A2 hosting Review - The Best Web Hosting Service Provider
In today’s digital age, choosing the right web host is critical for website performance, security, and scalability. A2 Hosting, established in 2003, has positioned itself as a leader in speed-centric hosting solutions. This comprehensive review explores every facet of A2 Hosting, including its plans, performance benchmarks, customer support, and unique features like Turbo Servers and an "Anytime Money-Back Guarantee." Whether you’re launching a blog, an eCommerce store, or a resource-heavy application, this review will help you determine if A2 Hosting aligns with your goals. ...
If performance and speed, partnered with security and support, are all priorities in your shopping for web host, A2 hosting is the leading contender. With an eye for details and emphasis on performance, A2 hosting intends to find and avoid the general shortcomings of different web hosts.
What I found great about A2 hosting is that PRICE, PERFORMANCE and RELIABILITY are in perfect harmony.
Formerly known as Iniquinet, they have been around since 2001. As they are not as “web famous” as HostGator or BlueHost, they claim to brag speed of 20X faster. Additionally they make claim of ‘guru support’ and ‘99.9% uptime’.
Let’s find out whether their claims are right or are just too good to be true with this of my A2 hosting review.
An Introduction to A2 Hosting
- Supports Softaculous auto-installer and cPanel website management
- Helpful, speedy ticket support
- Speed-boosting technologies having high-end plans
- Data centers in Asia, Europe, and USA
- High uptime guarantee
- Green hosting initiatives
- Robust hosting plans, especially
- No Windows hosting
- No free domain
- Turbo servers limited to high-tier plans
- Below average performance with cheapest shared plans
Key Features:
A2 Hosting has many impressive and unique features. It offers both traditional and latest options to balance their services to perfection. A2 Hosting is one of the first companies to provide PHP 5 and one of the first hosting companies to provide Ruby on Rails in shared hosting platform. Some of its basic features include:
- 300% Increase in Pages Load Speeds.
- A2 Optimized Caching and 20X Faster Page Load.
- Guaranteed uptime of 99.9%.
- Average load time of page is 1.9 sec.
- Support available for 24/7/365
- Unlimited email accounts
- Unlimited data transfer/bandwidth and storage
- Host unlimited domains
- Free site builder
- Free SiteLock Security
Web Hosting Types and Plans
A2 Hosting offers a wide variety of plans to fit in everyone’s needs from a blog owner to the most sophisticated corporate sites. All options offer you blazing fast performance choices. Let’s have a look at the A2 Hosting services in detail to choose the best one for you:
Shared hosting
Wish to launch a website without spending too much? Shared hosting is the best option for you. Shared hosting packages place a website on a server shared with other websites. This means, you will share all the server resources, which lowers your overall web hosting fees. It is a cheap, practical web hosting option, but not very powerful as the server can slow down your site and sometimes even take down a website. A2 has 4 kinds of Linux shared web hosting plans:
Best For: Beginners, small blogs, and startups. A2’s shared hosting balances affordability with performance.
- Startup: The Startup plan of A2 Hosting offers 100GB SSD Storage, unlimited email addresses, unlimited monthly data transfer with a single domain. It starts for $2.99/month with a yearly contract.
- Drive: This plan builds on the Startup plan by providing unlimited domains and storage. It starts from $4.99/month with a yearly contract.
- Turbo Boost: It tops A2’s other plans by putting your files on the NVMe SSDs on AMD EPYC servers having pre-configured website catching. Turbo Boost starts at $5.99/month with a yearly contract.
- Turbo Max: With this plan, the memory increases to 4GB from 2GB. The server core also increases from 2 to 4. This plan starts from $12.99/month with a yearly contract.
VPS Hosting
Like with shared hosting packages, A2 Hosting offers many Linux-based VPS plans. Though multiple websites are there on the same web server with VPS Hosting too, you get more resources with every site with VPS hosting. There are lesser websites on every server and all of them are isolated from their server mates.
Best For: Developers needing root access and scalability.Unmanaged Plans
- Unmanaged VPS: This service is designed for seasoned website admins having their IT staff. It offers 20GB storage, 500GB monthly data transfers, and 1GB RAM; all at $5.99/month with a yearly contract.
