ScalaHosting Review: VPS With Top 2% Fastest CPUs, OpenLiteSpeed On SPanel, And ~60% Less vs. Cloudways/SiteGround

If you’re using a VPS on Cloudways, Hostinger, or SiteGround’s cloud hosting— double check you’re not getting shafted.

You’re probably paying 60% more than building a VPS at Scala and upgrading from high CPU usage or 503 errors (due to limits on disk I/O, CPU steal, or Cloudways’ poor performance from extra overhead and outdated stack). Which is why they have so many complaints about 100% CPU usage, throttling, or suspensions. Instead of a VPS with dedicated resources, you’re getting similar limits as shared hosting, then hit with expensive scaling costs and performance add-ons.

TLDR:

Scalahosting custom vps
Build a custom VPS with an extra 10% off
Scala dedicated plans
Or upgrade from shared hosting with Entry Cloud’s 2 cores + 2GB RAM (still dedicated)

 

1. AMD EPYC 9474F CPUs

ScalaHosting’s new AMD EPYC 9474F CPUs have slightly higher 4.1 GHz clock speeds than 3.8 GHz Vultr High Frequency and the highest multithread rating of all hosts in the spreadsheets whose CPU model can be identified (they list it on their website and is also listed on PassMark). Multithread performance is good for high concurrency (simultaneous users) and dynamic sites.

Amd epyc 9474f cpu specs
4.1 GHz turbo clock speeds + DDR5 RAM + PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs (view specs on AMD)
Scalahosting omm landing page
I asked them to list this front and center

Passmark is the industry standard for testing CPU performance and updates rankings frequently— so numbers can vary slightly.

Scalahosting amd epyc 9474f cpus
ScalaHosting’s CPUs are ~22nd fastest out of 1132 server CPUs
Hostinger amd epyc 7601 cpus
Hostinger’s AMD EPYC 9354P processors are ~58th fastest
Chemicloud amd epyc 9354 cpus
ChemiCloud’s AMD EPYC 9354 processors are ~62nd fastest
Namecheap amd epyc 7742 processors
NameCheap EasyWP’s AMD EPYC 7742 processors are ~71st fastest
Siteground dual cpu intel xeon gold 6268cl @ 2 processors
SiteGround uses N2 CPUs which default to Intel Xeon Gold 6268CL processors and are ~226th fastest
Mechanicweb amd ryzen 9 9950x cpus
MechanicWeb’s AMD Ryzen 9 9950X processors are ~18th fastest (in desktop CPUs)
Knownhost amd ryzen 9 7950x cpus
KnownHost’s AMD Ryzen 9 7950X processors are ~21st fastest (in desktop CPUs)
Google cloud c2 intel xeon gold 6253cl @ 3. 10ghz cpus
WP Engine + Elementor Hosting use C2 CPUs with Intel Xeon Gold 6253CL processors which are ~280th fastest
[dual cpu] intel xeon e5 2667 v2 @ 3. 30ghz
Rocket.net’s last known CPUs were 2x Intel Xeon E5-2667 v2 which are ~388th fastest in multithreading CPUs (I believe they updated them, but don’t disclose them)
Hostgator amd opteron 6378 cpus
HostGator’s AMD Opteron 6376 processors were released in 2012 and are ~827th fastest
Cloudways 3. 8 ghz processors
Cloudways doesn’t list exact Skylake processors but says 3.8 GHz and “blazing fast”

Even if they use fast CPUs, Cloudways can be slow due to shared vCPUs on lower plans and extra overhead between you and your cloud provider. They also still use Varnish, Apache, restricted Cloudflare Enterprise, and their Object Cache Pro doesn’t use Relay. Which is probably why they have complaints about both performance/100% CPU usage.

Cloudways wordpress hosting benchmarks

Scala hosting vs wpx
Fast CPUs and free malware scans FTW
Spanel cpu clock speed
SPanel shows base clock speeds (3.6 GHz), not turbo clock speeds (4.1 GHz)

 

2. ~60% Less Than Cloudways And SiteGround

On Cloudways, a 3 vCPU + 8GB RAM Vultr High Frequency server is $118/mo. You get a lot of storage, but a waste of money if you don’t need it since you can’t scale resources individually.

Cloudways has lots of complaints about 100% CPU usage, so if you wanted a CPU Optimized server with 4 vCPUs + 8GB RAM, it’s actually $141/mo. Add the cost of add-ons like $4/mo per site for malware scans via Imunify360 and $5/mo per site for a restricted Cloudflare Enterprise.

