Kinsta is one of the best WordPress hosting services when it comes to performance. Unlike traditional shared hosting services which usually use cPanel, Kinsta built its own control panel. The control panel of Kinsta has a clean, easy-to-use interface. Unfortunately, there is a missed feature: file manager.

File manager is a crucial enough feature of a web hosting control panel. With the feature, you can easily access your application files. Most hosting control panel file managers also allow you to directly edit a file without needing to download it first.

Accessing WordPress Files in Kinsta

Although Kinsta hosting control panel offers no file manager feature, it doesn’t mean you can’t access your WordPress files. Every Kinsta user is given an FTP account which can be used to access their WordPress files. Alternatively, you can access your WordPress files using DevKinsta.

— Accessing WordPress Files via FTP

To access your WordPress files via FTP, you need to install an FTP client on your computer first. If you use Windows, you can use FTP clients for Windows like WinsCSP, FileZilla, to CoreFTP. If you use Mac, you can use Cyberduck or Transmit (premium).

What about Linux? Some Linux distros already have a built-in FTP client. If your distro doesn’t have one, you can use FileZilla as well.

To access your WordPress files via FTP, you need the following information:

• Host
• Username
• Password
• Port

To get the information above, login to the Kinsta dashboard with your account. Once logged in, select a website you want to access the WordPress files of.

You can see the information you need on the SFTP/SSH section on the Info tab.

In this example, we will demonstrate how to access WordPress files via FTP using Cyberduck. Before continuing, make sure you have installed the Cyberduck app on your computer.

Once installed, launch the Cyberduck app and click the globe icon to add a new FTP connection.

Add all the required information on the appearing dialog and click the Connect button. Before clicking the button, make sure to set the protocol to SFTP.

Once connected, you can find your WordPress files under the public folder. If you need to edit a certain file, you can right-click it and select Edit With. Cyberduck will select the available editor on your computer.

— Accessing WordPress Files Using DevKinsta

Using DevKinsta can be an alternative way to access your WordPress files. DevKinsta is a local development tool developed by Kinsta itself. The tool is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. You can download DevKinsta on its official page.

DevKinsta requires Docker to run. So, before downloading DevKinsta, make sure you have installed Docker on your computer.

Once DevKinsta is installed, run it. Click the Add site button on the upper-right corner to add a new website.

There are three options available. Since you want to access the WordPress files of your website hosted on Kinsta, select the Import from Kinsta option.

Select a site you want to import. On the next step, click the Import site button.

Wait until DevKinsta is done importing your website. Once done, you can go to the initial screen of the DevKinsta app. To access the WordPress files, you can click the folder on the website you want to access the files of.

The Bottom

Kinsta is a premium WordPress hosting service, powered by cloud technology from Google Cloud Platform and Cloudflare. It is a great option if you want to have a website with a high performance. While the service offered by Kinsta is great, it has drawbacks. One of which is the absence of file manager on its control panel. Also, Kinsta offers no domain registration service, requiring to manually connect your domain.

If you need to access the files of your WordPress site hosted on Kinsta, you can use either FTP client or DevKinsta as we have just covered above.