A2 Hosting Reviews of 2021

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by Katie Horne

Last updated: December 27, 2020

Our Verdict: Outstanding Choice for Speed

Developer-friendly A2 Hosting supports almost any technology used for websites and apps. Their top benefits include record-breaking speeds and award-winning customer support, plus optimized WordPress servers with cPanel access.

It doesn’t matter what type of hosting you need (shared, VPS, dedicated, etc.), A2 will provide you with fast and reliable service.

And you don’t need to take our word for it — over 200 of our users have reviewed A2 Hosting, and they’ve given this provider an average score of 4.5 out of 5. They especially love the speed of this service, as well as the quality of their technical support.

Below, we’ll review everything else you need to know about A2 Hosting.

Quick Overview

Before we dive into the details, let’s take a quick look at what A2 Hosting has to offer:

Top Benefits:

• 99.9% Uptime Guarantee

• Developer-Friendly Hosting Options

• Green Hosting

Plans starting at:

$2.49 per month using this discount link.

Control Panel:

cPanel.

Money-Back Guarantee:

30 days.

Site Builder Included?

Yes, with certain plans.

Datacenter Locations:

Michigan, Arizona, Amsterdam, and Singapore.

Pros and Cons

The table below goes over the main advantages and disadvantages to using A2 Hosting:

A2 Hosting Plans

Now, let’s take a closer look at the different plans offered by A2 Hosting:

Shared Hosting

In my experience, A2’s shared hosting plans are faster than their competitors (especially if you pay up for one of their Turbo plans). Additionally, they offer 24/7 customer support for all subscribers, ultra-reliable servers, and free website migration.

Other features of A2 Hosting’s shared plans include:

• PHP (5.x and 7.x)

• Python (2.6, 2.7, and 3.2)

• PERL 5.10

• Node.js

• MySQL 5.6 databases

• PostgreSQL 9.6

• Apache 2.4

• FTP/SFTP access to your server environment

• Free SSH access

• Shared SSL certificate

All shared plans also come with free SSD storage to ensure top-notch performance.

Interested in A2?
Our readers can currently save 51% on A2 Hosting plans. Use this discount link to get the best price.

WordPress Hosting

A2 Hosting offers a special kind of shared hosting for WordPress. These plans are more expensive than the general shared plans described above, but they include a number of features that make them more appealing to WordPress users, such as:

• Staging server

• Jetpack personal license

• Easy WordPress backups

VPS Hosting

For those who have outgrown their shared hosting plans or need better speeds for their websites, A2 Hosting offers two types of virtual private server (VPS) plans.

• Unmanaged plans are perfect for developers or system administrators looking for a fully customizable, bare metal installation.

• Managed plans offer the full power of a VPS plan, but with the same user-friendly cPanel platform that’s bundled with the shared hosting plans. It also comes with 100% worry-free HostGuard management from their Guru Crew support team, which is available 24/7.

You can get unmanaged VPS plans for shared hosting prices. A2 Hosting’s managed VPS plans are more expensive, but still competitive by industry standards.

For the purposes of data redundancy and improving performance, all VPS plans include RAID 10 storage. RAID 10 drives combine striping (which increases speed) with mirroring (which increases reliability).

Dedicated Hosting

A2 Hosting offers both managed and unmanaged dedicated servers for those who need fast speeds for resource-intensive or highly-trafficked websites.

Managed dedicated servers get upgradeable RAID 1 storage, which means all the data is mirrored and thus less prone to data faults or loss.

Reseller Hosting Plans

If you want to get into the web hosting business yourself, check out A2 Hosting’s reseller plans.

There are four different reseller plans from which you can choose. With the exception of the basic plan, all plans offer the option of either WHMCS or Blesta billing software.

A2 Hosting Features 

In this section, we’ll review A2 Hosting’s infrastructure, performance, customer support, and plan features such as SSL certificates and the Cloudflare CDN (content delivery network).

