A2 Hosting Review

Finding the perfect web hosting provider is difficult with so many available options to choose from.

It seems like every time we think we know the top 5 on the market today, a new one pops up offering bigger and better feature sets, complete with more speed than all the other hosting solutions.

But, how are you supposed to know which hosting providers truly are the best, and which ones are just trying to make it against their tough competitors?

Well, while I may not be able to answer that question entirely for you, but I can tell you that one of the best web hosting providers on the market today is A2 Hosting.

And I’m not alone in saying that.

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Here in this A2 Hosting review, I am going to take a closer look and see just what this unique, independently owned and operated web hosting provider has to offer website owners such as yourself so that you can decide whether they meet your needs or not.

Hi there, I’m Lisa, a freelance web developer and I create websites for a living. This here is my in depth and honest review that is based on my own experience hosting small business websites with A2 Hosting. Written by Lisa and last updated on June 15, 2018

If you give me 10 minutes of your time, then I will give you all the must-know information about A2 Hosting and I answer questions like.

By the time you are finished reading this, you will surely be able to tell whether this is the right web hosting service for your needs.

What you will learn from this A2 Hosting review

Founded in 2001, A2 Hosting is an independent hosting company. This means they are not part of the big conglomerate of well-known web hosts called Endurance International Group (EIG).

Which if you didn’t know, does not have the best reputation. In fact, some hosting providers such as HostGator and Bluehost are owned by EIG and may lose customers just because of that very fact.

But not A2 Hosting. They are independently owned and do just fine.

How fine, well, that’s up to you to decide.

A2 Hosting is a great web hosting option on the surface, despite not knowing any of the details, because it caters to website owners of all sizes and types.

Whether you are a new website with a few hundred unique visitors a month, or a well-established website with thousands of unique visitors a day, there is a hosting solution for you.

Web Hosting Solutions

Here are the different hosting solutions A2 Hosting provides website owners.

Shared Hosting

When it comes to shared hosting packages, they have three distinct plans – Lite, Swift, and Turbo.

They each offer unlimited storage, transfers, and an exclusive cPanel for controlling all of your account details as well as website features.

They also give websites owners free SSL certifications and a free SSD. In addition, you can easily integrate shopping cart applications and turn your website into an eCommerce shop.

Each of these plans work well with WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. It is important to keep in mind that the shared hosting plans will be the focus of this review.

Reseller Hosting

Reseller hosting allows website owners to use the allotted hard drive space and bandwidth to host websites on behalf of third-parties.

In short, you purchase the hosting services provided in one of A2’s reseller hosting plans, and then sell them to others, possibly for a profit. Ranging from 30GB to 200GB of storage, A2 Hosting has a wide range of reseller hosting options available.

Pricing for the reseller hosting plans ranging from $13.19/month to $40.91/month.

VPS Hosting

With A2 Hosting, you can choose from unmanaged or managed VPS hosting for those that want more control over their website and a more user-friendly atmosphere.

Though technically still a shared environment, VPS hosting has less of a workload since there are less users per server. In addition, the chances of others crashing your site are eliminated since everyone has their own slice of the server pie.

They have 3 VPS hosting plans ranging from $5/month to $32.99/month. In addition, they offer more powerful managed VPS hosting solutions starting at $32.99/month and topping out at $65.99/month.

Cloud Hosting

If you expect your website to scale significantly in a short amount of time, consider the Cloud hosting option.

Simply design your Cloud with the needed features and resources to suit your needs, and re-size as your website grows. In the end, you only pay for what you use when you choose their Cloud hosting.

Prices for Cloud hosting range from $15/month to $25/month depending on your individual needs.

Dedicated Server Hosting

For developers or system admins comfortable developing with command line, A2 Hosting has unmanaged dedicated server hosting options.

For huge websites that need a lot of resources, but don’t want to deal with anything host related, A2 Hosting offers extensive managed dedicated server hosting options.

