Complete Scala Hosting Review for WordPress Websites
Scala Hosting
From $3.95/Month
What We Like
- Awesome server speed and Uptime of almost 100%
- Affordable pricing
- In-house & AI-Powered security software
- Decent and experienced WordPress support - 24/7
- Unlimited bandwidth for all packages
What We Don’t Like
- SPanel instead of CPanel
- No unlimited storage for the most basic packages like Mini and WP Mini
- Maximum discount available only for the customers who lock in for maximum period (3 years).
Scala Hosting is yet another cheap and affordable WordPress hosting that is surprisingly, not well-known, however, when I looked at its features, performance, security stack, and other factors that make any WordPress hosting service, reliable and affordable, Scala Hosting baffled me.
This is not the first time though. I’ve already discussed another WordPress hosting company, InterServer about which not many have heard and yet, its services are way above par.
When it comes to Scala Hosting, it surely falls under such a category. In this review, I’ll discuss all its features to let you know if it can be a great candidate for your WordPress website.
However, first things first, in order to follow the fair disclosure policy, please go through this very brief affiliate disclosure policy first.
Affiliate Disclosure
The Usual Stuff may get compensated for its articles, reviews, guides, recommendations, etc. Click here for more details.
Scala Hosting- WordPress Hosting Review
History
Scala Hosting was founded back in 2007 with an aim to make VPS (Virtual Private Servers) accessible and easy to manage for even basic users as well.
Since then, Scala Hosting has so far served more than 50,000 customers and has hosted 700,000+ websites on its servers.
Although their specialty is VPS (both managed and self-managed, cloud-based) they also provide shared servers as well.
Pricing
Scala Hosting offers WordPress hosting in two ways:
- Shared Server Hosting – 1-click WordPress installation available
- Managed WordPress Hosting – WordPress is already installed and Scala Hosting takes care of the basic management.
Both kinds of hosting ask for different prices which get lower the higher period you subscribe for.
Shared Server Hosting – Pricing
Although the prices below here are for shared servers but Scala Hosting also provides Managed VPS. On both kinds of servers, you can easily install WordPress using the 1-click installer.
| Mini | Start | Advanced | Managed VPS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Month | N/A | N/A | N/A | $11.95/Month |
| 3 Months | N/A | N/A | N/A | $11.95/Month |
| 6 Months | N/A | N/A | N/A | $11.95/Month |
| Trial Month | $0.99 | $0.99 | $0.99 | N/A |
| 12 Months | $5.95/Month Renews at: $7.95/Month | $7.95/Month Renews at: $10.95/Month | $11.95/Month Renews at: $15.95/Month | $11.95/Month Renews at: $12.49/Month |
| 24 Months | $4.95/Month Renews at: $6.95/Month | $6.95/Month Renews at: $9.95/Month | $10.95/Month Renews at: $14.95/Month | $10.95/Month Renews at: $11.49/Month |
| 36 Months | $3.95/Month Renews at: $5.95/Month | $5.95/Month Renews at: $8.95/Month | $9.95/Month Renews at: $13.95/Month | $9.95/Month Renews at: $10.49/Month |
Managed WordPress Hosting
Scala Hosting’s Managed WordPress Hosting
| WP Mini | WP Start | WP Advanced | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trial Month | $0.99 | $0.99 | $0.99 |
| 12 Months | $5.95/Month Renews at: $7.95/Month | $7.95/Month Renews at: $10.95/Month | $11.95/Month Renews at: $15.95/Month |
| 24 Months | $4.95/Month Renews at: $6.95/Month | $6.95/Month Renews at: $9.95/Month | $10.95/Month Renews at: $14.95/Month |
| 36 Months | $3.95/Month Renews at: $5.95/Month | $5.95/Month Renews at: $8.95/Month | $9.95/Month Renews at: $13.95/Month |
Scala Hosting for WordPress – Features
When it comes to features, Scala Hosting offers a good number of them. Have a look at them below:
#1. 99.9% Server Uptime Guarantee
Although Scala Hosting provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee for their servers, an analysis of the past 4 months shows that they’ve been up 100% of the time.
