A2 Hosting Review

Alexandra Anderson

By: Alexandra Anderson

Alexandra Anderson

Alexandra is a web marketer, Agile Product Owner, and die-hard wordsmith who's contributed to HostingAdvice, InMotion Hosting, HostGator, and other prominent hosting and technology blogs, as well as Forbes. She has a master's degree in information technology from Virginia Tech and more than 10 years of experience building websites, advising on web and mobile app design, and crafting content that engages and converts. Her primary subject matter expertise spans WordPress, UX design, Agile project management, and, of course, web hosting.

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Editor: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian brings more than 30 years of editing and journalism experience to our team. She has written and edited for major news organizations, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times, and she previously served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Florida. Today, she edits HostingAdvice content for clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement.

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OVERALL RATING 4.9 / 5.0
★★★★★
Features4.8 / 5.0
Ease of Use4.9 / 5.0
Pricing4.7 / 5.0
Reliability & Support4.9 / 5.0
Discount for Our Users See Deals

With an emphasis on performance and an eye for detail, A2 Hosting largely avoids the typical shortcomings of many hosts out there. The independently owned company balances high-powered infrastructure and dev tools with equally responsive customer support, giving experienced customers a highly optimized hosting experience.

Category Ratings

We had one of our resident hosting experts, Alexandra Anderson, sign up for a A2 Hosting account and take it for a spin. Below are Alexandra’s ratings of the A2 Hosting experience, broken down by the types of hosting A2 Hosting offers.

If you decide to go with A2 Hosting, you may get a discount by using our link to sign up. While we often make commissions on purchases made through our links, this had no bearing on Alexandra’s review.

Here’s what Alexandra found in reviewing A2 Hosting:

Disclosure: When you sign up through links on our site, we often earn referral fees from partners. For more information, see our ad disclosure and review policy.

A2 Hosting's Overall Rating (4.9 / 5.0)

Best Overall Rating

4.9
★★★★★

Price:

Setup Time:

Alexandra Anderson

Alexandra Anderson (HostingAdvice.com):

If speed and performance, partnered with support and security, are at all priorities in your web host shopping, A2 Hosting should be a leading contender.

When A2 Hosting first launched in 2003, the company was focused on serving developers; A2 Hosting was among the first providers to offer PHP 5 and to support Ruby on Rails on shared servers.

As the company grew, the focus shifted toward performance, following a customer survey that revealed loading times trailed only support and reliability as top priorities. As such, A2 Hosting was also one of the first to offer hosting with high-speed solid-state drives, which now reside across the company's entire portfolio of services.

A2 Hosting's full-stack optimizations unlocked a 300% increase in page load speeds The company took performance yet another step forward when it launched its Turbo hosting platform, which boasts fewer users per server, pre-configured caching options, and twice the allocated physical memory.  

With the Turbo Server option, caching tools, and other optimized software, sites experience page loads speeds up to 20 times faster than average.

Whether you want a dedicated server, standard shared hosting with cPanel, VPS, or anything in between, A2 Hosting can offer the services to meet your needs.

With expertly-tuned servers that house fewer accounts, the company promises uptimes of 99.9% or higher, with Guru Crew customer support available all day, every day.

Overall, you can't go wrong in choosing A2 Hosting as your web host. The company's inventive hosting solutions, impressive performance and security measures, and the constant thought put into the user experience warrant our high praise for their services.

  • SSDs and TurboServer for 20x faster pageloads
  • Host unlimited websites and FREE site transfer
  • Optimized plugins and 1-click installs for WP
  • Pre-installed OPcache and Memcached caching
  • FREE HackScan with restore options
  • Get started on A2 Hosting now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
100 GB SSD - Unlimited SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
Setup Time
5 minutes
A2 Hosting's Cheap Hosting (4.5 / 5.0)

Cheap Rating

4.5
★★★★★

Price:

Setup Time:

There are plenty of excellent cPanel shared hosting providers out there, so what sets A2 Hosting apart from the rest?

Not only does the company offer a ton of features, but it has custom-built its packages for enhanced performance, speed, and security — putting your priorities above pricing.

A2 Hosting packages include a free Cloudflare content delivery network, 24/7 Guru Crew support, and multiple SSD speed boost solutions. Within the comfortable cPanel control panel, users will find Softaculous — featuring easy, 1-click installations of popular web applications.

