A2Hosting Review
- 99% Uptime Commitment
- Supports all Popular CMS
- Excellent Support
- Handsome Prices for All Types of Clients
- “Anytime” Money Back Guarantee
Those who seek a good website hosting service, should pay a visit to the A2Hosting. Its plans are easy to browse, and the prices are right. When it comes to web hosting, we definitely recommend A2Hosting for small businesses, larger companies, and even for bloggers. A2Hosting offers stability and good uptime….. Read More
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User Review
( votes)A2Hosting Review
In this A2Hosting review, we are going to share with you, our insights and opinion about the A2Hosting. A2Hosting is a hosting company that seems to be a really great choice for everyone who seeks a budget-friendly hosting, which isn’t “too cheap to be true”. On the other hand, the A2Hosting offers you industry standard service, but there are some advantageous extras here and there, which enhances the overall experience and actually moves this service into the highly recommended category.
As you are going to see, we inspected the A2Hosting hosting service’s closely, and we believe our insight might be helpful to you to find your hosting service for years to come. One of the best thing about the A2Hosting is that they cared for the opinion of their users: as a result of a survey in which the customers complained about the performance, they boosted their performance. Nowadays, the loading times are excellent, no matter which part of the world you are trying from! Well, we will get back to this, but let’s take a look at the features first.
Company Overview
A2Hosting launched back in 2001, and after the name change in 2003 (from Iniquinet to A2) it used to be referred as A2. The company is located in Michigan, to be more precise: in Ann Arbor (thus the name), and there is a data center in the region too. A2Hosting currently is a standalone company and is not part of any large groups like EIG. It is a kind of industry standard in the web hosting business to care for the environment and try to do something against the approaching environmental catastrophe. A2Hosting offers green hosting solutions, called FutureServe Green Hosting, which is a shared hosting service. Also, the A2Hosting is a supporter of the Carbonfund since 2007.
Hosting Services
The A2Hosting offers a selection of plans and services, so everyone could find a good plan or a good hosting solution that would fit their needs.
Shared Hosting:
The shared hosting is what most providers refer to as “unlimited service”. Here, you also get access to “unlimited” server resources, in the form of storage and bandwidth. You can select if you want Linux or Windows. The shared hosting is fast on its own, but the Turbo packages enhance the speed, so your site will be about 20x faster. But, we are talking about milliseconds here, and many milliseconds can add up to a second, which could make the difference between a view and a conversion. Site building is very easy, and you can use Joomla, WP or Drupal for content management. Security is quite high, and you could opt-in for additional features.
VPS and The Dedicated:
The VPS servers have lower attributes for you, but it’s a top-notch service, so you are not going to feel any difference from other hosts’ same service. On the other hand, the Dedicated machines are quite great, and you would do well to opt-in for those if you want more stable power – and you can afford to have a dedicated server.
Cloud VPS:
In our opinion, this is the hottest stuff the A2Hosting can offer. There are some pre-set plans and VP servers, but if you want, you can customize your own server. Add more storage, CPU cores, RAM and you can change the processor frequency. It’s quite a good option, and if you are an experienced website developer, you should take advantage of this offer, to create a virtual server that fits all your needs.
A2hosting Freaking Features
Let’s take a look at the goodies you get when you opt-in for a hosting plan at A2Hosting. In case you know that your site would grow in the coming years, you should get a VPS (a cloud VPS), which offers you server customization option. This way you can get a server that would be enough for years. However, if you don’t know how much power you need, you can upgrade later, and this will give you more storage and speed as needed. It ensures that you won’t even think about switching hosting provider when you grow bigger.
The Money back guarantee is quite great too. While other providers offer you 30-90 days of money-back, when you choose A2Hosting, you choose flexibility in this matter too. You can cancel your account anytime, in 30 days, and after 30 days. The A2Hosting grants you a full refund of the unused services (e.g. if you cancel for some reason after 4 months you get back the remaining 8 months service fee). Downgrading you plan is available too, though that costs a one-time fee of $25. Before you cancel, though, you should contact the support team, so if you have any technical problems, they might look into it and, solve it. Thus, you don’t have to quit and start over somewhere else.
