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A2 Hosting Overview
| Global loading speed ratings(Sucuri) | F |
| Free SSL Certificate | ✔ |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.9% |
| Online Customer Support | ✔ |
| WordPress Feature Management | ✔ |
| Starting Price | USD $2.99 |
A2Hosting is a green hosting provider founded in 2003 in Michigan, USA, with products including web hosting, VPS, dedicated hosting, cloud hosting and more. Because of its free CDN service and aggressive technological innovation (CloudFlare, Railgun, SwiftServer), A2Hosting’s Linux web hosting is known for its speed, with the Prime+SSD SSD version of web hosting loading pages 300% faster than standard drives. Below, we will review A2hositng’s features, price, stability, speed and customer service.
The future of this host is unlimited
A2 Hosting is an eco-friendly host designed to appeal to a wide audience, offering everything from shared hosting to VPS and dedicated servers. But is it right for you?
A2 Hosting was founded in 2003 and has been offering 100% carbon neutral hosting since 2007 – yes, it was a “green” company before it made a name for itself.
You can choose from a variety of hosting types, including standard shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, reseller hosting, VPS and dedicated servers. The company has four data centers located in the United States, Europe and Asia.
The company’s plans not only offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, but also claim to increase the speed of its servers by up to 20 times. If you have any problems with your usage, you can use the ‘Guru Crew Support’ team, which is available 24/7, for help.
If you’re like me, you might think this all sounds a little too good to be true. Hey, we’re not pessimistic, we’re just more practical.
Well, I decided to sign up for A2’s hosting plan myself to see for myself the quality of its service. I tested its loading speed and performance, and tried out all the important features. Read on to learn more about my experience and to see if A2 is right for you and your website needs.
A2 Hosting Features
A2Hosting web hosting is feature-rich and supports a wide variety of databases and scripting languages that are rare in the U.S. A2Hosting has a very detailed description of its product parameters on its official website, which we will partially introduce here.
| Basic Function | Unlimited RAID-10 hard disk storage, unlimited traffic, unlimited email accounts, unlimited domain binding, unlimited database, free shared SSL certificate, free A2Hosting secondary domain, free SSH login, FTP |
| High-speed host features | SwiftServer platform, CloudFlare content delivery system (200% faster page loading), Railgun optimizer (up to 143% faster HTML loading) |
| Script | PHP 5.4~7.4、Python 2.4~3.2、Ruby 1.8、Perl 5.10 |
| Database | MySQL 5.5、PostgreSQL 9.1、SQLite 3.3、MongoDB |
| Server | Apache 2.2、nginx、Mongrel、Tomcat |
| POP3、IMAP、SMTP、Enterprise email, spam protection | |
| eCommerce | Support Paypal, multiple e-commerce software (Magento, OpenCart, PrestaShop) one-click installation |
Features to meet the needs of large and small websites
A2 Hosting offers many exciting features, especially in terms of performance and security. Let’s explore all the details and see what features and services you can get.
A2 Hosting covers all the basics, such as free migration, automatic backups, free SSL certificates, free domain registration, and more.
All of its plans offer unlimited storage space and data transfer, so you can scale your site to suit your content. Its Lite plan is limited to one site, but all other plans allow you to host unlimited sites and create as many databases as you need.
However, if you plan to host an e-commerce site, you should know that A2 hosting is not PCI compliant. This means you must use a third-party secure shopping cart API.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the most interesting features of A2.
20x Turbo Server
Both the Turbo and VPS plans run on A2’s Turbo servers. According to the company’s website, these specially optimized servers will provide you with loading speeds up to 20 times faster than standard hosting servers. The fewer users per server and the more memory you have, the more performance and stability should follow.
Especially in today’s Internet world, when every millisecond counts and server downtime can cause customer churn, upgrading to Turbo may be a good idea.
High Performance Infrastructure
A2 Hosting has four global data centers in the United States (Michigan and Arizona), Europe (Netherlands) and Asia (Singapore).
All of its servers are configured with at least 64GB of RAM and 12 CPU cores with RAID 10 redundant SSD drives that help increase stability and speed. Most importantly, all of its servers are connected via a 10GB/s quadruple redundant network backbone.
These servers all have the latest and best hosting technologies such as SPDY (a content delivery standard developed by Google), HTTP/2 and ESI (for custom page caching). However, these are limited to the Turbo plan.