- Unmanaged VPS 2: It is the next tier plan in which the storage, monthly data transfers, and RAM increases to 2TB, 75GB, and 2GB respectively. It starts at $6.99/month with a yearly contract.
- Supersonic 8: Starting at $24.99/month, this plan comes with 4TB monthly data transfers, 8GB RAM, and 200GB NVMe Storage that offers blistering speed.
- Supersonic 32: As the highest tier plan in the unmanaged category, it offers 8TB monthly transfers, 450GB NVMe storage, and 32GB RAM for $84.99/month with a yearly contract.
Managed Plans
- Lift 4 Plan: It is the base managed plan offers by A2 Hosting: It offers 2TB monthly data transfer, 150GB storage, and 4GB RAM at $54.99/month with a yearly contract.
- Mach 8 Plan: Being a mid-tier plan, it comes with 2TB monthly data transfers, 150GB storage, and 8GB RAM for $54.99/month with a yearly contract.
- Mach 32 Plan: As a top-tier plan, it offers 4TB monthly data transfer, 450 GB NVMe storage, and 32GB storage. It starts for $89.99/month with a yearly contract.
All these A2 Hosting plans comes with free SSL certificates and HostGuard Management services. It is also worth knowing that both unmanaged and managed VPS come with root access options that help you in complete site control. It is an optional feature for managed sites and standard for the unmanaged VPS plans.
Dedicated Web Hosting
A dedicated server is the most powerful hosting offering, because with this your site does not shares resources with other websites. For those who expect a huge amount of traffic, dedicated hosting can be the best. A2 Hosting offers Linux-based dedicated server plans.
Best For: High-traffic sites, enterprise applications.
- Entry 1: With this plan, you get Intel Xeon E-2224 Turbo CPU,16GB DDR4 ECC RAM, 4 Threads/4 Cores @ 4.6Ghz, 6TB transfer, 2X1 TB NVMe SSD storage, Free SSL certificate, Free 1TB backup drive, Root level access, free immunify360 security suite, free CloudLinux OS, and more for $79.99/month.
- Entry 2: With this plan, you get Intel Xeon Silver 421OR Turbo CPU, 32GB DDR4 ECC RAM, 20 Threads/10 Cores @ 4.6Ghz, 10TB transfer, 2X1 TB NVMe SSD storage, Free SSL certificate, Free 1TB backup drive, Root level access, free immunity360 security suite, free CloudLinux OS, and more for $129.99/month.
- Wrap 1 Turbo: With this plan, you get AMD Ryzen5 7600 Turbo CPU, 16GB DDR5 RAM, 12 Threads/6 Cores @ 5.1Ghz, 6TB transfer, 2X1 TB NVMe U.2 SSD storage, Free SSL certificate, Free 1TB backup drive, Root level access, free immunity360 security suite, free CloudLinux OS, Free cPanel control panel, site acceleration with LiteSpeed, free performance optimization, and more for $199.99/month.
- Wrap 2 Turbo: With this plan, you get AMD Ryzen5 7950x Turbo CPU, 64GB DDR5 RAM, 32 Threads/16 Cores @ 5.7Ghz, 10TB transfer, 2X1 TB NVMe U.2 SSD storage, Free SSL certificate, Free 1TB backup drive, Root level access, free immunity360 security suite, free CloudLinux OS, Free cPanel control panel , site acceleration with LiteSpeed, free performance optimization, and more for $229.99/month.
- Wrap 3 Turbo: With this plan, you get AMD EPYC 9334 Turbo CPU, 128 GB DDR5 RAM, 64 Threads/32 Cores @ 3.9 Ghz, 15TB transfer, 2X1 TB NVMe U.2 SSD storage, Free SSL certificate, Free 1TB backup drive, Root level access, free immunity360 security suite, free CloudLinux OS, Free cPanel control panel , site acceleration with LiteSpeed, free performance optimization, and more for $485.99/month.
