Product Name: A2 Hosting
Summary
Looking for a faster yet budget-friendly web hosting choice? Try A2 Hosting. A2 Hosting is a privately owned hosting company that offers shared, VPS, dedicated, and reseller hosting solutions. Here’s our detailed A2 Hosting review where you’ll find its uptime, speed, features, pricing, alternatives, and many more.
If you’re searching for an honest A2 Hosting review with its performance, speed, and alternatives – you’re in the right place.
There are very few web hosting companies that are independently owned – A2 Hosting is one among them.
A2 Hosting is known for providing extremely fast loading times at affordable prices. But is that true? Let’s find out.
In this review, we’ll talk about;
- A2 Hosting performance (speed & uptime)
- Features
- Pros & cons of A2 Hosting
- A2 Hosting alternatives
- Customer reviews and more
So are you ready? Let’s jump into the details.
Table of Contents
A2 Hosting Review 2024: Is It A Blazing Fast & Affordable Web Host?
About A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is an independently owned web hosting company founded by Bryan Muthig in 2001.
A2 Hosting began its journey by just offering shared web hosting solutions. Today, they offer a wide range of hosting solutions including Shared, Reseller, VPS, and Dedicated Server solutions.
A2 Hosting is known for providing affordable web hosting packages along with amazing support and security features.
A2 Hosting Features
Explore the top features of A2 Hosting and why it’s a recommended choice. For more detailed recommendations on top hosting options, check out our best web hosting guide.
- Unlimited SSD storage space
- Unlimited email addresses
- Unlimited databases
- Install unlimited websites (except on their Basic plan)
- Free SSL
- Free website migration
- Free automatic backups
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Optimized for WordPress, Drupal & Joomla
- 1-click website staging
- 24/7 networking monitoring
- 24/7/365 expert support
A2 Hosting Uptime Test
A2 Hosting boasts a 99.9% uptime. Is that really true?
Let’s find out.
In the last 30 days, A2 Hosting has an uptime of 99.923% which is great.
Have a look;
Data Centers Locations
So where are A2 Hosting’s data centers and servers located?
A2 Hosting offers the following four data center options.
- USA – Michigan
- USA – Arizona
- Europe – Amsterdam
- Asia – Singapore
Make sure to pick a data center that’s closest to your target audience location to offer blazing fast page loading times.
How to Start A Blog on A2 Hosting [Get Up To 72% Off]
Want to start a blog on A2 Hosting? Here’s a quick tutorial on using A2 Hosting to launch your blog today where you’ll also get a HUGE discount.
Click on this special link to visit A2 Hosting’s website and pick any shared hosting plan that suits your budget and website needs.
Quick note: If you’re on a small budget, go with A2 Hosting’s Startup shared hosting plan as it costs you only $2.99/mo. But if you want to install multiple sites, go with either Drive or Turbo Boost plans.
As you can see above, the Startup plan offers a huge 72% discount.
Once you pick your preferred shared hosting plan, you’ll be asked to enter a domain name. You can either use your existing domain or register a new domain with A2 Hosting.
Quick note: If you already have a domain you can either point the name servers to A2 Hosting or transfer your domain to A2 Hosting.
Once it’s done, you’ll be taken to the final step where you’ll be shown your order summary which looks like this;
Click on the Continue button and finish the payment process. Once the payment is done, you’ll get a confirmation email from A2 Hosting along with your login details.
Then, you can install WordPress on your site or if your site is hosted elsewhere, you can contact A2 Hosting’s support team to migrate your site for free.
5 BIGGEST Reasons to Choose A2 Hosting Over Other Web Hosts
Why invest your money in A2 Hosting? Here are the 5 biggest benefits of using A2 Hosting over other web hosts.
1. Loaded With A Ton of Features
One of the major reasons to pick A2 Hosting is that it offers a ton of powerful hosting features. Here are some of the features that help you easily manage your WordPress sites.
Host unlimited websites: A2 Hosting allows you to host unlimited sites (except on their basic Startup plan).
Most people get started with 1 website but soon they’ll start purchasing new domains or launching a few multiple sites. That’s why having a web host that allows you to host unlimited sites can be a great deal.
Free SSL certificates: SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a must for every website as it creates an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser. It is also what makes your site go from HTTP to HTTPS secured version. A2 Hosting offers free SSL with all plans.
Unlimited storage: A2 Hosting offers unlimited SSD storage (except for their basic plan). It also offers NVMe storage with its Turbo plans. Both SSD and NVMe storage options are extremely faster when compared to traditional HDDs.
Website staging: Website staging helps you create a clone of your website that is actually independent from your live site that visitors can see.
