Working with the motto “Our speed, your success!”, A2 Hosting has been in the industry for more than 20 years and they are still a popular choice for developers and webmasters of websites from all scales. The company takes pride in its impressive loading speed and claims to be “up to 20X faster” than its competitors– we will shortly see if that holds up. In this article, we will be reviewing A2 Hosting and its services, to hopefully answer your questions about the provider and help you make the best choice for your website. So, if you are wondering how fast A2 Hosting actually is and how well it performs in the other departments, stick around!
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A2 Hosting Performance
Let’s start with checking out A2 Hosting’s performance and price basics:
Speed: 288 ms (average)
Uptime: %99 (average)
Support: 24/7 live support, via phone, e-mail, or live chat, as well as helpful FAQ’s and guides on important topics.
Apps: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento
Hosting Plans: Shared, VPS, Dedicated
Pricing: Starting at $2.49/mo
Cancellation: 30-day money-back guarantee
About A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting was founded in 2001 in Michigan, and today it is a global company with more than 200 employees, 110K users, and data centers around the globe. The company launched VPS hosting services in 2007, went international in 2015 with data centers in Netherlands and Singapore, and became one of the very first companies to offer NVMe hosting in 2020. In 2021, they launched their newest line of Bare Metal Dedicated Servers.
A2 Hosting Packages & Prices
A2 provides a very diverse selection of shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans. Let’s take a quick look at the company’s main deals and their prices.*
*Prices are for 36-month deals for Shared Hosting and VPS Hosting packages, and 24 for Dedicated Hosting packs.
Shared Hosting
A2 shared hosting has 4 plans; Startup, Drive, Turbo Boost, Turbo Max.
- Startup plan is $2.49/mo and gives you one website with 100GB SSD storage. It is marketed as the ideal solution for a single site.
- Drive plan is $4.25/mo and provides 2x resources; in addition to Startup plan, it has unlimited websites & SSD storage, free server rewind data backup protection, unlimited databases and e-mail accounts, and performance plus traffic spike protection option.
- Turbo Boost plan is $5.99/mo, and provides “turbo features”, such as the capacity to handle up to 9x more traffic, NVMe Drive with up to 3X faster read & write speed, and up to 40% faster AMD EPYC CPU performance, all of which help with the user experience and conversion rates.
- Finally, Turbo Max plan costs $11.99/mo, and it’s the company’s fastest server to date. In addition to all the other improvements of Turbo Boost plan, Turbo Max also gives site owners 5X more resources!
All A2 shared hosting plans have a free SSL certificate, free Website Builder, free site migration, and 30 day money-back guarantee.
VPS Hosting
A2 VPS hosting packages are divided into two categories; Managed VPS Hosting and Unmanaged VPS Hosting.
- Managed VPS hosting has 6 different plans, ranging from $33.99/mo to $99.99/mo. All plans include daily, automatic & rebootless updates, managed installs & updates of core software, security patches, and 99.9% uptime commitment. Higher packages introduce more resources, and higher speeds & better performance.
- Unmanaged VPS hosting has 6 different plans, ranging from $4.99/mo to $74.99/mo. They all come with administrative level root access, Webuzo 1-click software installer, expert managed hardware & network, and, again, 99.9% uptime commitment. In addition, they let the users choose the operating system they want to work with, which is a plus.
Dedicated Hosting
A2 dedicated hosting packages are also divided into two categories- Managed Dedicated Hosting and Unmanaged Dedicated Hosting.
- 7 managed dedicated hosting plans range from $159.99/mo to $599.99mo. These plans provide state-of-the-art dedicated servers, managed installs/updates of the core software, smart system notification system, security patches, cPanel control panel & managed updates, and 99.9% uptime commitment.
- There are also 7 types of unmanaged dedicated hosting packages, with prices starting from $99.99/mo and going all the way up to $539.99/mo. These packages have a local backup drive (1 TB – 2 X 4 TB), an optional, additional SSD drive, enterprise-grade hard drives, and all are CloudFlare compatible.
Special Solutions
A2 has several hosting packages tailored for specific needs, some of which are:
- WordPress Hosting – Managed WordPress hosting with additional tools & support
- Reseller Hosting – Fully white-labeled reseller hosting solutions for online businesses
- Agency Hosting – Hosting solutions for agencies looking for an efficient way of managing client accounts
- eCommerce Hosting – For those who want to build an online store and sell products online on their e-commerce sites
- Blog Hosting – Special hosting solutions for bloggers (professional and amateur)
- Personal Website Hosting – Hosting solutions for personal websites
A2 Hosting Pros & Cons
Time to see where A2 excels at, as well as the company’s shortcomings. Here are the pros & cons of A2 Hosting:
Pros:
😊 Excellent Uptime: Everyone looks for reliability when choosing a host for their website, and A2 Hosting does very well in this department, guaranteeing 99.9% uptime and committing to their promise with expert system admins.
