A2 Hosting Review

Finding a web host that balances features and affordability can be challenging. A2 Hosting stands out as an excellent option that often flies under the radar. This review will show you why A2 Hosting deserves your attention and could be the perfect fit for your website.

The web hosting market is constantly evolving, with new providers claiming to offer the best features and speeds. However, A2 Hosting has consistently proven itself as a top contender. In my experience testing various hosts, A2 stands out for several reasons.

I’ve personally witnessed A2’s impressive server speeds, which rival or surpass many more well-known providers. Their free site migration service saved me hours of work when moving a client’s complex e-commerce site. The “anytime” money-back guarantee shows real confidence in their service quality.

This review of A2 Hosting review digs deep into what sets this independent provider apart. I’ll share insights from my hands-on experience to help you determine if A2 Hosting aligns with your specific website needs.

In the next 10 minutes, I’ll provide you with essential insights about A2 Hosting, addressing key questions like:

By the end of this review, you’ll have a clear understanding of whether A2 Hosting is the right fit for your website needs.

A2 Hosting, established in 2001, operates as an independent hosting company. This independence sets them apart from the Newfold Digital conglomerate (previously EIG) that owns many well-known hosts.

Newfold Digital’s reputation has been mixed, leading some users to avoid hosts like HostGator and Bluehost simply due to their association. A2 Hosting’s independent status allows them to maintain control over their service quality and customer experience.

In my testing, A2 Hosting has consistently delivered solid performance. Their independence allows them to be more agile and responsive to customer needs compared to larger conglomerates.

A2 Hosting caters to a wide range of website owners, from small personal blogs to large e-commerce sites. Their scalable solutions mean you can start small and grow your hosting plan as your website traffic increases.

Let’s dive deeper into A2 Hosting’s offerings to see if they’re the right choice for your website.

Performance, Speed & Reliability

In this section, you will find out…

• Why site speed matters… a lot!
• How fast a site hosted on A2 Hosting loads. We will test their speed and server response time against Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics.
• How a site hosted on A2 Hosting performs with traffic spikes. We will test how it performs when faced with increased site traffic.

The most important performance metric that you should look for in a web host is speed. Visitors to your site expect it to load fast instant. Site speed not only affects user experience on your site, but it also affects your SEO, Google rankings, and conversion rates.

But, testing site speed against Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics isn’t enough on its own, as our testing site does not have substantial traffic volume. To evaluate the efficiency (or inefficiency) of the web host’s servers when faced with increased site traffic, we use a testing tool called K6 (formerly called LoadImpact) to send virtual users (VU) to our test site.

Why Site Speed Matters

Did you know that:

• Pages that loaded in 2.4 seconds had a 1.9% conversion rate.
• At 3.3 seconds, the conversion rate was 1.5%.
• At 4.2 seconds, the conversion rate was less than 1%.
• At 5.7+ seconds, the conversion rate was 0.6%.

When people leave your website, you lose not only potential revenue but also all the money and time you spent generating traffic to your website.

And if you want to get to the first page of Google and stay there, you need a website that loads up fast.

Google’s algorithms prefer displaying websites that offer a great user experience (and site speed is a huge factor). In Google’s eyes, a website that offers a good user experience generally has a lower bounce rate and loads up fast.

If your website is slow, most visitors will bounce back, resulting in a loss in search engine rankings. Also, your website needs to load up fast if you want to convert more visitors into paying customers.

If you want your website to load up fast and secure the first spot in search engine results, you will need a fast web hosting provider with server infrastructure, CDN and caching technologies that are fully configured and optimized for speed.

The web host you choose to go with will significantly impact how fast your website loads.

How We Perform the Testing

We follow a systematic and identical process for all the web hosts we test.

