Expert A2 Hosting Review
Jonathan Griffin. Editor, Hosting Expert, SEO Developer, & SEO Consultant.
“A2 Hosting have created a very powerful product, promising all the latest technologies and fast support. This is definitely one to put on your shortlist.
We recommend their Turbo plan to take advantage of all their features (A2 Optimized Site Accelerator, Railgun, HTTP/2 and more), and includes significantly more resources per account. "
- FREE site transfer or new site setup with 1-click install.
- Turbo Server, SSD Unlimited Storage, Unlimited Data Transfer, and A2 Optimized Caching (includes LiteSpeed, Memcached, PHP 7 & OPcache).
- FREE Hackscan, Backups, and Firewall.
- A2 Optimized WordPress Plugin provides performance & security optimizations.
- HTTP/2 Enabled Servers for greater speed over HTTPS.
- Free CloudFlare CDN, with the option to upgrade for more performance optimizations.
It is not often we come across a shared web hosting provider with such powerful features. The way they have implemented those features while still allowing you the flexibility to modify cache times and other performance relating settings is about the best we have seen.
All other shared providers that offer the same kind of features do NOT provide this flexibility. Sure, the technology may be there, but it is incredibly powerful to be able to fine tune absolutely everything.
We are impressed. Correction. VERY IMPRESSED!
We have collated a detailed summary of the most important elements of A2 Hosting, and as you will see, there is much to discuss. A2 Hosting is one of the few web hosting providers that really take pride in allowing you to take advantage of the latest technology. This shows in our list below:
#1 All the Speed related technologies you ever need
General Speed related features:
- SSD Storage - Solid State Disk storage increases the performance of your website, but decreasing latency, I/O input, and throughput, as well as improving reliability.
- Turbo Server - More resources, OpCache, Memcached and fewer accounts per server. It is definitely worth having to make your site super fast.
- A2 Optimized Software - This ends the guesswork of how to get the fastest page loads for your software with preconfigured settings for W3 Total Cache, as well as various security settings.
A2 Optimized Site Accelerator
- Turbo Cache - The entire HTML contents of a page is stored by Turbo Cache and served without running PHP for up to 20X faster page loads. This utilizes LiteSpeed which places it in a reverse proxy to Apache.
- Memcached - Increases the speed of your MySQL databases by keeping your most important data in memory for quicker retrieval.
- PHP 7 + OPcache - PHP 7 is significantly faster than the previous version 5.6, with some benchmarks indicating it can handle nearly double the number of requests per second. OPcache accelerates this performance by storing precompiled script bytecode in the memory.
SwiftServer Features
- Choice of Server locations - Host your content nearer your visitors for increased performance.
- CloudFlare Free - Free CDN and security from CloudFlare. You can read more about CloudFlare here.
- CloudFlare Basic \ Plus - This is a premium version of CloudFlare with additional performance features such as image optimization.
- Railgun - Railgun is a web optimization technology provided by CloudFlare that significantly speeds up delivery of non-cached web pages.
- Anycast DNS -This accelerates the performance of DNS servers, providing faster response times during the initial hits to your websites by storing the DNS information at various points around the world.
- HTTP/2 - This significantly improves the performance of your HTTPS website. It is worth implementing HTTPS for the speed increase, as well as the SEO benefits.
#2 Auto Optimized Software takes care of all performance settings
After reading point number 1 above, you probably want to implement all those features but are wary about taking on such a big task.
Fortunately, A2 Hosting has automated the majority of the process, and for the rest, you can follow a very detailed tutorial on how to take advantage of every single bit of performance related technology they have to offer here:
We spent a whole weekend testing various setups at A2 Hosting, and asked quite a few support questions in the process, and are confident you will be delighted at the results when following our tutorial.
#3 Great security & reliability
Whether it is preventing intrusion, ensuring uptime, or just making sure you have a backup should you need one, A2 Hosting have you covered with the following features:
Server Rewind Backups - Available on all but their cheapest plan, you can restore files and databases as required. However, nothing is infallible so you should also ensure off-site backups.
