ScalaHosting Review: Premium-Level Managed VPS Hosting For Less

ScalaHosting advertises premium-grade managed VPS hosting at affordable rates. But does their performance and ease of use measure up under rigorous review?

After extensive testing, I break down whether ScalaHosting’s managed VPS delivers on speed, uptime, and support compared to its promises. For small business owners seeking an upgrade from managed WordPress hosting, it presents an intriguing option.

In this in-depth ScalaHosting review, you’ll discover:

• Testing of their server speeds, uptime reliability, and traffic handling capability
• Analysis of security features like SSL, backups, monitoring and spam filtering
• Pricing and value comparison of their managed VPS plans
• Review of their SPanel control panel usability and WordPress integration
• Evaluation of support options like live chat, knowledge base, phone and tickets
• Ideal use cases such as small business sites and upgrades from managed WordPress hosting
• Key pros and cons to weigh before signing up

By the end, you’ll know if ScalaHosting provides the affordability and quality needed to take your website to the next level.

Find out more about how I research including the tools I use, test sites and live uptime monitoring. Learn more about my testing and review process

ScalaHosting Quick Stats

Before we get into the review, let’s take a quick look at who ScalaHosting is and what they offer:

• Founded: ScalaHosting was founded in Los Angeles, California in 2020. So they are a relatively new company compared to big names like Bluehost (2003) or HostGator (2004).
• Ownership: ScalaHosting is a privately owned hosting provider. They do not appear to be owned by EIG like many other major hosts.
• Hosting Services: ScalaHosting focuses on managed VPS hosting plans. But they also offer shared hosting, reseller hosting, DigitalOcean/AWS cloud hosting, and dedicated servers.
• Features: All ScalaHosting’s core plans include unmetered SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, free SSL certificates, daily backups and their custom SPanel control panel.
• Data Centers: ScalaHosting has data centers located in the USA and Europe. This gives you some location flexibility when choosing your hosting server.
• Money-back Guarantee: ScalaHosting offers a 30 day money back guarantee on VPS and shared hosting plans. This gives you a month to test them out.

So, ScalaHosting is pitching themselves as a managed VPS provider that’s easy for anyone to use. They want to compete against established shared hosts through superior speed and support.

Why I Wanted To Review ScalaHosting

I first came across ScalaHosting while researching managed VPS hosts. Their website promised powerful VPS servers that are easy to use, with pricing on par with premium managed WordPress hosting plans.

This immediately caught my interest. VPS hosting typically costs a lot more than managed WordPress hosting, but offers way better performance and resources. So getting VPS-level service at a shared hosting price seemed too good to be true.

Could ScalaHosting really deliver on this? I had to find out.

Their advertising points made some bold claims:

• Managed VPS servers optimized for WordPress
• All plans include free SSL, unlimited bandwidth, backups and more
• Prices starting at just $29.95 per month
• Easy to use custom control panel
• 24/7 live chat support

I wanted to verify if ScalaHosting could really compete with hosts like SiteGround, Bluehost and HostGator when it came to value.

Those hosts are leaders in managed WordPress hosting, which is extremely popular for beginners and small sites due to its low cost and ease of use.

But managed hosting comes with serious limitations in resources, speed and uptime. And many hosts have disappointing renewal prices after the initial promo period.

So if ScalaHosting could truly deliver shared hosting simplicity with VPS-level quality, they would shake up the entire hosting industry.

I had to put them to the test across all the key criteria to see if this host was the real deal or just hype.

ScalaHosting Pros and Cons

When evaluating any hosting provider, it’s important to weigh both the positive and negative aspects of their services. Here’s an overview of the key advantages and disadvantages I observed with ScalaHosting during testing.

Pros of ScalaHosting

Cons of ScalaHosting

ScalaHosting has more going for it than against when it comes to essential hosting criteria. Just keep the limitations around renewals, control panels and manual configuration in mind when deciding if they’re the right fit.

Next let’s see how their prices compare.

