A2 Hosting has been around since 2001 and has delivered a number of the fastest server speeds we’ve seen over the past 24 months.
Their customer support is efficient, the hosting plans are developer-friendly, and that they have a singular “anytime” money-back guarantee.
however. and therefore the renewal rates jump pretty aggressively after your first purchase period ends. However, if you would like a quick web hosting service at relatively cheap pricing ($2.96/mo) with the power to scale once your website grows, A2 Hosting could be a really good option.
Here’s an in-depth check out A2 Hosting’s Pros vs. Cons in the wake of joining, paying, and scrutinizing it.
Pros of Using A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is one of the simplest under-the-radar hosting companies you ought to know more about.
Their speed is superb, customer service is friendly, security measures are plentiful, refund policy is liberal, and they’re even environmentally conscious on top of it all.
Let’s undergo all by one, so you’ll see for yourself.
1. Fastest Shared Hosting Provider We’ve Tested (317ms)
You’ll see a recurring theme once you attend A2Hosting.com:
Speed.
They mention speed on the homepage. All of the features are designed to form your site “screaming fast.” And even the name of every pricing plan is said to hurry (like “Swift” and “Turbo”).
It should not shock anyone that A2 Hosting is, actually, quick. They’re the quickest common facilitating supplier we’ve tried, and they’ve been the quickest for quite a while at this point.
That’s no small feat during a world where page loading times might be the difference between keeping an internet site visitor around or losing them to the competition.
Table of Contents
A2 Hosting average load time:
2. Friendly & Efficient Customer Support
A2 Hosting provides many articles in their knowledge domain if you’d like better to find a fast answer to your detail.
If you favor chatting with a person, they provide everything from chat to phone and ticket-based help.
We fired up the live chat. Ironically, A2 Hosting’s customer support was a touch slow connecting to the live chat session, taking around five minutes to mount.
But from there, everything was smooth sailing.
Justin is really friendly, answering all of our questions directly within 30 seconds. He genuinely cared and didn’t look every answer up.
It was an experience overall.
3. Free ‘HackScan’ Keeps Your Site Safe
On the web, speed, and security don’t unusually go well together.
That’s since extra scanning, firewalls, or layers of encryption can often slow users down.
A2 Hosting has figured out how to be extremely quick while not failing on security, either.
Their servers are protected by “HackScan,” a 24/7-monitoring service that scans for malware and other attacks day-in, and day-out.
The best thanks to keeping your site safe are by preventing issues before they escape.
Their data centers also are scalable, meaning you’re protected if a denial of service attack (DDoS) breaks out. These attacks plan to flood your servers with traffic and knock your site offline. So A2’s got your back to handle sudden, wonderful surges.
4. Free Site Migrations (1 – 25 Depending on Plan)
A2 Hosting will personally shift your existing website over to their servers at no extra charge on all plans.
All reach their customer support department cPanel account credentials, rest taken care of.
The only catch number, the plan you’ve purchased. Their terms spell everything in detail.
Shared hosting customers on the Lite, Swift, and Turbo plans will get the site moved. But if you’re buying the reseller, dedicated, or managed VPS hosting, you’ll get 25 free migrations.
Again, this assumes provide cPanel access to your existing sites. Otherwise, A2 might take a fee for work.
5. Content Management Systems (CMS), Website Builders, and Developer-Friendly Tools
A2 Hosting works flawlessly with all significant substance the executives’ frameworks.
you’ll install a WordPress, OpenCart, Drupal, Joomla, or Magento site with just a couple of clicks. No need for a developer to assist you out.
They have a couple of special features for these sites, just like the A2 Optimized WordPress plugin which will accompany Turbo plans to stay your site speedy.
A2 Hosting also has been its own website builder, appropriately named SiteBuilder.
These are ideal if you’re trying to seek out something slightly more user-friendly to customize your site by yourself without having to Google one HTML tag. Just confine mind that pricing and plans are slightly different for A2’s SiteBuilder (than the normal shared hosting plans).
A2 Hosting’s arrangements come perfect with a Cloudflare CDN record to, rehash after me, keep your site quick (by stacking pictures and other enormous documents break your server).
If you’re a webmaster or agency looking to host dozens of websites below one roof, A2 Hosting comes with developer-friendly tools. you will get admin-level access on servers, free server reverse backups, and multiple versions of everything from PHP to MySQL, PostgreSQL, Python, etc.
6. Anytime Money-Back Guarantee
A2 Hosting wont to have the quality 30-day money-back guarantee like most other hosts we’ve reviewed.
You know the drill with these. Run into any problems or issues within the primary 30 days, and you’ll get an entire refund. No questions asked.
However, A2 Hosting has modified this policy a touch over a previous couple of years. And customers are those who benefit.
A2 now offers an “anytime” money-back guarantee.
