Founded in August 2001, Michigan-based A2 Hosting is among the oldest web hosts still in business. A2 Hosting began life as one of the first truly developer-friendly web hosts. Today, the company still offers affordable web hosting, WordPress hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, managed and cloud VPS hosting, dedicated server and email hosting packages that give web developers a great deal of freedom with their servers. However, A2 Hosting gears most of its packages toward standard users.
A2 Hosting is a good fit for any of the below website types.
- Personal blogs
- Online resumes
- Multi-author blogs
- Business websites
- E-commerce websites
- Web development and testing platforms
In our A2 Hosting review, we’ll describe the features of A2Hosting, and explain why you might want to become a customer.
A2 Hosting Service Overview
As we mentioned in the beginning of our A2 Hosting review, this is a hosting company with which developers will feel at home. Their hosting plans are all Linux-based, and they cover various features from WordPress, CPanel, PHP to Dedicated IP. A2 Hosting offers VPS hosting beginning at just $5.00 per month, and it includes root access to the server. Within the limits of A2 Hosting’s Acceptable Use Policy, you can do whatever you like on your server.
Standard shared hosting customers also enjoy low prices; shared hosting starts at $3.92 per month. Although there are lower prices available from other hosts, A2 Hosting’s prices are lower than average.
In addition to freedom and flexibility for developers, the primary feature of A2 Hosting is website speed. A2 Hosting hosts all websites on servers with solid-state storage for free. You can also select the “Turbo” option when configuring your hosting plan for extra performance. Turbo servers provide page loading speeds up to 20 times faster than standard servers.
As part of its commitment to offer developer-friendly hosting, A2 Hosting’s servers work with all of the most popular web-based software packages including PHP, Python, IonCube, Perl, Ruby and Node.js.
Another feature that makes A2 Hosting stand out from the normal hosting providers is their impressive uptime guarantee. They grant 99.9% uptime, and are open about the facilities and performance they offer. Regardless of the which server you choose (A2 Hosting shared, VPS, dedicated or reseller) you will get real time update statistics on the uptime of your website.
A2 Hosting Pricing Information
A2 Hosting offers shared hosting packages as well as VPS, reseller and dedicated hosting packages. There are multiple service tiers within each hosting type. In this section of our A2 Hosting review, we’ll compare the different hosting plans and packages available. Most of the A2 Hosting reviewers are impressed by the quality of the services and the amazing features they get with even the most basic plan.
Package Name | Dedicated to | Price | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Websites | Hosting Type |
Shared Hosting | Personal Blogs/ Sites | $3.92/month and up | Unlimited | Unlimited | 1 and up | Linux or Windows, cPanel or Plesk control panel |
VPS Hosting | More Powerful than Shared Hosting | $5.00/month and up | 20 GB and up | 2 TB and up | Unlimited | Linux, cPanel control panel available |
Reseller Hosting | Hosting personal customers | $13.19/month and up | 30 GB and up | 400 GB and up | 40 and up | Linux, WHM control panel |
Dedicated Hosting | Intensive Business needs | $9.31/month and up | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Linux, cPanel control panel available |
A2 Hosting Security and Risk
The primary security feature of A2 Hosting is Server Rewind. Server Rewind is an automatic snapshot system that lets you revert your server to a previous state in the event of a problem. All A2 Hosting accounts include Server Rewind.
Perpetual Security is the name of A2 Hosting’s security initiative. Perpetual Security includes KernelCare — which monitors the server’s Linux installation for vulnerabilities and applies updates automatically — and HackScan. HackScan is a real-time service that scans your server for malware and prevents hackers from gaining access.
A2 Hosting Usability and User Friendliness
A2 Hosting has among the most user-friendly backup solutions of any web host. Server Rewind is installed automatically when you create your account, and you can access it directly from cPanel.
A2 Hosting also takes the guesswork out of configuring popular content management systems such as WordPress and Drupal for best performance. Many new website owners express frustration about the intricacies of configuring caching solutions to decrease page loading times, for example. A2 Hosting handles most aspects of server optimization for you.
A2 Hosting Control Panel Options
For the control panel, the users have plenty of options they can choose from depending on their needs and skills. Every A2 Hosting customer receives access to the standard cPanel 11 while resellers are offered the combined version that includes both cPanel and WHM.
A2 web hosting services for dedicated, and VPS plans get cPanel free of charge while their unmanaged servers have no software installed. Most of the A2 hosting reviews available online include a positive opinion on the control panel options that can be easily adaptable and come at affordable prices. A2 Hosting review writers also speak highly about the variety of features included in even the lowest cost plans and packages.
A2 Hosting Customer Support and Additional Info
As an A2 Hosting customer, you’ll have access to technical support 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. You can contact the support department via email, telephone or live chat. A2 Hosting also boasts that it has server administrators on staff 24 hours per day. You can access their official website.
- Phone Number: +1 734-222-4678
- Support Center
- Live Chat Support
- Social Media: Facebook, Twitter
A2 Hosting Review: Overall Rating
What We Like:
- Automatic website backups included with all service levels;
- Plenty of freedom for developers to build web-based applications and services;
- All service levels include solid-state storage; other speed enhancements available for higher service tiers;
What We Don’t Like:
- Charges higher prices than some other hosting companies;
- Dedicated WordPress hosting is the same as standard shared hosting;
Rating
Web Hosting Plans and Prices: 4/5
Security and Risk: 4/5
Usability: 5/5
Customer Support: 5/5
A2 Hosting Top Alternatives
If the only thing that you want to do with our server is run WordPress, 1&1 offers one of the most affordable WordPress hosting packages anywhere at an introductory rate of $.99 per month for the first year. However, the package offers somewhat limited storage space and allows for only one WordPress installation.
If you want to get your business off the ground quickly, HostGator might be a good choice because new accounts include $200 in total advertising credits for Google and Yahoo/Bing. Using the credits, you can set up pay-per-click campaigns that begin driving traffic to your new website immediately. Shared hosting plans at HostGator start at $5.56 per month. A2 Hosting does not offer an advertising credit for new accounts.
Do you find the idea of building a website intimidating? If you do, you might like Bluehost. Bluehost shared hosting packages start at $3.95 per month, and every package includes access to the Bluehost Site Builder. The Site Builder makes it possible to design your website simply by dragging items and dropping them into a template. Bluehost offers Weebly’s Site Builder application. A2 Hosting also offers drag-and-drop website building. However, A2 Hosting’s website builder is provided by Microweber.
Our Verdict
A2 Hosting is a strong choice for web newbies and developers alike. If you’re new to owning a website, you’ll love the built-in backups that make it possible to immediately reverse any change that causes your server to stop functioning normally. Experts will love the fact that A2 Hosting gives you full control of your server at an affordable price. You can get to work on building the web-based application of your dreams — even if you’re on a tight budget.
Thank you for reading our A2 Hosting review, and if you are you an A2 Hosting customer, leave a comment below. We’d love to hear about your experience.
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