They only went down for a very brief period in the month of August and then it was smooth sailing from there.
Have a look at their uptime record.
#2. Hi-Speed Servers
Scala Hosting’s server response time is also quite healthy. With an average server speed of 0.17 seconds (170 ms), Scala Hosting does provide a competitive speed.
Although, it’s not the best time but still, we can consider it average. Or in other words, decent enough to keep you in Google’s good books.
Moreover, an interesting aspect that I want you to look at is that unlike many hosts who have their fastest servers deployed in the US region, Scala Hosting’s London and Germany servers provide an exceptionally remarkable response time of just 40 ms (0.04 seconds) and 30 ms (0.03 seconds) respectively.
In fact, their Indian servers also provide decent response time.
Seems like Scala Hosting aims to target the European and Asian market. A note-worthy feature especially if you’re from Europe or India (Asia).
Now, coming to reasons why Scala Hosting is able to provide such blazingly fast servers then here are some of the reasons
- Enterprise-grade SSD Drives
- Servers are connected to a 10Gbps network
- E5 Multi-core CPUs
#3. Free Domain
You get a free domain the first time you sign up for Scala Hosting. However, the subsequent renewal will cost you though.
4. Unlimited Bandwidth & Storage
The bandwidth is unlimited for all the packages which essentially means that you don’t have to worry about scaling your WordPress website.
Besides, except the Mini and WP Mini packages, the storage is also unlimited. As far as these two packages are concerned, you get 50Gb storage with them which is way more than enough to run a small to mid-sized WordPress website.
5. Free SSL Certificate
A cliché but a feature nevertheless you get a Free SSL certificate for your WordPress website, with automatic renewal.
6. 24/7 WordPress Support
Although the support is 24/7 but if you go with the Managed WordPress Hosting, you’ll get a WordPress-dedicated support who are willing to walk an extra mile for you and help resolve complicated, WordPress-related issues.
Scala Hosting claims that their support team comprises of “true” experts with minimum 3 years of experience.
7. Free SEO Analysis and Tools
All hosting packages come with basic SEO tools provided by Attracta. Attracta is an SEO agency with its own SEO software.
In addition to providing Managed SEO services, they also “rent out” their home-built SEO software to the web hosts companies as well. As is known, any company that sells their products or services online would need to have their website optimized by an ecommerce seo agency if they want to appear on the first page of search engines like Google. Hence, as a result, they have numerous other hosting companies on their panel which makes them quite reliable.
Additionally, WP Advanced and Managed VPS packages come with Free SEO Analysis by Scala Hosting’s own team. They’ll review your website and send you the report pointing out the SEO weaknesses.
8. SPanel Control Panel
SPanel is a custom-built control panel developed in-house by the Scala Hosting team.
This control panel is especially built for managing VPS. It’s lightweight and offers better security than CPanel.
Even better, SPanel does not consume your server’s resources to run. In fact, they’re powered by Scala Hosting’s own servers which means that you’ll get full value from your resources.
10. SShield Security & SWordPress Manager
Scala Hosting provides two useful security software that they’ve developed in-house.
One is SShield Security system that uses the power of AI to counter malware attacks to keep your site secure and sound.
Another is SWordPress Manager. Although, basically it is an interface to manage your WordPress account but the features like enabling/disabling Security Lock, cloning, staging, backups, etc. not only make your WordPress website easier to manage but also adds additional layer of security.
11. Free CloudFlare CDN
To ensure that your web site loads with good speed, Scala Hosting provides free CloudFlare CDN with all the packages.
12. Free Migration
Scala Hosting offers free, white-glove migration. Just provide the login credentials to their team and they will migrate all your data from your previous host to their own servers.
12. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
The money-back-guarantee of Scala Hosting is quite standard, 30 days. Almost every other web host offers you the same guarantee. However, it’s a guarantee nevertheless.
Therefore, if during the course of the first 30 days, you feel that Scala Hosting’s performance is not as claimed, you can request a refund.
Scala Hosting for WordPress – Pros & Cons
Pros
- Healthy Server Response Time. Although, not the best as there are still many Cheap WordPress Hostings that offer way better speed than Scala Hosting but still, their server speed is noteworthy. Especially their European and Indian servers.
- Tremendous Uptime. No need to further explain this. Their guarantee of 99.9% is quite remarkable. Also, they have an impressive track record of not going down for the last 4 months.
- Highly Affordable Pricing. You can start your own WordPress website for just $3.95/month on shared hosting. If that isn’t cheap and affordable then what is?
- 30-Day Money-Back guarantee. Almost all the other web hosts provide the same guarantee so this is not something extra-ordinary but still, it’s better than nothing and therefore, an upside.
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free domain for 1 year.
- Unmetered bandwidth & Traffic means you can entertain unlimited downloads and users without having to worry about running out of “steam” no matter which hosting package you use.
- Solid-State-Drive (SSD) infrastructure ensures high-speed data transfer.
- 24/7 chat and email & telephone support.
Cons
- The discounted price is only available for longer billing periods which means you will have to lock yourself in for 3 years to gain a maximum discount.
- SPanel instead of CPanel. Although not really a downside to be honest but since CPanel’s fan-base is quite loyal and in large number, not many think SPanel to be a good alternative.
Who Should & Should Not Use Scala Hosting?
IMHO, Scala Hosting’s target market could be a little diverse as despite being low-cost, it’s overall services are quite decent and can help you scale your website as well. Therefore, a wide range of audiences can use Scala Hosting for their WordPress websites.
Scala Hosting is best for…!
- Complete beginners. Those who are just starting out and have no interest in fancy features and just want a simple, plain WordPress hosting to get the hang of it.
- Students, hobbyists with an extremely tight budget.
- Small businesses that want to create a website to mark their online presence to appear professional.
- WordPress website-owners from Europe and Asia.
- Mid-sized WordPress websites that receive around half a million visitors in a month.
Who Should Seek Scala Hosting Alternatives?
- Websites with fairly large traffic.
- Scala Hosting’s server speed is quite decent but still average when compared to its competitors. Therefore, if you need even faster WordPress hosts, you can seek alternatives.
Scala Hosting – TrustPilot – User Reviews
Scala Hosting, for sure enjoys awesome user ratings all over the internet. Must be a few of those Cheap WordPress Hosting that can boast stellar reviews and ratings from their users.
Take for e.g., Trust Pilot. Out of 262 users, only one has rated them negatively while the overwhelming majority (99%) think about Scala Hosting in a favorable light.
So far, I haven’t seen such a tremendous ration of positive feedback for any other web host that falls under the category of Cheap WordPress Hosting.
Due to this awesome feedback, Scala Hosting enjoys has a rating of just 4.9 on TrustPilot.
Let’s have a look at the user reviews from all over the internet.
I’ll start with the negative ones first:
Negative Reviews
This one is from the TrustPilot. The user had an issue with domain registration, however, it’s good to see that Scala Hosting responded to that feedback and resolved the issue.
Overall, it was quite difficult to find negative reviews of Scala Hosting. The few that I was able to find are from 2017 and 2018. Most likely, Scala Hosting has taken care of them a long time ago as you may be able to see the web host’s response as well.
And here are a couple of criticisms from Scala’s own Facebook page.
Positive Reviews
As mentioned above, Scala Hosting customers are quite happy with its services. Here are a few positive feedback from happy customers.
Mixed Reviews
As I always say, if you need insightful information, instead of stellar 5-star or poor 1-star ratings, you need to check out the reviews with 2-4 star ratings. Here’s just one for you.