Ranging from $9.31/month to $141.09/month, you can pick an unmanaged or managed dedicated server hosting solution depending on the type of website owner you are.

Main Features

A2 Hosting’s shared hosting plans offer website owners a ton of features. Let’s take a quick glance at just some of what you can expect if you go with one of their affordable shared hosting plans.

• Unlimited bandwidth. Transfer as much data from elsewhere to your newly hosted website, all for free. Plus, get help from their expert support team migrating your website.
• Free site migration. They will move help you move your site from another hosting service, free of charge – if your site uses cPanel (which most web hosting companies do).
• Speeds of up to 20x faster than competitors. Turbo servers that deliver 20x faster loading websites & A2 Site Accelerator 1-click caching. (read more about these features)
• One-click WordPress installs. Easily install WordPress and get started right away. Plus WordPress comes preconfigured for speed and security
• “Perpetual security”. Enjoy free HackScan Protection so your site doesn’t fall victim to hackers, KernelCare rebootless kernel updates, a dual firewall, virus scanning, brute force defense and more for the ultimate in site security.
• Guaranteed uptime. A2 Hosting guarantees a 99.99% uptime.
• WP-CLI (Command line interface for WordPress). If you need it, you can have WP-CLI pre-installed.
• Free Cloudfare CDN. Worldwide servers determine the fastest route to deliver your website content to site visitors.
• Round-the-clock support. Get help 24/7/365 via live chat, ticket, email, or phone.

But that’s not all. In fact, A2 Hosting has 5 distinct features they like to ensure all interested customers know about before making a final purchasing decision:

1. Developer Friendly Hosting
2. Domain Registration
3. Domain Transfer
4. SSL Certificates
5. Swift & Turbo Servers Fast Hosting

Developer Friendly Hosting

A2 is dedicated to provider clients the most updated development software. Some of the most notable are:

• PHP compatibility
• PHPNG, which is the basis for the most recent PHP versions, PHP 7.x (which gives websites 2x the speed of PHP 5.6)
• Python 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2 – the most popular, high-level, and general-purpose programming language
• Apache 2.2 which is the world’s most widely used web server software
• FTP so you can easily transfer files between your computer and a server
• And so much more…

Domain Registration and Transfer

Register a new domain or transfer your existing one when you decide to go with A2 Hosting. In fact, you have access to the most popular generic to-level domains (gTLDs).  Simply type in your preferred domain name and register it as your own.

In addition, if your website targets a specific geographic location, such as a particular country, grab a country specific TLD as well.

Site visitors tend to trust country specific TLDs, especially when it comes to making online purchases. Boost your reputation, establish trust, and cater to your international brand by implementing a country specific TLD.

Here are some more features you can expect when registering your domain with A2:

• Customize how your domain’s information displays in “Whois” searches
• Receive free DNS management and watch site speed soar thanks to reduced latency
• Protect your personal information with the ID Protection Option
• Prevent domain hijacking or unauthorized account transfers
• Access the support team at any hour of any day

SSL Certificates

There are several SSL Certificate options to choose from with A2 Hosting, which is a nice change from some of the other hosting providers that only provide one or two.

Protecting your site is especially crucial when you collect any type of payment from site visitors.

After all, customers are entrusting their personal and financial information to you when they make a purchase from your online shop. If this information gets into the wrong hands, you are sure to find yourself in a lot of trouble.

• Let’s Encrypt. A free SSL solution that provides enhanced site security. In addition, it secures the connection to your server that is not seen by the public.
• Single Site SSL. Premium, one-click, single site SSL options are available starting at $49.95/year. Coming with all the protection a free SSL does, a single site SSL also comes with 256 Bit Encryption, an official Site Seal, and verified domain status.
• Wildcard SSL. This SSL certificate will apply to an unlimited number of subdomains, all for one low price. Wildcard SSL certificates start at $149.95/year.
• Advanced SSL. This advanced SSL certificate comes with an exceptional selection of Organization Authentican and Extended Validation SSL Certificates.

