A2 Hosting is one web provider that operates behind the scenes yet delivers great services. They offer cheap and amazing hosting plans with some of the best servers in the market.
However, because of the less popularity of the company in many nations, it became incumbent that we carry out an A2 Hosting review for 2024. We hope it will help many searchers looking for answers to their burning questions about which web hosting company to choose.
Our A2 Hosting review contains unbiased, undiluted, and transparent screenshots and results of the hands-on expert thorough tests of their services. Are you wondering if A2 Hosting is good for WordPress, fast, or something? Stay tuned!
A2 Hosting Review: Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Low Introductory Prices | High Renewal Prices |
| Fast Load Times | No Free Domain |
| Great Uptime | No Windows Hosting |
| Excellent Customer Service | Expensive Powerful (Turbo) Servers |
| Excellent Security Features | |
| Multiple Data Centers |
A2 Hosting Onboarding Process: Is it Straightforward?
After purchasing one of the Turbo plans, we logged on to our Client Area to commence the account setup. However, our first experience could have been better, but it does not mean it will happen to everyone.
Surprisingly, our ISP provider was constantly changing our IP addresses, which was not very agreeable with the A2 Hosting system. Hence, it kept logging us out whenever we tried accessing the cPanel to install WordPress. This continued for about 45 minutes until the support agent advised us to use a VPN.
What we noticed with the issue and how fast it was for the support to give us a working solution is that it is not rare. We believe A2 Hosting could write new rules for their system to follow instead of forcing customers to use a VPN for an averagely good user experience.
A2 Hosting Website Builder: A Simple Drag and Drop Editor
The first thing we looked into during our A2 Hosting review was their website builder. A2 Hosting website builder is a very user-friendly and intuitive tool. It is simple, and anyone can work around it.
It gives a few templates that are less than 10 to choose from for customization and contains many elements on the editor that you can add to pages. The website builder has a PayPal payment element, making it workable in designing a simple online store.
However, the website builder is only enough for fun; it is not effective for long-term projects that need many features.
A2 Hosting Has an Improved Dashboard or cPanel
The next aspect we thoroughly checked during our A2 Hosting review was the cPanel. Even though A2 Hosting uses the traditional cPanel, it has been modified to display only the essential features you need to effectively manage your sites and web applications.
You will have access to the tools to manage your emails, databases, files, domains, security, and server information. It includes the Softaculous installer for most CMS and scripts too. Moreso, the cPanel gives you software installers for special applications built on Ruby on Rails, Node.js, and Python.
Overall, the cPanel is user-friendly and easy to familiarize with if you know what you are looking for by understanding hosting or server nuances.
A2 Hosting Speed and Performance Tests: Is it Fast?
Let us proceed with our A2 Hosting review with speed and performance tests. Speed is one of the most crucial indicators of a web hosting provider worthy of investment in 2024.
To compete with hundreds of thousands of websites targeting the same audience on the internet, a fast-loading site can give you a headstart and put you on top of that competition. Fast-loading websites and web pages will decrease your bounce rates and encourage repeat visitors. This will, in turn, pave the way for SEO success and boost your revenue by increasing your traffic.
On the other hand, slow-loading web pages stunt your progress as a business by increasing your bounce rates, slowing your SEO performance, and eventually causing revenue loss. Thus, we did a thorough review of the A2 Hosting servers on the Turbo Boost shared plan using the most reputable speed test tools; GTmetrix, PageSpeed Insights, and Pingdom.
A2 Hosting GTmetrix Speed Tests
GTmetrix is a free tool by Carbon60 to test for speed and performance of web pages from different parts of the world. It sends test traffic to a web page and calculates how it performs when real visitors visit by comparing the results with the standards the Google Core Web Vitals set. If it finds a problem with a web page, it suggests how to improve it for better speed and overall performance. Here are the most important metrics GTmetrix uses and their meaning:
- GTmetrix Grade: The Performance column represents the aggregate standing of your web page according to the core web vitals. It shows how fast your users perceive your web page and how it performs against Google’s ideal site. The Structure column calculates how well-arranged the elements on your web pages are. It calculates this by inspecting your web pages’ HTML, JS, and CSS elements.
- Time To First Byte (TTFB): This metric measures how long it takes your server(s) to successfully return the first responses to a user’s query to their browser. An ideal TTFB is 0.8 s or less.
- First Contentful Display (FCP): This metric calculates how long from the moment your web page starts to load it takes the first item in your HTML to fully display. It could be an image, text, button, etc. An ideal FCP is 1.8 s or less.
- Largest Contentful Display (LCP): This metric measures how long it takes the largest item on your web page to display on the visitor’s screen. It is usually a large button, error image, background element, etc. An ideal LCP is 2.5 s or less.
- First Input Delay (FID): This metric calculates how long your servers take to respond to web page interactions. It could be navigation to another page, a scroll, etc. An ideal FID is 300 ms or less.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This metric measures how stable the elements on your web pages are when you scroll or click. Instability makes users take unintended actions and can be caused by improperly installed scripts. An ideal CLS is 0.1 or less.
