A2 Hosting provides Shared, Reseller, Virtual Private Server (VPS) and Dedicated Server Hosting Solutions.
A2 Hosting is a Linux based, developer friendly web hosting company that started up in early 2003. Over a decade a later, A2 Hosting not only offers shared web hosting services to personal and business clients, but offers a wide range of other hosting services: reseller hosting, VPS hosting, managed VPS hosting and dedicated servers. A2 Hosting is considered a developer friendly host because they have the latest and most up to date version of every single scripting language, database platform, server software, version control, framework, etc. Whether you need PHP, Perl, Ruby, PostgreSQL, Tomcat, CakePHP or SQLite; they have all the latest versions available. Throughout this A2Hosting review, we will be looking into the various hosting services they offer.
Shared Hosting Features
A2 Hosting offers three shared hosting plans which includes unmetered Solid State Drive (SSD) space and bandwidth. All three plans include unlimited add-on domains, email accounts, and databases except for the Lite plan. All shared plans are managed through cPanel, which comes with Softaculous. For those who aren’t aware, Softaculous is an easy script installation platform that includes nearly one hundred popular website scripts (WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, phpBB, Magento and many more). Whether you want to open your own online store, create a forum, or start a blog, the Softaculous platform has all the scripts you need to make it happen. All shared hosting plans come with free regular backups as well, making it a very reliable hosting experience for customers. Additionally, you not only get support for just the hosting service, but for every language, database and framework possible as well.
A2 Hosting launched it’s Turbo hosting plan in late 2014. Their Turbo servers have all of the benefits of the Lite and Swift plans plus it provides a “drop-in Apache replacement” that loads pages up to 20X faster when compared to standard hosting. SwiftCache powered by APC improves performance of PHP applications.
“SwiftCache APC can significantly increase the speed of your PHP applications; up to 20X faster when you choose our Turbo Hosting product.
Unlike other hosts who do not allow APC use on their Web Hosting accounts, A2 Hosting Turbo customers experience these significant speed advantages.” – A2 Hosting
Reseller Hosting Features
When you are going to be managing your own web hosting company, it is crucial that you have a strong foundation to base your services on. With A2 Hosting’s reseller plan, you will be getting a highly reliable reseller service which you can use to profit from. The basic reseller plan from A2 Hosting offers you 60GB space storage and 600GB data transfer with the option to host unlimited domains, unlimited accounts and unlimited emails. You will be able to manage your hosting clients through WHM. All A2 Hosting servers get backed up overnight, leaving you free from any sort of headache. These backups are highly convenient for both personal and business websites. The best part is that all this is completely free for you and your clients.
VPS Hosting Features
As a developer, you may not always have the time to manage your VPS servers and its one of the reasons why A2 Hosting offers fully managed VPS hosting services. The prices for these servers are quite reasonable considering the amount of server resources you are getting. The first tier VPS hosting plan at A2 Hosting gives you 4GB of RAM, 75GB SSD storage and 2,000GB bandwidth for only $49.99/month ($32.99/month after discount). All VPS clients receive two free dedicated IP address and shutdowns or reboots controls. Since a VPS server is not affiliated with any other account on the same server, you are free to add new software, provided that it is compatible. If you wish, you could also design your own custom virtual private server pertaining to your own resource needs with an unmanaged VPS plan. Whether you are looking for a storage intensive plan or memory intensive VPS, A2 Hosting has everything to meet your needs.
Dedicated Server Hosting Features
A2 Hosting offers two types of dedicated server hosting plans, as one of them is fully managed while the other is not. The Flex Dedicated Server is best for people who have some background knowledge in server management and administration. If you have absolutely no clue as to how servers work, then it is a very good idea to resort to the Managed Flex Dedicated server. If you want to configure your own server, you should choose the unmanaged server solution. However, many people today, choose the managed flex dedicated server as it comes preconfigured, loaded with cPanel and is available for a managed VPS upgrade. Prices are obviously more than what you would expect for VPS servers, but they are still quite reasonable.
A2 Hosting Support
A2 Hosting has a qualified team that is exceptionally knowledgeable about the complete array of services the company offers. Most people would expect to only get support for the basic web hosting features that come with your account, but A2 Hosting delivers much more than that. A2Hosting’s support team gets down into the meat of the issue, regardless of whether you are having trouble with scripting languages or the overall framework. The support team is available around the clock and can be reached by live chat, a toll free number or by email/ticket. Some people who are a little more social media oriented choose to communicate their some of there questions through Twitter and Facebook. The online knowledgebase section on A2 Hosting should also give you some answers to the most frequently occurring problems.
Reliability and Uptime
One of the most important things people consider when choosing a hosting company is the level of uptime they can expect to receive. Even though a company claims to offer the best reliability and performance in the industry, it does not always mean that it is what they offer. You need to see what the company is achieving in terms of overall uptime, before you actually give them your business.
My Uptime With A2 Hosting
My uptime report shows 100% uptime. 2457 hrs and 45 mins of uptime since I first started tracking uptime with the help of UptimeRobot.com.
A2 Hosting Loading Speed
This site uses a pretty hefty WordPress theme and a couple dozen plugins, which can have a negative impact on how fast a WordPress site loads. Here’s a screenshot of our speed test results. We are hosted on A2 Hosting’s Swift plan (pure SSD hosting).
Load time 748 milliseconds, faster than 94% of all tested websites.
Value for Money
A2 Hosting’s shared hosting plans offer you a great deal when you commit to a three year contract with them. The three year contract price while using the highest coupon code available is only $3.92/month for the Lite plan, $4.90/month for the Swift plan, and $9.31/month for the Turbo plan. A2 Hosting has an anytime money back guarantee. If you decide to cancel within the first 30 days you’ll get a full refund for your hosting plan. Anytime after the first 30 days you would get a pro-rated refund for unused service. A2 Hosting is well worth the prices they charge for the reliability, speed/performance, and piece of mind you get with their web hosting.
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