It’s estimated that the web hosting industry market size will be over $171.4 billion by the end of 2027. This market continues to grow quickly as more and more website owners realize the importance of choosing the right web host to ensure the success of their businesses.
ScalaHosting is a US-based web host provider with a range of superb features, excellent speed, and incredible customer support. The company has been in business since 2007 and is a top-rated provider of cloud and web hosting services.
In this ScalaHosting review, I explore all the features of this website hosting company. I’ve also monitored the platform’s performance and speed to provide you with a detailed review to help you determine whether or not this platform is right for you.
ScalaHosting Summary
Ron’s Thoughts
Hosting a website has never been easier than today, with dozens of various website hosting businesses offering a wide range of features and tools. That’s exactly what ScalaHosting does as well, but they do have certain advantages over competitors. For starters, you get high-level security and high speeds, but also some impressive customer support. ScalaHosting also offers its customers free website migration which is perfect for people with a lower budget. Overall, ScalaHosting is a great web hosting provider.
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Biggest Pro:
High-Level Security & Fast Speeds
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Biggest Con:
Higher Renewal Costs than Competitors
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Annual Discount:
Yes - Up to 20% Off
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Price:
Starts at $29.95/Month
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Promotion:
Is ScalaHosting Hosting Worth it?
Let’s start off this ScalaHosting review by first taking a look at whether or not this hosting solution is worth it.
Website hosting is a crucial part of your site development process, which is why it’s important to choose the right web host provider.
ScalaHosting is a privately-owned hosting provider with excellent hosting features, strong performance, and unmatched security. The platform focuses mostly on managed VPS hosting and seeks to make VPS available to everyone, including those who don’t have any technical experience.
The company is trusted by over 50,000 customers in countries across the world thanks to its high-quality package of features, including a flawless interface, strong performance, superb security, and affordable prices.
The platform’s team works hard to deliver the absolute best for your website. There are no setup fees, and there’s a friendly support team available to assist you at all times. This means you’ll be able to save time and money.
Sidenote: If you do use ScalaHosting, I’d be grateful if you supported me by clicking on this link to join.
Who is ScalaHosting Hosting Good For?
ScalaHosting is perfect for anyone who wants high-quality, secure, and reliable web hosting. From students and freelancers to small businesses and large-scale teams – there’s something here for everyone. Most of all, ScalaHosting is good for online stores that require the fastest loading speeds, redundancy, and reliability.
Customers can choose between traditional, shared hosting plans and the way more advanced VPS configurations. The managed VPS segment is where ScalaHosting differentiates the most, and it’s where it provides the user with unique perks and benefits. Ask-anything 24/7 human support, free SSL and CDN, Cloudflare Integration for better speeds, a 1-click WordPress/Joomla installers, GIT, SVN, WP-CLI, cloning & staging, are just to name a few.
Here are some examples of who can benefit from this hosting service:
- Website Hosting: Website owners and bloggers can use the platform’s services to host a website or blog in a reliable and secure way.
- Ecommerce Hosting: For online stores, it’s critical to load fast and be secure at all times, and using a managed VPS with its isolated, scalable and redundant cloud environment is the best path to achieve this.
- App Server: Web apps are extremely diverse, with unique requirements to run. You can use the VPS solution as an app server to host your web application.
- Gaming Server: Gaming is growing more popular, and you can profit from operating a game server that you monetize through ads, memberships, selling virtual goods, etc.
- Email Server: Most businesses these days make use of email as part of their marketing, and using your VPS as an email server can offer you greater data privacy.
ScalaHosting Hosting Functionality
The next segment of this ScalaHosting review will focus on the hosting provider’s functionality.
ScalaHosting mostly recommends the use of its managed VPS services. Shared hosting services can be very cheap, while managed VPS plans offer significantly more power and options. They are high-performance, super secure, and more expensive than shared hosting plans. Moreover, the platform’s managed VPS is easy to use giving beginners the ability to take full advantage of it.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the standout features offered by this fast-growing website host.
1. Ease of Use
Not everyone has the technical expertise, and if you want a simple and user-friendly web hosting provider, then ScalaHosting is a great option for you to consider.
The platform is built with ease of use in mind. Not one of its aspects is confusing, and even first-time users will find the interface extremely intuitive.
This is the display you’re met with when you sign in:
As you can see, the interface is simple and easy to navigate. This makes ScalaHosting an ideal solution for all types of users, including beginners.