With A2's Perpetual Security features, users receive free HackScan protection and KernelCare, which runs rebootless auto-updates to kernels daily.

The company promises 99.9% uptime and 24/7 network monitoring, plus virus scanning and defense against brute-force attacks.

Not only was A2 Hosting one of the first to offer SSD hosting — featuring three times the page load speeds of standard hosts — but the company also invented its own Turbo hosting platform. A2 Hosting's Turbo Servers yield 20 times faster page load speeds, using less CPU and memory, with fewer users on each server.

We appreciate how A2 Hosting spends a great deal of time and effort on performance testing and ensuring its giving customers the best speed, security, and support available at a price users can afford.

The highly optimized solutions make getting started easy, and the usefulness and reliability of A2 Hosting's products make them extremely cost-effective.

With 24/7 support, including a WordPress-specific department, we're confident A2 Hosting can provide the assistance you need to get an affordable site launched and thriving.

  • FREE Cloudflare CDN and SSD speed boost
  • Optimized caching and 1-click installs
  • Unlimited email, domains, and databases
  • Advanced security and FREE HackScan
  • 24/7 support via phone, chat & tickets
  • Get started on A2 Hosting now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
100 GB SSD - Unlimited SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
Setup Time
4 minutes
A2 Hosting's Dedicated Hosting (4.4 / 5.0)

Dedicated Rating

4.4
★★★★

Price:

Setup Time:

Whether you're looking for managed or self-managed hosting, A2 Hosting offers three extremely reliable dedicated server plans to meet your needs, depending on your levels of comfort and experience.

With A2 Hosting's Unmanaged Flex Dedicated Server plan, users get administrator-level control with root access and their choice of Linux operating system.

Your server will be ready for configuration with an optional cPanel license available. Plus, the company offers 24/7/365 server monitoring and maintenance for hardware.

We found this package to be most useful for experienced developers who are familiar with the command line. The Managed Flex Dedicated Server service removes the operating system choice and root access — along with any of the hassle or stress of server maintenance and management.

Blending the best of both worlds, A2 Hosting also offers a managed server with root access as part of its Core Dedicated Server plan.

A2 Hosting's dedicated servers feature its proprietary SwiftServer platform — expertly-tuned hardware with performance enhancements.

The company was one of the first to offer SSD hosting, a perk passed down to all dedicated server customers that unlocks page load speeds as much as three times faster than those of standard web hosts.

Servers are never overloaded, and A2 notifies you of targeted server occurrences, such as high load volume or when a filesystem becomes full. With four datacenters strategically located on three continents, A2 Hosting offers high redundancy and global distribution.

  • Root access and 3 levels of server management
  • Expertly managed servers deployed instantly
  • Choose from 4 datacenters across 3 continents
  • FREE redundant SSD storage in RAID-1 arrays
  • Choice of 13 Linux operating systems
  • Get started on A2 Hosting now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
1 TB SSD (RAID-1)
Domain Name
New or Transfer
Setup Time
7 minutes
A2 Hosting's VPS Hosting (4.8 / 5.0)

VPS Rating

4.8
★★★★★

Price:

Setup Time:

While A2 Hosting's turbocharged shared hosting platform gives site owners ample room to grow, the company's tech prowess is on full display with its portfolio of VPS options.

Ranging from unmanaged, bare-metal environments to stress-free, fully managed space, A2 Hosting is sure to have the perfect option for your expanding online presence.

No matter which option customers choose — and there are many — A2 Hosting allocates ample storage, bandwidth, and memory to VPS customers.

Site owners or app developers can customize their hosting package to include root access, cPanel, or high-performance solid-state disks.

We highly recommend the company's Core VPS packages, which combine managed services with root access to provide the best of both worlds.

The configurations start with a whopping 4GB of RAM, 4vCPUs, 75GB of SSD storage, all well above average elsewhere in the industry.

Experienced developers who are comfortable with the command line and willing to spend the time managing and maintaining their VPS will find a great deal with A2 Hosting's unmanaged servers, which also enable customers to select from a staggering 15 different operating systems.