SwiftServers & Turbo Hosting

A2 Hosting’s exclusive SwiftServer platform provides users the ultimate in site performance and speed. In fact, these are the benefits you reap by choosing A2 Hosting and their SwiftServer platform:

• Increased resource allocation per account
• Fewer customers on each shared server
• Faster hosting performance compared to Apache

In addition, with two out of the three shared hosting plans, you will have exclusive access to their A2 Optimized Site Accelerator, complete with a 1-click caching setup.

Caching solutions are not something many shared hosting plans provide, yet with A2 Hosting, you receive this on the majority of shared hosting plans.

Here is a rundown of the available caching solutions you can choose from, straight from your cPanel:

• Turbo Cache. All HTML contents of your website will be stored by Turbo Cache and served without running any PHP scripts.
• OpCache/APC. Cut PHP response times in half with this exceptional feature.
• Memcached. Increase the speed of your MySQL databases by keeping important data in memory for quicker retrieval.

With SwiftServer Hosting, you also receive free SSDs. As one of the first hosting companies to offer solid state drives (SSDs) as a replacement to the outdated hard disk drives (HDDs), website owners experienced increased page loading speed because SSDs eliminate moving parts and boost read and write times as a result.

Because A2 Hosting is so confident your website will run up to 300x faster than standard shared hosting companies using their SSDs, they give all users one for free.

SwiftServers vs Turbo Hosting – What’s the difference?

All of A2’s plans are powered by their SwiftServer server infrastructure, however their Turbo plan comes with additional speed technologies and promises up to 20X faster loading websites.

Long story short. A2 Hosting’s Turbo Web Hosting servers behave almost identically to the Swift Web Hosting servers, but provide extra speed!

Turbo servers provide a drop-in Apache replacement that load pages up to 20X faster page loads compared to standard hosting. What makes their Turbo servers extra fast?

• Fewer users per server
• A2 Optimized – Powered By APC/OPcache & Turbo Cache
• Uses less CPU and memory than Apache
• Handles connections faster and more efficiently
• Provides enhanced stability

Pros and Cons of A2 Hosting

As with any hosting provider, there are pros and cons to be addressed before making a final decision. Since A2 Hosting is primarily a shared hosting solution, there will be some definite drawbacks if compared side-by-side with some of the managed website hosting providers on the market today.

The Pros

A2 Hosting does have a solid feature set that can get the job done for most people. Let’s take a look and see what I mean.

Site Speed

A2 Hosting stresses the fact that one of their number one priorities is site speed and performance, regardless of what hosting plan you go with.

Along with super-fast servers, you receive Memcached, Turbo Cache, and OpCache/APC resources that are easily enabled in your hosting account.

Not only that, you have access to more resources with less server strain, improved performance over Apache servers, fewer users per server despite being a shared hosting plan, free Railgun Optimizer for up to 143% faster HTML load times, and free SSDs.

In addition, you can subscribe to A2 Hosting’ exclusive Performance Plus service and have extra GB of RAM added to your account for when your site experiences a huge surge in traffic.

Multiple Data Centers

One of the main reasons A2 Hosting can serve up such fast response times is because they have three data centers around the world for getting your web content to site visitors as quick as possible.

• USA – Michigan
• Europe – Amsterdam
• Asia – Singapore

In addition, all customers have free Cloudfare CDN that picks the quickest route to your site visitor.

This means faster retrieval of your website data, quicker delivery of content, and faster page loading times. All of this combined equates with happier site visitors that will continue to come back time and again.

Uptime Guarantee

As with most hosting providers, A2 Hosting guarantees your site will not crash 99.99% of the time, no matter the circumstances. This is even true for those on a shared hosting plan.

One fear people have of investing in shared hosting is the fact that the other users “sharing” the server resources have the potential to pull your website down with them when something happens to their site.

