ScalaHosting review
We read its plans page and its terms in full, and checked the refund clause and the resource limits. Here is what we found.
- ByMohamed Al-Shehri · edited by Nora Al-Mutairi
- Read on
- Score6.7 / 10
Built from what ScalaHosting publishes about itself — its plans page and its terms of service — read without an account, without buying and without walking the order form. Read on .
ScalaHosting asks for the heaviest single payment on our list: three years paid up front for the advertised price to hold. That alone would have been warning enough, were it not for a clause in its terms we have not found anywhere else.
The payment is this: The two-dollar-ninety-five price hangs on a thirty-six-month term paid in advance — $106.20 on the first day, the heaviest first payment on our list. The card offers three terms, thirty-six months, twelve and one, and the one in the headline is the extended one
And the clause is that what you do not use comes back: ScalaHosting’s terms set out what it calls an anytime money back guarantee: a full refund if requested within thirty days of purchase, and a partial refund for the unused portion of the service at any time after it is activated. So a buyer who paid three years in advance and leaves in year two recovers what they did not use — a clause we have not found at any other company we have reviewed The sum is large and the door is open, and the two are read together or neither of them is read at all.
How this review was built
We bought nothing from ScalaHosting. We read its plans page and its terms of service in full, created no account, typed no personal detail and did not walk the order form.
When we first read its resource-limit table our text extraction flattened it, and we nearly recorded the limits as unpublished — the same error we made on SiteGround the same day. We went back to the page source before writing. The table is there.
Speed and uptime sit outside the score, here and at every company on this list, because measuring them needs a bought plan.
Buying and price
4.1
Basis: the company’s own pages · weight 33%
A very low month, conditional on a commitment stretching to three years.
The advertised price is two dollars ninety-five a month, and it hangs on thirty-six months: The two-dollar-ninety-five price hangs on a thirty-six-month term paid in advance — $106.20 on the first day, the heaviest first payment on our list. The card offers three terms, thirty-six months, twelve and one, and the one in the headline is the extended one
It then renews at eleven dollars ninety-five, a fourfold difference. Those two facts are where the price score comes from, and it is a low one, reflecting that reaching the advertised figure runs through three years.
To their credit, they print the renewal figure at the point of sale itself: ScalaHosting writes the offer price and the renewal price together on the plan card: two dollars ninety-five a month, then $11.95 on renewal. It is the only company on our list where the renewal price appears at the point of purchase itself, and that is what completes its refund score
| Value | Points |
|---|---|
| Renewal jumps to 4.1× the opening price | 0.85 |
| The advertised price demands 36 months up front | 4.17 |
| The renewal price is on the pricing page | 10.00 |
| $106.20 leaves your account today | 4.69 |
Support availability
6.0
Basis: the company’s own pages · weight 27%
Two channels around the clock, no telephone, and nothing said about language.
ScalaHosting advertises support at all hours by chat and ticket, and two channels is what puts the support score where it is. We measure published availability and how many routes there are, not the quality of the answer, which would need an account.
And where this score fails our reader: ScalaHosting publishes a single entry in the alternate-language set, English, and we found no occurrence of the word Arabic and no Arabic text on its pages, nor any statement about support languages in either direction. It is one English site, as Verpex, Namecheap, InterServer and FastComet are
| Value | Points |
|---|---|
| support around the clock | 10.00 |
| Contact by chat, tickets | 6.67 |
| Publishes no Arabic support | 0.00 |
Published features
8.5
Basis: the company’s own pages · weight 20%
Six items of seven, and a control panel of their own making.
The plan carries an SSL certificate, email, a delivery network, free migration, daily backups and staging. The missing item is the free domain, which sits on a higher plan here.
What sets it apart from everyone on this list is not an item but the panel itself: ScalaHosting runs a control panel of its own making called SPanel and offers cPanel beside it, both named on the card for the plan we score. It is the only company on our list not standing on cPanel alone, and that matters to anyone who expects to move later
| Value | Points |
|---|---|
| 6/7 published features | 8.50 |
Refund and billing
10.0
Basis: the company’s own pages · weight 20%
The only full mark on this list, and it is earned.