Beyond the myriad of management and operating system options, customers can also select cloud-powered VPS options to receive the ultimate redundancy and reliability, custom-fit servers, and flexible resource monitoring and scaling.

When it comes to speed and performance, A2 Hosting pulls out all the stops. The company's Turbo option, paired with its exclusive Site Accelerator software suite, produce page load speeds up to 20 times faster than competitors. A2 Hosting holds a breadth of opportunities for flexibility, cost control, and custom solutions built for VPS customers.

With an emphasis on performance and a commitment to solving customer problems, you won't regret going turbo with A2 Hosting's VPS packages.

  • Turbo server & cache options for faster page loads
  • Well-built plans starting with 4GB RAM
  • FREE CDN plus auto-installs with Softaculous
  • Multilingual support and up to unlimited databases
  • Enhanced security with and daily kernel updates
  • Get started on A2 Hosting now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
20 GB SSD - 450 GB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
Setup Time
7 minutes
A2 Hosting's WordPress Hosting (4.9 / 5.0)

WordPress Rating

4.9
★★★★★

Price:

Setup Time:

As experts in performance optimization, A2 Hosting is a top choice for powering resource-heavy WordPress websites.

The company offers shared or managed plans for the ultra-popular content management system, with the benefits extending to Joomla, Drupal, and other platforms.

A2's shared web hosting plans come with cPanel control panel, where users can access Softaculous auto-installer. Easily install popular web applications, including your choice of CMS, with one click.

Alternatively, A2 Hosting experts will pre-install and configure WordPress for you, complete with PHP7 and HTTPS protection.

While the company's all-SSD infrastructure enables sites to fly, A2 Hosting's enhanced Turbo Servers and proprietary Site Accelerator particularly shine with WordPress plans, enabling 20-times-faster page loads and automatic compression and caching options.

To boost security and protect customers, the company build another custom program that auto-hardens WordPress sites for proactive protection against malicious attacks.

Additionally, A2 Hosting offers virus scanning, a firewall, and brute-force attack protection — not to mention spam filtering for emails, which are also IMAP, POP3, and SMTP supported.

A2 Hosting offers 24/7 customer support and tons of optimized features made with WordPress users in mind. Whether you're an online retailer looking to launch a fresh site with WooCommerce or a moderately web-savvy WordPress user looking for speed and security excellence, we'd highly recommend A2 Hosting.

  • FREE Cloudflare CDN and 1-click WP installs
  • Turbo Server, SSD speed, and optimized caching
  • A2-optimized plugins for performance and security
  • FREE SSL certificates and 24/7 support
  • FREE HackScan and KernelCare
  • Get started on A2 Hosting now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
50 GB SSD - Unlimited SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
Setup Time
4 minutes
A2 Hosting's Website Builder (4.8 / 5.0)

Website Builder Rating

4.8
★★★★★

Price:

Setup Time:

When it comes to site-building, A2 Hosting sets users up with all the tools they need to get a website built, launched, and thriving.

The company's own drag-and-drop site builder offers total simplicity for those without coding experience, or users can opt for design tools from Microweber or RapidWeaver.

Additionally, the inclusion of the cPanel control panel and Softaculous script library means dozens of other blogging, ecommerce, and content management systems are just a one-click installation away.

A2 Hosting strives to make these setup processes as simplistic and intuitive as possible, and the company has built optimized plugins to configure each application to its specific infrastructure advantages automatically.

While we appreciate the wide range of site builder options, we're a little surprised to see relatively simple website elements, such as a blog, SSL certificate, or ecommerce store, are held out of A2 Hosting's introductory site builder plan. Upgrading to more expensive plans probably means the company is pricing themselves above many first-time site owners' budgets.

That being said, we appreciate the company's focus on providing an above-average experience for all types of customers. An emphasis on modern, high-powered hardware is combined with personalized and responsive support to help users learn about how to design, launch, and grow a website.

