A2 Hosting Review: Speed, Uptime, Load Test (2021)
Finding a web hosting for your website is quite difficult. There are many web hosting providers on the internet.
While searching for top web-hosting providers, you get the names Siteground, Hostgator, Bluehost, and many more. One of them is A2 Hosting.
A2 Hosting’s Turbo Boost Plan is known for its 20x speed. But is it true? Let’s find out in this A2 Hosting review.
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A2 Hosting Review
I have tested the Turbo Boost Plan of A2 Hosting & the results are quite good (compared to other hosting providers).
A2 Hosting provides Shared, Managed WordPress, Dedicated, VPS & Reseller Hosting. It also allows registering domain names (.com for $14.95/yr).
My old blog was hosted on A2 Hosting’s Turbo Boost Plan in Singapore. Hence, this is an honest review.
Let’s take a look at the various web hosting plans of A2 Hosting.
Shared Hosting
There are four Shared hosting plans – Startup, Drive, Turbo Boost & Turbo Max. The comparison table is below.
| Startup | Drive | Turbo Boost | Turbo Max | |
| Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage | 100 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Physical Memory | 700 MB | 1 GB | 2 GB | 4 GB |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Inodes | 300000 | 600000 | 600000 | 600000 |
| Active Processes | 30 | 75 | 75 | 75 |
| Price* | $2.99/month | $4.99/month | $9.99/month | $14.99/month |
| Renewal Price | $8.99 | $11.99 | $19.99 | $24.99 |
| Buy Now | Buy Now | Buy Now | Buy Now |
*Price may change
The key features you get in all the plans are –
WordPress Hosting
The Shared WordPress plans are the same as that of Shared hosting plans. The Managed WordPress hosting plans starting from $11.99/month.
You get tons of features such as free SSL certificate, staging, Jetpack personal, free site migration, automatic updates, enhanced security, and much more.
VPS Hosting
If your website gets a huge amount of traffic, you should use VPS Hosting. A2 Hosting provides 3 types – Managed, Unmanaged & Core. In each type, you get 3 plans.
A2 Hosting provides SSD Disk drives in it’s VPS hosting for greater speed. If you aren’t happy, you can cancel your hosting & get a refund with their anytime money-back guarantee.
Dedicated Hosting
A2 Hosting has 4 types of hosting plans – Unmanaged Server, Discount SSD Server, Managed Flex Server & Core Flex Server.
With these plans, you get a free dedicated IP address, Smart server notifier & scalable servers.
Reseller Hosting
If you are a Freelancer & want to create different accounts for your clients, this hosting is for you. There are 4 plans available – Bronze, Silver, Gold & Platinum.
You can install WHMCS or BLESTA in your account. The Silver, Gold & Platinum plans include free WHMCS license.
Turbo Boost Plan
The popular plan promising 20x speed. Previously, there was only one Turbo plan, but now there are two – Turbo Boost & Turbo Max. Here, I am reviewing the Turbo Boost plan.
Resources You Get –
The above resources were available in my cPanel earlier when there was only one Turbo plan. These can be different now due to changes in plans. Ask the customer support about it.
Now let’s check whether the Turbo Boost plan which is popular for its 20x speed is really that fast.
Well, my old blog was hosted on the Turbo Boost Plan. I ran some tests including uptime, speed & load handle.
Uptime
As you can see in the image, the uptime is 99.99% for the past 30 days.
But, there are some spikes in the response time which is not nice. The server response time should be stable with minimum spikes.
Response Time
The server response time is quite good. As the server was located in Singapore, the response time is just 3 ms.
Speed
Talking about speed, I tested my WordPress blog on GTMetrix & the result is decent. My website loaded in just 1.1 sec.
Note: Server location – Singapore, Testing Location – Australia
Load Test
When it comes to a high traffic website, the server should be able to handle it.
I sent 50 virtual users on my website & here is the result. No single HTTP failure & response time is stable. Excellent!