Drop My Site Backups - Talking about off-site backups; this is A2 Hosting’s solution to ensure the reliability of backups and is available at a small additional cost. That being said, we would still recommend something like VaultPress if you use WordPress.
Free Hackscan
Patchman Enhanced Security Tool - This detects outdated software and emails you to upgrade. It also quarantines infected files and carries out automated patching of vulnerabilities.
99.9 percent Uptime Guarantee - While we believe Uptime Guarantee’s to be worthless, 99.9 percent is respectable.
CloudLinux - Added security and stability due to isolation and limiting of hosting accounts.
Free SSL with Let’s Encrypt - Free SSL certificates, what is not to like?
#4 Good, helpful and fast customer support.
Our experience with their support has been very positive, with responses coming within the hour when using tickets. We never waited more than a minute for live chat, and they were quite knowledgeable, which is not always typical for live chat support.
They have an A+ rating with the BBB.
#5 Free Site Migrations
A2 Hosting will migrate your website for free.
#6 30 Day, Money Back Guarantee
Try them for 30 days and if you are not satisfied request a full refund of your hosting fee (add-on such as domains, CloudFlare plus, etc. are not included).
Jonathan Griffin. Editor, Hosting Expert, SEO Developer, & SEO Consultant.
“A2 offer a range of VPS plans to suit all needs. They offer both Linux & Windows, Unmanaged, Managed (without Root Access), and Managed (with Root Access). Choose from optional extras including Turbo Boost, Railgun and CloudFlare WAF.
Their managed plans feature worry-free Host-Guard management from a dedicated Guru Crew Support team and include free cPanel. "
- FREE cPanel (Linux) or Plesk (Windows) Control Panel on Managed Plans.
- Turbo VPS options for 20x faster page loads with LiteSpeed & LiteSpeed Cache.
- SSD Storage for lower latency, and higher throughput.
- HTTP/2, OpCache, Memcached, and Railgun are available.
- Free New Relic Server Monitoring Setup & mod_pagespeed Setup.
- Fully Managed with or Without root access available. Cheap unmanaged plans are available.
A2 Hosting offers both Linux hosting & Windows hosting with a choice of Unmanaged, Managed (without Root Access), and Managed (with Root Access). For the Managed Plans, you can choose between Linux or Windows, as well as a variety of optional extras, such as Turbo Boost, Railgun and CloudFlare’s WAF.
We would definitely recommend A2 Hosting.
We take a look at some of the main hosting features below:
#1 HostGuard Management
A2 Hosting provides comprehensive management with all managed plans. With HostGuard, they offer 24/7 support throughout the year, with the management of your account’s network, hardware, software, and security.
This level of management is perfect for those with absolutely no hosting or system admin experience. Just sign up and focus on your site.
Support can be obtained by Phone, Email, Ticket, and live-chat. Support is fully inclusive on managed plans, so no extra fee is payable.
#2 Root access
The problem with many providers is that they only offer a managed VPS plan, and heavily restrict what settings you can change as well as root access. A2 Hosting is different. Not only do they offer entirely unmanaged (and far cheaper) plans, but they also offer Managed Plans with and without root access.
You can, therefore, take advantage of full management and still tweak those PHP settings, install root keys, and tweak any other setting you want. Equally, you can sit back and let A2 Hosting do everything for you. It’s a win-win situation.
#3 SwiftServer platform
We have talked more extensively about the benefits of this in our Shared Hosting Review. Suffice to say; their Turbo VPS option offers up to 20x faster servers. A2 Hosting refers to it as Blazing Fast. Coupled with their A2 Optimized Plugin for WordPress, your site will be one of the fastest and secure out there.
The Turbo Cache utilizes LiteSpeed and the LiteSpeed cache to significantly speed up your website, all while using fewer resources. If you have a busy website, this, along with the free CloudFlare content delivery network is certain to reduce your hosting costs.
