Case study Product Launch

Launching DevKinsta in 19,000 words, just 900 of them about DevKinsta

Kinsta’s free tool for local WordPress development went live on January 18, 2021, and its name had never been typed into a search box. So I wrote about what was already inside it and what people do with it. Six guides, launch day to July, each tested in my own install, with 4.9% of the words about the product. Newsletters picked up 5 of them within 2 weeks, and DevKinsta’s documentation still links two.

Read the story

Client: Kinsta
Role: Technical Writer / Editor
Year: 2021
Disciplines: Launch planning, Keyword research, Product testing

Proof at a glance

Six guides, by the numbers

Six guides, January 18 to July 21, 2021. All 6 still have my byline, and DevKinsta’s own documentation links 2 of them.

6

Guides in 6 months

The first written on a pre-release build, the rest while the product changed between builds.
4.9%

Of the words about DevKinsta

927 of 18,883 words, counted from the launch-era copy of each guide.
5 of 6

Picked up by outside newsletters

wpMail, PHP Weekly, and WPLift, within 13 days of publication.

The problem

A new tool with no search volume, in a category full of settled ones

DevKinsta's window as it opens: an illustrated splash of a desktop computer, hands and a lightning bolt, with a progress bar under it and the line Starting docker containers — DevKinsta, from the staging guide. Screenshot from my install, 2021.

Kinsta’s free tool for local WordPress development went live on January 18, 2021. DevKinsta runs a WordPress site on your own computer, with the same Nginx, MySQL, and PHP a host would run for you.

I’d been at Kinsta 4 months. I had a pre-release build of it, the launch page and the newsletter to review, and a product name that had never been typed into a search box.

Developers don’t go looking for launch posts. They read when something is broken or when they need to do a job they haven’t done before, and they arrive by typing the name of the thing.

In January 2021, every part of the job had a name a developer would type, except the product. A developer who needed a database manager typed Adminer or phpMyAdmin. One who needed to catch outgoing email without spamming customers typed MailHog. Staging and backup had names of their own too.

DevKinsta had a changelog post and a landing page, and both reached people who already read Kinsta.

The launch problem

I could have written 6 posts about DevKinsta

I could have written 6 posts explaining what DevKinsta is. Kinsta’s newsletter subscribers would have read one and stopped. A developer who didn’t read that newsletter had no reason to look for the word.

By 2021 a developer who wanted WordPress on a laptop could pick Local, MAMP, or XAMPP, and most already had one installed. WP Tavern covered the launch the same day, and Kinsta’s Tom Zsomborgi called the first release an MVP. It ran on macOS and Windows only. Justin Tadlock, who wrote it up, said it took him about an hour to get it running.

A free tool earns Kinsta nothing on its own. The launch paid off if a developer who tried DevKinsta later pushed a local site to Kinsta staging, or imported a Kinsta site to work on it. So the guides had to reach developers first and mention hosting last.

Kinsta also already had the guide for installing WordPress locally, by my colleague Brian Li. It covered the obvious question, so I didn’t need to write it. I added a DevKinsta section to it later. That left the tools inside the product and the jobs around it, and that’s what I wrote about.

The constraint

The rules I set before writing a word

Rule 1 decided who the guides were for. Adminer had users before DevKinsta existed, and MailHog had users who’d never run WordPress. A guide that only made sense with DevKinsta installed would have lost those readers in the first paragraph, and they were the readers who’d arrive.

Rule 2 decided where the product could appear. In the Adminer guide, that’s the Database Manager button, which opens Adminer already connected to the site’s database. In the MailHog guide, it’s the inbox that exists the moment you create a site. Everywhere else, the guide is about the tool. Every product screenshot came from my install, and Kinsta’s design team made the illustrations from those screenshots.

Rule 3 is why the product team read every draft. I was 4 months into the job and writing from a pre-release build, and the app changed between builds. The DevKinsta team answered my questions, helped when something misbehaved, and checked each draft before it went out. The plan and the words came from me.

Others on the team wrote the copy on kinsta.com/devkinsta and the newsletter that announced the tool, and I reviewed both before launch day. Later, I added the DevKinsta section to Brian Li’s install guide, so Kinsta’s main article on installing WordPress locally opens with the tool.