The score looks at three things: is the window written down, are the exclusions published, and does the billing show the renewal price. ScalaHosting alone does all three: ScalaHosting writes the offer price and the renewal price together on the plan card: two dollars ninety-five a month, then $11.95 on renewal. It is the only company on our list where the renewal price appears at the point of purchase itself, and that is what completes its refund score
Then the clause that separates it from the whole table: ScalaHosting’s terms set out what it calls an anytime money back guarantee: a full refund if requested within thirty days of purchase, and a partial refund for the unused portion of the service at any time after it is activated. So a buyer who paid three years in advance and leaves in year two recovers what they did not use — a clause we have not found at any other company we have reviewed
That clause carries conditions and we give them as written: the guarantee is for new clients only, a new order from an existing client does not qualify, anyone using it pays for their domain at its normal price, and anyone reversing a payment through their bank pays a twenty-dollar chargeback fee.
We say something about ourselves on every page, and here we say it the other way round: our criterion measures that the window is written and the exclusions published, not how generous either is. It happens here that the company takes full marks and deserves rather more than them, while others took the same mark on a policy that stops on day thirty.
| Value | Points |
|---|---|
| a refund window of 30 days | 10.00 |
| The refund exclusions are written down | 10.00 |
| Billing states the renewal and its price | 10.00 |
Speed and uptime: we did not measure them
Speed and uptime sit outside this score because measuring them needs a bought plan.
ScalaHosting does publish more about downtime than anyone else here, though: ScalaHosting publishes a graduated table of compensation for downtime: 99.9 per cent earns nothing, then ten per cent more credit for each tenth of a point below it, up to a full credit below ninety-nine. The credit is claimed by ticket to the billing department with logs, and applied to the account within seven days of the claim being approved That is a written promise rather than a measurement, and like Namecheap’s it goes to whoever noticed and claimed with logs, rather than to whoever went down.
Arabic: where it reaches and where it does not
One English site, and nothing said about language.
We found no statement about support languages in either direction: ScalaHosting publishes a single entry in the alternate-language set, English, and we found no occurrence of the word Arabic and no Arabic text on its pages, nor any statement about support languages in either direction. It is one English site, as Verpex, Namecheap, InterServer and FastComet are
This is the fifth of six companies we have reviewed that publishes no localisation for anybody. The absence is general rather than aimed at us, and fairness requires saying so. The result for a reader in Riyadh is the same either way.
The panel: their own, and what that means
A panel of their own, and what that means when you want to leave.
Every other company on our table stands on cPanel. This one stands on its own: ScalaHosting runs a control panel of its own making called SPanel and offers cPanel beside it, both named on the card for the plan we score. It is the only company on our list not standing on cPanel alone, and that matters to anyone who expects to move later
We are not saying their panel is worse or better, because we have used neither and will not pretend otherwise. What we are saying is that it is different, and that someone who learns one panel and then moves will meet another at almost every destination. It offers cPanel alongside, so the choice exists at purchase.
ScalaHosting also publishes its resource limits as figures in the terms: ScalaHosting publishes its usage limits as figures in its terms of service: 3 per cent on the plan we score, five on the next, then nine and twelve above them, with five hundred email messages per domain per hour. The terms say an account overloading the server is suspended We do not compare that number with Namecheap’s. Both are written as percentages and neither document defines what they are percentages of, so the two are not comparable and we do not treat them as though they were.
The full calculation
| Sub-score | Value | Weight | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 4.1 | 33% | 1.353 |
| Support | 6.0 | 27% | 1.620 |
| Features | 8.5 | 20% | 1.700 |
| Refund | 10.0 | 20% | 2.000 |
| Total | 6.673 → 6.7 |
If not this one, then what
Both picks are computed from the scores rather than written by hand: the first is the one directly above it in the ranking, the second the one that beats it by the widest margin on the criterion it loses on.
