Hosting Plans
32
Starting at / per month
3.92
Reviews
1
A2Hosting is an innovative, fast web hosting company
that has been in existence for almost two decades now. It was started in 2001
by Bryan Muthig who worked as a UNIX systems administrator at the time. Using
his strong background and experience in the systems administration field, he
formed A2Hosting originally naming it Iniquinet. First, it was a side venture
before he migrated to Ann Arbor in Michigan where he set a two-room office to
run it. Then it grew from hosting websites for friends and family to providing
hosting services for thousands of prominent sites. First, it just offered
shared web hosting packages but today it owns a fully scalable product line
boasting Reseller Hosting, Virtual Private Servers, and Dedicated Server
Hosting.
Besides the traditional hosting products, it has on
board application-based hosting featuring WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, OpenCart,
and Magento. You can install these content management systems and run them
securely using any of their hosting types. In November 2016, A2Hosting
introduced Windows Hosting and optimized their servers to run ASP, Microsoft
SQL, and other tools designed for the environment. They also included pricing
plans in shared, VPS, and Reseller hosting packages.
We check through the specifics of that and other types
of hosting in our A2Hosting Review. Below are the hosting packages offered by
the company:
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Shared Web Hosting
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Reseller Hosting
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Dedicated Hosting
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VPS Hosting
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WordPress Hosting
Plan Name | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Currency | Admin panel | OS | Websites | Scripting | Email-Transport | Database | SSH | Databackups | Free Domain | 1-Click Installer | Websites Builder | Location | Price |
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Turbo | UnlimitedGB | UnlimitedGB | USD | cPanel | ![]() |
Unlimited | PHP | IMAP, POP3, SMTP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 10.78 |
Swift | UnlimitedGB | UnlimitedGB | USD | cPanel | ![]() |
Unlimited | PHP | IMAP, POP3, SMTP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 5.88 |
Lite | UnlimitedGB | UnlimitedGB | USD | cPanel | ![]() |
Unlimited | PHP | IMAP, POP3, SMTP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 4.90 |
Turbo | UnlimitedGB | UnlimitedGB | USD | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
Unlimited | Node.js,Perl,Python,PHP | IMAP, POP3, SMTP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 9.31 |
Swift | UnlimitedGB | UnlimitedGB | USD | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
Unlimited | Node.js,Perl,Python,PHP | IMAP, POP3, SMTP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 4.90 |
Lite | UnlimitedGB | UnlimitedGB | USD | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
1 | Node.js,Perl,Python,Ruby on Rails,PHP | IMAP, POP3, SMTP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 3.92 |
Plan Name | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Admin panel | OS | Accounts | Scripting | Database | Guarantee | Location | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Platinum | 200GB | 2000GB | cPanel | ![]() |
100 | PHP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 42.23 |
Gold | 150GB | 1000GB | cPanel | ![]() |
80 | PHP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 25.73 |
Silver | 75GB | 600GB | cPanel | ![]() |
60 | PHP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 19.79 |
Bronze | 40GB | 400GB | cPanel | ![]() |
40 | PHP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 14.51 |
Platinum | 200GB | 2000GB | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
100 | Node.js,Perl,Python,Ruby on Rails,PHP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 40.91 |
Gold | 150GB | 1000GB | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
80 | Node.js,Perl,Python,Ruby on Rails,PHP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 24.41 |
Silver | 75GB | 600GB | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
60 | Node.js,Perl,Python,Ruby on Rails,PHP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 18.47 |
Bronze | 30GB | 400GB | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
40 | Node.js,Perl,Python,PHP | MySQL,PostgreSQL | ![]() |
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$ 13.19 |
Plan Name | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Admin panel | Cores | RAM | Core Speed | CPU | OS | Backups | SSH | Managed | Location | Price |
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Elite | 50GB | 2000GB | cPanel | 4 | 1GB | - | 4 Cores | ![]() ![]() |
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$ 15.00 |
Mid | 30GB | 2000GB | cPanel | 1 | 1GB | - | 1 Core | ![]() ![]() |
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$ 10.00 |
Entry | 20GB | 2000GB | cPanel | 1 | 0.5GB | - | 1 Core | ![]() ![]() |
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$ 5.00 |
Plan Name | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Admin panel | OS | Cores | RAM | Core Speed | CPU | Backups | Managed | Location | Price |
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ELITE - Unmanaged | 50GB | 2000GB | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
4 | 1GB | - | 4 Cores | ![]() |
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$ 15.00 |
MID - Unmanaged | 30GB | 2000GB | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
1 | 1GB | - | 1 Core | ![]() |
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$ 10.00 |
ENTRY - Unmanaged | 20GB | 2000GB | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
1 | 0.5GB | - | 1 Core | ![]() |