Rule 1: Every guide works without DevKinsta

What stayed fixed

Product: DevKinsta, pre-release build, then 1.0 from January 18, 2021
Platforms: macOS and Windows at launch. Ubuntu from April 15, 2021.
Access: Pre-release install on my own machine
Review: DevKinsta product team, for technical accuracy
Window: January 18 to July 21, 2021
Rule 2: DevKinsta enters where it saves the reader a step, with a screenshot from my install
Rule 3: Every step runs in the pre-release build before it’s written down

The approach

Six guides that teach the tool first and name DevKinsta last

Every guide had to work without the product, and the product came in only where it saved the reader a step. Every step ran in the pre-release build before it was written down. Those 3 rules are why most of the work happened before the first screenshot.

Adminer, out on launch day with 34 screenshots

Six guides, and every one of them needed a tool installed and used before the first screenshot. I ran every install myself, with the tool’s documentation open when I needed it.

Adminer is one PHP file, which is most of its pitch. I uploaded it and logged in. Then I went through 13 of its features one at a time, from connecting to a server to creating users, with a screenshot for each.

After that I compared it with phpMyAdmin on 5 things a WordPress developer would care about. Features, security, performance, user experience, and file size. Readers could check the file-size line for themselves.

DevKinsta got the last section before the summary, 127 words and 2 screenshots of its Database Manager, which is Adminer with Kinsta’s styling on it.

The file-size line

Adminer 4.7.8

478 KB, one PHP file

phpMyAdmin 5.0.4

13.7 MB, compressed

The whole guide

3,306 words, 34 images, 127 words about DevKinsta
02

MailHog, deployed 5 ways so DevKinsta could be a paragraph

MailHog runs a fake SMTP server. Your site sends email to it, and the email lands in a web inbox where you can read it. No customer ever does.

To write the guide I set it up on Windows, on Linux, on macOS, with Docker, and with Docker Compose. Each got its own section with its own commands.

Then I configured mhsendmail so PHP’s mail() would deliver to MailHog. I sent a test email, signed “Hogs & Kisses,” and watched it land. That’s where the guide’s 22 code blocks come from.

DevKinsta’s section is 115 words. It says the app runs MailHog for you, gives you an inbox per site, and shows the one command you’d need for its logs, docker logs -f devkinsta_mailhog.

Installing MailHog 5 ways took longer than writing about it, and that was the point.
5 ways in
- Windows, the release binary
- Linux, built with Go
- macOS, with Homebrew
- Docker, one command
- Docker Compose, one YAML file
phpMyAdmin, the guide about the tool DevKinsta doesn’t use

I installed phpMyAdmin on Windows 10, macOS, Ubuntu, CentOS 7, and Debian. Then I showed how to run SQL in it and how to change its default URL. The last section puts an Nginx authentication gateway in front of it.

I wrote 2,796 words on installing phpMyAdmin so I could spend 118 explaining why Kinsta chose Adminer instead. The closing section shows Adminer inside DevKinsta and links to the Adminer guide for the rest.

5 systems, one guide

Installed on

Windows 10, macOS, Ubuntu, CentOS 7, Debian

Code blocks

26

Words about DevKinsta

118 of 2,796, the Adminer bridge
3 job guides where DevKinsta is one option of several

The archiving guide reviews 6 tools and walks through 5 ways to archive a site. DevKinsta is the second way, in 116 words, for keeping a working local copy of a Kinsta-hosted site.

The backup guide covers 4 methods with a restore for each, and DevKinsta comes fourth, in 211 words. To restore from it, you push the local copy back to staging.

The staging guide covers your host, a plugin, or doing it by hand. DevKinsta gets 240 words and 3 screenshots under the host method, since its push-to-staging button ends in MyKinsta.

Where DevKinsta appears in each

Archive a Website

Method 2 of 5, 116 words

Back Up a WordPress Site

Method 4 of 4, 211 words

WordPress Staging Site

Under method 1 of 3, 240 words
How I checked my own work

The review came last, after I’d tested the tool and taken the screenshots, so what the team read was the guide as a reader would get it.

Rule 1 did more work than I knew at the time. The next step shows how.

What I did, and why

Ran every step in the pre-release build first

A step that worked last week was the one most likely to have changed

Took every product screenshot from my own install

The reader sees what they’ll see

Tested each open source tool on its own first

A guide that only worked inside DevKinsta would fail the readers who came for the tool

Sent every guide to the product team

4 months in, I didn’t know the app’s edge cases, and they did
The product ran on 2 operating systems, the guides on 3

The first feature request on DevKinsta’s new community forum, filed on launch day, asked for the one operating system the tool didn’t run on. Fifteen replies followed over 3 months. One user called the missing Linux build “extremely disappointing.” Another gave up and installed Vagrant.

