Grant Darrah started his freelance designer and developer journey in 2007. His commitment to providing high-quality work and outstanding customer service to his clients and loyal client base allowed him to officially launch Gradient9 Studios in 2011. As a small agency, Gradient9 is able to devote time and meticulous attention to detail to deliver tailored experiences to each client.
“We take the time to understand clients’ needs and foster open communication, so they’re never left wondering if we’re on the same page. We don’t just create graphic design, branding, websites, and development solutions – we develop relationships and trust with our clients.”
In this article, Grant explains how he found Kinsta and how moving to the platform helped Gradient9 on its mission to deliver exceptional experiences to its clients on a fast, secure, and reliable hosting infrastructure. As a result of this hosting partnership, Gradient9 was able to bring the benefits of a high-performance hosting infrastructure to all its clients and grow its number of sites by 30%. Join us to read the full story.
Snapshot
- Industry: Web Development and Graphic Design
- Business size: 4 employees
The Problem
Gradient9 previously hosted its sites on WP Engine’s infrastructure, but worrisome issues started to appear as the number of their client sites grew.
Recurring performance issues and slow load times
One of the most troubling issues the G9 team experienced on WP Engine’s platform was slow site performance. For agencies like Gradient9, website speed is critical to ensuring user satisfaction. Slow load times hurt client sites, which in turn hurts the agency’s business and reputation.
“We are committed to delivering the best possible experience for our clients, which requires a hosting solution that prioritizes performance and responsiveness.”
Grant reported instances where high-traffic sites on the platform were impacting the performance of other sites hosted on the same account.
“We were experiencing persistently slow loading times, usually when one site was generating a high number of views, which would result in degraded performance for other sites on the account.”
Support that failed to resolve issues and unjustifiable costs
When Grant and his team started experiencing slow load times and performance issues, they reached out to WP Engine’s support. But their problems were left unsolved and it was suggested that they upgrade to a higher tier.
“Their customer support at times struggled to help identify these performance issues or bottlenecks, rather turning into salesmen, trying to get you to upgrade to the next tier. Unfortunately, the cost of the next level of service was almost double our existing cost with no other upgrade path.”
The upgrade would have significantly increased the agency’s hosting costs, and there was no guarantee that the performance issues would go away. As G9 foresaw growth, the team evaluated hosting plans and costs with WP Engine and concluded that getting more sites on its platform would multiply their costs.
“To get more installs, we would have had to upgrade to a P2 server which only supports 125 sites but is double the cost. If we grew beyond the 125, it would have been a second plan at either P1 or P2. Anything beyond 125 sites and our cost to host each site would have grown almost four times.”
The Solution
“Kinsta’s combination of performance, support, security, and affordability made them a great fit.”
Google Cloud-based platform with server-level caching
Kinsta’s hosting platform, powered by Google Cloud, gave Gradient9 the speed, reliability, and advanced caching features they needed to support their growing client base. These core features were among the reasons Grant decided to give Kinsta a try.
- GCP Premium Tier Network. Kinsta’s use of Google Cloud’s Premium Tier provided Gradient9 with a global high fiber network and worldwide Points of Presence (PoPs).
- Cloudflare Integration. With our Cloudflare integration, Gradient9 can now deliver faster load times, robust protection against threats, and improved user experiences to their clients, especially during high-traffic periods.
- Built-in server-level caching. Frequent caching issues hurt many of Gradient9’s client sites. Kinsta offers caching out-of-the-box, so users do not need to use third-party tools or manage and optimize caching for their sites.
ℹ️ Customizable server caching ensures critical e-commerce pages like carts and checkouts are excluded from caching, guaranteeing accurate, real-time information for every visitor while maintaining fast load times across the rest of the site.
Advanced security features
Security was another key factor in Gradient9’s decision to switch to Kinsta. The platform offers multiple layers of protection to safeguard every hosted site, including:
- Isolated container technology for complete resource separation.
- DDoS protection to guard against attacks.
- Free SSL certificates to secure connections.
- Enterprise-level firewalls to block unauthorized access.
- Uptime checks every 3 minutes to ensure consistent performance.
ℹ️ Kinsta’s LXD container technology isolates sites and allocates resources privately, reducing the risk of one site affecting another. This robust design helps prevent issues like resource contention or exposure to malicious activity, ensuring secure and reliable hosting.
