HostArmada Review: Good Enough To Hang With Web Hosting Titans?

HostArmada has become quite the name in the web hosting community. It draws people in with its unique, sci-fi-themed plan names and keeps them interested with promises of fast loading times, user-friendly management, strong security, and competitive pricing.

However, few have truly tested whether HostArmada lives up to these claims, especially when compared to the giants of the web hosting world. That’s what prompted me to conduct my own review.

In this article, I discuss my findings on HostArmada. I evaluated its service based on pricing, performance, security, and customer support.

Creating an Account 

To gain first-hand experience with HostArmada, I selected its most popular shared hosting plan—Start Dock. The sign-up process requires filling out the usual contact fields and making a payment. You can pay using your credit card or PayPal account, and then wait for a verification email from the company to confirm your identity.

Navigating Dashboard and cPanel

After successful registration, HostArmada will direct you to its dashboard. This area has a clear and intuitive interface, making it simple to navigate. The dashboard itself provides information about your hosting plan, domains, and support tickets, and gives you access to the cPanel for deeper management tasks.

In the cPanel, you have the tools to manage your website’s installation, domains, create backups, adjust email settings, manage databases, and handle file storage.

To install a website with HostArmada, take the following steps:

1. Go to the “Softaculous App Installer” to begin installing a website.
2. Look for WordPress under the “Install” section and click it to start setting up a WordPress site.
3. Select your preferred domain, then create a username and password for your website. Complete the process by clicking the ‘Install’ button found at the bottom.
4. Once the installation wraps up, you’ll receive a confirmation saying, “Congratulations, the software was installed successfully.”

The process is easy and aligns with what you’d expect from a hosting service using traditional cPanel.

Note that if you register your domain with HostArmada, your website goes live right away. But if you use a different domain registrar, you must update your domain’s name servers to HostArmada’s.

HostArmada Speed and Uptime

HostArmada’s server speed is impressive, even on shared hosting where resources are shared. Concerns about slowdowns weren’t an issue in my experience.

Here is the GTMetrix report for my site on HostArmada:

For interpretation, the fully loaded time was only 0.8 seconds. To ensure a good user experience, loading times should be under 3 seconds. HostArmada easily met this standard.

The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) was 658ms. Google considers up to 2.5 seconds as great, so HostArmada performed excellently here too.

I also tested the website using the Pingdom speed testing tool. Again, the results indicated that sites on HostArmada tend to perform well: 

Next, I tested the uptime of my site. The results? It achieved 100% uptime over a month, with no outage whatsoever. This aligns with HostArmada’s 99.9% uptime promise.

The chart below shows an upward line with no dips, which is what you want as a site owner.

Looking into it, HostArmada has policies for exceptions in uptime due to maintenance and offers credits for any downtime. 

Still, with such consistent uptime, the need for compensation is minimal. HostArmada’s performance means users can expect stable site availability.

HostArmada Security

Wondering about the level of security you get with HostArmada? The company offers several measures to keep your site secure, including:

• Malware scanning: HostArmada scans for exploits and malware automatically, with manual scanning available through cPanel.
• Firewalls: It uses a web application firewall (WAF) to block dangerous HTTP traffic, protecting against common web attacks.
• DDoS protection: The platform includes defenses against DDoS attacks, such as ModSecurity, per-IP throttling, and SSL renegotiation protection.
• Monitoring: Continuous 24/7 server monitoring detects and mitigates threats quickly.
• Backups: HostArmada offers daily backups, ranging from 7 to 21 days, which is more frequent than many other providers, especially in budget hosting plans.
• SSL Certificates: All domains hosted with HostArmada receive free SSL certificates from Sectigo, ensuring encrypted connections with visitors.

HostArmada Customer Support

HostArmada offers support through chat, ticketing, and phone—all available 24/7 with a 99% issue resolution rate.

During testing, the chat connected me with a real person in under one minute. I asked questions about DNS redirection, CDN, and backup and got fast, helpful responses. 

HostArmada also boasts a substantial knowledge base featuring articles cPanel/WHM, security, DNS, and other topics. I reviewed several articles myself—each was clear, informative, and full of useful details.

With quick, effective support and a useful knowledge base, HostArmada offers excellent customer support.

HostArmada’s Pricing

HostArmada offers three shared hosting plans:

• Start Dock – $2.49/month for 15GB SSD storage, 1 website, and up to 10,000 monthly visits.
• Web Warp – $4.11/month for 30GB SSD storage,  unlimited sites, and up to 60,000 monthly visits.
• Speed Reaper – $4.94/month for 40GB SSD storage, unlimited sites, and up to 120,000 monthly visits.

Besides these, HostArmada offers VPS and Dedicated hosting plans to meet the needs of different businesses.

All plans include unmetered bandwidth, a free domain, unlimited email accounts, free website transfer, cPanel, and free SSL for all domains. Prices stay the same for 12, 24, and 36-month terms.

Note that HostArmada offers a 45-day money-back guarantee with each plan.

Final Verdict

Although HostArmada is a relatively new company, it doesn’t fall short on delivering quality hosting services. Whatever requirements I had, it handled them well. So if you’re searching for an affordable and capable hosting solution, HostArmada could be the perfect fit.

Features	Details
Ease of Use	Simple sign-up process, intuitive dashboard, and cPanel.
Performance	Fast loading times, 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Security	Comprehensive security measures including malware scans and SSL certificates.
Support	Free domain, daily backups, and unmetered bandwidth are included.
Pricing	Plans start at $2.49/mo, with options for different needs.
Extras	Free domain, daily backups, and unmetered bandwidth included.

Get HostArmada

FAQ

Where Is HostArmada Located?

HostArmada is based in the US, with data centers across North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Does the Choice of Data Center Matter? 

Choosing a data center close to your audience ensures faster website loading. For international audiences, a CDN can help maintain speed globally. 

Do I Get a Free Domain with HostArmada? 

All HostArmada hosting plans come with a free domain name.

Does HostArmada offer Cloud-Based WordPress Hosting?

HostArmada offers cloud-based WordPress hosting with Cloud Platform technology and KVM® virtualization for dedicated server resources.

Does HostArmada Offer Free WordPress Site Transfers? 

Depending on your chosen package, HostArmada offers free transfers for 1 to 3 WordPress sites along with all emails.

How Reliable Is HostArmada’s WordPress Hosting? 

With a 99.9% uptime guarantee, up-to-date environments, security patches, and continuous server monitoring, HostArmada provides a stable and reliable hosting service.