A2 Hosting Review: Is It Worth Your Money?
Finding reliable, cheap hosting is no longer a chore nowadays. With numerous companies offering fast hosting for less, hundreds of excellent options are just a Google search away.
However, A2 Hosting claims that it offers up to 20 times faster web hosting than its competitors.
But how feature-packed is A2 Hosting really? And is it worth your hard-earned dollars?
Let’s find out.
What Is A2 Hosting?
A2 Hosting provides high-powered hosting services to marketers, developers, and bloggers for great prices. Speed and reliability are the company’s top priority, making it perfect for any application.
One of the best things about A2 Hosting is it’s SSD-powered Turbo Servers. These enable websites to load up to 20 times faster than usual!
The top speed hosting isn’t limited to top-paying clients either. You can also get their shared hosting plans and host your site on a Turbo Server that way. It won’t cost as much but will yield the same great results.
It is for this reason that A2 Hosting has won plenty of hosting awards—including the Best Host Award 2020—and consistently ranks high on “best hosting” lists.
The company promises 99.9% uptime on all their servers—regardless of plan or hosting type. Even if you do run into issues, their “Guru Crew” support team is available 24-7 to help.
With A2 Hosting, you get the very best software, hardware, and features for your money.
Quick Overview and Background
A2 Hosting was founded by Bryan Muthig back in 2001, and it is now known for its super-powerful and easy-to-use web hosting services.
A2 Hosting was originally named Iniquinet, and the CEO built the company primarily to serve a small number of clients. However, by 2003, the business had taken flight, and the company had garnered a much larger client base than anticipated.
In March 2003, the company’s name was changed to A2 Hosting—it was named after Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Bryan first started the company.
Owing to the fast hosting the company was providing for low prices, and its reliable support teams, the company continued to grow rapidly and now helps host millions of websites in different niches.
Fast loading times, easy-to-use developer tools, near 100% uptime, and dedicated first-class support are the four things that set A2 Hosting apart from other web hosting companies.
Features
A2 Hosting is considered to be one of the most reliable web hosting providers around. For more than a decade, A2 Hosting has delivered the following:
- Reliable uptime
- Super-fast loading speeds
- Top-quality developer tools
- High customer satisfaction
However, A2 Hosting is most known for its speedy performance.
A2 Hosting’s SwiftServer platformwas created and is managed by the company’s IT gurus. Here’s a quick overview of the features that make A2 Hosting’s services so desirable:
- SSD drives enhanced speed and performance.
- Cloudflare CDN improves loading time and reduces the risk of DDoS.
- Cloud Hosting increases reliability.
- SSL certificates keep your site secure and trustworthy.
Additionally, multiple backups of your data are made, and the company gives a 99.9% uptime guarantee!
The unlimited storage and transfer features give you room to experiment with your website and its design, and if you get stuck somewhere, you can contact support anytime.
Let’s now get into more detail about its features.
Solid-State Drives
A2 Hosting only uses solid-state drives to host websites in all the packages. When you compare an SSD to an HDD, SSDs are faster and last for longer—making them the perfect reliable storage options for web hosting.
Where HDDs can supply transfer speeds of up to 200MB/s, SSDs provide a minimum transfer speed of 200MB/s and can even transfer data at the rate of 2500MB/s!
Cloud Hosting Solution
All web hosting companies tackle two common issues—security and control.
However, since A2 Hosting is supplemented with cloud hosting technology, the company has much better control of data and provides much better security compared to its competitors.
You also never have to worry about your site becoming unresponsive or going down completely.
Backups and Fail-Safes
A RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) 10 is a storage configuration that stores data in multiple drives. Since the configuration internally ensures that your data is backed up multiple times, you will never lose it.
If one drive fails, they will always have a copy of your data on another drive. This unique feature makes A2 Hosting very, very reliable.
A2 Hosting boasts a quadruple redundant network, meaning the network will have to fail four times before it affects your website—which is almost impossible.
If your site breaks, your data is safe, and a server-rewind reset is a call away!
Quality Developer Tools
You can opt to get access to up-to-date developer tools available. You can choose if you want a managed server or not, and also choose if you want root access or not.
If you don’t have that much technical knowledge, it is best if you go for the managed plan. You’ll automatically have instant access to new versions of all the software you install as soon as it comes out.
Green Web Hosting
A2 Hosting is very public about their commitment to green energy practices. They’ve partnered up with Carbonfund, the NGO, to try and offset their carbon footprint and reduce its effects via the FutureServe program.
The company has been 100% carbon-neutral since 2007.
SSL Certificates
An SSL (secure socket layer) certificate is a digital certificate that verifies a website’s identity and encrypts the data sent between the front-end website and the server.
The encryption makes for an added layer of security, which is critical for sites that accept payments.
The SSL certificate is what changes the site’s address from “http://www.example.com” to “https://www.example.com.”
