Although a child
prodigy, HostArmada still
counts as a toddler among the giants of web
hosting. Set in motion during 2019, this fast-growing company has since
managed to cover four continents while sprouting their data centers across the
world. However, its head office remains situated in its place of origin,
Delaware (the USA).
HostArmada covers everything from domain services to a wide
variety of cloud-based hosting solutions, including SSD shared, WordPress, SSD
VPS, dedicated CPU server, open source and development-oriented hosting
solutions.
To provide every user
with lightning speed so that they can “crush their competition”, HostArmada
utilizes powerful cloud technology, a native SSD platform, a redundant network
and the latest AMD CPUs.
What is
more, users can choose between nine data center locations, including three in
the USA (Dallas, Fremont and East Newark) and one of each in Canada (Toronto),
the UK (London), Germany (Frankfurt), India (Mumbai), Singapore (Singapore) and
Australia (Sydney).
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In terested in HostArmada? Checkout the website here
HostArmada’s main site looks pretty fancy with its clever use of
sundown color palette and it is (besides being easy to look at) very easy to
use. It is available in English language only and its pricing is listed in USD.
There is an official blog as well, and it covers a whole range of
topics (everything from tips and tricks to news and product announcements)
which most users will find both a useful and an enjoyable read. The blog feels
and appears to be updated on a pretty regular basis. However, if you still
prefer a shorter text from (or you simply enjoy social networking), you can
find and follow HostArmada on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Plans
and pricing
After examining HostArmada’s web hosting packages you should
(and rightly so) come to a conclusion that its plans are pretty attractively
priced. However, if you start paying attention to the small letters, you’ll be
reminded of an old proverb that says if something is too good to be true, it
usually (and regrettably) is. The pocket-friendly price you see is of a
promotional kind and is valid only for the first signup. After this period,
you’ll be charged at regular rates and they can be three or four times higher
than the promotional ones, which is unfortunate news.
For instance,
HostArmada’s cheapest shared hosting plan
titled “Start Dock” will cost you $3.99 per month, which seems like a real
bargain. However, after the promotional period comes to an end the price will
rise to its regular rate of $13.30 per month. This plan supports one website,
15GB of cloud storage (SSD), unlimited bandwidth, free SSL for all domains,
seven daily backups and free domain registration (or transfer).
Besides this, HostArmada
provides two more packages for shared hosting, three for WordPress, four
for VPS and
three for dedicated CPU servers. There are also packages (three of each kind)
aimed at developers, but they are basically the same cloud-based shared hosting
plans with somewhat different features.
All plans come with a money-back guarantee: a generous 45-day
one with shared hosting plans or a 7-day one with VPS and dedicated servers.
HostArmada accepts all major credit cards (including Visa,
MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Diners Club, JCB and UnionPay) and
PayPal.
Ease of
use
To set things in motion, we will go with the simplest
cloud-based shared web hosting plan called “Start Dock”. Upon choosing it,
you’ll be redirected to their domain registration (or transfer) page, where
you’ll have to make a choice. If you are registering a new domain, it will come
free-of-charge as long as you are HostArmada’s customer. If you already have
one and want to keep it with your current manager, you can choose to do so as
well. All in all, there is a hefty collection of domain names and if the one
you want isn’t on the list, you’re invited to get in touch with HostArmada’s
team and see what they can do about it.
After this you’ll have to decide on the billing cycle (an
annual, a biennial or a triennial one), location of your data center (all nine
are available) and think about including a few add-ons. To finish the process,
you’ll be asked to create an account with HostArmada and to do so you’ll be
required to provide a list of your personal information (nothing unusual here),
billing information and create a safe password.
HostArmada’s dashboard is
remarkably intuitive and from there you’ll be able to manage your account
information, hosting services, add e-mail accounts (the number is unlimited)
and a domain, log into your cPanel (yes,
they provide an industry-standard control panel) and more. Even if you are a
full-blown newcomer, managing all aspects of your newly created site should
soon become second nature to you thanks to cPanel’s intuitive design. And if
you happen to get stuck, we advise you to check out some of HostArmada’s
beginner-friendly tutorials.