Performance and Reliability

I’ve tested A2 Hosting’s uptime and load speed over the last year on my server. Note that this is only one server, so the results don’t necessarily indicate how all A2 Hosting servers perform. But it does provide a useful snapshot of their speed and reliability.

The 12-month average for A2 Hosting’s speed is very good. The 6-month average is exceptional — even better than WP Engine.

Uptime Guarantee

A2 Hosting backs their performance with a 99.9% uptime commitment, and they strive to meet this promise by following the web hosting industry’s best practices, using top-notch datacenters, and carefully managing all servers.

With that said, there are two instances when the uptime commitment does not apply:

1. During routine maintenance and upgrade periods that are scheduled ahead of time

2. During outages that result from circumstances beyond A2 Hosting’s control

If you experience any downtime as a result of issues not described in the exclusions listed above, and the downtime accounts for more than 0.1% of your total time that month, you can receive compensation from A2 Hosting.

This compensation is in the form of a service credit that is equal to 5% of the fees you paid for that month. You will receive one such service credit for each hour that your website is unreachable beyond the 0.1% (~42 minutes) downtime guarantee.

However, the maximum service credit you receive will be equal to the full amount you would have paid for that month had there been no outages.

Please note that to receive service credits as compensation, your downtime must be confirmed by an A2 Hosting staff member.

Backups

You can use your control panel to manage partial or full backups of your website.

To restore your website using a full backup, you’ll need to provide a copy of it to the A2 Hosting support team. There are no fees involved with requesting such services.

Migration Policy

If your former web hosting provider supports cPanel, A2 Hosting can manage the migration on your behalf. Migrations are available for shared, managed VPS, and managed dedicated accounts, and this process typically takes less than 72 hours.

Though not required, A2 Hosting recommends that you allow an overlap of at least seven days between opening your new hosting account and closing your previous hosting account in order to minimize the downtime you might see during the transfer process.

If your former web hosting provider did not use cPanel, A2 Hosting will still transfer your website, but only with one database.

Cloudflare CDN

The closer a visitor is to one of your servers, the faster your site will be for them. A content delivery network (CDN) uses a vast array of servers to ensure fast load times for any given visitor.

A2 Hosting plans include Cloudflare free of charge. This is one of the most popular and effective CDNs — A2 Hosting claims that a website using Cloudflare sees 200% faster page loads, uses 60% less bandwidth, and is more secure.

There are two ways to activate your Cloudflare CDN:

• Use the Cloudflare cPanel plugin

• Sign up on Cloudflare’s website.

If you decide to use Cloudflare’s cPanel plugin, you can easily enable and disable Cloudflare for your domains and subdomains using your A2 Hosting cPanel environment.

If you decide to activate using Cloudflare’s website, you will not be able to use the A2 Hosting cPanel to manage your CDN.

SSL Certificates

SSL certificates allow your site to send and receive data securely. They are essential for e-commerce and are now considered by Google to be a best practice for all websites. They’re also good for improving user trust and even boost your search rankings slightly.

If you have purchased a shared or reseller hosting package, you can opt for Let’s Encrypt, an SSL solution that provides your site with enhanced security.

Users with managed VPS plans and managed dedicated servers can also use Let’s Encrypt, but they will need to have a dedicated IP address as well.

You can also purchase a private SSL certificate from A2 Hosting for even stronger security.

Website Builder

With A2 Hosting’s website builder, even non-technical users can easily create their own site. It supports everything from single-page sites to full e-commerce stores.

Green Hosting

A2 Hosting is a green hosting company. In addition to being 100% carbon neutral in their day-to-day operations, A2 Hosting is a partner of Carbonfund.org, which is a leading organization dedicated to battling global climate change.

Since 2007, A2 Hosting has supported Carbonfund.org’s reforestation efforts and development of clean, renewable sources of energy.

cPanel Features

From the A2 Hosting dashboard, you can launch the cPanel for your website. If you are hosting multiple websites with A2 Hosting, you will see a list of the cPanels available for your use on the dashboard homepage.

