Did you know? A webpage that takes more than 3 seconds to load loses 57% of customers.
Your website should provide a smooth user experience to maximize your chances of converting visitors to customers. With the right web service, your site is better positioned to serve users and rank high in search engines.
But, can A2 hosting help you achieve the best outcome for your site?
Through my interactions and research, I have gained a deep understanding of the various hosting services available and the factors that businesses should consider when selecting a hosting provider.
In this article, we thoroughly reviewed A2 Hosting, assessing its strengths and weaknesses. You’ll find out where A2 is ahead of the competition, and where it falls short.
Table Of Contents
A2 Hosting: Main Features And Benefits Review
Let’s start by detailing A2 hosting features and how they benefit your business.
1. Hosting Speed
When you land on the A2 homepage for the first time, you notice the headline, “Blazing Fast Hosting.” A2 Hosting is known for high speeds and fast loading times.
According to year-long monitoring on Pingdom, the average load time for a website hosted by A2 is 288ms. In comparison, Bluehost delivered a load time of 324ms, GoDaddy’s average was 480ms, and SiteGround’s load time was 457ms. A2 Hosting is among the fastest web hosts available today.
Fast loading times make for great customer experiences. An eComm or affiliate marketing website has to be super fast because 57% of customers leave a webpage if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Since site speed directly impacts user journey, using a fast provider like A2 hosting raises your conversion rates.
Plus, Google considers site speed a top factor in ranking. According to Unbounce, the average website load time is 15 seconds, yet load times for Google’s top-ranking search results are always less than 3 seconds.
At an average of 288ms, A2 web hosting allows sites to load super fast, increasing your chances of ranking on Google.
2. Hosting Plans Benefits
A2 offers five major types of web hosting packages:
Shared web hosting
Shared web hosting
Shared hosting means that your site shares server space with other websites. It gives you the benefits of cheap web hosting fees, zero need for technical server knowledge, and easy website management with cPanel.
A2’s shared service offers at least one website and 100GB of memory. At the lowest price tier, you can store 300,000 files and emails. Shared hosting allows your site up to 350,000 web visitors a month.
- Dedicated web hosting
A2’s dedicated web hosting hosts your website alone on a dedicated server, which means your site’s load times are not affected by another website’s traffic. Files and confidential info are more secure. You get unlimited storage space, web traffic, and root access to your server.
- VPS hosting
VPS web hosting means that although you share the same server with several websites, you have more control over your allocated server resources.
A2 Virtual Private Servers web hosting gives root access to your server, choice of the operating system, and command-line management. This means not sharing more resources like storage with other websites and not giving up fast load times to help another website’s traffic surge. You solely manage the server resources allocated to your site.
- Reseller web hosting
Reseller web hosting is where a hosting service provider like A2 sells server space to a business that rents out that space to other websites. It’s just like buying wholesale and selling in retail.
If you are an agency, reseller hosting services allow you to design custom hosting options for your clients and make money as a licensed web hosting company.
Our A2 hosting reseller review showed that the A2 reseller hosting package allows you to host up to an unlimited number of clients. You get multiple hosting licenses and can offer a cPanel control panel to all your clients. You can even direct your clients to A2’s customer service.
- Shared WordPress hosting
The shared WordPress A2 hosting plan has features tailored to meet the needs of WordPress websites. For instance, A2’s managed WordPress hosting servers are optimized specifically to host the WordPress CMS. This optimization helps boosts performance and security of your WordPress site.
3. A2 Uptime
A2 made a 99.9% uptime commitment, and so far, it’s holding up. According to an uptime monitoring report on Pingdom, A2 had an average of 99.98% uptime in 2021[1].
High uptime is essential for businesses that want to convert as many visitors as possible into customers. If your website experiences frequent downtimes, you lose visitors who never return to the site. You lose the chance to add them to your email list and to convert them into long-time and loyal customers.
At 99.9% uptime, you can rely on A2 to keep your site online.
4. Supported CMS
A2 supports the following major Content Management Systems:
- WordPress
WordPress
WordPress powers more than 30% of the internet. When you buy the WordPress shared website hosting, A2 pre-installs the software on your website. It removes the need to set anything up because your site is ready and optimized to run on WordPress.