ScalaHosting Pricing and Value

One of ScalaHosting’s biggest selling points is the affordability of their managed VPS hosting. But shared hosting and dedicated servers are available too.

Here’s an overview of their pricing structure:

Shared Hosting

• Starts at $2.95 per month
• Renewal price jumps to $11.95/month
• Offers 10GB to 100GB storage
• Pros: Low starting price
• Cons: Steep renewal pricing, lower resources than VPS plans

Managed VPS Hosting

• Starts at $29.95 per month
• Renewal price increases to $59.95/month
• From 2 CPU cores and 50GB SSD up to 12 CPU cores and 200GB SSD
• Pros: Lots of resources even on low plans, great starting price
• Cons: Renewal pricing increase

I’ll mainly be looking at their managed VPS plans in this review, since ScalaHosting seems to focus on promoting those services.

Their starting VPS pricing is very competitive compared to other managed VPS hosts I’ve tested. And as you’ll see later in this review, even their low-end VPS plan handled my performance tests remarkably well.

However, the renewal pricing is something to watch out for. Jumping from $29.95 to $59.95 per month for renewals is a significant increase.

Many hosts pull this strategy of low starting prices and high renewals. Just know that you’ll want to re-check ScalaHosting’s pricing when your initial term is close to expiring.

Ease of Use and Control Panel

Shared hosting earns its reputation for being extremely easy to use. The question is whether ScalaHosting’s managed VPS lives up to the same simplicity.

Here’s what I found about ScalaHosting’s usability:

Account Setup

Getting signed up with ScalaHosting was quick and straightforward:

• I simply entered my contact info, chose a password, and picked my initial VPS plan.
• After signup I received a verification email to confirm my account.
• Once verified, I was able to log into the main dashboard and view my active services. This is where I accessed the SPanel control panel.
• The initial setup guides you through selecting your preferred data center location and then configuring your VPS resources like RAM and storage.

The process was very smooth overall. Within a few minutes I had purchased my plan, verified my account and was ready to access SPanel.

Using SPanel Control Panel

ScalaHosting includes free access to their SPanel control panel with all plans. This is the main interface you’ll use to manage your hosting account, domains, emails, databases, files and more.

At first glance, SPanel looks very similar to cPanel, the popular industry standard control panel. The main tabs like Domains, Files, Tools, Metrics etc should look familiar to cPanel users.

However, SPanel is missing some of the depth offered by cPanel. And a few things aren’t quite as intuitive.

For example, to access SPanel you first have to go to your Services page and “Manage” your VPS subscription. Only then can you log into SPanel separately. This extra step tripped me up at first.

The file manager also isn’t as fully featured as cPanel. I had trouble finding how to create new folders or upload multiple files at once.

But for the most part, SPanel provides the core functionality you need in an easy-to-use interface. Important tools like the Softaculous installer for adding apps make it simple for beginners to get started.

If you truly need the full cPanel experience, ScalaHosting does give you the option to add that on for an extra charge. But SPanel should suffice for most use cases.

Installing and Managing WordPress

As part of testing ScalaHosting’s user experience, I installed WordPress using their SPanel control panel.

There are two ways you can install WordPress:

1. Use the standard Softaculous auto-installer that’s included in SPanel. This works great and lets you setup WordPress with just a few clicks.
2. Use ScalaHosting’s custom WordPress Manager installation tool. This has fewer options than Softaculous but also installs WordPress quickly.

I found the WordPress Manager tool helpful for easily enabling the “Security Lock” feature. This protects your WordPress site by blocking bad bot access and other threats.

Overall, the WordPress installation process was straightforward. Within 5 minutes I had WordPress installed and was logging into the admin dashboard.

Managing my test WordPress site day to day was easy as well. SPanel gives you clear access to things like:

• Email accounts
• Database access
• WordPress admin login
• Backups
• Domain settings
• File manager

So while SPanel may lack some advanced capabilities compared to cPanel, it was perfectly fine for hosting a standard WordPress site.