From cPanel you can install WordPress in no time (or any of the
hundreds of available apps) thanks to Softaculous one-click installer. If you
would rather use a no-code website builder, HostArmada offers one and it comes
with plenty of ready-made templates sure to make your website look like a
million dollars.
Speed
and experience
Given that HostArmada often highlights that the loading speed of
one's website is a key component for its successful online presence, we had no
choice but to check out the speed of HostArmada’s own site. After performing
multiple speed tests on the main site via GTmetrix (our tool of choice), we got
some quite underwhelming results with a C (76%) as a final grade. The time the
site took to fully load was 3.5 seconds, which is just under the recommended limit.
At the same time the process took 163 requests, which is almost as half as much
as it usually does.
When it comes to uptime, HostArmada offers a 99.9% guarantee in
any given month excluding the scheduled (or unscheduled) maintenance. If the
amount of downtime your site suffers exceeds that what is promised, you are
entitled to get from 10% to 100% credit, depending on the amount of experienced
downtime. During the testing period of two weeks (a bit more, actually),
UptimeRobot managed to record mere four minutes of downtime in total, resulting
in total uptime of 99.98%. With this, we had no legal basis to request any free
credit, and fortunately so.
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Support
The first stop for those seeking self-support is likely to be
HostArmada’s comprehensive knowledgebase. It contains a full range of how-tos
(200, to be precise) covering all common (and some less common) issues. It
comprises nine categories (Billing, cPanel/WHM, Domains/DNS, Email, Open-Source
Applications and so forth) that are further divided into fitting
sub-categories. All in all, finding your way around is as intuitive as it
gets and the articles themselves are incredibly easy to understand and
follow. In addition to this, you can find a tidy sum of novice-friendly
tutorials at their “Learning Center”.
As for
those who would like to get technical help from HostArmada’s support staff,
they can get it via US-based telephone number (from Monday to Friday during the
US business hours), ticketing system, e-mail and live chat.
To ensure the best web hosting service possible, HostArmada
provides a sort of a guarantee, the one that promises “an awesome support
experience” and a compensation in case someone from their staff makes a
mistake.
The
competition
Bluehost and
HostArmada are hosts from the USA, and both are very beginner-friendly and
capable of supplying everything needed for small to medium-sized businesses. On
the downside, although both hosts offer hosting solutions at a low cost, the
price hike after the promotional period is likely to leave you indifferent. One
thing that makes them stand out is operating
system support and with Bluehost you can get both Linux and
Windows, while with HostArmada you'll be left with only a Linux option.
Another similar (and
fan-favorite) host from the USA is HostGator. Like
HostArmada, HostGator provides a beginner-friendly approach with an entire set
of fitting features. However, with HostGator you can pay for one month only,
while with HostArmada there is no such option.
Hostwinds is
yet another US-based host and one that offers a diverse range of hosting
solutions including shared, cloud, VPS, dedicated and reseller hosting. Their
packages also include some great unlimited features (including storage,
bandwidth and a number of email accounts). When it comes to speed performance,
Hostwinds comes on top with a load time of 0.5 seconds and a conclusive grade
of A (100%), an extraordinary sight indeed.
Last (but not the least
one) of HostArmada’s competitors we’re going to bring up is a cloud-based host
from the USA known as Kinsta.
However, Kinsta is focused exclusively on providing premium fully managed
WordPress hosting solutions (the cheapest plan will cost you $30 per month),
while HostArmada has some budget-friendly options as well.
Final
verdict
In just a few years of
its existence, HostArmada managed to establish itself as a top-of-the-class web
hosting company that provides swift and secure hosting solutions at an
affordable price. Among the myriad of free features they will arm you with you’ll find domain registration, site transfers, SSL certificates, daily backups, SSD
storages and the list goes on. Whether you are a novice, tech-savvy geek or
something else entirely, HostArmada is definitely a step in the right
direction.
However, if you would rather put your trust in a more seasoned
web hosting company, both HostGator and Bluehost have almost two decades of
experience under their belts.
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