• Buy hosting: First, we sign up and pay for the web host’s entry-level plan.
• Install WordPress: Then, we set up a new, blank WordPress site using the Astra WordPress theme. This is a lightweight multipurpose theme and serves as a good starting point for the speed test.
• Install plugins: Next, we install the following plugins: Akismet (for spam protection), Jetpack (security and backup plugin), Hello Dolly (for a sample widget), Contact Form 7 (a contact form), Yoast SEO (for SEO), and FakerPress (for generating test content).
• Generate content: Using the FakerPress plugin, we create ten random WordPress posts and ten random pages, each containing 1,000 words of lorem ipsum “dummy” content. This simulates a typical website with various content types.
• Add images: With the FakerPress plugin, we upload one unoptimized image from Pexels, a stock photo website, to each post and page. This helps evaluate the website’s performance with image-heavy content.
• Run the speed test: we run the last published post in Google’s PageSpeed Insights Testing tool.
• Run the load impact test: we run the last published post in K6’s Cloud Testing tool.

How We Measure Speed & Performance

The first four metrics are Google’s Core Web Vitals, and these are a set of web performance signals that are critical to a user’s web experience on both desktop and mobile devices. The last fifth metric is a load impact stress test.

⚡A2 Hosting Speed & Performance Test Results

The table below compares web hosting companies’ performance based on four key performance indicators: average Time to First Byte, First Input Delay, Largest Contentful Paint, and Cumulative Layout Shift. Lower values are better.

1. Time to First Byte (TTFB): TTFB is a measurement used as an indication of the responsiveness of a web server or other network resource. The average TTFB for A2 hosting is 373.05 milliseconds (ms), which is acceptable but not excellent. There are large variations in TTFB between different locations. It’s particularly good in London (38.47 ms), New York (41.45 ms), and Sydney (27.32 ms). But it’s relatively poor in Frankfurt (786.16 ms), Amsterdam (803.76 ms), and San Francisco (800.62 ms). A low TTFB helps reduce the latency of a website, and generally, a TTFB under 200ms is considered good.
2. First Input Delay (FID): FID measures the time from when a user first interacts with a page to the time when the browser is able to begin processing event handlers in response to that interaction. The FID for A2 hosting is 2 ms, which is excellent. Generally, a FID of less than 100 ms is considered good as it provides a smooth user interaction experience.
3. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): LCP measures the time it takes for the largest contentful element in the viewport to become visible. A good LCP score helps ensure that your page is providing a good user experience by rendering main content quickly. The LCP for A2 hosting is 2 seconds (s), which is a bit on the higher side. According to Google’s Web Vitals, an ideal LCP measurement is 2.5 seconds or faster.
4. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): CLS measures the sum total of all individual layout shift scores for every unexpected layout shift that occurs during the entire lifespan of the page. It’s an important user-centric metric for measuring visual stability because unexpected layout shifts can disorient users. A2 Hosting has a CLS of 0.03, which is excellent. A CLS score below 0.1 is considered good as it indicates minimal layout shifting on the page.

A2 Hosting performs excellently in terms of FID and CLS, ensuring a smooth and stable user experience. However, its performance regarding TTFB and LCP could be improved, especially TTFB in certain locations, to ensure content is served quicker and the site responds faster to user requests.

⚡A2 Hosting Load Impact Test Results

The table below compares web hosting companies’ performance based on three key performance indicators: Average Response Time, Highest Load Time, and Average Request Time. Lower values are better for Average Response Time and Highest Load Time, while higher values are better for Average Request Time.

1. Average Response Time: This metric measures the time taken by a server to respond to a request from a user’s browser. For A2 Hosting, the average response time is 23 milliseconds (ms), which is excellent. An average response time under 100ms is usually considered very good because it means the server is responding quickly to requests, which should help to provide a fast and smooth experience for users.
2. Highest Load Time: This metric refers to the maximum time it took for the server to respond to a request during the test period. In the case of A2 Hosting, the highest load time is 2103 ms (or about 2.1 seconds). This figure is a bit high, which could suggest that there might be performance issues under high load or complex requests. Ideally, the highest load time should also be kept as low as possible to ensure the website stays responsive even under heavy traffic.
3. Average Request Time: This is a bit misleading, as generally lower response times are considered better. However, if we interpret this as the average number of requests handled per second, then for A2 Hosting, it’s 50 requests/second. This is a very good number. It means the server is capable of handling 50 requests per second on average, which indicates a strong capacity to manage high volumes of traffic.