First GTmetrix Test Results
The first GTmetrix speed test for the A2 Hosting review commenced with a simple site configuration. We installed a new WordPress on our test website and deleted some irrelevant plugins and themes that were automatically installed. Thus, leaving only the Twenty Twenty-Two theme with LiteSpeed Cache for WP and A2 Optimized plugins. However, we did not do any further customization.
On analysis with GTmetrix, we recorded a TTFB of 157 ms, one of the fastest speeds we have seen on the internet today. It means that our A2 Hosting servers are very fast and better than Bluehost, where we recorded a TTFB of 637 ms for the same configuration and website.
Further, we recorded impressive FCP and LCP of 234 ms and 433 ms, respectively. This further indicates our Turbo servers’ power to deliver a fast website that can help scale your business with great SEO performance. The CLS was a bad 0.07. However, this is because of the poorly optimized Twenty Twenty-two theme.
Furthermore, we recorded a record-breaking load speed of 531 ms that beat our results from Hostinger and SiteGround under the same configuration. This proves that our site will load freakishly fast and help to achieve faster SEO success for better traffic and revenue.
Overall, we recorded 99% and 96% under the Performance and Structure columns, respectively, with a GTmetrix grade of A. This further proves that our site is among the top in the industry according to the speed and performance standards set by the Core Web Vitals.
Here is a summary of our first A2 Hosting GTmetrix speed test:
- Time to First Byte (TTFB): 157 ms (almost 700 ms faster)
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 433 ms (more than 2 s faster)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.07 (0.01 better)
- Fully loaded time: 531 ms (very fast!)
Second GTmetrix Test Results
We continued our A2 Hosting review for 2024 by testing our Turbo servers for the performance of a fully functional website. We wanted to see how fast our site would perform to real visitors if we had fully customized it. Hence, we installed the Neve theme and imported one of its starter websites with all of its content. We, however, deleted the former Twenty Twenty-two theme and did no further customization anywhere.
On analysis with GTmetrix now, our TTFB improved to 152 ms, which indicates that even for a fully functioning website, our servers are very fast. This further proves the efficiency of the A2 Hosting Turbo servers.
Moving forward, we recorded FCP and LCP of 249 ms and 397 ms, respectively. This is an improvement from our former test despite the big hero image and big button we have on the page. It indicates that our NVMe SSD storage is efficiently transferring our media files at the speed of light.
At the same time, we recorded a perfect CLS of 0, which indicates that our servers load pages correctly and backs the claim that the poorly optimized theme influenced the first result.
Furthermore, we recorded an impressive 418 ms fully loaded time, which is almost one second faster than we recorded in our Bluehost review for the same site and configuration. It further proves the power and how fast A2 Hosting Turbo servers used for this review are.
Overall, our A2 Hosting test website had 100% and 99% Performance and Structure scores, respectively, with a GTmetrix grade of A. The review of the A2 Hosting speed test results indicates that your website will have no trouble passing Core Web Vitals and will excel in SEO performance.
Here is a summary of our second A2 Hosting GTmetrix speed test:
- Time to First Byte (TTFB): 152 ms (almost 700 ms faster)
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 397 ms (more than 2 s faster)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0 (perfect!)
- Fully loaded time: 418 ms (very fast!)
A2 Hosting PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom Tests
We proceeded with our A2 Hosting review for 2024 by running additional speed tests through PageSpeed Insights. It is a Google-owned project that measures the speed and performance of web pages as perceived by real visitors and correlates them with the benchmarks of the Core Web Vitals on a scale of 0-100. It then gives a comprehensive list of speed and performance problems on a web page and how to fix them.
Since PageSpeed Insights is a more accurate indication of how Google believes users perceive your website or web pages, a good score here indicates that you have a better chance of SEO success. Here are the results we got from testing our fully functioning A2 Hosting website:
Mobile Test Results
- 99 Performance score
- FCP: 1.1 s
- LCP: 2.0 s
- CLS: 0
The speed test results from the mobile version are worse than the desktop version because the former has slower processors to load pages. Nonetheless, we have a very impressive performance that passes the benchmarks in the mobile version.
Desktop Test Results
- 100 Performance score
- FCP: 0.3 s
- LCP: 0.4 s
- CLS: 0
Our results from the desktop tests show that our fully functioning site is very fast and corresponds to the results we got from GTmetrix. With only about 400 ms LCP, you can rest assured that your site will load very fast and it will seamlessly attain great SEO success.
Our last speed test in our A2 Hosting review was done using Pingdom tools. We sent test traffic from a Washington DC, USA server and recorded a load time of 653 ms. This is almost 900 ms faster than we recorded in our Bluehost review.
A2 Hosting Load and Response Tests; Can it Handle a High-traffic Site?
Another important criterion we tested for in our A2 Hosting review for 2024 was our server’s response times during peak hours. We know traffic surges cannot be escaped, especially for businesses making marketing or SEO efforts, so we must be prepared for such times. Therefore, we ran three load tests using loader.io to see how our server would perform during traffic surges with various visitors.