How Do Other Web Hosting Review Websites Rate Scala Hosting?
Although Scala Hosting has been in the business for quite some time now but interestingly, not many know about this web host. This is also evident from the fact that few web host review websites haven’t even reviewed it.
However, overall, the outlook is quite healthy as majority of the web host review websites review Scala Hosting in favorable light.
Please note that on some occasions, the ratings have been calibrated to the scale of 5.
| Website Name | Score |
|---|---|
| WHTOP.com | 4.7 / 5.0 |
| HostingAdvice.com | Not Found |
| HostAdvice.com | 4.8 / 5.0 |
| HostingFacts.com | Not Found |
| PCMag.com | 3.5 / 5.0 |
| WPBeginner.com | Not Found |
| TrustPilot.com | 4.9 / 5.0 |
| HostingManual.net | 3.5 / 5.0 |
| TechRadar.com | 3.5 / 5.0 |
| WebsiteHostingRating.com | 4.8 / 5.0 |
| HostScore.net | 3.9 / 5.0 |
| G2.com | Not Found |
| WebsitePlanet.com | 4.8 / 5.0 |
| Average Rating | 4.3 / 5.0 |
Scala Hosting – Sentiments Analysis
To see what emotions are generally associated attached with Scala all over the internet, I’ve performed a basic sentiment analysis
This analysis reveals that around 34% of the internet users over different social media platforms, who mentioned Scala Hosting, did so in a positive light.
And when we compare the negative sentiments, they’re just 10%.
So you can say that people are generally happy with Scala Hosting, however, the result of this sentiment analysis which is also in-line with the user reviews above.
Here are the numbers:
| Platform | Positive | Negative | Neutral |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | |
| 60.0% | 0.0% | 40.0% | |
| 35.0% | 14.0% | 51.0% | |
| YouTube | 41.7% | 0.0% | 58.3% |
| DailyMotion | 38.0% | 3.0% | 59.0% |
| Flickr | 10.0% | 31.0% | 59.0% |
| Vk.com | 12.2% | 3.1% | 84.7% |
| Vimeo.com | 25.0% | 5.0% | 70.0% |
| Average | 34.0% | 10.1% | 55.9% |
So What’s The Verdict? Do I Recommend Scala Hosting for WordPress?
Analyzing all the strong points of Scala Hosting it’s quite clear that Scala Hosting, though not well-known is a decent choice for WordPress Hosting.
The features are good and the prices are affordable. Plus the support is professional and the security options provided are quite apt.
Therefore, I recommend Scala Hosting for WordPress Hosting.
Interested in Scala Hosting Alternatives…?
Not convinced yet?
Just in case you happen to fall in the category of those people who like to keep their options open then you can have a look at the below alternatives that offer similar or even better service and performance than Scala Hosting.
Alternatives Similar to Scala Hosting
- A2 Hosting — (Read my detailed A2 Hosting for WordPress – Review)
- InterServer
- DreamHost
- InMotion Hosting
- Blue Host
- iPage
- GoDaddy
- HostGator
Premium WordPress Hosting Better than Scala Hosting
Final Thoughts
With all its awesome features and performance, and to top it all off, the affordable prices that Scala Hosting offers, I’d regard it as an underdog.
In fact, some call it a hidden gem and they are not wrong at all.
So if you’re looking for an affordable web host with awesome features and performance, you can definitely give Scala Hosting a try.
However, if you feel that undergoing the grueling drill of going through all the features or even if you have no idea what and where to actually look for as you don’t think to be a techie or geek, then I’ve written an article that addresses your concern.
Have a go at it here: How to pick the best web host for your WordPress website?
Moreover, if you find all these details a bit too overwhelming and you want me to recommend any web host straight away then you can also contact me!
Let me know your details, and requirements and I’ll help you figure out the best WordPress web hosting company.