If you already have your website hosted somewhere else, you can get it migrated quickly and easily (more on that below). If you’re creating a website from scratch, you can install a website builder with a single click, and you’re ready to get started. The entire process is smooth and streamlined to ensure that you enjoy your web host experience.
2. Strong Product Range
ScalaHosting has a huge product range that makes it ideal for users of all types. The platform offers standards-breaking deals on the following:
- Feature-Packed Shared Hosting: The platform’s shared plans come with stacks of features for successful website management.
- Ultra-Configurable VPS: You can configure the VPS plans to suit your needs (cores, RAM, storage, etc.) and whatever specs you choose – and all with affordable pricing.
- App Hosting: WordPress, PrestaShop, Magento, WooCommerce – you name it. You can host any app securely.
- Reseller Plans: Start selling hosting in just 24 hours with the platform’s 100% private label reseller hosting plans.
- Business Email Hosting: Get the industry’s cheapest email hosting plans with unlimited email boxes and a free email domain.
This strong range of products has something for everyone. The shared plans are crammed full of features, and all of these features are offered at affordable prices.
For instance, the Mini plan comes with unlimited bandwidth, 50 GB storage, databases, emails, SSL, CDN, and a free domain. Priced at just $3.95/month on the 3-year plan, you can see how this web host offers extreme value for money.
You can upgrade your plan for more CPU resources and additional features, such as security monitoring and spam protection. All users get live chat and support ticket responses that are faster than most other providers in the same category.
3. High-Level Performance
According to a lot of customer and expert reviews online, ScalaHosting offers incredible performance and a high level of accessibility to users.
The performance of your website plays a determining role in the overall success of your business. Your customers won’t stay long on your website if it doesn’t load fast. And, if your site experiences downtime regularly, you’ll lose out on even more customers.
That’s why it’s important to choose a web hosting provider with a proven record of reliable performance.
- ScalaHosting Speed
ScalaHosting is super fast, with an impressive speed of 608 ms and a blazingly fast loading time of 1.2 seconds. The platform has a strong global presence thanks to its high-performing data centers that play a crucial role in the platform’s great performance.
One of the data centers is located in the US, in Dallas, Texas, and the other one is in New York. A third data center is located in Sofia, Bulgaria, Europe.
This means you’ll have the option to serve your customers from the closest possible location. This way, you’ll be able to draw page traffic to your website and maintain a seamless experience even if you experience a sudden influx of visitors.
- ScalaHosting Uptime
ScalaHosting has an uptime guarantee of 99.9% which shows great reliability. Of course, no web host provider can be expected to have 100% uptime, but choosing a website host with reliable uptime is still important so your website is always available to searchers online.
You also want a web host with a fast average response time, and ScalaHosting provides you with all that thanks to some robust server-level optimizations.
4. Webmaster-Friendly Control Panel
ScalaHosting has its own next-generation control panel – SPanel which is a great alternative to the popular cPanel.
This in-house solution is specifically created for the VPS environment and provides an exciting range of features.
The platform’s R&D team is committed to continuous and never-ending improvement, which has resulted in an innovative SPanel control panel geared toward speed and seamless server resource allocation.
The custom control panel is straightforward and easy to navigate. When you log in, you get access to various features and actions to help improve your web hosting experience.
The platform’s SPanel Website Management Features include:
- Top-of-the-line security, including advanced cybersecurity SShield
- Faster web server OpenLiteSpeed
- Daily backups
- WordPress manager
- Fully managed service
… and many more.
There’s also a cloud management platform that orchestrates ScalaHosting’s cloud clusters worldwide.
Features like these mean that every website owner can now have their own cloud VPS with a control panel, extended cybersecurity with SShield, daily backups and snapshots, and various other features – all fully managed by experts around the clock, and offered at an affordable price. The best part about SPanel is that it’s made by developers for developers. Here, everyone can suggest new features and vote for existing suggestions. The top-3 feature requests that have the most votes are always developed with priority, and it usually takes up to 3 months to develop and implement them.
Note: Every web hosting and WordPress hosting plan from ScalaHosting comes with a free cPanel license. If you choose the more advanced managed VPS option, it comes by default with ScalaHosting’s own custom panel – SPanel, and if you prefer to use cPanel instead, it can be purchased separately during the checkout.
5. Robust Security
One of ScalaHosting’s biggest selling points is its advanced website security. On your SPanel, under the “Security” tab, you’ll find multiple security-enhancing features such as:
- IP Blocker
- SSH access
- SSL/TLS
- Two-Factor Authentication
- ModSecurity
- Leech Protection
- Hotlink Protection
…and many others.