First Load Test
For the first load test, we sent 20 virtual visitors to our website within one minute. We recorded the fastest and slowest response times of 260 ms and 582 ms, respectively. On average, our visitors had a response time of 276 ms. Overall, it shows that our server can handle 20 visitors within one minute and still deliver competitive performance.
However, for the slowest response time, we have recorded worse from Bluehost at 2015 ms for the same configuration. In contrast, Hostinger and SiteGround performed better for the same configuration at 309 ms and 330 ms, respectively.
Second Load Test
To increase the challenge, we sent 50 visitors to our A2 Hosting test website within one minute. We recorded the fastest and slowest response times to be 260 ms and 648 ms, respectively. At the same time, we recorded an average response time of 268 ms. It indicates that our servers can easily handle 50 visitors within one minute. But we noticed a slightly better improvement in the average response time than in the first test.
By contrast, it still performs better than Bluehost in the slowest response time at 2024 ms but is still behind Hostinger and SiteGround at 295 ms and 292 ms, respectively, for the same traffic surge.
Third Load Test
Our third and last load test for the A2 Hosting review for 2024 involved sending 1000 virtual visitors to our test site within one minute. We recorded the fastest and slowest response times to be 195 ms and 587 ms, respectively. On average, our visitors got a response from the server within 257 ms of initiating a connection.
This proves that A2 Hosting servers can handle at least 1000 visitors in one minute and still deliver quick websites. However, even though it is far better than Bluehost, it doesn’t measure up to giants like Hostinger and SiteGround.
A2 Hosting Uptime Test
Uptime is another matter we could not ignore during our A2 Hosting review for 2024. A hosting provider that delivers good uptime ensures that your website is up almost all the time. This, in turn, builds your brand’s trustworthiness and makes sure you are always available when your clients want to make a transaction. Thus, a good uptime will scale your business faster and retain your customer base for higher and repeat revenue or sales.
Whereas downtime, even for a few minutes, can wreak havoc on your business, especially during your peak hours. A time when major decisions about getting your products or services are being made. If your site goes off at this time, you will not only lose hundreds or thousands of dollars at that moment. You could lose future sales too since many of your clients would have found alternatives.
Therefore, ensuring that A2 Hosting offers an acceptable uptime that will benefit your business is important. To test this, we ran a 24-hour uptime monitoring on our website hosted at A2 Hosting through Freshping. This tool sends test traffic to our A2 Hosting site every 5 minutes to check if it responds and records the result.
Our findings show that our A2 Hosting test website was up every second of the 24 hours monitored. However, we checked a more well-monitored version of A2 Hosting servers by Pingdom for the last 7 days and recorded a 99.99% uptime. A six-month lookback indicated that A2 Hosting maintains a 99.9x% uptime too.
24/7 Customer Support
Another area we thoroughly checked during our A2 Hosting review was customer support. A2 Hosting has an impressive customer service team that is competent and always available to help new and existing customers. You can contact A2 Hosting customer support 24/7 through live chats, the ticketing system, or phone calls. For phone calls, they have several numbers you can call depending on your location.
They have a large and rich Knowledge Base that answers almost all your questions about hosting, domains, WordPress, etc.
To test their competence and response speed, we created a simple problem by changing the table prefix in our wp-config.php file from “wp5u_” to “wp6u_”. This nullified our former WordPress installation and requested a new one when we tried to log in to WP-admin.
We contacted support through the live chat button from our client area to resolve this issue. Upon chat initiation, we were placed in a queue for about 15 mins because the team members were attending to other customers. Once it was our turn, it took the support agent less than 20 mins to identify and correct the problem.
Now, this is very impressive, and one of the fastest times it has taken any hosting support to resolve this kind of issue. The queue time, however, varies. An earlier encounter with the support was done within less than 3 seconds of queue time; a support agent joined me immediately.
Overall, our findings during the review show that A2 Hosting customer support is quite impressive, and the team is eager to make your life easier if you ever have a hiccup.
A2 Hosting Pricing and Features
One of the most important aspects we thoroughly examined during our A2 Hosting review was the pricing and features they offer.
As a rule of thumb, the pricing of a hosting plan must be directly proportional to the value of the features offered. Hence, a plan must be priced reasonably.
Generally, all A2 Hosting plans come with unlimited bandwidth, so you do not have to worry about receiving too much traffic that could warrant overage charges. Additionally, they give free email account hosting to help you create a trustworthy brand and improve your email marketing. You will get free SSL certificates for your site, a website staging tool to test your edits before publishing them to your live environment, and a free site builder to create new pages. Moreso, if you have an existing website, A2 Hosting will migrate it for free through expert help.
Another good feature you will enjoy on all A2 Hosting plans is the ability to choose or change your data center location. With this, you will be able to provide the lowest latency possible to your visitors worldwide and deliver the fastest-loading pages. In addition, the plans come with at least 50 GB of SSD storage, making your data transfer as fast as possible and increasing your success in hosting a media-heavy website.