Reason Behind The Speed
The Turbo boost plan comes with an A2 Optimized option & plugin that boosts your site’s speed.
It uses Memcached & TurboCache technology to cache your website. WordPress installation comes with A2 Optimized & W3 total cache plugin (preconfigured).
In the Turbo Plan details, it states “More Resources Per User, Fewer Users Per Server.” This also helps to balance the server load.
Overall, the speed is due to better caching. That’s it! You can still obtain this speed with other plugins.
Drive vs. Turbo Boost, Which Should I choose?
You can get almost the same Turbo Boost Plan’s speed in the Drive plan using some caching plugins & CDN. If you are a beginner & starting a website with moderate traffic, go with the Drive Plan.
But, If you are planning to start a website that will get a huge amount of traffic, go with the Turbo plan as it can handle more traffic due to more resources.
A2 Hosting’s Features
Let’s take a look at some of the great features that A2 Hosting provides.
Anytime Refund Policy
The one thing that I loved is it’s anytime money-back guarantee. If you canceled the hosting plan at any time, you will be refunded the remaining amount.
This is the best thing about A2 Hosting. You can read more about the policy here.
99.9% Uptime Commitment
A2 Hosting provides a service credit in the amount of 5% of paid fee for the month, for every hour that your website is unreachable due to an internal network or equipment failure. Read more here.
Server Rewind
In cPanel, you will see this option. It backups your entire files as well as databases daily. You can restore your files & databases easily with Server Rewind.
Support
While there are hundreds of articles in the knowledge base to answer your questions, if you want to talk to their support team, there are 3 ways – live chat, ticket (email) & phone call.
I tried the live chat & ticket support. The live chat took around 5 min to get started. I can say that they are knowledgeable & fast in replying.
Ticket support is also quite good. I have emailed them many times & their reply time varied. Sometimes they took just 5 min & sometimes 2-3 hrs.
Do I recommend A2 Hosting?
Yes! It is one of the fastest web hosting platforms among Siteground, Bluehost, Hostinger etc. Their shared plans are best for beginners.
If you have a moderate budget, you can go with one of their shared plans. But, take a look at their renewal price, it’s high.
A2 Hosting Alternative
Hostinger is one of the best alternatives to A2 Hosting. It is affordable & has excellent service & support.
If you think that A2 Hosting is costly, go with Hostinger as it is the cheapest but best option available. Read Hostinger Review.
Another good option is Interserver which is recommended by many professional bloggers.
Conclusion
Test results are excellent for A2Hosting’s Turbo Boost plan. But, it depends on various factors such as server location, website’s design & traffic, etc.
This was my honest review of A2Hosting. If you have any questions or want to share your experience, comment below.
Good luck!
A2 Hosting
Summary
A good web hosting platform for beginners & intermediates at an affordable cost & good server speed. The best thing is the anytime money-back guarantee.
FAQs
Is A2 Hosting Fast?
Yes, as it says that you will get 20x speed using its Turbo Boost plan, you get the maximum speed.
Is there any refund policy?
Yes. A2 Hosting has anytime money-back guarantee in which you can get a refund even after 30 days. You get the remaining time period money refunded.
What is the Uptime of A2 Hosting?
The uptime is 99.99% as it says. But most of the time its 100%. You can get some hosting credits if more downtime occurs.
Is A2 Hosting owned by EIG?
No, A2 Hosting is not owned by the Endurance International Group (EIG). It is an independent company. If you want a non-EIG hosting, you can choose A2 Hosting.
Where are the data centers located?
A2 Hosting has its data centers in Michigan (USA), Arizona (USA), Amsterdam (Europe), and Singapore (Asia).
Do I get a free domain name?
Unfortunately, No. A2 Hosting doesn’t provide free domain name. You have to buy it yourself.
What types of hosting are available?
A2 Hosting provides Shared, Managed WordPress, VPS, Dedicated & Reseller Hosting.
