A2Hosting Reviews 2019 , Say They’re 20x Faster.
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- Unlimited RAID-10 disk space
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited domains
- Unlimited e-mail accounts
- Unlimited databases
- CloudFlare content delivery network
- A2 hosting cpanel 11 control panel
- Softaculous apps installer
- Cheapest plan includes dedicated IP address and SSL certificate options
- Checkout and set up are fast and easy
- PayPal payment option
- 24×7 phone, chat and e-mail support
- Fast servers
- 100% uptime
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Best-practices business and website
- A+ BBB rating
Company Information
Founded in 2001 as Iniquinet, the company changed its name in 2003 as a tribute to its original location, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over the years, A2 Hosting has become known for its extremely fast solid state drive (SSD) servers and low-cost shared hosting plans.
The company is focused on delivering the type of website hosting they would want for their own websites. This high standard includes ultra-reliable performance from their exclusive SwiftServer platform, all-inclusive unlimited hosting without hidden fees, free server rewind backups to protect your data, and 24/7/365 customer support services from their friendly and expert staff. This commitment to unmatched customer service is borne out by their A+ Rating from the Better Business Bureau.
As a product of 10+ years of industry experience, their hosting plans provide ultra-reliable, high-performance solutions to help their customers succeed. As part of their commitment to reliability, they provide detailed server uptime reports that back their 99.9% uptime guarantee. Confident that customers will be impressed with both the quality and ease-of-use of the services provided. They also feature a risk-free, no-hassle, 30-day money-back guarantee.
Featuring Data Centers in Southfield, Michigan and Reykjavik, Iceland, A2 provides fully-redundant, dual-fiber-entrance network connectivity via Cogent Communications, Global Crossing, Savvis, and Level 3. These fully-secured Data Centers incorporate redundant power supplies and closely controlled and monitored server environments.
Providing Shared, Reseller, VPS, Managed VPS, Cloud, and Dedicated Hosting, our highest-ranked host offers plans and features to accommodate any organization’s web hosting needs — even when those needs change over time. Their customer-centric approach to providing state-of-the-art technology services has allowed the company to differentiate itself from the competition and solidify their reputation as a leader in the industry.
While thge firm is a technology-focused services company, they are also aware of the impact that their business has on the environment. As part of their commitment to the fight against climate change, they have partnered with Carbonfund.org since 2007 to measurably reduce their carbon footprint. Today, the company continues to implement green policies throughout their organization, and remains fully committed to preserving the planet for future generations.
HOSTING PLANS
The Lite Plan
A2 Hosting Features
- 24/7 technical support
- WordPress integration
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Free solid state drives
The entry-level plan, which A2 calls its Lite option, gets you hosting for one website, use of five databases, unlimited SSD disk space, unlimited data transfer/bandwidth, and a free (shared) SSL certificate. You will manage your website with the included cPanel.
The entry-level plan, which A2 calls its Lite option, gets you hosting for one website, use of five databases, unlimited SSD disk space, unlimited data transfer/bandwidth, and a free (shared) SSL certificate. You will manage your website with the included cPanel.
A2 Hosting: Why Buy Hosting From Them?
- Over 100,000 websites being hosted worldwide.
- WhoIsHostingThis users rate A2 Hosting as out of 5 – Outstanding.
The Swift Plan
A2’s most popular shared hosting plan is the Swift, which is the mid-range option. You will get hosting for as many websites as you would like, use of as many databases as necessary, unlimited SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth/data transfer, and a free (shared) SSL certificate. you will manage your website with the included cPanel.
This plan is very similar to the entry-level plan, but rather than offering your resources for a single website, you will get twice as many resources for as many websites as you would like to host.
The Turbo Plan
A2’s high-end shared hosting plan, called the Turbo option, is very similar to the mid-range Swift plan, but you get extras designed to increase the performance of your websites. This includes hosting your site on A2’s Turbo servers, which A2 claims increases the speed of your site by a factor of 20, as well as the A2 Site Accelerator.
Turbo servers allocate more resources to each individual users due to there being fewer users per server.
The A2 site accelerator is a cPanel plug-in that speeds up your site by providing pre-configured caching. More specifically, the included Turbo Cache caches the entire contents of your HTML pages so that it can be served without running PHP, OPcache/APC improves responses of pages that require the use of PHP, and Memcached increases the speed of your MySQL databases by keeping your mos important data in memory for quicker retrieval.