Best of all, ScalaHosting has SShield security to protect your website from attackers, including DDoS attacks, hacking, etc. The platform monitors all your websites around-the-clock to instantly detect and suspend any hacking attempts.
Here’s a closer look at some of the advanced security features you’ll get on ScalaHosting:
- Free SSL Certificates: You get free SSL certificates for each site, but you’ll have to activate them yourself.
- SSHield Integration: This is a security package to monitor websites and notify you if a hack occurs. ScalaHosting guarantees that it blocks 99.998% of website attacks.
- Daily Backups: These are performed automatically each day and stored on a remote server for increased security.
- Snapshots: In addition to the daily backups, two full snapshots are stored as well, making it possible for you to restore your entire account in minutes.
- Dedicated IP: This feature comes standard with every VPS server. It gives you enhanced privacy and helps reduce the occurrence of spam filter blocks.
- SpamAssassin: This feature filters the emails you get to keep your mailbox free of spam. You can turn it on from the control panel.
The big difference between SShield and similar security modules is that instead of using virus/malware hashtags that must be updated constantly, it uses logic and machine learning to detect suspicious activity and behavioral patterns. The best part is that once a breach is detected, SShield automatically informs the website owner, giving him enough time to fix the breach. During that time, the site is up, and there is no downtime.
6. Automatic Daily Backups
This is yet another important feature offered by ScalaHosting. It maintains the standards of compliance and gives you an increased competitive edge in today’s world where businesses are increasingly dependent on data.
Automatic backups guarantee that your website will always be backed up to a secure remote server which makes instant disaster recovery easier. You’ll always have access to the most recent files, databases, emails, and all other important information.
This type of redundancy will help you avoid the loss of important data resulting from a single point of failure. In the unlikely event that you have an issue, a website backup guarantees that you can completely restore your site.
Here are a few instances where having automatic daily backups can come in real handy:
- You experience a website crash
- Your site is hacked
- You inadvertently delete an important element on your website
- You update a theme or plugin that causes harm to your site
As you can see, having the ability to recover and restore your website gives you the peace of mind of knowing that your website will always be available no matter what. If ever you come across an issue, simply log into your SPanel and navigate to “Restore Backups” to restore your backup.
7. Free Website Migrations
This is a very important feature to consider if you already have a website with a different hosting provider. This incredible feature allows you to easily migrate your website(s) for free and without any hassle.
There are no hidden fees and no downtime. When you’re ready to make the switch, simply make your request and the platform’s migration specialists will manually transfer all your existing websites from your previous web hosts to the new server.
They will verify that everything works perfectly. All you have to do is enter the login details for the old host and the ScalaHosting team will handle the rest.
For anyone curious to learn more about how easy is the migration with ScalaHosting we strongly recommend watching this video:
8. One-Click Installations
Installing an application can turn out to be one of the most complicated and frustrating experiences if it’s done manually. ScalaHosting understands this, which is why the platform has a handy one-click installer to help you with this process.
All you need to do is choose an application (there are over 250 available), and you can install it on your website with a single click. Web hosting doesn’t come more user-friendly than this.
9. Affiliate or Referral Program – it’s your choice
You can register as an affiliate to get paid for referring other users to this platform. The process is easy and straightforward, and all you have to do is apply on their affiliate page here. The payouts are tier-based, and on the upper end, you can expect a $400 flat commission for every new VPS hosting customer.
It’s worth noting that the affiliate program is aimed only at publishers and bloggers, but if you don’t fall into either of these categories, don’t worry. Their referral program is available to anyone who wants to refer customers, there are no limitations, and it’s revenue-share-based. You will receive reoccurring 10% from every dollar your referred customers spend with ScalaHosting for as long as they are active clients. However, you need to become a customer first before getting access to this feature.
Once you log onto the dashboard, you’ll see a menu with various options on the left-hand side of the screen. Click “Referral Program”, and you’ll see a green button prompting you to activate your affiliate account. Click it, and you’re ready to start sharing your affiliate link.
10. White-Label Hosting
ScalaHosting also offers white-label hosting for all its plans, and while this may not be something that every user needs, it’s an interesting provision for the ones who do, including website designers and developers.
Anyone who typically offers hosting as part of their service packages will benefit a lot from this feature. It means they can be their own web hosting provider and charge fees for hosting without having to be openly associated with the ScalaHosting platform.
11. Website Builder
ScalaHosting integrates perfectly with Divi, a popular WordPress website builder, to provide you with a seamless website-building experience. Just note that since this is not their product, you will have to pay for it separately.
