A2 Hosting: Pricing and Types of Hosting
A2 Hosting covers the whole spectrum of web hosting needs, with multiple packages for the following hosting types:
Each item up there leads to the corresponding review section, so if you’re interested in a specific hosting type, click on it to get the details on what A2 Hosting has to offer.
A2 Hosting offers plans not just in the usual Linux flavor, but in Windows-powered versions as well. We talk more about those options in the Windows hosting section of this review.
A2 Hosting’s array of hosting plans can be overwhelming at first glance. Once you’ve given yourself time to take it all in, though, A2 Hosting’s first big plus point appears: you can easily upgrade (or downgrade!) your website’s hosting when needed. (If you’re wondering which hosting type will work best for you, check out our beginner’s guide!)
Combined with multiple plans per hosting type, that spells a good degree of flexibility for you.
22nd Place9.2 out of 10We cover A2 Hosting’s features in more depth below, so check out the next sections if you’d like to learn more about what you can expect from this web host. You’ll also find more detailed breakdowns of the prices and packages for each hosting type.
In the meantime, here’s a quick overview of A2 Hosting’s offers for each:
| Feature | Shared | Cloud | VPS | Dedicated | Reseller |
| Best For | Personal blogs, small online stores, small businesses | Developers; hobby programmers | Medium businesses; sites with heavy traffic or complex software | Enterprises; developers; high-traffic or high-load sites | Hosting businesses |
| Price Range | $9.99 – $24.99/mo | $15 – $99.99+/mo | $5 – $99.99+/mo | $18.99 – $349.99+/mo | $19.99 – $61.99+/mo |
| Available Plans | 3 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 4 |
| Storage Range | Unlimited | 10GB – 1TB HDD/ 200GB SSD | 20 – 150GB | 1 – 10TB | 30 – 200GB |
| Bandwidth Range | Unlimited | 2TB/mo, plus $0.12/extra 1GB | 2 – 4TB | 10 – 20TB | 400GB – 2TB |
| Memory (RAM) Range | 512MB – 2GB | 512MB – 16GB | 512MB – 8GB | 8 – 16GB | – |
| Windows Options? | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Root Access? | No | Yes | Depends on plan | Depends on plan | – |
| Free SSL | Yes | No | Depends on plan | Yes | Yes |
Are A2 Hosting’s plans worth it? Definitely.
At first glance, A2 Hosting’s prices skew higher than average. And it’s true, there are many web hosting providers that offer cheaper plans. But every A2 Hosting package, regardless of hosting type, includes tons of valuable features—many of which entail extra charges at other web hosting companies.
Add to that A2 Hosting’s exemplary performance across all types of hosting, and many of these plans almost start looking like total bargains. You can learn more when we discuss A2 Hosting’s hosting speeds and performance below. Suffice it to say that this web host’s claims of being “20x faster” than its competitors isn’t far off the mark. Considering how precious page speed and fast loading times are, A2 Hosting’s blistering speeds alone might be well worth your money.
A2 Hosting is also one of the few web hosting providers with monthly billing cycles. This is great if you’re unsure how long you’ll need the web hosting for, or if you’re hosting a short-term project, test site, or something similar. It also gives you more flexibility: should you decide to migrate to a different web host, for example, you won’t have to wait out a long contract term. Of course, A2 Hosting also offers longer billing cycles (1, 2, or 3 years) that include discounts and, consequently, lower monthly fees.
You Can Get Refunds Anytime at A2 Hosting
Many web hosting providers offer money-back guarantees for a limited period—usually a month or two counting from the day you sign up. A2 Hosting tries to set itself apart by getting rid of the refund “deadline” entirely.
You can get a full refund if you cancel within 30 days of signing up. Beyond that period, you’re still entitled to a prorated refund commensurate to the unused service you’ve got left on your account. Like most web hosting providers, though, A2 Hosting deducts the costs of domains, setup or migration, and SSL certificates from your refundable fees.
A2 Hosting Delivers Lightning-Fast Performance
Visit A2 Hosting’s website and you’ll be greeted by its biggest boast: Page loading speeds that are up to 20 times faster than other web hosts. Can A2 Hosting back this claim? Surprisingly, yes.
