Once you have a website (or sometimes even before you have one), the next important step is to find a good web hosting provider. You want to be sure to go with a quality service here – after all, these are the people who are going to be babysitting your website.
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Are A2 Hosting Services Good: The Bottom Line Upfront
When I first started blogging and creating websites in the early 2000s, A2 Hosting was in its humble beginning stages as a web host.
It has grown in leaps and bounds since then, though, and is now making a name for itself by boasting of being up to 20x faster than other web hosts, as well as offering some pretty impressive uptime guarantee and customer support team.
It’s still a less-known web hosting company, but it has a great reputation for being really easy to navigate for virtually anyone.
In this review, I will share with you the ins and outs of their service, what to expect if you choose to go with an A2 Hosting Plan, and what makes them different from the competitors.
Let’s get down to business!
Pros
1. Their Speed Promise Is For Real
Just reading customer reviews will show that their speed is impressive. Web page load time is a hugely important factor of any site, so this tops the list of pros.
Their Turbo servers offer caching options that also help to improve speed. With the A2 Optimized Site Accelerator plugin you have access to Turbo Cache and Memcached. These are like a little speed booster within an already fast server!
I’m not certain the numbers they claim are quite accurate, but what does a number matter when the speed difference is noticeable? They get kudos for this one.
2. They Use Solid State Drives
This guarantees higher speeds and more reliability and stability. You can choose SSDs on any type of hosting account – reseller, VPS, managed VPS, dedicated server and flex server hosting.
3. Customer Service Is Great
While there is the occasional moan about customer care, in
The customer support team is ready and waiting to fix your problems 24/7, via phone, email, live chat, or support ticket submission. Response time is generally pretty great.
4. They Have a Variety of Hosting Offers
The spice of life, and all that. You’ll find something for everyone, no matter what level blogger or business owner you are. The beauty of this is that unless you’re already booming enough to jump on a top-tier plan from the start, you’ll have the option to upgrade as your business grows.
Choices vary between shared web hosting, reseller hosting, managed WordPress hosting plans, and a whole lot of other options depending on what you or your small business need.
5. They Offer Free Site Migration and Domain Transfers
Some hosts don’t offer site migration, and it can get a little costly, especially if it’s something you haven’t taken into consideration. There may be certain restrictions on this, though, so it’s worth checking with them before assuming. In their own words, site migration is free “in most cases.”
6. They Give A Free SSL Certificate
Again, this is something that some hosts don’t offer, and it can be a pain to obtain, especially for less tech-savvy people who may not know what this even is. If you’d like an explanation, you can find one here. If not, just know that this is a one-up on those web hosting providers who don’t offer one.
A free SSL certificate is provided for every site, through a company called Let’s Encrypt. You do have options to purchase others if this one is not quite what you need, and if you’re using Managed VPS or dedicated hosting, you may need to make additional purchases.
7. They Offer Perpetual Security
A2 provides a free service called HackScan, which is 24/7 security monitoring, virus scanning, and defense. This is part of what A2 terms “Perpetual Security,” which is the real-time security bodyguard in the background keeping a permanent eye on your site and its safety.
8. Money-Back Guarantee
If you cancel your account within 30 days, you’ll get a full refund. If you cancel your account after the 30 days, A2 offers a pro-rated refund of unused services.
9. They’re Green!
A2 is one of the greenest website hosting companies out there. Some of the environmentally friendly things they do include recycling old servers, planting trees when they have certain promotions, using more energy-efficient solid-state drives, and allowing employees to telecommute to work to reduce CO2 emissions.
They have also been a partner with Carbonfund.org for more than a decade, and are doing their part to fight climate change and reduce their carbon footprint. Eco-friendly web hosting is something new and unexpected. If this doesn’t sway you in their favor, I’m not sure what will!
Cons & Problems
1. Slightly More Expensive Than Others
While this point does come up here and there in customer reviews, it has often been paired with a comment about getting what you pay for – the point being that the higher price may be quite worth it.
If you’re newer to web hosting, though, you may be put off in favor of something cheaper, as you may not use the many features that come with the price of A2 Hosting. The difference is not huge, but it can be substantial in the long run.
2. Customer Service Can Be Slow During Peak Times
This is pretty normal for all web hosting providers, but may seem like a bigger thing for A2 customers due to the very high-quality customer support and care they have become accustomed to! Tech support’s response time can be a little slower, but not unacceptably so.
3. Cpanel Can Be Complicated For Newbies
For those used to drag and drop style website builders, customizing the website can be a bit tricky with the control panel. It may seem intimidating to those who haven’t worked with it before, but according to users, YouTube tutorials and some practice are all that’s required to get you up to speed with A2’s control panel.
