A2 Hosting provides top-performing web hosting, UK wide. Founded in 2002, A2 is known most for its speed. But there are also a ton of features.
All plans come with unlimited bandwidth & disk space, for example.
Choose Linux or Windows hosting - and install your chosen site script in just one-click, including WordPress, Drupal, & Joomla.
Grab the full variety of plans - shared, dedicated, VPS, etc - at industry-standards.
Also, all hosting accounts are eligible for a free site transfer through the A2 Hosting support team.
For an ultra-fast web hosting solution, there’s A2 Hosting’s exclusive Turbo server offer for you, which performs pretty well.
The possibilities are near-endless. ⛹️♀️
We have a good number of elements to weigh up, not just speed. Let’s look in-depth - with this A2 Hosting review - to see exactly what they bring to the table.
Our Verdict
Reliable, Faster-than-Average Hosting Service 💨
Overall, we have a lot of positive things to say about A2:
- an easy-to-use interface
- quickly accessible support teams
- a seamless user experience for both standard and premium plans
Our A2 Hosting review looked at an assortment of stress tests - enough to create ulcers - digging into how solid a contender they are for all needs.
(Scroll below to check our full A2 Hosting UK review and determine whether A2 is the right option for you or your business).
As a top-line summary:
PROS
CONS
A2 Hosting 🇬🇧 UK Review
Okay, so A2 Hosting may not be as popular as some of the top host platforms out there.
However, to those who understand the market, their benefits and level of solutions stand out. Let’s dig in further in - on with the A2 Hosting review.
A2 Hosting Pros & Cons
Our Key Focal Points List 🧐
Multiple Data Centers 
In most A2 Hosting review tests, A2 serves up quicker-than-average response time, making it one of the best UK hosting options available.
Could be something to do with their three data centers across the globe - getting your site content to visitors as quickly as possible, wherever they/you are.
- USA – Michigan
- Asia – Singapore
- Europe – Amsterdam
USA – MichiganAdditionally, A2 Hosting’s free hosting plans offers free Cloudflare CDN, which helps pick the fastest route to your website visitor.
Speed gets work done...well, speedier:
- Retrieve site data faster
- Deliver data-rich content faster
- Page-load faster
Remember, the faster your site loads, the happier the visitor gets, and the happier the site visitors are, the more likely they’re going to revisit.
eCommerce Support
If you’re looking to host your eCommerce store, A2 Hosting’s shared hosting plan comes with a ton of eCommerce features that you’ll find immensely helpful:
- Multiple SSL Certificates
- Instant Merchant Account ID (US only)
- PayPal Merchant Accounts
- AbanteCart, Magento, PrestaShop, and OpenCart, for 1-click setups
Scalability
In today’s A2 Hosting review, we focus plenty on the web host’s scalability.
A2 Hosting gives you enough room to grow, and that’s a huge plus when it is a question of choosing the right web hosting provider.
If you’re only starting out, there’s no better option than the shared hosting plan.
It offers adequate features to help keep your website secure and ensure better overall performance and speed. From there, feel free to invest in a quality VPS host.
You can further move on to their dedicated hosting plan if needed.
While it’s not as promising as what the best dedicated hosting providers offer, it’s more than adequate for your typical higher-level needs.
Ultimately, scalability is what matters in terms of hosting.
And as our A2 Hosting review stated, you can scale up as high as you want with A2— this means no stressing over switching to a different hosting.
Questionable Server Capabilities
Choosing a hosting plan can be challenging, especially for those who want to quickly grow their already existing site. This is mainly because sale pages do not mention how much traffic each plan can handle.
They mostly feature information on the software and hardware available with the plans, which can confuse making an educated and informed buying decision.
Somewhat Clunky Sign-Up Process
An overwhelmed homepage with a slow reveal of the actual pricing information can make the whole signing up process harder than it should be.
Not the Best Uptime on the Hosting Market
Don’t get us wrong.
A2 Hosting offers remarkable uptime that will do just fine for most users.
However, if uptime is really your top priority, our A2 Hosting review specialists suggest other alternatives like Bluehost or HostGator for a higher percentage.
A2 Hosting Uptime
What goes up…
Performance is key, and luckily, it happens to be A2’s one of the biggest selling points. Let’s look at uptime scores over the past 12 months, on their server.
Remember, because it’s only one server, it doesn’t necessarily showcase how all the other servers perform. It does give you a good picture.
There’s one big issue. You will notice a great amount of downtime between April & June of last year. But they have performed significantly better since that period.
This is why we’ve included the averages for both 12 and 6 months.
