Check out our comprehensive Hostpinnacle review for a full breakdown of this popular hosting service’s features, pricing plans, pros and cons.
As a website owner and hosting expert, I have had the opportunity to evaluate many different hosting providers over the years. Today, I have decided to delve deeper into the lesser-known ScalaHosting and provide a comprehensive review.
Founded in 2007, ScalaHosting is a well-established company that is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. ScalaHosting boasts hosting over 700,000 websites, which is a testament to the popularity and effectiveness of their services. They offer a variety of packages including managed cloud VPS, web hosting, WordPress hosting, and email hosting. This makes them a great choice for both personal and business websites.
ScalaHosting enjoys a strong reputation, with a 4.8-star rating from 290 reviews on HostAdvice, reflecting that many customers have had positive experiences with their services. ScalaHosting boasts an impressive 5.0 rating from 1081 reviews on Trustpilot, further highlighting its high-quality service and customer satisfaction.
In my opinion, ScalaHosting is a top-tier hosting provider I enthusiastically recommend. With dependable uptime, a wide variety of plans, including their specialized Cloud VPS and WordPress hosting, and committed customer support, it’s an excellent choice for website owners of all skill levels.
Summary
Launched in 2019, Hostpinnacle offers web hosting services for a wide variety of purposes, from individual projects to business websites. The company offers plenty of features, including free SSL certificates, e-commerce hosting and dedicated servers. However, its low storage capacity for basic plans and higher pricing tiers may be a turnoff for some.
ScalaHosting at a Glance
ScalaHosting was initially created to ensure that anyone can access affordable virtual private server (VPS) hosting services, and the company claims its customer satisfaction was at least 99% in 2019. In addition to web hosting, customers have the option to purchase a domain name without the need to go elsewhere.
All tiers include a free domain name (after the first 12 months you’ll need to pay a renewal rate), free migration and a one-click WordPress installer.
Pricing varies based on the following tiers:
- Mini: Starts at $2.95 per month, with up to 20 GB of storage and one website
- Start: Starts at $5.95 per month with 50GB of storage and unlimited websites
- Advanced: Starts at $9.95 per month with 1,000 GB of storage and unlimited websites
- Entry Cloud: Starts at $14.95 per month with 50GB of storage, unlimited websites and a dedicated server
ScalaHosting offers a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re unsure whether it’s the right fit for your business. You can also pay 99 cents for a one-month trial to test out its services.
Let’s take a look at some of ScalaHosting’s features.
Storage
ScalaHosting offers SSD (solid state drive) storage, which allows users to access your website faster. Your storage capacity includes all of your website’s files, databases and email. The lowest tier offers up to 20 GB of storage, with the highest tier offering up to 100 GB of storage.
Various Hosting Options
Users can choose from a range of hosting options including shared, dedicated, VPS, cloud, and WordPress hosting. The web hosting company also offers WooCommerce hosting to ensure your e-commerce website is ready for your customers. This plan also comes with features that block almost all web attacks, a dedicated firewall, and automated updates.
Free SSL Certificate
A secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate ensures a website is authenticated and encrypts any data sent to the website. That way, the information is secure—especially confidential data—preventing third parties from gaining access. In many cases, web hosting services required customers to pay extra for one. Luckily, ScalaHosting includes them for free.
Other Benefits
All tiers come with unlimited bandwidth. This means that your website will be able to receive unlimited visitors should it surge in popularity. Customers will also receive unlimited email addresses and backups of its website for the past seven days.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Offers a variety of hosting packages
- Anytime unconditional money-back guarantee
- Excellent customer support
- In-house secure technologies
- SPanel
- Good value for money
- Transparent and easy to understand pricing
- Good flexibility and scalability
- User-friendly interface
Cons:
- Limited worldwide accessibility
- No website builder
- Cons
- –No dedicated hosting
- –Shared hosting speeds fractionally below average
- –No phone support
ScalaHosting is a cost-effective, reliable, and feature-rich hosting solution. If you’re looking for a fully managed cloud hosting platform, try ScalaHosting today!
| ScalaHosting standout features | |
| Performance | Fast and reliable hosting |
| Average load time | Approximately .65 seconds |
| Average response | Approximately 23ms |
| Free domain | Yes. One free domain for the first year |
| Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) | Free SSL certificate from LetsEncrypt.org |
| 1-click password | Yes, included with all hosting packages |
| Support | 24/7 support via support tickets or live chat |
How fast is ScalaHosting?