Here is the breakdown of some of the popular A2 Hosting plans:
Breakdown of A2 Hosting Shared Plans
Now, let’s continue the pricing and features part of our A2 Hosting review with a breakdown of the shared plans. A2 Hosting has four plans. The first two plans use the Apache servers and deliver the usual speed features. The other two plans are Turbo and use 20% faster LiteSpeed servers for improved speed and performance.
Startup Plan
The first shared hosting plan is Startup, which costs about $3 per month for a 12-month subscription. Aside from the general features of A2 Hosting plans, it can host only one website. You will get 100 GB SSD of storage to host many media contents for your media-heavy website. It comes with an Apache web server, and the CPU has 1 core and 1 GB of RAM.
Moreover, it includes access to the A2 Optimized plugin that will help to optimize your web pages for better speed on popular CMS like WordPress, Drupal, etc.
For improved security, A2 Hosting offers DDoS and brute force protections to prevent your server from getting attacked and compromising your data or experiencing downtime. You will get a virus scanner to regularly search for and remove malware from your site. Moreso, it includes free backups (manual) to save all your data and files against loss during a mishap and an easy restore button. Furthermore, A2 Hosting gives a free firewall to add layers of security against all sorts of requests to your server and only allows real traffic to your site.
Overall, the review shows that the A2 Hosting Startup plan is suitable for individuals starting a blog or site that needs moderate resources and fast speed or performance.
Drive Plan
According to our review, the Drive plan is the next A2 Hosting package to choose from when you need better resources to host multiple sites or just a very powerful one. It starts at about $6 per month for a 12-month plan. Aside from the features of Startup, Drive allows you to host unlimited websites. At the same time, it comes with unlimited databases for sites that use a lot of databases.
You will get about times two of the resources in the Startup package and better protection against errors or downtime during traffic surges. The Drive plan also gives you unlimited SSD storage to store as much content as possible, making it suitable for hosting media-heavy websites for many years.
Conclusively, you will get free automated backups of all files and databases on your server to prevent data loss during a mishap.
Turbo Boost and Turbo Max
If you are looking for more raw power and faster-performing servers for your resources-demanding or high-traffic website, the A2 Hosting Turbo plans are your best bet.
The plans use LiteSpeed web servers, contrary to the Apache software used by the other packages. These servers offer 20 times faster speed for all sites in your hosting plans and more resource allocation. This translates to low bounce rates, faster TTFB, and higher SEO rankings. Besides, they use NVMe SSD storage, a more advanced and 3 times faster disk for better data and file transfer.
A2 Hosting uses the latest compression technologies and protocols like HTTP/3 and QUIC to deliver lightweight web pages for faster loading speeds that can boost SEO performance.
Furthermore, the plans come with pre-configured in-house caching to deliver faster versions of your site to visitors for better loading times. You will enjoy reinforced DDoS protection and managed WordPress features like automatic updates of WP core files, plugins, themes, etc.
The Turbo Boost and Turbo Max plans start at about $7 and $15 per month, respectively, for a 12-month subscription. Aside from the features in the previous plans, the Turbo Boost CPU comes with 2 cores and 2 GB RAM. On the other hand, Turbo Max has a CPU with 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for better performance.
Overall, from our review, the A2 Hosting Turbo plans are the best for resource-demanding websites and online web application projects. The servers will deliver a very fast website that increases your traffic through SEO success.
Explanation of A2 Hosting Managed WordPress and WooCommerce Plans
Our next point of critical examination in the A2 Hosting review is the managed WordPress and WooCommerce plans. All the plans use Turbo servers that make sites 20 times faster than normal websites. Therefore, your WordPress website or eCommerce store will load very fast that your bounce rate will be almost non-existent, and you will record higher conversion rates.
Generally, the plans come with free managed WordPress features, and you will enjoy automatic updates of plugins and themes on your WP site. At the same time, it includes free SSL certificates to secure the transfer of data between your servers and users’ web browsers, an essential feature for online stores. The plans come with the Jetpack plugin pre-installed for daily backups. You will get a higher Jetpack package and more features as you upgrade your hosting plan.
A2 Hosting partners with Imunify360 Security to prevent your site against brute force, DDoS attacks, malware injections, and zero-day attacks. They use a firewall to prevent bad traffic from hitting your website and spam filters to protect your emails from spammers. What’s more, you will have access to advanced analytics of your site’s traffic.
These plans have an in-house configuration that allows the optimization of CSS, deferring of non-essential scripts and lazy loading of images for faster loading times. This will help to achieve better Core Web Vitals scores and improved SEO performance.
A2 Hosting managed WordPress and WooCommere plans use better and advanced NVMe SSD storage to ensure faster data transfers and improved site performance.
Furthermore, the plans come with LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress plugin (LSCWP) and pre-configured in-house caching like Memcached, Opcache, and Turbo cache to deliver faster websites. In addition, they include HTTP/3 and Edge Side Includes (ESI) for faster loading times.
