A2 Hosting Reviews

7 User Ratings

Overall
Features
Uptime
Value
Support

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Overall rating

User Reviews – Page 1 of 2

We've 7 A2 Hosting reviews from real users. Unlike many hosting user review sites, we go for quality - not quantity - and take a tough line on fake reviews. Learn why we're different, or read on to see what our users think of A2 Hosting…

Michael Tucker authenticmilitaria.com

Overall
Features
Uptime
Value
Support

The technical support is beyond belief! Over a period of three days they walked me through many problems I was having (most because of my ignorance) with my website and former server and even corrected some problems with my computer. I am happy I discovered A2 Hosting and only wish that I had known about them earlier!

Curtis McFall lookoutsummer.com

Overall
Features
Uptime
Value
Support

I’ve been an A2 hosting customer for almost five years. I chose to go with A2 because of their uptime and their customer support. I’ve upgraded and am now using many of their products.

The reason I’ll stick with A2 is because of their customer support personnel. I have not had a lot of technical issues while being their customer, but the few I have had were handled quickly and in a professional manner. For example, late on a Friday evening an A2 service rep was so committed to solving our issue that he gave me his personal email and cell number. He said to contact him over the weekend if the issue was not resolved. It’s refreshing to receive this level of support.

Keep it up!

Monte Katzenberger wrenchband.com

Overall
Features
Uptime
Value
Support

I have been a customer of A2hosting for a year now, but I am cancelling my subscription today. For the past 8 months I have been getting double billed. 8 months ago I upgraded my package to executive hosting to take advantage of unlimited domains. Instead of upgrading my account, a new one was generated. Since that time they have been billing me for two accounts. Sad thing is, I noticed both accounts MONTHS ago (I can't remember just how many) and I called them IMMEDIATELY to get the issue straightened out and thought it was all fixed. Well, they didn't fix anything, they just went right on billing me for both accounts. Then, as if their service couldn't get any worse, I called then last week when I noticed they were still double billing me. I asked them, "How long has this been going on?" By this time I was speaking with their billing supervisor, Amber. She told me that the executive account had only been billed for the past three months, so I accepted her offer to credit two months of service back into my account. Well, this morning I decided to call my bank, and come to find that I have been double billed for the past 8 months! I actually just confronted Amber about this moments ago, and her reply was typical of any super corporate entity selling telecommunications, "I'm sorry sir, I cannot issue a return payment onto a card for a purchase more than 90 days old". Even as I told her that I would accept a credit to my account her response was still, "I'm sorry sir there just isn't anything more for you that I can do". She very politely told me that her company was content keeping the funds they double billed me to get. I asked her who the owner of the company was, she refused to answer. I asked her what her last name or employee ID was, she refused to answer. I asked her how many employees A2hosting had, she, you guessed it, refused to answer. Considering that I have been with A2hosting for over a year now, and that I have been paying the hefty price of $12.95 a month, I would expect a bit more reason from them. Ultimately, the price was a bit high, but the service adequate. However, as a man of principle I cannot do business with a company who doesn't know the meaning of good business. Now I think I am choosing between ipage and justhost. After this recent experience with A2hosting I am afraid to try any of the "cheapies". Hope this review saves someone some time and heartache.

Endre Adam rezolution.org

Overall
Features
Uptime
Value
Support

A2 was very reliable a year ago, but now, their systems are very outdated. There are several critical security bugs in their system. Its like Marty coming back from the future.
My experience with A2 was mostly regarding to hacked and infected sites, and the solution was always to move out due to the incompetence of the support.
As I see it from here the support has no clue of what they are doing, and they don't really care about the data losses they caused.
In a few words: don't even think about it.

Emlyn Addison lorijack.com

Overall
Features
Uptime
Value
Support

A2 is great if you're looking for cheap, shared hosting by a company that (at least appears to) care about the environment. Signing up a new website with a new domain name is a piece of cake, anything else and it gets hairy (some of their service setups are a little dinky).

I'm a web designer/developer with a steady string of clients needing hosting. I've started referring them to a2hosting almost exclusively because it's easy and mostly pain-free.

HOWEVER, their support--as with most cheap-o web outfits--is sub-par (and trust me, sometimes support really matters). Their online chat feature seems handy, until you realize just how long it takes to get something simple answered; you get the impression that it's just one person trying to handle multiple queries at once...extremely slow and frustrating.

3.5/5 stars.

Trikal

Overall
Features
Uptime
Value
Support

I was looking for a budget vps with quality support. It was the first time i was trying to host websites on vps and support was one of the main factors. After reviewing lot on the web i choose A2Hosting. My selection has proved right till date.

I purchase an vps of 256mb ram and running around 10+ sites on it till date. The server has been able to handle huge traffic of 10,000+ hits per day. The server has never gone down. The control panel is simple to use and provides all statistics. They have a good knowledgebase and wiki online. They are among the few hosts i have seen to have an discussion forum too.Live chat people are always there to assist.