We highly recommend upgrading to the Turbo option on their VPS.
#4 A2-Optimized Plugins
A2 has developed plugins for WordPress, PrestaShop, Magento, Drupal, Joomla, and OpenCart.
These will automatically make a number of optimizations, including (but varying slightly between the different software):
- CSS, HTML, and JavaScript minification.
- Database, object, and page caching.
- Daily updates
- Gzip Compression (Joomla)
- URL aliases for SEO (OpenCart)
- Browser Caching
- And more. See here for full list.
#5 Free Control Panel on Managed plans
On Linux plans the popular, user-friendly control panel cPanel is included for free. On Windows Plans, you get Plesk, the most popular control panel for Windows servers.
cPanel is available on unmanaged plans for a small fee, or of course, you can install whatever control panel you wish provided you source your own license.
You can read more about the difference between cPanel and Plesk here.
#6 Ultra reliable
With expertly tuned servers monitored 24/7 and Perpetual security (Hackscan Protection, KernalCare rebootless kernel updates, brute force defense, dual firewall, Virus Scanning, and more), quadruple redundant Network and Redundant Power (UPS/Diesel Generator) all backed by a 99.9% uptime commitment you will find reliability extremely good.
Jonathan Griffin. Editor, Hosting Expert, SEO Developer, & SEO Consultant.
“A2’s reseller hosting is one of the best around. Unlike many hosts who keep all the best technology to themselves, A2 Hosting allows you to offer all the good stuff to your users, including the Turbo Server option.
All but the basic plan comes with free WHMCS or Blesta billing platform. You can also sell domains with a Free eNom Domain reseller account. "
- FREE cPanel & WHM (Linux) or Plesk (Windows) Control Panel.
- Unlimited websites and free dedicated IP address (if requested).
- LiteSpeed Cache Plugins if Turbo option selected. Full SSD storage.
- White Label Option for non-branded cPanel & Private DNS.
- Free WHMCS and Free eNom Domain Reseller Account.
- High resource allocations with 2 CPU cores (shared) & 1GB RAM per user.
A2 Hosting offer both Linux & Windows operating system with a choice of Unmanaged, Managed (without Root Access), and Managed (with Root Access). For the Managed Plans, you can choose between Linux or Windows, as well as a variety of optional extras, such as Turbo Boost, Railgun and CloudFlare’s WAF.
This is a very powerful hosting, with all the latest technologies. We would definitely recommend A2 Hosting.
We take a look at some of the main reseller hosting features below:
#1 Premium Hardware with Great Resource Allocations
At A2, Resellers do not play second fiddle with inferior hardware, resources, and limited features. You get all the options that A2 offers to their customers included, with the opportunity to add on their Turbo features for increased website speed. The Turbo Cache utilizes LiteSpeed and the LiteSpeed cache to significantly speed up your website, all while using fewer resources. If you have a busy website, this is certain to reduce your hosting costs.
In terms of hardware, the highlights include:
- SSD Storage utilizes RAID-10 for improvements both in throughput and failover.
- Fewer users per server, choice of server locations, HTTP/2, SPDY, Edge Side Includes.
- 10 GB/s Redundant network.
- All servers contain a minimum of 12 Cores and 64 GB RAM.
- Each cPanel end user is allocated up to 2 CPU Cores (shared), and 1 GB Physical Memory.
#2 Reseller Hosting features
- Free WHMCS or Blesta automated billing solution and Free eNom Domain Reseller Account.
- Free Migrations - In most cases, they will migrate your website for you.
- Server Rewind Backups - Easily restore your data from saved backups. Account backup snapshots are taken regularly.
- Perpetual Security from A2 includes KernalCare, Dual Web Hosting Firewall, Brute Force Defense, Virus Scanning, Server Hardening, and 24/7 Security monitoring.
- If you want to offer your clients fast support, you can get Priority Support for an additional fee. Get your help requests put at the top of the pile.