Cloud Hosting
Nowadays, cloud hosting has become very popular. It is different from traditional web hosting because it spreads it resources across many servers, while traditional hosting services pull power from one server. A2 offers many cloud hosting tiers; however, they are also limited to Linux operating system only.
- Runway 1: This plan comes with 500GB monthly data transfers, 20GB SSD storage, 1GB RAM at $5.99/month with an annual contract.
- Runway 4: This mid-range plans comes with 3TB monthly data transfers, 150GB storage, 4GB RAM and storage at $8.99/month with an annual contract.
- Supersonic 32: It is an absolute high-end plan that offers 8TB monthly data transfers, 32GB RAM, and 450 NVMe SSD for $84.99/month with an annual contract.
WordPress Hosting
If WordPress Hosting seems attractive to you, A2 Hosting has you covered. It has 4 WordPress hosting plans that are identical to its shared hosting plans. They include Startup, Drive, Turbo Boost, and Turbo Max. Similar to their names, their pricing is also same. The benefits of opting for WordPress hosting of A2 is that their optimized environment allows faster page loading compared to shared hosting plans.
The WordPress hosting packages have unlimited monthly data transfers and storage at every tier with an exception of the Startup plan that offers only 100GB SSD storage.
If you need something more focused, A2 has managed WordPress servers too. With managed WordPress servers, A2 Hosting handles patches and updates.
- Run: For a single website, run is the best managed WordPress hosting plan offered by A2. With this, you get 50GB NVMe Storage, faster ryzen 9 CPUs, 4GB RAM, and website acceleration with LiteSpeed for $9.95/month.
- Jump: This plan offers simple management for websites. You can manage 5 websites with this plan and get 4GB RAM, 250GB NVMe storage, Offsite, and onsite daily backups, website acceleration with LiteSpeed, WordPress Multisite, and more for $16.95/month.
- Fly: For fast hosting service for all your websites, Fly is a great WordPress managed hosting plan. It offers unlimited NVMe storage and websites, 8GB RAM, Offsite, and onsite daily backups, website acceleration with LiteSpeed, WordPress Multisite, Jetpack daily backups, jetpack daily security, and more for $26.95/month.
- Run: This is an eCommerce and WooCommerce ready plan available at $39.95/month. It comes with unlimited NVMe storage and websites, 16GB RAM, Offsite and onsite daily backups, website acceleration with LiteSpeed, WordPress Multisite, Jetpack daily backups, jetpack daily security, faster Ryzen 9CPUs, and Jetpack daily malware scan.
Reseller Hosting
For those looking to start a web hosting business without dealing with infrastructure matters, A2 hosting has its reseller hosting packages. Reseller web hosting plans of A2 hosting starts from $19.99/month and goes to $44.99/month. They boast unlimited emails, 3500GB monthly data transfers, and 250GB storage. With these plans you can apply your brand to the rented server and it will offer you 24/7 technical support.
Best For: Agencies and entrepreneurs selling hosting services.
Who Is A2 Hosting Recommended For?
Are you a website-building amateur? Or conversely, are you a professional user seeking ultimate dependability on dedicated server? Perhaps you are lost in the mid, looking for a happy means between VPS and shared hosting. Irrespective of where you fall in the hosting requirements spectrum, A2 Hosting has a perfect solution involving speed, support, and security for your website if you’ve:- A WordPress Blog
- Resume And Portfolio Site
- Local Business Site
- Small ecommerce
How to SignUp?
Signing Up with A2 is quite simple.- Just visit https://my.a2hosting.com/index.php
- Move to “Account” tab on the upper ride corner.
- Click Register, place an order and enter your details.
- And you are ready to go!
Speed and Performance
A2 Hosting’s Turbo Servers are its crown jewel:- NVMe Storage: 3x faster read/write vs. SATA SSDs.
- LiteSpeed Web Server: Reduces TTFB (Time to First Byte) by 50%.
- Caching Layers: (i) OPcache: Accelerates PHP execution.
- HTTP/3 and QUIC: Faster data transfer protocols.
(ii) Memcached/Redis: Database caching.