We assess website speed by using a tool called GTmetrix to calculate how long it takes to load and display the main content of a page (a figure known technically as Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP). The lower the LCP value is, the faster your site pops up in the browser, and the snappier and more responsive your site feels.
ScalaHosting delivered an LCP of 0.730 seconds. That’s fractionally slower than average, but still within reach of big names including GoDaddy (0.667 seconds) and GreenGeeks (0.692 seconds), and much better than budget providers such as Domain.com (1.5 seconds) and iPage (1.6 seconds.) Overall, ScalaHosting’s shared hosting delivers decent performance which should cope with small to mid-range personal and business sites.
Reliability is another important element of hosting performance. Your website might download almost instantly, but if it’s regularly down, your visitors won’t be happy.
We assess reliability by using Uptime.com to check a test website every 5 minutes for 14 days, logging any passes and fails. Scala Hosting’s result was easy to calculate because it had no failures, scoring a perfect 100% uptime. That’s what we’d expect for a short test, but it’s a good start. We’ve left the Uptime.com test running, too, and will update this review from time to time with longer-term results.
How easy is ScalaHosting to use?
ScalaHosting’s web dashboard is clear and intuitive. Log in and your hosting plan is displayed up-front. Common tools are easy to find, often just a click or two away. A ‘launch cPanel’ button gives you speedy access to cPanel’s many hosting management tools, and the company uses the excellent Softaculous as its 1-click WordPress installer, another usability plus. We’ve installed a lot of test WordPress sites, and Softaculous is faster, more configurable and reliable than anything else.
We did notice a surprising security issue. Although the dashboard’s ‘launch cPanel’ button logs you into cPanel, it doesn’t establish an encrypted HTTPS connection. It’s HTTP-only, which left our browser displaying a ‘not secure’ error. If we accessed cPanel via unprotected public Wi-Fi, that may allow others to intercept our communications and perhaps steal sensitive information.
This must be some temporary issue relating to our account, we thought, and opened a support ticket to ask. An agent replied in four minutes, but the news wasn’t good. The dashboard automatically uses a URL beginning hydra.vivawebhost.com:2082, and he explained we had to use hydra.vivawebhost.com:2083 to get a secure connection, before adding: ‘I will report that to our developers and they will check if this can be fixed so you will be redirected to a secure connection from your client profile as well.’
In other words, while you can securely log into cPanel via other URLs, try it from the dashboard and it creates an insecure connection as standard. Your browser should clearly warn you of the problem, so hopefully users will notice and try a different login route, but that really shouldn’t be necessary. Web hosts have access to some very sensitive data, and customers have the right to expect more attention to security details than we see here.
What is ScalaHosting’s support like?
ScalaHosting offers 24/7 support via its website, live chat and ticket/ email.
The web knowledgebase is smaller than average but the company makes up for it with its YouTube knowledge channel. For example, the Hosting section has only 304 articles to cover shared, VPS, and reseller hosting, domains, DNS, security, email and more. There is useful content here, but it’s mixed with generic ‘how to’ advice, and a weak search engine can make it tricky to find what you need.
Fortunately, if the website can’t help, accessing the support team is quick and easy. Our live chat sessions generally got a reply within a minute, and the agents gave accurate and helpful responses to our test questions.
Using tickets can make more sense for complex problems, and ScalaHosting performed well here, too. Replies were helpful and detailed, and arrived in anything from four to just under 40 minutes.
ScalaHosting Hosting Plans and Pricing
(4.0)
ScalaHosting offers three hosting plan types:
- Shared (starting at $2.95 per month)
- Good for: Small businesses, entrepreneurs, e-commerce sites, freelancers, bloggers.
- WordPress (starting at $2.95 per month)
- Good for: Small businesses, entrepreneurs, e-commerce sites, freelancers, bloggers, or others who want to use WordPress.
- Managed VPS (starting at $39.95 per month)
- Good for: Small businesses, entrepreneurs, midsize e-commerce sites, and regional companies.
- Email Hosting (starting at $2.95 per month)
- Good for: Companies that need dedicated email hosting.
ScaleHosting offers multiple hosting plans at each level so you can get the hosting you need at a price you can afford. Note the prices listed are the introductory rate and will go up upon renewal. The introductory prices do last for up to three years, though.