A2 Hosting’s average page loading times hover at around 390ms. How does this look on your visitors’ browsers? Snappy website loading and smooth, seamless transitions from one section to another, that’s how. This kind of blazing speed will place your site far above the industry average.
It’s clear that A2 Hosting pours a lot of effort and resources into sustaining these impressive speeds. For one thing, the company uses solid-state drives (SSD) for your site’s storage. Simply put, SSDs have none of the usual hard drive’s moving parts, so your website can handle thousands of operations, as well as juggle content and other website files, every second.
Higher-priced plans enjoy additional boosts courtesy of A2 Hosting’s free Turbo Server system. Custom page caching technology cuts down on the time needed to serve up your website’s pages. The accompanying A2 Optimized plugin does something similar for the applications that your website uses, translating to less server power used for site upkeep and more available to serve your actual website.
At the same time, A2 Hosting’s Turbo Server setup limits how many users share each server. This means more resources for you, so your website can handle higher loads without hiccups; plus, there’s less risk of getting your server resources hogged by someone else’s website.
A2 Hosting also lets you choose among its data centers. This ensures that your website is being served out of locations that are close to your target audience, reducing latency and lag. Your location choices are:
- Michigan, USA
- Arizona, USA
- Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Singapore
To top that all off, A2 Hosting also includes CloudFlare CDN with all plans, free of charge. (If you’re not sure how a CDN works, check out our beginner’s guide!) More advanced CloudFlare features and optimizations will require additional payments, but even the basic functionality of the free service goes a long way.
Can You Register or Transfer Domains at A2 Hosting?
A2 Hosting lets you buy and register new domains, as well as transfer any existing ones you might already own. Domain transfers and site migration are free. Unlike many web hosting providers, though, A2 Hosting doesn’t include a free domain with any of its plans. You’ll have to pay extra to get a custom website domain upon sign-up.
It’s a tad disappointing to have to buy a custom domain that you might have gotten free from a different provider. A2 Hosting seems to recognize that, because the company throws in some good features for free with every domain registration. DNS management services, for example, come free; the same goes for domain theft protection. WHOIS protection to keep your domain information and personal details private will cost extra, though.
A2 Hosting offers an extensive spread of top-level domains (e.g., .com, .net) for you to choose from. There are the usual suspects, which are available for $14.95:
- .com
- .net
- .org
- .info
- .biz
Aside from these, though, A2 Hosting can get you top-level domains ranging from .ac and .academy to .xyz and .zone. Bear in mind, though, that trendier or more niche-specific top-level domains (e.g., .io or .co) can cost $30 or more, depending on the specific top-level domain. Luckily, A2 Hosting provides a handy search bar that you can use to check if your intended domain is available and how much it will cost.
How Does Site Management Work at A2 Hosting?
A2 Hosting provides industry-standard control panel software for most customer accounts. Since A2 Hosting offers both Linux and Windows hosting, that means either cPanel or Plex. Users who opted for greater control over their server (through VPS or dedicated hosting plans) also get the SolusVM control panel, which grants you boot control and OS reloading options.
You get several benefits from cPanel and Plesk, which are the most commonly used control panels for Linux and Windows hosting, respectively. If you’re a beginner, you’ll have little trouble navigating these system’s clean, user-friendly interfaces. Both cPanel and Plesk streamline many of the operations involved in administering your site, so handling back-end tasks won’t be that overwhelming. The skills and knowledge you pick up while working with cPanel or Plesk are also more likely to help you even if you transfer web hosts, since these are such popular systems.
Experts get similar benefits, since what skills they might already possess can apply to A2 Hosting’s back-end controls with little fuss. A2 Hosting also supports several coding languages and protocols, such as:
- PHP/PHPng
- Perl
- Python 2.6/2.7/3.2
- Ruby, Rails
- Java
- Node.js
- ASP.NET
SSH access and FTP services are also standard (and free!) inclusions for all A2 Hosting plans, so you’ll have no problems managing your server.
What Apps and Software Can You Use at A2 Hosting?
A2 Hosting provides different 1-click software installers depending on your chosen hosting plan. You’ll get either the Softaculous installer or, on advanced hosting plans, the option to switch to the Webuzo installer. Take note that some VPS plans only get the basic Softaculous installer for free, so you’ll need to pay a few extra dollars to get access to the installer’s “premium” version which grants access to more apps.