Run Plan
Run is the first package on the A2 Hosting managed WordPress plans. It starts at about $12 per month for a 36-month subscription with the ability to host only one website. It has a free SSL certificate to ensure a secure data transfer between your servers and users’ browsers. You will get 50 GB NVMe storage to store many media content and enjoy fast data transfer along with unlimited bandwidth, leaving you with no worries during traffic surges.
Furthermore, it includes a CPU with 2 cores and 4 GB RAM to power your site for great performance. For security, you will get a free Jetpack account for backups. Further, it includes a free staging tool to test your updates or customization before publishing on a live site.
What’s more, you will enjoy free email hosting that will help your marketing efforts. You will have access to hardening features that increase your WP site’s security by disabling common backdoors and vulnerabilities hackers exploit.
Overall, based on our investigations during the review, the A2 Hosting Run plan is great for a medium-traffic site or eCommerce store. It will deliver high speed and performance that will decrease bounce rates and improve SEO rankings.
Jump Package
The Jump plan starts at about $19 per month for a 36-month subscription. It can host up to five sites and deliver them all at great speed. Aside from all the features in Run, you will get 250 GB NVMe SSD storage to store many media content for a long time.
It has a CPU with 2 cores, 4 GB of RAM and the number of databases you can create on your plan increases to 5. This translates to one for each domain allowed on your hosting account. You will get a premium Jetpack daily backup account, and your backups are saved on servers other than yours to protect against future issues. Further, it supports the multisite feature, which is essential for designers and businesses running multi-national sites with different versions.
Fly Plan
The Fly plan starts at about $29 per month for a 36-month subscription. It can host unlimited websites and deliver them at the greatest performance. You will get unlimited NVMe SSD storage to host thousands of content.
Your server has a CPU with 2 cores and a better 8 GB RAM to give you a fast processing experience. Moreso, it comes with a free daily malware scanner to detect and remove malicious content from your site before it wreaks havoc. It also includes access to unlimited databases to satisfy all your site needs.
Sell Plan
The managed WordPress and WooCommerce Sell plan starts at about $42 per month for a 36-month subscription. It can host unlimited websites and gives you access to as many databases as possible. You will get unlimited NVMe SSD storage for endless saving and fast data transfer. It has the best CPU in the family, with 4 cores and 16 GB RAM for better raw power. It comes with a premium rapid SSL certificate for improved security. Additionally, it includes access to specialized Guru support too.
Moreso, this plan handles traffic surges by providing more power and resources during spikes or peak hours. You will be able to choose to install WordPress with WooCommerce features easily for online stores.
Although you can install WooCommerce on any of the managed WordPress plans, our investigations during the review show that the A2 Hosting Sell package will give you the best resources and raw power you need to host a high-traffic online store.
A2 Hosting Reseller Plans Explained
Another A2 Hosting plans we could not resist mentioning in our review are the Reseller Packages. The plans contain everything A2 Hosting offers, with the ability to white-label it and resell it to multiple customers. This includes but is not limited to enhanced security, managed WordPress features, in-house caching, and eCommerce features. At the same time, A2 Hosting provides a free billing and management system through Blesta and WHMCS.
Furthermore, our findings during the review show that A2 Hosting allows you to create an eNom account. This allows you to resell domain names and it will be under white-label too.
There are two variations to this too. We have the standard version and the Turbo variants. The Turbo plans offer speed and performance upgrades via LiteSpeed servers and NVMe SSD storage. Hence, we recommend them since your clients may find them useful as well.
The first plan is the Turbo Kickstart package. It starts at about $23 per month for a 36-month subscription. It comes with 60 GB NVMe SSD storage to store many media content and deliver them at great speed, improving SEO performance. You will enjoy up to 600 GB of data transfer for high-traffic sites. This plan allows you to resell the services to up to 40 clients. You will only have the option of using Blesta for billing and customer management on this plan.
If you need more resources or have more clients, consider upgrading to the Turbo Launch plan. It gives you up to 60 client accounts and provides up to 120 GB NVMe SSD storage. At the same time, the bandwidth increased to 1200 GB of data transfer. Turbo Launch starts at about $30 per month for a 3-year subscription.
The Turbo Grow plan costs about $40 per month for a 36-month subscription. You will get 160 GB NVMe SSD storage and up to 1600 GB of data transfer. You will be able to resell the resources to about 90 clients at a time.
Lastly, the Turbo Scale plan starts at about $50 per month for a 36-month commitment. It gives you 250 GB NVMe SSD storage and 3500 GB of bandwidth to handle heavy data transfers and traffic surges. This package allows you to resell resources to 130 clients.
Breakdown of A2 VPS Plans
Other important plans to mention in our A2 Hosting review are the Virtual Private Server (VPS) packages. VPS plans are like shared hosting packages that are more properly managed and offer personalized resources for improved performance. They allow you to pre-configure the server space and resources you want in your shared environment.
A2 Hosting offers two types of VPS plans which are managed and unmanaged. The managed plans mean you do not have to worry about your server monitoring and maintenance. On the other hand, unmanaged VPS packages require configuring your servers and managing them from time to time. While the managed version includes a free cPanel license and WHM access per plan, the unmanaged version only contains Webuzo. Thus, we strongly recommend the managed plans for easy operation.
