPress sites, Kinsta is leveraging its global edge network of over 300 locations to provide a performant and secure hosting solution.
What are Static Sites?
Static sites are websites that serve HTML pages, media, and assets like JavaScript and CSS. They are typically more suitable for brochure websites, landing pages, personal portfolios, and other simple sites that don’t require pages to be dynamically generated by code running on a server. Static sites offer improved performance and security compared to dynamic sites.
Features and Limitations of Kinsta’s Free Static Hosting Tier
Kinsta’s free static hosting tier comes with several features and limitations, including:
– 1 concurrent build/site
– 100 sites/company
– 600 build minutes/month/company
– 100 GB bandwidth/month/company
– 1 GB build size limit/site
– API access
– Integration with GitHub, GitLab, and BitBucket
– Diff-based Uploads
– Custom domains
– Free SSL support
Supported Static Site Generators and WordPress Integration
Customers can host pre-built static sites or sites built with static site generator frameworks that use Node.js. Kinsta has provided quick start example repositories for popular static site generators like Astro, Cuttlebelle, Docusaurus, Eleventy, Gatsby, Nuxt, Qwik, React, React with Vite, and VuePress.
WordPress users can also deploy static sites to the platform and host them for free by converting an existing site to static. Kinsta has published a tutorial on the process of converting a WordPress site using a free plugin. The static hosting can also be used to set up a frontend with any kind of backend or host a headless WordPress site.
Easy Deployment and Configuration
Users can launch a static site to Kinsta’s infrastructure by deploying from a Git repository hosted by BitBucket, GitHub, or GitLab. They can select a branch, add a build command and directory to deploy, and manage connection and configuration settings through the MyKinsta dashboard.
Future Add-ons and Features
Kinsta plans to introduce add-ons and other features in the future, some of which may be paid. However, the company is committed to keeping the service and the free tier available indefinitely. Some of the features on the roadmap include wildcardless domains, extended Kinsta API support, serverless functions for static sites, previews, maintenance mode, password protection, HTML form functionality, more builders, the ability to choose a build template, and detailed analytics.
Setting Kinsta Apart from the Competition
Kinsta’s static site hosting solution offers similar capabilities to its competitors in terms of building and deploying sites. However, what sets Kinsta apart is its comprehensive hosting offerings that include application, database, and WordPress hosting all under one roof. Additionally, Kinsta provides free and unlimited analytics for users/seats, similar to Vercel, while Netlify only offers these under paid plans. Although Kinsta currently lacks functions and deploy previews, these features are in the backlog and will be released soon.
Conclusion
Kinsta’s entry into the static site hosting market with its free tier is a significant development. With its robust features and limitations, support for popular static site generators, and integration with WordPress, Kinsta is poised to attract enterprises, agencies, and companies looking to create high-traffic websites and landing pages. As Kinsta continues to enhance its static site hosting solution with additional features and add-ons, it aims to solidify its position as a leading provider in the industry.
