HostArmada Review

HostArmada, a relatively new player in the web hosting industry, has been garnering attention for its competitive pricing, features, and customer support. This comprehensive review will delve into the various aspects of HostArmada’s offerings, evaluating its performance, reliability, and overall customer value. By the end of this review, you should clearly understand whether HostArmada is the right choice for your web hosting needs.

Plans

HostArmada offers three shared hosting plans: Start Dock, Web Warp, and Speed Reaper. All plans include essential features such as free SSL certificates, daily backups, and unlimited email accounts. Additionally, the higher-tier plans provide enhanced resources, such as more CPU and RAM, to accommodate larger websites and more extensive traffic. In this review, we’ll focus on the shared plans but note that they also offer VPS and dedicated hosting.

The Start Dock plan, ideal for beginners, offers 15 GB of storage, one hosted domain, and 2 GB of RAM. The Web Warp plan, designed for medium-sized websites, provides 30 GB of storage, unlimited domains, and 4 GB of RAM. Lastly, the Speed Reaper plan, tailored for larger websites and e-commerce platforms, offers 40 GB of storage, unlimited domains, and 6 GB of RAM.

Pricing

HostArmada’s pricing starts at $2.99 and remains consistent across 12-month, 24-month, and 36-month billing cycles, providing a refreshing level of rare transparency within the industry. However, it is worth noting that renewal prices are higher than the initial rates.

HostArmada offers a generous 45-day money-back guarantee for shared hosting plans, which exceeds the industry-standard 30-day guarantee. This extended period allows customers ample time to evaluate the service and make informed decisions.

HostArmada presents competitive and affordable hosting options through its value-driven plans. Just be prepared for higher costs at the time of renewal.

Ease of Use

HostArmada’s management dashboard is streamlined and user-friendly, catering to both experienced and novice users. It allows for efficient site management tasks, and assistance is readily available if needed (refer to the Support section below). Importantly, HostArmada refrains from aggressive upselling or pushing add-ons through the dashboard, demonstrating respect for customers’ needs.

Creating a New Account

The account creation process with HostArmada is smooth and seamless. However, be cautious of the auto-selected Privacy Protection add-on, which can be deselected if unnecessary. Billing is available via credit card or PayPal, and the process is secure and straightforward. Be aware that verification emails might occasionally be filtered as spam.

Connecting a Domain and Installing WordPress

Upon successful registration, users can access the HostArmada dashboard. Domain registration may require waiting for DNS propagation, which can take anywhere from a few hours to three days. HostArmada could improve its messaging surrounding this process. Installing WordPress is simple with the one-click Softaculous installer in cPanel. Remember to clear the cache using Cache Commander to see your site at your domain.

Managing Your Website

cPanel offers a reliable and straightforward method for managing your website. It allows for easy setup of email or FTP accounts and features a search function for quick access to desired settings.

Account and Usage Details

The minimalist HostArmada dashboard provides a clutter-free experience. Apart from cPanel, the primary feature of the dashboard is the Product Details area, where users can review disk space, bandwidth usage, billing cycles, and purchase add-ons without feeling pressured to buy additional services. Customizable cPanel shortcuts would be a welcome addition to enhance user experience further.

Performance and Uptime

HostArmada’s performance is commendable, as it utilizes LiteSpeed technology to ensure fast website loading speeds. It has also implemented Cloudflare CDN integration, which helps distribute content more efficiently across global servers. Moreover, HostArmada boasts a 99.9% uptime guarantee, ensuring that your website remains accessible to visitors at all times.

NGINX and Advanced Caching Capabilities

HostArmada’s website performance excels in site speed, owing to the integration of the NGINX web server and its proprietary service, Cache Commander. This impressive performance is evident in our speed test results, discussed further below.

Cache Commander comes pre-configured with all hosting plans, providing control over static and dynamic site cache. Users can conveniently clear the cache directly from their cPanel or disable it during development.

An upgrade to the highest-tier Speed Reaper plan is required for those interested in the ultra-fast LiteSpeed web server. While this option may not be necessary for a single test site, it is a valuable investment for managing multiple large websites. The additional cost is relatively modest, considering the enhanced performance benefits.

Customer Support

HostArmada’s customer support team is available 24/7 through live chat, phone, and email. Their representatives are knowledgeable, professional, and responsive, promptly addressing customer queries and issues. Furthermore, the company offers a vast knowledge base, complete with tutorials and guides, to assist users in navigating their services.

Security

HostArmada employs robust security measures to protect user data and websites. These include Web Application Firewall (WAF), real-time malware scanning, DDoS protection, and automatic daily backups. HostArmada offers free SSL certificates for all plans, which helps secure data transmission between the user’s website and its visitors.

Additional Features

Website Migrations

HostArmada offers varying levels of free website migrations depending on your chosen plan. The Start Dock plan includes one free website transfer, while the Web Warp plan provides three free migrations. For those opting for the Speed Reaper plan, HostArmada offers five free website migrations.

If you require more extensive migration options, consider ChemiCloud, which offers up to 50 cPanel migrations. Alternatively, Rocket.net and Scala Hosting provide unlimited migrations for greater flexibility.

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

HostArmada offers support for Cloudflare CDN, which enables edge caching of website assets on servers closer to international visitors. Although it is not included in the standard plans, users can sign up for a free account on Cloudflare’s website. HostArmada’s customer support team can readily guide users through the setup process.

Website Builder

HostArmada features SitePad as its website builder, providing an intuitive and user-friendly experience. This drag-and-drop site builder offers various features and integrations, making it suitable for users of varying skill levels. SitePad enables easy customization and design, ensuring that creating and maintaining a professional website is within reach for all HostArmada customers.

Conclusion

Overall, HostArmada offers impressive features and reliable hosting services at competitive prices. Its strong emphasis on performance, security, and customer support makes it a viable option for many users, from beginners to experienced website owners. While it is still a relatively new company, HostArmada has demonstrated its commitment to providing high-quality web hosting services, and it is certainly worth considering for your hosting needs.