Our Stack
Named, not hidden.
Most managed hosts wave their hands about "our proprietary cloud." Here's exactly what runs under every site we manage — and who owns each piece.
Transparency isn't a marketing angle. It's the only honest way to run an ops business.
Layer by Layer
What runs underneath your site.
Hosting Layer
Kinstamanaged WordPress on Google Cloud Platform
Premium-tier managed WordPress with isolated containers, automatic scaling, and an MU-plugin layer we trust. We've evaluated WP Engine, Pressable, Pantheon, and self-managed VPS — Kinsta consistently wins on real-world performance and engineer-friendliness.
We Own
Configuration, deployment, MU-plugin layer, environment management.
Host Owns
Container infrastructure, GCP scaling, base PHP/MySQL/nginx stack.
You Own
Nothing — unless you want admin access, which you can have.
Edge & CDN
CloudflareCDN, WAF, image optimization, edge caching
Cloudflare's global edge network is the fastest path between your visitors and your site, full stop. WAF rules block bad traffic before it reaches origin. Image resizing happens at the edge, not in WordPress.
We Own
Cache rules, page rules, WAF configuration, image optimization, DNS.
Host Owns
Global edge network, DDoS protection at network layer.
You Own
Nothing — DNS can stay with you if preferred.
Monitoring & Portal
TopSyde portaluptime, health scores, AI diagnostics, activity log
Built in-house because off-the-shelf monitoring tools lump every WordPress site into a generic uptime check. Ours understands WordPress: plugin versions, conflict detection, Core Web Vitals trends, change history per site.
We Own
The entire portal, AI monitoring, alerting, and reporting layer.
Host Owns
Underlying infrastructure metrics (passed through to our portal).
You Own
Read-only or admin access to your sites and orgs — your call.
Backups
Daily incremental backups30-day retention, one-click restore
Backups should be invisible until you need them, then dead-simple. Daily incrementals at the host layer plus point-in-time recovery for the database.
We Own
Backup verification, restore procedures, off-site replication.
Host Owns
Snapshot infrastructure, redundant storage.
You Own
Optional access to download your own backups any time.
Security
Hardened by defaultCloudflare WAF, hardened configs, SSL, two-factor login, cookie consent
Defense in depth. Bad traffic is filtered at the edge, and WordPress is hardened with sensible defaults (file permissions, login rate-limiting, XML-RPC off where safe). Two-factor login and a cookie consent banner are one switch each per site. Malware gets a layer of its own — Sentinel, next.
Two-factor login →Cookie consent →
We Own
WAF tuning, hardening defaults, SSL, and the two-factor and cookie tools (installed, enforced, kept updated).
Host Owns
Container isolation, OS-level patching, network security.
You Own
Strong passwords and flipping the switches on. Your privacy and cookie policies stay yours — the banner isn't legal advice.
AI Security Layer
TopSyde Sentineldaily AI malware scanning + automatic reversible removal
Plugin scanners look from inside the site, where malware can hide. Sentinel scans from outside, checking core and plugins against their official copies and hunting the backdoors and injected spam cleanups miss. What it finds is removed automatically and reversibly — included free on every plan.
We Own
The entire Sentinel engine — detection, remediation playbooks, quarantine and one-click rollback.
Host Owns
Nothing — Sentinel connects from outside the hosting layer over an isolated, per-site SSH key.
You Own
One-click approvals for anything below auto-clean confidence. That's it.
AI Optimization Layer
Auto SEO + Auto Speedweekly AI tune-ups, applied and reversible
Once a week an AI pass reviews each site's pages and Lighthouse report and applies the safe wins: titles, descriptions, alt text, structured data, image sizes and loading order. Page content, robots and canonicals are left alone, and every change rolls back in one click. Included free on every plan.
We Own
The optimization engine — evidence collection, the apply pipeline, rollback and verification.
Host Owns
Nothing — it connects from outside the hosting layer, the same way Sentinel does.
You Own
A one-click rollback of each tool's changes, any time. Your content stays yours.
Site Upkeep Tools
Four more switchesform protection, broken links & 404s, database cleanup, AI edits
Each is off until a site admin turns it on. Form protection holds spam for review. Broken links & 404s finds dead pages and offers one-click redirects. Database cleanup clears what WordPress itself would, after a backup. AI edits makes small content changes from a chat — previewed, applied on your click, undoable.
Form protection →Broken links →Database cleanup →AI edits →
We Own
The plugins and pipelines behind each tool, plus the alerts to our team.
Host Owns
Nothing — each runs over the same isolated SSH connection.
You Own
The switches, the reviews and the click that applies anything. We never publish an edit you haven't seen.
Dev Workflow
Git-based deploys, staging environments, conflict-tested updates
Plugin and core updates run through a staged pipeline before they touch production. Conflict-tested in isolation, batched by stack similarity, rolled back instantly if anything misbehaves.
We Own
The entire deploy and update pipeline, staging environments, version control.
Host Owns
Git repository hosting and environment infrastructure.
You Own
Optional access to staging and Git history if you want it.
Support Model
Direct senior developer accessby name, no tier system
When something goes wrong, or you need real custom work, you talk directly to a senior WordPress developer. No ticket queue, no chatbot, no tier-1 reps reading scripts. Average response under 2 hours during business hours, faster for active incidents.
We Own
Every conversation. Every line of code. Every escalation.
Host Owns
Their own support layer for infrastructure-level incidents (we handle the relay).
You Own
Nothing — call, text, email, portal. Whatever's easiest.
Side by Side
How we stack up against the alternatives.
We're not naming names. The pattern is recognizable on its own.
| Capability | TopSyde | Generic Managed Agency | DIY + Host |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting layer transparency | Named: Kinsta on GCP | Often resold under a proprietary brand | You manage it |
| Edge / CDN named | Named: Cloudflare | Often unspecified or branded as "our network" | You wire it up |
| Dev hours model | Unmetered — no flex packs | Metered hour packs, overage billed | Your team |
| Host choice | We use the best — and tell you which | Often forces proprietary platform | Your call |
| Malware handling | Sentinel — daily AI scans, auto-removal, included free | Per-cleanup fees ($200–$500 typical) | A scanner plugin + you |
| SEO & speed tuning | Auto SEO + Auto Speed — weekly, applied for you, included free | Billed as project or retainer work | Plugins + your own time |
| Two-factor login | One switch per site, included | Sometimes billed as a setup fee | Install and configure a plugin yourself |
| Cookie consent banner | One switch per site, included | Usually a separate plugin subscription | Install and configure a plugin yourself |
| Form spam protection & form watching | One switch per site, held for review, included | An Akismet or CAPTCHA plugin, often billed through | A plugin, and nobody watching the form |
| Broken links & 404s | 404 log, weekly scan, one-click redirects, included | A redirect plugin, fixes as billed hours | Redirection + Broken Link Checker, by hand |
| Database cleanup | Weekly, backed up first, included | Occasional, if at all | A cleanup plugin and your own backup |
| Small content edits | AI edits from a chat, 10 a month per site, included | Billed by the hour, or a monthly content retainer | You, in wp-admin |
| Direct dev access | Named senior dev, no relay | Account manager → ticket queue → dev | You hire |
| After-hours support | Direct contact for active incidents | Often a top-tier add-on only | Your team |
| Multi-site dashboard | Included for all customers | Tier-gated | You build it |
| White-label support | Yes, by default | Sometimes | N/A |
Ask us anything about the stack.
If you're evaluating us against another managed host or agency, bring your stack questions. We'll answer all of them — including the ones our competitors won't.