Background: ScalaHosting was founded more than a decade ago in 2007 to be specific. The unusual thing about this host was their focus on VPS planning. Their goal was to make VPS (and now cloud) plans available to a wider audience. Today, Scala has long worked on past values and instead focused on innovative technologies. With tools like Spanel in their inventory, ScalaHosting offers users options to easily manage their hosting environments.
Starting price: 3.95
Currency: USD
Go online: https://www.scalahosting.com
Review summary and ratings: 5
ScalaHosting is a good start for those looking to do their business online. You can choose the specifications based on the needs of your website because you only pay for what you need.
Our experience with ScalaHosting
ScalaHosting is a service provider that has been close to our team for some time. At the time of writing, we both share and maintain VPS hosting accounts with them.
ScalaHosting first came to WHSR’s radar when our former editor Laurie Sword interviewed their chief executive Vince Robinson. Since then our boss Jerry Low has been in touch with the team there. One of the more notable personalities he came across during this time was Chris, the man who started the Scholar Spaniel Project (we actually did some marketing work as well).
In this review – by sharing screenshots of our account and test results, I’m taking you on a tour of ScalaHosting to give you a glimpse of their performance. Take the time to read this and see for yourself what Scala offers.
Professionals
- Well-established reputation
- Great hosting performance
- Self-developing spaniels are super-convenient
- Powerful WordPress management
- Increase protection with SShield
- Lots of fridge
- White label hosting
Difficulty
- The cost of renewal
- Limited server locations
- Shared hosting uses only partial SSD
Professionals: What I like about ScalaHosting
1. Well-established reputation
Where a world dominates the strong over the weak, ScalaHosting has survived for 15 years now. In the meantime, it has achieved what it set out to do – make VPS / Cloud plans more accessible.
In its journey, it has amassed a loyal follower and today serves over 50,000 subscribers. During this time, more than 700,000 ScalaHosting websites have been created. This journey to success is a testament to the quality of their service.
2. Great hosting performance
WebPageTest Speed Results WebPageTest Speed Results Host ScalaHosting All green for our test site (see actual test results).
As with all of our hosting reviews, we’ve set up a test site so you can see first hand how well the host performs. In our webpagetest speed results, our site showed green light results across the board.
Below are some recent uptime and performance results:
ScalaHosting uptime
scalahosting uptime chart August 2020ScalaHosting uptime (August 2020): 99.98%
ScalaHosting speed
ScalaHosting Performance Chart August 2020ScalaHosting Average Response Speed (August 2020): 145.56ms. Speed tests are performed from the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Brazil, India, Australia, Japan, Canada, and Germany.
It is not easy for any host to produce these results consistently, so they have Kudo. This is especially significant because their shared hosting plans only run outside of the Dallas, Texas data center of.
3. Self-developing spaniels are super-convenient
Spanel User InterfaceSpanel’s user interface is as efficient and easy to use as the Spanel – the screenshot shows what Spanel looks like.
SPanel is probably the single most prominent factor ScalaHosting. This applies to their VPS / Cloud plan users and replaces cPanel. Plesk and cPanel are both owned by the same parent company, resulting in an exclusive web hosting control panel (WHCP) market.
Spanel offers users an alternative that is great for a variety of reasons. The bottom line is that it’s completely compatible with Cipanel. This means that there is an easy way out of the ecosystem if cPanel users are willing to migrate to Spaniel.
It offers a much more affordable licensing framework than Cipanel and is more agile and resource-friendly. Overall, Spanel was designed as a one-stop control panel for the convenience of users.
Although that’s not all. There are many more benefits including security, website management, email delivery guarantees.
4. Powerful WordPress management with Swordpress
As you can see with the simple addition of an ‘S’ to their naming rule, ScalaHosting goes for bling functionality. SwordPres is a WordPress management utility that offers users a practical managed environment for WordPress hosting.
Swordpress Manager not only allows you to easily install or delete WordPress, but also allows you to reset or toggle very useful options. These include resetting your admin password, enabling auto wordpress updates, or managing security locks.
Scholar has many more plans for SWordPress so it is better to bring this tool. It’s part of the Spaniel platform, so it’s worth more for users.
5. Increased protection with SPD
The web is a dangerous place and even more so for website owners. I’ve been running several sites over the years and trying to attack so regularly it’s incredible. SShield helps you deal with those attacks (blocks them) and ScalaHosting claims it is 99.9% effective!
To do this, SShield is active 24/7 and actively monitors all sites on each server. In addition to defensive measures, it will also notify site owners with an attack report for reference. At the same time, Eskihild will advise website owners on what steps they can take to increase web security.
SShield presumably works with an AI engine to adapt defenses. This is how some heuristic similar antivirus applications work. Instead of referring to a static data set, the AI engine will evaluate the potential threat based on logical cuts and threat probability.
Free. Lots of freebies
I like free stuff like anyone else, especially when it comes to long term commitments like web hosting. ScalaHosting apparently knows this and includes many useful things in their hosting package.
