A2Hosting Review - Web Hosts Guide

A2 Hosting Web Hosting Review

About A2Hosting

A2 Hosting is one of the pioneer hosting providers that has been around for some time. But does that guarantee quality? Having witnessed once-mighty hosting giants reduced to shells of their former selves, we decided to check it out.

Business owners rely on hosting providers to maintain a safe spot for their sites on the internet. However, no two hosting providers deliver the same quality. Some focus on speed, and others boast excellent customer support, while others promise 99.99% uptime.

A2 Hosting promises and delivers blazing fast hosting. If you are looking for fast page loading time and quick navigation, then A2 Hosting is your provider. Speed is a significant factor for SEO and ranking higher on the Search Engine Results Page. Fast loading speed reduces bounce and increases site traffic and revenue.

Speed is not the only consideration when deciding on a hosting provider. Several other factors include pricing, security, technical support, and offerings. So how does A2 Hosting stack up against other providers? Let’s find out.

How A2 Hosting Compares to other top Providers

A2 stands out and earns a spot on our top hosting providers list by delivering on its promise of blazing-fast hosting. Other promises making A2 a reliable host include a 99.98% uptime guarantee, free site migration, and free automated backups. A2’s high-quality WordPress packages place it as a favorite for WordPress users.

A2 Hosting Options and Features

Besides speed, A2 hosting differentiates itself from the pack by offering a wide variety of hosting options for all your hosting needs. A2s hosting options fall into these categories:

Shared Hosting – best for personal sites and blogs
Managed WordPress Hosting – best for WordPress sites
Managed VPS Hosting – boasts more power than shared hosting
Unmanaged VPS Hosting – best suited for developers
Reseller Hosting – best for hosting own customers
Unmanaged Dedicated Hosting – best for developers
Dedicated Hosting (Core servers) – managed server with root access
Dedicated Hosting (managed servers) – has no root access

A2 Shared Hosting

A2 shared hosting best suits personal and small business websites that do not expect much traffic. A2 shared hosting competes favorably with the best in low pricing, speed, and excellent benefits.

For less than $3 a month, you get a 3-year deal on the Startup package. For an extra $2, you’ll get the drive package offering unlimited websites, SSD storage, and automated backups.

A2’s Turbo plans offer faster shared hosting speeds than their competitors. A2 does this by allocating more resources per user on shared servers. A2 shared hosting plans also offer unlimited storage, transfers, free SSL, and site migration.

A2 VPS hosting

A2 Hosting offers managed and unmanaged virtual private server (VPS) hosting, providing great choices for large and high traffic sites. You will also get excellent speed, tons of space, and control over your site.

While A2’s unmanaged VPS pricing may seem very friendly, these plans are for experienced developers looking for full server customization. Developers can allocate server resources according to their needs, thereby paying for only what they need.

A2 Hosting managed VPS plans suit the majority of your web hosting needs. They also come with 24/7 support, cPanel access, and automatic updates.

You can get up to 32 GB RAM, 450 GB storage, and 8vCPUs, enough for your growing website needs.

A2 WordPress Web Hosting

A2’s WordPress hosting plans are similar to its shared plans regarding pricing and offerings. You will also get free WordPress installation with A2 Hosting WordPress hosting plans.

A2 Hosting also offers managed WordPress hosting plans with the advantage of update staging, turbo optimization, and WordPress backups. The free Jetpack personal license is our best perk of A2 WordPress hosting plans. The plugin adds security and speed with other features and integrations.

Additionally, all A2 WordPress Hosting plans come with the 20X faster turbo speed feature.

A2 WordPress Web Hosting

A2’s WordPress hosting plans are similar to its shared plans regarding pricing and offerings. You will also get free WordPress installation with A2 Hosting WordPress hosting plans.

Additionally, all A2 WordPress Hosting plans come with the 20X faster turbo speed feature.

A2 Reseller Hosting

A2 Hosting boasts offering fully white-labeled Reseller Hosting solutions. A2 Reseller Hosting offers 20X faster turbo speed, 24/7 Guru Crew Support, and reliable SSD servers backed by a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

If you want to venture into the hosting business without setting up your infrastructure, check out A2 Reseller Hosting packages. The plans start at $18.99 per month, offering 60GB SSD storage, up to 600 GB monthly data transfers, free site transfers, and the Blesta billing management system. Higher plans give resellers a choice between Blesta and WHMCS, an option that not many hosting providers offer.

