Scala Hosting Review: Managed VPS With Resource Efficient SPanel, OpenLiteSpeed, 4 GHz CPUs, And Customizable Cores/RAM

If you need something more powerful than shared (or just want to get away from cPanel), the VPS and Entry Cloud plan from Scala Hosting have a lot of advantages over the “typical” hosts.

Unlike Cloudways, Scala uses a much more lightweight control (sPanel) and OpenLiteSpeed. CPU/RAM cost less and all resources (CPU, RAM, storage) can be scaled separately – except on Entry Cloud which has 2 cores/2GB RAM and can only scale storage. Both plans use dedicated resources (not shared), making them more powerful than something like SiteGround GoGeek.

Compared to Hostinger who has lots of VPS complaints, Scala’s VPS is managed, has no CPU limits, has daily off-site backups and free migration(s), with better reviews. And with SPanel, you shouldn’t need to pay extra for VPS licenses (cPanel, LiteSpeed, Imunify360) since you get a free control panel with OpenLiteSpeed + SShield (a big reason Scala often ends up costing less).

MechanicWeb / KnownHost’s VPS plans use 5.7 GHz AMD Ryzen CPUs which are faster than Scala’s 4 GHz CPUs by Intel Xeon Gold 6444Y. Scala/MW both use OpenLiteSpeed, but MW only includes 1 free cPanel solo license, then you would need to pay extra for anything beyond that. KnownHost doesn’t include OpenLiteSpeed or cPanel licenses – so they’ll cost quite a bit more.

But the biggest difference is probably SPanel. cPanel has major disadvantages like being resource-heavy, license costs, a history of price increases, and security concerns. SPanel is probably the best custom control panel I’ve used of any host in terms of features and ongoing improvements, yet it’s still lightweight. Scala has an SPanel YouTube playlist or request a demo.

Another thing I noticed is Chris (CEO) and Vlad implement feedback from their users (just like they do with SPanel) which is rare with larger hosts who stick to a roadmap. Chris is also active on Reddit. Their team does free migrations and many people come from SiteGround/Hostinger.

 

1. Lightweight SPanel With OpenLiteSpeed + SShield

If you view SPanel’s system requirements vs. cPanel’s, SPanel requires half the resources for Rocky Linux 9 (what SPanel uses) and comes with support for end users, is free, and allows unlimited accounts. Unlike the price increases by cPanel which average around 10% per year.

Then if you want to use LiteSpeed or Imunify360 for better security, you’ll need a LiteSpeed + Imunify360 license. With just 5 users, that’s already about $68/month in licenses. And if you buy the licenses directly from your hosting company, they likely have their own markups. Oof!

• cPanel Admin license (5 accounts): $32.99/month
• LiteSpeed Site Owner license (5 domains): $9.95/month
• Imunify360 license (for 30 users): $25/month

You shouldn’t need licenses with Scala Hosting since you get SPanel, OpenLiteSpeed (or Nginx), and SShield for free. Unless you want a LiteSpeed Enterprise license which does have quite a few advantages over OpenLiteSpeed like a more powerful cache + mod_security engine:

SPanel is also based on user feedback. Vlad (from Scala Hosting) takes requests, listens to what people need, and marks new features as “planned.” I appreciate when companies do this.

Here’s the breakdown on their website:

This YouTube playlist has 31 tutorials on SPanel and here are a couple others:

Screenshots

Even if you don’t use Scala Hosting, you can purchase SPanel separately at spanel.io.

 

2. 4 GHz CPUs, NVMe Storage, Redis

Scala uses Intel Xeon Gold 6444Y processors (listed on their TrustPilot profile).

Which means in terms of CPU performance, Scala Hosting falls somewhere in the middle compared to other VPS providers, but definitely faster than shared hosts which often use slow CPUs, although most hosts don’t list these on shared plans. This makes sense since the pricing is similar to Hostinger (when also including licenses) but less than MechanicWeb + KnownHost.

Scala also uses SDS (software defined storage) where each file is stored in chunks of 1MB on 3 different NVMe drives, so when you read/write data, it happens 3x faster than read/writing to a single NVMe drive. This gives them an advantage to most self-managed public cloud providers.

 

3. No Software Limits

Both Scala’s VPS and Entry Cloud plans don’t limit inodes, disk I/O, or CPU usage.

Hostinger doesn’t allow high CPU usage for longer than 180 minutes (although high CPU usage is undefined, which may be why I’ve seen so many people report degraded performance after being with them for some time). And MechanicWeb’s CPU limit doesn’t let you burst CPU usage up to 100% for longer than 10 minutes. Between their lightweight SPanel, OpenLiteSpeed, and no software restrictions, your resources (e.g. CPU cores + RAM) should be used more efficiently.