VPS Hosting
For those who have outgrown their shared hosting plans or need better speeds for their websites, A2 offers both managed and unmanaged web hosting plans. Typically, moving up from a shared hosting plan to a VPS plan requires you to either gain the technical knowledge required to manage your server “slice” or hire someone with the necessary system administration experience. However, this is not the case — you can opt for the managed VPS option and leave the system administration tasks up to the A2 team.
Like the shared hosting plans, you can choose to host your site on a Windows server or a Linux server, with Windows plans costing slightly more than its Linux counterparts. Regardless of which operating system you choose, there are three different VPS options from which you can choose:
- Unmanaged: the managed VPS hosting plan is perfect for those who are developers or system administrators looking for a fully customizable, bare metal installation
- Managed: the managed VPS hosting plan offers the full power of a VPS plan, but with the same user-friendly cPanel platform bundled with the shared hosting plans. It also comes with what A2 calls its 100% worry-free Host-Guard Management from the A2 Guru Crew Support team (which is available 24/7).
- Core VPS: the Core VPS option is for those wanting a managed VPS plan, but with the addition of root access/administrative privileges. You will get worry-free support from A2, but you will also get complete control over your server environment
Dedicated Hosting
A2 offers both managed and unmanaged dedicated servers for those in search of web hosting for the fastest speeds and resource-intensive or highly-trafficked websites. Unlike many other web hosting providers, A2 offers consulting services for those who do not have the technical expertise or access to system administrators necessary for managing a dedicated server.
RAID Storage
For the purposes of data redundancy and performance improvement, managed VPS hosting plans and dedicated servers get RAID-10 storage. Managed dedicated servers also get upgradeable RAID 1 storage.
Refunds and Money Back Guarantees
If you purchase a web hosting option from A2 Hosting and you decide within 30 days that A2 is not the right option for you, you can take advantage of the money back guarantee and receive a full refund of all fees paid.
If, after the 30 day period has elapsed, you decide that you want to cancel your account and end your subscription, you can do so at any time. However, instead of receiving a full refund, you will only receive a pro-rated refund that is equivalent to the unused service for which you have already paid.
Uptime and Downtime
One of A2 Hosting’s biggest selling points is its uptime and the reliability of its service. The company backs its claims with a 99.9% uptime commitment, and it strives to meet this promise by following the web hosting industry’s best practices, using top-notch datacenters, and careful management of all servers.
With that said, there are two instances when the uptime commitment does not apply:
- During routine maintenance and upgrade periods that are scheduled ahead of time
- During outages that result from circumstances beyond the control of A2, including:
- Network conditions, such as issues occurring between you and your ISP
- DDoS or other malicious attacks against A2 Hosting’s servers
- Issues arising from your ISP’s network
- Browser-related caching issues
- Issues arising from your DNS settings.
If you see any downtime as a result of issues not related to the exclusions we explicitly listed above, and the downtime accounts for more than 0.1% of your total time that month, you will receive compensation from A2. 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 such that A2 doesn’t meet it’s 99.9% uptime guarantee. However, the maximum service credit you will get for missed uptime promises will be equal to the full amount you would have paid for that month for web hosting had you seen no outages.
Please note that, to receive service credits as compensation, your downtime must be confirmed by an A2 staff member.
Transfer Speeds
A2 Hosting claims that it offers the fastest shared hosting plans around, but is this true? Well, yes and no.
First, to get the speeds promised by A2 (up to 20 times faster than those of its competitors), you will need to opt for the most expensive shared hosting plan — the less expensive options, while offering quality features, do not get the bonuses that speed up your site to the extent claimed by A2.
There are two primary features that account for such lightning-fast transfer speeds:
- Use of A2’s Turbo Servers
- Use of the A2 Site Accelerator.
A2 Site Accelerator
Caching is a tried-and-true method for increasing website speeds. The A2 Site Accelerator is a cPanel plugin offered to Turbo subscribers that gets you pre-configured caching for your applications. There are three primary caching options:
- Turbo Cache caches the entire contents of an HTML page so that it can be served without running PHP on the server — calling PHP on the server can potentially slow down you website and decrease page load speeds
- OPcache/APC is designed to cut response time for PHP pages in half
- Memcached increases the speed of your MySQL databases by keeping your most important and frequently used data in memory for the fastest retrieval possible.