Whether Softaculous or Webuzo, A2 Hosting’s included installers put hundreds of applications at your fingertips. These include popular and powerful software such as:
- Content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla
- Ecommerce platforms and shopping carts like Magento and PrestaShop
- Wiki systems like MediaWiki, Tiki Wiki, and DocuWiki
If you’re intent on building a website that caters to particular niches or purposes (like blogging, ecommerce, or an online presence for your small business), check out this review’s in-depth sections on what A2 Hosting can offer you:
Is Your Website Secure at A2 Hosting?
A2 Hosting goes above and beyond the typical web hosting package when it comes to website, account, and network security. At the heart of their security framework lies A2 Hosting’s “Perpetual Security” suite, billed as a bundle “proactive protection” measures to forestall or beat back security threats like hackers, viruses, and other malicious attacks.
Perpetual Security involves valuable features such as:
- HackScan protection
- Brute force attack defenses
- Dual firewalls
- Automatic daily kernel updates
- Virus scanning
- Server hardening
- “Auto-heal” web hosting protection
- Constant server monitoring
All of that comes free for all of A2 Hosting’s plans, from shared hosting all the way up to dedicated server hosting. Aside from Perpetual Security, plans for each web hosting type also come with other security measures suited to that particular hosting configuration, such as:
- Automatic software patching for shared hosting plans
- HostGuard Management services for VPS hosting plans
- Pre-installed CloudFlare firewalls for dedicated hosting plans
Aside from these, A2 Hosting also includes Server Rewind, an automatic file recovery and backup service, with most of their plans. Server Rewind entails regular automated snapshots of your website and account data, all of which you can access and restore through your account’s control panel.
Eligible A2 Hosting plans receive all these extra security and recovery measures for free (though it’s best to check which exact security features are included with the plan you’re eyeing). That’s incredible value, especially considering how crucial site security is—and how much other web hosting providers charge for similar services.
Wondering about SSL certificates? A2 Hosting gives all users free SSL certificates via Let’s Encrypt. There’s also support for premium, third-party SSL certificates, which work better for sites that need advanced SSL encryption (e.g., online stores). You can buy premium SSL certificates through A2 Hosting itself, which makes installation even easier. Choices include RapidSSL or various GlobalSign and Symantec single-site, wildcard, and advanced SSL certificates.
Does A2 Hosting Guarantee Good Uptime?
Yes. On average, A2 Hosting records actual uptimes of around 99.92% which is excellent for a web hosting provider. The company backs that up with a straightforward 99.9% uptime guarantee. You’ll receive service credit equal to 5% of your monthly fee for every hour of unscheduled downtime, to a maximum of the full monthly fee. Considering A2 Hosting’s solid uptime stats, you’ll have little reason to file a claim, but it’s a good safety net to have regardless.
A2 Hosting also claims full ownership over all its data centers. Consequently, the company guarantees redundant networks and server power supplies, plus airtight data center security. These measures ensure that their servers are as fail-proof as possible.
As for A2 Hosting’s networks, the company reports using multiple global network carriers, building redundancy into their connectivity framework. Simply put, even if several links in the A2 Hosting network go down, they have enough to pick up the slack and ensure uninterrupted connectivity.
Does A2 Hosting Provide Good Customer Support?
A2 Hosting’s customer support services boast an A grade from the Better Business Bureau, with over 80% of customers leaving positive feedback. And no wonder: most queries or support requests get answered within minutes.
A2 Hosting’s support staff take questions and support requests 24/7, every day of the week. You can reach them via phone, live chat, or support ticket. A2 Hosting even has different ticket streams depending on your question (i.e., if it’s related to Support, Sales, or Billing), which could help streamline ticket queues.
If you want to try your hand at DIY troubleshooting, or if you’d just like to bone up on your website development and management skills, A2 Hosting has tons of resources to offer, too. A2 Hosting’s Help Center organizes its resources well, grouping FAQs and tutorials under clear categories like cPanel, DNS, or Billing. Quick links to key topics like Magento setup or cPanel basics also save you time, though if your issues don’t fall under any of the common categories, a handy search bar right at the top of the page can help you out.
