iPage vs A2 Hosting (2024)

By: PJ Fancher

Editor: Lillian Castro

2/6/2024

PJ Fancher Hosting Expert

“We tested iPage & A2 Hosting — The winner is iPage!”

These vowel-icious hosts are both leaders in the web hosting industry. A2 Hosting and iPage are popular among business owners and first-time site owners alike. What sets them apart are slight differences in price and performance. A2 Hosting touts impressive SSDs on its plans, while the folks at iPage offer excellent performance for a low monthly cost. Let’s sound out the pros and cons of each provider.

Overall Rating

4.9/5.0 ★★★★★

36-Month Plan: $1.99/month »
24-Month Plan: $2.49/month »
12-Month Plan: $2.99/month »

Overall Rating

4.9/5.0 ★★★★★

Startup Plan: $2.99/month »
Drive Plan: $5.99/month »
Turbo Boost Plan: $6.99/month »

Visit A2 Hosting »

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Overall Hosting Comparison

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

With an excellent price-versus-performance tradeoff, iPage has plans starting at around $2 a month. The hosting company's shared offerings are hard to compete with, especially for folks that are new to web hosting and just need a simple site.

Aimed primarily at first-time site owners, iPage puts together an impressively deep feature set. Offering strong, custom site builder options, iPage brings what-you-see-is-what-you-get simplicity to the site-building experience.

If ecommerce platforms are your thing, an online store builder is also included. Don’t have a domain yet? Register one for free with iPage. Once you have a new site, what do you do with it? To kick-start promotion for your site, iPage gives you $200 of marketing credits to get you started on Google and Bing, giving your online presence the exposure that any site needs.

Additionally, iPage offers a full security suite to keep your site running without worry. Daily malware scans, spam scans, and constant network monitoring are just some of the features. Full technical support is also part of the package by way of email or 24/7 phone support with a promise to answer calls in two minutes or less.

From site-building tools and a free domain to a jump-start on your marketing efforts, iPage has put together a very impressive package for their price and they should absolutely be considered for first-time users.

Great hosting packages for first-timers
Drag-and-drop site builder included
FREE domain name registration and email accounts
24/7 support via phone, chat, and email tickets
38% OFF for HostingAdvice readers
Get started on iPage now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

Unlimited

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

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

Cheap Hosting Comparison

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

Whether you're a first-time website owner or a web veteran, iPage’s excellent hosting services and a fantastic list of extras make the brand one of the best values in web hosting.

Unlimited disk space, scalable bandwidth, and emails are just a part of what makes iPage’s shared hosting plan a great deal. The company offers very good suites of extras focusing on web hosting necessities like security, marketing, and support.

If you don’t yet have a site, iPage includes a free domain and website builder to get you rolling quickly. We especially love the web hosting company's inclusion of ecommerce templates and online shopping carts for the same low price.

Support is one factor that’s very important to us, as it should be to you. For iPage customer support, the hosting company has phone, email, and chat available 24/7.

For the DIY crowd, the company also has an extensive list of tutorials and helpful documents.

One of the very best budget web hosts out there, iPage offers great hosting features and server performance for a low price. If you are searching for a cheap, reliable web host, iPage should definitely be near the top of your list.

Easy setup and superb reliability since 1998
FREE domain and Google marketing included
Unlimited bandwidth, storage, and emails
FREE site builder and shopping cart
Get more than 38% off today (was $7.99/month)
Get started on iPage now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

Unlimited

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

#3 out of 10 in Cheap Hosting reviews

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

Dedicated Hosting Comparison

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ N/A

iPage does not currently offer this type of hosting. We would not recommend choosing this host for this hosting category.

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ 4.4/5.0

#7 out of 8 in Dedicated Hosting reviews

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

VPS Hosting Comparison

VPS Rating

★★★★★ N/A

iPage does not currently offer this type of hosting. We would not recommend choosing this host for this hosting category.