If all else fails, tech support is readily available to answer any questions you may have about your cPanel. Sometimes, a live chat with a live person is the best way to learn!
Real Customer Reviews: What People are Actually Saying
The best way to get a good idea of the quality of a hosting provider is to look at what real customers are saying about them.
Good Things People Are Saying
Technical Expertise
A2 Hosting support Drupal well, and warn about out-of-date code. They also help with patching updates.
Katria L.
A perfectly organized Control Panel offering state of the art functions, tools and scripts, limited only by the developer’s capability.
Pradeep G.
Customer Care
A2 Hosting is the only company that I can call on a +1800 number and get complete support, with a technician taking my call no matter the time, and helping solve my problem. They have even taken the time to help me on a Sunday.
Mauricio B.
A2 Hosting is a hosting company that you can count on.
No matter the issue I’ve brought to them over the past 12 years, they always accommodate my needs and my wants. They are beyond fair and go the distance to make me happy. I’m always left with a smile.
Jason K. D.
Speed
A2 has been one of the fastest when it came to deploying a site live.
Naveed H.
I am a wedding photographer and it’s very important that my homepage shows up without delays. A2 Hosting is super fast and reliable. I’d recommend it to all those who need a fast and reliable web server.
Sergio S.
Bad Things People Are Saying
Technical Expertise
It is too sophisticated for someone like me – I feel it would need formal IT training.
D. R. R.
Some of the knowledge could be re-written for people who are not technically-minded.
John N.
Customer Care
The run-ins with a few incompetent support staff members made me feel rushed and dissatisfied with their assistance. I also don’t appreciate having to call back several times to speak to someone who knows what they’re doing.
Yvette B.
Some of their support staff let things slip through the cracks.
Sherm S.
Price
They are more expensive than other companies.
Juan Carlos H.
It can be very costly for small companies.
Jane M.
Windows hosting that is not on a European server means billing from outside the EU.
Nicolai B.
Website Set Up and Development
Does A2 Hosting Offer WordPress Hosting Specifically?
That they do. A2 may not be an official WordPress-approved hosting provider, but they are on the ball when it comes to offering web hosting packages for the world’s most-used website builder.
Shared hosting plans start at $3.92 per month for the most basic option, and managed hosting begins at $11.99.
Do You Get a Free Domain Name When You Sign Up?
It seems that A2 does not offer free domain names, but they do have plenty of help available for registering domain names. If you register a domain through them, you will get access to free domain name theft protection, ID protection, and DNS management.
Do They Have Nameservers or Offer DNS Services?
They do. If you aren’t sure what nameservers are, you can read A2’s own explanation here. You can use the provided nameservers, or custom ones, and everything is explained in the article.
DNS stands for domain name system, which is basically a database of IP addresses for various domains. DNS services link up domain names and IP addresses so that your site can be identified by its name and not by its IP address (which is a long number that nobody is likely to remember).
A2 Hosting does offer free DNS management, which is something you will likely never really think about, unless you are a developer and into the more complex parts of websites.
Migrating a Site To A2 Hosting (and Transferable Installs): How Easy Is It?
A site migration is moving all the background data of your website from one hosting company’s servers to another. Data transfers are fairly easy with A2.
If your current provider uses cPanel, A2 can do a free account transfer for you within 30 days of creating your A2 hosting account. This is kickstarted by filling in a Migration Request form on the A2 website. If they don’t support cPanel, you can migrate your site manually. Instructions to do so are provided here.
Control Panel (Cpanel): Do They Offer One To Manage Your Hosting?
You can access your control panel from the dashboard when you log in. The Cpanel is where you will have access to your site and be able to manage it. It is generally not difficult even for beginners, and if you do struggle with it, control panel tutorials are available on the A2 website, as well as on YouTube.
FTP & SFTP: How Easy Is It to Connect?
It is fairly easy. First, download an FTP program (FileZilla is a good one), and you can learn how to go about using it with A2 here.
Do They Offer Staging Environments and Temporary Urls?
Yes, they do. Website staging can be done from within the cPanel interface. A2 gives details on how to do this either with Plesk, or with Softaculous.
Templates & Blueprints: Do They Offer Site Setup Templates?
The A2 Website Builder has a number of templates for you to choose from. The variety varies depending on which plan you’re on.
PHP Versions: Do They Support Legacy and The Latest Versions?
They do – check out more info here.
Do They Support Git or Command Line Tool Integrations?
Yes, they do. Git is installed on shared and reseller accounts, and can be installed on VPS accounts manually and requested to be added to dedicated servers.