Shared Hosting at A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting has three shared hosting plans on offer. The cheapest plan has some disappointing restrictions on key resources (like how many websites you can have). Other than that, though, the main differences lie in whether your account has access to A2 Hosting’s more specialized performance-boosting features.
We’ve compiled the most vital differences between each plan here:
| Features | Lite | Swift | Turbo |
| Monthly Fee | $9.99 | $12.99 | $24.99 |
| Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Subdomains | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Parked Domains | 25 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Databases | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Email Addresses | 25 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| cPanel Control Panel | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Softaculous 1-Click Installer | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free SSL Certificate | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| A2 Accelerator System | No | No | Yes |
| Turbo Server | No | No | Yes |
| Perpetual Security | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Server Rewind | No | Yes | Yes |
| Apps LiteSpeed Cache | No | No | Yes |
Most of the core features discussed above are included in A2 Hosting’s shared hosting plans. In cases where a feature isn’t applied to all, such as the Turbo Server system, you can click the link to jump to the relevant section in this review so you can see what you might miss.
Not sure which shared hosting plan to pick? The Lite plan is a weak package overall, and it’s best to skip it if you can spare a few extra bucks. Swift and Turbo are both good choices, though make sure to go for the Turbo plan if you foresee your website receiving lots of traffic or holding tons of content/files in the near future.
Cloud Hosting at A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting provides 3 cloud hosting plans for you to choose from. The main selling point for these plans is the ability to customize their specifications to suit your needs. This makes A2 Hosting’s cloud hosting packages a good fit for developers or other users who need web hosting that can scale easily and quickly, with flexible prices to match.
The hallmark of A2 Hosting’s cloud hosting packages is the ability to configure resource allocations yourself. Because of this, prices aren’t fixed: your expected monthly fee will rise or fall according to how much storage, RAM, and/or processing power you select for your server.
That said, here’s a quick look at the “baseline” configurations for each plan:
| Feature | Start | Median | Ace |
| Base Monthly Fee | $15 | $20 | $25 |
| RAM | 512MB | 1GB | 1GB |
| Storage | 10GB HDD | 10GB HDD | 25GB HDD |
| Inbound Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Outbound Bandwidth | 2TB/mo | 2TB/mo | 2TB/mo |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| CPU Speed | 600MHz | 600MHz | 600MHz |
You can, of course, bump up those specifications as needed. One quirk to note is that A2 Hosting starts you with HDD storage by default, but you can opt for SSD storage ranging from 10GB to 200GB.
Here are the increments that A2 Hosting uses for each resource, how much you pay for each extra increment, and the maximum available values per resource:
| Resource | Increments | Additional Monthly Fee | Maximum Available Value |
| RAM | 512MB | $5 – $10 (above 2GB) | 16GB |
| CPU Cores | 2 Cores | $2 | 8 Cores |
| CPU Speed | 600 MHz | $5 | 2000 MHz |
| Storage | Different units | $5 – $50+ | 1TB HDD/200GB SSD |
You’ll also be able to choose the kind of Linux OS used with your cloud hosting server. Choices include:
- CentOS
- FreeBSD
- Fedora
- Ubuntu
VPS Hosting at A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting has 3 different categories of VPS hosting, each with 3 plans to choose from. That makes a total of 9 VPS hosting plans. To figure out which works best for your needs, it’s best to start by zeroing in on the VPS category that sounds like the best fit:
- Unmanaged VPS: Best for developers or tech-savvy users; barebones virtual server that you can customize as you like
- Managed VPS: More resources and capabilities than shared hosting; A2 Hosting takes care of maintenance, i.e., no root access
- Core VPS: All the perks of managed VPS, with root access
All of A2 Hosting’s VPS plans enjoy most of the core features we’ve discussed above, including blistering speeds, outstanding security features, and more. Where some features might not apply to a particular plan, we’ve noted them in the summary tables in this section.
As with the cloud hosting plans, A2 Hosting lets you configure each VPS’ specifications to meet your requirements. This means that VPS package prices can vary a lot depending on the resources you allocate for your server. Here, we’ve laid out the baseline packages, but remember that fees can easily skyrocket if you have large resource allocations.