A2 Hosting UK Review of the Last 12-month’s Uptime for A2 (average):
- February 2019 uptime: 100%
- March 2019 uptime: 99.99%
- April 2019 uptime: 99.81%
- May 2019 uptime: 100%
- June 2019 uptime: 99.34%
- July 2019 uptime: 100%
- August 2019 uptime: 99.99%
- September 2019 uptime: 100%
- October 2019 uptime: 100%
- November 2019 uptime: 99.99%
- December 2019 uptime: 100%
- January 2020 uptime: 100%
12-Month Average: 99.93% 
6-Month Average: 100% 
As you can see, the 12-month average uptime for A2 Hosting was pretty good. But the past 6-month average is just exceptional.
Two major down points:
- 82 minutes on April 26
- a whopping 4 hours on June 14.
The server provided rock-solid performance since then. What you make of all this totally depends on you.
This data does show that A2 Hosting can tell when a problem occurs and they fix it as soon as possible.
Uptime Guarantee
As far as guarantees go, A2 Hosting claims to provide a 99.9% uptime, and the company aims to fulfill its promise via top-tier data centers and meticulous management of them.
That said, there are a few instances where this uptime commitment doesn’t apply:
- During routine upgrade and maintenance periods scheduled ahead of time
- During outages resulting from events beyond A2 Hosting’s control
Compensation
Downtime caused by issues not related to any of the exclusions mentioned above?
If it accounts for over 0.1% of the total time that particular month - you’ll receive compensation directly from A2 Hosting.
So, basically, the compensation comes in the form of a service credit equal to 5% of what you paid for that specific month. You’ll get this service credit for every hour your site is unaccessible beyond the 0.1% uptime guarantee.
The maximum credit you’ll receive for vague uptime promises will be equivalent to the total amount you’d have paid for that particular month for hosting had you noticed no outages.
Please keep in mind that to get service credits as compensation, the downtime has to be confirmed by a staff member from A2 Hosting’s end.
A2 Hosting Speed
The Party-Trick
The Fastest Shared Hosting Provider We Have Tested So Far (320ms - reliably).
Speed is A2 Hosting’s main focus. In fact, that’s pretty much the only thing the company boasts about - even when you go to their website, this is the first thing you’ll notice.
So, it must be good, right? 
It’s not every day we get to say that we wholeheartedly agree with a company’s claim. Well, today is the day we say, “Aye!”
All of the A2 Hosting’s features are designed to ensure your website is blazing fast. A2 Hosting names its pricing plans based on their speeds, from “Drive” to “Turbo.”
This is by far the fastest shared hosting provider we have reviewed. Period.
That’s not even the best part. If you really look into it, the most shocking bit is that the company has been quite the fastest in the bunch for many years now.
You know how important page-load speed is in the eCommerce world.
A whopping 79% of online shoppers say that any performance hiccups will make them leave an online store right away.
Worst-case scenario, 44% would share negative impressions.
1 second can make the difference between a successful transaction and a poor interaction. Here’s a screenshot of Pingdom speed tests in the past 16 months.
An average score of 320ms? You must be kidding! 
To be honest, we too were surprised by the results so we had to include them in this A2 Hosting review - just to observe the look of astonishment in our reader’s eyes.
Thus, on speed alone, we can recommend A2 Hosting to our users in a heartbeat.
A2 Hosting Pricing
The Nitty-Gritty: Nothing Unaired
A2 Hosting offers an unmetered & unlimited policy. If you utilize a lot of resources, you’ll be requested to upgrade or to use fewer resources.
Prices shown in USD.
There are three pricing tiers for its shared hosting.
Lite Plan
Starting at £2.39/month, offering:
- 1 website
- 25 email accounts
- 100GB SSD storage
- A free and easy site migration
- A free A2 Hosting SSL certificate
- An easy cPanel
- & an anytime money-back guarantee
Key Features:
- 99.9% uptime commitment
- Free website builder
- 24/7/365 phone, email, and live chat support
- Perpetual security
- Choice of data center location
- Website staging
- 1-click software setup
- Speed optimized SSD
- Free Cloudflare CDN
- FutureServe Green Web hosting
99.9% uptime commitmentDrive Plan
Starting at £4.80/month, offering:
- Unlimited websites
- Unlimited email accounts
- Unlimited SSD storage/transfers
- A free and easy site migration
- A free SSL certificate
- An easy cPanel
- A2 Hosting free hosting
- Automatic backups
- & an anytime money-back guarantee
Key Features:
- Everything you get with Lite and...
- 2x resources
- Unlimited databases
- Unlimited websites
- Unlimited email accounts
- Performance and traffic spike protection option
- Free server rewind data backup protection
Turbo Boost Plan
Starting at £5.60/month, offering the same as Drive plan with added turbo speeds - up to 20x faster (bit of an over-statement, but you will notice a burst of speed).
Key Features:
- Everything included in Drive and...
- Up to 20x faster speeds and competing hosts
- A2 website accelerator
- Memcached, Turbo Cache, and APC/Opcache
- Fewer users per server
- More resources per user
- Enhanced Apache and speed
- LiteMage (Magneto Cache)
- WordPress LiteSpeed Cache
You can say that each plan is priced well - considering the quality of service you get. All you need to do is pick one that best fits your needs.