With their Uptime Guarantee, you can rest assured their team of experts are working around the clock to make sure your server is up and running at all times.

The servers used by A2 Hosting are independently owned and managed by expert system admins that follow best practices, use only the best server data centers, and patch all security issues ASAP.

Scalability

With A2 Hosting, you have room to grow which is a major plus when it comes to choosing the right hosting provider. For those just starting out, the shared hosting plan is the perfect option.

It offers enough features to secure your site and promise its overall speed and performance. From there you can invest in the VPS hosting, and even move on to a dedicated hosting plan if need be.

In the end, with A2 Hosting you are able to scale up as large as you want without having to worry about changing hosting companies.

Top Security Measures

A2 Hosting offers you a number of security measures to ensure your website data is protected, as well as the personal information of those making payments on your website.

• 1-Time Site Cleanup. If your site has been hacked, their support team will fix your site for you. This includes hack cleanup, blacklist warning removal, and SEO spam repair. In addition to bringing you back online, they will add enhanced security measures to prevent another hack from happening.
• Sucuri Website Monitoring. For continuous website monitoring, you can invest in Sucuri Website Monitoring for $5/month. With this you will receive continuous scans and alerts, remote and server side scans, website application firewall protection, and prevention of hackers and DDoS attacks.
• Sucuri Account Firewall. For an additional $15/month, you can really protect your site from intrusions by receiving DDoS/brute force/malware protection, virtual patching and hardening of your site, and SQL injection blocking along with software and cross site scripting vulnerability blocking.

For those that want it all, you can make a once a year payment of $274.88 and have all of the above-security measures applied to your website.

eCommerce Support

For those looking to host their online shop, know that there are many eCommerce features that come packed into your shared hosting plan:

• Several SSL Certificates to choose from
• Instant Merchant Account ID (United States only)
• PayPal Merchant Accounts
• Magento, OpenCart, PrestaShop, and AbanteCart 1-click setups

Cater to a Global Audience

One thing A2 Hosting understands is the need to cater to a global audience. They know that many hosting companies aim for English speaking clients, which can result in many missed opportunities internationally.

And, with three major data centers spanning the globe – North America, Europe, and Asia – it is crucial that those speaking other languages be able to understand everything, prices included.

Luckily, A2 Hosting not only has a translation dropdown menu for those in the United States, Mexico, India, United Kingdom, and South Africa, they provide a convenient currency exchange so you can get accurate pricing as well.

This strategy is not only good for user experience, but helps A2 Hosting boost sales and expand their brand as one that is available for international customers.

The Cons

Every company has downsides, no matter how perfect they try to be. And, while they have plenty of positives, there are some things to think about before enlisting them as your next hosting provider.

Migration Fees

Upgrading and downgrading between plans is relatively easy to do. However, there are certain fees to be aware of. Take a look at what it may or may not cost should you decide to switch between hosting plans:

• Upgrades. Upgrading to a high-priced plan will garner you no extra charge to migrate your account. And, if you decide to change data centers while migrating the account, your data center migration fee will be waived as well. However, changing to another data center without an upgrade will cost you $25 in fees.
• Downgrades. If downgrading to a lower-priced hosting plan, you may be subject to a $25 downgrade charge.
• Migrations from Other Hosts. If you are migrating from another hosting provider that does not have a cPanel, you may be subject to charges determined by the migration team. However, if migrating from a cPanel host, the migration fees will not apply.

While these fees are seemingly minor, and there are some ways around having to pay them, it is still important to note the miscellaneous fees you may be facing while using A2 Hosting.

Limited Bonus Features

As great as A2 Hosting is at making your website super fast, the only way to access features such as the Turbo Server, A2 Optimized Site Accelerator, (which includes the Turbo Cache, OpCache/APC, and Memchached) is to invest in the highest priced shared hosting plan available.

