A2 Hosting Reviews and Expert Opinion

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Quick, efficient troubleshooting 24/7/365 through live chat, phone, email, Skype and via the Customer Portal
• Seamless customer onboarding from welcome email to instinctive interface lets you get your site up and running fast.
• A2 Hosting has outstanding uptimes that keep your website running without a hitch.
• Incredibly fast load times prevents customer abandonment and improves your SEO performance.
• Unique site roll-back tool enables you to restore your website to a previous date’s setup with a click.
• Unlimited storage and transfer across all accounts empowers users to fully realize their website vision.
• A2 Hosting’s Perpetual Security initiative utilizes KernelCare and HackScan to keep your website safe at all times.

Cons:

• The site’s initial prices automatically increase after the initial subscription period ends.
• A2 Hosting’s live chat can be slow, especially when large quantities of customers contact them at the same time.
• Though they offer multiple plans, some of the premium plans are on the higher end of the price spectrum.
• Because many of their packages are highly customizable, the initial setup can be daunting—especially for web newcomers.

Pricing and Payment Methods

A2 Hosting offers a variety of plans with added-value features for customers to choose from. For customers looking for shared hosting solutions, A2 Hosting’s most affordable plan starts at $3.92 monthly and includes hosting for a single website, 5 databases, unlimited storage and a free site transfer. At the premium end of the shared hosting spectrum is Turbo at $9.31, which provides customers with unlimited websites and databases as well as access to their Turbo Server, which boasts up to 20x faster page loads. The web host offers similarly priced plans for WordPress hosting including the premium Managed plan at $11.99, which includes a Plesk control panel, Turbo speed, and a free Jetpack personal license.

The company’s reseller hosting plans include the starter Bronze plan for $13.19 monthly, which lets you host up to 40 accounts with 30GB storage, and the premium Platinum account for $40.91. Platinum lets you host up 100 accounts with 200GB of storage and comes with free WHMCS—a major selling point if you host multiple websites.

VPS hosting plans start out with the basic $5.00 monthly package that offers root access and is available from 20GB of storage. The core VPS package starts at $32.99 a month and features 75GB of storage, a free cPanel dashboard, and full HostGuard management. If you need something more flexible, A2 Hosting’s Dedicated Server hosting offers Root Access and 2x500 GB Storage.

After testing the different plans offered by A2 Hosting, we find that while it offers several useful tools, the company’s basic plans are useful for beginners, or those who would rather not deal with more complex website development. However, if you need more control and flexibility, the higher tiers are more likely to suit you.

Ease of Use

One of the things that stood out to us was how easy to use A2 Hosting’s platform is. cPanel makes administrating your hosting straightforward, and the accessibility of the support team makes it easy to solve any issues.

We were happy to see 1-click integrations for Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal, and e-commerce integrations for Magento and OpenCart. If you prefer to be more hands-on in setting up your hosting, you can select your PHP version, access embedded analytics, and run quick Python scripts to add tools and features.

Load Times and Reliability

It’s always preferable to have high uptime, and while many hosting services promise 99.9% uptime, that still leaves a wide range of possibility. We tested A2 Hosting over several months to get a clear picture of how the hosting service held up in terms of the uptimes and loading times they guaranteed.

Overall, we were very pleased our results: on average; the service kept uptime to a commendable 99.98% and in some cases even reached 100%. Loading times were also impressive, especially for plans that included the Turbo feature. On average, load times were as responsive as promised, and nearly twice as fast as the industry standard.

Features

Though features necessarily vary according to price point, we found that each tier reliably delivered the features it advertised. If you already have a website, you can easily migrate it, and the unlimited bandwidth and storage mean you can design your website exactly how you want it. If you’re operating a business, you can also take advantage of up to 25 email addresses if you have a basic account, or unlimited with mid-range or premium accounts. You can also enhance your e-commerce site with SSL certificates and Magento and OpenCart 1-Click setups.

If you’re building a website from scratch, A2 Hosting gives you integrated Git Repository, as well as FTP accounts and integrations with Apache 2.4. Additionally, you can troubleshoot any problem with a quick restore from a previous backup.

Another important area A2 Hosting excels at is its security features, which include Perpetual Security, a feature that detects hacks around the clock. Additionally, your hosting includes automated patching, for WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.

Customer Support

If you have any issues or simply need an answer to a pressing question, A2 Hosting’s customer service team is available around the clock. We found most of our answers in the FAQ though their support lines were able to solve our more complex questions. You can reach the company via a ticket on their Customer portal, phone, email, live chat, Skype, and even Twitter.

Response times through all channels are quick, and it’s worth noting that the ticketing system helps you keep track of separate issues and when you logged a question, and that the phone number to contact the site is not toll-free. Overall, we were happy with how well the company’s support team responded to our issues.

A2 Hosting User Reviews

We focus on providing an overview of the company’s service with our A2 Hosting expert review. If you want to hear from other users exactly what the service is like, check out our A2 Hosting user reviews:

Conclusion

Overall, our A2 Hosting expert review found the platform provided an exceptional experience for novice and advanced users. Standout features like fast loading times, an intuitive interface and auto-installed Wordpress make it simple to set up and maintain a website. Our deep dive of the advanced developer features also left us satisfied. With over 170 integrations for key programming languages and add-ons, developers are able to fully customize their back-end to their exact liking.

No matter your level of technical expertise, A2 Hosting gives you reliable uptimes, flexible price points, and strong support. Although its Dedicated track is certainly pricier, most of the platform’s basic, mid-range, and premium offerings are competitively priced and give you great value for money.