Unmanaged VPS Hosting
| Features | Entry | Mid | Top |
| Base Monthly Fee | $5 | $10 | $15 |
| Storage | 20GB | 30GB | 50GB |
| Cores | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Bandwidth | 2TB | 2TB | 2TB |
| RAM | 512MB | 1GB | 1GB |
| Root Access? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Like the cloud hosting plans, you can choose from different flavors of Linux:
- CentOS
- Debian
- Fedora
- Slackware
- Ubuntu
- Gentoo
Control panels come separate, as do software installers like Softaculous or Webuzo. You can also pay additional fees to add Turbo Server or advanced caching services.
Managed VPS Hosting
| Features | Power+ | Prestige+ | Pinnacle+ |
| Base Monthly Fee | $60.99 | $90.99 | $115.99 |
| Storage | 75GB | 100GB | 150GB |
| Cores | 4 | 6 | 8 |
| Bandwidth | 2TB | 3TB | 4TB |
| RAM | 4GB | 6GB | 8GB |
| Free cPanel? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
A2 Hosting’s managed VPS hosting prices look pretty steep, but bear in mind that these enjoy full access to all of A2 Hosting’s premium features. That includes powerhouse performance-boosters like the Turbo Server system and advanced app-specific caching. Best yet, A2 Hosting will take care of all the virtual server upkeep and monitoring, so you don’t need to worry yourself much over the technical details of your website’s back-end.
Core VPS Hosting
These packages use the same exact configurations as A2 Hosting’s managed VPS hosting packages. They even cost the same per month. The only difference? You get root access to the virtual server, so you can make deep changes or customizations by hand if you like.
Dedicated Hosting at A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting offers four different levels of dedicated server hosting, each with 3 hosting plans to choose from. You’ll have a total of 12 dedicated hosting plans to choose from. As with the VPS hosting packages, the best way to navigate A2 Hosting’s dizzying array of choices is to start by choosing a dedicating hosting “service level”:
- Semi Dedicated Server: Combines the resources of dedicated hosting with the ease of shared hosting; lets you have a server all too yourself, without worrying about maintenance
- Unmanaged Flex Server: Best for developers, system administrators, or other highly technical users; barebones server, fully configurable and customizable
- Managed Flex Server: Best for high-demand websites, enterprise businesses, and resource-heavy projects owned by people who don’t want to deal with server maintenance; no root access
- Core Flex Server: All the perks of a managed server, with added root access
Semi Dedicated Server Hosting
This plan works best for users who don’t actually want to bother with configuring or maintaining a server, but want the power and reliability of having a server all to themselves. Website starting to rake in hundreds of visitors per month? Online store taking in a growing stream of regular customers? If you’re not tech-savvy, these are the upgrades you should go for.
You’ll enjoy all the features that come with A2 Hosting’s Turbo-tier shared hosting plan with the option to boost resources like RAM and storage for even more robust web hosting.
Consider these A2 Hosting’s Turbo shared hosting plan on steroids:
| Features | Power+ | Prestige+ | Pinnacle+ |
| Monthly Fee | $49.99 | $69.99 | $99.99 |
| RAM | 4GB | 6GB | 8GB |
| Storage | 75GB | 100GB | 150GB |
| Cores | 4 | 6 | 8 |
| Bandwidth | 2TB | 3TB | 4TB |
Unmanaged Flex Server Hosting
If you’re confident in your technical skills and need beast-level resources, these are the plans to take a look at. A2 Hosting’s unmanaged dedicated servers are best for developers handling large or resource-heavy projects, system administrators, and others of similar skill and technical requirements.
Here’s what you’ll get to choose from:
| Features | Sprint | Exceed | Mach |
| Monthly Fee | $119.99 | $199.99 | $299.99 |
| RAM | 8GB | 8GB | 16GB |
| Storage | 2x500GB | 2x500GB | 2x1TB |
| Cores | 2 | 4 | 8 or more |
| CPUs | Intel 3.1+ GHz | Intel Xeon 2.4+ GHz | 2xIntel Xeon 2.1+ GHz |
A2 Hosting’s dedicated servers aren’t as freely configurable as other web hosts’ offers, but you do have the option to upgrade storage or CPU allocations, depending on your chosen plan.
Managed Flex Server Hosting
A2 Hosting’s managed server plans will work best if you need to anchor your website on a powerful machine. If you’re running an enterprise-scale business, enjoy traffic in the thousands every month, or run heavy scripts or software as part of your website, these are A2 Hosting’s best answers for your needs. A2 Hosting takes care of all the server monitoring and upkeep, with the caveat that you don’t get root access to do your own customizations or tweaking.
There are three plans to choose from:
| Features | Sprint | Exceed | Mach |
| Monthly Fee | $199.99 | $279.99 | $379.99 |
| RAM | 8GB | 8GB | 16GB |
| Storage | 2x500GB | 2x500GB | 2x1TB |
| Bandwidth | 10TB | 15TB | 20TB |
| Cores | Intel 3.1+ GHz | Intel Xeon 2.4+ GHz | 2xIntel Xeon 2.1+ GHz |
These are baseline packages, so you can still bump up resources like RAM or storage space as needed.
A2 Hosting’s dedicated hosting plans are expensive compared to other web hosts’, especially if you consider that some providers offer beefier servers for the same, if not lower, prices. However, A2 Hosting does try to make up for that by bundling tons of premium services with their managed server packages.
The HostGuard Server Management bundle, which comes with every managed dedicated server, includes features like:
- Round-the-clock server monitoring, with instant notifications and A2 Hosting staff troubleshooting for hardware and network issues
- Automatic notifications of important server events like full filesystems or server load spikes
- Full boot and reboot controls
- Fast and timely server upgrades
- Priority support that bumps your tickets to the front of the queue
A2 Hosting includes all of its premium software and plugins with your dedicated server, too, so you’ll get perks like the Railgun Optimizer, premium Softaculous installer, and even a free domain reseller account, free of charge.
Core Flex Server Hosting
Like the counterpart Core plans for VPS hosting, the Core Dedicated Hosting plans are almost exactly the same as the managed server packages. In fact, they cost the same, and they include almost all the premium features you get from managed server hosting, including the convenient HostGuard Server Management bundle. The only big difference here is that you get root access to the server, too.
Reseller Hosting at A2 Hosting
If you’re aiming to set up a web hosting business of your own, A2 Hosting offers full-featured, white-label solutions that are worth a look. The great thing here is that A2 Hosting has both Linux and Windows reseller hosting packages, making it one of the few platforms that will let you work in the less-crowded Windows hosting niche if you’d like. White-label plans let you use your own branding, too, so you can build a name for your business.
There are 4 different plans to choose from:
| Features | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum |
| Monthly Fee | $29.99 | $34.99 | $44.99 | $69.99 |
| Storage | 30GB | 75GB | 150GB | 200GB |
| Bandwidth | 400GB | 600GB | 1TB | 2TB |
| User Accounts | 40 | 60 | 80 | 100 |
| Free SSL? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free eNom Domain Reseller Account? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free WHM Control Panel? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free WHMCS Billing License? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Premium WHMCS Billing License? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
You can divide the provided resources any way you want. However, A2 Hosting puts a solid cap on how many users you can have with each plan, which means a definite ceiling for your income. Of course, you can set prices as high as you like to make up for the volume cap, but in the hyper-competitive world of web hosting prices, you can’t ask too much if you want to reel in any customers. It’s best to keep this in mind when calculating your price points to see if A2 Hosting’s reseller plans are worth it.
A2 Hosting gives you a free WHMCS or Blesta license when you sign up, meaning you’ll have a ready billing solution for handling transactions. Premium versions of WHMCS are also available for a separate fee; if you want your custom branding to extend to your billing platform, you’ll have to buy one of these premium licenses.
You’ll also get the WebHost Manager (WHM) control panel for free. This lets you give each client a separate cPanel account, ensuring privacy and security for all of your customers.
WordPress Hosting at A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting can pre-install WordPress on any of its hosting plans, which means you can also scale up your resources easily as your website’s demands grow. Easy installation is just the first step, though—and the good news is that A2 Hosting has plenty of features to help you further along your WordPress hosting journey.
We’ve covered A2 Hosting’s exemplary performance setup, which already helps any kind of WordPress website. Speed is the name of the website-owning game, after all, and A2 Hosting delivers that at reasonable prices.
A2 Hosting does WordPress users one better, though, as it also offers specially designed caching plugins that will boost WordPress-powered websites’ performance. These come with the A2 Optimized caching suite, so if you’re dead-set on pushing your website’s speeds to the absolute maximum, be sure to select one of the higher-priced plans (for any of the hosting types), which include A2 Optimized for free.
A2 Hosting also offers various applications that can streamline your WordPress management experience, like ManageWP (a centralized WordPress dashboard) and WP Rocket (another speed optimization plugin designed for WordPress).
If you’d rather handle as little of the technical back-end details as possible, you can also look into A2 Hosting’s Managed WordPress plans. These are essentially turnkey WordPress hosting solutions: A2 Hosting sets everything up for you and handles all the busywork required to keep your website humming along nicely. You’ll get most of the A2 Hosting’s core premium features like the excellent Perpetual Security suite, plus WordPress-specific performance enhancements like the A2 Optimized site accelerator suite.
There are three Managed WordPress plans to choose from:
| Features | 1-Site | 3-Site | Unlimited |
| Monthly Fee | $32.59 | $55.04 | $83.61 |
| Websites | 1 | 3 | Unlimited |
| Storage | 10GB | 25GB | 40GB |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Free SSL? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| A2 Optimized Site Acceleration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CloudFlare Server Shield | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Are A2 Hosting’s Managed WordPress plans worth it? It depends.
There’s no denying that these plans are pretty pricey, especially compared to the DIY option. If you’re not averse to some elbow grease, A2 Hosting gives you the tools to rig up similarly impressive setups by yourself on one of their cheaper hosting plans.
However, these plans remain a good option for those who want full-throttle A2 Hosting performance at the click of a button. You can’t beat the convenience (and time savings!) of having everything optimized and ready for your website, after all. If you’re sure that you’ll build your website with WordPress and you’d rather not muddle through the technical tweaks needed to get top-notch performance, these A2 Hosting plans are an easy solution.
CMS Hosting at A2 Hosting
WordPress isn’t the only CMS around. How do systems like Drupal and Joomla fare at A2 Hosting? Pretty good too, actually.
Like WordPress, many of these CMS can be pre-installed on any of A2 Hosting’s available plans; if you opt otherwise, you can still install your CMS of choice with the included 1-click installers.
You’ll enjoy the benefits of most of A2 Hosting’s excellent core features. This means blazing-fast page speeds and outstanding security, as well as the flexibility to upgrade to more powerful hosting when your site grows too big for your current plan.
There are no system-specific caching plugins built for non-WordPress CMS here, but that’s not much of a loss considering how good A2 Hosting’s core setup already is.
Windows Hosting at A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting offers shared, VPS, and reseller Windows hosting. You’d be surprised how few web hosts offer comprehensive Windows hosting choices, so A2 Hosting’s range of options here is a welcome and refreshing exemption.
When it comes to the details of A2 Hosting’s Windows packages, there aren’t a lot of differences from their Linux counterparts. The most obvious change: instead of cPanel for your control panel interface, you’ll get the popular Plesk control panel instead. Other than that, you’ll mostly see higher prices.
Windows Shared Hosting
Here are the prices for Windows shared hosting plans:
| Plan | Monthly Fee |
| Lite | $12.99 |
| Swift | $14.99 |
| Turbo | $24.99 |
Windows VPS Hosting
When it comes to VPS hosting, you can only get one of the three managed VPS packages. These carry many of the same features as their Linux counterparts, with some changes specifically to support Windows servers. Here are some of the most important Windows features:
- OS: Windows Server 2012 R2 or 2019
- Control Panel: Plesk Onyx 12.5 & IIS 8.5 or Plesk Onyx 17.x & IIS 10
- Support for Classic ASP; ASP.NET 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x; and .NET Core 2.0
- MSSQL support
- PHP 5.6, 7.0, 7.1, or 7.2 support
Here are the prices for Windows managed VPS hosting plans:
| Plan | Monthly Fee |
| Power+ | $65.99 |
| Prestige+ | $95.99 |
| Pinnacle+ | $120.99 |
Windows Reseller Hosting
For reseller hosting, the same approach applies. You’ll get the same features and capabilities as the Linux-flavored plans, with some software changes (like Plesk control panel rather than WHM/cPanel) to suit the Windows OS.
Here are the prices for Windows reseller hosting plans:
| Plan | Monthly Fee |
| Bronze | $31.99 |
| Silver | $36.99 |
| Gold | $46.99 |
| Platinum | $71.99 |
Ecommerce Hosting at A2 Hosting
At A2 Hosting, the ecommerce hosting packages aren’t entirely new variants. Instead, they’re the standard hosting plans with some key ecommerce-specific features built in.
At the top of the list are the platform-specific performance enhancements that boost your online store’s performance and responsiveness. Whether you’re using Magento, PrestaShop, or WooCommerce, there’s a custom LiteSpeed cache plugin that you can bolt onto your hosting plan.
For Magento in particular, A2 Hosting also offers a whole Magento optimization suite that includes features such as:
- Cron optimization
- Gzip compression
- Disabling logging
- CSS and JavaScript merging
You’ll also get instant Merchant ID activation from e-onlinedata, which helps power A2 Hosting’s credit card processing and payment gateway support. This means easy setup for your merchant account, including your payment and transaction handling system. A2 Hosting extends this integration to PayPal Merchant Accounts too.
All of A2 Hosting’s accounts get free SSL certificates, though you’re better off purchasing a premium SSL certificate to boost your online store’s security and trustworthiness.
Finally, all of A2 Hosting’s plans get free marketing credits that can give you a head start on promoting your new store. You can get:
- $100 of Bing/Yahoo ad credits
- Attracta SEO Tools that help you secure immediate search engine listings, XML sitemaps, etc.
- A free trial of the iContact email marketing software
Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) at A2 Hosting
Like ecommerce, building an online presence for your small or medium business requires a web host that can fulfill vital needs like:
- Snappy website performance
- Support for merchant tools
- Support for marketing and SEO tools
A2 Hosting’s various hosting plans pack tons of features that answer those needs. The variety of available hosting types bodes well for your business, since you can easily scale up resources and features as your website grows. You could start out on a shared plan, for example, and jump seamlessly to a managed VPS hosting plan once you start pulling in hundreds of visitors a day.
As we pointed out in the ecommerce section, A2 Hosting gives you a little starting push when it comes to marketing. Free ad credits and SEO tools can go a long way, especially if you’re starting from scratch.
A2 Hosting’s integrated support for various enterprise-related tools like payment gateways and transaction processing systems is also a welcome feature. If you want to process orders or take payments via your website, you can easily find tools for that.
The inclusion of 1-click installers like Softaculous for most of A2 Hosting’s plans will help you a lot, too. If your cPanel dashboard doesn’t have what you’re looking for, Softaculous’ array of 400+ apps will certainly have something to help you. Whether that’s a dedicated ecommerce platform like Magento or other apps like booking/reservation systems, event calendars, and more, Softaculous has apps for you to choose from.
A2 Hosting’s excellent performance and security make a compelling case for choosing them to host your business website. We’re inclined to agree, considering the considerable effort that the company expends to ensure top-notch speed and airtight security.
Finally, A2 Hosting’s great customer support is a big plus, too. If you’re running a business, it’s in your best interests to minimize the time you spend troubleshooting your website. The bulk of customer feedback on A2 Hosting indicates speedy, helpful responses and quick issue resolution, which means fewer headaches for you.
What's the Verdict on A2 Hosting?
Should You Host Your Website at A2 Hosting?
Yes. All things considered, A2 Hosting is an excellent web hosting provider. The company delivers where it counts, with great uptime, impressive speed and performance, extensive security, and responsive customer support.
Its cheapest hosting plan is a weak offering that you’re better of skipping, but the rest of A2 Hosting’s plans deliver great value for money. Of course, A2 Hosting does ask for a bit more money than many of its competitors, but you do get what you pay for. With a money-back guarantee that ditches the usual expiry period, though, A2 Hosting is a safer bet than most. Give it a try today!
No Comments... Yet!