A2 Hosting performs very well in terms of average response time and request handling capacity, ensuring a quick response to user requests and an ability to handle high traffic loads. However, its highest load time is relatively high, suggesting that there might be some delays in response time under heavy load or complex requests. Improvements in this area could lead to an even better user experience, particularly in high-traffic scenarios.

Key Features

A2 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 options.

• Unlimited bandwidth. Transfer as much data from elsewhere to your newly hosted website, all for free. Plus, get help from their expert support guru crew team migrating your website.
• Free site migration. They will move to 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. High-power servers that deliver 20 times faster loading websites & A2 Site Accelerator 1-click caching. (read more about these features below)
• NVMe SSD storage. NVMe offers superior speed and reliability advantages over regular SATA-based disk space solutions.
• One-click WordPress installs. Easily install WordPress and get started right away. Plus A2 WordPress hosting comes preconfigured for speed and security
• “Perpetual Security”. Enjoy free HackScan Protection so that your site doesn’t fall victim to hackers, KernelCare re-bootless kernel updates, a dual firewall, virus scanning, brute force defence, and more for the ultimate in-site security.
• Guaranteed uptime. They guarantee a 99.99% uptime.
• WP-CLI (Command line interface for WordPress). If you need it, you can have WP-CLI pre-installed.
• Free Cloudflare CDN. Worldwide servers determine the fastest route to deliver your website content to site visitors.
• Round-the-clock guru crew support. Get help 24/7/365 via live chat, ticket, email, or via 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. Swift & Turbo Servers Fast Hosting
2. Developer Friendly Hosting
3. Domain Names Registration & Transfer
4. SSL Certificates

1. SwiftServers and Turbo Hosting

A2 Hosting’s exclusive SwiftServer platform provides users with the ultimate in-site performance and speed thanks to LiteSpeed.

In fact, these are the benefits you reap by choosing A2 Hosting and their SwiftServer platform:

• Boost and Turbo max plans deliver the fastest page load times and most reliable uptime;
  • LiteSpeed web server technology
  • NVMe SSD storage
  • HTTP/3 transfer protocol
  • ESI caching
  • QUIC multiplex connections
• 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 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 plans provide, yet with A2 Hosting, you receive this on the majority of shared hosting options.

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 A2 Hosting’s Turbo Hosting, you also receive NVMe SSDs. As one of the first hosting companies to offer NVMe solid-state drives (SSDs) as a replacement for 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.

Non-Volatile Memory express (NVMe) drives offer must faster read-write capabilities speeds and CPU performance.

Because A2 Hosting is so confident your website will run up to 300x faster than standard shared hosting companies using NVMe, 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 20 times faster loading websites.

Long story short. Their 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 loads pages up to 20 times faster page loads compared to standard hosting. What makes their 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

2. Developer Friendly Hosting

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

• Servers with pre-installed and pre-configured LiteSpeed so you get the best performance.
• 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
• Root access and FTP accounts so you can easily transfer files between your computer and a server
• And so much more…

3. Domain Registration and Transfer

Register a new domain or transfer your existing one when you decide to go with them. In fact, you have access to the most popular generic top-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 A2 Hosting support team at any hour of any day

4. 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-of-charge 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-of-charge 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 Authentication and Extended Validation SSL Certificates.

What We Like… and Don’t Like

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.

What We Like

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 option 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, but you also have access to more server resources with less server strain, improved performance over Apache servers, fewer users per server despite being a shared plan, free Railgun Optimizer for up to 143% faster HTML load times, and free NVMe SSDs.

In addition, you can subscribe to A2 Hosting’ exclusive Performance Plus service and have an 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 they can serve up such a fast response time is because they have three data centers around the world for getting your web content to site visitors as quickly as possible.

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

In addition, all customers have free Cloudflare 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.

Sites that load slowly aren’t likely to rise to the top in any niche. A study from Google found that a one-second delay in mobile page load times can impact conversion rates by up to 20%.