(iii) LiteSpeed Cache: One-click setup for WordPress.
Global Speed Test Results:
- US Server (Michigan): 450ms load time (GTmetrix).
- EU Server (Amsterdam): 620ms load time (Pingdom).
- Asia Server (Singapore): 820ms load time (Dotcom-Tools).
Speed Test Results and Analysis
Methodology: Tested a 1GB WordPress site with 20 plugins.
Tools and Results:
GTmetrix:(i) Turbo Server: Grade A (95%), Load Time: 1.1s.
(ii) Standard Server: Grade B (82%), Load Time: 2.8s.
WebPageTest:
(i)First Contentful Paint: 0.6s (Turbo) vs. 1.4s (Standard).
(ii) UptimeRobot: 99.98% uptime over 90 days.
Recommendation: Turbo plans are worth the cost for traffic-heavy sites.
Security & Customer Support
Security & Customer Support
- Imunify360: AI-driven malware scanning, firewall, and patch management.
- DDoS Protection: Real-time traffic monitoring.
- Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Mandatory for account logins.
- Free SSL: Auto-renewing Let’s Encrypt certificates.
- KernelCare: Rebootless kernel updates for VPS/dedicated servers.
Customer Support
A2’s Guru Crew support team is accessible 24/7 via:
- Live Chat: less than 1 minute average response time.
- Phone Support: Toll-free US and international numbers.
- Ticketing System: 1-hour resolution for urgent issues.
- Knowledge Base: 500+ guides on SEO, migrations, and coding.
Support Limitations
- No weekend phone support for unmanaged plans.
- Turbo-specific issues require advanced technicians.
Money-Back Guarantee
- 30-Day Full Refund: Cancel within a month for a full refund.
- Anytime Pro-Rated Refund: After 30 days, refunds apply to unused service time.
Out-Of-The Box Server Features
The company kills when speed is considered. While A2 Hosting’s Turbo Hosting plan is a great stepping stone before graduating from shared space, A2 also offers outstanding web hosting solutions after you are set to migrate to cloud, VPS or dedicated server.
All the packages from A2 hosting include multiple server locations including Michigan- United States, Singapore, Amsterdam and Netherland. Whether you are looking for dedicated server, VPS, standard shared hosting or other hybrid solution, A2 as one of the best web hosting services provider can offer all to meet your specific needs with:
- Uptime of 99.9% or even higher
- “Guru Crew” support available every day for 24*7
- Handle connections more efficiently and faster
- Improves security through SPDY support
- Complete reports available on server uptime and speed
Exclusive Email Features
Every hosting account available at A2 is loaded with the email resources. The resources can be easily found and managed in the cPanel control panel, which is under Email heading. As the best email hosting service, A2 Hosting has the following features:
- Most popular email features
- Ultra reliable and screaming fast servers
- Free hackscan protection
- Pre installed webmail software
- Free SSDs
- 20X faster turbo servers
A2 Hosting is a Michigan-based provider known for its developer-friendly tools, eco-friendly initiatives, and emphasis on speed. Key differentiators include:
- Turbo Servers: Leveraging NVMe storage, LiteSpeed caching, and optimized software stacks for up to 20x faster page loads.
- Global Data Centers: Options in Michigan (USA), Amsterdam (Europe), Singapore (Asia), and Arizona (USA) reduce latency for international audiences.
- Green Hosting: Carbon-neutral operations via carbon offset partnerships.
- 99.9% Uptime Commitment: Backed by SLA credits for downtime.
- Developer Tools: Support for PHP 8.x, Node.js, Python, Ruby, SSH access, and Git integration.
Richer eCommerce Features
All A2 accounts come with free eCommerce apps such as Prestashop, Magento and OpenCart. A2 offers many fast solutions to fit in all your eCommerce Hosting requirements, making it one of the best eCommerce hosting services provider with the following features:
- Blazing Fast
- Option to choose your turbo servers
- Exclusive SwiftServer Platform
- 20X faster page loads
- Guru Crew Support available 24/7/365
- Softaculous
- Unlimited products listing
- Multiple payment methods
- Multiple currencies and languages
- Multiple shipping methods
- Customizable shopping carts
- Large support community for eCommerce specifically
Top-Of-The-Line Security Features
The security of a website is very important as it can be easily hacked or attacked by virus. Having your website secure is quite important. As far as security is concerned, A2 Hosting does not play around. This web host excels and provides many security features for its hosting plans. That includes everything: SSL certificates, 2-factor authentication, Firewalls, and DDoS protection.