A2 Hosting offers a free SSL certificate for whatever website you’re hosting, but you can pick from premium options to get enterprise-grade protection.
Cloudflare CDN
Cloudflare is an ultra-popular content delivery network that helps reduce site load times. It is done by keeping a copy of your site’s data on servers all around the globe.
This way, instead of having to request files and data from your main server every time the website is loaded, the CDN uses the cached files from the closest server.
Regardless of what plan you use, you get Cloudflare for free with it.
cPanel
A2 Hosting uses the cPanel control panel to help users navigate through their server’s files, databases, and emails with ease. It has become the industry standard, so cPanel is the go-to control panel to get for many users.
The best part about it is that it is not a dull, text-based interface. It is a graphic-rich interface with intuitive menus that make managing your website fast and easy.
Performance and Support
As far as setup and maintenance is concerned, you get the very best in the industry. A2 allows a lot of resources to ensure that every customer gets the most out of their website.
Uptime
A2 Hosting promises 99.9% website uptime, which is super impressive considering the competitive prices of their plans.
They do not promise any uptime if the circumstances are out of their control, for instance, if there are DDoS or other security attacks on their servers.
However, outside of that, you shouldn’t face any issues. If there are any maintenance or upgrade-related pauses in hosting, you will be informed in advance.
Also, if unscheduled downtime of your website is more than 0.1% of the total time per month, you will be given a service credit of 5% of the fee for the month!
A2 keeps its promises for the most part, but in case you face some difficulties, you will be compensated for it.
A2 Optimized Hosting
If you rely on a CMS to help run and manage your site, A2 Hosting has got you covered. Setting up a CMS is super easy, and they also offer tools that help optimize your site’s loading times.
Customer Support
A2 Hosting believes that excellent customer support makes a company stand out. You get free access to support every day of the week, all year round.
If their customer support representatives are inundated with calls, you can be rest assured that they will call back as quickly as possible. All you have to do is leave a message.
You will never have to explain complicated issues to the staff. At A2 Hosting, support is never outsourced, and they’ll be able to help you with any issue at hand.
Money-Back Guarantee
A2 Hosting understands if you’re looking to test things out and don’t want to commit to any service. Their money-back guarantee enables you to try out their hosting risk-free.
If you don’t like their hosting for any reason after the first 30 days, you can ask for a full refund.
Plans
A2 Hosting offers a massive range of plans, and there’s one plan for everyone—from bloggers and marketers to businesses and large enterprises.
All plans give access to performance hosting, and A2 Hosting makes no compromises.
You can pick from their Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting, Reseller Hosting, and Dedicated Hosting plans. They also have a super-affordable WordPress Hosting plan!
Shared Hosting
Shared Hosting is when a server is divided into secure blocks and the hardware and storage resources are shared between the owners of those blocks.
It is super affordable, and if you’re looking to start your website for cheap, this is the plan you should go for.
You will get 24-7 network monitoring, a minimum of 100GB of superfast SSD space, a free website builder, cPanel, and website staging support.
VPS Hosting
Virtual Private Server Hosting is perfect for medium- or large-size websites, regardless of if an individual or a business runs them.
A2 Hosting offers three VPS types of plans: Core VPS, Managed VPS, and Unmanaged VPS.
The Core VPS plan gives you access to the managed server with root access.
The Managed VPS plan gives you access to a managed server without root access.
Lastly, the Unmanaged VPS plan gives you an unmanaged server with root access.
You can pick your plan depending on your technical skill level.
Reseller Hosting
These plans are right for web designers and developers that want to sell their websites.
These plans provide fast loading speeds, which does half the selling for you!
Dedicated Hosting
These plans are perfect for enterprises looking to outsource their hosting.
You can get an unmanaged server if you need to for cheap.
You can also get a managed server with root access.
Managed servers are the safest ones since once configured, they are tough to break accidentally.
Pros and Cons
Weighing out the pros and cons will help you understand what you’re in for when you sign up with A2 Hosting.
| PROS | CONS |
| 24-7 access to knowledgeable customer support representatives | Only two data centers—USA and UK |
| Plenty of plans | Limited hosting plans for Windows |
| Super-fast loading times | Slightly more expensive than competitors |
| Award-winning hosting | |
| Ideal for services like WordPress and Joomla | |
| 100% carbon-neutral |
Conclusion
A2 Hosting offers a multitude of plans, which ensures that you find the hosting solution you need for the price you want.
You get a lot of features even for the lowest-priced plans, which means your site won’t be lagging behind competitors in terms of speed or safety.
Your data is backed up multiple times, ensuring that you never lose your progress. Also, the excellent support representatives are always ready to help regardless of how delicate the issue is.
Whether you’re a novice trying to create your first website, or are a developer looking to show off your skills, A2 Hosting is worth adding to your consideration list.
