A2 Hosting Review 2021

It is difficult to find the perfect web hosting company when there are so many options to choose from. One of the best radar webhosts you should consider using is A2 Hosting . This A2 Hosting review will explain why.

A2 Hosting Review Details sum up

Rating	4/5
Pricing	From $2.99 per month
Hosting Types	Shared, WordPress, VPS, Dedicated, Reseller
Speed & Performance	LiteSpeed Turbo Servers, A2 Site Accelerator (TurboCache, OPcache/APC, Memcache), HTTP/2, PHP7 & Cloudflare CDN
WordPress	Managed WordPress hosting. Easy WordPress 1-click installation
Servers	LiteSpeed fast solid-state drives (SSD)
Security	Free SSL (Let’s Encrypt). HackScan security
Control Panel	cPanel
Extras	Anycast DNS. Dedicated IP address. Free site migration. Built-in staging
Refund Policy	30-day money-back guarantee
Owner	Privately-owned (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

It seems that every time we think we know the top 5 on the market today, a new one emerges that offers bigger and better features, complete with more speed than all the other hosting solutions. I can tell you one of the best web hosting providers on the market today is A2 Hosting .

Delivers some of the fastest server speeds I’ve ever seen backed up with free site migration and an “anytime” money-back guarantee. What is not to like. And I’m not alone in saying that.

Here in this A2 Hosting review , I want to take a closer look and see what this unique, independently owned and operated web hosting provider has to offer website owners like yourself so you can decide if they meet your needs or not.

Pros and cons

A2 Hosting Benefits

• Anytime money-back & 99.9% server uptime guarantee
• Unlimited storage space and bandwidth
• LiteSpeed ​​Turbo servers – 20 times faster loading pages
• HTTP / 2, PHP7, SSD & Free CloudFlare CDN & HackScan
• Free Website Migration & WordPress comes pre-installed
• Free automatic daily backups and server rewind tools
• Preset for security and free SSL with Let’s Encrypt
• A2 Site Accelerator (TurboCache, OPcache / APC, Memcache)

A2 Hosting Disadvantages

• Only the Turbo plan comes with 20x faster turbo servers and A2 Site Accelerator
• Server migration fee for changing data centers.

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

• What features does A2 Hosting provide to its customers?
• How is A2 Hosting’s speed and performance measured?
• What are the different plans available?
• Will they help migrate my site?

• How much does A2 hosting cost?
• What type of hosting do A2 website owners offer?
• What’s so great about their servers?
• Will their Turbo servers really load pages 20x faster?

Once you have finished reading this A2 Hosting review (2021 updated), you will definitely be able to tell if this is the right web hosting service for your needs.

Here’s how our web hosting review process works :

We sign up for the web hosting plan and install a blank WordPress site.
2. We monitor the site’s performance, uptime and page load time.
3. We analyze the good / bad features, prices and customer support.
4. We publish the review ( and update it throughout the year ).

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

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

But not A2 Hosting. They are independently owned and do well.

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

A2 Hosting is a great web hosting option on the surface, even though you do not know any details because it caters to website owners of all sizes and types.

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

A2 Hosting Services

Here are the various hosting solutions that A2 Hosting offers website owners.

Shared Web Hosting

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

They each offer unlimited storage, downloads and an exclusive cPanel to control all your account information as well as website features.

They also provide website owners with free SSL certifications and a free SSD. Additionally, you can easily integrate shopping cart applications and turn your site into an e-commerce store.

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

Reseller Hosting

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

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

Rates for reseller hosting plans range from $ 13.19 / month to $ 40.91 / month.

VPS Hosting

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

Although technically still a shared environment, VPS hosting has less of a workload as there are fewer users per. Server. In addition, the chances of others crashing on your site are removed, as everyone has their own slice of the server cake.

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

Cloud Hosting

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

Simply design your cloud with the necessary features and resources to suit your needs and resize as your site grows. In the end, you only pay for what you spend when you choose their cloud hosting.

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

Dedicated Server Hosting

For developers or system administrators who are comfortable developing with the command line, A2 Hosting has not been managed dedicated server hosting options.

For huge websites that need a lot of resources but do not want to deal with anything that is host related, A2 Hosting offers comprehensive managed dedicated server hosting options.

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

Highlights

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

• Unlimited bandwidth. Upload so much data elsewhere to your newly hosted site, all for free. Plus, get help from their expert support guru crew team that migrates your site.
• Free site migration. They move to help you move your site from another hosting service for free – if your site uses cPanel (as most web hosting companies do).
• Speeds up to 20x faster than competitors. Turbo servers that deliver 20x faster site loading and A2 Site Accelerator 1-click cache.
• One-click WordPress installs. Easy installation WordPress and get started right away. Plus WordPress hosting is preconfigured for speed and security
• “Eternal security”. Enjoy free HackScan protection so your site does not fall victim to hackers, KernelCare reboot-free kernel updates, a dual firewall, virus scanning, brute force defense 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 Cloudfare CDN. Servers around the world determine the fastest route to deliver your site content to website visitors.
• Guru crew support around the clock . Get help 24/7/365 via live chat, ticket, email or by phone.