See shared hosting plan options from ScalaHosting:
Rating Breakdown
HostAdvice experts have crafted and implemented a standardized hosting rating methodology to help compare and rate the hosts. This method utilizes a number of factors to give each host a relevant score, so you can have an idea of each host’s performance and you decide which is best for your website.
| Parameter | Score | Why we gave this score |
| PRICES | 9.0 | Gives excellent value for money. However, I’d give it a 9.0 because it’s not the cheapest option with those features in the market. |
| FEATURES | 8.7 | Offers great features overall – a free domain & SSL, SSD storage, etc. However, I’d give it an 8.7 since there’s no plan that provides unlimited storage. |
| PERFORMANCE | 9.5 | Exceptionally good performance with 1.5 seconds load time and TTFB of 101 ms. I’d give it a 10 but their uptime guarantee is 99.9%. |
| USER FRIENDLINESS | 9.5 | Registration, cPanel and SPanel, easy WordPress setup are all user-friendly. However, I’d give it 9.5 because the registration process takes some time. |
| SUPPORT | 8.5 | They offer live chat, an extensive knowledge base and free technical support. However, I’d give them 8.5 because they don’t offer phone support. |
ScalaHosting Prices & Plans – 2023
ScalaHosting offers Managed Cloud VPS, Web Hosting, WordPress Hosting and Email Hosting plans.
They allow payments via credit and debit cards, PayPal, and bank transfers. They also offer an unconditional money-back guarantee.
VPS
| Plan Name | Space | CPU | RAM | OS | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Build #1 | 50 GB | 2 x 2.50GHz | 4 GB | $29.95 | Details | |
| Build #2 | 100 GB | 4 x 2.50GHz | 8 GB | $63.95 | Details | |
| Build #3 | 150 GB | 8 x 2.50GHz | 16 GB | $121.95 | Details |
Shared Hosting
| Plan Name | Space | Bandwidth | Panel | Number of Sites | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mini | 10 GB | Unlimited | cPanel | 1 | $2.95 | Details |
| Start | 50 GB | Unlimited | cPanel | Unlimited | $5.95 | Details |
| Advanced | 100 GB | Unlimited | cPanel | Unlimited | $9.95 | Details |
| Entry Cloud | 50 GB | Unlimited | Spanel | Unlimited | $14.95 | Details |
| Premium Cloud | 50 GB | Unlimited | cPanel | Unlimited | $29.95 | Details |
| WP Mini | 10 GB | Unlimited | cPanel | 1 | $2.95 | Details |
| WP Start | 50 GB | Unlimited | cPanel | Unlimited | $5.95 | Details |
| WP Advanced | 100 GB | Unlimited | cPanel | Unlimited | $9.95 | Details |
Performance
Server speed refers to the time it takes for a server to respond to a request, uptime is the amount of time a server is operational and available, and load time is the amount of time it takes for a web page to load, and each is important for ensuring a smooth user experience, fast website performance, and reliable availability.
ScalaHosting also gives 99.9% uptime guarantee. I ran a test on scalahosting.com on GTMetrix and the results turned out to be great.
The fully loaded time was 1.5 seconds, and TTFB (response time) was 101 ms. The performance score was exceptional too.
Level Of Support
Phone Support
Scala hosting doesn’t offer a phone support option. They provide support 24/7 only via ticket and live chat.
Livechat
Their livechat agent took less than 2 seconds to connect me to a very helpful agent who was very professional throughout.
Here are some screenshots:
Technical Support (Email 24/7)
They have provided an email for technical support on their website which they claim is available 24/7. I think this feature distinguishes them from other hosting services where technical support is always a premium feature.
Knowledgebase
ScalaHosting has a huge knowledgebase that contains answers to almost every question that you may have:
Control P anel
Scala hosting provides the option to choose between the traditional cPanel or their custom SPanel. SPanel makes site management hassle-free, offering 100s of extra features, automations and security. It’s easy to set up and use, with advanced tools and customizations that allow you to tailor it to your specific needs. From staging sites to automated backups, SPanel does it all for you!
Installing WordPress on ScalaHosting
Login to your SPanel account > Scroll down and find the “Tools” section.
Open “WordPress Manager”
Configure and install your new WordPress site.
Add an email account with ScalaHosting
Simply log-in to your SPanel and find the “Email” section. Click on email accounts and create an email – it’s that simple!
How ScalaHosting Stacks Up
| ScalaHosting | GreenGeeks | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing Plans | Starts at $2.95 per month or $35.40 per year | Starts at $2.95 per month or $35.40 per year | Starts at $2.75 per month or $33 per year |
| Hosting options | Shared hosting, dedicated hosting, e-commerce hosting, cloud hosting, WordPress hosting | Shared hosting, cloud hosting, dedicated hosting, e-commerce hosting, WordPress hosting | Shared hosting, dedicated hosting, cloud hosting, WordPress hosting |
| Storage included with basic hosting | 20 GB | 50 GB | Unlimited |
Choosing a web hosting service that’s the right fit will depend on your needs, whether it’s a small website for brand-building purposes or a larger site for your online shop. Both GreenGeeks and HostGator offer similar services, though each one has advantages and drawbacks.