- Joomla
- Drupal
Joomla and Drupal are other popular CMSs supported by A2. There are A2 hosting services dedicated to Joomla and Drupal websites.
The A2 Joomla hosting services lets you build a website on an A2 server with Joomla pre-installed. You can then deploy Joomla in seconds without any coding knowledge. This process is the same for Drupal.
- Magento
Magento is a Content Management System for eCommerce sites. A2 supports all versions of Magento and will pre-install the software if you choose. When using A2 managedVPS hosting with Magento, getting your store off the ground is fairly easy because the software is already installed and can be deployed in just a few clicks.
- WooCommerce
A2 also supports WooCommerce, the WordPress eCommerce plugin for small to medium-sized businesses. Again, A2 has special hosting options for WordPress sites and will also pre-install WooCommerce if you wish. Your store can take off without any lengthy installation or deployment process.
5. Disk Space And Backup Solutions
The minimum SSD storage space that A2 offers is 100GB, which immediately becomes unlimited when you upgrade your plan. The more storage you have, the more files you can store on your website. You can upload all the high-quality product images and videos your business needs.
It’s one of the best web hosting for photographers.
As for physical memory, the RAM allocated to your website, the lowest offer is 700MB. The highest for shared A2 hosting is 2GB. Your website shows an error if the physical storage is overloaded, which happens when there is a traffic surge.
To avoid bogging your server down with large traffic hits, consider getting an A2 dedicated hosting plan with no traffic limit or a CDN such as Cloudflare.
Cloudflare CDN stores a copy of your website in multiple data centers and server locations worldwide. It enables you to create seamless customer experiences for a global audience, regardless of server location.
A2 offers manual, automatic, and server rewind backups. There are also options for daily and custom scheduled automatic backups.
6. Customer Service And Knowledge Base
81% of 1500+ reviews on Trustpilot rated [2]A2 an excellent web hosting service. An overwhelming majority experienced good customer service.
You can reach the hosting support team through a ticket, email, live chat, and phone. Several reviews said email responses were within minutes.
A website owner who had to migrate sites manually said he had detailed step-by-step guidance from the support team. Fewer users have experienced problems with the customer portal.
A2’s Guru Crew excellent customer service is available 24/7, every day of the year, no holidays included. There is also a knowledge base where you’ll find more resources than you need about hosting a website on A2.
If you get an A2 hosting plan, there’s a high chance you’ll have a great customer service experience.
A2 Hosting: Pricing Details
Here’s a breakdown of how much A2 Hosting costs.
1. Domain Name Registration
It’s pretty easy to register a new domain name on A2, and the prices are slightly on the high side. They sell all popular TLDs like .com, .net, .io, and .co.
The .com domain sells for $16.99 per year. A2 hosting offers no monthly fees, no discounts for first-time purchases, and no free trials.
In contrast, Namecheap sells domains 50% off for the first purchase, and Bluehost offers a free domain for the first year. Namecheap’s price for a .com domain is slightly lower than A2’s. They sell it for $13.99 per year.
A2 web hosting sells .biz domains for $17.99 and .io domains for $49.99. These prices are slightly higher than some popular hosting providers. All domain registration fees are non-refundable.
2. Migrations And Backups
Unlike many A2 hosting reviews, we took the time to go through A2 website migration policies.
A2 Hosting offers a free site migration for 1 website to their shared plans. When moving to A2 VPS hosting or a Dedicated plan, you can migrate up to 25 websites for free.
To qualify for free site migrations, website data must not exceed 30GB. Once past the free limits, you pay $10 for each extra website.
Given the incredibly low price, you may be skeptical. However, it’s not the sort of deal where you’re cheated. A2 does not leave your website data for bots to automatically copy and paste. A2 has employed human technical support experts who migrate website data.
The whole process is simple for the site owner. You don’t have to worry about technicalities or go back and forth copying and pasting sensitive data.
A2 Hosting offers both server rewind backups and restores backups. Server rewind backups allow you to restore your website to a previous version free of charge. You get to reverse errors and return to a former version of your website.
However, the lowest A2 hosting price tier, the Starter plan, does not have this feature. For all the other plans, A2 carries out automated daily backups and keeps them for 7 days. A2 does not offer any on-demand backups. You’ll have to log in to cPanel and download the data yourself.