SSH Connection: Do They Support It?
Yes indeed. You get free SSH access when signing up to A2 Hosting. Check out how it works here.
A2 Hosting Speed & Load Time
Have a look at a website called Pingdom. They do live testing and provide day-to-day stats so you can get a great idea of how a hosting company is performing.
One of the most important things to consider about a web host is their uptime guarantee. A2 boasts a 99.99% uptime guarantee, and while the last month doesn’t quite get there, their stats are impressive nonetheless.
Here are A2 Hosting’s stats over the past month (February 2019):
Uptime, Outages & Down Time
Average Uptime Last 12 Months: 99.92%
Average Response Time Last 12 Months: 331 ms
Services and Goodies Offered With Hosting
Do They Offer a CDN With Hosting?
They do, it comes free with every package.
Does A2 Hosting Offer Shared Hosting and Dedicated Servers?
Yes, they offer both these options.
Https: Do They Offer SSL Certificate or Let’s Encrypt?
A2 offer Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates for free, but if you require something a bit more detailed, you can purchase others. A Free SSL is likely to be adequate for most sites, but it is worth doing some research to be sure about yours.
How Do Site Backups Work?
You can backup and restore your site using cpanel control panel. You can find step-by-step instructions on how to do this here.
Redirects: Do They Support Server Level Redirects?
Again, you can configure this through cPanel, and find out here here.
Do They Support Multisite & Subdomains?
A2 support WordPress Multisite, and subdomains can be configured in cPanel.
Does A2 Hosting Offer Email Hosting?
They do, for free! Find more info here about setting up email accounts.
Security & Past Hacking Incidents
A2 is very secure, and take care to provide security solutions for their customers. Their Perpetual Security initiative makes sure you are covered against a variety of threats. They have a lot of information on their website to help make you aware of important security info.
- Perpetual Security
- Security Information
- Understanding Software Vulnerabilities
- How To Secure A Hacked Site
A2 Hosting Pricing, Plans & Money Back
A2 offers hosting solutions for everyone, whether you’re an individual or a small business. They have various hosting packages, to suit every need.
Pricing, Packages & Plans
A2 has a multitude of plans to choose from. Shared hosting will be the way to go for smaller sites, while VPS, Reseller, and Dedicated will most likely be for higher-traffic sites. They also offer WordPress hosting specifically.
Shared hosting has three options for Linux: The Lite plan, the Swift plan, and the Turbo plan.
And the same three options, priced slightly differently, for Windows:
And a few WordPress options:
Do They Have a Monthly and Annual Plan Payment Option?
A2 offers perhaps the most options for payment – monthly, annually, biennially, and triennially.
Do They Offer Unmetered or Unlimited Bandwidth Plans for Hosted Websites?
No – bandwidth is allocated according to the plan you select.
How Does Canceling a Plan Work?
Canceling your account (or products or service associated with your account) can be done through the Customer Portal, under My Services. Simply choose “manage” and request a cancellation.
Make sure you have backed up all that you may need in the future – A2 will delete all the files they have associated with your account, and you don’t want to be caught out.
Promo Codes & Discounts: Do They Have Special Offers?
A2 do have special offers occasionally. Here are some examples:
- https://www.a2hosting.co.za/coupon
- https://www.hostingadvice.com/coupons/a2-hosting/
- https://bloggingx.com/a2-hosting-black-friday/
Some of these may no longer be valid, but they do have promos and special offers popping up randomly, so keep an eye out.
Does A2 Hosting Have a Satisfaction or Money-Back Guarantee?
If you cancel your account within 30 days, you’ll get a full refund. If you cancel your account after the 30 days, A2 offers a pro-rated refund of unused services.
Customer Service and Support
You can get in touch with customer service via phone, email, live chat, or submitting a support ticket. The customer service reviews are mostly great.
A2 Hosting Phone Number: Do You Get a Real Person?
You can find a phone number for country-specific support on this page. There to help you will be a real, live technician to answer your questions. There is also a live chat option on the website if you would prefer to talk via text.
A2 Hosting Alternatives: What We Would Recommend Instead
A2 Hosting is a fantastic option if you’re looking for reliable hosting services. The pros and cons are a clear indication that they are on the right track and provide fantastic web hosting services and hosting plans that would fit anyone.
A2 comes highly recommended as an “Editors’ Choice” of web hosts. If, however, you’re looking for something a little more affordable for starting out, other good options that we recommend include:
- BlueHost
- GoDaddy
- Flywheel
- InMotion Hosting
- Greengeeks (another eco-friendly company!)