Hosting.com review

You can find more information about other types of services, as well as reviews of Hosting.com, in the following articles.

Hosting.com VPS

Hosting.com Wordpress

First impression

If you have been searching the web in the past for a hosting provider, you would more likely than not have come across the name A2 Hosting. For more than two decades, that company built a solid reputation for their lightning-fast servers, developer-friendly plans, and excellent customer support. However, the landscape changed in May of last year, as the A2 Hosting brand and all its assets were fully acquired by the established infrastructure provider, Hosting.com. This isn't just a simple change of ownership - it represents a full integration. The company you are dealing with now is Hosting.com. The domain and name we all remember, a2hosting.com, now directs to Hosting.com's website. This just confirms that they have effectively retired the A2 Hosting brand and now fully operates under Hosting.com alone.

Just some background on A2 Hosting before the acquisition – They were one of the oldest and most trusted hosting companies and was founded in 2001 by Bryan Muthig. He started the company from a two-room office, and it has quickly grown to become one of the largest global brand names when it comes to WordPress hosting. If you wonder where the name cames from, it is actually a tribute to his hometown, Ann Arbor in Michigan.

Fast forward to today, and they now are fully part of Hosting.com. A well-known hosting provider with history dating back over 25 years. Founded earlier than many of its current competitors, the company has evolved from a foundational web hosting provider into a broader digital enablement partner. They host more than 3 million websites across 40 regions, and currently offer services such as shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated server hosting, domain registrations, and an AI website builder.

Trial Period

This provider doesn’t offer any free trial periods on any of their services, but they do have a 30-day refund policy in place on all shared hosting plans. So, if they don’t live up to your expectations, simply cancel your plan within the initial 30-days to receive a full, no questions asked, refund.

Their VPS servers on the other hand aren’t covered by this policy, but they do offer monthly billing cycles, and their prices are rather good, so if things don’t work out you won’t lose too much!

Billing Cycle

Hosting.com offers monthly, annual, biennial, or triennial payment options on all their hosting plans. They do offer discounts on longer commitments, but the best deal by far seems to be the annual plans, which offer up to 87% off on shared hosting, and 50% off on VPS hosting.

They currently accept all major credit and debit cards, PayPal, and Bank Wire Transfers as valid payment methods.

Control Panel

All Hosting.com’s shared hosting plans come standard with the cPanel control panel, which is by far the most popular panel in use by hosting providers. This panel comes with a user-friendly interface from where you can easily manage your email accounts, SSL certificates, hosting, and more, from one convenient location.

Limits

Their shared hosting plans, all running on AMD EPYC CPUs, blazing-fast NVMe disk drives, and LiteSpeed web servers, are available in four options, the Starter, Pro, Plus, and Max.

The entry-level plan features 2 vCore CPUs, 2GB RAM, 15GB NVMe disk space, 10 POP/IMAP email accounts, and a limit of 1 website, which due to the limited size would not be suitable for much more than a personal blog or very small static website. On the other end of the spectrum, the Max plan comes with a generous 4 vCPUs, 8GB RAM, 100GB NVMe disk space, 100 POP/IMAP email accounts and has a limit of 100 websites, making it perfect for growing ecommerce websites or developers.

Their VPS hosting also come in four tiers, VPS XS, VPS S, VPS M, and VPS L. Each increases slightly in allocated RAM, SSD Space, and Core CPUs. They range from 2 vCore CPUs, 4GB RAM, and 80GB NVMe disk space on the VPS S plan, up to 16 vCore CPUs, 32GB RAM, and 640GB NVMe disk space on the VPS L plan, their top-tier option. All VPS plans are self-managed and comes standard with Imunify360.

Website Builder

While all their shared hosting plans support WordPress through which one can easily build a website with limited coding knowledge, they also offer their very own AI builder for an additional monthly fee. This builder comes with a variety of easily editable templates and a drag-and-drop interface, allowing one to quickly create a professional looking website without much effort.

Security

All Hosting.com plans come standard with a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate, a WAF (web application firewall, automated backups for both shared and VPS services.

In addition, they also run Imunify360 on their hosting plans. This malware protection suite is proactive in protecting websites. While it is impossible to guarantee protection from malware due to the nature of what malware is, Imunify360 does a great job at protecting sites and keeping malware under control.

Account sign-ins are also protected with two-factor authentication.

OS

All Hosting.com’s shared hosting plans run on CloudLinux 8 or 9, depending on which server you get allocated to, while their VPS plans offer customers the choice between AlmaLinux 9, Ubuntu 24.04, or Debian 12. Unfortunately, there’s no Windows options.  

Support

A2 Hosting had some of the best support I have dealt with, and luckily, they still have the same standard now that they operate under the new brand of Hosting.com. If you get stuck you can reach their very helpful and friendly agents around the clock via live chat, phone, or an email ticketing system. They are extremely quick to respond and super super-efficient!

There is also an extensive knowledge base for solutions to the most common hosting issues.

Is Hosting.com suitable for my company?

Based on my review of their current offerings, I believe Hosting.com can be an excellent fit for many companies, but it's not necessarily a one-size-fits-all solution. If you're trying to decide if they're right for your business, here’s a straightforward breakdown of who typically thrives with their services and who might want to explore other options.

Website owners where speed is important: Hosting.com is well-known for its speed, which can improve user experience and potentially boost search engine rankings a lot.

WordPress Users: They offer managed WordPress hosting, which means that they handle all the security of your site, WordPress updates (core and plugin), and backups. This gives you more time to focus on the content and functionality of your site.

Beginners and small businesses: Their shared hosting plans are easy on the pocket and just as easy to use, making them a good option for beginners, personal websites, and small businesses alike.

Developers: Hosting.com supports a decent range of coding languages, including PHP, Python, and Ruby to name just a few. They also offer full root access on its more advanced plans, and provides reseller hosting options, which is great for developers and web design agencies.

Who might not benefit from Hosting.com in my opinion:

Those with a tight budget: While this provider offers a lot of value with their plans, they are not the absolute cheapest on the market. Don’t get me wrong, there are much more expensive provider around, but also a few ones that is more affordable.

Larger enterprises: While they do offer VPS and dedicated hosting, larger businesses with high traffic websites might want to look at other hosting solutions tailored more for enterprises, such as cloud hosting with auto-scaling capabilities.

Conclusion

Hosting.com offers a wide range of scalable and robust hosting options with a strong focus on speed and performance. Their customer support is second to none, and although they are slightly expensive on their renewal costs, they are one of the best hosting providers I have dealt with, even since the days of A2 Hosting. A great choice for novice users as well as seasoned experts. I can highly recommend them!