  • Multiple website builder options for code-free design
  • Softaculous 1-click installs for WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla
  • A2-optimized caching (6x faster page loads) and Turbo Server (20x faster)
  • FREE blogging and ecommerce tools available, plus SSL security
  • 24/7/365 Guru Crew support
  • Get started on A2 Hosting now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
50 GB SSD - Unlimited SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
Setup Time
4 minutes

Features

(4.8 / 5.0)

Turbo Speed and A2-Optimized Software

  • A2 Hosting's Turbo Servers offer page load speeds up to 20 times faster than standard hosting. Using less CPU and memory, and boasting fewer users per server, the Turbo option handles connections efficiently and with enhanced stability and speed.
  • The Turbo Servers are hosted on the company's SwiftServer SSDs, which perform thousands of input/output operations per second — up to three times faster than standard hard drives.
  • A2 Hosting also provides an optimized cPanel plugin for pre-configured caching from Turbo Cache, OPcache, and Memcached. With the company's exclusive Site Accelerator, SPDY support, edge-side includes, and HTTP/2, A2 Hosting offers optimal page loads.

Perpetual Security and 24/7 Monitoring

  • As part of the Perpetual Security package included with most plans, A2 Hosting users benefit from the company's hack protection scanner, HackScan. Customers also receive free KernelCare, which automatically runs rebootless kernel updates daily.
  • An optimized plugin for WordPress auto-hardens your site to prevent hacks, while also including a unique WordPress login URL, automatic WordPress updates, and reCAPTCHA on the login page.
  • With 24/7 support from the Guru Crew and 24/7/365 security monitoring, A2 Hosting offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Other components of the company's proactive protection include brute-force defense, a firewall, and virus scanning.

Web Apps, Ecommerce, and Marketing

  • Nearly all A2 Hosting accounts come with the free Cloudflare CDN and cPanel, with the Softaculous auto-installer available for easy installation of popular web applications. 1-click installs are available for popular content management systems like WordPress and Magento, as well as ecommerce apps like PrestaShop.
  • SSL certificates and PayPal merchant accounts are available, and POP3/IMAP/SMTP-supported email accounts enable customers to connect with customers and subscribers with a variety of email marketing and list management software programs.
  • A2 Hosting's powerful infrastructure means you'll have no problem launching and growing an online store or shopping cart with OpenCart, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, or dozens of other applications. The company will automatically configure your installation to take advantage of its hardware optimizations.

Domains, Databases, and Developer Perks

  • In addition to offering free site transfers and unlimited RAID-10 storage, A2 Hosting offers up to unlimited domains, databases, and email accounts. Emails are supported by POP3, IMAP, and SMTP, with options to activate Barracuda advanced spam filtering included.
  • For advanced users, A2 Hosting's dedicated servers offer root access and CloudLinux OS. The company has four datacenters based in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, with a quadruple redundant network.
  • A2 Hosting is multi-language supported, featuring PHP 7, Ruby on Rails, and other programming languages. MySQL is always kept up to date, with SSH included and phpMyAdmin pre-installed. For database recovery, A2 Hosting's Server Rewind backups are included for free.

Ease of Use

(4.9 / 5.0)
A2-Optimized Installations
A2 Hosting Review
Cloudflare CDN & Security Features
A2 Hosting Review
Server Rewind for DB Recovery
A2 Hosting Review

A2 Hosting is committed to building performance-minded tools for its platform while keeping the implementations simplistic for users. The optimized software installations, auto-configurations, and plugins make setup for WordPress and web applications easier than ever. With cPanel and Softaculous, users can easily access a wealth of popular applications, from SEO tools to security features. A2 Hosting offers tons of custom enhancements for caching, security, backups, and more.

Pricing

(4.7 / 5.0)

Startup Plan

Drive Plan

Turbo Boost Plan

A2 Hosting may not be the cheapest web host in the space, but the company packs the most bang for your buck into its plans. With A2 Hosting, you get 24/7/365 customer support, including a WordPress-specific support department, as well as features optimized for the A2 Hosting environment. The company's reasonable pricing format extends through A2 Hosting's VPS, cloud, and dedicated server options, as well, especially resonating with more experienced customers who will notice and appreciate the upgraded and modern hardware.

Reliability & Support

(4.9 / 5.0)

A2 Hosting has built its services upon the promise of reliable servers and a supportive team of professionals on standby to help customers with any need. The optimized software and Turbo Servers are designed for optimal page load speeds (up to 20 times faster than average), and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. With 24/7 network monitoring and a U.S.-based support team available all day, every day (including a team devoted to WordPress support), A2 Hosting includes unwavering and highly-praised customer and tech support. The company's Guru Crew consists of hand-selected team members equipped to handle any hosting conundrum — from first-time blog setup to advanced PHP hosting support.