Expert support available 24/7/365
“The support team is incredibly responsive. Issues are resolved quickly, minimizing downtime and keeping projects on track.”
Kinsta strives to provide its customers with the same level of quality support regardless of their plan. Our team of engineers is available to help Gradient9 at all times to make sure they get all the help they need.
Transparent and flexible pricing model
Grant wanted a scalable hosting solution with a flexible pricing model and the capability to add new sites as needed to support his growing agency.
Kinsta offers flexible single and multi-site hosting plans that scale with your projects and business growth. Add-ons and custom plans cater to specific needs, and dedicated Account Executives help you choose the perfect solution for your sites.
The Result
A 30% business growth supported by scalability
“Kinsta’s scalable pricing plans allowed us to accommodate additional websites as our business grew. We weren’t forced into purchasing an oversized package, which provided excellent cost-efficiency.”
The flexibility of Kinsta’s pricing model has been a game-changer for Gradient9. It allowed them to seamlessly add new websites as their portfolio expanded without unnecessary cost increases. This scalability lets them focus on expanding and supporting clients without worrying about hosting limitations.
“We continue to grow the number of sites that we are hosting and trusted to maintain. We’ve grown the number of sites by almost 30% since partnering with Kinsta. This wouldn’t be possible without their flexibility when it comes to scaling.”
Grant shared an example of how Kinsta’s plans benefited both his business and a new client:
“Kinsta facilitated a valuable connection for both us and a potential client. An individual facing hosting issues with their current provider needed assistance migrating a few websites.”
“We were able to offer a cost-effective solution: adding them to our Kinsta plan and managing their sites for a more competitive price than they could obtain individually. This mutually beneficial arrangement allowed us to expand our client base while helping them overcome their hosting challenges.”
Performance boost brought increased revenue for e-commerce clients
“The increase in website speed has improved our quality of service. Our clients now enjoy faster loading times, leading to a more positive user experience.”
Switching to Kinsta significantly enhanced website performance across Gradient9’s portfolio, with e-commerce sites seeing the greatest impact.
“We are seeing improvements across the board—not only in terms of load time and performance but also in sales and increased revenue for our e-commerce clients. We regularly had caching issues with high-traffic sites using WooCommerce, but all of those issues have disappeared since moving to Kinsta.”
The results speak for themselves. Gradient 9’s now faster client sites are ranking higher on search engines, seeing better user engagement, and driving more conversions. For their e-commerce clients, these improvements translate directly into an increase in sales and bigger revenue streams, giving them even more confidence in what Gradient9 can deliver.
Hosting experience enriched by quality tech support
“Kinsta’s support has been eager to help with any challenge that we’re encountering. They are extremely responsive and provide thorough details about any issues.”
Grant’s search for a hosting provider was shaped by past frustrations with slow, unhelpful support. Switching to Kinsta changed everything—not only did his site’s performance improve, but he also gained access to a team of experts he could always count on.
He recalled one instance that perfectly demonstrated the dedication and expertise of Kinsta’s Support team:
“We recently had an issue with a client’s site performance and reached out to Kinsta for further insight. Rather than pointing the blame at a plugin or theme like some support teams would have done, they thoroughly researched the issue, identified a problem, and made necessary changes.”
“This was all done within about 15 minutes and all this was done by the initial support team member, no internal transfer to a higher level of support.”
Conclusion
Due to a performance-optimized infrastructure, expert support, and scalable hosting plans, Gradient9 is able to offer quality hosting for its clients, delivering a strong web presence. Thus, the company earns the reputation of trust, which ultimately leads to business growth. G9 joined Kinsta with 93 client sites and currently accommodates 119.
“With Kinsta and the ability to scale the number of installs, we’ve been able to add another 26 sites. The biggest perk of that is the peace of mind that adding another site or five more sites isn’t going to double or triple the cost. We can continue to scale the number of sites that we host and manage without hesitation or reservation due to cost.”
As Gradient9 Studios continues to grow, Kinsta is proud to accompany its journey.
We are very happy with Kinsta. Their support team is incredibly responsive, addressing any issues quickly. Website performance and speed have seen a dramatic boost. Plus, Kinsta's scalable pricing plans are perfect for us – we don't have to break the bank for top-tier service.
