MOOBON reduces TTFB by 99% by migrating to Kinsta

MOOBON is a full-service development agency based in Tokyo, Japan. In addition to developing WordPress sites for clients in the government and education sectors, MOOBON also provides server administration, performance optimization, and ongoing maintenance services.

Check out our interview with MOOBON CTO Yuzo Nishikawa to learn more about their experience with Kinsta.

The Problem

When diagnosing WordPress performance issues for their clients, MOOBON found that server specifications were often the cause for slow time to first byte (TTFB). In these situations, the client had already performed common application-level optimizations, and were looking for the next step up in performance.

“The most common scenario where we suggest a host migration is when the performance issue is caused by inadequate hardware specifications. The first performance metric we look at with our clients is time to first byte (TTFB). Since many of our clients have already implemented basic WordPress optimization strategies like image compression and removing unnecessary plugins, we see TTFB as a very important metric because it provides us with data about the hardware performance behind the site.”

Optimizations like compressing images and removing unnecessary plugins are undoubtedly beneficial for WordPress sites. However, these sorts of application-level optimizations can only take you so far. Optimizing WordPress without considering the hardware side of things is akin to fitting a car with fancy race-ready parts without paying attention to the engine. In order to boost the performance of their clients’ WordPress sites, Nishikawa and his team at MOOBON sought to strike a balance between software and hardware performance.

“The reality is that the majority of WordPress performance guides on the Internet only focus on surface-level and often cliché tips and tricks. After optimizing their sites by following these online guides, many of our clients felt they did not have the ability to optimize certain aspects of their sites like DNS response time, advanced server configuration, PHP version, web server tuning, and more. As a result, they reached out to us in search of professional help.”

The Solution

During their search for a managed WordPress host, MOOBON found Kinsta. After browsing through Kinsta’s website, they were impressed with our focus on performance and high-end infrastructure, so they decided to give Kinsta a try.

“We first discovered Kinsta when we were searching for a host that specializes in WordPress. Previously, we configured our own server instances on AWS, so we weren’t familiar with the managed WordPress hosting space at all. While going through Kinsta’s blog posts and articles, I was impressed with their focus on performance, next-generation infrastructure, and sleek MyKinsta dashboard – all of which made us want to try out their hosting platform”

There’s a world of difference between AWS and Kinsta. While AWS and other cloud services provide you with near-limitless potential in terms of raw server configuration capabilities, Kinsta distills all that potential into a high-performance configuration for WordPress sites. On Kinsta, you also have access to the MyKinsta – a dashboard specifically designed for site management.

“I really enjoy using MyKinsta. As an engineer, the clean dashboard design makes for a very intuitive experience.”

Not only is MyKinsta intuitive and easy to use, but it’s also extremely powerful. Unlike the comparatively cluttered AWS dashboard, MyKinsta is decidedly streamlined with an assortment of useful tools like URL redirects, detailed analytics, WP_DEBUG mode, PHP version switcher, and more. MyKinsta is one of the most common reasons why WordPress users choose Kinsta, and we were excited to see such a positive response from MOOBON.

The Result

After migrating some of their clients to Kinsta, MOOBON saw a 100x faster TTFB!

“Below is the TTFB before and after migrating to Kinsta for one of our client sites. As you can see, the site was quite slow before the migration. After the migration to Kinsta, the TTFB improved by 100x.”

At Kinsta, we’re used to seeing huge performance gains when new clients move to our platform. With that said, a 100x faster TTFB is quite rare – even for us. There are a number of reasons for the improved TTFB performance:

1. We use Google Cloud Platform’s Premium Tier network, which provides optimized routes for traffic to and from sites hosted on Kinsta.
2. We make use of GCP’s fastest C2 compute-optimized servers, which are up to 200% faster than Google’s lower-tier VMs. We support 37 data centers around the world, which means you can always find a hosting location that’s close to your target audience.
3. We also use GCP’s C3D machines that are capable of delivering 20% to 50% faster response times than the high-performance C2 machines. This technology is available in 10 regional data centers.
4. Our Nginx web server configuration is specifically tuned for WordPress in mind. This includes high-performance page caching, WordPress-specific security rules, and more.

In addition to Kinsta’s performance and reliability, MOOBON was also impressed with the quality of our support team. Unlike what you may find at other hosting companies, we only hire the best WordPress and Linux experts for our support team. Best of all, Kinsta support is available 24/7, so you can rest assured that you’ll be able to get help no matter where you are.

“While Kinsta’s reliability in terms of speed goes without saying, one of the things that makes me comfortable with Kinsta is their extensive knowledge about WordPress. For example, there have been countless times where we came across a Kinsta blog post while searching for a solution to a WordPress problem. Regarding Kinsta’s support team, we found them to be very accommodating and friendly.”

Kinsta Does the Heavy Lifting so You Don’t Have To

For full-service agencies like MOOBON, Kinsta provides you with everything you need to host client sites in a convenient “infrastructure-as-a-service” package. With Kinsta, you’ll have access to Google Cloud Platform’s fastest servers in 37 locations around the world backed by our world-class devops, sysadmin, and support engineers.

Furthermore, you won’t have to deal with cluttered cloud hosting dashboards. Instead, you’ll be able to use our custom-built MyKinsta dashboard with all the necessary tools to manage your client sites efficiently. Best of all, with our multi-user feature, you can even create MyKinsta accounts for your clients – something you probably don’t want to do on AWS.