HostArmada Review 2024: Fast, Reliable, and Affordable Web Hosting
on 14 November 2024, in Blog, WordPress, Guides
by Bogdan
With already more than 5 years in the web hosting space, HostArmada is proving itself a top candidate for delivering high-quality web hosting services. Its offerings excel at speed, security, and uptime reliability – great for individual users and agencies alike.
We tested HostArmada ourselves and were impressed. Their cloud web hosting plans handled everything we threw at it quite well. It could manage simple sites like a personal blog to enterprise-level web projects comfortably, all while ensuring fast page load times and excellent uptime.
In short, based on our experience, HostArmada offers features for both simple and complex web projects.
Throughout this post, we’ll review HostArmada’s core offerings and share the team’s experiences with its benefits for web design and website management.
Let’s start with a quick overview of its pros and cons. Then, handle its main features one by one.
HostArmada: The Pros and Cons
Pros
Free domain: The option to register a free domain can save you money if you're working with a shoestring budget.
Not to forget, it offers affordable entry-level plans starting at $2.99/month for the shared and WordPress hosting options. So, we can say it’s quite affordable for those on a budget.
24/7 live chat and technical support: If you encounter technical issues or downtime, HostArmada has specialists standing by to walk you through troubleshooting. This also includes detailed knowledge base articles and support ticket options.
Free site migration: If you need to migrate your site to HostArmada from a previous web host, they help you do it for free. Unlike other providers, there are no extra fees.
It provides all web hosting types: Including shared, WordPress, VPS, dedicated, and reseller hosting. These options differ in resource allocation, performance, and cost.
We were quite interested in trying the managed WordPress hosting solution that included free daily backups, SSL certificates, a web server for cache, and full cPanel support. When you go to the cPanel, you will see first the features that HostArmada integrated:
HostArmada heavily relies on cPanel integration.
Fast page load speeds: The page load speeds were between 500 ms to 800 ms for small projects and under 1.5 seconds for more complex ones. It consistently delivers impressive load times which is important for your user experience and SEO performance.
Servers in 9 data centers worldwide: They have server locations in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, India, Singapore, and Australia to improve your data transfer times using a server closest to your customers.
Robust security features: including free SSL certification, daily backups, DDoS protection, WAF & IP firewalls, 24/7 malware scanning and monitoring, etc., so you can sleep soundly at night knowing HostArmada is ready to alert you on any attempts at your site.
Can handle websites of all sizes: If you’re planning on growing your website traffic, it doesn’t matter if you’re starting out with a website from scratch or you’re a big business reeling in plenty of traffic and sales, HostArmada can handle your site’s growth with a wide variety of hosting packages that are all geared for speed.
Cons
Increased renewal fees: This can be expected of any hosting provider. The promotional pricing plans are valid only for the first signup term. Upon renewal, the regular price will be charged.
In fact, the renewal prices are 3x the introductory prices. So it’s better to go with their triennial plans (36 months) to save more on their hosting plans. That’s if you’re thinking or planning long-term.
Short refund window for VPS and dedicated hosting: The refund policy for VPS and dedicated servers is limited to only 7 days.
Only the most expensive plan offers LiteSpeed web servers.
Now, let’s be more specific by reviewing things like pricing plans, speed, performance, security, etc.
HostArmada pricing & plans
HostArmada’s hosting services generally fall into four distinct categories. The billing cycle is either triennially, biennially, annually, or monthly:
- Shared/managed WordPress hosting – Shared hosting is best for hosting personal sites and blogs while WordPress hosting is perfect for WordPress sites.
- Reseller hosting – best for hosting your own customers.
- VPS hosting – has more power than shared hosting.
- Dedicated hosting – best for web applications, large organizations, and high-traffic websites that want significant control over the server.
Here’s how their most affordable plans stack up:
Shared/managed WordPress hosting
Shared hosting works best for small websites that are just getting their start and beginning to see traffic. The cheapest price starts from $2.49/month making it the best option for those on a budget (or want to test their cloud web hosting service).
As you go up the price ladder, you can host an unlimited number of sites, get more SSD storage, etc. The Speed Reaper plan features LiteSpeed servers at only $4.94, so you may consider this if performance is your priority.
