A2 Hosting Review

A2 Hosting is a very high-performance hosting provider since 2003. It helps to boost up page speed. Fast loading websites always have a good impact on SEO ranking, performance and bounce rate. They claim that A2 turbo servers can load up to 20X faster than a typical server. They promise 99.99 % uptime on all their servers even at shared hosting. A2 hosting has won plenty of hosting awards and their shared hosting plan starts from as low as $2.99. A2 hosting plans have an anytime money-back guarantee facility that helps to buy with no risk. You can host your personal blog with A2 shared hosting plans for only $2.99 monthly. They have a 24/7/365 Guru Crew Support team to help you with any type of doubts.

Overview of A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting was founded by Bryan Muthig in 2003. Its headquarter is in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. Initially, it was designed to handle a small number of clients, however now it has become more popular than anticipated. A2 managed hosting provides Free SSL, Unlimited Bandwidth, Anytime money-back guarantee, site staging, Easy WordPress backups, and free jetpack license.

A2 hosting features

A2 is one of the reliable and popular web hostings providers for the last 15 years. This hosting company has delivered various features.

1. High-speed performance:-

The company is familiar with reputable speed performance for the last decade. A2 hosting turbo server provides up to 20X faster page loading speed than a typical hosting provider. Fast speed helps the site to get better SEO ranking, Lower bounce rate, and improved page response time. They have delivered an average speed of 283 ms since 2020. Thus they have become one of the fastest hosting providers.

2. Uptime of 99.99%:-

They struggled with uptime a few years ago but now they have improved the uptime rate standard compared to the last few years. Last year they fixed the uptime to 99.99 percent. The total downtime of their server was also reduced to less than 100 minutes.

3. Money-Back Guarantee:-

While most hosting providers offer 30 days money-back guarantee, A2 hosting always offers any time money-back guarantee to its customer. After using the A2 hosting service if you find the service is not suitable for you then you can cancel the subscription at any time. You will receive the amount for the remaining time that you have paid before.

But there is a little complication. First, Refund money will be sent to PayPal address after 120 days of issue. Secondly, the additional service like Domain registration, setup fees, migration fees, that you purchased from their website is not refundable.

4. Customer Support:-

A2 hosting has tremendous customer support options available. Their 24/7 Guru Crew Support team is always available to answer any question. They provide support via phone, ticketing, email, and online chat. Whether you are looking for answers on your own or want to learn something new, they have a good knowledge base. But their favorite support option is the live chat. We asked a quick question about the shared hosting plan and VPS hosting, a customer service representative reply almost immediately. A2 hosting support representatives are very polite, knowledgeable, and quick to answer questions. Earlier, the live chat option was available for registered users but now A2 started offering live chat for everyone. All A2 hosting customer representative speaks fluent English.

5. Server Monitoring and Malware Scanning:-

The better way to protect your site is to prevent attacks before it happens. However, additional scanning, firewalls, caching, and encryption levels often slow down the user experience. This does not apply to A2 Hosting. It provides many additional safety features while maintaining the highest levels of performance. A2 servers are protected by “HackScan” monitoring service that looks for malicious and other cyber attacks. The data center also is protected by DDoS protection. A2 hosting malware protection powered by Sucuri. Sucuri prevents future security issues and fixes your site.

6. SSL Certificates:-

A Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate is a certificate that verifies the identity of a website and encrypts data sent between a website and server. This provides an important additional layer of security for websites that accept payments from users. Like, Woo-commerce website. It also changes the website address from HTTP to HTTPS. A2 Hosting offers different types of SSL certificates to meet your website needs, including free basic SSL to advanced SSL.

7. CDN Service:-

A2 hosting works with Cloudfare CDN service. CDN service is used to reduce site loading times. Cloudflare provides a very good CDN service by catching content through different servers distributed throughout the world. So, instead of loading from the main server every time, CDN fetches files from the closest server. It helps to increase loading speed from different locations.

8. Additional features from A2 hosting:-

You will receive below extra benefits from A2 hosting.

