In short
Krystal's managed WordPress hosting runs on Onyx, its own WordPress-only platform, which Krystal says is backed by its own UK infrastructure. Plans include automatic updates, LiteSpeed caching, two staging sites per live site, 30 days of restore points and Patchstack protection. Krystal's team migrates your first three sites, and its support team is based in the UK.
See Cloudways' managed hosting plans
Cloudways lists its cloud providers, server sizes and locations, including London, on its own site.
Who Krystal is
Krystal is the trading name of Krystal Hosting Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales with a registered office in London. It offers domains, web hosting, managed WordPress hosting, reseller hosting and its own cloud platform.
Krystal runs its own infrastructure, and says its managed WordPress hosting is backed by its own UK infrastructure. Its technology page describes that infrastructure, including Katapult, a cloud platform built by its in-house software team, which spreads three copies of every piece of data across many NVMe disks so it can keep running if a component or server fails. Krystal says all its locations run on renewable energy, and that it is a Certified B Corp and a member of 1% for the Planet.
For WordPress, Krystal offers two kinds of hosting:
| Krystal option | What it is |
|---|---|
| Managed WordPress (Onyx) | A WordPress-only platform with its own dashboard, where Krystal handles updates, backups, caching and platform-level security |
| Standard WordPress hosting | cPanel hosting with WordPress as a one-click install, SSH, Git, phpMyAdmin and email, where you handle more of the maintenance |
This guide focuses on managed WordPress, the closer match to the other hosts on this site. See managed WordPress hosting for what the managed part means.
See WP Engine's managed WordPress plans
WP Engine lists its plans and data centre options on its own UK site.
Hosting type and platform
Krystal's managed WordPress plans run on Onyx, which Krystal calls its purpose-built platform for WordPress. Its help centre explains how Onyx works:
- WordPress only: you can install any plugins and themes, including WooCommerce, but not non-WordPress applications
- Spread across servers: each site runs across multiple servers for load balancing, PHP and database work, with two containers per site
- Dedicated resources per site, rather than competing with every other site on a server
- NVMe storage across web and database servers
- Its own dashboard in place of cPanel, with one-click staging, file manager, SFTP, cron management and PHP version control
- Live insight into requests, error logs and resource usage
Krystal also says it deploys new managed WordPress sites in under 30 seconds, with the platform already configured, and that its AI Site Builder is included on all managed plans as a starting point.
Managed plans do not include mailboxes as standard; Krystal offers them as a paid add-on. If you want email with your hosting, either add Krystal's mailboxes or keep your existing email provider. Our guide to shared vs VPS WordPress hosting explains why dedicated resources matter.
Krystal data centres and UK infrastructure
Krystal says its managed WordPress hosting is "backed by our own UK infrastructure and support team". Its technology page describes the facilities it uses:
| Facility | What Krystal says |
|---|---|
| Netwise East, East London | Krystal operates from one hall in this data centre, with the option to expand into a second |
| Iron Mountain, Edison, New Jersey | Houses Krystal's US-based services |
| Iron Mountain, Amsterdam | Houses Krystal's Amsterdam location |
Krystal lists four global locations in all, and says every facility it uses must be ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 compliant and run on renewable energy. Its pages do not say which facility a given managed WordPress site runs in, so check the details on Krystal's own site if a specific location matters to you.
Krystal adds a CDN on Business plans and above, which serves cached copies of your pages from locations closer to visitors outside the UK. See UK-based WordPress hosting for how location fits with UK GDPR and how the hosts in this guide compare.
Not sure which host to choose?
See the three hosts side by side on the features each one lists.
