A2 Hosting Reviews

In your search for a reliable website hosting provider, you may come across some of the more well-known hosting brands out there. Reading through user A2 Hosting reviews, you will quickly find out that this particular company is often considered to be one of the more-niche providers.

Admittedly, A2 Hosting truly isn’t a well-known brand - more often than not, it gets overshadowed by providers such as Hostinger or HostGator. That being said, though, this doesn’t mean that A2 doesn’t have its own unique features to bring to the table!

In this A2 web hosting review, we’ll analyze all of the main features and benefits offered by the hosting provider in question, while also discussing some of the more-prominent cons and complaints that users of the service may have. I’ll also let you know about my own, personal experiences with A2, too!

TL;DR: User A2 Hosting reviews will tell you that A2 is probably one of the fastest hosting providers on the current market - that’s true! The company’s servers offer very fast site loading speeds, and the uptime that you can expect with this hosting company is up-to-par, too. While there is a lack of some specific features, most of the feedback that the brand receives does appear to be quite positive!

A2 Hosting Reviews: PROS

Now, then - as mentioned at the beginning of the article, while the hosting provider in question might not be the most popular option around, there are still plenty of user A2 Hosting reviews online that talk about the benefits that you can expect to receive whilst using its hosting services.

To keep things concise and orderly, let’s begin our review by discussing some of the main of these benefits. Naturally, it’s probably worth addressing the elephant in the room first - site speed.

Amazing Site Speed Statistics

Whenever you’re looking for the best web hosting service on the market, you will quickly notice that there are basically two huge features that are always mentioned as the core aspects that each and every high-end provider should possess - uptime and site speed. We’ll discuss the former very soon - now, let’s focus on the latter.

Site speed is a metric that measures just how fast your website will load when a visitor comes and accesses it. While there are a few ways to measure this, most of the time, you’ll want to concentrate on the time that it takes to load the entire page completely, so that it would become fully interactable.

Now, why is site seed so important, in the first place?

Well, think about it this way - around 79% of online shoppers who experience a slow-loading website state that they wouldn't come back to that particular online store again^[1]. In other words, 4 out of 5 people would not bother visiting your site again, if they find that it’s laggy or loads too slow for their comfort.

Comfort is exactly where it’s at here, too. Nowadays, people are very used to super-fast website loading speeds - internet users expect to be able to use the site almost instantly after accessing it, and any amount of waiting time will steadily decrease their interest and make most individuals annoyed.

To add insult to injury, some user A2 Hosting reviews will tell you that site speed is equally as important to Google and other search engines, too. Think of it through the lens of SEO - if your website isn’t optimized to load super-quick, Google will see that users are leaving it right upon entering, and will thus rank your website lower in its search results.

So - it’s pretty obvious that the speed at which your website loads is an absolutely crucial factor to consider when searching for the best website hosting service in the current market. And, as you’ve probably gathered already, user A2 Hosting reviews express very positive sentiments in this regard.

I’ve taken the liberty of testing a website that’s hosted with A2 Hosting on Google’s PageSpeed Insights. Here are the results that I’ve received:

The website took 800ms to load completely. That’s actually amazing! You see, I’ve specifically chosen a website that isn’t very well-optimized, on the user’s end of things, and lacks some proper adjustments in order to make it load even faster.

The fact that A2 still manages to create such amazing loading speed results is truly telling! Reading through other user A2 Hosting reviews, you might find that the site loading speeds can actually go down as low as 300ms - definitely something to keep in mind and consider!

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Great Uptime Track Record (99,96%)

As mentioned earlier, multiple user A2 Hosting reviews will stress the fact that, apart from site speed, uptime is the core statistic that should guide your judgement, as far as choosing the best hosting service is concerned.

What is uptime, though, and what makes it so important?

As the term itself may imply, uptime is a point of measurement that’s used to determine how long your website is going to be available during a certain set period of time. This, in of itself, should already tell you why uptime is as important as it is.