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$ 5.00 |
PINNACLE+ | 150GB | 4000GB | Admin panel | ![]() |
8 | 8GB | - | 8 vCPUs | ![]() |
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$ 69.29 |
PRESTIGE+ | 100GB | 3000GB | Admin panel | ![]() |
6 | 6GB | - | 6 vCPUs | ![]() |
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$ 49.49 |
POWER+ | 75GB | 2000GB | Admin panel | ![]() |
4 | 4GB | - | 4 vCPUs | ![]() |
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$ 36.29 |
PINNACLE+ | 150GB | 4000GB | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
8 | 8GB | - | 8 vCPUs | ![]() |
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$ 65.99 |
PRESTIGE+ | 100GB | 3000GB | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
6 | 6GB | - | 6 vCPUs | ![]() |
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$ 46.19 |
POWER+ | 75GB | 2000GB | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
4 | 4GB | - | 4 vCPUs | ![]() |
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$ 32.99 |
Plan Name | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Admin panel | OS | Core | RAM | Core Speed | IPs | SSH | Backups | Managed | CPU | Guarantee | Location | Price |
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MACH - Unmanaged | 2000GB | 20000GB | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
8 | 16GB | 2.1GHz | 1 | ![]() |
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2x Intel Xeon 2.1+ GHz | ![]() |
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$ 248.99 |
EXCEED - Unmanaged | 1000GB | 15000GB | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
1 | 8GB | 2.4GHz | 1 | ![]() |
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Intel Xeon 2.4+ GHz | ![]() |
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$ 165.99 |
SPRINT - Unmanaged | 1000GB | 10000GB | cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
2 | 8GB | 3.1GHz | 1 | ![]() |
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Intel 3.1+ GHz | ![]() |
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$ 99.59 |
MACH | 2000GB | 20000GB | Admin panel,cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
8 | 16GB | 2.1GHz | 1 | ![]() |
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2x Intel Xeon 2.1+ GHz | ![]() |
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$ 290.49 |
EXCEED | 1000GB | 15000GB | Admin panel,cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
4 | 8GB | 2.4GHz | 1 | ![]() |
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Intel Xeon 2.4+ GHz | ![]() |
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$ 207.49 |
SPRINT | 1000GB | 10000GB | Admin panel,cPanel | ![]() ![]() |
2 | 8GB | 3.1GHz | 1 | ![]() |
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Intel 3.1+ GHz | ![]() |
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$ 141.09 |
Now that we’ve gone various packages that A2Hosting
has for you, we’ll explore in this section various features that the company
puts out there. We’ll categorize them on basis of performance, security,
control panel, customer support system, and finalize by analyzing its
money-back guarantee options.
Whenever you’re picking a web host provider, the first
thing that you probably worry about is how it will perform in terms of speed
and uptime. A decent provider will have measures that sustain your online
presence 99% of the time and eliminate hogs or disruptions that affect
performance. A2Hosting might not be the best web hosting provider in the world,
but the features it brings forth are truly incredible. So, which are these
features and measures?
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Turbo Caching
This technology basically uses server memory to store
frequently accessed pages, files, and other data in your website. In turn, this
speeds up content delivery from the server to customers’ browsers.
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SSD for storage
Solid State Drives are around 3x faster than
traditional hard disk drives which used plates and spindles. A2Hosting migrated
to SSD hosting in 2013 just around the time the drives came to market. For
this, data stored on their storage is relatively faster to load to browser or
transfer to other sources. Besides, every account irrespective of plan
subscribed uses the drives indiscriminately.
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Overstuffing Control
This exists on the shared web hosting package to
control amount of traffic on every server. Basically, A2Hosting implements a
cap on resources when they exceed parameters within acceptable limits. This
measure prevents the bad neighbor effect by allowing fair usage of resources on
the shared server.
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WebsitePulse Tracker
A2Hosting employs this third-party tracker to reveal
to the public server uptime statistics. It is easy to assess risk and make
decision on whether to rely on the provider for certain services relative to
their uptime periods.
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SwiftServer Platform
All servers owned by A2Hosting are held on this
platform which optimizes content delivery network, latency, and picks the best
domain name servers.
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Raid Storage
VPS and dedicated server hosts use RAID storage to
enhance data redundancy and speeds of data transfer between hardware devices in
the network.
Even when hosting on the fastest provider on the
planet, a shaky security framework would be disastrous if exploited. As such,
A2Hosting applies various measures to enhance this feature. These are:
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Server Rewind Backup
As aforementioned, servers take regular snapshots of
the files, systems, and sites to facilitate automatic recovery of data in case
of crash, malfunction, or damage of original data. This is the tool responsible
for this tasks.