As for the additional services, you can get free cPanel to serve all your developing skills, and to fully customize your site. If you choose a basic-hosting plan, you can still get cPanel if you need it. The website builder of the A2Hosting is quite nice, and you can install different templates too. On the other hand, the popular CMS solutions, such as the WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal are fully supported and are available with a 1-click install solution. Apart from these, there are more software you could install. The A2Hosting offers full eCommerce support, which includes the full support of the Magento and several easy-to-install shopping cart add-ons.
At A2Hosting, there is a solution for anything: you can launch a site where you do your podcasting, in a customized environment, but if you are a real estate agent, you can take advantage of using the most popular software for this field. Running your own wiki site is as easy as choosing and installing the wiki-software you like.
If you like speed, and you would like to take advantage of the most advanced content delivery networks, you can do so with every shared plan for example! Even the basic plan, the Lite includes free CloudFlare service, which benefits from the cloud technology and enhances your site’s performance. The higher plans include the CloudFlare Plus service too. For further optimization, Lite and Swift users can opt-in for the RailGun Optimizer (140% faster sites) for only $0.98 per month. It’s a priceless addition to any site.
Okay, now this is the interesting part, as though most people don’t say it out loud, the usual reason they wouldn’t join the A2Hosting is the price of the packages… Or, at least, it was, but nowadays, there are kind of standard prices in the industry, and at the A2Hosting, you actually get more for your money. So, let’s see.
Shared
There are three shared plans, the Lite, Swift, and Turbo. The Lite, of course, is the cheapest, although it lacks some good features we love about A2Hosting. This one starts from $3.92 per month, and you can have one site, five databases, and 25 email addresses with it. For a slightly higher price, you could take advantage of the Swift package (starting from $4.90), which grants unlimited sites, databases and email options, access to the server rewind service, and a lot more goods.
For the Turbo package, the starting price is $9.31, and you get all the benefits of the previous package, but you also have a turbo server, which increases speed twenty times. For store owners, the optimized Magento hosting included with the package might be a good reason to give it a shot. All plans include free SSL certification (HTTPS), and other security measures to enhance safety, thus enhancing customer trust. These prices are for Linux servers, but you can opt-in for Windows-based service too.
VPS
There are three different VPS hosting plans, and they highly differ from each other, not just by their price, but by the features you get. The first plan is the Unmanaged hosting, which is good for those who know what they are doing. For the starting price of $5 per month, you get root access, you can opt-in for cPanel, and you can even select the Linux you want to work in. With 20GB storage, one core and 520Mb RAM, this plan is a good starter. However, later, as your site grows, you could and should scale up, or switch to another plan. The next step is the Managed VPS, which doesn’t include root access, but offers a better virtual private server with free cPanel, HostGuard Management, 75Gb storage, 4 GB RAM, and four virtual cores. You also have got free SSL for your site. Then, there is the Core VPS, that has everything the Managed offers, only you also get root access.
Cloud VPS Hosting
It’s a strong, yet affordable solution for website owners. The prices of the packages start from $15 per month, and there is a $20, and $25 per month package. The difference between the packages is quite small: The Start plan grants 512MB RAM and 10GB storage with two cores and unlimited bandwidth. The next two (Median and Ace) offers 1GB RAM, and the Median has 10GB storage included, while the Ace has 25GB.
Dedicated Hosting
Quite surprisingly, the A2Hosting offers a great dedicated solution, which is also quite well-customizable. Four plans are listed on the site, and cheapest one, the Semi Dedicated Server plan starts from $9.31 per month. This plan includes a great machine for you, although you won’t get root access. But, the server is better than the VPS offer: 8GB RAM, 2 cores (2.1 GHz) and unlimited storage and bandwidth. Also, free cPanel and SSL are included. The three others are almost the same, only there are two unmanaged (you get root access), and one managed. Basically, the servers are the same: 2x500GB to store your date, 8Gb RAM, 2 cores and 10TB data transfer (bandwidth). However, the two higher plans include free cPanel and free SSL. Now, what else? Oh, yes, the servers are customizable, so if you want, you can opt-in for more storage, RAM, bandwidth, and cores.