Since i was totally new to managing vps, initially i raised lot of support questions. Their support team is very helpful and helped a lot. They proved that there is no much technical expertise required to manage an vps.

I rarely faced any problems with a2hosting and they have handled the problems which i created(not from their side). They are good option for anyone looking for quality hosting withing the budget. I would surely recommend everyone to give A2Hosting an try !

Jason Tor textcall.com

Overall
Features
Uptime
Value
Support

I am extremely disappointed with their hosting and appalled at their lack of support. I started hosting with A2 Hosting in December 2007. My first registered support request was March 3rd, 2008.

My problem was my website went down several times a week, although the down time was only a matter of minutes each time, I quickly became concerned about the constant problems I was having with A2 hosting.

The support was terrible, they constantly deny the problems and even on one occasion claimed it was a problem with my website. Over a year I couldn't even tell you how many times my website went down, because it was only down for a few minutes I couldn't submit a support ticket fast enough to prove to them there was a problem. They claimed they had 24/7 monitoring and they didn't see any problem.

They finally admitted the server was having problems (how could they not), only after a year of complaining and finally adding an outside monitoring service. They claimed to have fixed the problem however, the six days following their claims I was down again six times. After emailing them again, sending the proof that the server was still having problems, their response was:

"If your still having troubles with intermittent downtime, you might want to consider a VPS, or Dedicated hosting plan."

I couldn't believe it. I explained to them that I was not going to upgrade my plan because of the problems they seem to have keeping their servers working. They agreed to migrate my site to another server.

So on April 4th, 2009 - I received an email stating that my site had been migrated to a new server. Unfortunately the site was not accessible. I explained to them that The problem appeared to be that the site couldn't connect to the postgres database server since the migration.

Their response was "Your site is resolving for me at http://www.textcall.com". I had to explain to them once again that it was a database permission problem on their server.

Their response: "I have escalated this issue to our network administrators. They agree it appears to be a permissions issue."

I only had to wait 24 hours for that response.

Here is the most ignorant response I have received from A2 Hosting yet, keep in mind my site and database was working on the other server (when the server wasn't down) and nothing had changed other then the migration:

"The issues appear to be related to permissions on your custom schema. The 'common' schema owner has been changed to your 'textcall' user, but there may still be permissions issues.

Unfortunately, custom schemas are not something that we support, we cannot further troubleshoot permissions on this."

Again, this was after they migrated from one server to another, A2 Hosting decided that they wouldn't support the problem they caused.

This is when I made the first phone call to their support line, and where I got hung up on because I wasn't happy with their excuses. I eventually got the main tech supervisor, the person that oversees the servers and is supposed to make sure everything works correctly. He explained to me that he couldn't figure out how change the permissions on the server they migrated my site to and my only option was to migrate it back to the original server it was on.

Let me say that again. The person that supervises the hosting support, the person that sets up and maintains A2's Hosting servers could not figure out how to change the permissions on the server. This is after my site had been down going on three days.

That was on Tuesday April 7th, 2009. This is now Saturday April 11th, 2009, the site has been down twice since then and is now down again due to some kind of "unexpected problem". I received an email saying everything has been fixed yet my website is still down and support has failed to respond.

I'm not trying to make up your mind on whether or not to use A2 hosting as your hosting provider, I'm merely sharing my experience over the last year with this company. If it's important to you however, that your website is up and accessible then take my experience in to consideration.

Jasontor
Textcall.com

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A2 Hosting: Our Expert Opinion

A2 Hosting Introduction

A2 Hosting is a web hosting provider which focuses on providing hosting ‘by developers, for developers’. Originally named Iniquinet in August 2001, it was renamed in 2003 and appears to be privately owned. The company is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan (hence the ‘A2’ name). Its data centre is close by.

A2 Hosting Hosting Plans

A2 Hosting isn’t a normal shared hosting provider. For example, it provides multiple versions of PHP with an easy-to-use version switcher. The company’s also very keen to promote its green credentials: it has partnered with Carbonfund.org and promotes remote working, recycling and car sharing.

Hosting is provided in four categories: shared hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated hosting.

● Shared hosting is based on an unlimited resource model with a low monthly fee, although the lowest cost comes with a long 36-month contract attached. A2 Hosting uses CloudLinux only. Customers can code their own sites or use Softaculous and/or a site building tool. The company promises that companies that outgrow a shared environment will receive assistance with upgrades if they need a VPS or dedicated server in the future.

● There are three reseller plans available: Deliver, Achiever and Endeavor, and each steps up the storage and transfer. The lowest cost plan, Deliver, offers 60 GB storage and 600 GB transfer; the most expensive, Endeavor, offers 130 GB and 1300 GB respectively. Resellers can host unlimited client accounts.

● VPS hosting is split into managed and unmanaged products. VPS packages can be custom-designed by the client and include a choice of Linux OS and A2 Hosting’s own A2 QuickInstaller, a tool which installs common scripts and applications with a click. The managed product is more expensive, as you’d expect, and includes management of software, hardware, network and security.