Uptime Guarantee

Besides page load times, it’s also important that your website is “up” and available to your visitors. I monitor uptime for a test site hosted on A2 Hosting to see how often they experience outages. You can view historical uptime data and server response time on this uptime monitor page.

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 option.

One fear people have of investing in shared web 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 is 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 option is the perfect option.

It offers enough features to secure your site and promises its overall speed and performance. From there you can invest in the core VPS hosting, and even move on to a dedicated hosting option 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 guru crew 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 the 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 attacks/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 packet:

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

Caters 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 them boost sales and expand their brand as one that is available for international customers.

What We Don’t Like

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 are 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 downgrade 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, and A2 Optimized Site Accelerator, (which includes the Turbo Cache, OpCache/APC, and Memcached) 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 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 Servers (Turbo) deliver speeds up to 20 times 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.

Plans & Pricing

Shared Hosting Plans

When it comes to shared hosting packages, they have four distinct plans – StartUp, Drive, Turbo Boost & Turbo Max.

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 website owners free-of-charge SSL certifications and a free NVMe SSD. In addition, you can easily integrate shopping cart applications and turn your website into an eCommerce shop.

The A2 Hosting pricing plans are straightforward. They offer three separate plans for their shared hosting services: StartUp, Drive, Turbo Boost web hosting, and Turbo Max.

StartUp Plan

This plan starts at $2.99/month

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

Essential features:

• Unlimited data transfer
• Free SSL and SSD (NVMe) storage solution
• 100 GB SSD Storage
• 24/7/365 great support and extensive knowledge base
• 3 available data centers
• Free Cloudflare CDN
• Free site migration
• 99% Uptime
• PHP version 7. x available
• 25 email accounts
• 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.

Drive Plan

This plan starts at $5.99/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 and SSD storage
• 24/7/365 support
• 3 available data centers
• Free Cloudflare CDN
• Free site migration
• Server Rewind Backups
• 99% Uptime
• 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 Turbo Plans.

Turbo Boost Plan

This plan starts at $6.99/month

• Host unlimited websites, subdomains, parked domains, and addon domains
• Enjoy unlimited databases
• Have unlimited NVMe storage
• Turbo (LiteSpeed) servers that are up to 20x faster

Essential Features:

• Unlimited data transfer
• Free SSL and SSD storage (NVMe)
• Turbo Server
• 24/7/365 great support
• A2 Optimized Site Accelerator complete with Turbo Cache, OpCache/APC, and Memcached
• 3 available data centers
• Free Cloudflare 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

Turbo Max Plan

This plan starts at $14.99/month

• Everything in the Turbo Boost Plan, plus:
• Unlimited Websites
• Unlimited NVMe Storage
• Free & Easy Site Migration
• Free Automatic Backups
• Turbo (LiteSpeed) servers that are up to 20x faster
• 5X More Resources

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 hosting plans.

Turbo 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.

Managed WordPress Hosting

A2 Hosting WordPress plans have everything you need to build a high-performance and secure WordPress website.

Features include a free Jetpack license (remote backups, malware scans, and security), servers that are 20 times faster (LiteSpeed + NVMe), built-in website staging and cloning, A2 optimized plugin (LiteSpeed cache plugin), and a free-of-charge SSL certificate – plus your site gets upgraded, patched and maintained.

The Run plan (1 site) starts at $11.99 /mo, the Jump plan (5 sites) starts at $18.99 /mo, the Fly plan (unlimited sites) starts at $28.99 /mo, and the Sell plan (WooCommerce optimized) starts at $41.99 /mo.

See more details about A2 Hosting managed WordPress hosting plans.

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 options, 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 options ranges from $22.99/month to $39.99/per 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 fewer 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 4 unmanaged VPS hosting options ranging from $2.99/per month to $29.99/per month.

In addition, they offer more powerful fully-managed VPS hosting solutions starting at $39.99/month and topping out at $67.99/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 per month to $25 per month depending on your individual needs.

Dedicated Server Hosting

For developers or system admins comfortable developing with the 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 $105.99/month to $505.99/month, you can pick an unmanaged or managed dedicated server hosting solution depending on the type of website owner you are.