Think of it this way - if your hosting provider fails in providing some top-tier uptime statistics, your website will be down and unreachable for extended periods of time. In a situation like this, nothing else matters, now does it? Not even site speed can be the saving grace here - who cares if your site loads in 100ms, if it’s simply unavailable, in the first place?

Keeping this in mind, it’s worth mentioning that, simply due to this fact alone, there’s a certain industry standard in place - if a hosting service fails to meet it, it’s not even worth looking into, really.

Multiple user A2 Hosting reviews will tell you that A2 doesn’t only meet the standard and surpass it, but also offers a certain uptime guarantee, too!

A2 guarantees that your uptime won’t go down lower than 99,9% (the aforementioned industry standard), throughout a set period of time. At the time of writing this A2 web hosting service review, it would seem that the uptime that’s maintained by A2 lingers at around 99,96%.

That’s really good! Using our uptime checker tool, you can see what this means, downtime-wise:

With a daily downtime of approximately 35 seconds, an uptime stat like this places A2 among the best-performing hosting services of the year! That’s surely worth recognizing, and combined with the incredible site speed statistics discussed above, this definitely makes a great feature combo!

WordPress and A2 Website Builder

While different people are going to have very different preferences as far as hosting services are concerned (this is evident by simply taking a look at some user A2 web hosting reviews), there is one thing that unites them all - website creation. No matter what feature you yourself prefer, you are still looking for web hosting services in order to host a site that you’d like to create, right?

This is actually an important point to consider, too. Visiting some hosting sites on the web, you might be able to notice a very conscious effort to try and offer potential users features that would make their site creation process as simple and enjoyable as possible.

Truth be told, A2 Hosting isn’t all that different in this regard, either.

Choosing  A2 as your hosting service of preference, you will be given the chance to create your website with either a built-in website builder that the company offers, or WordPress - the world’s most-popular content management system.

When it comes to the website builder, this is an option for those individuals who might be interested in creating their first website, and have no prior experience with site creation and management, whatsoever. The builder has drag-and-drop functionality, pretty and modern templates, and is considered to be quite decent to use!

In regards to WordPress, though, this is a higher-complexity-higher-reward option. WP will allow you to create any type of website that you’d like - it’s still the most-used site creation tool on the entire internet!

That said, WordPress can, admittedly, be a bit challenging to get a hold of, if you’re just starting out - it’s not as intuitive as your modern website builder, and there’s going to be coding involved, if you want to get the most out of it.

Still, though - the fact that A2 offers users the chance to use both a website builder and WordPress is actually awesome! You will be able to pick the option that’s best for you, and there are specific shared hosting plans no matter which you’d pick.

Free Site Migration

Sadly, this is actually a feature that doesn’t get mentioned among user A2 Hosting reviews all that often, when compared to some others that we’ve already discussed in this article. However, I would argue that it’s actually very significant!

A2 Hosting allows you to migrate a set number of websites (depending on the hosting plan of your choice) for free. What this means is that you will be able to transfer your already-existing website from another hosting provider to A2, and get help setting it all up so that the transition would be seamless. All free of charge!

This, in turn, opens up a lot of doors for anyone who might have already created a site somewhere else, but isn’t satisfied with the quality of service that they are receiving and would like to migrate to A2.

The fact that you can do it free of charge is the highlight here, though. As interesting as it may be, you wouldn’t actually believe the number of high-end hosting providers that don’t really offer their users free site migration - while a service like that is available, you would have to pay a one-time fee for it, rather often.

Not the case with A2, though! The company in question allows you to migrate your site, completely free of charge, and will also help you with setting things up, too!

Helpful Customer Support

Truth be told, reading through user A2 Hosting reviews, this does appear to be another feature that is often underrated. Having said that, though, it’s also a bit of a polarizing topic, depending on who it is that you ask. Worry not, since we’ll cover both sides of the matter.