● Dedicated hosting is available in two flavours: Flex and Managed Flex. The Flex plan is designed for developers and experts, whereas Managed Flex is designed to be hassle-free and user-friendly. On Managed Flex, cPanel is included for free.

A2 Hosting Uptime/Downtime

All of A2 Hosting’s clients get free access to Server Rewind for free. It’s a completely custom backup tool which is accessible via cPanel and provides customers with restore points for files and databases.

The company proudly claims that its servers are privately owned, and only its own technical team will access them. Its data centre is located in Michigan and boasts a redundant network, uninterrupted power, diesel generators, static-free floors, air conditioning and SSAE16 certified security: that includes a gated parking lot and key-operated entry to the premises and servers.

A2 Hosting operates a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and it’s very open about its past performance. Each type of server - shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated - has its own uptime figure which is updated in real time on a statistics page. Figures cover the last 30 days, and each individual server’s uptime is published individually. That’s pretty impressive.

A2 Hosting Support

A2 Hosting’s technical support department is based in the US, and its website claims that all staff are developers. That might be why it refers to them as the ‘Guru Crew’. The team is available 24/7 every day of the year and tend to work from home as part of the company’s green strategy.

Support is provided via ticketing, a live chat box and a toll-free phone line for US customers. International customers have access to a regular US phone number. The company has a Twitter account which is mainly used for service updates; customers looking for support are directed back to the ticketing system.

A2 Hosting in the News

I didn’t find any negative press about A2 Hosting. Like all hosts, the company has clearly experienced DDOS attacks, as referenced in the tweet below. However, the company seems to be quick to update customers on social media when problems arise.

http://twitter.com/a2hosting/status/226079527573540865

A2 Hosting Control Panel

All of A2 Hosting’s shared hosting customers receive access to cPanel 11 as standard. Resellers get the standard combination of cPanel and WHM. Customers on managed VPS and dedicated plans receive cPanel free; unmanaged servers don’t come with any software installed, as you would expect.

A2 Hosting Extras

A2 Hosting offers shared and reseller hosting customers a variety of scripts through Softaculous (WordPress, Joomla etc), plus their own in-house DIY A2 SiteBuilder tool. Customers also get a free site builder (rebrandable on Reseller plans) and CloudFlare CDN. VPS and dedicated plans also come with one or two free IP addresses. There are no marketing credits or free domains on offer at the time of writing this review.

A2 Hosting Money Back Guarantee / Cancellation Policy

All hosting customers are able to rely on a 30-day money-back guarantee. The company promises that refunds are ‘hassle-free’. The policy only covers monthly instalments, and customers who pay by check are not eligible for refunds. The policy also doesn’t cover custom server configurations, which could affect VPS and dedicated customers.

A2 Hosting Summary

A2 Hosting is a company that’s targeted a niche and done it well. The light-hearted tone of the website is refreshing: it makes prospective clients feel like they’re buying from peers rather than a faceless corporation. On its Careers page, A2 Hosting specifically asks that employees are familiar with Linux, VPS hosting, cPanel, SSL and other tools and software. It’s clear that the company is out to attract like-minded customers who want good quality hosting from a team of staff who genuinely know their stuff.

While A2 Hosting’s services aren’t necessarily marketed at beginners, there’s scope to join up and learn, and support appears to be friendly and speedy. The Server Rewind tool is also a massive plus for people who are ready to experiment with scripting, and the detailed uptime stats are a rarity among shared hosts.

If you’re not big on technical detail, you might not feel comfortable with some of the products, but the friendly approach goes a long way to reassuring newbies they’ll be supported. At the same time, A2 Hosting is clearly a company that wants to attract specialised users, and that’s where it shines.

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Hosting plans start at $16.06 / month

A2 Hosting Hosting Plans

Hosting PlanDisk SpaceBandwidthPrice 
Concept Reseller Hosting25GB250GB$16.06/monthView Plan
Venture Reseller Hosting50GB350GB$24.47/monthView Plan
Enterprise Reseller Hosting100GB500GB$38.46/monthView Plan
Core VPS Hosting10GB100GB$11.86/monthView Plan
Enhanced VPS Hosting20GB200GB$19.56/monthView Plan
Power VPS Hosting35GB350GB$38.46/monthView Plan
Pinnacle VPS Hosting50GB500GB$59.47/monthView Plan
StartUp Plan10GB10GB$4.87/monthView Plan
Executive Planunmeteredunmetered$6.96/monthView Plan
Authority Semi Dedicated Hosting100GB400GB$73.95/monthView Plan
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A2 Hosting Coupons

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A2 Hosting Features

Looking for specific features? This host offers...


  • Auto Responders
  • CGI Access
  • Email Forwarding
  • MySQL
  • Perl Support
  • PHP
  • PHP5
  • POP3 Support
  • Shared Hosting
  • Web Mail
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