A2 Hosting offers Reseller Hosting packages with or without Turbo servers. Turbo server plans cost about $8 to $10 more than non-Turbo plans, which is a small price for your client’s website speed.

A2 Hosting Dedicated Hosting

A2 Hosting offers an array of managed and unmanaged dedicated hosting packages. They boast state-of-the-art, Bare Metal Dedicated Servers with high performance.

A2 Hosting offers unmanaged dedicated hosting plans starting from $129.99 per month to $539.99 per month. The price increases as you go to higher plans.

Dedicated Hosting is suitable for large business websites handling intense traffic or mission-critical projects. A2 Dedicated Hosting avails an entire server and its resources for your website only.

The Pros and Cons of Using A2 Web Hosting:

1. Fast Page Loading Speed

A2 Hosting promises and delivers on blazing-fast page loading speeds. A2 hosting is constantly inventing new technology to provide their customer’s excellent website performance. For example, they use NVMe drives for their Turbo plans for faster loading speeds.

A2 Hosting is among the few hosts that currently offer the NVMe advantage. If you are hosting a site where speed matters, such as an eCommerce store, then A2 Hosting is a great choice.

2. Reliable Customer Support

A2 Hosting offers 24/7 live chat, phone, and email support. A2 Hosting customer support agents are knowledgeable, friendly, and respond quickly to your concerns. They have garnered many endorsements in their customer reviews for their stellar service.

A2 Hosting also has an extensive knowledge base of lists and guides for those who prefer DIY options.

3. Free Automatic Backups

Most A2 Hosting plans come with free automatic backups. It backs up your website files and MySQL databases. With backups, you will worry less about your site’s functionality and continuity.

4. Detailed Price Summary

A2 Hosting offers customers a detailed invoice of everything they buy upfront, including renewal prices. By doing this, A2 Hosting takes the guesswork out of hosting package pricing.

5. Enhanced Security

A2 Hosting packages include KernelCare and HackScan as part of their perpetual security initiative. HackScan is malware protection that runs 24/7 to prevent your site from attacks.

KernelCare is an extension that allows the host to update their kernel security without rebooting the servers. It enables faster updates and eliminates downtime during updates. It also ensures that your site runs on the latest security software.

6. Green Web Hosting

A2 Hosting tries as much as possible to offset the greenhouse gases their servers produce. They have partnered with Carbonfund.org to ensure that all their servers are carbon neutral.

Although this may not directly affect your website’s performance, it is generally nice to use a host that cares for the environment. You can also use this as a marketing strategy for your website.

A2Hosting Prices, Hosting Plans.

Other Considerations

Before deciding to sign up or pass on A2 Hosting, there are a few other factors to consider. Here are a few downsides to A2 Hosting.

1. High Renewal Rates

As is the industry standard, you will have to pay the full package prices once the promotional period is over. You will never get a better deal than the initial contract. You will also need to choose at least a 3-year plan to score the lowest possible rates.

Additionally, according to A2’s terms of service, your contract automatically renews unless you contact them at least 15 days before the expiry date. There is a pretty big chance that you will not manage to contact them in time. This will force you into another contract at full price without the possibility of a refund.

2. Plan Restrictions

A2 Hosting’s shared hosting plans are very well packaged and reasonably priced. But if you consider purchasing the entry-level plan, be aware of its restrictions.

The lowest shared hosting plan (Startup) costs $2.99 per month but only gets you a single website, 100 GB of SSD storage, and misses out on features like automatic backups. Surprisingly, the next tier gives you unlimited websites, free automatic backups, unlimited SSD storage, and 2x more resources at only $5.99 a month.

It is like the cheapest plan is a placeholder to promote affordability while the actual valuable hosting features start at a more expensive plan.

3. No Free Domain Name

The industry standard is to offer a free domain name for any shared hosting plans for the first year. Unfortunately, you must pay to register or transfer a domain name with A2 Hosting. For example, you will have to pay $14.95 annually for the .com extension.

Conclusion

A2 Hosting offers almost everything you would expect from a leading web host. It stands out as one of the fastest web hosts with Turbo servers, reliable uptime, and friendly customer support. The host also offers robust hosting packages with options to upscale as your business grows.

On the other hand, A2 has high renewal rates and stringent terms at the expiry of the initial contract. Its entry-level shared hosting plan is also very restricted and may not serve your hosting needs adequately. Additionally, their shared hosting plans do not include a free domain name.

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