Using CloudFlare CDN
One of the ways you can improve the speed and performance of your website is to use a content delivery network (CDN) to ensure that your visitors are served by the server that is located the closest to them, minimizing the amount of time it takes for data to get where it needs to go.
When hosting with A2, you will get use of CloudFlare, a commonly used CDN, for your website free of charge. A2 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:
- Using the CloudFlare cPanel plugin
- Signing 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 cPanel environment.
If you decide to activate using CloudFlare’s website, you will need to use the CloudFlare site to manage all of your settings. With this option, you cannot use the A2 cPanel to manage your CDN.
Reseller Hosting Plans
A2 offers reseller hosting plans for those looking to get into the web hosting business themselves. A2 allows you to choose between Windows and Linux options, and there are four different reseller plans from which you can choose (regardless of which operating system you choose to use).
All reseller accounts (with the exception of the entry-level options) come with a free item of your choice: a license for WHMCS or a license for Blesta (both are billing options for reseller web hosts). If you would like a more robust WHMCS option than the free version that comes with all but the cheapest plan, you can upgrade to a premium WHMCS package.
SSL Certificates
There are two different ways you can get private SSL certificates from A2 Hosting.
First, if you have purchased a shared or reseller hosting package, you can opt for Let’s Encrypt, an SSL solution applied to your site that provides you with enhanced security. Users with Managed VPS Plans and Managed Dedicated Servers can also use Let’s Encrypt, but they will have to have a dedicated IP address as well.
The other option is to purchase an SSL certificate from A2 Hosting. A2 offers three types of SSL certificates for sale:
- Single Site – works on a single site with one domain name
- Wildcard – works on all pages of a given site, including sub-domains
- Advanced – works across multiple websites, each with its own domain name.
Account Management
You can easily manage the settings for all of your A2 hosting accounts and domain names using the dashboard. You can also upgrade or downgrade your plans if necessary, as well as manage your billing-related settings.
If you need to share access to your account, you can do so under the Developer Accesssection. This means that multiple people can manage your website without you having to share credentials to the master account that has the permissions to control things like billing and developer access itself.
Domain Names and Website Transfers
A2 Hosting allows you to transfer domains owned by other providers and migrate websites hosted elsewhere. You can initiate either of these actions using the control panel area.
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 your existing and open new support tickets
- See records of (and request) website migrations
- Check the status of A2’s servers, as well as whether there have been any instances of service interruptions over the past few days (this is important, especially given the uptime guarantee requires you to report downtime to receive compensation)
- Navigate to the knowledgebase
- Navigate to the notification center, where you can customize the service-related notifications you receive from A2
- Navigate to the A2 company blog, where you can read about all things web hosting and web design.
Second, there is the Open Ticket tab which, contrary to what its name suggests, leads you to the Client Area. In this area, you can:
- Submit a sales ticket if you have questions about future 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.
You can access a record of all tickets you have created and submitted using the left-hand navigation bar. Your tickets are separated based on the teams to which your question(s) were routed.
cPanels
From the dashboard, you can launch the cPanel for your website; if you are hosting multiple websites with A2 hosting, you will see a list of cPanels available for your use on the dashboard home page.
On the right-hand side of the cPanel is a panel of information relating to your account. It includes information on things like your domain name, as well as statistics on how much of your account’s allocation of resources you have used. These statistics include resource use based on how you have configured and built your website, as well as resource use based on the traffic levels you are seeing on your site at the moment.
Features and Functionality
If you’re tech savvy, and you need a speedy web host that supports the latest and greatest technology, as well as bundling premium offerings (such as SSD storage) with even the most basic packages, then A2 Hosting is the company for you.
If, however, you’re looking for an easy-to-use product that comes with a website builder so you can get up and running with as little hassle as possible (and uptime isn’t as big a concern for you), then HostGator is the company for you.
BlueHost
You’ve probably heard of BlueHost: it’s one of the most popular web hosting services around. It powers over 2 million websites on the internet — and this is not for no reason. In addition to being inexpensive and easy to use, its products integrate well with WordPress, which is one of the most popular content management system (CMS) today. BlueHost offers nearly as many options as A2 Hosting, but BlueHost aims more toward those looking for an easy-to-use solution.Read More please visit Bluehost Review 2018:Which offers affordable pricing and best value for money
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, it is now one of the leading providers of web hosting services, managing five data centers (located in Amsterdam, Chicago, London, Milan, and Singapore), employing 400 people, and managing over 500,000 domains. If A2 is too “techy” for you, but BlueHost is too restrictive, consider SiteGround. Read More please visit SiteGround 2018 Reviews: The Most Reliable Web Host You Can Trust.