GreenGeeks costs a little less than ScalaHosting and it offers more storage for its basic tier. HostGator is also cheaper than ScalaHosting. ScalaHosting offers some decent options for small businesses, but given the price point, there’s better value elsewhere for standard web hosting.
| ScalaHosting | GreenGeeks | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.0 | 4.1 |
| Featured on | Forbes Advisor | Forbes Advisor |
| Pricing | Starts at $2.95 per month or $35.40 per year (renews at $9.95 per month) | As low as $2.95 per month or $35.40 per year |
| SSL certificate | Free | Free |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.99% | 99.5% |
| Learn More | Arrow | On GreenGeeks’s Website |
| Pros & Cons | Link | Pros & Cons |
Compare ScalaHosting Alternatives
ScalaHosting often flies under the radar for most people, but there is no doubt this top-tier hosting company will more than meet most people’s needs. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all hosting company. If you don’t think ScalaHosting is the right option, consider one of these other companies offering exceptional service.
| Web host | Starting price | Hosting packages | Basic plan features |
| ScalaHostingOverall rating (4.3) | $2.95 per month | SharedWordPressVPSEmail | 1 website20 GB SSD storageDaily remote backupFree domain for 1 yearFree SSL certificate |
| SiteGroundOverall rating (4.7)Read our full SiteGround review.Consider SiteGround if: You are running an eCommerce site or need cloud hosting solutions. | $2.99 per month | SharedWordPressWooCommerceCloudReseller | 1 website10GB storageUnlimited bandwidthFree SSL certificateFree email |
| DreamHostOverall rating (4.6)Read our full DreamHost review.Consider DreamHost if: You want the best security regardless of which package you choose. | $2.95 per month | SharedWordPressWooCommerceVPSCloudDedicated | 1 websiteSSD storageUnlimited trafficFree domainFree SSL certificate |
| GreenGeeksOverall rating (4.3)Read our full GreenGeeks review.Consider GreenGeeks if: Using an environmentally friendly hosting company is important for you. | $2.95 per month | SharedWordPressVPSReseller | 1 website50 GB storageUnlimited bandwidthFree SSL certificateFree nightly backups |
Is ScalaHosting Right for You or Your Business?
Given the fact that ScalaHosting offers hosting options for unlimited websites, services specific for e-commerce companies and dedicated hosting, it’s a decent contender for small businesses. However, larger websites will want to consider other options, since ScalaHosting’s storage limit for its basic plan is less than what other competitors are offering.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is web hosting?
Web hosting is when a hosting provider or company offers space on its web server for an individual or company website to store its files. These files are what comprises a website, such as images and code which will be available to view online. There are different types of web hosting depending on your needs.
What is the difference between shared and dedicated hosting?
Shared hosting has multiple accounts or websites hosted on one web server. In contrast, dedicated hosting only has one account or website on a single web server.
Are web hosting sites like ScalaHosting secure?
Web hosting sites like ScalaHosting offer the same type of security measures that you would find with other types of hosting services. This includes measures like firewalls, backup software, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack protection, server hardening and frequent scanning for vulnerabilities as well as constant updates and patches made to the software.
What are the different types of web hosting services?
There are a number of different web hosting services, but the most common are shared, VPS (virtual private server) and dedicated. Shared is the most popular choice as it’s also the most affordable. However, VPS and dedicated hosting offer more site security and enhanced website performance, making them a more popular choice amongst large and well-established websites.
Why is it important to have an SSL certificate?
A secure sockets layer, or SSL certificate, offers a type of encryption so that data from a user’s computer to a website can remain secure from any third-party intruders. In essence, it helps to prevent data from being stolen by hackers and identity thieves. Websites that don’t have an SSL certificate will still function but will be given less priority by online search engines and will be vulnerable to thieves and hackers.
Who owns ScalaHosting?
ScalaHosting is a privately owned company that is based in Dallas, Texas, that operates out of data centers located around the world.
What are the ScalaHosting nameservers?
The nameservers at ScalaHosting are ns1.scalahosting.com and ns2.scalahosting.com. If you register your domain with ScalaHosting, these are set for you by default. But if you purchase your domain with another company, you’d have to update the nameservers through the company where you bought them.
What kind of support does ScalaHosting offer?