12. Additional Tools
Once you log into your SPanel account, you’ll find dozens of features and tools designed to enhance your website.
Don’t worry if it looks overwhelming at first glance. When you take a closer look you’ll realize that all the different features are clearly labeled to make it easy for you to find the exact tools you need for your website.
Here’s a quick look at some of the most important tabs:
- Email Tools: Here you’ll find tools for creating email accounts, forwarders, autoresponders, email routing, default addresses, email filters, email lists, and much more.
- Databases: This is where you’ll find all the tools you need to manage your databases, including PHPMyAdmin, MySQL Database Wizard, and MySQL Databases.
- Settings: This is where you get access to passwords and security features, change language and style, contact information, user manager, and other features.
- Domains: This section has the site publisher, domains, subdomains, add-on domains, aliases, and redirects.
- Files: In the tab, you’ll find the file manager, directory privacy, images tab, disk usage, backup wizard, restore backups, and various other features.
- Tools: If you open this tab, you’ll see a range of complex features to improve your website even more, including cron jobs, track DNS, error pages, indexes, resource usage, virus scanner, and more.
We’ve gone through dozens of amazing features, and that’s not even all that access to offer. It’s clear by now that this is an amazing platform that offers immense value for money thanks to its powerful features and affordable pricing.
October 2022 Update
We were just about to publish the review when we learned about a bunch of new features in SPanel, that were released today:
File Manager: A new file manager developed entirely in-house with a stunning and much more user-friendly interface. The new file manager has features such as searching for file and directory names, searching for content within files, moving files between different SPanel accounts, recursive change of permissions for files and folders, uploading files from a given URL e.g. instead of having to download the file to your computer and then upload it to the server you can simply use the file manager to download the file directly to your account on the server. Using your favorite function key combinations to copy, paste, and rename files is also supported.
Track Email Delivery: Find out easily and instantly if a message you just sent was delivered to the recipient or simply use the feature to monitor the mail flow for your email boxes
* Roundcube Support – you can now manage your emails via the Roundcube webmail client. Rainloop is still supported.
Features per package: Except setting resource usage limits such as disk space, inodes, number of domains, databases, and emails, packages now allow you also to define which features in the SPanel User Interface will be available, e.g. only the email-related features or only the database features.
SSH Terminal: You may now log in to your account via a web SSH terminal integrated right into the SPanel User Interface. It takes just a click
ScalaHosting Hosting Pros and Cons
The mindblowing list of features mentioned above is the reason why ScalaHosting is one of the best web hosts around.
But, like all other hosting platforms, ScalaHosting has its set of benefits and drawbacks. I’ve analyzed the pros and cons of this service to help you determine whether or not it’s worth your time and money.
Pros:
- High-Level Security: ScalaHosting has high-level security features, including SSL, 2-FA Authentication, SShield, and more.
- High Speed: The web host has an average speed of 608 ms which ensures a fast-loading website.
- Great Customer Support: The platform has fast customer service and impressive response times.
- Free Website Migrations: Get fast and easy migrations done by the ScalaHosting team.
- Affordable Pricing Plans: There are many plans to choose from so you can pick the best one to suit your unique business needs.
Cons:
- Underpowered WordPress Range: The WordPress hosting plan lacks advanced features found on most other web hosts.
- Higher Renewal Costs: There’s a steep increase in price when renewing your subscription.
ScalaHosting Hosting Competitors
At this point of the ScalaHosting review, you should already have a rough idea of how good their solutions are. But how does it stand against some competitors?
Compared to some bigger names, like SiteGround, Hostgator, and Bluehost, ScalaHosting is relatively new to the industry. However, the hosting company works hard to compete with (and even surpass) many of them.
It has already grown to support over 700,000 websites in 120 countries across the world. It’s just as mature and professional as the other website hosting providers, with a ton of amazing features.
Having said that, ScalaHosting may not be the perfect solution for everyone, and there are other web hosting companies that offer great performance, as well.
Here’s a quick look at three of the top alternatives to ScalaHosting.
ScalaHosting vs Verpex Hosting
Verpex hosting is an up-and-coming web hosting provider that has SSD Cloud Servers with 99.9% uptime. You also get free migrations, daily backups, and SSL certificates.
Like ScalaHosting, Verpex offers 24/7 tech support by friendly hosting experts. There is a variety of hosting plans to choose from. Whether you are an established business or startup, a blogger or an agency, you’ll find the perfect hosting plan to suit your needs.
You can start building toward success with affordable, growth-focused plans starting from just $0.50/month for the first month (renews at $5/month).