A2 Hosting Bonus Features
No Review is Complete Without a Techie Section
Let's take a look into what else A2 Hosting has to offer except examplary speeds and a (somewhat) premium pricing plan:
Security and Backup
All of A2 Hosting's data centers are SSAE16 certified, involving a gated parking lot with security key entry.
Furthermore, a security key must be inserted in order to enter the data centers. As for physical security, it’s been enhanced greatly with video surveillance. 
There’s also a server rewind backup facility that lets you recover data automatically from saved account backup snapshots.
Bonus Security Tools
Also, A2 provides some excellent security tools, one of them is called HackScan— part of A2 Hosting’s Perpetual Security initiative.
Then there’s A2’s Dual Hosting Firewall, which is complemented by security monitoring, virus scanning, and a brute force defense mechanism.
Note that these aren’t just optional add-ons, where you need to set everything up and manage them yourself as you’d do with other hosts.
A2 Hosting manages them seamlessly in the background on behalf of you.
This way, you can have your peace of mind and focus on other important business-related stuff, and let A2 worry about your security.
Cloudflare
As mentioned in our A2 Hosting UK review, A2 also uses Cloudflare for most of their hosting plans.
Cloudflare has a wide range of security and performance protection elements that allow you to deliver content at fast speeds without the hassle of malicious threats attacking your website.
Additionally, you’ll receive a security option called “Patchman” for each shared SSD account, including a few HDD servers.
This tool helps to identify infected files, outdated software versions, etc. It can even patch any security concerns with WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.
Control Panel
Both the newbie and the experienced webmaster will benefit from A2 Hosting's industry-standard cPanel.
It's an extremely easy-to-use control panel, even for beginners. You can navigate through all the elements to control and manage your site effortlessly. If you never used it before, you can get up to speed quickly with our detailed cPanel guide.
With options, such as Softaculous, you can install WordPress with just a few clicks.
Also, you can easily access Drupal, Joomla, and other apps directly from the cPanel. If you’re looking for a capable WordPress host, this could be your ideal choice.
E-Commerce
It further provides a shopping cart that you can use on your eCommerce platform.
A2 offers support for several highly-efficient eCommerce tools, like Magenta and PrestaShop. The 1-click cart set up option doesn't require complex coding.
Tons of other analytics and SEO tools are available as well:
A2’s Core and Managed top free VPS solutions are very user-friendly. That's because it includes the same easy-to-use cPanel, offered in its Shared Hosting environment, on those VPS accounts.
Developer Features
A2 Hosting also offers a ton for developers.
If you’re a programmer or enjoy coding, you’ll most definitely appreciate the kind of support A2 offers for many programming tools and languages.
Your A2 account is always loaded with the latest versions of your favorite developer software. For instance, A2 was one of the world’s first PHP7 hosting providers.
On top of that, you’ll get performance-tuned databases, like MySQL, along with many hosting frameworks for Ruby, Perl, and Python.
A2 Hosting FAQs
Extra Classroom Hours 👩🏫
Below, you can find some of the most-commonly asked questions coming from users who are considering A2 Hosting as their primary website host:
Where Is A2 Hosting Located?
A2 owns all of its web servers, with the primary data center located in Michigan, US, as well as additional data centers in Singapore and Amsterdam.
Does A2 Hosting Offer Free SSL?
If you own an A2 Shared Hosting account, you’ll be able to use its free shared A2 Hosting SSL certificate for your site protection.
Just open a support ticket on A2’s Customer Portal at my.a2hosting.com and their Guru Crew Support team will help set things up on your website!
Is A2 Hosting Good for Reseller Hosting?
A2 Hosting is currently one of the world’s best reseller hosting providers, based on factors like uptime, features, pricing, help & support, etc. The reseller packages are affordable, with prices starting around the £15.20.
A2 Hosting vs. SiteGround, Which One is Best?
A2 has incredible page-load speeds and offers unlimited storage, boasting SSD-powered Turbo Servers. On the other hand, SiteGround offers incredible freebies like a free domain name, unlimited email accounts, etc.
While with A2 Hosting a free domain isn’t an option, you can certainly visit a proven domain registrar, make a purchase, and then host it on A2.
At the end of the day, it really depends on your specific needs. A2 is King in the speed segment, while SiteGround is better known for its excellent customer support and all-around great hosting plans.
Conclusion 🔎
We hope our A2 Hosting review has helped in your decision process.
This industry heavyweight offers a lot including:
- 99.9% uptime commitment
- genuine 24/7/365 support from a Guru Crew
Not to mention their faster-than-average, Sonic the Hedgehog 
performance capacity. By no means is A2 a one-size-fits-all solution. But they match other top-tier paid & free web hosts, like Hostinger & SiteGround.
If you wish to host unlimited sites/emails - with top-notch speeds - look no further.
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