With website staging, you can make any changes you want without affecting your site’s user experience. A2 Hosting offers website staging with all plans.
Apart from the above, A2 Hosting also provides a ton of more useful features such as;
- Unlimited emails
- Easy to use control panel
- Free website builder
- Website templates and many more
2. Blazing Fast Hosting
We all need faster websites. Even search engines like Google give a lot of importance to faster sites.
Whether you know it or not, your web host plays a HUGE role in your website speed. So make sure to pick a web host that offers faster loading times.
A2 Hosting claims to offer the fastest website speeds. Is that true?
A2 Hosting uses advanced technology that includes Turbo Servers that offer up to 20x faster loading times.
A2 Hosting uses;
- HTTP/2 for faster network protocol
- CloudLinux to help your sites run smoothly even during traffic spikes
- CloudFlare CDN to provide better website speeds no matter where your visitors are coming from
- Websocket which creates a two-way interaction between a browser and a website possible for a realtime web experience
- Memcached which increases the speed of your MySQL databases
- SSD servers that load up to 300% faster compared to traditional hosting services
The Turbo Servers are only available on their Turbo packages (Turbo Boost & Turbo Max) where you’ll get;
- More resources allocated to your hosting account
- Fewer customers hosted on your hosting servers
- Faster and efficient web hosting performance compared to Apache
In a nutshell, A2 Hosting is a faster web hosting provider when compared to its competitors such as Bluehost, FastComet, HostGator, etc.
3. Free Automatic Backups
A website backup is extremely important as it helps you easily recover your website in case of data loss. A website backup is like having an extra tire that offers a hassle-free experience.
Just imagine accidentally deleting your blog posts, media files, or images. Or imagine your site getting infected with malware or spam. What would you do to recover all that data?
That’s why you need to take regular backups of your website. A backup saves you from accidental deletion and data corruption.
Fortunately, A2 Hosting offers free automatic backups where account backup snapshots are taken regularly. That way you can easily restore your data from saved snapshots whenever recovery is needed.
You can also use the Backup Manager to backup your whole website, download a backup or restore from a previously created backup of your site.
4. Free Website Migration
Migrating your website from one host to another host is a tedious task if you’re not tech-savvy. There are many web hosts that offer website transfers but charge upwards of $100 per 1 site transfer.
Here’s where A2 Hosting free website migration service comes into handy as it offers free site transfers.
The only catch is that – the A2 Hosting needs your existing web host’s cPanel access. If your existing host is NOT using cPanel, then you’re on your own.
But most web hosting providers use cPanel such as Softaculous – so make sure to check if your existing web host uses a cPanel.
Quick note: In case, if your previous host does not provide cPanel access then you may be charged a migration fee.
If your previous host is using cPanel, here’s how you can avail yourself of free website migration from A2 Hosting.
You should fill out this migration request form to migrate your site to A2 Hosting.
A2 Hosting has an exclusive team of migration specialists who’ll complete your website transfer within 24-48 hours of receiving a completed migration request.
One more way to perform website transfers is to take a complete cPanel based backup of your hosting account from your old host. Then, upload that backup to the A2 Hosting account through File Manager.
Then you can open a support ticket and contact their support team to have your site transfer completed!
5. Most Secure Web Hosting
Whether you know it or not, over 10 million websites are hacked every single year. Surprisingly, 1 in 6 of those sites are powered by WordPress.
So it’s better to pick a web host that offers bullet-proof security.
A2 Hosting is known for providing better security as it offers the BEST features to safeguard your site. Here are some of the security features offered by A2 Hosting (that come as standard with ALL plans)
Free HackScan: A2 Hosting offers HackScan malware protection on their servers which is a 24/7 monitoring service. It runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help block malware attacks before they can damage your site.
Patchman Enhance security tool: This is a multi-functional security tool that’s provided for FREE with all the A2 Hosting’s plans. It keeps you updated;
- If you’re using outdated WordPress version
- If an infected or malicious file is detected on your account
- When WordPress patching is needed (bug fixes found in your updated version)
Free DDoS protection: All the plans from A2 Hosting get free DDoS protection. DDoS protection helps you monitor incoming traffic to the website. It blocks any traffic that isn’t legitimate such as bot traffic, whereas legitimate traffic continues to filter through to the site.
Apart from the above, A2 Hosting also offers few more security features such as;
- Virus scanner
- Kernelcare daily, automatic & rebootless kernel updates
- Dual firewall
- Brute force defence
A2 Hosting Pricing Plans
How much does A2 Hosting cost? A2 Hosting offers the following FOUR pricing packages in their shared hosting.
- Startup
- Drive
- Turbo Boost
- Turbo Max
Let’s now talk about these pricing plans along with their features.