For example, you get a free domain name integrated with all the hosting plans Cloudflare which let CDN, SSN encrypt, free migration services for many sites of your choice, automatic remote backup and much more.
7. White Label Hosting
Unlike some hosts that offer white label hosting for resellers, ScalaHosting offers it even on their most basic shared hosting plans. White label refers to the lack of hosting ScalaHosting branding their tools such as admin panel and so on.
This gives you a lot of flexibility, especially if you are a developer or an agency and then need to work on an account to transfer to a client.
Cons: What I dislike is ScalaHosting
1. The cost of renewal
As with almost all budget hosting solutions, ScalaHosting entices new users with steep discounts. Unfortunately, once the honeymoon period is over, users are forced to pay a hefty renewal fee. For example, signing up for shared hosting can cost as little as 3.95 per month. Once you renew, you’ll be looking to pay $ 5.95 for the same plan.
2. Limited server locations
While ScalaHosting’s performance is great and it did well in our tests, there is no denying that distance really does affect delays. With limited server location, potential Scala customers who wish to target Asia-Territorial traffic only need to be with it. This is especially true if you use shared hosting. VPS / Cloud users will still be able to choose a location in Europe that is a little more strategic.
3. Shared hosting uses only partially SSD
Scaler shared hosting plans only have SSD operating system and database. Still everything uses traditional thematic hard-drive capabilities. This can make sites even smaller than fully SSD-powered solutions.
ScalaHosting planning and evaluation
Review ScalaHosting for this, we will first look at ScalaHosting and VPS / Cloud plans.
Shared hosting
| Plans | Mini | Start | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage | 20 GB | 50 GB | 100 GB |
| Visits/day | ~1,000 | ~2,000 | ~4,000 |
| Free Migration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free SSL | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free CDN | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Control Panel | cPanel | cPanel | cPanel |
| SSHield Cyber-security | No | Yes | Yes |
| Pro Spam Protection | No | No | Yes |
| Priority Support | No | No | Yes |
| Signup Price* | $3.95/mo | $5.95/mo | $9.95/mo |
| Renewal Price | $6.95/mo | $8.95mo | $13.95/mo |
| Suitable for | Single site | Multiple sites | Complex sites |
| Order/ Learn More | Mini | Start | Advanced |
ScalaHosting offers three shared hosting plans. These are basically identical to their WordPress hosting plans. The lowest level is the most basic and like most other hosts. Scala benefits mainly when you go up the stairs.
For example, their start-up plan includes SShield cyber-security, and if you move on to a more advanced plan, you can get pro-spam protection and a few other benefits. However, if you decide to go it cheap and risk the low bandwidth you are only fooling yourself.
VPS / Cloud Plans – Managed
| Plans | Start | Advanced | Business |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Cores | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Memory | 4 GB | 6 GB | 10 GB |
| SSD Storage | 50 GB | 80 GB | 160GB |
| Control Panel | SPanel | SPanel | SPanel |
| Free Snapshots | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SShield Cyber-security | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Signup Price* | $14.95/mo | $32.95/mo | $72.95/mo |
| Renewal Price | $31.95/mo | $49.95/mo | $89.95/mo |
| Order/ Learn More | Start | Advanced | Business |
The managed VPS plans are ScalaHosting for crop cream and very reasonable prices, they are certainly a bargain. With the features and resources available in these plans, they offer a great sandbox environment for new users on VPS.
The main difference between these plans against uncontrolled plans is that they allow users to use the spaniel. If you consider a managed plan, it creates better cost effectiveness.
VPS / Cloud Plan – Self-managed
| Plans | #1 | #2 | #3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Cores | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Memory | 8 GB | 10 GB | 12 GB |
| SSD Storage | 240 GB | 250 GB | 260GB |
| Bandwidth | 3000 GB | 4000 GB | 5000 GB |
| Free Snapshots | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Price | $59/mo | $80/mo | $101/mo |
In addition, there are various add-ons to upgrade your plan. For example, you can choose to include additional cPanel licenses for a reasonable price, speed up the network, or even adjust small variations of resources. This can actually increase your costs, making it more affordable to choose a managed plan and (basically) use free spanner.
Verdict: Is ScalaHosting Price?
It is usually difficult to judge the comparability of web hosts because many of them offer different packages of similar items. However, I have to argue that ScalaHosting trumps many other service providers in different ways.
First and foremost, I must say that they have been able to deliver on a key promise and this is making VPS / Cloud plans more accessible. For the amount they charge on Starter VPS / Cloud plan, most hosts will only offer shared hosting (compare their rates with our market study here).
The next important note is the unique proposition of having an alternative in the WHCP that is highly compatible with industry standards. This is a great offer especially for VPS customers, who may be dissatisfied with how Cipanel is dominating the market (and charging for convenience).
If you are interested in exploring the VPS scene, ScalaHosting is a good place to start. If not, their shared hosting plans still come with lots of freebies and when you’re ready, you can go to VPS seamlessly.