High Performance Control Panels Features
Control panel of A2 is a full featured online control panel which allows you to handle your domains via a simple to use web interface. With cPanel, you can easily manage all the aspects of your website, including files, emails, backups, site statics, FTP, etc. A2 hosting control panel is completely out of the box. Let’s have a look at some of its features:
- All clients get access to standard cPanel 11
- No custom themes
- Resellers get standard combination of WHM and cPanel
- Dedicated and VPS get cPanel free
A2 Hosting Alternatives
A2 Hosting is great at whatever it offers and does. However, some people may not find it to be their cup of tea. Due to this or maybe because you may be looking to find something else, below are the top 2 alternatives of A2 Hosting:
- BlueHost is one of the largest and most well-known web hosting providers, ideal for WordPress users and beginners who need a simple setup, reliable support, and good overall value. It’s great if you’re starting a personal website or small business, and you want something that just works without a lot of technical involvement.
- Excellent for beginners, especially those looking to host WordPress websites.
- Free domain for the first year.
- Good customer support and 30-day money-back guarantee.
- One-click installs for various applications.
- Slower loading speeds compared to A2 Hosting (which focuses more on performance).
- Higher renewal rates after the first term.
- Additional charges for backup services.
Key Features:
- User-Friendly: BlueHost offers an easy-to-use interface, making it a good choice for beginners. Their integration with WordPress is seamless, as they are officially recommended by WordPress.org.
- Performance: BlueHost offers solid uptime (around 99.98%) and generally good performance, but their page loading speeds tend to be slower than A2 Hosting’s, which is renowned for its performance speed (especially with Turbo plans).
- Pricing: BlueHost’s pricing is competitive, especially for entry-level plans. However, their renewal rates tend to be higher, so be mindful of the long-term cost.
- Support: 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, and email. BlueHost is well-regarded for offering helpful customer service.
- Free Domain: When you sign up for a hosting plan, BlueHost offers a free domain for the first year.
- Security Features: Includes free SSL certificates, and enhanced security options can be added at extra cost.
- Hostinger is a fast-growing hosting provider known for offering affordable plans with solid performance. It’s often seen as a competitor to A2 Hosting when it comes to performance and value for money. It is a fantastic choice if you’re looking for low-cost hosting with great performance. It’s well-suited for those on a budget who still want a good user experience and fast website speeds. If your priority is saving money while maintaining solid performance, Hostinger is a strong competitor.
- Extremely affordable pricing with good performance.
- Fast-loading speeds for budget hosting.
- 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Solid uptime and reliability.
- No free domain (except on higher-tier plans).
- Limited phone support (chat support is the primary option).
- The basic plans come with fewer features compared to competitors like A2 Hosting.
Key Features:
- Instagram Story Viewing: Monitor stories and posts anonymously.
- Performance: Hostinger is known for providing excellent server speeds, especially in their premium shared hosting and cloud hosting plans. While A2 Hosting also provides fast performance, Hostinger generally offers great value for those on a tighter budget.
- Pricing: Hostinger is very cost-effective, with some of the lowest prices in the industry. They have budget plans starting at as low as $1.99/month. Like A2 Hosting, they provide excellent performance at a competitive price.
- Customer Support: 24/7 customer support via live chat and ticketing. Hostinger’s support team is generally very helpful, though some users report that it can take longer to get responses during peak times.
- User-Friendly: Hostinger provides an easy-to-use custom control panel (hPanel), which is more user-friendly than the traditional cPanel used by most hosts, making it easy to manage your site.
- Security: Hostinger offers free SSL certificates, regular backups, and advanced security features like Cloudflare protection (on certain plans).