Kinsta released the Ubuntu build on April 15, 2021. That was 87 days after launch.

My MailHog guide had gone out on day 30 with a MailHog on Linux section, next to sections for Docker and Docker Compose. That’s 57 days before a Linux developer could install the product the guide ends on.

I can’t tell you now whether I wrote that section because of the forum thread. MailHog runs on Linux, so rule 1 required it either way.

For those 57 days, a Linux developer who found the MailHog guide left with a working MailHog and a product they couldn’t install yet. When the Ubuntu build arrived, the guide didn’t need a rewrite. Neither did the Adminer guide, since Adminer is one PHP file and runs wherever PHP does.

The same rule is why a Laravel starter kit’s README links the MailHog guide for a project with no WordPress in it. It’s also why the guides kept getting used after I’d left Kinsta.

The Linux wait

Without a Linux build

87 days

MailHog on Linux, published early

57 days before

Launch day to the Ubuntu build, and the MailHog guide in between

The results

Five of the 6 guides picked up within 2 weeks, and 2 still in the product docs

The campaign, launch day to July, with the first outside newsletter or roundup that linked each guide.

Adminer, day 0: Picked up by wpMail issue 495 and PHP Weekly, 9 and 10 days after it went out. 3,306 words, 34 images, 127 about DevKinsta. Listed on adminer.org the day it went out.
MailHog, day 30: Picked up by WPLift’s weekly roundup 2 days after it went out. 2,829 words, 22 code blocks, 115 about DevKinsta. Published 57 days before DevKinsta ran on Linux.
Archive, day 81: Picked up by wpMail issue 507, 13 days after it went out. 3,908 words, 16 images, 116 about DevKinsta. Later cited on Russian and Ukrainian Wikipedia.
phpMyAdmin, day 100: Picked up by WPLift’s weekly roundup 2 days after it went out. 2,796 words, 26 code blocks, 118 about DevKinsta.
Backup, day 109: No outside pickup found. 2,661 words, 18 images, 211 about DevKinsta. Every host has a backup guide, and I can’t tell from the outside whether that was the topic or the week.
Staging, day 184: Picked up by WPLift’s weekly roundup 2 days after it went out. 3,383 words, 13 images, 240 about DevKinsta. Its launch-era copy rests on a January 2022 capture, the earliest that survives.

Editors picked up 5 of the 6 guides, and 4 of those inside 10 days. They chose pieces on database management, email testing, archiving, and staging, and every title they chose named a tool or a job. That’s the part of the campaign that worked as planned.

Across the 6 guides, 927 of 18,883 words are about DevKinsta, which is 4.9%. The other 95.1% is about Adminer, MailHog, phpMyAdmin, archiving, backups, and staging, and that’s the part the editors linked.

No traffic, rankings, or download numbers. I left Kinsta in April 2023 and never had attribution data for this campaign. The live URLs show Kinsta’s 2026 revisions, and every count here comes from the archived copies in the sources.

The published work

The six guides

All 6 are live under my byline. Kinsta has revised each one since 2021, so the live copy is theirs and mine together.

Adminer / Jan 18, 2021 How to Use Adminer to Manage Databases Easily with a Single PHP File Launch day. 13 features, 34 screenshots, and a phpMyAdmin comparison Source: Kinsta Read the guide
MailHog / Feb 17, 2021 How to Use MailHog to Test Emails Locally (Step-by-Step Guide) Deployed 5 ways, 22 code blocks, one test email signed Hogs & Kisses Source: Kinsta Read the guide
Archive / Apr 9, 2021 How to Archive a Website: Our Mammoth Guide to Saving Your Site 6 tools reviewed, 5 methods, DevKinsta the second Source: Kinsta Read the guide
phpMyAdmin / Apr 28, 2021 How to Install phpMyAdmin on Any Operating System 5 systems, 26 code blocks, and a closing bridge to Adminer Source: Kinsta Read the guide
Backup / May 7, 2021 How to Backup a WordPress Site Easily (4 Methods) 4 methods with a restore for each, DevKinsta the fourth Source: Kinsta Read the guide
Staging / Jul 21, 2021 3 Easy Ways to Quickly Set Up a WordPress Staging Site 3 methods, with DevKinsta’s push to staging under the first Source: Kinsta Read the guide

The final proof

Where DevKinsta entered each guide

One screenshot from each of 3 guides. Each one is the section where the product saved the reader a step.

