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A2 Hosting Canada Review Highlights

A2 Hosting stands out in the web hosting industry by offering a wide range of features and exceptional performance. It’s worth noting that the Canadian region isn’t A2 Hosting’s key focus, but its main servers in Michigan are pretty close.

With server locations across three continents, A2 Hosting ensures efficient content delivery worldwide, reducing delays and improving overall website performance. A notable advantage of A2 Hosting is its commitment to providing tools that enhance website speed. These tools, such as caching mechanisms and content delivery networks (CDNs), optimize the loading times of websites, making them faster and more responsive. 

Adding to the drawbacks, A2 Hosting’s pricing may be considered higher than some other hosting providers in that region. While the quality and performance justify the cost for many users, it may not be the most budget-friendly option.

Another drawback is that the company doesn’t offer free domain names for 1 year, as other hosts do. Domain name pricing starts at $10.99 USD (.com) for 1-year domain name subscriptions. .ca domains start at $16.99 USD per year.

On the downside, the web host doesn’t accept payment in CAD (Canadian dollars), so the only available payment option is USD.

Pros

  • Good support quality
  • Great uptime
  • Plenty of web hosting options

Cons

  • No servers in Canada
  • Doesn’t accept payments in CAD
  • Generally expensive
  • Some plans come with limited features

Quick Info

Easy app installerYes
30-day refundYes
Managed WordPress plansYes

Ready to try A2 Hosting Canada?

For people just starting out who need a good overall out-of-the-box experience, A2 Hosting Canada is a good option. You’ll have good performance and uptime with good speeds for Canadian users.

Starting from $2.99 USD/mo
(CAD N/A)

A2 Hosting Canada General Performance

4.2/5

To ensure fast and efficient website loading, A2 Hosting equips its servers with the latest hardware and software advancements. They use SSD-based storage, known for its superior speed and performance over conventional hard drives, and leverage LiteSpeed web servers, further optimizing website loading times.

Furthermore, A2 Hosting prides itself on utilizing the latest technological advancements, including systems based on the AMD EPYC, a high-performance server platform.

In terms of server locations, A2 Hosting offers four options, but as already noted, the closest location to Canada is Michigan. We don’t expect this geographical distance to negatively impact website performance. 

Indeed, the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Time to First Byte for Canadian users is on par with most web hosting companies, at a little over 0.6 seconds, and we’ll have to resort to Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) like Cloudflare to boost loading speeds further in that region.

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A2 Hosting Canada Uptime Report

4.5/5

Uptime is a vital factor when considering a web host’s stability and reliability, ensuring uninterrupted website availability. In the case of A2 Hosting, we’ve conducted thorough monitoring for a few months to assess its uptime performance.

While there were a few unplanned outages, the downtime was minimal in total time. A2 Hosting takes uptime seriously and guarantees its customers a 99.9% uptime. Its actual performance surpasses this guarantee significantly, but beware that this might hurt your business if you’re an eCommerce store owner.

Furthermore, the response times remained consistently stable throughout the monitoring period, and the LCP time has remained steady and close to the 0.7-second mark.

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A2 Hosting Canada Support Service

3.5/5

When selecting a web host, reliable and efficient after-sales support is crucial in ensuring a positive hosting experience.

During our A2 Hosting review Canada, we actively engaged with its support system and found it to be helpful but with mediocre response times. While it’s important to acknowledge that support interactions can vary depending on the individuals involved and the specific matter at hand, we generally had a positive experience. 

There were instances where we had to wait more than 12 minutes for the following support representative to join the chat, but overall, the support system proved sufficient.

Our findings align with online reviews that highlight the knowledge and helpfulness of the support department at A2 Hosting. This positive feedback is consistent with our own testing, further confirming the quality of its support services. 

Based on our experience and corroborated by online reviews, A2 Hosting Canada demonstrates a commitment to providing helpful and efficient after-sales support.