FastComet
6.7The service directly above it in the ranking.
$1.99/mo on a 12-month prepayment: $23.88 today, then $9.95/mo
Read the reviewVerpex
7.6What this page offers instead on the criterion it loses on — Buying and price.
$3.00/mo on a 12-month prepayment: $36.00 today, then $6.00/mo
Read the review
Bottom line
Buy from ScalaHosting if you accept paying three years in advance knowing that what you do not use comes back, you read English, and you do not mind learning a control panel you will not meet anywhere else. Stay away if you want a small first payment, if you need to be answered in Arabic, or if you want a panel you can take with you when you go.
Questions
Did you buy this plan?
No. We read the plans page and the terms of service, created no account, bought nothing and did not walk the order form. That is why speed and uptime are outside the score.
What will I pay on day one?
A hundred and six dollars twenty, being thirty-six months at two dollars ninety-five. It is the heaviest first payment on our list; at the other end sits twenty-one dollars ninety-six, at Namecheap.
And if I want out in year two?
You get back what you did not use. The terms say the refund is full within thirty days of purchase and partial for the unused portion at any time after activation. We have not found that clause at any other company we have reviewed, and it is what makes the large payment bearable.
What is the control panel?
One of the company’s own making, called SPanel, with cPanel offered beside it. It is the only one on our list not standing on cPanel alone. We have used neither, so we do not judge between them — but anyone planning to move later deserves to know.
Do I get backups and staging?
Yes, both on the plan we score according to its own comparison table: automated daily backups, on-demand backups and WordPress staging. We have not tested a restore; testing one needs a purchase.
What we know, and where from
Every figure on this page, where it came from and when we read it.
| What we say | How we know | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| The two-dollar-ninety-five price hangs on a thirty-six-month term paid in advance — $106.20 on the first day, the heaviest first payment on our list. The card offers three terms, thirty-six months, twelve and one, and the one in the headline is the extended one | we measured it | ScalaHosting — Mini term selector | |
| ScalaHosting’s terms set out what it calls an anytime money back guarantee: a full refund if requested within thirty days of purchase, and a partial refund for the unused portion of the service at any time after it is activated. So a buyer who paid three years in advance and leaves in year two recovers what they did not use — a clause we have not found at any other company we have reviewed | the company states it | ScalaHosting Terms of Service — anytime money back guarantee | |
| ScalaHosting writes the offer price and the renewal price together on the plan card: two dollars ninety-five a month, then $11.95 on renewal. It is the only company on our list where the renewal price appears at the point of purchase itself, and that is what completes its refund score | the company states it | ScalaHosting — Mini plan card | |
| ScalaHosting publishes a single entry in the alternate-language set, English, and we found no occurrence of the word Arabic and no Arabic text on its pages, nor any statement about support languages in either direction. It is one English site, as Verpex, Namecheap, InterServer and FastComet are | we could not find it | ScalaHosting — one locale, no Arabic found | |
| ScalaHosting runs a control panel of its own making called SPanel and offers cPanel beside it, both named on the card for the plan we score. It is the only company on our list not standing on cPanel alone, and that matters to anyone who expects to move later | the company states it | ScalaHosting — Mini plan control panel | |
| ScalaHosting publishes a graduated table of compensation for downtime: 99.9 per cent earns nothing, then ten per cent more credit for each tenth of a point below it, up to a full credit below ninety-nine. The credit is claimed by ticket to the billing department with logs, and applied to the account within seven days of the claim being approved | the company states it | ScalaHosting Terms of Service — uptime guarantee | |
| ScalaHosting publishes its usage limits as figures in its terms of service: 3 per cent on the plan we score, five on the next, then nine and twelve above them, with five hundred email messages per domain per hour. The terms say an account overloading the server is suspended | the company states it | ScalaHosting Terms of Service — resource usage |