Note that these pricing tiers are the same for its WordPress hosting plan. HostArmada's WordPress plans are fully managed with WordPress-specific features to give you the best digital experience.
This is the option we went for the test: managed WordPress hosting.
They have four billing cycles in total, with the tri-annual having the cheapest per-month prices for their plans.
Cloud reseller hosting
With reseller hosting you get additional SSD storage, cPanel accounts, bandwidth, etc., powered with LiteSpeed web servers. The more storage and transfer GB you need the more you’ll have to pay monthly.
This plan is an excellent choice for web developers or designers who want to add web hosting as a complementary service. Or, anyone who needs to manage multiple websites simultaneously with minimal to no downtime.
Cloud VPS hosting
When you start getting into VPS hosting territory, you start looking at increased RAM capabilities and storage capacity. It’s a great option right before you’re ready to step into a dedicated server plan. We recommend you see their pricing page for a full look at what each plan offers.
Dedicated CPU
This is their most expensive hosting plan. Agencies, developers, and IT professionals who need a server that can accommodate large traffic should opt for this option.
What was the speed and performance of HostArmada like?
What is speed and performance like?
We’ve installed Brizy and it works perfectly, fast, and reliable, in 1 min we managed to install a pre-made template, make 2-3 modifications, save and preview the website in the front end. You can check it our for yourself: https://brizyarmadatest.com/
Google insight tests:
GTmetrix
HostArmada delivered great results in terms of speed and performance. It is quite fast and handles heavy traffic extremely well, too. We saw no complaints about the uptime and response times either.
We tested page load speeds, uptime & server response times, and the performance under traffic load.
Speed test
In this test, we wanted to know how different WordPress sites hosted on HostArmada perform.
We started with an empty WordPress site. Then, took it a step further by testing various, fully functional WordPress websites like personal blogs, ecommerce stores, media-rich portfolios, etc.
These sites had typical elements like plugins, high-resolution images, and embedded videos to simulate real-world conditions. By doing this, we could see how HostArmada handles not just simple setups but also more demanding, content-heavy sites that require greater resources and server capacity.
We were interested in:
- Page load times: Our aim was under 3 seconds for optimal user experience which it did.
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): to check how quickly the main content loads. LCP clocked in at just 480ms for the empty WordPress site. For complete websites, the LCP came in at 1.3 seconds on average.
- Time to First Byte (TTFB): We monitored how fast the server responds to a user's request. On average, the TTFB was under 200ms across the board, which is better.
- Cache and CDN efficiency: We also evaluated how well caching and any Content Delivery Network (CDN) improve load times. Especially if the user is located far from the hosting server.
- Geographical latency: We tested latency by choosing different data centers to assess performance in various regions. It's a must-know for websites whose audiences are spread worldwide.
Uptime reliability and response times
- HostArmada also claims an impressive uptime guarantee of 99.9%. So, we put this assertion to the test by extensively monitoring and analyzing uptime over a week.
- It maintained 100% uptime throughout the week, with no outages reported. This level of availability is commendable and critical for businesses that rely on constant online presence.
- In addition, we closely monitored server response times throughout the testing phase. The average response time was consistently stable, averaging 412 ms, with fluctuations typically around the 200 ms range.
Overall, such consistency in response times demonstrated to us HostArmada's robust infrastructure and effective resource management.
Server response under load
We also stress-tested HostArmada.
If you're interested in scalability, HostArmada also performed well under high-traffic conditions. It held up impressively as we increased the number of concurrent users during our stress test. Despite the heavy load, the service maintained consistent uptime, which is exactly what you'd want for a site that needs to stay online during traffic spikes.
So, in terms of stability, we had zero complaints either.
It managed its resources efficiently. It didn't buckle under pressure. This shows that HostArmada is built to handle demanding environments.
Note: This provider also offers speed optimization including built-in caching, Brotli compression, on-demand performance tuning, etc., to enhance website SEO and user experience. We've noticed this particularly when building high-traffic sites with Brizy.
Security features
The next big thing we keenly checked was the security solutions in place.
It does a great job in this area as well. The following are security features that are shared across all plans:
- Regular updates and patches to keep the system protected against the latest threats.
- Free SSL certificates for all domains. It's provided by cPanel’s AutoSSL vendor Sectigo.
