Update: this article was published in October 2016. Since then we’ve used several other hosting providers and learnt a lot. If you are looking for tips and what to look for when choosing a web host for your WordPress website, refer to our guide choosing a web host for your WordPress website.
The hosting provider is the foundation of every website; the fastest and most secure WordPress website cannot be without a good hosting provider. That is why it is very important to choose the right hosting provider for your WordPress website.
Which Hosting Provider Does WP White Security Use?
In the early days we hosted our website with SiteGround, in fact we had also written a review about hosting a WordPress website on SiteGround. After a few years with SiteGround we moved to Digital Ocean because we wanted to move away from managed hosting. In the beginning of 2016 we moved to A2 Hosting.
In this article I will give you an overview of our experience of hosting our website on the A2 Hosting solution. If you follow our website you know that we do not write many reviews, because we only review software and services that we use and that we genuinely believe in. So this review article is not your typical review. It is similar to the SiteGround review we had written in the past, an account of our personal experience.
Why Did We Move WP White Security To A2 Hosting?
Let’s cover the basics first; we are very happy with Digital Ocean, in fact the WP Activity Log plugin website is still hosted on a Digital Ocean server. Though when I wrote a detailed article of how to choose the best hosting provider for your WordPress website, A2 Hosting contacted me and asked me to review their service. Considering all the positive A2 Hosting ratings, it was worth to give them a try!
The A2 Hosting Package
We did not want to move to another managed WordPress hosting. Instead we wanted our own server and A2 Hosting has a package that fits somewhere in between, which we quite liked. We got a dedicated VPS to which we also have SSH access, but we don’t have root access. So basically we still have the flexibility of non-managed hosting without the dirty work part. All the maintenance, software updates and other administrative tasks are taken care of by the A2 Hosting team. Therefore we do not have to hassle with the day to day tasks of maintaining the server, yet we still got the flexibility we were looking for.
Migrating the WordPress Website to A2 Hosting
We could have migrated the website ourselves within a few minutes, but considering A2 Hosting provide WordPress migration services I opted for it, after all it could be the first test. I wanted to move both WP White Security and WP Security Bloggers, an aggregate WordPress security website we had back then, on the A2 Hosting.
Considering WP White Security is running on HTTPS it complicated a bit the matters, mainly because we had to create a new certificate etc. Though long story short, the migration was smooth and the websites were migrated within just a few hours by the A2 Hosting support team. The A2 support team kept me informed of what is happening through every stage of the process and most people I spoke to were very well informed and competent.
Support from A2 Hosting
During the first five months since we migrated the websites I opened another three support tickets with A2 hosting, which were part of my tests. One of them was about the CPanel, which was unreachable at that time. After troubleshooting the issue, A2 Hosting found a problem with the CPanel, which they acted upon and fixed within a few minutes. All support agents involved in the case were well informed and polite, and the response time is very quick.
I also like their approach towards support tickets; when I reported the CPanel issue, it was reachable from their side. They did not simply get back to me telling that it is working and closed the ticket, as unfortunately typically happens. They replied to me, asked me a number of questions to troubleshoot the issue and see why WE could not access the CPanel. And this is what a hosting provider should be; a business partner that can help you take care of the technical aspect of your WordPress website, not just another business providing you with hosting space and bandwidth.
Uptime and Speed of A2 Hosting
Both WP White Security and WP Security Bloggers have been running on A2 Hosting for over six months now and so far we never had any downtime, or experienced any slowdown. We were always advised early when there was scheduled maintenance and were always given an accurate time-frame of when things can go offline, yet they were never taken offline so far.
A2 Hosting Prices
When choosing a hosting provider the price is the deciding factor. It can make or break the deal. There is no beating around the bush here; A2 Hosting prices are in the same range of other hosting providers. The hosting provider market is so competitive that hosting providers are doing their best to keep the prices as low as possible, and I presume it is the same for A2 Hosting. And as consumers, we can’t complain about that!
Our Verdict on A2 Hosting
It has been six months since we have switched to A2 Hosting and so far we are very happy. The support agents were all very professional, well informed and happy to help. And most importantly of all issues were always dealt with in a timely manner. We never had any issues with the speed of the website and downtime is unheard of so far. Yes, downtime will come, but as long as it is kept at a minimum and is caused by required maintenance, I have no issues with it.