A2Hosting Speed Review
In addition to offering the most up-to-date versions of software like PHP, web developers have the added benefit to host their websites and applications on A2Hosting exclusive SwiftServer platform. Each SwiftServer is well tuned by the Guru Crew support team to guarantee a high performance web hosting environment. Besides, A2Hosting also leverages some other technologies and tools to meet the demands of developers who search for a super fast web hosting service.
- SSDs. A2Hosting is among the few web hosting providers that offer SSD hosting. According to performance tests, pages load up to 300% faster on A2Hosting SSDs compared with those on standard hard drives.
- CloudFlare CDN. A CDN (Content Delivery Network) is one of the most effective ways in speeding up websites and shortening the page loading time for visitors all around the world. Using CloudFlare CDN, pages are expected to load 200% faster.
- Railgun Optimizer. With Railgun enabled, the 35% dynamic contents of a website that cannot be cached by CDN are able to load 143% faster.
A2Hosting Reliability Review
A2Hosting has kept a detailed server uptime report for all the public servers which clearly shows the real uptime statistics for shared servers, reseller servers, VPS servers and dedicated servers which are 99.9%, 99.87%, 99.9% and 99.92% respectively.
A2Hosting uses a robust redundant network and high performance servers with fully redundant power supply, which ensures optimum uptime for the hosted websites. With scheduled maintenance and server reboots, A2Hosting has well managed all the servers for high uptime. So web developers can get the best experience with great reliability no matter they are on a shared server or a dedicated server.
A2Hosting Control Panel Review
All of A2Hosting customers have free access to the user-friendly cPanel. This graphic web-based control panel helps users manage their websites and hosting accounts with ease, and gives them full control over a large number of functions like managing databases, managing DNS, managing email, controlling spam through SpamAssassin, viewing website stats and managing files via FTP.
Besides all the standard features included in cPanel 11, A2Hosting control panel also integrates with an easy-to-use 1-click application installer named Softaculous. Softaculous is a leading auto installer that can automate the installation for 310 scripts including blogs, portals, forums, image galleries, wikis, social networking, ad management, etc. With the use of Softaculous, software like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and SMF can be installed and deployed properly in seconds.
A2Hosting Feature Review
A2Hosting Technical Support Review
A2Hosting has a Guru Crew team providing professional and responsive technical support via live chat, email and phone. The US based around the clock support team consists of knowledgeable support representatives with 5+ years’ troubleshooting experiences and well-trained to be patient and courteous.
We have tried all of the 3 ways to contact a staff for help. When we clicked the live chat button on the site, we reached a staff after waiting for about 30 seconds; when we sent an email with our problem on FTP, we received a response in 4 hours; and when we called them at the toll-free phone number 1-888-546-8946, we got a kind staff within 10 seconds. The support response time of A2Hosting is among the fastest ones we have reviewed.
A2Hosting Review for Hosting WordPress, Joomla & Drupal
Pros
- Unlimited RAID-10 disk space
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited domains
- Unlimited e-mail accounts
- Unlimited databases
- CloudFlare content delivery network
- A2 hosting cpanel 11 control panel
- Softaculous apps installer
- Cheapest plan includes dedicated IP address and SSL certificate options
- Checkout and set up are fast and easy
- PayPal payment option
- 24×7 phone, chat and e-mail support
- Fast servers
- 100% uptime
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Best-practices business and website
- A+ BBB rating
Cons
- After company restructred its pricing model, there is no more significant cons that we can list here at the moment.
Conclusion
We liked everything about our experience with A2 Hosting, and actually enjoyed the testing and reviewing process. A2 compiled the highest NCM Online star-ranking recorded to date (4.9 rounded to 5). While you may find slightly cheaper web host, you will have a very difficult time locating a better otption in terms of ease of use, speed and stablilty.
A2 Hosting has earned 4.9 stars and NCM Online’s highest recommendation. We have yet to find a better low-cost cost!