#3 Reseller Control Panel features
With a choice of cPanel + WHM for Linux Hosting, and Plesk for Windows Hosting you can efficiently manage all aspects of your reseller hosting account:
- WHM allows you to create & manage cPanel accounts and hosting packages. Integrate with WMCS to automate the billing process and automatically create hosting accounts when a user signs up.
- End users can utilize cPanel to manage their domains, software, databases, backups, and email.
- Stamp your Brand on cPanel for the end users to see.
Similar features are available in Plesk.
#4 Client Control Panel features
- Clients can access a branded version of the control panel.
- Clients get access to Server Rewind Backup feature, allowing them to restore a snapshot from within their control panel.
- Softaculous software installed allows your end users to install 100’s of different software with just a few clicks.
- CloudFlare Free CDN is available from within cPanel.
Similar features are available in Plesk.
Jonathan Griffin. Editor, Hosting Expert, SEO Developer, & SEO Consultant.
“A2’s Dedicated Servers are available for those who require access to the entirety of the resources of a high performing, stable hosting environment.
The servers are available with and without Management and are perfect for intensive applications or for reselling hosting to other users. "
- FREE WHM + cPanel Control Panel. Easily create multiple accounts.
- HHVM, HTTP/2, OpCache, Memcached, and Railgun. Site Staging, Git.
- Full Management, Monitoring with a Proactive response.
- 24/7 VIP Support via phone, chat, and ticket.
- Private DNS, with five free Dedicated IP’s. IP Tables Firewall.
- Enterprise Intel Xeon Servers - E3-1230, E3-1270 or E5-2630 with SSD Storage.
A2 Hosting offers just Linux hosting with cPanel installed free of charge. You have a choice of Unmanaged, Managed (without Root Access), and Managed (with Root Access).
After choosing your chosen plan, you have a few configurable hosting options including:
- Memory - With 8GB RAM as standard, you can upgrade to either 16GB or 32GB RAM.
- Storage Upgrade - 2 x 500 GB SATA HDD disks come as default in Raid 1 (mirrored). You can upgrade to higher capacity HDD disks, or opt for faster (but slightly lower capacity) SSD storage.
- Cloudlinux Licence - For additional isolation and security between cPanel accounts, with throttling to stop any single account using too many resources. This is great for reselling.
- WHM Access - For no root access servers, you can select WHM access to manage multiple cPanel accounts. Perfect for resellers.
- SSL Certificates - You can order an SSL certificate for a small additional cost.
- IP Addresses - You can order up to 5 additional IPs.
- R1Soft CDP Backups - You can order 1TB storage for Continuous Data Protection for your server. Unless you have your own backup solution, you will want this.
- Turbo Boost - You can increase the performance of your web server by electing for their Turbo Boost option. This will install LiteSpeed, and LiteSpeed Cache.
A2 Hosting offers a great selection of hardware and software choices that are equally great for absolute beginners and experienced users alike. Furthermore, it provides an excellent upgrade path from their reseller hosting, which should give great peace of mind for anyone wanting to start their own hosting business.
HostGuard Management
With managed dedicated servers you get the full A2 Guru Crew support team backing you up. They will work tirelessly 24/7 to take care of your hardware, network, and server software.
HostGuard for Dedicated Servers include:
Smart System Notifier - A2 uses its own monitoring system that will immediately notify their support staff if it ever detects a hardware or network issue occurring on your server. In most instances, any problems will be resolved before you are even aware of them.
Notification Center - Even though the monitoring system will inform the support team of any issues, you can opt in to be notified too. It is perfect if you need to keep your own users in the loop (i.e., for resellers). You can also get notified on specific server events, such as high loads, full file system, and more.
Free Priority Support - All Dedicated server customers automatically receive their Priority Support service. All your support requests go to the top of the queue.
30-Minute Server Deployment - All servers have been previously set up and tested. It should, therefore, be ready to go within 30 minutes.