Krystal caching, CDN and performance tools
Krystal lists these performance features on its managed WordPress plans:
- LiteSpeed Cache, pre-installed and pre-configured, with its crawler keeping pages cached
- Redis object caching on premium plans, which helps busy and WooCommerce sites by cutting repeated database queries
- A CDN with 40+ points of presence on Business plans and above, managed through the LiteSpeed Cache plugin
Krystal recommends against adding another caching plugin on Onyx, because its built-in setup is designed to work on its own. Remove other caching plugins, or check Krystal's guidance, before you migrate. Krystal's WooCommerce section explains that product pages benefit from page caching while baskets, account areas and checkout need fresh data, which is where Redis helps. See fast WordPress hosting for more.
Krystal security features
Krystal lists these security features on its managed WordPress plans:
- Intelligent Protection, powered by Patchstack, on every managed plan: when a WordPress vulnerability is disclosed, Patchstack deploys a virtual patch that blocks the exploit at server level while you schedule the official update
- Malware scanning and removal, with automated scans and Krystal's team stepping in when something needs investigating
- CloudLinux isolation between hosting accounts
- Firewalls and DDoS protection, filtering malicious traffic at network level
- SSL certificates included and renewed automatically
- Automatic updates for WordPress core, plugins and themes, with control available when you need it
Krystal lists ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus among its security credentials. Its standard cPanel hosting does not include Patchstack virtual patching, which is one of the main reasons to choose managed over standard. See secure WordPress hosting for what stays your responsibility.
Krystal backups and staging
Backups. Krystal says managed WordPress plans include daily backups as standard, with more frequent backups on larger plans: its help centre lists daily backups on Personal and Agency and hourly backups on Business, and its plans page shows hourly backups as an upgrade on Personal and Agency. Restore points cover the last 30 days. Krystal notes that Onyx storage is for website files, so any extra backups made by plugins should be stored somewhere other than the plan.
Staging. Every live site gets two staging sites, which you can run at the same time and push live in one click. That suits sites where a developer is testing one change while a designer works on another.
Updates. Krystal updates WordPress core, plugins and themes automatically on managed plans, and you can switch auto-updates off in WordPress if you need to hold an update back, though Krystal recommends keeping them on. Our guide to WordPress hosting with staging explains how to use staging well.
Krystal migration help
Krystal's team handles migrations onto managed WordPress plans:
- Sign up for a managed WordPress plan, then open a support ticket from your Krystal Client Area
- Krystal moves your sites: its team migrates up to three WordPress sites at no extra cost, and further sites are charged per site, with the rate on Krystal's site
- Check the copy: you preview the migrated site on Krystal before changing anything
- Switch when ready: you update your DNS to point at Krystal
Krystal says that if it finds something that could complicate the move, such as an older PHP version or hard-coded domain settings, it tells you before the migration goes ahead. It also offers Switch Credits: if you are still in a contract with another host, Krystal converts the pro-rated value of unused time on an eligible contract into Krystal credit. Our guide to moving a WordPress site to a new host covers testing, DNS and email records.
Krystal support
Krystal says its support team is based in the UK and works directly with Krystal's infrastructure, so it can investigate problems on the platform itself. The channels it lists:
| Channel | What Krystal lists |
|---|---|
| Tickets | From the Krystal Client Area, on every plan |
| Live chat | Available on its WordPress hosting |
| Phone | Weekdays, 9:00 to 17:00 |
| Emergency cover | 24/7 on larger plans |
On Onyx, Krystal's help centre says the team gives hands-on help with WordPress itself, including plugin troubleshooting, performance work, cache configuration and set-up. Krystal also publishes a hosting SLA and a public status page, and says it explains what happened, and what changes afterwards, when there is a service problem.
