A2 Hosting is a fast scalable hosting company that was founded in 2003. They are based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but serve hosting markets around the world. A2 Hosting is positioned as a successful hosting company, focused on speed and offering excellent customer support.
They offer a full range of hosting solutions ranging from shared Linux hosting to dedicated cloud and server solutions for large and growing Web sites.
A2 Hosting has data centers on every continent and offers us an excellent quality/price ratio!
Data sheet of the host
A2 Hosting is a fast scalable hosting for anyone whether you are a developer, webmaster or you are a blogger with no technical knowledge, so regardless of the type of hosting you need (shared, VPS, dedicated), you can always find and meet your requirements with the offers of A2.
If your top priorities are speed and performance, high-end support and security, if these are at the top factors for signing up for a web hosting, then A2 Hosting should be a leading competitor.
A2 hosting provides you three types of shared hosting services that include Lite, Swift, and Turbo package. These hosting services are based on windows and Linux and start at $3.92 per month. With Lite, you have unlimited storage and data transfers but can operate a single domain with email address limit of 25. On the other hand, you have swift which starts at $4.90 per month and extends the Lite service by offering unlimited domains and email addresses. As for Turbo, you can start by paying $9.31 per month and extends the Swift services by offering pre-configured site caching which boosts up your loading speed by 20 times.
Linux Shared Hosting
The Linux based and windows based package differ slightly on the price, Windows costs a bit more. You get the difference in the control panel with Linux offering cPanel whereas the other operating through Plesk.
Also, you have a free site migration but you’ll be paying for domain name registration. Some features do come with charges that may include the SSH access and SSL certification as well as the cPanel and SSD storage book.
The site migration is free with A2, but not the domain name registration. However, it offers some features that many others would charge you: SSH access, SSL certificate, cPanel and especially SSD storage book as standard on all packages.
Windows Shared Hosting
The introductory prices are slightly lower and the renewal prices.
You can also get WordPress hosting with A2Hosting. The plans do cost a bit more than other packages but you get a full SSD structure and quick loading. Other options include integrated caching and powerful hardware.
SelfManaged WordPress
Managed WordPress
The introductory prices are slightly lower and the renewal prices.
Virtual private server hosting is also available at A2. You get Windows and Linux based unmanaged VPS hosting starting at $5.00 per month. Moreover, there is a command-line operation with 512 MB RAM and 2 TB data transfer. As for data storage, you get 20 GB space.
Also, there are managed VPS services that start at $25.00 per month. You get higher RAM at 4 GB and storage space of 75 GB. HostGuard management is in place that clears out all the problems for you.
Another package includes the $25.00 per month’s first-level Core VPS. The features are pretty much all the same as managed VPS but it gives you root access to assure complete control over your website.
Unmanaged VPS Hosting
Managed VPS Hosting
To satisfy your Cloud VPS requirements, you get the relevant services from A2 on the SwiftServer platform at $5.00 per month. It gives you SSDs for faster loading and thorough root access. However, you only get Linux as the OS.
The VPS users at A2 get redundancy and reliability with zero failover. You get a chance to create a custom server of your own and pay for the features that you use. Also, there is a consumption control for the use of cPanel resources and you can resize your account if required.
If you are looking for a quick and high performing hosting service, the A2 Turbo VPS acceleration is what you need. It operates on the Turbo Servers with Site Accelerator to assure minimal page loading time.
To deal with caching and data, you can opt for the A2 Turbo Cache. It works pretty much the same as Varnish cache and stores as well as serves the HTML content without initiating the PHP requests. Moreover, unlike Varnish, it is also compatible with SSL.
The support team for A2 hosting is available to you 24 hours a day under Guru Crew. It offers you security and monitoring with the help of HackScan. The hacker detection mechanism is in place along with kernelCare to update your data without any kernel reboot. Also, you get virus scanning and brute force detection with their protection system.
The introductory prices are slightly lower and the renewal prices.