Permanent security
A2 Hosting’s plans come with a number of security features to ensure your site is protected from hackers and malware. Its free HackScan, a tool that will proactively detect and remove threats, and Patchman, another handy security utility, can alert you to updates to outdated software and take care of quarantining infected files and patching vulnerabilities.
In addition, you’ll have a dual firewall and strong defenses.
FutureServe Green Hosting
It’s not easy to keep things environmentally friendly, but sometimes the goal can be reached by choosing the right hosting provider. A2 Hosting has partnered with Carbonfund.org to make every effort to reduce its carbon footprint – from recycling old servers to remote offices.
Your website will be hosted on SSDs (solid state disk drives) and doing so will not only provide you with better performance and stability, but will also reduce energy consumption.
Easy to Use
A2 hosting doesn’t exactly provide the easiest setup process, but once it’s done, it should go pretty smoothly in use.
Create Account
I found the registration process for the A2 hosting plan to be both good and bad when I signed up for it. Of course, the whole registration process is very easy and quick, and the pricing is transparent.
Aside from the excessive upsells, the unnecessary email bombardment is more bothersome because at least the upsell items are not automatically checked off by default.
For more information on the A2 registration process, read my step-by-step guide.
Connect the domain and install WordPress
A2 Hosting uses cPanel. although it is not the best hosting control panel for beginners, it still simplifies a lot of unnecessary hassles.
However, setting up the free CloudFlare CDN does take some time, and your free SSL certificate will not be set up automatically.
During the setup process, you will have access to links to some useful articles, but their articles do not include certain topics and the quality of the documentation varies.
It took me about an hour to set up my hosting.
One thing I found really annoying is that you can sometimes be banned from accessing A2 Hosting sites for up to 15 minutes because the security firewall was “accidentally triggered”. In theory, you could contact support to fix this as soon as possible, but I was the unlucky one.
cPanel Hosting
As mentioned earlier, A2 Hosting uses cPanel as its hosting management control panel and has integrated it into its own dashboard. If you’ve used cPanel before, you know that cPanel is a powerful hosting tool. And if you haven’t, it may take a while to get used to it.
Its hosted dashboard itself is clean and simple, and the placement of cPanel links is straightforward.
You can access the Support Center via a quick link and open a trouble ticket or start a live chat conversation from there.
The process to register a new domain or add additional services to your account is also very simple.
Automated hosted application installer
One-click installers have been around for years, but A2 Hosting has taken their own installer to another level. I personally have never seen an installer that includes such a wide range of applications.
As you can see, all common programs such as WordPress (with some changes), Drupal, Joomla and Magento are included. When you select an application, that program appears in the dashboard connected to your domain when you first log in.
Performance
A2 Hosting’s performance and stability are generally satisfactory
A2 Hosting offers above-average page load speeds and server uptime, but can it compete with the heavyweights of the hosting world?
A2’s 99.9% uptime guarantee is backed by a credit system. After experiencing the first 0.1% of hourly downtime, you get 5% of your monthly payment and up to the full monthly fee.
Although users have complained about their downtime in the past, their uptime was still above 99.5% during those months when downtime was an issue. And its uptime after that is almost impeccable.
My own WordPress site scored an A (with a maximum grade of A +) using Sucuri’s page speed tester. Given all the promise on the A2 site, I’m a little disappointed with this result – but then again, I’m not using the best-performing Turbo plan.
My average load time was 0.784 seconds, a performance that is still below the 1 second threshold, so I have nothing to complain about. Its performance turned out to be quite good across North America, and the load time in Dallas was even lower at 0.217 seconds (I chose the Michigan data center).
Most hosts scored poorly in Brazil, but I think there is still room for improvement in A2 Hosting’s performance in Europe, Singapore and Australia.
Customer Support
Is the “expert team” support true to its name?
A2 Hosting offers 24/7 phone, live chat and ticketing support 365 days a year.
You can always contact A2 ‘Guru Crew’ via live chat, email, ticketing, phone, or even Skype if you need any help.
It’s always nice when a host provides 24-hour phone support. For some countries, such as USA, Australia, Colombia, India and some others, you can call the local number (you can find the information on the “Global Support” page). For users from other countries, you must call their UK phone number.
If you prefer to solve problems on your own, A2 also offers a large knowledge base. However, there are no video tutorials available and some of the articles can be a bit too technical.
It is quite convenient to have access to these support channels. That said, I personally think the actual support could be better.
Live Chat
When contacting their live chat, I was in 3rd place in line and it took me 8 minutes to get assistance.
Once you connect to a support agent, they will assist you efficiently and courteously, and continue to respond to your queries quickly.