Compare A2 Hosting Competitors

Choosing the right web hosting provider is crucial for website success. To help you out, here’s a comparison of A2 Hosting against some of its top competitors: Bluehost, SiteGround, Hostinger, Cloudways, HostPapa, BigScoots, and GreenGeeks.

	Performance	Pricing	Support	Features	Best For
A2 Hosting	Excellent	Moderate	Excellent	Speed optimization, Reliability	Businesses needing high performance
Bluehost	Good	Affordable	Good	User-friendly, WordPress integration	Beginners, WordPress users
SiteGround	Excellent	Moderate	Excellent	High-speed, Advanced features	Small to medium-sized businesses
Hostinger	Good	Very Affordable	Good	Cost-effective, User-friendly	Beginners, Personal websites
Cloudways	Excellent	Flexible	Good	Managed cloud hosting, Scalable	Developers, High-traffic sites
HostPapa	Good	Moderate	Good	Green hosting, User-friendly	Small businesses, Eco-conscious sites
BigScoots	Very Good	Higher	Excellent	Premium services, Reliable	High-demand websites, Enterprises
GreenGeeks	Good	Affordable	Good	Eco-friendly, Scalable	Eco-conscious users, Small businesses

Bluehost:

• Strengths: Bluehost is a popular choice for beginners due to its affordable plans and user-friendly interface. They offer a free domain name and website builder with some plans, making it easy to get started. Their customer support is also top-notch, available 24/7 via phone, chat, and email.
• Weaknesses: While performance is decent, it’s not as exceptional as A2 Hosting’s. Uptime guarantees can be confusing, and some users have reported issues with scaling beyond shared hosting plans.
• Read our review of Bluehost.

SiteGround:

• Strengths: SiteGround focuses on website security and stability, offering automatic backups, malware scanning, and DDoS protection. They also have excellent customer support with knowledgeable staff and prompt response times. Additionally, their managed WordPress hosting is highly optimized for website performance.
• Weaknesses: Prices are on the higher end, especially for shared hosting plans. Storage space can be limited on lower tiers.
• Read our review of SiteGround.

Hostinger:

• Strengths: Hostinger is the most affordable option on this list, offering incredibly low introductory prices. They also offer a user-friendly control panel and website builder.
• Weaknesses: Uptime guarantees are lower than some competitors. Performance can be inconsistent, especially with shared hosting. Customer support may not be as knowledgeable as some other providers.
• Read our review of Hostinger.

Cloudways:

• Strengths: Cloudways gives you control and flexibility, allowing you to choose your cloud provider (DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr) and customize your server configuration. This is ideal for developers and tech-savvy users.
• Weaknesses: Cloudways requires more technical knowledge than other providers. Pricing can be higher than shared hosting plans, and you have to pay for the cloud provider separately.
• Read our review of Cloudways.

HostPapa:

• Strengths: HostPapa offers a good balance of features and affordability, with unlimited storage and bandwidth on all plans. They also have a solid uptime guarantee and good customer support.
• Weaknesses: Performance is not as outstanding as some competitors, particularly for heavy traffic websites. Their website builder is basic and may not be suitable for complex websites.
• Read our review of HostPapa.

BigScoots:

• Strengths: BigScoots caters to developers and agencies with managed VPS and dedicated server options offering high performance and security. They also provide excellent 24/7 customer support.
• Weaknesses: Not suitable for beginners due to its technical nature and lack of shared hosting plans. Pricing can be expensive compared to other VPS providers.
• Read our review of BigScoots.

GreenGeeks:

• Strengths: GreenGeeks is an eco-friendly hosting provider, using renewable energy to power their data centers. They offer good performance and a variety of features, including a free website builder and SSL certificate.
• Weaknesses: Uptime guarantees are lower than some competitors. Pricing can be higher than some shared hosting options, especially for higher tiers.
• Read our review of GreenGeeks.

Our Verdict ⭐

After thoroughly testing A2 Hosting, I can confidently recommend it for most website owners. Their anytime refund policy demonstrates a strong commitment to customer satisfaction.

