Plan upgrades vs. add-on scaling: Making the right choice this holiday season

Every November, it happens like clockwork. Stores roll out their biggest sales of the year, traffic surges overnight, and dashboards light up with warnings. In the rush to keep everything running smoothly, many merchants hit the panic button and upgrade their entire hosting plan, even when they don’t actually need to.

While upgrading can certainly boost performance, it’s not always the most efficient choice. Sometimes, all you really need is a short-term power boost like a few extra PHP threads, a little more storage, or more frequent backups to handle the holiday rush.

That’s where Kinsta’s add-ons come in. They let you scale specific resources for as long as you want, giving your site the power it needs without committing to a long-term plan upgrade.

In this guide, we help you distinguish between when to upgrade and when to scale. By the end, you know how to prepare for high-traffic seasons confidently and avoid paying for capacity you won’t need in January.

The holiday traffic dilemma

So why does your store suddenly struggle when holiday sales kick off? It usually comes down to resource pressure. Too many uncached requests hit your site all at once, and things start to malfunction.

Every product click, cart update, and checkout step runs through PHP. When traffic spikes, those requests pile up faster than your server can process them. Add in heavier plugins, larger carts, and time-sensitive discounts, and you’ve got the perfect storm for slowdowns.

The symptoms are easy to spot. Pages that typically load instantly start dragging. Carts freeze mid-checkout. Then, shoppers see 500 errors or timeouts at the worst possible moment.

When that happens, the first instinct is often to upgrade your plan. That provides additional memory and processing power. However, if that surge only lasts a few days, an upgrade might be overkill. What you really need could be a temporary boost instead of a long-term change.

Understanding your hosting upgrade and add-on options

When traffic picks up, you’ve got two ways to handle the extra load: upgrade your hosting plan or use add-ons to scale specific resources temporarily. Both can make a big difference. It just depends on what’s happening with your site.

Hosting plan upgrades

A plan upgrade moves you to a higher tier in Kinsta’s hosting lineup, unlocking more of everything. That includes additional WordPress installations, PHP threads, memory, disk space, monthly bandwidth, and website visits.

It’s a smart move when your business is growing steadily and you need more capacity year-round. For example, if your store’s traffic or order volume has doubled over the past six months and you’re consistently running into limits, upgrading provides the extra breathing room to sustain that growth.

What if your surge only lasts a few days or weeks, like during a holiday sale or a campaign launch? In those cases, Kinsta’s add-ons offer a more flexible way to scale. Let’s go over four of them that could help you through the holiday season.

PHP performance add-on

The PHP performance add-on provides a temporary boost in PHP threads and memory to help your site handle high-traffic events without requiring an upgrade to your entire plan.

It’s ideal for short bursts of activity, like Black Friday, flash sales, or product launches, when your site experiences sudden surges in dynamic requests. You can change your PHP performance for each site directly from MyKinsta before your campaign and disable it afterward in the Info page.

Pricing starts at $10 per month for 500MB of additional PHP memory, billed prorated so you only pay for the time it’s active. That way, your site stays fast and responsive during peak demand without paying for unused capacity later.

Disk space add-on

The Disk space add-on makes it easy to expand your site’s storage without upgrading your entire hosting plan.

The holidays typically mean new campaigns, which in turn bring new products and a surge in new media. If you’re uploading high-resolution product photos, video lookbooks, or gift guides, your storage needs can climb fast.

The Disk space add-on expands your available storage in 20 GB increments for just $20 per month per site. It’s a simple way to avoid hitting disk limits while still keeping your plan lean.

Automatic external backups add-on

Peak season also brings more risk. Frequent site changes, last-minute plugin updates, and heavy traffic all increase the chances of something going wrong.

The automatic external backups add-on lets you save backups to Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage automatically, keeping a secure copy of your data off-site. If anything breaks during a sale, you can restore quickly without losing orders or content.

Pricing starts at $2 per month per site, plus $ 1 per GB for external bandwidth, a small cost for added security and peace of mind during the busiest time of the year.