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

1. Developer friendly hosting
2. Domain Registration
3. Domain transfer
4. SSL certificates
5. Swift & Turbo servers fast hosting

Developer friendly hosting

A2 is dedicated to providing customers with the most up-to-date development software. Some of the most notable are:

• Turbo servers with pre-installed and pre-configured LiteSpeed ​​for the best performance.
• PHP compatibility
• PHPNG, which is the basis of the latest 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 programming language in general
• Apache 2.2, which is the world’s most widely used web server software
• Root access and FTP so you can easily transfer files between your computer and a server
• And so much more …

Domain registration and transfer

Register a new domain, or transfer your existing one when you decide to go with them. In fact, you have access to the most popular generic TLDs (gTLDs). Simply enter your preferred domain name and register it as your own.

In addition, if your site is targeted to a specific geographic location, e.g. A specific country, grab a country-specific TLD as well.

Website visitors tend to rely on country-specific TLDs, especially when it comes to online purchases. Increase your reputation, build trust and meet your international brand by implementing a country-specific TLD.

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

• Customize how your domain information appears in “Whois” searches
• Receive free DNS control and watch website speed increase thanks to reduced latency
• Protect your personal information with the ID protection setting
• Prevent domain hijacking or unauthorized account transfer
• Join the support team at any time of any day

SSL certificates

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

It is especially important to protect your site when collecting any kind of payment from visitors.

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

• Let’s encrypt. A free SSL solution that provides enhanced location security. In addition, it ensures the connection to your server that is not seen by the public.
• Simple site SSL. One-click, single-place premium SSL settings are available from $ 49.95 / year. With all the protection that a free SSL does, an SSL website also comes with 256 bit encryption, an official website and verified domain status.
• Wildcard SSL. This SSL certificate is valid for an unlimited number of subdomains, all at a low cost. Wildcard SSL certificates start at $ 149.95 / year.
• Advanced SSL. This advanced SSL certificate comes with an exceptional selection of the organization’s authentic and extended validation SSL certificates.

SwiftServers and Turbo Hosting

A2 Hosting’s exclusive SwiftServer platform gives users ultimate in site performance and speed thanks to LiteSpeed. In fact, these are the benefits you get by choosing A2 Hosting and their SwiftServer platform:

• Increased resource distribution 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 have exclusive access to their A2 Optimized Site Accelerator , complete with a 1-click cache setup.

Cache solutions are not something that many common plans provide, but with A2 Hosting you receive this on the majority of shared hosting plans.

Here is an overview of the available cache solutions you can choose from, right from your cPanel:

• Turbo-cache. All HTML content on your site is saved 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 storing important data in memory for faster retrieval.

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

Because A2 Hosting is so confident your site runs up to 300 times faster than standard shared hosting companies that use their SSDs, they give all users one for free.

SwiftServers vs Turbo Hosting – What’s the Difference?

All of A2’s plans are powered by their SwiftServer server infrastructure, but their Turbo plan comes with extra-speed technologies and promises up to 20 times faster web loading.

To make a long story short. Their Turbo Web Hosting servers behave almost identically to the Swift Web Hosting servers, but provide extra speed!

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

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

Advantages and disadvantages of A2 Hosting

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

Advantage

A2 Hosting has a solid set of features that can get the job done for most people. Let’s see and see what I mean.

 Site Speed

A2 Hosting emphasizes the fact that one of their priority number is site speed and performance, no matter what hosting plan you go with.

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

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

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

 Multiple data centers

One of the main reasons why they can earn such a fast response time is because they have three data centers around the world to get your web content to your site as quickly as possible.

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

In addition, all customers have a free Cloudfare CDN that chooses the fastest route for your visitors.

This means faster retrieval of your site data, faster delivery of content and faster page load times. All this is combined with happier visitors who will keep coming back again and again.

Websites that load slowly are unlikely to rise to the top of any niche. A Google study found that a one-second delay in mobile load times can affect conversion rates by up to 20%.

 Uptime warranty

In addition to page load times, it is also important that your site is “up” and accessible to your visitors. I monitor the uptime of a test site hosted on A2 Hosting to see how often they experience outages.

As with most hosting providers, A2 Hosting guarantees that your site does not go down 99.99% of the time no matter the circumstances. This even applies to those who have a shared hosting plan.

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 drag your site down with them when something happens to their site.

With their Uptime warranty, you can be assured that their team of experts is working around the clock to ensure that your server is always up and running.

