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A2 Hosting Review
Features: Free site transfer and Free SSL Certificate
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A2 Hosting is a very reliable web host, owning all of its data centers and providing 99.9% uptime commitment.
Their Customer service team is one of the best in the business, plus they have a very good knowledge base in case you want to research yourself.
Here is our A2 Hosting review:
Meet A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting was founded in 2001 under the name of Inquinet by Bryan Muthig and a friend, with only a few clients. Two years later, A2 Hosting was born.
A2 Hosting’s headquarters are located in Ann Arbour, Michigan. They have four data centers: Michigan and Arizona in the US, Amsterdam in Europe, and Singapore in Asia.
This web host is always trying to innovate and implement the newest technology, and this goes even for the early days as A2 Hosting was one of the first hosts to support PHP 5.
Advantages of A2 Hosting
1. Reliability
As always, let’s start with one of the most important metrics when it comes to web hosting, uptime.
A2 Hosting has an uptime of 99.97%, and there is not much that we can add here. That is approximately 2.5 hours of offline time on a yearly basis, which is not bad at all. Not even if it’s in one take. Imagine one day your website being down for 2.5 hours, not bad at all.
They also have a 99.9% uptime commitment, for which A2 Hosting has stated the following details:
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Uptime = amount of time that your website is available and operational.
2. Security Features
A2 Hosting has a Perpetual Security initiative that has a couple of features that help protect your website from malicious attacks, KernelCare and HackScan.
KernelCare is a software extension that allows A2 Hosting to update their kernel’s security on a daily basis without needing to reboot their servers.
HackScan is a part of A2 Hosting’s Perpetual Security initiative and is included free with your account. HackScan malware protection runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help block attacks before they can damage your site.
3. Customer Service
One of the best in the business.
Very knowledgeable, on point, Stephen was there to provide an answer for every question, and to suggest some things that we purposely missed to mention. Really no surprises there, except for the one how good the Customer service was.
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Their customer service is reachable via Email, Phone, and Chat, where we would recommend Chat as a preferred choice of communication.
Of course, if you prefer to avoid Customer Service, they have a knowledge base with hundreds of articles that might be helpful for you.
4. Anytime Money-back Guarantee
So, A2 Hosting has a standard 30-day money-back guarantee, it is an industry-standard. You don’t like the service, you don’t want to continue your service with them, fine. Let them know in the first 30 days and you will get your refund.
Well, A2 is a little bit different. They do have the same guarantee in place, but they also feature another type of deal here.
If you have a longer deal, for three years, and you decide that you don’t like this host anymore, you can submit a request for a refund and receive a proportional refund for the remaining period. Sounds good, right?
Sure, there are some details and conditions:
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5. Load Time
When it comes to online businesses, speed is one of the most important factors. You probably blinked while you were reading this, right?
Well, A2 Hosting has loaded the page while you were blinking, in just 574ms. They are very fast, and once you visit A2 Hosting website you will see, speed is one of their main topics and selling points. Rightfully so.
6. Free Site Migration
Do you want to move your website to A2 Hosting? No problem. A2 offers free site transfer to new users, as long as you can provide your cPanel credentials to their Customer Service.
Also, A2 Hosting will provide free migration for existing customer’s accounts when they upgrade their account to a higher level service.
7. Website Builder and CMS (Content Management Systems)
A2 Hosting has it’s own website builder, named SiteBuilder. Straight to the point, I guess. These things are pretty useful, if you are looking for something user friendly, a tool that makes it a little bit easier for beginners. But, these come with a different price, so we think that relying on other Content Management Systems is a better option for you.
A2 Hosting supports all Content Management Systems that you can think of, WordPress, Joomla, Magento, OpenCart, or Drupal, and all of these can be installed pretty easily. No need for expert, couple of clicks and you are there.
Disadvantages of A2 Hosting
1. Renewal Price
When you are starting a new plan with a new host, they will usually provide an excellent introductory price for you, especially if you are looking at a three-year plan. A2 Hosting is not different there. However, when that plan expires, reality kicks in. Or renewal prices.
Let’s compare introductory vs. renewal prices:
– StartUp plan: $2.99 per month for a three year period, while the renewal will set you back $8.99 per month
– Drive plan: $4.99 per month for a three year period, while the renewal will be $11.99 per month
– TurboBoost plan: $9.99 per month for a three year period, while the renewal will be $19.99 per month
– TurboMax plan: $14.99 per month for a three year period, while the renewal will be $24.99 per month
If you are not interested to continue with A2 Hosting after the first plan expires, you will need to notify A2 before automatic renewal for a Renewal Term. This is how you can do it:
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2. Turbo Servers
A2 Hosting features Turbo Servers that load pages up to 20X faster page loads compared to standard hosting. These provide more resources per user and fewer users per server. Amazing service that surely separates them from the rest.
However, these are featured only on their most expensive plans, TurboBoost and TurboMax.
Ease of use
While their homepage is a little bit hectic, with all the information just popping up as soon as you enter the website, don’t let that discourage you. Their system is pretty easy to use.
They have an excellent knowledge base, that you can easily browse and use the search bar to find the wanted term.
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Of course, A2 Hosting features cPanel, which makes it easy to update account information, billing information, and keep track of your domains.
Pricing plans
There are four shared options to choose from when it comes to A2 Hosting.
Prices presented below are for 3-year plans, so if you want to take a shorter period, rates go up.
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Let’s go over the plans:
– StartUp: For $2.99 per month, you get one website max, 100GB storage, SSL certificate, and cPanel access.
– Drive: $4.99 per month features unlimited websites, unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, SSL certificate, cPanel access, unlimited databases, and an unlimited number of email accounts.
– TurboBoost: For $9.99 per month, this plan comes with every feature from Drive, but it also comes with Turbo Servers, which can be up to 20 times faster than standard hosting.
– TurboMax: For $14.99 per month, this plan comes with every feature from TurboBoost, but it comes with more resources, more physical memory.
For us, the best options are the middle ones, as Drive features everything, just without Turbo Servers, and if you are willing to put in a few extra bucks, TurboBoost is an excellent plan that features Turbo Servers and A2 Site Accelerator.
Conclusion
Do we recommend A2 Hosting? Yes, of course.
A2 Hosting is one of the best hosts on the market, with excellent Customer Service, amazing speed, and some good plans to start with. All plans come with a free SSL certificate and one free migration.
However, amazing speed comes with a price and a Turbo plan, and you will have to purchase this plan if you want to experience the benefits of the highly coveted high speed.
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