Boot & Reboot Controls - Easily boot or reboot your server from within your A2 Hosting customer portal.
Other Great Features
- Fully Isolated Environment - The power, stability and reliability advantages of a dedicated hosting server are down to the fact that you do not share the server with others. All the resources are yours.
- Fast Server Upgrades - If you outgrow your server, A2 will smoothly and quickly provide upgrades to ensure your server meets your website’s needs.
Jonathan Griffin. Editor, Hosting Expert, SEO Developer, & SEO Consultant.
“While you can install and optimize WordPress on their shared hosting, they also offer fully Managed WordPress Hosting Plans that include their Turbo (LiteSpeed + LiteSpeed Cache) as standard. This comes on a more optimized platform with more resources and features to help manage your site.
Featuring the Plesk Control Panel, Site Staging, Automated Backups, and a Free Jetpack Personal Licence, it offers exceptional value.”
- Perpetual Security provides proactive protection against hackers and security threats.
- FREE WordPress transfer or installation with one-click.
- A2 Optimized for pre-configured Security and Performance.
- Automatic Updates, Site Staging
- CloudFlare ServerShield helps determine the faster route over the internet (A limited version of CloudFlare Argo). CloudFlare Plus is available.
- Turbo Server as standard, with more resources per user, OpCache and LiteSpeed Cache.
A lot of thought and effort has been put into their Managed WordPress Hosting solution. They tread a delicate, yet successful balance between control and freedom. By default, they take care of virtually everything. Your WordPress website comes preinstalled, pre-configured with performance and security optimizations.
Despite that, advanced users can tweak the settings to ensure the website is optimized for their use case (for example caching times). Besides, you still get the features typical with most hosting accounts, including control panel access to manage emails, files, backups and more.
Below are some of the highlighted features:
Built for Speed
The backbone of A2’s Managed WordPress Hosting is based on a finely-tuned version of their SwiftServer platform. This includes:
- Solid State Drives (SSDs) - These sign
- CloudFlare ServerShield CDN - This helps determine the fastest route over the internet (A limited version of CloudFlare Argo).
- LiteSpeed cache (LSCache) - This is built directly into the server (faster than a PHP-based solution) communicates with your Turbo server and LSCache to statically cache your dynamic WordPress pages and significantly reduce your site’s page load time.
- Turbo Servers featuring up to 20x faster page loads.
- Highly optimized WordPress installation with their A2 Optimized Plugin.
WordPress support
Coupled with pre-configured security and performance optimizations out of the box, it is incredibly easy to manage your site with integrated Git, Site Staging and CloudFlare ServerShield. The A2 Support team will ensure that both your WordPress installation and plugins are kept updated.
Furthermore, although they cannot (for obvious reasons) debug core WordPress functionality or 3rd party plugins, they do have a team of WordPress experts that can help troubleshoot issues.
Retain Control
Unlike some Managed WordPress Hosting providers, you will still retain much-needed control over your account:
- You have access to the Plesk Control panel allowing you to manage files, emails, databases and more.
- You will also be given access to a WordPress Toolkit that will help you carry out tasks such as add plugins, change your theme and more.
- You will be able to stage a copy of your website to test changes and updates before pushing the staging copy live.
- WP-CLI comes pre-installed to enable you to manage your WordPress sites from the command line.
Perpetual security
A2’s Perpetual Security offers free HackScan Protection, KernelCare rebootless kernel updates, brute force defense, a dual firewall, and many other security features to help keep your site secure.
Users Reviews
The user ratings to the right reflect the total rating score of all 5 VPS Hosting Reviews left by our readers.
The user ratings to the right reflect the total rating score of all 1 Cloud Hosting Reviews left by our readers.
The user ratings to the right reflect the total rating score of all 2 Reseller Hosting Reviews left by our readers.
The user ratings to the right reflect the total rating score of all 2 Dedicated Hosting Reviews left by our readers.
The user ratings to the right reflect the total rating score of all 1 Website Builder Hosting Reviews left by our readers.