Note: Webuzo is a server management tool that allows you to install applications easily. You can install WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc., with it.
Furthermore, A2 Hosting has two categories of packages according to the servers used. The standard plans use Apache, while the Turbo packages use LiteSpeed servers and faster NVMe SSD storage.
A2 Standard VPS Plans Explained
The VPS standard plans have all the features in shared and managed WordPress hosting packages. They offer free SSL, automatic daily backups, migrations, and a cPanel control panel. You will be able to install any web application or script you want on your site through the Softaculous app installer.
What’s more, you can host unlimited websites, emails and enjoy spam protection against attackers. Moreso, they include the chance to choose your preferred data center location to deliver faster-loading web pages to your visitors. Moreover, the plans include 2 free dedicated IPs to protect your site against online sanctions associated with shared hosting.
Furthermore, all the packages include anti-DDoS protection, Memcached, and Object Caching by Redis.
These are just a few general features offered in the VPS plans.
The first plan, Lift 4, starts at about $40 per month for a 36-month commitment. It gives you a CPU with 2 cores, 4 GB RAM, 150 GB SSD storage, and 2 TB bandwidth to transfer endless data for medium to high-traffic sites.
A2 Hosting Lift 8 plan costs about $55 per month for a 36-month subscription. It gives you a CPU with 6 cores, 8 GB RAM, and 250 GB SSD storage. You will also get a 3 TB bandwidth to handle sites with huge monthly data transfers.
Lastly, we have the Lift 16 plan. This package starts at about $70 per month for a 3-year plan. You will get a CPU with 8 cores, 16 GB RAM, and 450 GB SSD storage. The plan comes with 4 TB bandwidth to handle a high-traffic site.
A2 Turbo VPS Plans Explained
The A2 Hosting VPS Turbo plans offer all the general features of standard plans but they are built using LiteSpeed servers and use better speed technologies. These plans use 3x faster and better NVMe SSD storage to store and transmit data.
What’s more, they use HTTP/3, QUIC, and Eagle Side Includes (ESI) for better caching and compression to deliver lightweight web pages faster and seamlessly to visitors. Generally, these VPS plans will deliver sites about 20 times faster than those on the standard packages.
The first plan is Mach 8 and starts at about $60 per month for a 3-year commitment. The server has a CPU with 2 cores, 8 GB RAM, and 150 GB NVMe storage. It is a powerful server with great processing power and enough storage to host many media content. You will get a 2 TB monthly data transfer capacity to handle huge traffic.
A2 Hosting Mach 16 package costs about $90 per month for a 36-month plan. You will get a processor with 6 cores, 16 GB RAM, and 250 GB NVMe storage. Further, it includes a better 3 TB bandwidth to handle an additional 1 TB of data transfer.
Lastly, the Mach 32 Turbo VPS package starts at about $100 per month for a 3-year plan. It has a CPU with 8 cores, 32 GB of RAM, and 450 GB NVMe SSD storage. This gives your server the raw power to handle resource-demanding projects and huge traffic. You will also get 4 TB bandwidth to handle huge data transfers.
Overall, based on our review of the A2 Hosting VPS plans, the standard packages are powerful to host high-resource-demanding website projects with medium to high traffic and deliver them freakishly fast. On the other hand, the Turbo VPS plans will deliver the fastest high-traffic sites on the internet and help them excel in SEO.
Overview of A2 Dedicated Server Hosting Plans
The dedicated packages are the last plans we mention in our A2 Hosting review for 2024. These plans provide very powerful dedicated servers that will easily handle your resource-demanding projects. A2 Hosting has managed and unmanaged plans, but we recommend the former since it makes your life easier and management cheaper.
Furthermore, almost all the packages come with both standard Apache and Turbo (LiteSpeed) servers. Additionally, all the plans have the features of VPS packages, including root-level access. You will have access to cPanel, WordPress toolkits, email hosting, spam protection, etc. You can install CloudLinux OS on your server too, making A2 one of the best Linux web hosting services.
The Turbo plans have higher RAM than their immediate predecessors and use NVMe storage. The drives are arranged in a RAID-1 level configuration to encourage storage redundancies and enhance data security. Here is a breakdown of A2 Hosting dedicated plans;
Warp 1 Plan
Warp 1 is the starter plan, starting at about $156 per month for a 2-year commitment. The server has an Intel Xeon E-2224 processor with 4 cores and a clock speed of 4.6 GHz. You will get 16 GB DDR4 RAM and 2×1 1 TB SSD storage. The server also gives a 6 TB bandwidth to accommodate huge data transfers.
This configuration is built to handle many medium-traffic projects at once and still deliver very fast websites with a chance of SEO success.
Warp 2 AMD and its Turbo Version
The standard Warp 2 AMD dedicated server starts at about $186 per month for a 24-month plan. The server has the AMD Rome 2nd Gen EPYC 7232 CPU with 8 cores and a clock speed of 3.2 GHz. It comes with 32 GB DDR4 RAM and 2×1 1 TB SSD storage. This plan comes with 10 TB bandwidth to accommodate high traffic.