A2 Hosting Includes:

99.9% Uptime Guarantee, 24/7/365 Support Via Live Chat, Phone, and Email Tickets. Extensive Knowledgebase, KernelCare, Brute-Force Defense, Virus Scanning, Server Hardening, and Around-the-Clock Security Monitoring

Other Hosts vs. A2 Hosting

Wondering how A2 Hosting stacks up againt other web hosting services? See our host-vs-host reviews below and compare them side by side.

A2 Hosting vs. HostGator

We’ve all heard that it’s impolite to brag, but when comparing hosting providers, we typically let this rule slide.

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A2 Hosting vs HostGator

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
A2 Hosting vs HostGator

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

A2 Hosting vs. GoDaddy

Welcome to Web Hosting 101, where we’ll dive into the basics of each host to name one winner.

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A2 Hosting vs GoDaddy

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
A2 Hosting vs GoDaddy

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

A2 Hosting vs. 1&1 IONOS

A2 Hosting and 1&1 may share similarities in alphabet-minded name designs, but their approaches to building performant and secure web hosting services couldn’t be more different.

See full comparison »
A2 Hosting vs 1&1

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
A2 Hosting vs 1&1

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

A2 Hosting vs. GreenGeeks

Both stars for high-performance shared hosting: A2 Hosting and GreenGeeks offer impressive SSDs and unlimited storage in their plans.

See full comparison »
A2 Hosting vs GreenGeeks

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
A2 Hosting vs GreenGeeks

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

A2 Hosting vs. DreamHost

A2 Hosting and DreamHost are similar to two rocket ships blasting into orbit with high-powered server infrastructure and maximum speed.

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A2 Hosting vs DreamHost

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
A2 Hosting vs DreamHost

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

A2 Hosting vs. iPage

These vowel-icious hosts are both leaders in the web hosting industry.

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iPage vs A2 Hosting

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
iPage vs A2 Hosting

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

A2 Hosting vs. InMotion

On your marks, get set, GO!

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A2 Hosting vs InMotion

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
A2 Hosting vs InMotion

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

A2 Hosting vs. Bluehost

Ahh, two hosting savants battle it out for your business.

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A2 Hosting vs Bluehost

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
A2 Hosting vs Bluehost

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

A2 Hosting vs. SiteGround

Choosing between A2 Hosting and SiteGround may be a tough decision.

See full comparison »
A2 Hosting vs SiteGround

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
A2 Hosting vs SiteGround

Overall Rating

★★★★★ 5.0/5.0

A2 Hosting is the winner
7 out of 9 times.

The Rundown

Alexandra Anderson

Alexandra Anderson

Hosting Expert:

To recap, here's a rundown of what A2 Hosting has to offer

With independent ownership and a nimble team of employees, A2 Hosting strives for optimum performance and out-of-the-box thinking. The group's incredible innovations enable the company to strike the perfect balance of speed and reliability meets quality support. As innovative hosts keen on pushing the envelope (A2 Hosting was among the first to offer SSDs, PHP5, and Ruby on Rails for shared hosting, the company is committed to forward-thinking and user-friendly hosting experiences. Are you a site-building amateur? Or on the other hand, are you an advanced user seeking ultimate reliability on dedicated servers? Perhaps you're just lost in the middle, searching for a happy medium between shared and VPS hosting. Regardless of where you fall on the hosting needs spectrum, A2 Hosting has a solution involving speed, security, and support for your website.

A2 Hosting review

Overall Rating

4.9 / 5.0
★★★★★

About The Author

Alexandra Anderson’s interest in website administration was sparked in her teens, priming her for a fast-paced career in managing, building, and contributing to online brands, including HostingAdvice, Forbes, and the blogs of prominent hosting providers. She brings firsthand experience reviewing web hosts, perfecting website design, optimizing content, and walking site owners through the steps that add up to a successful online presence. With a master's degree in information technology from Virginia Tech, she combines her extensive writing experience and technical understanding to unpack some of the most complex topics that daunt novice website owners, as well as the subjects that excite veteran technologists within the HostingAdvice readership.
Alexandra Anderson
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