Krystal plans and billing
Krystal's managed WordPress plans page lists three plans:
| Plan | How Krystal describes it | WordPress sites |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | For a personal site or a single project that matters | 1, upgradeable to 5 |
| Business | For sites your business depends on | 1, upgradeable to 5, with CDN and hourly backups |
| Agency | For agencies hosting sites for clients | 5, upgradeable to 10, with CDN |
Billing points from Krystal's plans page and FAQ:
- Monthly, annual or biennial billing
- Prices in pounds sterling, excluding VAT
- A 30-day trial on managed WordPress plans, with Krystal migrating your site before the trial starts so you can test your own site
- Traffic spikes: Krystal says it will not switch your site off or charge extra for an unexpected spike, and will let you know if you regularly reach your plan limit
- Upgrades to a larger plan when you need more resources
Current plans and prices are on Krystal's managed WordPress page (opens in a new tab). Our guide to WordPress hosting plans explains how to size a plan.
Who Krystal says it is built for
Krystal's plan descriptions and product pages point to these groups:
- Personal sites and single projects, on Personal
- Business sites, on Business, which adds a CDN and hourly backups
- Agencies hosting client sites, on Agency, which manages several WordPress sites from one plan
- Resellers, through Krystal reseller hosting with cPanel and WHM, white-label branding and private name servers
- Developers and technically confident owners, through standard cPanel hosting with SSH and Git
Krystal says managed hosting is a good fit for business sites, agencies and anyone who wants WordPress hosting already configured, while standard hosting suits those who want more control. See WordPress agency hosting for what agencies should check.
Compare Krystal with the other hosts
Krystal is one of the hosts covered on this site. The others differ in hosting type, data centres, support and billing:
- Cloudways WordPress hosting: managed cloud servers on the provider you choose, billed by hourly usage
- WP Engine WordPress hosting: development, staging and production environments, with Google Cloud London
Where these facts come from
The facts on this page were read on Krystal's own website and help centre on 2 November 2026, including its managed WordPress page (opens in a new tab) for plans, features, migration, backups and support, its technology page (opens in a new tab) for its infrastructure and data centres, and its help centre guide to Onyx (opens in a new tab) for how the platform works. Each fact is credited to Krystal in the copy, and nothing here is a score, a ranking or a test result.
Krystal updates its plans and offers from time to time, so check its own site for current details and prices before you buy. See all three side by side, and how we compare them, on our WordPress hosting comparison: provider-stated facts, listed A to Z, with no scores or prices.
Frequently asked questions
Where does Krystal host WordPress sites?
Krystal says its managed WordPress hosting is backed by its own UK infrastructure. Its technology page names Netwise East, a data centre in East London, plus Iron Mountain facilities for its US services and its Amsterdam location. It does not say which facility a given managed site runs in, so check Krystal's own site if that matters to you.
Is Krystal a UK company?
Yes. Krystal is the trading name of Krystal Hosting Ltd, registered in England and Wales, with a registered office in London. Krystal says its support team is based in the UK.
Will Krystal help move my existing site?
Yes, on managed WordPress plans. Krystal's team migrates up to three WordPress sites at no extra cost, and further sites are charged per site. You preview the migrated site before updating your DNS, and Switch Credits can cover unused time on an eligible contract elsewhere.
Is Krystal green WordPress hosting?
Krystal's managed WordPress page says your WordPress site runs on infrastructure using power matched 100% with renewable energy, and that it vets its data centre partners for energy efficiency. Krystal also says it is a Certified B Corp. Its own site has the detail.
What support does Krystal offer?
UK-based support by ticket and live chat, and by phone on weekdays from 9:00 to 17:00, with 24/7 emergency cover on larger plans. On its managed WordPress platform, Krystal says the team helps with plugin troubleshooting, performance and cache configuration.
How are Krystal's WordPress plans structured?
Krystal's managed WordPress plans are Personal and Business (one site, upgradeable to five) and Agency (five sites, upgradeable to ten). Business and Agency add a CDN. You can pay monthly, annually or every two years, and there is a 30-day trial.
Where do I see Krystal's prices?
On Krystal's own managed WordPress page, which shows prices in pounds, excluding VAT. We do not list prices on this site because they change, and you buy directly from Krystal.
See Cloudways' managed hosting plans
Cloudways lists its cloud providers, server sizes and locations, including London, on its own site.