1. A2 hosting providers allow for various CMS( Content Management Systems) to manage sites.

2. It helps you with eCommerce integration by installing eCommerce tools such as a shopping cart.

3. $50 Bing credit.

4. A2 hosting providers offer support for server coding language and web frameworks.

5. They offer site backup, spam protection, and malware protection, etc.

A2 hosting plans:-

Shared Hosting

A2 shared hosting is perfect for a personal blog or website. Actually, the shared hosting plans are for the entry-level site owner. You will get almost every benefits that are usually given to the dedicated servers. The shared hosting plan starts from $ 2.99 monthly.

Shared hosting Plans:-

Plans Name	Start-Up	Drive	TURBO BOOST*	TURBO MAX
Monthly Price in USD (Discounted)	2.99	4.99	9.99	14.99
Websites	1	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
SSD storage	100 GB	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Anytime Money-back Guarantee	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Email Accounts	25	Unlimited	Unlimted	Unlimited
Regular price in USD	10.99	12.99	20.99	25.99
Free Automatic Backups	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free and easy site migration	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

[* Turbo Boost plan is recommended by maximum users. ]

VPS hosting

VPS hosting is used for medium-sized websites. When you want to full root access and run your own operating system then VPS hosting is the best option. Both managed and unmanaged VPS hosting are available depends on different configurations.

Managed VPS hosting:-

Managed VPS is an ideal option if you are not a technical guy. Every functionality like maintenance, software installation, troubleshooting, OS update is managed by the hosting provider. You just need to focus on growing your site/ business without handling the core of the server. Managed VPS hosting is cost-effective than unmanaged VPS hosting.

Managed VPS hosting plans:-

Unmanaged VPS hosting:-

If you are the technical guy then it can be a better option for you. For unmanaged VPS hosting, you will become responsible for everything related to the core of the server. The big advantage of unmanaged hosting is cost savings and gives you more control.

Unmanaged VPS hosting plans:-

Dedicated Hosting

A dedicated server is an ultimate solution for business or enterprise or eCommerce websites. This server is built for a high volume of monthly traffic. A2 hosting provides both managed and unmanaged dedicated hosting services depending on your site’s specific requirements.

Managed dedicated hosting:-

Managed dedicated hosting is ideal for those who are wanting a managed solutions for them. Managed hosting has already been configured, has free access to Cpanel and user-friendly management. A2 managed dedicated servers give you NVMe storage options, CPU, and turbo options to provide you the high loading speed and performance.

Managed dedicated hosting plans:-

Unmanged dedicated hosting:-

Unmanaged dedicated hosting is for developers and administrators. There you need to configure the server on your own. You will have a Linux OS, hardware maintenance, and root access options. While more technical knowledge is required to handle the server.

Unmanaged dedicated hosting plans:-

A2 hosting Awards

At A2 Hosting has been named as the Best web hosting 2020, 2020 best WordPress hosting, 2021 editor’s choice. They collected plenty of awards from different industry experts. They are committed to offering 99.99% uptime and loading page speed up to 20X.

Cons of A2 hosting

1. High Renewal Rates:-

Once your promotional period is over, you have to pay the higher rate. So, don’t expect to pay discounted prices forever. To get a better deal with A2 hosting, you need to choose at least 3 years plan. According to their policy, Your A2 hosting pack will be automatically renewed if you do not contact them via email before 15 days of renewal time. This is the big disadvantage of A2 hosting.

2. Plan Restrictions:-

As A2 hosting shared hosting plans is very much affordable, so there are few limitations. The startup plan is only for hosting one website and it does not have the fastest server and free automatic backup facility.

3. Confusing checkout:-

A2 hosting checkout system is loaded with few add-ons that you most probably won’t need. In case if you forget to deselect the add-ons, you have to pay extra add-ons charge for the given time period.

Domain

Additionally, you can buy a domain from A2 hosting or you can transfer your existing domain to get your site running. The most popular domain charges per year are given below