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

 Scalability

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

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

In the end, you are able with A2 Hosting 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 that your site data is protected as well as the personal information of those who make payments on your site.

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

For those who want it all, you can make a once a year payment of $ 274.88 and get all of the above security measures applied to your site.

 e-commerce support

For those who want to host their online store, you should know that there are many e-commerce features that come wrapped up in your shared hosting plan:

• Multiple SSL certificates to choose from
• Instant Merchant Account ID (US only)
• PayPal Merchant Accounts
• Magento, OpenCart, PrestaShop and AbanteCart setups with 1 click

 Catering to a global target group

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

And with three major data centers spanning the globe – North America, Europe and Asia – it’s important that those who speak other languages ​​can understand everything, prices included.

Fortunately, A2 Hosting not only has a drop-down menu for translation for those in the US, Mexico, India, UK and South Africa, they provide a convenient currency exchange so you too can get accurate pricing.

This strategy is not only good for user experience, but helps them increase sales and expand their brand as one that is accessible to international customers.

Cons

Every business has disadvantages, no matter how perfect they try to be. And even though they have lots of positive things, there are some things to think about before admitting them as your next hosting provider.

 Migration fees

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

• Upgrades. Upgrade to a price that gives you a high price and you get no extra cost to migrate your account. And if you decide to change data centers while transferring your account, your data center migration fee will also be waived. However, switching to another data center without an upgrade will cost you $ 25 in fees.
• Adjustments. If you downgrade to a low cost plan, you may be subject to a $ 25 downgrade.
• Migrations from other hosts. If you migrate from another hosting provider that does not have a cPanel, you may be charged fees set by the migration team. However, if migrating from a cPanel host, the transfer fees will not apply.

Although these fees are seemingly minor and there are some ways to pay them, it is still important to note the various fees you may face while using A2 Hosting.

 Limited bonus features

As great as A2 Hosting is to make your site super fast, the only way to access features like Turbo Server, A2 Optimized Site Accelerator, ( which includes Turbo Cache, OpCache / APC and Memcached ) is to invest in the cheapest shared hosting plan , which is available.

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

A2 Hosting will have you believing they are a cut above the rest when it comes to speed and performance. And rightly so. After all, this is how you stand out from even the toughest competition.

Failure to mention that two out of the three shared plans will test as “average” compared to competitors in the hosting service sector is kind of misleading.

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

Shared plans and prices

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

 StartUp Plan

This plan starts at $ 2.99 / month

• Website hosting 1, 5 subdomains and 25 parked domains
• Download 5 databases

Key features:

• Unlimited data transfer
• Free SSL certificate and SSD storage solution
• 24/7/365 support and comprehensive knowledge base
• 3 available data centers
• Free Cloudfare CDN
• Free site migration
• 99% uptime guarantee
• PHP version 7.x available
• 25 email addresses
• cPanel control panel
• More e-commerce features

In all, for a shared hosting plan at such a low cost, the feature set is sufficient for those with a website.

 Drive plan

This plan starts at $ 4.99 / month

• Host unlimited sites, subdomains, parked domains and addon domains
• Enjoy unlimited databases
• Has unlimited RAID-10 storage space

Key features:

• Unlimited data transfer
• Free SSL certificate and SSD storage
• 24/7/365 support
• 3 available data centers
• Free Cloudfare CDN
• Free site migration
• Backup of server flush
• 99% uptime guarantee
• PHP version 7.x available
• Unlimited email addresses
• cPanel control panel
• More e-commerce features

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

 Turbo Boost

This plan starts at $ 9.99 / month

• Host unlimited sites, subdomains, parked domains and addon domains
• Enjoy unlimited databases
• Has unlimited RAID-10 storage space

Key features:

• Unlimited data transfer
• Free SSL certificate and SSD storage
• Turbo Server
• 24/7/365 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 Page Includes (ESI)
• Free site migration
• Backup of server flush
• 99% uptime guarantee
• PHP version 7.x available
• Unlimited email addresses
• cPanel control panel
• A2 Optimized Magento Features
• More e-commerce features

 Turbo max

This plan starts at $ 14.99 / month

• All in Turbo Boost Plan, plus:
• Unlimited websites
• Unlimited NVMe storage
• Free and easy site download
• Free automatic backups
• Turbo (up to 20X faster)
• 5X more resources

As one would suspect, the price picture shared hosting plan offers most of the features.

In total, 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 who have lots of website traffic, resource-intensive websites, or who simply want all the features that A2 has available.

Do we recommend A2 Hosting?

In short, for those looking for a cheap shared hosting solution, yes, I highly recommend giving the A2 a go .

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

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

Although you may need to upgrade to a cheaper hosting plan to enjoy all the features A2 Hosting is available, the good news is, high speed, performance and customer support are built into all their plans.

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