How Kinsta secures logins and strengthens its culture of security with 1Password

Welcome to customer spotlights! This is a series which highlights how businesses are using 1Password products to strengthen their security while boosting productivity.

Customer profile

Kinsta is a managed WordPress hosting provider powered by Google Cloud Platform that offers fast, powerful, and secure hosting. Trusted by organizations such as NASA, TripAdvisor, and Hootsuite, Kinsta empowers over 120,000 customers worldwide to confidently manage high-performance websites and web applications.

“1Password is absolutely instrumental for how we operate at Kinsta.” 

Erik Van Dijk, Head of IT at Kinsta

Outcomes

As the Head of IT, Erik Van Dijk spearheaded security compliance programs at Kinsta and relied on 1Password Enterprise Password Manager to help the company earn its ISO 27001, ISO 20017, ISO 27018, and SOC 2 certifications. With 1Password, Kinsta was able to:

✔️ Strengthen its security by empowering team members to create, use, and securely share strong credentials from day one

✔️ Drive consistent and universal adoption of its security policies

✔️ Secure online accounts not covered by SSO

✔️ Extend protection with a password manager that team members can use at work, at home, and anywhere in-between 

Challenges

When Erik joined Kinsta, his challenge was to unify security practices across teams and strengthen the company’s security posture without slowing down productivity. The organization needed to:

• Ensure consistent security practices across teams
• Quickly and securely provision and deprovision credentials
• Turn best security practices into everyday habits
• Guard against potential breaches, both now and in the future

How Kinsta empowers its team to stay secure by default

Kinsta already had a strong culture of security that underpinned its work with high-profile clients around the world. 1Passworld helped Kinsta deepen and operationalize that culture across its fast-growing, globally distributed team by supporting the rigorous access control, credential management, and integrity standards needed to achieve ISO 27001, 20017, 27,018 and SOC 2 compliance. 

Day one training and ongoing reminders

When Erik joined the organization, Kinsta had already started its 1Password journey and was ready to start a full deployment. 

Rolling out 1Password company-wide has allowed Kinsta to embed strong password and identity security at every level of its organization. 1Password is introduced to new hires on day one, and its usage is mandatory across the company, supported by internal Wiki documentation and recurring reminders. 1Password is fully woven into Kinsta’s onboarding process and reinforced through annual security training. 

"1Password is so heavily leveraged here. Everybody uses 1Password. Everybody likes 1Password."

Erik Van Dijk, Head of IT at Kinsta

Less time on setup, more time driving results

Thanks to 1Password's intuitive design, Kinsta employees have no problem creating, storing, and using strong passwords at work. That ease of use extends to shared vaults. Kinsta uses vaults to quickly and securely grant team members access to the applications required for their work. 

Onboarding and offboarding are seamless, too. According to Erik, it takes “five seconds” to provision new team members with credentials and the same amount of time to revoke access when someone leaves. 1Password also reduces password reset tickets, allowing Kinsta's small but mighty IT team to reclaim at least six hours per month — almost a full working day. 

“1Password is one of the easiest tools to onboard and offboard people. It takes 5 seconds on each side.” 

Erik Van Dijk, Head of IT at Kinsta

Protecting accounts that aren’t covered by SSO

Single sign-on (SSO) solutions are a powerful way for organizations to increase their security and reduce their attack surface. But they can’t secure every app. For example, nearly 90% of the roughly 200 SaaS apps used at Kinsta fall outside the scope of SSO. That’s where 1Password fills the gap. 

With 1Password, Kinsta’s admins maintain control over who has access to what, including apps not covered by SSO. 1Password Enterprise Password Manager also empowers team members to generate strong and unique passwords and protect work accounts with multi-factor authentication where it’s available. Team members can even save and sign in to accounts with passkeys — an even more secure alternative to passwords — on supported websites and apps. 

Securing every sign-on in this way helps Kinsta meet its compliance requirements, such as SOC 2, while reducing friction for end users. 

“SSO isn’t always possible. That's where it's useful for us to lean on 1Password.” 

Erik Van Dijk, Head of IT at Kinsta

Providing extra support in a fully distributed environment 

With more than 200 employees spread across six continents, Kinsta needed a solution that would work across the entirety of its distributed team anytime, anywhere. Now team members can use 1Password Enterprise Password to securely access what they need, whether they're at home, in a co-working space, or in a coffee shop.

1Password also supports Kinsta’s team to maintain strong cybersecurity practices beyond the workplace. Team members can redeem a free 1Password Families membership, accelerating their adoption of the tool and reinforcing strong password hygiene beyond the workplace. By encouraging good security practices at home, 1Password strengthens Kinsta’s overall culture of security. 

“The ease of use for 1Password Family is unparalleled. It's the perfect way to bring even non-techy family members into the world of strong passwords and online security.”

Tom Zsomborgi, Chief Business Officer at Kinsta

Additionally, 1Password provides Kinsta’s team with visibility and peace of mind by proactively alerting them to potential threats. 1Password Watchtower continuously monitors for compromised credentials and vulnerabilities, ensuring the team can quickly respond to any security incidents. This proactive approach aligns perfectly with Kinsta’s compliance initiatives — like ISO 27001 and SOC 2 — which emphasize rapid detection, clear accountability, and fast remediation. 

"The reporting is really cool. It’s nice to know that, if there is a breach, I'm going to get alerted. It means I don't have to pay for an extra service."

Erik Van Dijk, Head of IT at Kinsta

Looking ahead 

Kinsta is in the “adjust and optimize” phase of its journey with 1Password. Next, the team is looking to integrate 1Password Enterprise Password Manager with other tools via SCIM to further automate access management across its growing tech stack. 

To learn more

Ready to bring stronger password practices and smarter credential management to your team? 

• Check out the 1Password Launch Kit for tips and resources to help you roll out 1Password Enterprise Password Manager.
• Join 1Password at Work to further discuss how to get the most out of 1Password.