A2’s migration policy is among the best in the industry and allows you to easily change hosting services if the need arises.
3. Email Service, DNS, And SSL
A2’s private email service is free of charge. All plans are allowed to create unlimited email accounts per website. The shared and reseller plans are limited to 15GB of space per email, but it’s still a lot of space if you’re a small or medium-sized business.
The email service allows you to create professional emails linked to your domain and send and receive business emails.
Both the DNS and the SSL are free. You just need to get a web hosting plan.
4. Hosting Plans Pricing
Shared Plans
Here’s a quick breakdown of shared A2 web hosting pricing plans:
| Shared A2 hosting plans | Monthly price | Price for a 3-year plan | Number of allowed websites | Storage | Physical storage (RAM) | Backup | Turbo (site performance boost feature) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Startup | $10.99 | $2.99 | 1 | 100GB | 700MB | Only manual backups | No |
| Drive | $12.99 | $5.99 | unlimited | unlimited | 1GB | Server rewind backups | No |
| Turbo Boost | $20.99 | $6.99 | unlimited | unlimited | 2GB | All backup options | Yes |
| Turbo Max | $25.99 | $12.99 | unlimited | unlimited | 4GB | All backup options | Yes |
The Shared A2 web hosting plan is divided into four sub-plans: Startup, Drive, Turbo Boost, and Turbo Max.
The Startup is the lowest tier in shared A2 web hosting. It costs $10.99 per month and $2.99 when purchased for 3 years.
This plan gives you a single website, 100GB of storage, and access to basic features like email, CDN, and a free SSL certificate. However, you can’t access the Turbo feature for boosts in load times, and there are no free automatic backups.
The main benefit of the Starter plan is affordability. As the name implies, it is best for business startups with no heavy-duty website needs yet.
Drive costs $5.99 per month for long-term buyers and $12.99 normally. You have access to everything in the Starter plan, unlimited databases, and unlimited storage. The physical memory goes up to 1GB.
Businesses signed to the Drive hosting plan pay cheap prices while also being able to automatically backup their data. Still, there’s no access to Turbo on this plan.
The other shared plans are Turbo Boost and Turbo Max. Both use A2’s turbo method to boost site speed and conversion rates. There are unlimited storage spaces and all the backup options that A2 offers. Turbo Boost and Turbo Max cost $6.99 and $12.99 for 3-year purchases and $20.99 and $25.99 normally.
The A2 shared web hosting plan allows benefits like affordability and no need for technical server know-how. A small business can begin with the Starter plan and upgrade as the business grows.
Managed Plans for WordPress
Here’s an overview of A2 managed plans for WordPress:
| WordPress A2 hosting plan | Monthly price | Price for a 3-year plan | Number of allowed websites | Storage | Physical storage (RAM) | Backup | Turbo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turbo Run | $23.99 | $11.99 | 1 | 50GB | 4GB | Onsite only | Yes |
| Turbo Jump | $33.99 | $18.99 | 5 | 250GB | 4GB | Onsite and offsite backups | Yes |
| Turbo Fly | $48.99 | $28.99 | unlimited | unlimited | 8GB | All options | Yes |
| Turbo Sell | $61.99 | $41.99 | unlimited | unlimited | 16GB | All options | Yes |
WordPress hosting is also divided into four sub-plans – Turbo Run, Jump, Fly, and Sell. They all have Turbo boosts in site speed, onsite backups, easy site cloning, and free site migration.
The cheapest plan, Turbo Run, goes for $23.99 and $11.99 when purchased for 3 years. It allows you one WordPress website and 50GB SSD storage.
The other WordPress plans cost from $34 to $62 monthly. There are huge discounts for buying for 3 years. You get either 5 or unlimited websites with storage ranging from 250GB to unlimited.
If you plan on starting a WordPress website, you should get the WordPress A2 hosting plan. A WordPress site hosted on a WordPress server tends to perform better than WordPress sites on servers with multiple CMSs installed. Every feature is optimized to run for WordPress.
Dedicated Hosting Plans
Dedicated A2 hosting is divided into 7 price tiers, each for managed and unmanaged web hosting, and is the costliest of all the plans. Monthly fees range from $250 to $750.
