1. Looking back at our Kinsta inquiries
Kinsta is a managed WordPress hosting platform built on Google Cloud. MOOBON has supported migrations and operations as Japan's first official Kinsta partner since 2021, and in 2026 was appointed a Kinsta Elite Partner, the top tier of the Kinsta Agency Partner program.
We reread the Kinsta inquiries we received by email from 2021 to November 2026 to understand why customers consider Kinsta and what worries them. They came from system integrators running sites for local governments, IT departments of large corporate groups, mid-sized companies with dozens of sites, and web agencies looking after client sites. Even so, their reasons came down to a few recurring requests.
* Customer names are withheld; only industry and size are shown.
2. The most common request: escape maintenance
By far the most common request was to stop having to keep WordPress running on EC2, shared hosting or self-managed servers. The problem isn't WordPress itself; it's looking after the servers underneath it.
“Support for CentOS 7 and PHP 7.4 on our EC2 servers is ending. Rather than rebuilding the OS, we want to stop owning servers.”
— A system integrator running sites for local governments
“We want to rethink the WordPress sites we manage ourselves on AWS, for cost and security reasons.”
— IT department of a large corporate group (3 sites)
“We outsourced all maintenance and lost track of it. We want to understand and control it ourselves.”
— Web team at a mid-sized company (about 30 sites)
“We set up a server for each client. We want to outsource the maintenance and manage them together.”
— A web agency (44 servers)
“The server is slow, and nobody here knows servers. We want to hand the whole thing over.”
— A web agency looking after university sites
What makes it a burden
- OS and PHP reaching end of life: CentOS 7, Amazon Linux 2 and PHP 7 quietly go out of support, and updating means rebuilding the OS.
- Dependence on one person: whoever built the server has left or moved on, and nobody knows what's inside.
- Servers keep multiplying: one server per site or per client adds up to dozens to maintain.
- Weak under traffic spikes: sites slow down or go down during campaigns or disasters.
On Kinsta, the platform manages servers, the OS and PHP, and PHP is switched automatically to a newer version when the current one reaches end of life (manual management is also possible). Not owning servers removes most of these burdens.
3. Worries about PHP vulnerabilities and security
Inquiries rose noticeably in autumn 2026, after the critical PHP vulnerability php2shell was disclosed in October. Almost every inquiry from that period mentioned vulnerabilities or security.
“After the PHP vulnerability news, we want to reduce the risk of the sites we manage ourselves.”
— A system integrator in a large corporate group (about 10 sites)
On your own servers, finding the fixed PHP, installing it and testing everything is all on you. On Kinsta, php2shell was patched at the platform level and customers didn't need to do anything. Kinsta also includes Patchstack vulnerability protection for plugins and themes, Cloudflare Enterprise firewall and DDoS protection, and free malware removal as standard.
4. Managing many sites together
Companies whose WordPress sites have multiplied (corporate, brand, recruiting, campaign sites) often ask to manage them together. Site counts tend to be either 1–3 or 10 and more, and in the larger cases each site is often built by a different agency.
Kinsta lets you manage many sites in one account and invite users per site with separate permissions, so agencies can be given every environment including production, or staging only. Editing WordPress doesn't depend on hosting, so your current agency can keep working after the move.
5. Who contacts us
| Type | Typical situation |
|---|---|
| Companies and IT departments with several sites | No server expert in house. Struggling with maintenance effort and security. Need a quote for budget approval. |
| Web agencies and system integrators managing client sites | Want to cut the maintenance of servers that grew client by client, or offer Kinsta as part of their own services. About half of all inquiries. |
| Public bodies and local-government-related sites | Want server transfer and maintenance handled together, in line with procurement and tender requirements. |
The most visible entry point is Kinsta's official partner page. We have often heard, “We found you listed as a partner on Kinsta's website.”
6. Common questions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Who handles updates and security after the move? | Kinsta handles servers, PHP, the firewall and malware removal. Plugin and theme updates stay on your side; you can hand them off with Kinsta Automatic Updates (a paid add-on) or MOOBON's maintenance support (from ¥20,000 per site per month). |
| Can you do the migration, and what does it cost? | Kinsta's support offers free migrations. If you ask MOOBON, we build a copy environment on Kinsta, verify it first and then switch production, for ¥100,000 per site (excluding tax). Sites with old PHP or built by other vendors are fine. |
| Which plan should we choose? | It depends on the number of sites, monthly visits and storage. For several sites, WP10 or the agency-oriented Agency 20 are typical. We recommend a plan based on your current numbers. |
| Whose name should the contract be in? | Either works. For companies with several sites, we recommend that the client company owns the account and pays, and the managing company is added as a Company Admin. |
| How do we pay? | By registering a credit card with Kinsta. Bank transfer is available for annual billing only. |
| Is support available in Japanese? | Kinsta's technical support is available 24/7/365 through chat in MyKinsta, and handles Japanese using translation and AI tools. MOOBON can also handle communication with Kinsta on your behalf. |
| Can we ask for maintenance on only some sites? | Yes. Entrusting just a few important sites out of ten is welcome. |
| Can email move too? | Kinsta does not provide email hosting. If your server also handles email, separating it is part of the migration plan. |
7. Summary
What customers want from Kinsta is less about speed or features and more about being freed from maintaining the servers underneath WordPress: end-of-life OS and PHP, dependence on one person, ever-growing server counts, and the scramble every time a vulnerability hits the news. Moving to Kinsta hands most of that to the platform.
Some work does remain, such as plugin updates and checks during migration. MOOBON helps with everything from migration to maintenance and sharing work with your agencies, fitted to how your team works.
Ready to stop maintaining WordPress servers?
See how we migrate, who manages what, and pricing on our Kinsta migration and operations page.
See our Kinsta serviceFrequently Asked Questions
QCan an old WordPress site on EC2 or shared hosting be moved to Kinsta?
Yes. If the PHP version is old, we first check how pages and plugins behave on a newer PHP in a copy environment on Kinsta, fix what is needed, and only then switch production.
QAfter moving to Kinsta, is there no maintenance left to do?
Servers, PHP and the firewall become the platform's job, but plugin and theme updates stay on your side. You can hand them off with the paid Kinsta Automatic Updates add-on or MOOBON's maintenance support (from ¥20,000 per site per month).
QCan we use email on Kinsta?
Kinsta does not provide email hosting. If your current server also handles email, we include moving it to a service such as Google Workspace in the migration plan.
QAs a web agency, can we manage client sites on Kinsta?
Yes. We recommend that the client company owns the account and pays the bills, and the agency is added as a Company Admin. Permissions can also be set per site.
