Whether you want to upgrade or downgrade, switching your Managed WordPress Hosting plan at Kinsta is easy. Usually, it can be done with a few clicks in MyKinsta without reaching out to our Billing team.
There is no downtime involved, and everything is automatically prorated down to the second. Follow the steps below.
Switching Plans
There are a multitude of reasons why you might need to upgrade or downgrade your hosting plan. Here are a few common examples:
- You want to take advantage of Kinsta’s annual discount (two months free).
- You need more disk space or are launching additional WordPress sites.
- You have a very demanding site and need additional PHP workers as recommended by our support team.
- Your website has become popular, and you need to increase your visitor count limit.
- You’re no longer working with a client and don’t need as large of a plan.
- You’re shutting down sites and are under the limits included in your current plan.
- You’re on Kinsta’s legacy plans and want to switch to our new plans based on visitor counts. (Note: once you switch from our legacy plans to our new plans, you can’t switch back)
System is Prorated
Our system is prorated, which means we calculate the unused time on the old plan and the remaining time on the new plan within the monthly or annual billing period. We use Stripe as our payment provider, and the prorated amount is calculated down to the second. You can, in fact, upgrade or downgrade multiple times in a month, and everything is automated on our end.
Upgrades Are Not Applied Retroactively
Important note about overages: When you upgrade plans, your new plan takes effect immediately from the time you make the change. If you’ve incurred any overages before upgrading, those overages will still be applied to your next invoice. This is because when you upgrade plans, your new plan is only in force going forward from the moment you make the change. The new upgraded plan is not applied retroactively.
For example, let’s say you register for the Starter plan ($35 per month / basically $1.17 per day / allows 25k visits). Over the next 30 days, you get 100,000 visits which results in an overage of 75k visits. On the 30th day, you upgrade to the Business 1 (B1) plan. We would reimburse you $1.17 for the remainder of the Starter plan and charge you $3.83 for one day on the B1 plan. So before considering any overage, the total cost would have been $37.76 ($33.93 for 29 days on the Starter plan, $3.83 for one day on the Business 1 plan). You would then still be responsible for the one-time overage of 75k visits, which comes out to $75 ($1 / 1,000 visits).
Monthly Plans
You sign up for a Business 1 monthly account and then decide to switch to a Business 2 monthly account 10 days into your current period. As long as the difference in the final amount due is lower than $100 there are no payments made at this time, the additional cost will be added to your next invoice. If the total amount due is increased by more than $100 we may charge the amount automatically.
- The Business 1 plan is $115 USD/month, and the Business 2 plan is $225 USD/month
- 10 days were used under the Business 1 plan (for this example, in a 30 day month), and 20 days under the Business 2 plan
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This means you have 20 days of the Business 1 plan that will be credited for the time remaining in your current billing term in the amount of $76.67
Calculation
$115 / 30 * 20 = $76.67
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And 20 days of your new Business 2 plan that will be due in the amount of $150.
Calculation
$225 / 30 * 20 = $150
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The total amount of this upgrade for the remaining 20 days in your current billing term would be $73.33
Calculation
$150 - $76.67 = $73.33
- As plans are always paid for in advance, your next invoice will contain the balance due from your upgrade and also the full price of next month's Business 2 plan, which is $225 for a total of $298.33.
Calculation
Unused time on Business 1 (20 days) = -$76.67
Remaining time on Business 2 (20 days) = $150
Price for 1 month of Business 2 = $225
Total: $298.33
You sign up for a Pro monthly account and then decide to downgrade to a Starter monthly account 13 days into your current period. There are no refunds made at this time. Your next invoice(s) will be reduced by any credit amounted.
- The Pro plan is $70 USD/month, and the Starter plan is $35 USD/month
- 13 days were used under the Pro plan (for this example, in a 30 day month), and 17 days under the Starter plan
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This means you have 17 unused days of the Pro plan that will be credited for the time remaining in your current billing term in the amount of $39.67
Calculation
$70 / 30 * 17 = $39.67
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And 17 days of your new Starter plan that will be due in the amount of $19.83.
Calculation
$35 / 30 * 17 = $19.83
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The total credit amount of this downgrade for the remaining 17 days in your current billing term would be $19.84
Calculation
$19.83 - $39.67 = -$19.84
- As plans are always paid for in advance, your next invoice will apply the credit from your downgrade toward your next month's Starter renewal, which is $35, for a total due of $15.16.
Calculation
Unused time on Pro (17 days) = -$39.67
Remaining time on Starter (17 days) = $19.83
Price for 1 month of Starter = $35
Total: $15.16
Annual Plans
When switching from a monthly to an annual plan, your monthly plan will be closed, and a new annual plan opened. The system automatically calculates a credit based on the time left on your monthly plan and applies the credit toward the amount due for the new annual plan.
Switching Between Annual Plans
Any changes to an annual plan (upgrades or downgrades) will cancel the plan and create a new plan with a new billing date, including add-ons. The system will apply the remaining balance on the previous plan to the new one.
How to Switch Hosting Plans
Follow these steps to switch your hosting plan.
Step 1
Log in to MyKinsta. In the dropdown on the left side of the top navigation, click Visit company. Then click Update Plan in the top right.
Step 2
You’ll see your current plan highlighted. You can then select the plan you want to switch to. Note: You’ll see both the monthly plans and annual plans (with the two free months discount already applied).
If you’re on a custom plan, you’ll see a form to send a custom plan change request instead. Include the plan you want to switch to in your message, and our Billing team will be happy to assist you with that change.
We also have 15% discounts on all plans for charities and nonprofits and open-source projects. You can switch plans at any time, but if you do not see the option to select a new plan in the modal/pop-up that appears, you’ll see the custom plan change request form instead. Include the plan you want to switch to in your message, and our Billing team will switch your plan and manually add the discount for you.
Step 3
Once you’ve selected your new plan, click Update. Your new plan limits (number of sites, visitors, disk space, etc.) will then be reflected in MyKinsta. Note: You may need to refresh your screen.
And, of course, if you have any questions regarding switching plans, feel free to open a ticket with our Account Management team.
Important Notes
- Each of our plans includes a predefined number of free migrations. However, these do not reset when you switch plans. For example, say you’re currently on a Starter plan, and you used your one included migration to move to Kinsta. If you later upgrade to Pro (which comes with two migrations), you’ll get one extra migration added to your account, not two.
- Changing plans with multiple sites may take a while to complete. In the meantime, you can close the modal/pop-up and use MyKinsta. If you’re concerned the changes are taking too long, please contact our Support team to check into that for you.