Features
Server Technology
- A2 Hosting’s Turbo Servers offers LiteSpeed (drop-in Apache replacement that uses less CPU and Memory and handles connections faster), fewer users per server, A2 Optimizer (see next point), and provides more resources per user.
- A2 Optimizer features pre-tuned software (WordPress, PrestaShop, Drupal, and more) that comes with powerful pre-configured site caching. This is powered by Turbo Cache (LiteSpeed Cache), APC \ OpCache, and Memcached.
- HTTP/2 provides significantly faster website load times when using HTTPS. SSD raid-10 storage comes as standard for lower latency and higher throughput.
Software & Ecommerce
- Use the most popular control panels to manage your hosting; cPanel for Linux plans, or Plesk for Windows plans.
- The Softaculous installer allows you to install many different website applications, including WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. For website builders, there are many options including A2 Hosting’s own sitebuilder. If you prefer WordPress, you can even use an array of front-end WordPress site builders such as BoldGrid, Divi Builder, or Forge.
- For E-commerce, choose between Magento, PrestaShop, and Opencart among others.
Backups & Security
- The A2-optimized plugin for WordPress auto-hardens your WordPress install, including setting up a unique WordPress login URL, automatic WordPress updates, and ReCaptcha required for logins.
- CloudLinux isolates each account for security. It also prevents one account utilizing too many resources. This overuse would slow down the server for everyone.
- As part of their Perpetual Security, they offer free Hackscan Protection, KernalCare rebootless kernel updates, brute force defense, dual firewall, Virus Scanning, and more. Rest easy knowing that your website is safe from being hacked with A2. Couple this with Server Rewind automated backups and optional Drop My Site Offsite backups, your sites are in safe hands.
Support & Reliability
- A2 Hosting Support is available 24/7 365 days per year. The US-based support team offers support via email, live chat, phone or ticket. Their “Guru Crew” contains specialist support engineers, including a team devoted to WordPress Support, that can help you with any web hosting query. Whether you need help installing a blog, such as WordPress, or need help with PHP settings they can help.
- They can maintain an impressive uptime due to its automatic rebootless kernel updates, its impressive security features mentioned under our “Backups & Security section” and optimized WordPress plugin that helps secure WordPress against malicious attacks. They offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
- Their support team comes highly praised in our readers’ reviews, with them consistently going above and beyond what you might expect. They have an A+ rating with the BBB.
Server Locations
A data center near your users you can decrease server response times. A2 Hosting has data centers in the following locations:
North America
- Michigan, US
- Arizona, US
Europe
- Amsterdam, NL
Asia
- Singapore, SG
Australasia
- None
Africa
- None
South America
- None
Support
Support Methods
- The US-based support team offers support via email, live chat, phone or ticket.
- Hand-picked support teams containing the only the most knowledgeable, friendly and patient technicians will offer help for all levels. Whether you have never used hosting before, or are an expert requiring advanced assistance they have you covered.
- They have a comprehensive knowledge base that can help guide you through many tasks yourself, including Domain Name configuration, SSL, cPanel, Plesk articles.
Response Satisfaction
- The main reasons people love their excellent customer support is the response times and helpfulness. They will respond and action your issue within the hour.
- They have developed tools to make many hosting tasks easier. Their Managed WordPress Hosting will pre-configure your WordPress installation security right out of the box, and their A2 Optimized Plugin will help optimize it for speed with just a few clicks. With all this at your disposal, they can talk you through optimizations in minutes.
- They have an A+ rating with the BBB.
Speed
A2 Hosting has every conceivable technology you would want. From SSD Storage, HTTP/2, and Railgun to Memcached, Memcache, XCache, APC, Varnish, LiteSpeed, LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress, and Varnish, they have it.
They offer the latest version of PHP which is almost twice as fast as the previous version (PHP 7 vs. PHP 5). For more performance try out the PHP replacement built by Facebook; HHVM on their Cloud.