The additional features you could get are also varied. Depending on the plan you choose, you get a lot of stuff for free, but there are many add-ons you have to license for yourself. Also, the domain names are not free – at least when we checked the A2Hosting – but if you can buy one for a good price, you can use that here!
As usual, we inspected the security options, backup service and how the A2Hosting is keeping up with its 99% uptime promise. The A2Hosting offers some security services others don’t, and this makes it a highly recommended host if you have a sensitive business, or if you have money-movement via your site (donations, fundraising, shopping).
One of such security options is the Server Rewind Service, which basically is a backup service that grants you the option to restore deleted files, sites or databases. Also, if any hard problems arise, you can simply “rewind” your whole site to a previous date, this way restoring it, while you can get to the root of the problems. It’s a top-notch backup service. Most of the plans include the HackScan Service, which monitors your site for any hacking, and it usually blocks and eliminates the problems as soon as they arise – you won’t even feel it! The HackScan is included in the Perpetual Security, along with Kernel Care (automatic kernel patching).
There is an enhanced security layer, which is granted by the Patchman tool. This tool monitors the website and removes malicious files, and it keeps the CMS system (Drupal, Joomla, WP) up to date, patching its security problems. Patchman is also a free service!
To increase speed and accessibility, A2Hosting has three data centers: in Amsterdam (EU), Michigan (USA) and in Singapore for Asian clients. These data centers are highly secured and are under constant monitoring. These data centers ensure stability, and if one of them goes down, there is a backup so your site will barely feel anything about it.
If you choose A2Hosting as your hosting provider, you don’t have to worry about speed anymore. They crazy for speed, and even their shared plans offer high-speed. For example, the shared service includes SSD storage, which is much faster than common HDD storing. You can take advantage of CloudFlare CDN too, and by upgrading to the so-called Turbo server, you get a free optimizer, which makes HTML sites to load faster (more than 140% of the usual speed). If you don’t believe us, you could even test a site yourself, there are free tools for them. One thing is certain: you will receive crazy results, and if you are not already in love with A2Hosting, you will fall under its spell!
The promised uptime is 99.9%. As far as our testing provided us with info, the A2Hosting keeps up this promise, and the uptime will barely fall under 99.9%. There may be some outages, though, but if you keep monthly, quarterly or annual statistics, you will see that the overall uptime is always above 99.9%
The A2Hosting is accredited by the Better Business Bureau, which means that it’s a trustworthy and good web host for all clients.
Even though the A2Hosting isn’t as famous as some of the others, it still has a great service, and there is hardly any unsatisfied customer. The A2Hosting has a truly satisfying online and offline customer support service, and if you have an issue or questions, you can get help really fast. In order to satisfy its clients, the A2Hosting offers live chat support, and there are several phone numbers – you can choose one that’s the closest to your area, so the phone costs will be lower.
Also, if you are a more modern person, you could benefit from their support via Skype. As a registered user, there is a ticket-submission system, and non-registered would-be clients could contact the sales team for help. In case you prefer to address the company, you are dealing with in a much more traditional way, you could send them a mail to the postal address of their office. The address is to be found on the website.
Conclusion
Basically, this is the place where we should draw our conclusions. To summarize this A2Hosting review, we can safely say that the A2Hosting is a very neat online hosting service. It’s not the cheapest one, but for the price you pay – which is still quite good – you get superb service. According to our research, the A2Hosting is a highly-appraised hosting service, and it has a large client-base, which consists of utterly satisfied businessmen and companies. Maybe you should be one of them soon! With the free migration, you can move on, or move your site to a better package easily! We recommend the A2Hosting! Period.