 

4. 13 Server Locations In US, EU, Asia

Their data center page says:

 

5. Entry Cloud Plan (A Step Above Shared)

If you need something more powerful than shared without the higher costs/complexities of a VPS, the Entry Cloud plan may be a good option if you can stay under 2 CPU cores + 2GB RAM.

It uses a similar stack as Scala’s VPS (dedicated resources, 4 GHz CPUs, and no software restrictions). Plus, you get LiteSpeed Enterprise for 1 site (you have to request this from support) and 50GB upgradable NVMe storage. Compared to something like SiteGround’s GoGeek plan, you get dedicated CPU/RAM (not shared), 2.5x more NVMe storage, LiteSpeed Enterprise, no CPU second or inode limits, and free malware scans with SShield. Nice upgrade!

Scala’s Entry Cloud plan is listed in the cloud hosting spreadsheet, but you may want to compare it to plans in the shared hosting spreadsheet if it’s what you’re upgrading from.

 

6. VPS plans vs. Similar Providers

View the managed VPS spreadsheet in Google Sheets for a better experience.

I covered quite a bit of this already, but you can use it to compare key differences like CPU clock speed, server (i.e. OpenLiteSpeed), server locations, tons of resource limits, and cost of licenses.

 

7. Customizable CPU, RAM, Storage

I like how you can scale CPU cores, RAM, and storage separately, as opposed to having predetermined amounts like some hosts do.

The promo prices are listed when you customize your VPS while the regular prices (the price after your plan renews) are listed as add-ons. Which means yes, there’s incentive to commit to longer periods. They do have a 30-day refund, but I suggest at least requesting an SPanel demo and making sure you’re happy with that before committing to a 3 year (or even 1 year) contract.

 

8. Set Up Your VPS (11 Step Walkthrough)

Step 1: Choose your VPS plan, data center, and customize resources at checkout. Leave “LiteSpeed Web Server” as no to use OpenLiteSpeed (free) or select a LiteSpeed Web Server license (view license differences). You get the discounted price for 1 or 3 years backed by a 30-day money back guarantee (full refund) and an anytime money back guarantee (partial refund).

Step 2: Once signed up, you’ll get an email with your nameservers, server IP, and SPanel link.

Step 3: 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.

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).

Step 4: Select Web Server Manager and switch to 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>

Step 5: Whitelist your IP in CSF firewall. When you switch to OLS, that page includes your IP.

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

Step 6: Find nameservers in Server Information and change them in your domain registrar.

Step 7: Install WordPress/SSL by going to Manage Account → Actions → Manage. You’ll be taken to the main dashboard where you can install WordPress via SWordPress Manager, Let’s Encrypt SSL, view resource usage, and perform similar actions as cPanel. Here’s a screenshot:

Step 8: Often not needed, but you can configure PHP settings in PHP Manager → PHP INI Editor.

Step 9: 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).

When you’re done configuring these, purge the object cache.

Step 10: Use my LiteSpeed Cache tutorial to configure everything else, including QUIC.cloud’s CDN. After setting up QUIC.cloud, be sure to switch from QUIC.cloud’s free plan to standard plan ($.02 – $.08/GB) to ensure you’re using all 82+ PoPs with DDoS protection. Also make sure to use QUIC’s DNS for better geographic routing. Takes more time than WP Rocket, but worth it.

Step 11: 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 closests data center.

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

 

9. Shared Plans Don’t Support Nginx Or LiteSpeed

They use Apache servers, enough said? If you go to their WordPress Hosting page and click “COMPARE ALL PLAN FEATURES,” you’ll see the comparison table where shared plans don’t support LiteSpeed or Nginx. This is probably a big reason why they’re known for the VPS plans.

 

10. Documentation And Onboarding Need Some Work

Some articles in the knowledge base are generic and not very helpful. One critical review explained how their docs only show you how to use their services, but not integrate with third-parties (domains/emails for example). I find this pretty accurate and wish they had better docs.

I’m super biased (so don’t listen to me), but I found their support fast to respond, helpful for basic things like installing SPanel or Redis, as well as migrating websites. However, one of my readers said there’s a lack of onboarding. I was pretty surprised considering Scala Hosting has one of the highest retention rates out of my affiliates (most people who sign up stick with them).

So do what you want with that info.

If you sign up, lemme know what you liked (or disliked) about them: scalahosting.com

Cheers,
Tom