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HackScan Tool
This tool is mostly used on websites running on
WordPress framework. It scans threats aimed at the firewall, system, or servers
and eliminates them as part of the Perpetual Security Initiative.
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Dual Web Hosting Firewall
This firewall works at the operating environment and
network level. Its function is to shield against brute force attacks and
entries.
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CloudFlare CDN
Besides increasing access speeds to site, its other
role is to prevent against distributed denial of service attacks. On
A2Hostingm, it can be enabled by downloading CloudFlare cPanel plugin or signing
up for an account at CloudFlare’s website.
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PatchMan
This is a security measure to protect against drive
failure and consequently data corruption. It is available for all accounts
using Solid State Drive storage especially Content Management Systems such as
WordPress. Additionally, it detects outdated software and quarantines scripts
trying to corrupt data on the writing sectors of the drives.
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Free SSL Certificates
Regardless of the account type, data communication
between the web server and the browsers occurs via a secure tunnel powered by
SSL.
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Certified Data Centers
All A2Hosting data centers are SSAE16 certified which
means to access them you must be authorized.
Although A2Hosting started small, today it boasts an
online support team that works round the clock to attend to queries, concerns,
publish guide articles, etc. The team is christened Guru Crew Support and is
part of the company as opposed to being outsourced. Therefore, any help sorted
is handled using in-house expertise and experience. Other features
characterizing A2Hosting’s customer support system include:
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Multiple communication channels
You can submit a ticket, chat live with customer care,
send an email, or call the support team. Generally, the response time is short
especially when using instant communication channels like live chat.
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24-hour support portal
All the communication channels are open 24/7 but for
some response might not be instant depending on traffic and urgency of the
issue raised.
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Dedicated Technical Team
A2 prides itself in division of work to enforce
specialization and relevancy in addressing issues. It owns a team of dedicated
professionals who answer to technical questions, apply system patches, and
updates.
A2Hosting uses two main control panels namely Plesk
and cPanel for account administration. The two are standard in functionality
and are remarkably easy to use irrespective of level of expertise of the user.
Again, they allow for quick navigation of the elements in a website in a
structure that closely resembles a site map. Other features A2 uses to augment
control panel functions include:
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Integration of Softaculous
This tool assists in importation, exportation, and
installation of scripts for Content Management Systems like Joomla and
WordPress.
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Ecommerce tools
For users setting up commercial websites, A2Hosting
provides ecommerce tools such as Magenta and PrestaShop to get them started
without involving complex coding.
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Root Access
Hosting accounts needing privileged operation allow
for installation of open source control panels like ISPConfig, Ajenti, and
ZPanel which are capable of offering root access.
All the package plans at A2Hosting support money-back
guarantee. Basically, claims for refund should be made within 30 days after
purchasing a plan to be eligible for compensation of the full amount. A legit
claim made after the period is compensated in a pro-rated criterion meaning
only the unused portion is refunded.
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Site
Builders
Unfortunately, A2Hosting doesn’t own a site builder
but again it supports a wide variety of tools that do. You can purchase the
builders from third-party distributors and integrate them inside the hosting
environment offered by the company for convenience.
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Global
Data Centers
Currently A2Hosting has data centers in Asia, Europe,
and USA. These allow for smooth and fast content delivery in respect to the
location of the browser.
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Developer
Features
A2Hosting is an environment for budding webmasters as
well as complete gurus in the field including developers. It brings on board
popular developer software spanning from latest to outdated yet widely-used
versions. Some of the tools natively supported in its Linux and Windows
environments include PHP, Python, JavaScript, SSH, Perl, Windows Server, Access
DB, Silverlight, and MySQL.
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Migration
Policy
Planning a migration of your website to A2Hosting
servers? As long as your former web hosting provider uses cPanel, A2Hosting can
carry out the migration on your behalf. It takes them a maximum of 72 hours for
all hosting types whether shared, VPS, or dedicated. For customers coming from
hosting providers without cPanel, the process is manual and can take longer.
The company can only migrate one website and database for you for free with the
rest costing a variable amount.
Even with all its numerous features, A2Hosting has its
wins and fails. This section dissects pros and cons of A2Hosting:
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Commendable uptime record
According to WebPulse Tracker, A2Hosting has been
found to have an average of 99.92% uptime for the past several months. While
this is not incredible, it is an impressive effort worth some applause.
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Fast and friendly support system
Its multiple communication channels allow hosting
clients to reach out quickly. In fact, it has an A+
rating on BBB which is quite impressive considering they’ve had this
score consistently for over 15 years.