These were the average support wait/response times encountered during our testing:

Live Chat0m 52s
Phone0m 45s
Email34m

A2 Hosting Canada: Ease of Use

4.3/5

A web host should also prioritize a seamless and enjoyable overall experience, which can significantly save time and simplify the website creation process.

We found out in our A2 Hosting review Canada that the host excels in providing a user-friendly platform. The choice of cPanel as the web hosting control panel ensures ease of use, even for beginners venturing into the realm of website creation.

While it’s worth noting that the cPanel version used by A2 Hosting may be older than some other web hosts, it still effectively fulfills its purpose. The familiar and intuitive interface of cPanel makes it easy for users to navigate and manage their hosting settings and additional features efficiently.

One standout feature offered by A2 Hosting for Canada is the convenient one-click system for installing scripts, applications, and CMS (Content Management System) software onto your server. This highly sought-after feature simplifies the process of adding functionalities and customizing your website.

You can effortlessly install various tools and applications with just a single click, streamlining your website development journey.

A2 Hosting Canada Pricing

4.0/5

Pricing is a crucial factor significantly influencing the decision-making process when choosing a web host. In this section, we’ll explore the pricing options provided by A2 Hosting, with a particular focus on their most affordable hosting plans, as these are the ones that most users typically consider.

A2 Hosting offers shared hosting plans starting at $2.99 USD per month, making them competitive in terms of cost. 

However, it’s important to note that the pricing is primarily tied to 12-month billing cycles, while it costs $4.99 USD per month if you opt for 36-month periods.

While these longer-term plans can provide cost savings in the long run, the upfront commitment may present a challenge for some users who prefer more flexible payment options.

The shared hosting solutions include:

  • Startup, starting at $2.99 USD/mo: Entry-level solution, ideal for one website. 100GB of SSD storage, free website migration, and a money-back guarantee.
  • Drive, starting at $5.99 USD/mo: Everything from Startup, plus: 2x the server resources, unlimited websites, unlimited SSD storage, and free automatic backups.
  • Turbo Boost, starting at $6.99 USD/mo: Everything from the Drive plan, plus: more resources, unlimited NVMe SSD storage, which leads to speeds “up to 20 times faster”.
  • Turbo Max, starting at $14.99 USD/mo: Everything from the Turbo Boost plan, with 5 times more resources. 

When it comes to renewal rates, it’s worth mentioning that they’re high compared to some other web hosts, reaching a whopping $28.99 USD at the highest tier plan. It’s advisable to carefully review the renewal pricing structure to ensure it aligns with your long-term budgeting plans.

Ready to try A2 Hosting Canada?

For people just starting out who need a good overall out-of-the-box experience, A2 Hosting Canada is a good option. You’ll have good performance and uptime with good speeds for Canadian users.

Starting from $2.99 USD/mo
(CAD N/A)

Our Verdict

4.1/5

A2 Hosting Canada offers a wide range of features and delivers exceptional performance, making it a solid choice for individuals seeking a reliable web hosting provider.

A2 Hosting may not have servers in Canada, but they do have server locations on three continents, including the USA, Europe, and Asia. The web host’s commitment to enhancing website speed with tools like caching mechanisms and content delivery networks (CDNs) is noteworthy.

However, it’s important to consider a few potential drawbacks. A2 Hosting’s pricing may be a bit higher than other hosting providers, and its lack of free domain names for a year may disadvantage those seeking cost-saving options. Additionally, the geographical distance of the server locations from Canada may result in slightly slower loading speeds for Canadian website owners. However, servers are still reasonably close, so it doesn’t affect performance much.

Overall, our A2 Hosting review Canada provides a broad range of features, good performance, and reliable support. The quality of service and the variety of hosting options make it a suitable choice for users who prioritize performance and are willing to invest in a robust hosting solution.

Scoring

When determining the best web hosting providers, we take into account multiple factors like user reviews, the web host performance, value for money and customer support.

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