😊 Compatible With Major CMS’s: A2 Hosting offers hosting packages optimized for different content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Magento. You can easily launch your site with your favorite CMS and optimize it with a wide range of developer-friendly tools and plugins as you wish.
😊 High-Speed Hosting: Although not exactly the fastest service out there, A2 certainly performs very well in speed tests, offering users a satisfying performance with an impressive average speed of 288 ms.
Cons:
☹ Relatively Expensive Plans: A2 Hosting prices are competitive, but they are still a bit higher than many other hosting providers. In other words, if you are tight on budget and want the best value for your money, you may want to check out other options as well. Their best prices are available if you sign up for 36 months, and they do not offer free domains with their shared hosting plans, which is something we see a lot of other providers do.
☹ Basic plan is very limited: Yes, it is tagged as “Great for a single site”, but still, especially considering the starting price, the Startup Package shared hosting plan is quite limited, with 100GB SSD storage and no free automatic backups.
An Environmentally Friendly Hosting Option!
A2 cares about protecting the planet, and they do their part by implementing green hosting practices (such as recycling older servers and opting for SSDs and NVMe that use less energy) and partnerships. They reduce their carbon footprint by various practices -detailed on their website- and they are partnered with Carbonfund.org since 2015. So, if you too are environmentally conscious and would like to contribute to the conservation of the planet, you may want to consider choosing A2.
Additional Features/Products
A2 has several additional services and products to make things easier for webmasters and developers, some of which are;
- CMS Hosting plans (available for WordPress, Joomla, Magento, Drupal)
- SiteBuilder
- eCommerce Hosting
- Blog Hosting
- Agency Hosting
- Turbo web hosting for high speed & performance
- SSL Certificates
- Domain Services
A2 Hosting E-mail
No matter what kind of website you are running, e-mail is essential, and A2 provides its users free e-mail hosting with their purchased accounts. A2 e-mail hosting solutions provide unlimited e-mail addresses, and they have several features to keep things as simple, practical, and secure as possible, such as e-mail spam protection, webmail software, email providers, and auto-respond.
The amount of e-mail storage users will get depends on the type of hosting they purchase, and/or their plan level. Users also have the alternative of their own e-mail application utilizing one of A2 Hosting’s dedicated or VPS servers.
A2 Hosting Security
To keep your website as secure as possible at all times, A2 offers a broad range of SSL certificate packages. Under the main categories Basic SSL, Premium SSL, Advanced SSL and Wildcard SSL, the company has more than 10 different SSL solutions users can check out, with the annual 2023 prices ranging from $49.99 to $1299.99.
Whether you need basic security for your personal blog or managing a large organization that demands the highest level online security, you will be easily able to find an SSL package that will keep your data and customers safe. Users have the option to choose their SSL providers too, as A2 works with different brands including RapidSSL, GeoTrust, and Digicert.
A2 Hosting Support
Support quality should always be an important factor in choosing a hosting service- as downtimes can cost site owners significant amounts of money. A2 Hosting support team provides 24/7 customer support, available via phone, e-mail, or live chat. They also provide helpful FAQ’s and quick guides on a number of important topics including cPanel, FTP, e-mail client setup, website migration, hosting packages, and more.
A2 Hosting Migration
If you are considering transferring your website to A2 Hosting, the company provides migration services to make sure everything goes well. After ordering a hosting plan from the company, users can request a migration from A2 client portal. Usually, A2 offers free migration for a single site/cPanel. Of course, for larger migration requests, users may need to pay a price. Site transferring costs are determined by A2 migration team.
Summary – Final Verdict: 8/10
After detailed tests and analysis, we give A2 Hosting an overall score of 8 out of 10. Their impressive speed, combined with reliable uptime makes up for their slightly-higher-than-usual prices. They provide flexible solutions with hosting packages compatible with WordPress and all other major content management systems, and their expert support team is there for you 7/24/365 to reach via live chat, e-mail, or telephone- not to mention their extensive knowledge base and helpful guidelines in almost every category. The company is good for beginners who want to start a website without going through all the technicalities, as well as advanced webmasters/developers, and they provide satisfying e-commerce solutions as well.
Long story short, unless you are short on budget and specifically looking for the lowest prices, you will be satisfied with this provider’s wide range of hosting packages and excellent customer service.