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Decent average speed
A2Hosting shared web hosting has an average of 370ms
as seen in the last 12 months. This is almost 50% faster than the average the
industry has of 890ms. Good thing is that the load speed appears consistent
with minimal large-scale fluctuations.
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Free site migrations
As noted earlier, migrations from other hosting
providers supporting cPanel is free. Unless you’re a tech-savvy and has enough
time on your hands, the process is quite hectic. Finding a provider that does
it for free is a total plus.
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Compatible with popular CMS
The likes of WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal are
supported with one-click setups to lessen the installation pain.
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Free CDN
CloudFlare content delivery network is offered by
A2Hosting for free. The technology routes site traffic through a path with
least resistance and risk of attack thereby enhancing speed and security.
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Free HackScan
This tool is useful in protecting your site from
BlackHat hackers which eliminates the cost of exploitation, disruption of
service, and risk of online absence.
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Money back guarantee of 30 days
A month is a long time to assess the performance of
company’s servers and make a decision whether to continue hosting with them or
not. Again, the refund is 100% if claimed within the trial period.
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Multiple hosting options
A2Hosting has hosting types for all sorts of setups
from businesses, organization, to personal blogs. Your level of expertise is
not big of an issue as there are numerous guide pages to familiarize newcomers
into the field.
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Quite costly
All the fancy benefits and features A2Hosting brings
to the table attract a slightly expensive price. If you want the
budget-friendly plans, consider signing up for service on long term basis.
Alternatively, use the promotional codes provided underneath each package plan.
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Heavy restrictions on cheaper plans
The cheaper shared web hosting plans (lite and swift)
come with limited resources and relatively slower speeds. This could have a
negative bearing of first impression visitors have for your website.
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Not PCI compliant
This limits ecommerce sites which require a web host
that is inherently PCI compliant. The shortcoming can be remedied by
integrating a secure shopping cart framework.
Where’s
A2Hosting based?
A2Hosting is based in Ann Arbor in Michigan, USA where
its main offices reside. Nevertheless, its data centers are located in various
states in Asia, Europe, and USA.
Which are the
main hosting packages offered by A2Hosting?
A2Hosting offers shared web hosting, reseller hosting,
VPS hosting, Cloud Hosting, and dedicated server hosting. Additionally, it
supports hosting of content management systems like WordPress, Magento, and
Joomla. Other types of hosting include email hosting, wiki hosting, forum
hosting, etc.
Does
A2Hosting sell domains?
Yes, it offers a platform for registration of new
domains, transfer and review of existing ones. The top level domain (TLD)
options supported include .biz, .com, .net, .info, and .org.
Which is the
cheapest hosting package at A2Hosting for a simple blog?
Lite Plan ($3.92) for shared web hosting package works
best for startups and simple blogs. Once your website gains momentum, you can
upgrade to Swift or Turbo Plans which offers twice the benefits for the
cheapest hosting package at A2Hosting.
How do I
contact A2Hosting support team?
A2Hosting support team is accessible via live chat, phone,
and ticketing system. The customer care works 24/7 and responds even when you
have no account with them yet.
Which
programming languages are supported by the environments provided by A2Hosting?
A2Hosting supports Ruby, Perl, Python, Ruby on Rails,
and PHP which work over Linux and Windows operating systems. In case you have
scripts written in other languages, submit a support ticket to
find out about its compatibility with hosting frameworks at A2Hosting.
Which control
panel is supported by A2Hosting?
Plesk and cPanel are two officially supported control
panels for Windows and Linux environments respectively. Custom control panels
can be imported mostly the ones that are open source like ZPanel, ISPConfig,
and Ajenti.
How do I pay
for a plan I like at A2Hosting?
A2Hosting accepts payment via major credit cards
including MasterCard, Discover, Visa, and American Express. You can also use
payment processing firms such as Skrill, PayPal, PayU Latam, and 2Checkout.
In case I
want to shut down my website, will my subscription money be refunded?
Yes, but there’s a catch…Your subscription date must
not exceed 30 days to be eligible for money back guarantee. Also, the resources
allotted should have been used fairly without abuse or illegal purposes. For
subscription past the money-back-guarantee period, the unused portion is what is
refunded. Money paid for domain registration, purchase of third-party
applications, and migration is not refundable.
What are the
payment terms at A2Hosting?
Monthly which covers 30 days, annually for 12 months,
and biennially for 24 months.
Am I allowed to host more than one website on A2Hosting servers?
Certainly, as long as you’re not using Lite Plan
on Shared Web Hosting and WordPress hosting. Those plans only allow hosting of
a single website per account due to the resources available to these subscribers.