WordPress site add-on

If you manage multiple brands or clients, or you’re spinning up separate promo microsites for holiday campaigns, the WordPress site add-on can be a lifesaver. It allows you to add new WordPress installations to your existing plan without upgrading your entire hosting tier.

That flexibility helps agencies and multi-brand businesses launch temporary sites for seasonal promotions, limited-edition products, or campaign-specific pages without extra overhead.

Comparing your options

Here’s a quick look at the options we’ve discussed so far for those who are more visual learners:

Which is right for your store?

Choosing between a plan upgrade and an add-on isn’t about what’s “better.” It’s about what fits your situation right now. Here are a few examples to make the decision easier:

1. Seasonal campaigns and flash sales

Imagine a boutique preparing for its annual Black Friday event. Traffic triples for three days, the checkout queue gets longer, and every product page sees nonstop activity.

In this case, the PHP performance add-on is the perfect fit. It temporarily boosts PHP threads and memory to handle the surge, then scales back down once traffic settles. Combine that with an automatic external backups add-on for peace of mind and maybe a little extra disk space for those new holiday photos, and you’re covered.

2. Consistent growth all year long

Now picture a subscription box business that’s been steadily growing month after month. Traffic isn’t spiking. It’s climbing. Every quarter, the number of subscribers, orders, and content on the site increases.

That’s when a hosting plan upgrade makes more sense. It provides a lasting increase in resources to support ongoing growth without needing to toggle add-ons on and off.

3. Testing new marketing channels

Think about a merchant experimenting with influencer campaigns. Maybe they’ve never driven this kind of traffic before and aren’t sure how it’ll perform.

Rather than committing to a higher plan right away, they can enable the PHP performance add-on to prepare for a potential spike. If it turns out those campaigns deliver consistent results, upgrading later will be an easy next step.

How to activate the PHP performance add-on

The PHP performance add-on is designed to be simple. You can turn it on or off in minutes from your MyKinsta dashboard.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Log in to MyKinsta. Go to your MyKinsta dashboard and sign in to your account.
2. Select your site. Navigate to WordPress sites in the sidebar, then click the site that needs the boost.
3. Locate PHP performance. Click Info, then scroll down until you see PHP performance and click Change.

That’s it! No downtime, no migration, and no commitment. Once your busy period wraps up, you can disable the add-on just as easily and return to your regular configuration.

This is similar for other add-ons; you can access them in the add-ons page.

If you’re planning for a specific campaign or sale, it’s best to activate an add-on at least a few hours in advance so the changes are fully in effect before traffic spikes.

When to upgrade instead

Add-ons are perfect for flexibility, but sometimes short-term boosts just aren’t enough. If your store’s growth is steady and sustained, a full hosting plan upgrade will provide you with more stability and fewer limitations to worry about.

Here are a few signs it’s time to upgrade:

• Your traffic and order volume have grown consistently. If you’re regularly hitting resource limits month after month, you’ll save time and money by moving to a higher plan instead of toggling add-ons on and off.
• You’re expanding your catalog or audience. Adding new product lines, launching into new markets, or running ongoing ad campaigns all create a baseline increase in site activity that add-ons can’t fully cover.
• You need access to higher-tier resources. Bigger plans include more disk space, staging sites, and bandwidth. For fast-growing brands, those built-in extras make scaling smoother.

Upgrading is just as straightforward as enabling an add-on. Head to MyKinsta > Company > My Plan, and choose the plan you’d like to upgrade to.

Summary

Holiday traffic spikes don’t have to send you scrambling for a bigger hosting plan. Sometimes, all it takes is a few well-chosen add-ons to keep your store running smoothly, securely, and stably through the busiest weeks of the year.

Add-ons like the PHP performance add-on, Disk space add-on, and Automatic external backups give you the flexibility to handle seasonal surges without overcommitting. And if you’re managing multiple brands or clients, the WordPress site add-on makes it easy to launch new sites or campaigns without bumping up your entire plan.

Ready to gear up for the holidays? Log in to MyKinsta to make the necessary updates to keep your store fast, reliable, and prepared for whatever this season brings.

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