They even advertise their servers as Quic ready, a technology that browsers are only just gearing up to support. It lowers latency by creating multiplexed connections between computers.
The great thing is that you can utilize the best of this technology with little knowledge using their A2 Optimized Site Accelerator. You can follow our complete guide to Optimizing A2 Hosting with WordPress here.
A2 Optimized Site Accelerator
- Optimized Software - Offering preconfigured WordPress settings for W3 Total Cache, as well as a range of security hardening measures, this will significantly increase the performance and security of your website.
- Turbo Cache - The entire HTML contents of a page is stored by Turbo Cache and served without running PHP for up to 20X faster page loads. This utilizes LiteSpeed that is placed in a reverse proxy to Apache.
- Memcached - Increases the speed of your MySQL databases by keeping your most important data in memory for quicker retrieval.
- Performance Plus - Purchase additional resources instead of having to upgrade to the Cloud or VPS.
SwiftServer
- Choice of Server locations - Host your content nearer your visitors for increased performance.
- CloudFlare - Utilize the CloudFlare CDN (including CloudFlare Page Rules for full page caching) and Railgun to speed up the delivery of files and web pages around the world.
- Anycast DNS - This accelerates the performance of DNS servers, providing faster response times during the initial hits to your websites by storing the DNS information at various points around the world.
- HTTP/2 - This significantly improves the performance of your HTTPS website. It is worth implementing HTTPS for the speed increase, as well as the SEO benefits.
Uptime
A2 Hosting offer a 99.9% uptime commitment. In their terms and conditions they state:
We will use our commercially reasonable efforts to provide the Services twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven days a week.
However, in order to operate in an efficient and secure manner, servers and network equipment require routine maintenance and upgrades (“Scheduled Downtime”) and you acknowledge that from time to time the Services may be unavailable for various reasons, including due to Scheduled Downtime or causes beyond our control.
This is a pretty standard type offer from a web hosting provider, with an offer of reimbursement of 5% of the fee paid for that month for every hour of downtime.
Overall, Uptime Guarantee’s are pretty worthless. It is more important to choose a hosting provider with a record of good uptime. In this case, this is evident from the feedback given in our user reviews.
Value
Typical A2 Hosting Prices
| Hosting Type | Price Range | |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Hosting | $3.92 - $10.78 | 6 plans |
| VPS Hosting | $5.00 - $65.99 | 6 plans |
| Reseller Hosting | $9.80 - $30.38 | 4 plans |
| Dedicated Hosting | $141.09 - $290.49 | 3 plans |
| Managed WordPress Hosting | $12.97 - $37.97 | 3 plans |
Payment methods accepted: MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover. It also accepts PayPal, 2Checkout, bank transfer, PayU Latam (selected countries), Skrill, check, and money order.
A2 Hosting Hosting Plans
VPS Hosting Plans
| Plan Name | Space | CPU | RAM | Bandwidth | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unmanaged Entry [1] | 20 GB | 1 CPU Cores | 0.5 | 2 TB | $5.00 | More Details |
| Unmanaged Mid | 30 GB | 1 CPU Cores | 1 | 2 TB | $10.00 | More Details |
| Unmanaged Elite | 50 GB | 4 CPU Cores | 1 | 2 TB | $15.00 | More Details |
| Managed Power+ [2] | 75 GB | 4 CPU Cores | 4 | 2 TB | $32.99 | More Details |
| Managed Prestige+ [3] | 100 GB | 6 CPU Cores | 6 | 3 TB | $46.19 | More Details |
| Managed Pinnacle+ [4] | 150 GB | 8 CPU Cores | 8 | 4 TB | $65.99 | More Details |
Notes:
- [1] All VPS are configurable. Add Turbo boost (Litespeed \ Litespeed with LSCache+LiteMage)
- [2] Windows server available at small extra cost. Available with or without Root Access.
- [3] Windows server available at small extra cost. Available with or without Root Access.
- [4] Windows server available at small extra cost. Available with or without Root Access.