Besides, unlimited websites, you get access to dedicated servers and multiple servers, RAM storage ranging from 1GB to 128GB, and Turbo CPU cores that constantly boost website page load times.
If you run an online store that receives large traffic, processes many transactions daily, and needs high security features, A2 dedicated web hosting is best for your business. If you are looking for an alternative you can also check our A2 Hosting and HostGator comparison.
5. Refund, Cancellation, And Renewal Policies
A2 Hosting packages are renewed five days before the expiration date. Services are canceled if no payment is made 14 days after the hosting services expire.
A2 Web hosting has an anytime money-back guarantee, which sounds very interesting considering the usual 30-day guarantee. Even though A2 claims an anytime and hassle-free refund, it’s not exactly like that.
If you ask for a refund within 30 days of purchase, you get your money back automatically.
If your refund request is past 30 days but within 90 days, you’ll be issued a pro-rata refund. Let’s say you pay for an annual plan and unlimited websites but decide after 50 days that you’re no longer interested. A2 will calculate the number of days not used and send you a refund based on that.
After 90 days, all refunds are done at the discretion of the A2 team, which means that they don’t have to refund you. And if they choose to, it will be through PayPal, regardless of your original mode of payment.
To successfully cancel a service, you have to cancel at least two days before service renewal.
What it all means for you is that there’s a chance you’ll get some refund anytime you reach out to A2, regardless of the number of days since purchase.
6. How Costs Add Up When Using A2
A2 claims to be a cheap web host. Yet, the monthly fees are not reduced even for first-time purchases. You only get discount rates when you buy an annual or 3-year plan. There are certainly cheaper web hosts.
Apart from purchasing an A2 hosting plan, you may decide to get a site builder. The builder is free for 1-page sites hosted on the Startup plan, but for multiple-page websites or other plans, the site builder costs extra. It is better to install WordPress and use free or premium themes.
Even after getting discount rates by buying 3-year or 1-year plans, the fees renew at the normal rate, which is more than twice what you pay first. For instance, if you buy the 3-year Startup plan at $2.99 monthly, it renews at $10.99 per month – triple the discounted price.
Pros of A2 Web Hosting
- Fast Loading Times
So far in 2022, A2 has had an average load time of 287ms. In 2021, the average speed was 288ms. With top-notch loading time records like that, only a few web hosting companies can beat A2 in speed.
A2’s lightning-fast load times ensure that visitors never wait more than half a second for a page to load. People visiting your page have better experiences and are more likely to become long-term customers. And since Google prefers sites that don’t keep searchers waiting, you get to rank higher on the SERPs.
- Guaranteed 99.9%+ Uptime
A2 guarantees websites a 99.9% uptime. So far in 2022, according to website monitoring done on Pingdom[3], A2’s uptime has been 99.98%. Having a website that frequently goes offline is detrimental to your business. You need a site always up, and every lead is captured.
You also need a site that can handle sudden traffic surges. If you purchase a shared web hosting plan, there are limits to monthly web visitors and the traffic hitting your site simultaneously. A2 is awesome because it will adjust server settings to accommodate sudden traffic surges.
A2 is a reliable web host. You don’t have to worry about your site often going offline because of server errors or high traffic.
- Free And Low-Cost Website Migrations
With A2, you can migrate up to 25 websites for free. The A2 team takes care of all technicalities. You just have to provide your cPanel login credentials.
However, if you need to migrate more sites than allowed, there’s a $10 fee per extra site. And if you use another management software apart from cPanel, you may have to pay a $25 service charge.
- Easy Installation Of CMS Apps
A2 offers easy installations of CMS apps like WordPress and Joomla.
We found in our A2 hosting WordPress review that if you get a managed WordPress hosting plan, WordPress is automatically installed on your server as the only CMS software. Your website can then be optimized for WordPress for faster load times and easier on-site SEO.
Your WordPress site stands to perform better on a WordPress server than on a server with multiple CMSs installed, especially if you use a shared A2 hosting plan.
- 24/7 Customer Support Channels
A2 runs several customer support channels – phone, email, ticketing, and live chat.
From reviews posted on Trustpilot, A2 responds to emails in minutes and solves customer problems quickly. Users say the support team is trained to effectively communicate with a customer about why he had a problem and how to fix it.