1. Startup plan: This is the cheapest shared hosting plan from A2 Hosting which costs you just $2.99 per month. Here’s what you’ll get with this plan.
- Install 1 website
- 100 GB SSD storage
- Free website migration
2. Drive plan: If you want to install unlimited sites, this is the perfect plan for you. It costs you $5.99 per month where you’ll get the following features.
- Install unlimited websites
- Unlimited SSD storage
- Free website migration
- Free automatic backups
- 2x resources
3. Turbo Boost plan: If you want 20x faster turbo servers, this is the best plan for you and it costs you $6.99 per month where you’ll get the following things.
- Install unlimited websites
- Unlimited NVMe storage
- Free website migration
- Free automatic backups
- 2x resources
- Turbo servers (Up To 20X faster)
- Handles up to 9X more traffic
4. Turbo Max plan: The only difference between the Turbo Boost plan and the Turbo Max plan is that it offers 5x more resources. This plan costs you $12.99 per month and Turbo Max is their fastest shared server where you’ll get the following features.
- Install unlimited websites
- Unlimited NVMe storage
- Free website migration
- Free automatic backups
- 5x resources
- Turbo servers (Up To 20X faster)
- Handles up to 9X more traffic
How Does A2 Hosting Money-Back Guarantee Work?
Most web hosting companies including A2 Hosting competitors such as Bluehost, HostGator, etc offer only a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Whereas A2 Hosting offers an anytime money-back guarantee.
Here’s how it works;
- You get a FULL refund if you cancel your account within 30 days of the purchase.
- You get a prorated refund of unused service if you cancel your account after 30 days of the purchase.
It’s that simple.
For instance, you bought a 3-year hosting account with A2 Hosting and decided to cancel your account after 2 months.
In that case, you’ll get a refund for the remaining 2 years and 10 months. Are you getting it?
So… you can cancel your hosting account anytime you want and you’ll receive a prorated refund of unused service.
You can simply contact A2 Hosting’s customer support team if you want to cancel your account.
You can check A2 Hosting’s money-back guarantee page if you want more details.
Pros And Cons of A2 Hosting
So what are the pros and cons of using A2 Hosting? Let’s find them out.
Pros:
- Access to an easy-to-use control panel
- Provides free SSL certificates with all the plans
- Free website migration is available (if your previous host has cPanel)
- Free automatic backups
- Install unlimited sites (except on their basic plan)
- Offers automatic installations for WordPress, Drupal & Joomla
- SSH is available immediately for free
- Unlimited emails
- Offers 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Excellent security features such as DDoS protection, free HackScan, two-factor authentication, etc
- You’ll get unlimited databases
- Monthly hosting plans are also available with A2 Hosting
- Offers 24/7/365 expert support through email, phone, and live chat
Cons:
- Renewal rates are expensive (so it’s better to go with their 3-year hosting packages)
- A2 Hosting doesn’t offer a free domain (unlike its competitors like Bluehost, HostGator, Hostinger, etc)
A2 Hosting’s Customer Support Options
A2 Hosting offers 24/7/365 Guru crew support.
- Phone support
- Email/Ticket support
- Live chat support
So yes, you can connect with A2 Hosting’s support team anytime around the clock to get your queries solved.
A2 Hosting Reviews & Ratings
So what do other customers think about A2 Hosting? Let’s find out the A2 Hosting reviews from users.
Here’s what real users think about A2 Hosting;
On TrustPilot, A2 Hosting got a wonderful rating of 4.3 stars (from over 1200 reviews from users);
On G2, A2 Hosting got 4.2 out 5 ratings from their users which is great;
All over the web, A2 Hosting received a lot of positive buzz and great ratings from its users.
You can also perform a quick search on Google to know how good their hosting is.
Top 3 A2 Hosting Alternatives & Competitors
Looking for A2 Hosting alternatives? This A2 Hosting review will be incomplete if we don’t talk about its alternatives. Here are the top 3 alternatives you can consider in 2024.
1. Hostinger
If you’re looking for the cheapest A2 Hosting alternatives, try Hostinger. Hostinger currently hosts over 29 million websites in 178 countries with data centers located in 7 different regions.
Hostinger Features:
- Free domain
- SSD storage
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free SSL
- Easy to use control panel
- Unlimited databases
- Managed WordPress
- 24/7/365 support
- 99.9% Uptime guarantee
- 30 days money-back guarantee
- Free daily backups and CDN
Pricing: Hostinger offers the following three pricing plans in shared hosting.
1. Single shared hosting plan: This is the cheapest hosting plan from Hostinger which costs you $1.39 per month where you can install 1 website with 30 GB storage and is suitable for up to 10K visits/mo.