Dedicated hosting is also available for web owners at A2 hosting. There are 4 different types of packages that include the semi-dedicated servers starting from $8.03 per month to the advanced Core Flex package available for $141.09 per month.
On semi-dedicated servers, you have unlimited storage and data transfers. However, it is locked down to two cores and 8 GB RAM. At least 2 CPU cores and 8 GB RAM is provided with 10 TB data transfer and 500 GB storage for Unmanaged Flex Server, Managed Flex Server, and Core Flex Server.
Unmanaged Dedicated Hosting
Managed Dedicated Hosting
The A2 Dedicated Server Plan gives you control at the root level and you get to choose your Linux OS. You can configure it with the SolusVM control panel. 24/7 surveillance and hardware monitoring are also provided.
A2 managed dedicated hosting plan is also available with HostGuard management. It gives you cPanel control and preconfigured hosting.
A2 dedicated servers come with the SwiftServers that provide higher performance. You get hosting on SSD which increases the loading speed and decreases the load time for a page. With SwiftServer, you also get the SwiftCache which is powered with OPcache. Moreover, it also supports Turbo Cache which is pretty similar to Varnish in its working.
When you have high load volume or the file system is getting full, you get notification from A2 so the servers are never overloaded. The data centers come from three different countries and locations are based in the US and Europe. With dedicated hosting, you get instant account activation and solid processing capabilities as well as decent RAM. Also, it is fairly easy to migrate and upgrade the plan according to your requirements as the migration takes place with Xen.
A2 uses Perpetual Security for hacking prevention. You get HackScan and KernelCare to get automatic kernel updates without any requirement for a reboot. If you opt for a managed plan, HostGuard will take care of the security patches and updates as well as the software installations. Whenever there is any issue relating to your hardware or server, the smart system notifier is in place to alarm the A2 support team which will clear the errors instantly before they can affect your traffic.
The A2 dedicated hosting gives you control on all levels as per your needs. There are plenty of resources devoted to helping people who run their websites on A2 and you get great website performance with both the managed and unmanaged plans.
The introductory prices are slightly lower and the renewal prices.
For those of you that want to get started with hosting and don’t want to entangle yourself in infrastructure problems, look at the A2 reseller hosting plans. They operate on Linux or windows and come with an eNom dealer account that is completely free.
You also get a WHM or Plesk control panel. Billing software is also available from Silver Plan onwards in the form of WHMCS. The packages start from $9.80 per month to $30.38 per month and you can get 100 accounts, 200 GB SSD storage, 2000 GB data transfer, and SSL certification included.
The introductory prices are slightly lower and the renewal prices.
About A2 Hosting
As mentioned before, the company was founded back in 2003. At first, the main target audience was developers and webmasters. Later on, the hosting company made every necessary change to fit the needs of every single person. Now, even a non-technical person can handle the hosting easily.
There are many plans available to choose from.
Talking about the technical details, you can run any script with PHP 5, PHP 7, and also, they have support for Ruby on Rails in the shared hosting service.
All the hosting plans run on the best hardware with a minimum of 12 core servers and 64 GB Ram. There is unlimited SSD storage is given in all the servers which increase the performance,
There is another add-on which you will get in the higher plan. It is the A2 site accelerator. It is a basically a turbo hosting plan where the servers are powered by Turbo Cache, APC/Opcache, and Memcached.
Another reason why you should migrate to A2 hosting is that it is eco-friendly hosting. A couple of years back, in 2007, they have 100% carbon neutral hosting. So, when you go with A2 hosting, you are doing your part in saving the environment.
The hosting is suitable for every need as they have a special configuration for WordPress and eCommerce hosting. They have various security software to monitor your website from attacks. A2 hosting claims to give you 99.9% uptime.
- Flexibility: A2 strives to support as many technologies, software platforms, integrations, as possible.
- Optimized A2 caching with OPcache and Memcached.
- High Webhost Performances.
- Servers up to 20X faster than the competition.
- Guaranteed uptime.
- Support 24/24, 7/7.