Adminer guide DevKinsta’s Database Manager, which is Adminer with Kinsta’s styling. Screenshot from my pre-release install, January 2021. See it in the guide
MailHog guide DevKinsta’s Email Inbox, which is MailHog behind the scenes. Screenshot from my install, February 2021. See it in the guide
Staging guide The Push to staging button in DevKinsta, from the staging guide. Screenshot from my install, 2021. See it in the guide

Working together

Let them say it.

He knows WordPress, PHP, JS, frameworks, web development, and web design inside out. He consistently keeps himself up to date with the latest releases, news, and trends, which gives him an incredibly rich perspective (so important!).

Matteo Duò — Head of Content, Kinsta

Specific Attributable Verified

Their own words, cut only for length and never rewritten.

Where the guides are still in use

Kinsta’s docs, Adminer’s site, and developers on other stacks

You can open every link below. Kinsta’s own DevKinsta documentation explains 2 of the app’s tools by linking to the guides, and the Adminer project lists the guide on its site, dated the day it went out.

Kinsta made 41 translated editions across 7 languages and turned 5 of the guides into videos, with 60,009 combined views on September 16, 2026. The MailHog video alone has 28,960. Those are Kinsta’s work, and the videos link back to the guides in their descriptions.

For the product itself, Kinsta reported more than 16,500 DevKinsta users at the end of 2021, and the DevKinsta page says 60,000 today. Kinsta’s product team earned those numbers, and the guides can’t claim a share of either.

What I would change

What I’d do differently, and what I got wrong

4.9% is why editors who’d never heard of DevKinsta picked the guides up and why they stayed useful through 87 days without a Linux build. It’s also why a developer who finished all 6 guides knew Adminer and MailHog well and DevKinsta only in outline. That’s the first thing I’d change.

The campaign taught the tools around the product and left the product itself to the documentation. If I ran it again, I’d add a second track alongside the first, starting with a “what DevKinsta is and how it works” guide under my byline.

If you’re launching something with a name that has no search volume yet, list what’s inside the product and what people do with it, and check which of those names people already search for. Those are your topics. Test the tool on its own before you show it inside the product and let the product have the last section.

It costs more than an announcement. One email tool installed 5 ways, one database tool installed on 5 systems, and a product team reading every draft. What you get is 6 ways in for readers who’d never have found the announcement, and guides that kept working through a missing Linux build and after the writer had left.

So you know what you’d be getting if you handed me your next launch. A plan built on what your users already type and tutorials I’ve run before writing them. A product team that reads every draft and the product kept to the section where it saves the reader a step.

Next time: A “what DevKinsta is and how it works” guide under my byline

A walkthrough of the import, edit, push-to-staging, push-to-live path

A troubleshooting guide for the Docker problems the forum filled up with

The archive and backup sections as full walkthroughs, with the knowledge base as a link and not the whole method

Count the product’s share of the words when done. Mine came to 4.9%, and the other 95.1% still gets read because of it
What I got wrong: In the MailHog guide’s DevKinsta section, “As it also Docker to containerize individual sites.” The verb is missing

In the Adminer guide’s summary, “much snappier to work it.” The word “with” is missing

In the Adminer guide’s file-size comparison, “at least 28x times smaller.” The “x” and the “times” say the same thing

In the phpMyAdmin guide’s introduction, “software like phpMyAdmin exist.” Software is singular

In the staging guide’s summary, “Your website can also benefit from staging too.” Two words doing one job

I re-read the MailHog, Adminer, and phpMyAdmin pages on September 17, 2026. The 4 errors on them are still there.

Sources and credits

Where to check this

The six guides as they went out

Credits

Client: Kinsta
Pre-release access, troubleshooting, review: The DevKinsta product team
The install guide: Brian Li, whose article covered the obvious question
Illustrations, from my screenshots: Kinsta’s design team
The 41 editions and the 5 videos: Kinsta’s localization and video teams
The pickups: The editors at wpMail, PHP Weekly, and WPLift
Plan, testing, screenshots, writing: Salman Ravoof

The live pages still have my byline. Kinsta has revised each since, most recently in 2026, so the live copy is theirs and mine.

Cookies. Tragically inedible.

Six guides, by the numbers

I could have written 6 posts about DevKinsta

The rules I set before writing a word

Adminer, out on launch day with 34 screenshots

MailHog, deployed 5 ways so DevKinsta could be a paragraph

phpMyAdmin, the guide about the tool DevKinsta doesn’t use

3 job guides where DevKinsta is one option of several

How I checked my own work

The product ran on 2 operating systems, the guides on 3