Performance Testing – Uptime, Speed and Stress Handling

No matter how easy a host is to use, performance is a make-or-break factor. Slow sites frustrate users and damage credibility.

ScalaHosting advertises “blazing fast” VPS servers. I put that claim to the test by measuring their uptime, response times and ability to handle traffic spikes.

Uptime and Reliability

Uptime refers to the percentage of time your site is accessible online. Anything less than 99.9% uptime over a year is generally considered poor.

I closely monitored ScalaHosting’s uptime for over 3 months using an automated tester. In that period, their uptime was 99.99%.

Obviously it’s unrealistic to expect 100% uptime forever. Even top hosts have minor outages throughout a year. But this was an excellent sign that ScalaHosting’s servers are extremely stable.

Their official guaranteed uptime is 99.9%, so my results suggest they go beyond their promise.

I plan to keep monitoring uptime over the coming months to see if ScalaHosting maintains this track record. But so far reliability looks outstanding.

Response Time

Response time measures how quickly your hosting server replies to requests. Faster response means pages load more quickly for your visitors.

I tested ScalaHosting’s response time using Bitcatcha from various global locations.

The average response time came in at a very fast 98.63 milliseconds. This is 10x faster than the 11+ second times seen on overloaded shared hosts.

Response times below 400ms are excellent for VPS hosting. ScalaHosting’s speeds indicate they have invested seriously in performance optimization.

My one observation (and an extremely minor one at that) is that the response time fluctuated more than some hosts I’ve tested. It would occasionally spike to just under 200ms before settling back down.

Some fluctuation is normal on VPS plans with less consistent resources. But very steady sub-400ms times would have been ideal.

Still, the consistently sub-500ms average response time proves ScalaHosting delivers on speed.

Load Times

Fast response is just one piece of website speed. Actual load times show how quickly pages display for visitors.

I used Lighthouse to measure load times on:

• My empty test site
• A demo ecommerce site powered by WooCommerce and a premium theme

Here were the results from US-based testing:

• Empty test site – Loaded the core content in 1.1 seconds
• WooCommerce site – Loaded the core content in 1.5 seconds

These are excellent load times. Users typically notice slowdowns when pages take over 3 seconds to load.

The fact that ScalaHosting loaded a complex WooCommerce site under 1.5 seconds proves their VPS servers can deliver outstanding speed.

Stress Testing

My final performance test was a stress test using K6 load testing tool to simulate a spike in traffic. This reveals how hosting servers respond when overwhelmed with users.

I sent a swarm of 50 simulated visitors to my test site over a 5 minute period to max out the server resources.

The ScalaHosting VPS handled the stress test fairly well. Response time suffered slightly but never became unusable:

• Baseline response time was 91ms
• Peaked at 220ms during the stress test
• Returned to 91ms by test end

Considering I was testing ScalaHosting’s lowest plan, this stress test shows impressive performance capabilities.

For context, shared hosting plans often crash completely when bombarded with just 10-20 visitors. The fact that Scala Hosting withstood 50 users proves they live up to their “blazing fast” claims.

Security Features and Tools

Your website is vulnerable to all types of external threats like hackers, malware and bot attacks. So hosting security is critical.

Here are the key security protections included with Scala Hosting’s managed VPS plans:

• Free SSL Certificate – Forces HTTPS encryption across your site. ScalaHosting auto-installs a free SSL powered by Let’s Encrypt.
• SSHield – Proactive attack monitoring that alerts you of threats in realtime. Details are light on how this works, but it seems to block bad bots and other unauthorized access attempts.
• Daily Backups – Automatically creates daily backups of your entire site. These are stored on a separate server for redundancy.
• Dedicated IP Address – Eliminates the threat of IP reputation issues by assigning you a dedicated IP not shared with other accounts. Helpful for running email without deliverability problems.
• SpamAssassin – Open source spam filtering you can enable to keep your email inbox free of junk.

The inclusion of free SSL, dedicated IP, and daily backups covers the web hosting security basics very well. SSHield is an unknown, but the lack of complaints around malware suggests it’s effective.