- Free backups with Rewind Server.
- Anytime Money-back guarantee.
- Complexity: A2 offers a lot of options, which can sometimes be complex for someone looking for a simple, easy-to-use web host.
- Server migration fee for changing data centers.
Technical Features
Web applications, e-commerce and marketing
They have support for Python, Perl, Nodejs, and you can, of course, choose your PHP version. It works amazing with MariaDB, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. Further, you can also get access to SSH and import the website with git. So, if you are a developer, A2 hosting review for you in 100% positive and you can surely go for it. Therefore, along with the fast scalable hosting, you also get developer-friendly hosting with this.
Further, if you have an eCommerce store, you can use Woocommerce, Magento, Prestashop, or Opencart. They have a Paypal merchant account available to accept the payments.
Talking about the marketing, they give you Yahoo or Bing ad credits if you are into search marketing. Further, you will also get the Attracta tool in the cPanel which helps you submit your website in Google in a day.
Domains, Databases and Benefits for Developers
Depending upon the plan you choose, you will get the number of domains and databases. They offer domain registrations at an extra cost. You can also transfer your current domain to A2 hosting. Every plan has its own limit on the database. Generally, if you go with unlimited websites hosting, you will also get an unlimited databases. You will get preinstalled PhpMyAdmin and PHPpgAdmin over here to manage your database
They have SSD RAID 10 storage. There are a couple of server locations available on the shared hosting plan. Further, if you choose to go with Dedicated hosting, you will get a couple of more choices. The dedicated server runs on CloudLinux.
You will SSH and Rsync access without any signup which is pretty much required if you are a developer. There is a cPanel control panel to manage all of these things.
"Green" infrastructure
The next part of the A2 hosting review is the green infrastructure it provides. As mentioned, A2 hosting is also an ecofriendly host along with fast scalable hosting. They are 100% carbon neutral and also they reuse their old server instead of just trashing them. They use telecommunication which reduces the CO2.
Performance and Security
A2Hosting Uptime Guarantee & Speed Test Reports
A2 Hosting uptime for (July 2019) – 100%.
No outage recorded at A2 Hosting in September 2018.
A2 Hosting uptime for (February 2018) – 99.98%.
Turbo speed and optimized software
One of the most important parts of this A2 hosting review is about speed and software optimization. No doubt, A2 hosting is one of the fast scalable hosting providers in the industry. They have 20x speed with the turbo mode.
There are SwiftServer SSDs which makes it easier to load thousands of processes at the same time. If you go with the plan with the accelerator, you will also get a couple of cache software to speed up the caching.
A2 site accelerator
In this entire A2 hosting review, we talked about the A2 site accelerator a lot. So, let’s get a little bit deep on what is it.
Basically, it is a caching tool that comes preconfigured with your web hosting. There are mainly three options for caching. The turbo caching which hides all the HTML content and loads it on PHP. The second one is OPcache/APC which will decrease the PHP response time. Lastly, to optimize the speed of the database, they have got Memcached. It also helps in faster recovery.
"Constant Security" and monitoring 24/24 and 7/7
It is a crucial part to see the security when it comes to choosing a hosting provider. A2 Hosting not only provides fast scalable hosting but also provides constant security.
There is a dual firewall to protect your website from DDoS attacks and similar attacks. The Kernalcare provides regular updates without needing to reboot the system. Further, they have brute force defense mechanisms on their servers.
Talking about individual site security, you can always add free SSLs to your website.
Ease of use
In this A2 hosting review, we have been saying this hosting is specially focused on developers and webmasters. So, this section covers the ease of use for nontechnical users.
The A2 dashboard has all the options right there. You can log in to the control panel or you can renew your products with ease.
Talking about the hosting, you get cPanel over here. cPanel makes it extremely easy to manage your entire website no matter which programming language or software it uses. You can install WordPress, Magento, and other tools in just one click.
In the same way, their marketing tools such as Attracta make it easier to do the SEO and marketing of your website. You can submit your website to Google by typing in the URL.