Reseller Hosting Plans
| Plan Name | Space | Bandwidth | Panel | No. of Sites | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze [1] | 30 GB | 400 GB | cPanel \ WHM | 40 | $9.80 | More Details |
| Silver [2] | 75 GB | 600 GB | cPanel \ WHM | 60 | $13.72 | More Details |
| Gold [3] | 150 GB | 1 TB | cPanel \ WHM | 80 | $18.13 | More Details |
| Platinum [4] | 200 GB | 2 TB | cPanel \ WHM | 100 | $30.38 | More Details |
Notes:
- [1] No WHMCS. Priority Support, Turbo boost available as an extra on all plans. Windows server available on all plans for additional cost.
- [2] Free WHMCS
- [3] Free WHMCS
- [4] Free WHMCS
Dedicated Hosting Plans
| Plan Name | Space | CPU | RAM | Bandwidth | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sprint [1] | 2 x 500 GB | Intel 3.1+ GHz | 8 | 10 TB | $141.09 | More Details |
| Exceed | 2 x 500 GB | Intel Xeon 2.4+ GHz | 8 | 15 TB | $207.49 | More Details |
| Mach | 2 x 1000 GB | 2x Intel Xeon 2.1+ GHz | 8 | 20 TB | $290.49 | More Details |
Notes:
- [1] All Dedicated Servers are configurable. SSD and other options available. Comes with either Root or no Root Access.
Managed WordPress Hosting Plans
| Plan Name | Space | Bandwidth | Panel | No. of Sites | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-Site [1] | 10 GB | Unlimited | Plesk | 1 | $12.97 | More Details |
| 3-Sites [2] | 25 GB | Unlimited | Plesk | 3 | $19.48 | More Details |
| Unlimited [3] | 40 GB | Unlimited | Plesk | Unlimited | $37.97 | More Details |
Notes:
- [1] Includes website staging, backups, JetPack. No addon domains allowed. 2 CPU cores. 2GB Physical Memory. 8 GB Virtual Memory.
- [2] Includes website staging, backups, JetPack. 2 addon domains allowed. 3 CPU cores. 3GB Physical Memory. 12 GB Virtual Memory.
- [3] Includes website staging, backups, JetPack. Unlimited addon domains allowed. 4 CPU cores. 4GB Physical Memory. 16 GB Virtual Memory.
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Frequently asked questions
Does A2 Hosting Offer Linux and Windows hosting plans?
Yes, they offer both Linux and Windows hosting.
Where is A2 Hosting located?
A2 is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA. They also have also expanded into India, and have an office in Gujarat, India.
Does A2 Hosting offer a free domain?
Do they offer a money back guarantee??
Yes, they offer what is called an “Anytime money back guarantee.”
If you request a refund in the first 30 days, they will provide a refund with no questions asked. Otherwise, you can request a pro-rated refund after 30 days, however, please note that you will be billed for any time used at a non-discounted rate (i.e., without any initial discount). Add-ons, such as domain registrations are also not included.
What payment types does A2 Hosting accept??
All major credit cards are accepted, including MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover. It also accepts PayPal, 2Checkout, bank transfer, PayU Latam (selected countries), Skrill, check, and money order.
At present they do not accept Bitcoin. If paying by Bitcoin is essential we recommend Namecheap, and you can find some great discounts here for them.
Can I pay monthly??
Yes, but it works out significantly more expensive to do so. We recommend paying for at least a year and taking full advantage of our exclusive discount.
Jonathan Griffin Editor, SEO Consultant, & Developer.
Jonathan Griffin is The Webmaster's Editor & CEO, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all our publications. Jonathan writes about Development, Hosting, and SEO topics for The Webmaster and The Search Review with more than nine years of experience. Jonathan also manages his own SEO consultancy, offering SEO developer services. He is an expert on site-structure, strategy, Schema, AMP, and technical SEO. You can find Jonathan on Twitter as @thewebmastercom.