Overview
Scala is a US hosting provider that’s expanding to Europe. And, with a range of in-house software, the provider is quickly gaining traction.
Let’s see how well Magento works on its plans.
What Sets It Apart
ScalaHosting runs a robust setup with LiteSpeed webserver. Combined with three levels of caching, a speed optimization extension, and a CDN, this should give you faster speeds than your standard LAMP stack setup.
ScalaHosting advertises automated Magento updates, but you might want to opt-out of this. The issue is that things can break during updates, just due to the CMSs complexity. It’s usually safer to take a server snapshot and do an update manually, especially if it’s a big patch to the core storefront software.
The Magento host offers a bunch of anti-hacking protection. Think in-house security system, custom security rules, a firewall, and malware scanning.
SEO tools are included for free. They don’t do anything spectacular but can be a help if you’re a new website owner. The SEO audit feature is especially helpful since it can save you the trouble of manually checking every page.
Scala takes daily backups of the hosted websites. It saves these for a week, so you’ll always have server versions of your site you can roll back to.
Another advantage of Scala is that you can start on Magento shared hosting and easily scale into VPS. The virtual servers sport a different, in-house control panel. The latter is free, making the VPS plans very affordable. It is still compatible with cPanel, so it won’t cause any issues.
If you already have a website set up, the host’s team can handle the migration for free. It doesn’t matter whether you’re transferring to shared or VPS hosting.
One thing to keep in mind is that ScalaHosting suggests the average number of visitors each hosting plan can handle. These are mostly based on WordPress sites, so the plans probably won’t take you as far with a demanding app like Magento.
The Magento hosting provider sports a price-lock guarantee. This means the cost becomes fixed when you purchase a plan. You can avoid price hikes down the road, which is one of the most annoying things about many hosting companies.
The plans are decent overall, and they bring lots of speed optimization and security tools.
Support
The provider’s support does a pretty awesome job. It’s available 24/7 to quickly answer questions. I contacted it with a few Magento-related queries and got the correct answer in a few minutes each time.
The knowledge base is kind of limited, with practically no Magento tutorials. But with Scala’s stellar support, it’s not much of an issue. You can get all the answers directly from the team managing the Magento hosting service.
ScalaHosting User Reviews
ScalaHosting acquired hundreds of positive reviews over the years. Website owners love it that the host has consistently provided an excellent service for 13 years and counting.
There are only few negative reviews to speak of. Most issues have to do with users misunderstanding some part of the service rather than an actual problem.
Pricing
Scala offers three tiers of shared Magento hosting plans:
- Mini—1 website, 50GB storage, starts at $3.59/month, renews at $5.95/month
- Start—Unmetered storage, starts at $5.95/month, renews at $8.95/month
- Advanced—Unmetered storage, starts at $9.95/month, renews at $13.95/month
Scala doesn’t state the CPU and RAM limits on the shared plans. This isn’t that much of a problem because you can easily scale into affordable VPS plans.
Bottom line
Scala offers lots of speed optimization mechanisms and nigh-impenetrable security. Plus, the plans are affordable overall, making Scala one of the best Magento hosting choices.