Therefore, if you purchase A2, you will probably experience excellent customer service and a great tech support team.
- Anytime Money-Back Guarantee
A2 claims to have an anytime money-back guarantee. Here’s what that means.
In the first thirty days after getting a service, you have access to a full no-questions-asked money-back. After 30 days, all refunds are pro-rata and will be done through PayPal. And after 90 days, A2 decides if you get a refund or not.
Regardless of these conditions, there’s a chance you get money back whenever you contact A2. This keeps your purchasing risk at a minimum.
Cons of A2 Web Hosting
- No Windows Server Hosting
No Windows Server HostingFor a business that wants full control over its dedicated servers, A2 offers Linux web server management through their dedicated or VPS hosting plan. However, there’s no windows server web hosting.
This is a major bummer for business owners who run web applications or use .NET frameworks and Microsoft services. However, only large organizations are usually concerned about this. Linux is a good enough option for most websites. Even cPanel runs on Linux.
- Is Relatively Costly
A2 monthly prices are high compared to other web hosting providers. For instance, NameCheap shared hosting starts from $3.88, while A2 shared web hosting starts from $10.99. It only becomes cheap when you buy the 3-year plan for $2.99 per month.
Even when you get the A2 annual plans, the rates renew at higher prices. For instance, if you buy the shared WordPress Turbo Run plan at $11.99 for 3 years, it renews at $23.99
- No Traditional Cloud Hosting
A2 Hosting does not offer traditional cloud hosting. Cloud hosting holds website data and resources on virtual servers that act as a single powerful server.
It allows you to pay for only what you use and not experience total downtimes since there’s no single point of failure. However, A2 VPS hosting is very similar to cloud hosting.
FAQs
Here are answers to the most commonly asked questions about A2 hosting.
How Fast Is A2 Website Hosting?
A2 website hosting loads a webpage in less than half a second. According to Pingdom.com, the average load time for A2 was 288ms.
How Do I Back Up My Website on A2?
You can back up your website on A2 hosting by server rewind and automated backups. The A2 server rewind backups hold website data for up to 7 days. The automated backups are done daily and as scheduled by you.
How Long Does It Take For Emails To Get Created On A2 Web Host?
It takes less than 1 hour to create emails on an A2 web host. To create an A2 hosting email, log in to your cPanel account and create a professional email. Then, link that email with your domain.
How Do I Take My Website Down On A2 Hosting?
You can take down your website on A2 hosting by suspending fees for web hosting services, renaming file directories in cPanel, or manually deleting files.
Renaming directories blocks search engines from locating them. Manually deleting files removes any chance of restoration. You can reach out to A2’s support team to guide you through the whole process.
How to Tell How Much Size I Have for My Website?
You can tell how much size you have for your website by looking at your hosting plan. Read the full feature list. Your hosting provider will list all the different file storage methods and how much size you get.
When to Use A2 Hosting?
You can use A2 Hosting when requiring high speed, scalability, and secure hosting. A2 Hosting is ideal for users who need high-performance, reliable hosting solutions.
A2 Hosting is an excellent choice for websites that experience high levels of traffic. This is because its servers are optimized for high-traffic environments. It also provides a secure platform for websites that require strong encryption and security protocols.
When Not to Use A2 Hosting?
Don’t use A2 Hosting if you’re looking for a hosting solution that offers a wide range of features, like unlimited storage and bandwidth, or a large number of add-ons.
Additionally, there may be better choices than A2 Hosting if you’re looking for a hosting solution that fully customizes the server. Furthermore, don’t use A2 Hosting if you’re under a budget. It’s important to be aware that the cheapest plan offered by A2 Hosting does come with some restrictions.
Is A2 Worth Giving A Try?
Your affiliate or eCommerce business stands to benefit immensely from A2 hosting. A2’s ultra-fast load times and 99.9% uptime allow for great user experiences for your website visitors. A2 Hosting is rated 4.5 on TrustPilot.
No matter the size of your customer base or the stage of your business, A2 has a hosting plan to serve your website needs.
If you’re a start-up, consider the shared hosting plan and once you have large traffic coming in consistently, upgrade to a managed VPS or dedicated plan. If you’re not satisfied with your current web hosting provider, migrate to A2 free of charge.
Our #1 Recommendation: A2 hosting
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