You’ll still get a full refund within the primary 30 days. But what if you’re prepaying for 3 years to urge the simplest deal (more thereon later), and you’re unhappy after the primary year?
7. Green Web Hosting
A2 Hosting’s hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan is understood as “Tree Town.” They reportedly have 50,000 trees and 150 parks, consistent with their site.
So A2 feels an ethical obligation to assist protect the earth from heating.
This shouldn’t be the deciding factor to check-in for an internet host. But knowing the corporate you’re working with cares about the environment may be a nice extra perk.
8. Uptime of 99.93%
The fastest page loading times within the world can’t structure for a site that’s constantly offline.
That might sound obvious, but it’s a juncture. A2 Hosting’s uptime was stellar once we first signed up in 2015. But over the last 24 months approximately, we’ve noticed a small downturn in performance.
However, they still managed to realize the industry-standard results of 99.93%.
Last 12-month average uptime for A2 hosting:
- January 2020 average uptime: 99.99%
- December 2019 average uptime: 100%
- November 2019 average uptime: 100%
- October 2019 average uptime: 99.99%
- September 2019 average uptime: 99.99%
- August 2019 average uptime: 99.95%
- July 2019 average uptime: 99.85%
- June 2019 average uptime: 99.70%
- May 2019 average uptime: 99.98%
- April 2019 average uptime: 99.99%
Cons of Using A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting a lot of Pros going for it.
However, fast speeds and friendly support can’t for everything.
Here’s at each issue in detail:
1. High Renewal Rates (And 15-Day Deadline)
A2 Hosting features price break on long-term plans. So prepaying years will knock dollars off the monthly price, add up over the course of 36 months.
A2 then sweetens the deal for patrons with special introductory pricing that basically cuts the worth in half.
The problem is that when your initial term expires, automatic renewal will kick in at the “regular” pricing (almost double what you initially paid).
The most web has pulled this equivalent trick in some structure. They know if you’re proud of the service overall, it’s likely to be an enormous pain to maneuver your site again before the worth increase kicks in.
Here’s the part that doesn’t sit well, though.
According to their terms, you’ve to submit a written cancellation request “15 days previously the starting of the Renewal Term” through their customer portal or by emailing them at billing@a2hosting.com.
What happens if you miss this 15-day window? you’ll get on the hook for paying a subsequent renewal plan, which can renew automatically, and you’re not eligible to receive any refund.
In other words, they’re banking on you forgetting to prevent your account before it’s too late.
2. Restrictions on Cheapest Plan
The elementary price for A2 Hosting’s cheapest shared hosting option (“Lite”) is currently $2.96/month (51% off the regular price). That’s not rock bottom pricing we’ve seen, but it’s pretty good.
But once you start comparing that price point with what you’re getting (compared to the competition), some issues arise.
This plan only gets you one website, with unlimited storage, a free SSL, location migration, and Anytime Money-Back Guarantee.
You don’t get tons of the good perks that help make A2 an honest choice, like Turbo Servers that provide “up to 20X faster page loads,” server rewind, or maybe offsite backups.
A similar issue applies to their web designer plan.
The most web has pulled this equivalent trick in some structure.
the most cost-effective option that’s similarly priced around ~$4/month only gets you one page — not nearly enough to make an actual website.
A2 Hosting Pricing, Hosting Plans & Quick Facts
A2 Hosting has three valuing levels for its mutual facilitating:
Light arrangement: This arrangement begins at $2.96 every month. It accompanies enough for one site, five databases, boundless capacity and transfer speed, a free SSL, in addition to cPanel control get to
Quick arrangement: This arrangement begins at $3.70 every month. It underpins boundless sites, databases, stockpiling, moves, SSL testament, cPanel, and single-site relocation.
Turbo plan: This arrangement begins at $7.03 every month. It comes with everything from the Swift plan, plus Turbo (20X speeds) and therefore the A2 Site Accelerator.
Ease of Signup: Three-step check-in. Not too difficult.
Payment Methods: MasterCard, PayPal, Check or postal order, Bank Transfer, Skrill, and PayU Latam.
Hidden Fees and Clauses: Renewal rates are above the introductory period. you’ve got to cancel 15 days before the Renewal Period; otherwise, you’ll get automatically charged. name purchases aren’t refundable. just one site migration is free on their shared hosting plans.
Upsells: only a few upsells.
Account Activation: Instant Activation.
Control Panel and Dashboard Experience: cPanel.
Installation of Apps and CMSs (WordPress, Joomla, etc.): Choice to install WordPress and other popular CMSs are available at checkout.
Do We Recommend A2 Hosting?
Yes, I do.
A2 Hosting has reliably conveyed top tier speed throughout the previous quite long while. Their customer support is friendly and helpful.
All shared plans accompany a free SSL certificate and one free migration. Also, their uptime isn’t regrettable.