On the left side of the cPanel interface is basic information relating to your account. It includes things like your domain name and directory on the server.

It also includes addon domains, aliases, autoresponders, bandwidth, mailing list disk usage, MySQL disk usage, total disk usage, number of email accounts, and email filters.

The primary management area allows you to do things like:

• Manage your files

• Install scripts that extend the feature set and functionality of your website using Softaculous, an app installer that works with cPanel

• Access staging features for your website

• Create, manage, and optimize your website’s databases

• Handle your domains and subdomains

• Control the email accounts associated with this particular website/domain name

• Access metrics on user visits, including frequency and length of stay

• Secure your site by setting up security suites and applying SSL certificates

More advanced features are also available, including software that supports programming languages as well as website optimization and caching.

Customer Support

You will notice that support-related content and links are prevalent on your dashboard. In addition to the Support PIN that is prominently displayed in the top-left corner, there are two hyperlinks in the navigation toolbar that you can use if you need help.

First, there is the Support tab, which allows you to:

• View existing (and open new) support tickets

• See records of (and request) website migrations

• Check the status of A2 Hosting’s servers, as well as whether there have been any service interruptions over the past few days (this is important, especially given that the uptime guarantee requires you to report downtime in order to receive compensation)

• Navigate to the knowledge base

• Navigate to the notification center, where you can customize the service-related notifications you receive from A2 Hosting

• Navigate to the A2 Hosting company blog, where you can read about all things web hosting and web design

Then there is the Open Ticket tab, which leads you to the Client Area. In this area, you can:

• Submit a sales ticket if you have questions about your purchases

• Submit a hosting question if you are having a problem with your account

• Submit questions to either the Support or Billing teams that are not related to an existing domain name or hosting account

If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns, you can get in touch with the A2 Hosting Guru Crew support team 24/7 via their internal ticketing system, Skype, telephone, or live chat.

If you’re interested in self-help resources, A2 Hosting maintains a robust and in-depth knowledge base. And thankfully, this knowledge base is easily searchable.

Refunds and Money-Back Guarantees

If you purchase a web hosting option from A2 Hosting and decide within 30 days that they are not right for you, you can take advantage of their money-back guarantee and receive a full refund of all hosting fees paid.

After the 30-day period has elapsed, you can still cancel your account. However, you will only receive a pro-rated refund that is equivalent to the unused service for which you have already paid (this does not include domain registration).

Other Hosts to Consider

HostGator, Bluehost, and SiteGround are all good alternatives to A2 Hosting. I will look at HostGator in the most depth, because they are the most like A2 Hosting. However, you should give serious attention to Bluehost and SiteGround as well.

HostGator

In general, HostGator is notably cheaper than A2 Hosting — especially if you sign up for a long contract. And this is even more true for shared and WordPress hosting.

But A2 Hosting does provide cheaper VPS and dedicated plans when purchased at full price. Also, A2 offers very cheap unmanaged VPS plans.

Both companies claim that their shared hosting plans perform well, but only A2 Hosting offers the (paid) option to place your websites on servers that host fewer websites than a traditional shared server.

As you can see from the table above, HostGator has been more stable over the last 12 months (though this is not true for the last 6 months). But HostGator loads pages substantially slower than A2 Hosting, regardless of the time period.

Regarding refunds, HostGator offers a 46-day money-back guarantee, while A2 Hosting only offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

However, after this initial period, only A2 Hosting offers refunds for any unused service that you’ve already paid for (this is especially nice if you’ve opted for an extended contract upfront in exchange for lower prices on a monthly basis).

Overall, if performance is your top priority, then you should probably stick with A2 Hosting. But if price and usability are bigger concerns, HostGator may be the better option for you.

Bluehost

You’ve probably heard of Bluehost: with over 2 million websites on their servers, they are one of the most popular web hosting services around.