ScalaHosting offers extraordinary support for all its customers, including technical and general customer support. You can reach out to the support teams via live chat or submit a help ticket, and hear back immediately. The support teams are staffed 24/7, so you can always get the assistance you need.
Where are the ScalaHosting servers located?
ScalaHosting operates out of a 68,000-square-foot data center facility in Dallas, Texas, where most of the servers and other company-owned hardware are kept. It also owns hardware in data centers located in Hawthorne, New York; Sofia, Bulgaria; Bangalore, India; London, England; Frankfurt, Germany; Singapore; Amsterdam, Netherlands; San Francisco, California, and Toronto, Canada. Your websites will be on these servers or spread over cloud facilities worldwide to achieve the best performance possible.
What are the best alternatives to ScalaHosting?
ScalaHosting is a strong hosting company that can meet most people’s needs. But if you don’t want to go with this company, here are some excellent alternatives: GreenGeeks, SiteGround, InMotion Hosting, and DreamHost.
What payment types does ScalaHosting support?
ScalaHosting accepts payments via card, PayPal and bank transfer.
Does ScalaHosting offer refunds?
ScalaHosting has a 30-day money-back guarantee for shared, VPS and reseller hosting, along with cloud servers and (something you won’t get with all providers) SSL certificates. Dedicated servers and domain names are not included.
While that’s a fairly typical guarantee, there is one catch: it’s available for new customers only, which seems a little unfair. If you have one package and buy another, you’re not covered by the guarantee.
Does ScalaHosting have uptime guarantee?
ScalaHosting has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. If your server has more than 0.1% unscheduled downtime over a month (around 45 minutes), you’ll receive 10% credit on your hosting fees for every further 0.1% your site is unavailable. So that’s 10% for 1:30, 20% for 2:!5, up to a 100% credit for a total 8:15 downtime.
Where are ScalaHosting’s data centers?
ScalaHosting has its own data centers in the USA (New York, Dallas) and Sofia, Bulgaria, but it also uses Digital Ocean’s data centers in Bangalore, London, Singapore, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, San Francisco and Toronto.
That’s good news, as the more data centers a host has, the more likely you can choose one near your audience, improving speeds.
Beware, though, you can’t choose all of these data centers with every product. We were offered only four locations for our review shared hosting package: Dallas, New York, Europe and India.
What is my ScalaHosting IP address?
Knowing your web server’s IP address can be handy when you’re pointing a domain managed elsewhere to your web space.
The easiest way to find the address is with cPanel, if it’s available on your account.
Log in to the Scala Hosting client area (https://my.scalahosting.com).
Find your hosting product in the My Services list.
Click Manage, Log Into cPanel.
Look to the right, and your server IP address is displayed as ‘Shared IP Address’ in the General Information box.
(There is no ‘General Information’ box? Find and click the Server Information link.)
What are ScalaHosting’s nameservers?
ScalaHosting’s nameservers are:
ns1.scalahosting.com
ns2.scalahosting.com
How do I cancel a ScalaHosting product?
Access your ScalaHosting client area (https://my.scalahosting.com).
Find the plan you’d like to cancel in the My Services list.
Click Manage, Request cancellation.
Choose a reason, decide whether you’d like to cancel the hosting immediately or at the end of the billing period, and click Request Cancellation.
ScalaHosting warns that ‘cancellation requests may take up to 7 days to be completed’, so if you’re looking to avoid the plan automatically renewing, don’t leave this until the last minute.
What Is ScalaHosting the Company?
ScalaHosting is a privately owned hosting company based in Dallas, Texas. It is focused on providing excellent hosting for individuals, small businesses, entrepreneurs, regional companies, bloggers, e-commerce sites, and much more. You can choose from shared hosting or VPS options, though ScalaHosting encourages VPS.
If you want to learn more about the company behind ScalaHosting, you can use one of the following methods:
- 1999 Bryan Street, Dallas, Texas 75201
- (866) 894-8284
- Official website
- YouTube
How I Rated ScalaHosting
I test web hosts based on the following factors:
- Plan value: What plans are available, and do they offer a good value?
- Ease of use: Is the dashboard easy to navigate?
- Support: How fast can you get help when needed, and is support genuinely helpful?
- Features: What features does the host offer, and how do they compare to similar competitors?
- Security: Does the host offer SSL certificates, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack protection, backup services, and scans for viruses and malware?
- Speed and uptime: Does the provider offer a fast, stable environment for your website? How does it perform in tests, and what kind of servers does the hosting company use?
- Recent improvements: What has the host done lately to update its technology and services?