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

#3 out of 9 in VPS Hosting reviews

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

WordPress Hosting Comparison

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

For those looking for an affordable and simple-to-navigate host for their WordPress site, definitely consider iPage. The iPage offer gives you a nice list of extras and provides a great alternative to shared hosting.

While not as robust and fast as more expensive options, iPage offers a great value in WordPress hosting. The company's platform has been designed to make page load speeds 2.5 times faster, with unlimited disk space, email accounts, and bandwidth.

Other niceties include a free domain name and SSL certificate. For those without a site design, iPage includes a number of curated WordPress themes for you to choose from. Each theme is tested for performance and usability.

In addition, the company includes many pre-installed plugins such as W3 Total Cache and Jetpack. Finally, SiteLock keeps your site secure and free of malware. 24/7 phone support is included on all packages in case you ever run into any issues.

One of our favorite low-budget web hosts out there, iPage offers great hosting features and server performance for a low price. If you are searching for a cheap, reliable web host, iPage should definitely fall towards the top of your list.

Unlimited storage and email accounts
FREE WordPress themes and plugins included
Expert WP support and automatic malware removal
Enhanced security via SiteLock and custom firewall
W3 Total Cache plugin pre-installed
Get started on iPage now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

Unlimited

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

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

Site Builder Hosting Comparison

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

Do you want your website built today? If you answered "yes," you should look no further than iPage. In fact, it's possible for you to be online before you even finish reading this article.

Thanks to iPage's user-friendly interface, instant provisioning, and free domain name, you can have a live, attractive website in mere minutes. For those that have been around the web for a while, you may remember when it took a day to get your server online; thankfully those days are gone.

Your site is live the second you complete your order with iPage. A domain name is also included, so the ordeal of purchasing a domain name, setting name servers, and waiting for them to propagate is also extinct.

Once that's completed, you are taken to the incredibly user-friendly interface, where you can begin your site creation process.

Powered by their own proprietary builder, iPage makes it easy to have a professional-looking site created in minutes. It all starts with your choice of template — with hundreds of options available.

From there, you can customize color schemes, fonts, and sizes, and add your own pictures and videos. Adding forms for comments, RSVPs, or business contacts is just as simple. Before you know it, you have an attractive, functional website.

From the ease of use to the speed at which you are able to get a site live, iPage leaves us with little doubt as to why we've ranked the company near the top of our list of web hosts with site builder functionality.

An already incredible value, the company's 30-day money-back guarantee means that you can feel at ease knowing that iPage stands behind its product, and the team is confident you will be happy with their service.

Choice of Weebly or WebsiteBuilder by iPage
Mobile-optimized and easy-to-use setup wizards
100s of professionally designed themes
FREE online store, shopping cart, and blogging
Get 38% off your first month
Get started on iPage now.

Money Back Guarantee

30 days

Disk Space

Unlimited

Domain Name

FREE (1 year)

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

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

iPage vs. A2 Hosting - Our Conclusion

PJ Fancher Hosting Expert

“We tested iPage & A2 Hosting — The winner is iPage!”

We were impressed by both iPage and A2 Hosting in this comparison. Because of its low price, iPage is tough to beat — especially when considering its value-packed shared hosting plans. But A2 Hosting’s powerful servers and VPS packages are perfect for companies looking to scale their online presence. So, whether you’re an entrepreneur looking for high value without breaking the bank or a growing business welcoming an increasing number of site visitors, be sure to choose the host right for your budget and business mission.

Overall Rating

4.9/5.0 ★★★★★

Overall Rating

4.9/5.0 ★★★★★

Visit A2 Hosting »

About The Author

PJ Fancher is a professional web developer with more than 20 years of experience. His background began with writing small web applications using Perl, PHP, and MySQL in 1998. He has well-rounded experience with all aspects of web development, from server and database configuration to scripting, styling, design, and SEO. Today he brings his passion for web development to the team at Digital Brands Inc., helping to develop unique, high-quality, highly-optimized websites. He is ready to share his extensive knowledge and experience with the world of web hosting.