Alternatively, the Turbo version costs about $216 per month. It is built on LiteSpeed software and has the processor as the former. However, it has a higher 64 GB DDR4 and is 20 times faster. It uses NVMe M.2 SSD storage that offers 3 times faster data transfer.
Warp 2 Intel and its Turbo Version
The Warp 2 Intel plan is about $186 per month for a 24-month package. It comes with an Intel Xeon Silver 4210R 10-core CPU with a clock speed of 2.4 GHz. You will get 32 GB DDR4 RAM with 2×1 1 TB SSD storage for faster data processing. Further, it comes with 10 TB bandwidth to handle high-traffic websites.
Alternatively, the Turbo version costs about $216 per month for a 24-month package. It runs on LiteSpeed caching technologies and uses NVMe M.2 SSD storage to deliver 20 times faster websites that can succeed easily in SEO. Moreso, it features a higher 64 GB DDR4 RAM for faster multitasking power.
Warp 3 AMD and its Turbo Version
Warp 3 AMD plans start at about $476 per month for a 24-month commitment. It comes with 2 AMD Rome 2nd Gen EPYC 7232 processors with 16 cores and a clock speed of 3.2 GHz each. It has a more stable and faster 2×960 GB U.2 SSD storage with a bigger 64 GB DDR4 RAM. The bandwidth also increases to 15 TB per month, which is enough to handle several high-traffic sites.
Whereas the Turbo version starts at about $506 per month for an initial 24-month subscription. It uses a faster LiteSpeed software and sports 3 times better NVMe U.2 SSD storage. It has a higher 64 GB DDR4 RAM too for better multitasking capability.
Our A2 Hosting review of the dedicated servers shows that they are powerful enough to handle all types of resource-demanding websites you may have. In addition, they will deliver fast load times that will decrease your bounce rates, increase your conversion rates and drive more traffic to your site due to SEO success.
A2 Hosting Performance Technologies
Another aspect we are looking at in our A2 Hosting review is performance technologies. When it comes to speed and general performance, the technologies used by a hosting provider play a huge role. Some of the technologies include servers, caching methods, etc.
Web Server Software
A2 Hosting generally uses two web server software; Apache and LiteSpeed. The Apache servers are used for almost all the sites, and even though Apache is an older and slower software A2 Hosting uses the latest version to eliminate this sluggishness.
For better speed and performance, A2 Hosting provides an option of choosing LiteSpeed software for your servers. LiteSpeed servers are at least 11x faster than Apache and promise 20 times faster-loading websites. Moreover, LiteSpeed servers are designed and capable of powering high-traffic websites and web applications for great speed and performance. As a result, you will host many sites that require high resources with loads of traffic easily without using too many resources on the server.
These LiteSpeed servers pave the way for improved security with built-in features for DDoS protection.
Enhanced Caching and Encryption Methods
Other performance technologies we noticed in our A2 Hosting review for 2024 are enhanced caching and encryption methods.
A2 Hosting servers handle and process multiple or multiplexed requests sent by the browser using HTTP/3 protocol such that web pages will have faster load times. HTTP/3 combines the help of QUIC and IPV6 to make this happen.
It also uses APC/OPcache technology to deliver 50% faster PHP execution. Hence speeding up many websites and applications hosted on PHP-based CMS like WordPress. A2 Hosting uses Edge Side Includes (ESI) caching technology to cache specific parts of web pages such that the dynamic elements remain uncached.
LiteSpeed Cache and A2 Optimized Plugins for Speed Optimizations
Our findings during the review revealed that A2 Hosting uses the LiteSpeed Cache plugin to optimize your web pages for faster speed and performance. You can use this plugin to carry out effective server-level and page optimizations based on suggestions you have gotten from a speed test. The plugin comes for free on all Turbo plans and is pre-installed when you install a new WordPress or other compatible CMS.
Furthermore, you will have access to the A2 Optimized plugin, a proprietary speed optimization tool developed by in-house developers. The plugin has many optimization options, including HTML, JS, and CSS combination and modification.
In addition, it has many image compression features that can help you achieve a light web page for faster loading time. This will decrease your bounce rates and boost your SEO performance.
A2 Uses Ultra Fast NVMe SSD Storage
Another speed technology that makes A2 Hosting stand out in this review is their fast NVMe SSD storage on the Turbo plans. NVMe SSD storage is at least 3 times faster than traditional SATA SSD storage, leading to faster loading times of web pages.
You will also have no problems downloading and uploading big files to your web servers. Moreso, if you run a streaming website, the servers will deliver the videos faster to your visitors without buffering or failing.
Up to 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Furthermore, for this review, we looked at A2 Hosting in the area of the money-back guarantee. A good hosting company should always give its customer a way out if they are ever dissatisfied with its services.
A2 Hosting offers a 30-day money-back guarantee to all of its new customers. Hence, if you are ever dissatisfied with their services, you can cancel and request a full refund within the first 30 days from the start of your plan.