Proper customer support is a very important feature of any web hosting provider out there, and A2 Hosting support is no different in this regard. This aspect alone can tell you quite a bit about the company behind the service, and also about the service itself.

How so? Well, if a hosting provider possesses knowledgeable and helpful customer service, you can rest assured that the company is run by professionals, and that they care about the quality of their services, whether it be hosting, customer support, or else.

On the flip side, though, if you seek out A2 Hosting support and learn that the agents know literally nothing about the company that they work for, or even web hosting, in general, that would probably leave a really bitter taste in your mouth - as it should!

Thankfully, though, it’s also not something to worry about, in regards to A2. The majority of user A2 Hosting reviews that do talk about the customer support side of the company note that the support team is very helpful and patient.

That’s valuable! It allows you to rest assured that, if something were to happen (some sort of an unexpected issue would occur, or anything else of the like), you could always contact the A2 Hosting support team, and be able to get your issue solved.

Free SSL Certificate and Unlimited Email Accounts

While various additional features are great, there are things that people do, admittedly, look into a bit more than others. SSL certificates are one such thing.

An SSL certificate is one of the core layers of security of any website out there. These certificates act as a tool for connection security - they prevent data leaks from happening, and safeguard the site visitors’ information. Namely, the information that the visitors would type into the site (i.e. bank information, passwords, email, phone number, etc.).

As you can probably tell, obviously, SSLs are considered to be essential - if a visitor comes to your website, and notices that it’s missing an SSL certificate, they are most likely going to leave and never return.

Many hosting providers out there do, in fact, offer their clients free SSL certificates. However, there are also plenty of companies that do not, or offer them as an addition to some of the more-advanced plans.

User A2 Hosting reviews, however, will tell you that this is not the case with the brand in question. A2 provides all of its users with free SSL certificates, no matter which plan it is that you pick.

That’s awesome! However, as far as cool features are concerned, that’s not it, either - there are also unlimited email accounts available, too.

If you’re planning to work with other people (i.e. employees), or are simply interested in turning your website into a business, this is very notable! Most web hosting platforms tend to either lock domain-based email accounts under a paywall, or offer a single email with their initial plan.

Yet again, that’s not the case with A2. This particular company offers unlimited email accounts, right with their initial, beginner-oriented plan. Awesome!

A2 Hosting Reviews: CONS

Now that we’ve covered some of the most prominent benefits mentioned in the majority of user A2 Hosting reviews, let’s take a turn and discuss the shortcomings of the hosting service provider in question.

Since I've mentioned earlier that customer support is a bit of a tricky topic regarding A2 Hosting, it would make sense to address the “polarizing” part of this aspect, first.

Slow Customer Support Response Times

While the A2 Hosting support team is available to be reached 24/7, the issue that many users seem to have with this particular aspect of the company is the fact that the team can often tend to be really slow to respond.

Upon visiting A2’s homepage, you will quickly find out that the only way to reach customer support is to be logged into your dashboard - in other words, if you’re still just contemplating on purchasing one of the company's hosting plans, you won’t be able to submit questions to the customer support. Not ideal.

However, even when you DO log in, and start a live chat, users report that the waiting times can reach 30 minutes and upwards. That’s a lot of time to be waiting for a response during a live conversation!

Naturally, this doesn’t necessarily affect the quality of that response - as established earlier, most user A2 Hosting reviews agree that the support agents of A2 are knowledgeable and helpful. However, the fact that you might have to wait for a long time in order to receive a response for an inquiry isn’t the best - if you do encounter an issue that needs to be solved ASAP, it can really be a nuisance!

Initial Shared Hosting Plans Lack Some Features

Same as most other hosting providers on the market, A2 does offer its users a pretty decent selection of hosting plans to pick from. While we'll be taking a look at the pricing options of these plans in just a minute, there’s something that needs to be mentioned beforehand - the reported lack of features of the initial plans.

Indeed - you will find quite a few different user A2 Hosting reviews online that talk about this being a rather prominent issue. While it makes sense that the feature list is going to expand with every upgrade that you might make, there are still some important features that are missing from the basic plan that should, admittedly, be there.