They will usually send you links to documents to you. Sometimes they will providing you with direct answers or solving problems for you.
Email/Ticket Support
Their situation in terms of ticket support is roughly the same. They will respond to support tickets within about an hour on average, which is notable for its efficiency.
As you can see, they will also provide you with roughly relevant documentation rather than personalized responses.
In short, A2 hosting’s support isn’t bad, but calling it a Guru Crew might be an exaggeration.
Price
You get what you pay for, but are the so-called “freebies” really free?
A2 Hosting offers solid, affordable hosting services. All you have to do is make sure you fully understand that you are getting the goods that meet your needs.
Everyone loves a freebie, and the A2 Hosting package includes many free features. Not only do you get a free domain name and SSL certificate, but you also get free site migration, email hosting, automatic backups, and DNS management.
But you should note that you also get a 10% discount on TemplateMonster themes, free Bing / Yahoo ads, a free iContact trial and free access to Attracta’s Google listings for up to 24 hours.
The problem is that only TemplateMonster coupons among them are really valuable. You can get the rest of the “freebies” for free with or without A2 Hosting. I personally don’t appreciate this marketing strategy and find it very misleading to consumers.
The actual price is quite good value compared to similar hosts. Its plans are slightly cheaper than SiteGround and almost the same price as InMotion, but A2 also provides additional unlimited bandwidth and storage space.
You can get a pretty good value for your first hosting, but keep in mind that by default the price you see on the website is the discounted rate for a 24-month plan. In addition, A2 also offers monthly options.
Not only that, but A2 Hosting also offers special deals for non-profit organizations. All you need to do is contact the support team and provide proof of your pro bono status to receive the discount.
A2 accepts nine different currencies, including U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars, Euros, British pounds, and more.
SSL Certificate
A2 Hosting has several SSL certificate options to choose from, which is a nice change from some other hosting providers that only offer one or two.
Protecting your website is especially important when you are collecting any type of payment from your website visitors.
After all, customers entrust you with their personal and financial information when they purchase items from your online store. If this information falls into the wrong hands, you’re sure to run into a lot of trouble.
- Let’s encrypt it. A free SSL solution that provides enhanced site security. In addition, it protects connections to servers that are not visible to the public.
- Single Site SSL. Premium, one-click, single site SSL options are available starting at $49.95/year. Using all the protection offered by Free SSL, Single Site SSL also comes with 256-bit encryption, official site sealing and verified domain status.
- Wildcard SSL: This SSL Certificate will work for an unlimited number of subdomains, all at a low price. Wildcard SSL Certificates start at $149.95 per year.
- Premium SSL. This Premium SSL Certificate comes with a special set of Organization Authentican and Extended Validation SSL Certificates.
Cancellation and Refund
A2 Hosting offers a 30-day money-back guarantee and a no-questions-asked policy. You don’t even have to contact support to do the cancellation yourself online.
This is very tempting, although the process itself can be a bit confusing.
After the first 30 days, you can still cancel your account and receive a prorated refund, but you will be charged the full amount for that month. If you want to cancel after 120 days, then you can only get a refund through PayPal.
Its refund policy does not cover any installation fees, domain registration fees or migration fees. However, A2 does offer a 25 day refund period for any SSL certificate.
Pros and Cons
No matter how perfect they are, every company has its drawbacks. And, while they have many positives, there are a few things to consider before making them your next hosting provider.
Website migration fee
Upgrades and downgrades between plans are relatively easy to achieve. However, there are certain costs to be aware of. If you decide to switch between hosting plans, see what costs it may or may not entail.
- Upgrade. Upgrading to the Premium Plan will allow you to migrate your account at no additional cost. Also, if you decide to change data centers when you migrate your account, then your data center migration fees will be waived. However, changing to another data center without an upgrade will cost you 25
- Downgrading. If downgrading to a lower-priced hosting plan, you may be required to pay a 25 downgrade fee.
- Migrating from another host. If you are migrating from another hosting provider that does not have cPanel, you may be required to pay a fee as determined by the migration team. However, if migrating from a cPanel host, the migration fees will not apply.
While these fees may seem small and there are ways to pay for them, it may be important to note the miscellaneous fees you may face when using A2 Hosting.
In short, by investing in A2 Hosting’s Turbo hosting plan, you will experience the fastest speed and performance available.
Turbo is the best hosting plan for those who have a lot of web traffic, resource-intensive sites or just want all the features A2 has to offer.