A2 Hosting’s independent ownership is a significant advantage. In my experience, this translates to more responsive customer service and faster implementation of new technologies compared to larger, corporate-owned hosts.

The company excels in three critical areas: speed optimization, feature-rich plans, and responsive support. I’ve personally witnessed their Turbo servers outperform many competitors, especially for WordPress sites.

While the most advanced features are reserved for higher-tier plans, even A2’s basic offerings provide impressive speed and reliability. In my tests, their entry-level shared hosting consistently outperformed similarly priced competitors in page load times.

A2’s anytime money-back guarantee removes the risk from trying their service. I’ve used this policy once when migrating a client to a different type of hosting, and the refund process was smooth and hassle-free.

Who should choose A2 Hosting? Based on my experience:

• Small to medium-sized business owners who need reliable, fast hosting without breaking the bank
• WordPress users looking for optimized performance without the complexity of managing their own server
• Developers who appreciate the flexibility of multiple PHP versions and easy staging environments
• E-commerce site owners who require PCI compliance and robust security features

However, large enterprises or users with extremely tight budgets might want to explore other options. A2’s advanced features, while powerful, come at a premium compared to basic hosts.

A2 Hosting offers a compelling mix of performance, features, and support that suits a wide range of users. Their commitment to speed and customer satisfaction makes them a top choice in the crowded hosting market.

Recent Improvements & Updates

A2 Hosting constantly improves its hosting services with faster speeds, better security, and enhanced customer support. Here are just some of the recent improvements (last checked December 2024):

• NVMe Hosting: A2 Hosting has introduced NVMe Hosting to enhance speed, making them one of the first to offer this technology.
• Managed WordPress Hosting: This new service focuses on continuous updates and features, providing a robust environment for WordPress users.
• Bare Metal Dedicated Servers: A2 Hosting has launched a new line of Bare Metal Dedicated Servers, expanding their server options.
• 24/7/365 Support for Managed WordPress: The in-house Guru Crew offers round-the-clock support for server and plan maintenance, emphasizing security and speed optimization.
• Security Enhancements: The Managed WordPress plans include comprehensive security features like a web application firewall, antivirus, network firewall, and patch management. Specialized plans also offer Jetpack Daily Secure for additional WordPress protection.
• Speed Optimization: Hosting on Turbo servers with NVMe storage, LiteSpeed caching, and the A2 Optimized plugin significantly boosts website performance.
• Managed Server Benefits: These plans include full server management services, including maintenance, security, resource upgrades, and malware scanning.
• WordPress-Specific Tools: New tools for WordPress site management are provided, including daily backups, malware scans, site speed scores, and 1-click optimizations. The cPanel’s Deluxe WordPress Toolkit aids in managing and securing WordPress sites.
• Support for PHP 8.1: A2 Hosting now supports PHP 8.1, enhancing security and compatibility with frameworks like Symfony and WordPress.
• Managed WordPress Security Features: The new plans come with HackScan Protection, DDoS Protection, KernelCare, and other security tools like WordPress Toolkit, Jetpack Plugin, and A2 Optimized for comprehensive website protection.
• cPanel Security Features: Improvements include directory privacy, free SSL certificates, hotlink protection, Imunify360, IP blocker, leech protection, ModSecurity, Patchman, SSH, 2FA, and a virus scanner.

Reviewing A2 Hosting: Our Methodology

When we review web hosts, our evaluation is based on these criteria:

1. Value for Money: What types of web hosting plans are on offer, and are they good value for money?
2. User Friendliness: How user-friendly is the signup process, the onboarding, the dashboard? and so on.
3. Customer Support: When we need help, how quickly can we get it, and is the support effective and helpful?
4. Hosting Features: What unique features does the web host provide, and how do they stack up against competitors?
5. Security: Are essential security measures like SSL certificates, DDoS protection, backup services, and malware/virus scans included?
6. Speed and Uptime: Is the hosting service fast and reliable? What types of servers do they use, and how do they perform in tests?

For more details on our review process, click here.

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References

• https://a2status.com/
• https://www.a2hosting.com/kb/
• https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.a2hosting.com