For example, take a feature such as backups - a very important part of any reliable website hosting service! Backups only become available from the second plan offered by A2 - if you choose to go the startup-plan route, you will risk losing all of your progress to some kind of freak accident, at any given point in time.

Naturally, this isn’t ideal! That said, it does make sense that the completely-beginner-oriented plan would offer limited features, too - if you’re just starting out, and are still only playing around and trying to discover what suits you and what doesn’t, you’re probably not going to use any of the more-advanced features, either way.

Still, though - advanced features aside, things such as the aforementioned backups would definitely be appreciated, granted that you are actually a paying customer, and aren’t trying out some free version of A2 web hosting.

Price

So, then - to finish things off, let’s take a look at the pricing options of A2 shared hosting.

You’ll have 4 different options, and they look as follows:

• Startup - $2,99 per month
• Drive - $4,99 per month
• Turbo Boost - $9,99 per month
• Turbo Max - $14,99 per month

The Startup plan provides you with the chance to host and create a single website, supplies you with 100 GB of storage, free site migration, and a money-back guarantee. The Drive plan gives you all of that, but you will be able to host an unlimited number of sites, will get unlimited SSD storage, and free automatic backups.

The most-popular plan - Turbo Boost - will grant you all of the above-mentioned features, and will also make your site up to 20-times faster. Finally, the Turbo Max plan does also provide the user with 5-times more resources.

Naturally, all of the different plans do also come with various other features, too, but the ones mentioned above are some key aspects that differentiate the plans from one another.

So… What do user A2 Hosting reviews think about the pricing options of this hosting provider?

Truth be told, the opinions lingering around the web are actually rather positive! Admittedly, there are definitely some more-affordable hosting options that you can find online, but when you keep all of the benefits that you will receive in mind, the prices do make sense!

Do keep in mind, though, that these prices and the features that come with them do only reference the shared hosting of A2. Multiple user A2 Hosting reviews will tell you that there are other options that you can look into, too - WordPress hosting, dedicated hosting services, and a few other plans, as well.

Each of these plans are going to have different benefits and features attached to them, same as the shared hosting one. If you already know what it is that you want to achieve with A2 Hosting, the different available plans might interest you more!

That being said, shared hosting is where your sights should be set if you’re just starting out, or simply want to get the best of price VS quality ratio.

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Conclusions

Now, then, let’s sum up all of the user A2 web hosting reviews, and answer the final question - is A2 worth checking out and using, as your primary hosting provider?

Well, while there are some better options out there, A2 definitely does seem to be a decent choice!

A2 Hosting is undoubtedly going to be best-suited for anyone who values site speed. If you want to create an extremely fast website, then this is definitely the right hosting solution for you.

The best part of this hosting service, however, is that site speed isn’t the only feature in which it exceeds in! A2 provides users with amazing uptime statistics, has helpful and knowledgeable customer support, is rather simple to use, and offers plenty of features with its shared hosting plans.

Admittedly, if you’ll want to utilize these features to their full potential, you are going to have to purchase one of the advanced plans. However, this shouldn’t deter most individuals, since all of the plans offered by the company are going to be suited for people with different hosting wants and needs.

Table: The pricing options of the Squarespace, Zyro, and Webflow website builders

If you’re not yet certain whether or not A2 Hosting is the right option for you, and would like to look at some alternatives, do check out Hostinger and HostGator - these two brands are often seen as the leaders in the hosting industry, and should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect for some different pricing points.

Naturally, you could also check out some of the best website builders on the market, too - with a top-tier builder, you will frankly be able to avoid all of the additional hassle of finding a separate hosting service, and will be able to move on straight to creating the website of your dreams.

With that, I thank you for reading this article, and wish you the best of luck with all of your site creation ventures to come!

Scientific References

1. Neil Patel: 'How to Increase Page Speed'