The Hack scan will automatically detect the virus and malware on your website. In this way, you don’t need to worry about security too.
Overall, everything is easy to use. In a dedicated server, you get the Plesk panel. You can manage all of these things with ease even if you have no technical knowledge.
Price
Next, we are going to see the A2 Hosting review for pricing.
Shared Hosting: Lite, Swift and Turbo
There are three shared hosting plans to choose from. The main difference between the first two plans is the number of websites you can host. Whereas, the difference between the swift and turbo is the performance. The price of the lite plan starts at $3.92 per month whereas the rest of the two plans are priced at $4.90 and $9.31 per month. Please note this is the first time fee. The renewal price may increase.
VPS Hosting: Dynamic, Cloud, & Managed Services
There are three different services for each VPS type. The pricing starts at $5.00/month with the unmanaged VPS and can go up to $50 with managed VPS. There is a total of 6 plans to choose from between managed and unmanaged VPS.
Dedicated Hosting: Flex vs. Managed Flex
For the people who have a very huge amount of traffic on their website and need a custom server can go with the dedicated hosting. There are mainly three plans you can choose from. One of them is the core server. Whereas, you can also go with the managed dedicated hosting or unmanaged.
Reliability and support
Along with the fast scalable hosting, reliability is also very much important. A2 Hosting is known for its reliability. You can directly see the A2 hosting reviews from all the real customers directly on their website. They are 100% transparent when it comes to the A2 hosting reviews by customers. Therefore, you can surely rely on A2 hosting.
Software, servers and support team
A2 uses its own software to power up its server. The name of the software is A2 and they use the same thing when it comes to the performance. The software gives a huge speed when it comes to the loading time of the website.
They got various servers, all of which works on green energy. You will get the server configuration depending on the plan you choose to go with. The servers are fully secure and they are constantly monitoring them.
A2 hosting has 30 guru support team there for you whenever you need them. You can either use phone support, email support, chat support, you can, of course, use the ticket system. The team members are US-based.
The promise of "Constant Security": HackScan, KernelCare and more
Security is important and that’s the reason why they provide constant security. The hackscan will monitor the website 24 by 7 giving you the complete protection from the hackers, malware, and virus.
The kernel care will give daily automatic security updates. It doesn’t need a reboot and hence you will not face downtime.
If something is wrong with the hardware or security, they have an automatic notification. It will send a notification to the technical crew and they will fix it. Further, they have free SSL and Cloudflare CDN for speed and security.
Site Transfer Policy
They have a free migration service where they will migrate and transfer your website from the current hosting provider to the A2 hosting server. In most of the cases, you will be eligible for the site transfer. However, in unique special cases, they might reject the request. You can surely contact them about it.
Conclusion: Is A2 Hosting Right for You?
For an inexperienced user, there is a slight chance that things might be confusing at first, There are many different hosting packages, and depending on what you get, there are a ton of different functions at your disposal.
Suffice it to say that this could be confusing. But, once you have found your hosting package and the tools at your disposal, it becomes easier to find your way.
Hosting plans from just $7.99
$3.92/mo – That’s 51% OFF!
All A2 Hosting plans come with ANYTIME-day money-back guarantee
- Disk space: 100 GB ⇢ Unlimited
- Bandwidth (traffic): Unlimited
- Number of websites allowed: 1 ⇢ Unlimited
With a total of about 58 employees (30 of which are focused on support), A2 Hosting strives to achieve optimal performance and develop original ideas. The A2 Hosting offer is, in our opinion, a good balance between speed, reliability, competitiveness and quality support. That is why it is a fast scalable hosting.
No matter where you are on the scale of hosting needs, A2 has a solution for you combining speed, security and customer support for your website. We recommend A2 primarily to webmasters looking for quality hosting for the North American market.
If you are a developer or system administrator who is comfortable with server management, you will find that A2 Hosting offers excellent solutions, especially when you consider the number of features that come with a typical plan.