Cloudways 4 core 8gb cpu optimized server

On SiteGround cloud, a 4 CPU core + 8GB RAM server is $100/mo and adding just 1GB RAM costs a whopping $10/month. You’ll pay ~$4/mo for malware scans, $14.99/mo for their CDN (which is inferior to Cloudflare), $30/site migrations, and $5/mo if you want premium backups.

Siteground cloud hosting pricing

Hostinger’s VPS is so cheap because of low CPU limits and is unmanaged. Plus, scam reports!

Hostinger vps pricing

MechanicWeb’s VPS includes cPanel Solo and OpenLiteSpeed, but not a security solution, so you’ll need Imunify360. KnownHost’s VPS doesn’t include cPanel/OpenLiteSpeed/Imunify360, so you’ll need 2-3 extra licenses. And neither VPS lets you scale cores, RAM, storage individually.

Mechanicweb vps

ScalaHosting’s Build #2 VPS has 4 cores/8GB RAM and is $40.45/mo or $35.95/mo when you reduce the storage to 50GB with a $81.95/mo renewal after 1 or 3 years (I used this plan as an example to compare it to SiteGround’s smallest server size). You can add or remove resources individually for $3 per CPU core and $1 per 1GB RAM. There is usually no need to buy add-ons between SPanel, OpenLiteSpeed, free migrations, free malware scans, and LiteSpeed Cache.

 

3. No VPS limits Like Hostinger/SiteGround

Entry Cloud and VPS plans have no limits other than the resources you select.

Scalahosting vps no limits

SiteGround’s cloud hosting shares disk I/O and is known for 503 errors. They don’t actually specify what the I/O limit is, but when you hit it, blames bots, plugins, heartbeat, and your site.

Siteground cloud hosting 503 errors

Hostinger’s VPS CPU steal limits are why their KVM 8 plan (with 8 vCPU cores + 32GB RAM) can’t even handle an Alma install with nothing else installed on the server. Which is why it’s so cheap.

Hostinger vps cpu usage
Lots of complaints about Hostinger’s VPS CPU limits
Hostinger cpu steal limits 90%
Hostinger claims 1-10% performance degradation but users report it as much higher

What happens when you exceed limits?

SiteGround suspends your account until you upgrade (or monthly limits are reset), Hostinger will throttle you, and both have an alarming amount of complaints about deletion or data loss. ScalaHosting sends you an email asking you to upgrade but doesn’t pull the other shenanigans.

 

4. Lightweight SPanel With OpenLiteSpeed

SPanel is similar to cPanel, except it:

  1. Supports OpenLiteSpeed.
  2. Is free with unlimited users.
  3. Always supports full root access.
  4. Uses ~1 less CPU core and ~8x less ram.
  5. Is constantly updated based on user feedback.
  6. Has built-in security and malware protection via SSHield.
  7. Lets you allocate resources to specific accounts (like cPanel).

Scala hosting spanel
SPanel is similar to cPanel

Scala hosting spanel feedback

Spanel system requirements
Less resources dedicated to your control panel = more resources to power your sites

Their YouTube playlist has a lot of tutorials or request a demo.

Cpanel licenses
Some VPS’ don’t include a control panel, so you’ll need a cPanel license (careful, some hosts mark these up)
Cpanel almalinux ram suggestion
Ouch! cPanel suggests 2 cores + 4GB RAM

 

5. OpenLiteSpeed vs. LiteSpeed Enterprise

OpenLiteSpeed is free, LiteSpeed Enterprise costs money.

Openlitespeed vs litespeed enterprise
OpenLiteSpeed vs. LiteSpeed Enterprise

So if you’re wondering why “LiteSpeed Web Server” is on the checkout page, it’s LiteSpeed Enterprise. This does have advantages (like a more powerful cache engine), but OLS is still significantly better than Apache with less resource usage and you can still use LSC and QUIC.

Scalahosting litespeed checkout

Scalahosting openlitespeed review
Nope, OpenLiteSpeed is free

You can switch to OpenLiteSpeed in the Web Server Manager.

Scala hosting openlitespeed

Add the code to your .htaccess file, then restart the server in SPanel (Server Management → Restart Server). This is required to manually clear the cache, otherwise you’ll get 404 errors.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^/index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

 

6. Cons: Renewals, Documentation, A Few Downtime Reports

Their documentation can be generic and is more like a blog written for SEO. Leave the documentation for details about ScalaHosting, not educate me on definitions and benefits.