- Reliable backup system that creates copies of your projects for easy restoration if needed. It offers between 7 and 21 daily backups depending on your shared hosting plan.
DDoS protection and user authentication safeguards
Extensive DDoS protection service that consists of:
- Mod_security2 Apache module integration: It scans web requests, blocking the malicious ones and banning the IP addresses that repeat the same request.
- Per-IP throttling: This service limits the amount of bandwidth a single IP can generate by sending requests to our Web Servers.
- SSL renegotiation protection service: It reduces the amount a single IP address can request for an SSL certificate to be renegotiated with the web server. This reduces the amount of data transmitted between the web server and the IP address sent the requests.
- HostArmada reCaptcha guard: reCaptcha is known to separate legitimate users from bots or web robots.
CPHulk BruteForce protection for all cPanel login forms.
suEXEC Apache module that runs scripts under the user’s own account for added security. This prevents interference from other users on the server.
Other security features and support
- Free Linux server antivirus to detect and remove malicious files is available through you or our support team.
- Free updates for applications, plugins, and themes, are managed by HostArmada’s technical support team.
- Full compatibility with Cloudflare has amazing benefits such as DDOS and bot protection
- Web application firewall (WAF) that inspects every legitimate request for a known vulnerability such as an XSS attack or SQL injection.
- Static files checking. It serves only static files it has at least 444 permissions (readable by everyone), the files aren’t executable, and don’t contain symbolic links.
- Malware scanning: HostArmada performs automated security scans for exploits and code-injected malware. You have the option to initiate a security scan via cPanel, too.
- There’s 24/7 live server monitoring to ensure that any threat or incident can be mitigated promptly.
In addition, the shared hosting plans we tested also include account isolation, cageFS, custom-tailored mod_security2 rules, advanced WAF with Machine-Learning Ruleset, etc.
The Speed Reaper hosting plan provides HTTP header checks, buffer-overrun monitoring, Brute-Force protection services for WordPress admin URL, bandwidth and connection control, etc.
Conclusion
Customer support is available 24/7 at HostArmada via live chat, ticketing, and phone.
They have a team of certified experts ready to get you the help you need at any time. Or assist you with setup and testing, until you’re live, and provide ongoing support. Most importantly, they respond almost immediately to every issue whether it’s big or small.
They have some great customer support options:
Creating new support tickets: to report issues, request assistance, or ask questions about a product or service.
Knowledge base: The knowledge base is detailed and well-written to offer comprehensive articles complete with images and additional tips.
As for their articles, they grouped them into categories like:
- Billing
- Domain/DNS
- Open-source applications
You can also find the most popular articles in the knowledge base right at the bottom (separate section) of the front page.
Live chat: After clicking the chat button, you need to fill out your contact information. In our experience, we were immediately connected to a support agent.
During our brief conversation, their replies were instant, like only a few seconds apart:
Is HostArmada worth it?
The following are some reasons we’ve come to trust HostArmada here at Brizy.
When it comes to choosing web hosts for clients, we usually focus on uptime reliability, site speed and performance, tight security, customer service, server location, CMS quality, reputation, etc. These factors affect SEO, user experience, conversions, and other metrics for our client websites.
HostArmada checks all these boxes. They have the infrastructure, resources, multiple data centers, and robust features to help you launch high-performing and secure websites quickly via Brizy.
It aced all the tests we gave it. It’s fast, reliable, and can handle surges in traffic seamlessly.
Plus, they put their customers first. They’ve built a solid reputation for themselves around customer support as well. They are available 24/7 to assist everyone via contact options like live chat, social media accounts, phone numbers, etc.
If our observation isn’t enough, you can find out what other clients say by looking at HostArmada web hosting service reviews and learn something. They’ve got enough testimonials to read from.
Without forgetting, HostArmada is also affordable. You can take advantage of the initial low-cost plans by opting for the longest billing cycle (when you can).
Explore HostArmada today and take the first step toward launching your next web project. It integrates seamlessly with Brizy to create beautiful, high-performance websites quickly.
Article by Bogdan
Co-founder & Chief Product Officer, Bogdan has a passion for everything that works great and looks awesome. Guilty for most of the UI and UX around this place and for the product roadmap.
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