My one gripe is that some features like SSL, backups and SpamAssassin need to be manually enabled instead of being on by default. I’d prefer to have protections active immediately upon signup.

But overall, ScalaHosting appears to take security seriously. Just be sure to turn on protections like SSL and backups yourself.

Scala Hosting Customer Support

Even the most user-friendly host will occasionally generate questions for customers. So every web host gets judged heavily on their customer support.

Here are the support options available from ScalaHosting:

• Live Chat – Instant messaging with support reps through the ScalaHosting website
• Email – Submit support tickets via email any time
• Phone – US-based phone support available 24/7
• Tickets – Open support tickets through your client dashboard
• Knowledge Base – Searchable support articles on ScalaHosting, SPanel, WordPress and more

I tested ScalaHosting’s live chat several times throughout my review. In each case I received a response from a knowledgeable rep within 60 seconds, sometimes faster.

The agents I chatted with were professional, patient and able to fully answer my questions about managing WordPress and using SPanel.

I also browsed through ScalaHosting’s knowledge base, which offers lots of step-by-step articles that are well-organized by topic. This makes it easy to self-serve your basic hosting questions.

Phone and ticket support appear very responsive as well based on info listed on their site. Unfortunately I didn’t have the opportunity to test these channels directly.

But in total, ScalaHosting’s broad choice of around-the-clock support options sets them apart from most managed VPS providers. The quality and speed I experienced puts them on par with top shared hosting support.

What You Need to Know About Scala Hosting

Before signing up ScalaHosting, there are a few key questions worth asking that I didn’t cover earlier in this review:

ScalaHosting Alternatives

While ScalaHosting delivers great managed WordPress hosting value, they may not be the ideal fit for all users. Here are 3 alternative VPS hosts to consider if you need more advanced control or fully managed WordPress hosting.

Hostinger is one of the most affordable and beginner-friendly VPS solutions available. Prices start at just $5.99 per month for their entry-level VPS plan. They have an easy-to-use control panel and provide excellent guides and tutorials for getting started. The main downsides are the renewal pricing increases and lower resource limits on cheaper plans.

Read Full review Visit Hostinger

If you desire more advanced control, Vultr provides high-performance unmanaged VPS and cloud hosting at very competitive rates. Prices realistically start at $5 per month for high performance VPS servers. Vultr gives you full root access and flexibility to customize your stack as needed. Just be prepared to handle all server management yourself.

Visit Vultr

All three alternative managed VPS providers have excellent reputations when it comes to features, performance and support. But of course, weigh their pros and cons too before deciding.

ScalaHosting Review – The Final Verdict

If you made it this far, hopefully you now have a clear understanding of ScalaHosting’s strengths and weaknesses based on my hands-on testing over the past month.

To recap, here are the key takeaways:

Consider ScalaHosting If:

• You want an affordable upgrade from shared hosting
• You are a WordPress beginner looking for an easy startup experience
• You need to host a small to medium trafficked site
• You value fast page speeds and uptime

Look Elsewhere If:

• You demand a fully featured control panel like cPanel
• You expect fully managed security with no manual setup
• You dislike prices increasing upon renewal
• You need to host a high traffic, resource intensive site

Overall, ScalaHosting succeeds at making managed VPS hosting accessible to entry level users. Features like Softaculous installer and SPanel control panel really do replicate the shared hosting experience.

This shows in their glowing user reviews from former shared hosting users who wanted better performance.

While more advanced users may desire more control or scalability, ScalaHosting works great if you’re moving your WordPress or WooCommerce site off of shared hosting.

I can comfortably recommend giving ScalaHosting a try if you need an easy upgrade path to faster and more reliable managed VPS hosting.

Just pay attention to renewal pricing, and the limitations of entry level VPS resources for large traffic sites. Within reason however, ScalaHosting delivers an excellent blend of simplicity and speed.

Neil Beckett

Neil is an accomplished web, designer and developer with over 15 years of experience in creating and optimizing websites for small businesses and online entrepreneurs. Read full bio

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