This means that the other two hosting plans, the ones that make using A2 Hosting extremely affordable for those just starting out or with lower hosting budgets, are in line with all other standard hosting plans out there.

A2 Hosting wants you to believe they are a cut above the rest when it comes to speed and performance. And rightfully so. After all, that’s how you stand out amongst even the toughest competition.

However, failing to mention that two out of the three shared hosting plans are going to test as “average” when compared to competitors in the hosting services industry is kind of misleading.

With so much focus on the fact that A2 Hosting’s Turbo Servers deliver speeds up to 20x faster than typical hosting companies, it is easy to miss the fact that you only benefit from this by investing in the most expensive hosting plan available.

Shared Hosting Plans and Pricing

They offer three separate plans for their shared hosting services: Lite, Swift, and Turbo.

A2 Hosting Lite Plan

This plan starts at $3.92/month

• Host 1 website, 5 subdomains, and 25 parked domains
• Enjoy 5 databases

Essential features:

• Unlimited data transfer
• Free SSL Certificate and SSD solution
• 24/7/365 support
• 3 available data centers
• Free Cloudfare CDN
• Free site migration
• 99% Uptime Guarantee
• PHP version 7.x available
• 25 email addresses
• cPanel Control Panel
• Several eCommerce features

In all, for a shared hosting plan at such a low price, the feature set is adequate for those with one website.

A2 Hosting Swift Plan

This plan starts at $4.90/month

• Host unlimited websites, subdomains, parked domains, and addon domains
• Enjoy unlimited databases
• Have unlimited RAID-10 storage

Essential Features:

• Unlimited data transfer
• Free SSL Certificate and SSD solution
• 24/7/365 support
• 3 available data centers
• Free Cloudfare CDN
• Free site migration
• Server Rewind Backups
• 99% Uptime Guarantee
• PHP version 7.x available
• Unlimited email addresses
• cPanel Control Panel
• Several eCommerce features

Again, for a relatively low price point, those with more than one website receive a good feature set with A2 Hosting’s Swift Plan.

A2 Hosting Turbo Plan

This plan starts at $9.31/month

• Host unlimited websites, subdomains, parked domains, and addon domains
• Enjoy unlimited databases
• Have unlimited RAID-10 storage

Essential Features:

• Unlimited data transfer
• Free SSL Certificate and SSD solution
• Turbo Server
• 24/7/365 support
• A2 Optimized Site Accelerator complete with Turbo Cache, OpCache/APC, and Memcached
• 3 available data centers
• Free Cloudfare CDN
• HTTP/2, SPDY, and Edge Side Includes (ESI)
• Free site migration
• Server Rewind Backups
• 99% Uptime Guarantee
• PHP version 7.x available
• Unlimited email addresses
• cPanel Control Panel
• A2 Optimized Magento features
• Several eCommerce features

As one would suspect, the highest-priced shared hosting plan offers the most features.

In all, you will experience the fastest speeds and performance by investing in A2 Hosting’s Turbo shared hosting plan.

This is the best hosting plan for those that have lots of site traffic, resource-intensive websites, or simply want all of the features A2 has available.

A2 Hosting FAQ

Here you will find answers to some of the most commonly asked questions.

Do I recommend A2 Hosting?

In short, for those looking for an inexpensive shared hosting solution, yes I recommend giving A2 a shot.

They are independently owned meaning they are in complete control of all of their servers, which is a huge plus in the monopoly of hosting providers out there.

They also go big on the three most important hosting features – speed, features, and support.

Though you might have to upgrade to a higher-priced hosting plan to enjoy all of the features A2 Hosting has available, the good news is, a high level of speed, performance, and support come built-in to all of their plans.

In the end, with an anytime money back guarantee, there really is no reason not to give A2 Hosting a try. So, check them out and see how it goes. You never, know. The unique, standalone hosting provider might be just what you and your website need.

So what should you do next?

 

Sign Up with A2 Hosting

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