ScalaHosting vs Hostinger
Hostinger is among the cheapest web host providers you’ll find out there. Like ScalaHosting, it offers great shared hosting plans and affordable VPS plans. You can get these for $2.59 and $3.49/month respectively.
Hostinger’s VPS is semi-managed. This means that while you’ll get a control panel, server management is entirely up to you. For this reason, this plan isn’t ideal for non-tech-savvy beginners.
All in all, it’s a great ScalaHosting alternative for anyone looking for a cheaper alternative, but it has a steeper learning curve to gain the technical know-how required to use the platform effectively.
ScalaHosting vs Liquid Web
Liquid Web is a more powerful and advanced solution compared to the other web hosts mentioned here. It’s a great alternative if you believe that ScalaHosting’s features may not be enough for your current or future projects.
With this platform, you can pick managed or self-managed web hosting services with cPanel, InterWorx, or Plesk control panel. The interface is very easy to use when you sign up for the managed service. However, the InterWorx interface is very different from a regular cPanel, and even the SPanel from ScalaHosting.
It might take a bit of time to master the different functions so you can get the most from the platform. Nonetheless, this web host is ideal for large, popular websites and web-based apps that have unique web hosting requirements.
Pricing
ScalaHosting’s pricing is simple and straightforward. There’s a variety of options to choose from so you can pick the plan that best fits your business.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the pricing plans:
- Managed Cloud VPS: $29.95/month – $179.95/month.
- Four hosting levels (Start, Advanced, Business, Enterprise)
- 24/7/365 support
- Regular server maintenance
- Free website migrations
- Automatic daily backups
- Self-Managed Cloud VPS: Starts from $49.95/month.
- Build your own Cloud VPS
- Purchase add-ons like CPU cores, RAM, SSD space, etc.
- Web Hosting: $3.95/month – $14.95/month.
- Four cheap plans (Mini, Start, Advanced, Managed VPS)
- Free SSL certificates
- One-click installs
- Daily backups
- WordPress Hosting: $3.95/month – $14.95/month.
- Best WordPress-optimized hosting experience
- Four plans (Mini, WP Start, WP Advanced, and Managed VPS)
- SShield integration
- Malware scans
- Reseller Hosting: $14.95/month – $39.95/month.
- Start selling hosting in less than one minute
- Four levels: Scala1, Scala2, Scala3, Managed VPS
- Email Hosting: $2.95/month – $29.95/month.
- Dedicated CPU and RAM cloud resources
- Four Levels: Startup, SmallBiz, Medium, Corporate
Product Support
ScalaHosting has an impressive support team with some of the fastest support response times in the industry.
The staff is quick, professional, and knowledgeable. You’ll get very efficient action so you don’t have to wait to get resolutions to your issues.
If you have any tech questions, the support staff patiently explains everything and even provides helpful links to additional information or resources so you can get a better understanding and follow up if necessary.
Here are the different support options provided by ScalaHosting:
- Live Chat: The platform offers round-the-clock live chat and all inquiries are answered in under 30 seconds.
- Ticketing System: Choose this method to get support through the platform’s efficient ticketing system.
- Phone: Talk to the knowledgeable expert team via phone to get immediate answers to your questions.
- Email: Get assistance for any kind of issue by contacting the support team through email.
- Knowledge Base: Navigate to the site’s well-curated knowledge base to find out everything you need to know about the hosting service, billing, sales, and more.
Is ScalaHosting Hosting Legit?
It’s time to end this ScalaHosting review by answering one important question – is ScalaHosting hosting legit?
ScalaHosting has a mind-boggling set of tools, including a website builder, email marketing tools, advanced security features, and amazing performance.
The company has worked very hard to achieve its current level of success and strives to change the status quo in the website hosting industry, and although it’s still one of the lesser-known hosting providers, I wouldn’t be surprised if we soon see the company skyrocket to the top of the list.
With the platform’s managed VPS services, anyone can benefit from advanced, yet easy-to-use features. Website owners can run their online businesses on a fully-managed cloud VPS platform and enjoy features like dedicated IP, free domain, free migrations, advanced security, daily backups, and more. The service is offered at an affordable price which is close to the price of shared hosting.
ScalaHosting support is a dream to work with, and you can get assistance anytime you need it. All in all, this company is a capable hosting service provider with reliable servers, high-level performance, affordable plans, and the best support of all web hosts in their category.
Check out what these customers had to say about the service:
If you’re ready to experience all these great features and benefits for yourself, then sign up for your web hosting plan right now.