Wish they had more affordable monthly pricing. VPS plans have a shared hosting pricing model with cheaper intro prices for 1 or 3 years, then higher renewals that jump about 200%.

They have 1 downtime report on TrustPilot from a DDoS attack and a downtime report in 2014.

 

7. Entry Cloud As An Upgrade From Shared Hosting

If you need to upgrade from something like SiteGround GoGeek (or any shared hosting), Entry Cloud is a small VPS with 2 cores + 2GB RAM (still dedicated with no limits and OpenLiteSpeed) for $13.45/month. Which is actually a better value than their Build VPS plans if you do the math.

Make sure you monitor CPU/RAM usage in SPanel to see where you fall. But with dedicated resources and efficient CPUs/SPanel, usage should be lower than shared hosting on cPanel.

Scalahosting entry cloud plan

 

8. Set Up Your VPS In 7 Steps

Step 1: Choose your plan, data center, and customize your resources at checkout. Leave “LiteSpeed Web Server” as no to use OpenLiteSpeed or Nginx. This is covered by a 30-day money back guarantee (full refund) and an anytime money back guarantee (partial refund).

Scalahosting vps checkout

Once signed up, you’ll get an email with your nameservers, server IP, and SPanel link.

Scala hosting set up spanel

Step 2: In SPanel, Create a new account and add your domain/login details. If you’re taking them up on free migrations, open a ticket and provide them with your old host’s login details.

Scala hosting create new account

In addition to setting custom limits and disabling certain features, you also have the option to add users to SPanel with limited access (i.e. they only have access to databases or emails only).

Scala hosting vps custom resources settings

Step 3: Whitelist your IP in CSF firewall. If you switched to OpenLiteSpeed, that page has your IP.

Scala hosting ip address

Go to Server Management → Firewall → paste your IP address.

Whitelist ip in firewall

Step 4: Find nameservers in Server Information and change them in your domain registrar.

Scala hosting nameservers

Step 5: Head to Manage Account → Actions → Manage. Here you can use the WordPress Manager, install Let’s Encrypt SSL, view resource usage, and perform similar actions as cPanel.

Scalahosting spanel wordpress manager
SPanel WordPress Manager

If needed, configure PHP settings in PHP Manager → PHP INI Editor.

Scala hosting php ini editor

Step 6: Request Redis from Scala Hosting’s support (or use Memcached which is installed automatically by default). Once they confirm Redis is installed, install the LiteSpeed Cache plugin. Go to Cache → Object → Object Cache → On. Select Redis and use port 6379. If you have multiple sites using Redis, each one should have a unique Redis Database ID (0, 1, 2, etc).

Litespeed cache redis object cache port 6379

When you’re done, purge object cache and ensure it’s working.

Purge object cache litespeed cache

Step 7: Use my LiteSpeed Cache tutorial to configure everything else, including QUIC.cloud’s standard plan or Cloudflare with full page caching (e.g. through the Super Page Cache plugin).

Litespeed cache settings

Finally, test your TTFB in KeyCDN or SpeedVitals, then your hosting performance in the WordPress Hosting Benchmark Tool plugin. Always run multiple (3-5) tests to ensure accurate results. This ensures resources are cached and also served from your CDN’s closest data center.

Scala hosting vps build 1 ttfb test

Scala hosting gtmetrix report

Bonus tip: connect to your server via SSH using port 6543 (default for their VPS plans).

 

9. 13 Server Locations

Find these on their data center page.

Scalahosting data centers

Or at checkout:

Scala hosting server locations

 

10. Shared Plans Also Got A Boost

Their shared plans use the new CPUs, now use LiteSpeed, and got a bump in CPU usage.

4.1 GHz on shared hosting is damn good. But they’re definitely more known for their VPS and Entry Cloud plans. I would really stay clear of shared hosting all together if your budget allows.

Support

ScalaHosting’s support isn’t as good as Rocket.net’s, but it’s still good. They’ve been able to fix every question and problem I’ve had so far. But that’s something you gotta experience yourself.

If you need help setting things up or run into any issues, feel free to reach me at tom@onlinemediamasters.com. I take my recommendations seriously and want to make sure you’re happy with them and getting better performance than your old host.

Cheers,
Tom

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