In addition to being inexpensive and easy to use, their products work well with WordPress, which is one of the most popular content management systems today.

Bluehost offers nearly as many options as A2 Hosting, but Bluehost is targeted more to those looking for an easy-to-use solution.

SiteGround

Founded in 2004, SiteGround is a provider of premium-level hosting backed by excellent support and top-tier infrastructure.

While SiteGround was once run out of university dorm rooms, they are now one of the leading providers of web hosting services, with four datacenters (located in Chicago, the UK, the Netherlands, and Singapore), over 400 employees, and over 500,000 domains under management.

If A2 Hosting is too “techie” for you, but Bluehost is too restrictive, SiteGround may just be the perfect middle ground option.

Most Popular A2 Hosting Alternatives

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Can’t decide?
Our readers can currently save 51% on A2 Hosting by using this discount link. A money-back guarantee is included, so give them a try!

A2 Hosting Review Conclusion

If you’re a developer or system administrator comfortable with the management of servers, you will find that A2 Hosting offers excellent deals, especially when you consider the number of features that come with a typical plan.

However, even if you’re not an experienced developer, you should still consider using A2 Hosting. Their shared options offer great value. And as your site grows, it’s easy to upgrade to VPS plans or dedicated servers.

Overall, it’s hard to find many faults with A2. You can check out what our user community has to say about A2 Hosting below.

Edited by Frank Moraes.

About Katie Horne

Katie is a C# developer who became a technical writer. She is a lifelong bookworm and all-around nerd with a soft spot for gimmicks and packaging. She judges books by the cover, and she’s not sorry about it. In her spare time, she likes to swim, knit, and do the New York Times Crossword Puzzle.

Connect with Katie

A2 Hosting Reviews by Our Community

Overall Rating from 269 Reviews by A2 Hosting Customers

Support
Quality
Features
Value

Filter reviews by: Most HelpfulMost RecentNegativePositive

Most Helpful Reviews

Simon Mackay northseacompactors.com

Feb 09, 2014

A2 Hosting provide an excellent service in all respects. This includes: (1) a high-spec infrastructure (eg SSDs, choice of hosting centers) with many extra features bundled into the contract (eg automatic server-based backup, anti-virus protection, etc); (2) superb technical support accessible/delivered in a number of ways (eg high quality self-service knowledge base, online chat & a real person helpline); (3) support staff who are responsive, knowledgeable & patient; (4) efficient billing support in resolving issues (eg moving domain billing between accounts); and (5) good value-for-money for a quality product. In fact A2 Hosting’s service has been so consistently good over that past two years I have moved my company’s web services account to them.

Visit Host Now →

Adam Silver kitchensinkwp.com

Dec 19, 2016

I recently requested a cPanel migration and I the process went very smoothly. The issues I found were actually my own, and nothing to do with A2 Hosting. Eac email interaction was answered quickly and with the needed information.

Additionally, the overall time frame to have the process done far exceeded my expectations taking less then 1/2 the time I was originally told. Great job A2 Hosting!

Visit Host Now →

Razique Mahroua fitforlife.fr

Mar 28, 2014

I’m an A2 Hosting customer for almost a year now. As a technical consultant myself I’m really nitpicky about IT services. A2 Hosting is the best I’ve came across so far based on tons of testings and deployments around (I’ve benched up to 10 providers before)
What seduce(s)|de me:
• Clear and simple pricing
• Limited but more performant offers
• CPanel-powered features
• Advanced functions
• Billing made easy
• Tons of services and features if you need

The support is rock solid and very available, I had one major DNS incident related to a subdomain, the team has been able to resolve.

I also love their Ssd-powered servers, their integration with CloudFlare and the advanced DNS features you can play with. Finally, they have excellent uptime and latencies worldwide. If I had some cons:
• Sometimes the support just doesn’t treat the tickets, and no news, but it’s very rare (less than 5% of my tickets)
• No PHP caching on shared servers (opcache, etc…)

Definitely a company I recommend

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