A2 Hosting provides for their customers shared hosting, VPS and dedicated hosting, WordPress and reseller hosting, and domain names.
Pros:
- Excellent speed
- Unmetered bandwidth and storage
- Free optimization tools and features
- Good uptime record
- Four server locations
Cons:
- Site migration fee
- Expensive renewal plans
- Turbo servers don’t support Python & Ruby applications
For nearly 20 years, being one of the oldest in the hosting provider industry, A2 Hosting is one of the best-reviewed hosting companies by its own customers.
Over the years it has established its reputation and reliability and is it most known for its “Turbo Servers”, which provide 20 times faster web hosting, according to their website.
There are of course other things we should pay attention to when choosing the right hosting company, that we will break down below.
Services and products
A2 Hosting provides for their customers shared hosting, VPS and dedicated hosting, WordPress and reseller hosting, and domain names.
Shared web hosting
Their shared hosting plans are perfect for a single, small project. The prices start at $2.99 ($8.99 on renewal) for one website, providing a free and easy site migration and 100 GB SSD Storage.
The other plans include free automatic backups and better performance. Their most popular plan is the Turbo Boost ($6.99 for the first term), up to 20 times faster thanks to the Turbo Servers.
They all come with a free SSL certificate and perpetual security.
VPS
The VPS hosting stands in the middle of a shared web hosting and a dedicated one. The server performance is even better and it’s perfect for medium projects.
A2 hosting’s offers vary from $4.99/mo for unmanaged VPS and $34.99/mo up to $67.99/mo ($119.99/mo for the managed hosting).
The unmanaged plans do not include a free cPanel Control Panel.
Dedicated hosting
If you have a large project that will attract lots of visitors per month, is recommended dedicated hosting.
With a server dedicated to your site, you won’t have to share its resources with other websites and get better performance for your site.
There are a few plans for this category of hosting divided into four subcategories: unmanaged server, discount SSD server, managed flex server, and core flex server.
The cheapest one costs $105.99 (on renewal) and includes 16 GB RAM, 2 cores, 2X1 TB Storage, and 6 TB transfer.
WordPress hosting
The WordPress hosting prices are the same as the shared hosting plans. They include a free SSL certificate and Cloudflare CDN.
Domain names – You can choose your domain name from a lot of options offered, and the prices are not bad (but not the cheapest). A .com domain name will cost you $14.95 per year.
Comparing the Best Web Hosting Services!
Comparing different web hosting services. You can check out our comparison here.
1.Hostinger – Best web hosting for most
2.SiteGround – Best for keeping uptime above 99.99%
3.HostGator – Best for scaling your small business easily
4.DreamHost – Best for pay-as-you-go web hosting
5.Bluehost – Best drag-and-drop page builder for beginners
6.Inmotion – Best price for hosting two websites on one plan
7.Nexcess – Best for experienced WordPress users
8.Godaddy – Commerce designed to grow your business.
Note: Comparison of hosting providers is in progress…
Reseller hosting – A great option for an agency or developers and designers, reseller plans make the right choice if you want to sell to your clients.
The prices are quite affordable, the most popular one, the “Kickstart” provides 60 GB of storage for UNLIMITED websites, starting at $18.99 per month.
Detailed reviews
Prices: The prices are low for the initial purchases and go lower for long-term plans. But the renewal prices are pretty high compared to the first term prices.
Some of the cheapest plans have some restrictions in storage or automatic backups. Keep in mind that to cancel a renewal plan you should send them an email 15 days before the renewal term begins.
Guarantee: You can try the A2 Hosting services, and get a refund within 30 days of, or even a prorated refund if you haven’t used their services.
Space limit: A2 Hosting offers unlimited space for most of their plans, except for the Startup plan that provides 100 GB, which is still very good.
Ease of use and backup: The cPanel has a friendly and easy-to-use interface. Be careful with the add-ons or extra purchases at the checkout. A2 Hosting offers automatic backups, and you can restore files only with the Turbo and Drive plans.
Support: The documentation is explicit, easy to follow and there’s no place for confusion. They offer 24/7 support via live chat, email, and phone, and according to the customer reviews the technical support and the Guru Crew are very prepared and clear with their answers.
Emails: You get unlimited email accounts and email storage for all the plans.
Speed and performance: Their uptime is one the best, 99.99% which is above the standard and a very good indicator of a serious commitment. The speed tests show amazing results (around 150ms) and keep the first place in page load speed. The Turbo plans raise the bar even higher.
Bandwidth: A2 Hosting is generous with the bandwidth since it is unmetered for all the plans.
Server location: A2 Hosting servers are located in 3 continents, North America, Europe, and Asia. Their four server locations are specifically in Michigan and Arizona (USA), Amsterdam (Europe), and Singapore (Asia).
Security options: They use a 24/7 monitoring service, HackScan, to scan for malware, protect you from DDoS attacks before they damage your website. You get SSL encryption and kernel security updates to prevent malicious attacks. You can set up a 2-factor authentication, and you get WordPress optimizations.
Databases: Except for the startup plan that provides 5 databases, the other plans offer unlimited numbers of databases, whether if it’s MariaDB or MySQL.
Software and applications: You can install WordPress, Joomla, Magento, or other content management systems with just a few clicks, and it will work perfectly with all of them.
Site migration: You can migrate a single existing website with a shared web hosting plan if your website has a cPanel control panel. You get up to 25 free site migrations with the other plans.
Conclusions:
A2 Hosting is the industry leader in page load speed and in general, provides decent services.
It comes with some features that you don’t find for free by other web-hosting providers, like speed optimization plugins and security tools.
It is a very good value for money if you want to host a medium-sized project and still have a great performance. It can get a little tricky with bigger projects that get a lot more traffic.
There’s a place for improvement on the pricing aspect since it has some hidden clauses and you might get some upsells while you get registered.
A2 Hosting remains a reliable choice and most of the customers remain for years very pleased with the service.