Kinsta Operated WordPress Host Won’t Charge For Bot Traffic

Kinsta operated WordPress hosting provider, announces it won’t charge users for bot traffic, ensuring fairer billing and improved website performance analytics.

Kinsta, the managed WordPress hosting provider, has introduced a new billing policy that excludes bandwidth generated by automated bots, scrapers, and AI tools from customer charges. This move aims to reduce costs associated with unwanted bot traffic, which has surged recently.

Kinsta’s CTO Explanation

Daniel Pataki, Kinsta’s CTO, explained the motivation behind this change:

“In the past 12 months we’ve seen bot traffic rise due to the prevalence of both good and bad uses of AI. These bots can not be filtered as effectively, modifying our typical visits-to-bandwidth ratio. We’re working internally and with Cloudflare to improve bot filtering, but our top priority remains our customers’ success. Reducing bot-related costs as quickly as possible will have the greatest impact.”

Bot and Scraper Traffic Drives Up Website Costs

Websites often experience a high volume of bot traffic, which can sometimes account for half of their bandwidth usage and costs. This includes spam bots, scrapers, and malicious bots that inflate traffic statistics and hosting bills.

Kinsta’s new approach offers bandwidth-based pricing options that do not charge customers for this wasted bandwidth. Additionally, they provide tools such as caching and CDNs to reduce the impact of harmful bot visits on website performance and costs.

Flexible Pricing Model Enhances Transparency and Control

Kinsta’s announcement clarifies their commitment to customer choice:

“Now with bandwidth-based options, Kinsta is giving customers more choice, transparency and control in how they pay for hosting: by visits or bandwidth. Customers are not locked into a single pricing model. This is consistent with Kinsta’s long-term approach of delivering quality and building trust. The new pricing option is setting the standard for hosting by giving customers the freedom to choose how they pay, in a way that reflects how the modern web actually works.”

Bottom Line

The new feature is available to all visitor-based tiers, allowing users to switch between visits or bandwidth-based billing, improved usage notifications and the waiver of charges for scraper and bad bot

Read Kinsta’s announcement here: