A2 Hosting is an skilled supplier with merchandise for almost each web hosting want: shared hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS, cloud hosting, dedicated servers, reseller hosting and extra.
The firm has a robust concentrate on efficiency, with web site speak of ‘blazing quick internet searching’ and ‘20x instances quicker’ ‘Turbo Servers’, however it additionally has loads of different options on provide.
Shared internet hosting start with the Startup plan. Baseline internet hosting merchandise typically have some main restrictions, however the limits listed below are comparatively minor: 100GB storage, 5 databases and help for a single web site, no downside in any respect for a lot of customers. And the remainder of the plan is severely spectacular, with options together with limitless bandwidth, free SSL, limitless e-mail accounts, fundamental Cloudflare integration, cPanel, a alternative of 4 information facilities (Michigan, Arizona, Amsterdam, Singapore), a template-based web site builder, 1-click set up of WordPress and a whole bunch of different apps by way of Softaculous, and 24/7 help by way of cellphone, ticket and reside chat.
Prices look nice at a headline $2.99 a month, however that is attributable to steep introductory discounting and a three-year time period – on renewal the prices leaps to $8.99.
If you favor a shorter time period, the Startup plan is $10.99 billed month-to-month, or $6.99 a month for the primary time period of the annual plan, rising to $8.99 on renewal.
A2’s Drive plan hosts limitless web sites and removes all different limits from $4.99 a month on the three-year plan, $11.99 on renewal (that is $8.99 initially, . $11.99 on renewal for the annual plan.) It additionally doubles your allotted cores and bodily reminiscence; probably a significant velocity enhance for heavy-duty websites. Backups are included, too (they’re typically a rechargeable additional elsewhere).
The top-of-the-range Turbo Boost and Turbo Max plans get you speedy NVMe storage, optimized servers (Turbo Cache, APC/OPcache, Memcached) with fewer customers, additional assets (extra CPU cores, bodily and digital reminiscence) and diverse additional optimizations, together with help for HTTP/2, SPDY, ESI and Cloudflare’s Railgun, together with a customized WordPress LiteVelocity cache setup.
Prices vary from an preliminary $9.99 a month over three years, to $24.99 on renewal, relying on the plan you select (a detailed comparison table on the web site explains precisely what you get in every case.)
We’re not sure whether or not the assorted Turbo extras provides you with ‘20x quicker’ speeds total, however they need to make a significant distinction for a lot of websites, and it is extra energy than you get with many shared internet hosting plans.
The firm claims to supply ‘ultra-reliable’ internet hosting, with a 99.9% uptime ‘dedication’. That’s not fairly the identical as a assure or SLA, and you do not get credit if uptime is decrease, however having a determine is a begin.
If you join however the service does not give you the results you want, A2 affords a 30-day ‘Anytime Money Back Guarantee’. You can cancel after that and obtain a prorated refund, too, for instance cancelling after three months and obtain some a reimbursement. There are some potential catches in how that is calculated (read the small print here) however it’s nonetheless a welcome additional contact.
Overall, A2 Hosting’s shared vary is cheaper than many, and there are some uncommon pluses in its alternative of knowledge facilities and the performance-boosting extras within the Turbo plan.
If you do not want A2 Hosting’s extras, although, you may be capable of lower your expenses elsewhere.
For instance, HostGator’s finances Hatchling plan delivers fractionally greater than A2’s Lite (no limits on e-mail accounts or databases). The headline three-year worth is simply fractionally decrease than A2 ($2.75 vs $2.99), however the HostGator plan is $2.04 cheaper on renewal. Savings improve as you progress up the HostGator vary.
WordPress internet hosting
A2 Hosting’s shared internet hosting plans make it moderately simple to construct or import a WordPress web site. The firm affords a free web site migration service, skilled customers can do it themselves by way of database instruments and the File Manager, and the bundled Softaculous platform permits putting in WordPress inside minutes.
A2 additionally affords a variety of managed WordPress plans with some helpful extras.
The service routinely updates each WordPress and your plugins, for example.
Site Staging help permits customers to create and work on a replica of their web site, permitting them to edit themes, attempt plugins or make different main modifications with none danger to their manufacturing web site.
A bundled Jetpack Personal license helps simple automated backups of your WordPress web site, and throws in a number of different instruments: an infinite picture CDN, brute power safety, spam filtering, web site stats and a whole bunch of free WordPress templates.
There’s an additional bonus for WordPress geeks in WP-CLI, an expert-level instrument which permits managing WordPress from the command line.
Once you look previous the steep preliminary discounting, pricing is simply common. The single web site, 10GB storage plan begins at $11.99 a month on the three-year plan, rising to $24.46 on renewal.
IONOS managed WordPress Pro ONE plan additionally has solely 10GB storage and helps a single web site, however it’s primarily based on a succesful cloud platform, with staging, every day backups and sensible website hosting. It’s priced at $18 billed month-to-month (no must pay for years of internet hosting up entrance.)
Bluehost has Managed WordPress plans that help internet hosting limitless web sites and throw in malware detection, area privateness, Jetpack Site Analytics and diverse different business-friendly options. They’re priced from an affordable $19.95 a month for the primary three years, rising to $29.99 on renewal.
Servers
If your internet venture wants extra energy than common shared internet hosting, A2’s vary of VPS and devoted merchandise may enchantment.
These server plans rating for his or her excessive configurability.
For instance, A2’s VPS vary is available in Unmanaged (you deal with the whole lot your self), Managed (extra energy and help) and Core (managed with root entry, the perfect of each worlds) flavors.
Choose the Unmanaged choice and also you’re capable of construct your personal plan by deciding on your most well-liked quantity of disk area (20GB-250GB), CPU cores (1-12), RAM (512MB to 32GB) and bandwidth (2TB-9TB).
Oh, and also you’re additionally ready to decide on an working system (Linux distro solely, no Windows) and information middle (US, Europe, Asia), in addition to optionally including a cPanel license and a caching setup (LiteVelocity.)
There are too many combos to checklist all of them right here, however the vary begins at $5 a month (two yr plan) for an unmanaged 512MB RAM, 20GB storage, 1 core and 2TB bandwidth plan, and ends with a $50 a month (two years once more, $100 on renewal) Core managed plan delivering 8GB RAM, 150GB storage, 8 core and 4TB bandwidth.
Dedicated merchandise comply with the identical Unmanaged, Managed and Core sample, and begin at $99.59 a month on the annual plan ($119.99 on renewal) for an 8GB RAM, 2 x 500GB storage, 10TB switch and a couple of core setup.
These plans these costs are honest worth, however there isn’t any single comparability we are able to make to let you know in the event that they’re best for you. This is determined by the mixture and the precedence of the assorted options you want.
If you are fascinated about a VPS plan, for example, take the time to consider simply how a lot bandwidth, cupboard space and RAM you actually need, then examine A2’s choices with among the high competitors (Hostwinds additionally has a really configurable VPS vary, making it an important place to begin.)
Account setup
A2 Hosting’s plans have a great deal of options, and understandably the web site does its finest to boast about each single one. Each package deal is laid out facet by facet beneath the ‘Compare’ tab, making it simple so that you can see which options are included for the totally different tiers.
Once you’ve got made your alternative, the web site asks for the area you want to make use of. You’re capable of register one thing new, switch a site to A2, or use an current area and replace your nameservers. There’s additionally a handy choice to make use of an A2 Hosting subdomain (yourname.a2hosted.com), which lets you postpone any area selections till later.
A configuration web page permits selecting your information server location (US, Europe, Asia).
Optional extras embody offsite backups from $1.99 a month for 5GB, and Barracuda’s Spam Firewall from $3 a month for a single area (you are capable of cowl limitless domains for $10.)
An ‘auto-install’ choice permits selecting an utility to be routinely put in in your account (WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, PrestaShop, WooCommerce and greater than 30 others can be found.) This is not strictly obligatory – your account already comes with Softaculous, permitting you to put in these and a whole bunch of different apps – however it does make life a bit of simpler.
The subsequent web page requested for our contact and fee particulars. A2 helps fee by way of playing cards, PayPal, Skrill or financial institution transfers. We selected a one-off PayPal quantity (you will not be signed up for a subscription until you ask for that) and processed it as regular.
Creating a web site
A2 Hosting’s internet consumer dashboard is powered by WHMCS, the usual portal system utilized by many different internet hosts.
WHMCS is not fairly or notably intuitive, however there’s not a lot to study. You’ll discover your internet hosting plan within the Services space; there are sections for Domains, Tickets and Invoices; a ‘Connection Details’ panel provides you all of the technical information you want (nameservers, incoming and outgoing mail server names, management panel hyperlinks, usernames and passwords, and extra), and a mass of cPanel web site administration instruments are solely a click on away.
A2’s cPanel setup consists of Softaculous, a well-designed platform which permits the simple set up of WordPress, MediaWiki and a whole bunch of different internet apps.
A File Manager permits you to add a static web site (or anything) to your web site, and work with any information which can be already there.
A2’s free drag-and-drop Sitebuilder may be very easy, with a handful of templates, and solely permits creating single-page websites. But it has an honest variety of widgets – galleries, slideshows, maps, normal and customized types, YouTube and audio content material, fundamental social integration, extra – and is simple sufficient to make use of. (Check out the plans for the full commercial version here.)
There are not any actual surprises right here, however it’s nonetheless a succesful set of instruments, with the whole lot you are prone to want when organising and managing your web site.
Performance
A2 Hosting claims its merchandise provide nice efficiency, however web site guarantees do not at all times imply very a lot. We bought A2’s Lite plan, put a easy static web site on-line, and used Uptime.com to observe our web site availability at five-minute intervals over 7 days.
The web site had 100% uptime, as we might count on for a comparatively quick testing interval. Uptime.com nonetheless checked our web site greater than 2,000 instances, although, so it is good to see it was at all times obtainable.
Average response instances had been quicker than many rivals at 267ms (typical starter shared internet hosting plans handle 200-400ms.)
The outcomes did not rating fairly as properly for consistency – the slowest response time was 747ms, and the chart reveals quite a lot of vital spikes – however once more, it nonetheless carried out higher than a lot of the competitors.
Keep in thoughts that we had been testing A2’s least expensive account, too, with its default settings, so that is the very slowest it is prone to be. Optimizing the CDN, updating our account to get extra assets or A2’s ‘Turbo Features’ may ship very totally different outcomes.
(Other suppliers additionally give higher outcomes when you select their high-end merchandise, in fact. Don’t learn an excessive amount of into these figures when you’re searching for a VPS, a devoted server or any extra highly effective product; particular person hosts and plans could carry out very otherwise.)
Final verdict
A2 Hosting’s shared plans aren’t fairly the most affordable we have seen, however you do get loads on your cash, and skilled customers will admire the corporate’s many performance-optimizing options and tweaks.