2. Premium shared hosting plan: This plan costs you $2.59 per month where you can install 100 websites with 100 GB storage and is suitable for up to 25K visits/mo.
3. Business shared hosting plan: This plan costs you $3.99 per month where you can install 100 websites with 200 GB storage and suitable for up to 100K visits/mo.
Make sure to use the coupon code ANILAGARWAL at the checkout if you want to get an extra discount on Hostinger hosting plans.
Read: Hostinger Coupon Code 2024: Up to 90% Discount + Free Domain
2. Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the trusted hosting providers which is used by over 2 million websites in the world. WordPress officially recommends Bluehost to its users and it’s an affordable hosting choice for personal blogs.
Bluehost Features:
- Free domain for the first year
- Install unlimited sites
- Access to SSD storage
- Free SSL certificates with all plans
- Unlimited bandwidth
- $200 worth marketing credits to promote your site on Google and Bing
- Unlimited databases
- Unlimited emails with unlimited email storage
- 30 days money-back guarantee
- 24/7/365 customer support
Pricing: Bluehost offers the following three pricing plans in shared hosting.
1. Basic plan: If you want to create only one website, this is the perfect plan for you and it costs you only $2.95 per month. You get 50GB storage and unlimited bandwidth along with 5 email accounts with a max storage of 100MB each.
2. Plus Plan: If you want to host multiple sites, then go with the “plus” package. The Plus plan comes at $5.45 per month. It allows you to host an unlimited number of websites with unlimited storage and bandwidth.
3. Choice Plus Plan: This plan costs you $5.45 per month and it provides unlimited websites, storage, bandwidth, unlimited email accounts. Also, you’ll get 1 SpamExperts, 1 Domain Privacy + Protection, and CodeGuard Basic.
3. WPX Hosting
If you’re looking for a blazing-fast hosting provider, WPX Hosting is just for you. We’re also using the same host on our blog for the last 6 years and we’re extremely satisfied with their speed and features.
WPX Hosting Features:
- Free site speed optimization
- Free unlimited site transfers to WPX
- Free lightning fast CDN
- 1-Click WordPress Installs
- 24/7 live chat support
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- 99.95% uptime
- Free malware detection & removal
- Free website fixes if down
- 30-second average support response
Pricing: WPX Hosting offers the following three pricing plans.
1. Business plan: This is the cheapest plan from WPX which costs you $20.83 per month. You will get 10 GB disk space where you can host up to 5 websites with a bandwidth of 100 GB.
2. Professional plan: This plan costs you $41.58 per month and you will get 20 GB of disk space where you can host up to 15 websites with a bandwidth of 200 GB.
3. Elite plan: This plan costs you $83.25 per month and you will get 40 GB of disk space where you can host up to 35 websites with unlimited bandwidth.
FAQs
Here are some of the frequently asked questions around A2 Hosting.
A2 Hosting headquarters are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the United States. A2 Hosting’s data centers are located in the following four places.
– USA – Michigan
– USA – Arizona
– Europe – Amsterdam
– Asia – Singapore
A2 Hosting currently offers four shared hosting plans which are listed below.
– Startup costs $2.99 per month
– Drive costs $5.99 per month
– Turbo Boost costs $6.99 per month
– Turbo Max costs $12.99 per month
Here are some of the A2 Hosting alternatives to try in 2024.
– Bluehost
– Hostinger
– WPX
– HostArmada
Yes, A2 Hosting offers a free backup option that helps you easily backup your website and restore your data whenever recovery is necessary.
No, A2 Hosting doesn’t offer a free domain with any of their shared hosting plans.
If you want to get a full refund, you can cancel your account within your first 30-days. Or you’ll receive a prorated refund of unused service after 30 days.
Few More Web Hosting Reviews:
- Kinsta Review 2024: Is It Worth The Money
- WP Engine Review: Is It The BEST Managed WordPress Hosting
- GreenGeeks Review 2024: Eco-Friendly Yet Affordable?
- ChemiCloud Review: Why Choose ChemiCloud Web Hosting
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for an ultra-reliable and high-performance web host, A2 Hosting is a great choice for you. It’s not only affordable but offers you blazing-fast loading times.
It offers a wide range of features like free site migrations, automatic backups, 24/7 support, and many more.
So what do you think about A2 Hosting? Did you like our detailed A2 Hosting review? Have any questions? Let us know in the comments.
Hey Anil,
This reviews about A2 hosting is really great you have covered lots of good points and also shared their pros anmd corns which are True.
Your research is really great..keep updating us with these type of Reviews..thanks a ton