If you exceed the 30 days, you can still request a refund within 31 to 90 days from signup, and A2 Hosting will reimburse the value of the remaining services you are yet to use to you. Afterward, you may not receive a refund anymore.
Nonetheless, domain registrations, migrations, and setup fees are not eligible for the money-back guarantee. They will deduct the value from your refund total if you get a free domain for the first year.
A2 Hosting Offers Limited Free Site Migrations
One detail we do not love about A2 Hosting is that they do not offer free migrations for multiple sites from another host.
A2 Hosting can offer to move your first site from another host by using their experts for free. However, after the first site, subsequent migrations cost you at least $10 each.
Note: The loophole here is that if you have multiple sites on a cPanel account, A2 Hosting can move all of them at once.
A2 Does Not Offer Free Domain Names
This is another issue we found during our A2 Hosting review, which is disheartening. As a new website owner on a budget, we count on a free domain to start our online journey with. Therefore, most web hosting providers give free domain names for the first year. This cuts out the budget needed to purchase a domain name.
Sadly, with A2 Hosting, you will not get a free domain on any of their plans, including the higher-priced ones. This creates the need for a higher budget compared with what you need for other web hosting companies.
A2 Alternatives and How They Compare
| A2 Hosting | Hostinger | SiteGround | InMotion Hosting | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Introductory Pricing (Monthly) | ~$3 | ~$2 | ~$3 | ~$3 |
| Renewal Pricing (Monthly) | ~$12 | ~$4 | ~$15 | ~$9 |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unmetered | Unlimited | Unmetered |
| Storage Limit | 100 GB to Unlimited | 50 GB to 400 GB | 10 GB to 1 TB | 100 GB to Unlimited |
| Free Domain | No | Yes, except on the Single plan | No | All plans except the Core package |
| Loading Time | 418 ms | 769 ms | 731 ms | 530 ms |
| Uptime | 99.993% | 99.997% | 99.998% | 99.995% |
| Customer Support | Live chat, phone calls, and tickets | 24/7 live chat and emails | 24/7 live chat, phone calls, and tickets/emails | Live chat, phone calls, and tickets |
| Security | Free SSL, anti-DDoS protection, virus scanner, firewall, etc. | Free SSL, anti-DDoS protection, virus scanner, firewall, etc. | Free SSL, AI anti-bot system, anti-DDoS protection, virus scanner, firewall, etc. | Free SSL, virus scanner, firewall, malware remover, etc. |
| Learn More | - | Hostinger Review | SiteGround Review | InMotion Review |
Conclusion: Is A2 Hosting Reliable?
A2 is quite a reliable provider for hosting a site with great speed and performance. According to the results of our A2 Hosting tests, you can use their servers to power medium to high-traffic websites at the fastest speed possible.
Moreover, if you run a media-heavy website, the storage space offered by A2 Hosting, combined with their advanced NVMe SSD, ensures nothing goes wrong. You will be able to deliver web pages and media files with the fastest loading times, which will decrease your bounce rates, increase your conversion rates, and improve your SEO performance.
Nonetheless, because of the high renewal prices on A2 Hosting plans, we advise that you consider the cheaper Hostinger packages with nearly the same features.
A2 Hosting Review Summary
| Features/Yardsticks | Ratings (1 - 10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | 8.0 | A2 Hosting has affordable introductory prices but the renewal prices are too high. |
| Ease of Management | 8.5 | A2 Hosting uses the cPanel has its control panel. Even the integration is great, navigation to the cPanel can be frustrating sometimes. |
| Performance | 9.5 | The host delivers very fast sites irrespective of its type. Yet, there is a an unusual (insignificant) drop in the server response times during peak hours. |
| Security | 9.5 | A2 has many great security features which are available on most its plans, especially the Turbo packages. |
| Support | 9.0 | The web host is reachable through phone calls, tickets, and live chats. Besides, it has a great response times and relatively competent (Guru) support team. |
| Overall Rating | 8.9 | Overall, A2 Hosting checks all the boxes and it is a great choice. |
FAQs About A2 Hosting
Where is A2 Hosting Located?
A2 Hosting is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. However, the web host serves users all over the world. As a matter of fact, A2 Hosting has data centers in Michigan, Arizona, Amsterdam, and Singapore.
Is A2 Hosting Cheap?
A2 Hosting has affordable introductory prices on most of its plans. Nonetheless, its renewal prices are quite high. As a result, it is typically more expensive after the first subscription period. A2 Hosting alternatives like Hostinger have cheaper introductory and renewal prices.
Does A2 Hosting Give Free Domain Names?
Sadly, A2 Hosting does not give a free domain for the first year on any of its plans. But of course, you can register a domain name with the host for about $11 for a .com extension. You will have to purchase domain privacy as well since the host does not have a free offer.
Is A2 Hosting Any Good?
Absolutely! A2 Hosting is a great host irrespective of the type of website you want to create. It is best for media-heavy sites that need great speed, uptime, and overall performance. The host excels in customer service and security too.
A2 Hosting
$2.99
