SiteGround vs A2 Hosting – Which is The Best Choice in 2021?

A bit confused while choosing between SiteGround vs A2 Hosting to host your website?

Indeed, the selection of good web hosting is the basic requirement for a blogger or a website owner to become successful.

While both Siteground and A2 Hosting are popular web-hosting providers, you certainly need to know the benefits and drawbacks of both hosting to choose accordingly.

Choosing the wrong host not only wastes your hard-earned money but also has a serious impact on your website’s performance. From website loading speed to hosting support everything need to be flawless in order to become successful.

Though there are tons of web hosting providers to choose from, if you are stuck in choosing between A2 Hosting vs SiteGround, here’s something to show you which might help in this regard.

SiteGround vs A2 Hosting: BackGround and Popularity

SiteGround has been around 2004 and over the past few years, it has built a solid reputation by providing reliable and high-quality hosting services.

SiteGround is well known for its blazing fast servers and support quality. It is one of the hosting providers that WordPress.org recommends. Along with Managed WordPress Hosting SiteGround also offers Cloud and Dedicated hosting too.

A2 Hosting is around this industry since 2003 and is a high-performance web hosting company with a remarkable reputation.

A2 Hosting has made a remarkable footprint in the web hosting industry by providing incredible loading speed to the websites hosted on their servers. With 20x Turbo Server, A2 Hosting is no doubt a fast hosting provider.

Looking at the above Google Trends search popularity, it’s clear that SiteGround is way more popular than A2 Hosting.

However, we just can not conclude on the basis of background and popularity. To get a clear result on SiteGround vs A2 Hosting comparison, we need to check and evaluate on the basis of their features and performances.

A2 Hosting vs SiteGround: Features and Performances

Though experts and professionals prefer speed against other features, sometimes speed is not enough factor to consider a hosting worthy. I am going to cover the important factors that influence the popularity and reliability of hosting in this comparison.

SiteGround vs A2 Hosting – Summary at a glance,

Hosting Features: SiteGround vs A2 Hosting

The very first step towards choosing a perfect host is to look at their features. The overall success of a website not only depends upon the performance but also on some essential features.

While there are many features you should take into account, I am going to talk about the essential and most relevant for shared hosting,

Features	SiteGround	A2 Hosting
Storage Winner: A2 Hosting	The entry-level plan of SiteGround offers 10GB of space.	A2 Hosting offers 100GB of space for the entry-level plan.
Bandwidth Winner: It’s a Tie	SiteGround offers unlimited bandwidth. However, it recommends a suitable amount as 10,000 Visits/Mo for the entry-level plan.	A2 Hosting also does not have any bandwidth limitation.
Backup Winner: SiteGround	SiteGround provides daily automatic backup. This feature is a lifesaver if somehow your website gets messed up.	A2 Hosting does not provide daily automatic backup. However, you can set up a cron job using the command line, and that needs some expertise.
Emails Winner: It’s a Tie	You can have as many email account as you wish with SiteGround.	A2 Hosting also offers unlimited email accounts to its users.
SSL Certificate Winner: It’s a Tie	Free with SiteGround	Free with A2 Hosting
WordPress Winner: SiteGround	SiteGround is more towards a managed WordPress host. It includes managed auto-updates of core software and plugins, custom WordPress dashboard, and more. With two dedicated WordPress plugins namely ‘SG Optimizer’ and ‘SG Security’, SiteGround is rock-solid WordPress hosting.	A2 Hosting also offers essential WordPress-related services right from the hosting dashboard. However, it’s more towards regular shared WordPress hosting. But, their ‘A2 Optimized WP’ WordPress plugin has the capability to outrank their competitors.
Caching Winner: SiteGround	SiteGround offers an in-built SuperCacher service that caches your site in three different levels namely NGINX Direct Delivery, Dynamic Caching, and MEMCached to take good care of faster loading. With three levels of dedicated caching system makes SiteGround more efficient.	On the other hand, A2 Hosting utilizes MEMCached which is used to improve the connection between the application and its database. Apart from that, A2 Hosting uses a modified version of W3 Total Cache for its WordPress users.
Free Domain Winner: It’s a Tie	SiteGround does not provide a Free domain along with any plan.	A2 Hosting also does not provide a Free domain.

Ease of Use: SiteGround vs A2 Hosting

SiteGround offers a custom dashboard for its hosting account. On the other hand, A2 Hosting is equipped with cPanel.

The overall user interface of SiteGround is a bit better than the cPanel of A2 Hosting. It is cleaner and user-friendly. Every action can be performed in a few matters of clicks.

You can clearly compare from the images below,

Winner: While comparing A2 Hosting vs SiteGround, I found that SiteGround’s well-designed custom dashboard is much better for a beginner-friendly environment than the cPanel of A2 Hosting. However, I have come across many people that like the cPanel, as they are used to it. If you are among them, it’s just okay!

SiteGround vs A2 Hosting Speed Test

SiteGround uses SSD drives, NGINX as a reverse proxy, Supercacher Technology, Dynamic Caching, MEMCached, and free integration of Cloudflare CDN to optimize the loading speed of websites hosted on their server.

Whereas A2 Hosting top tier plans equipped with 20X Turbo Servers, WordPress Preinstalled A2 Optimized W3 Total Cache Plugin, MEMCached, and also Free Cloudflare CDN Servershield.

When comparing the loading time of SiteGround with A2 Hosting, I have tested with the starter plan for both the hosting providers.

SiteGround’s NGINX Direct Delivery, Dynamic Caching, and MEMCached to take good care of faster loading. On the other hand, A2 Hosting does not provide 20x Turbo Servers to the starter plan, resulting in slow loading speed.

We have tested uploading the same content and basic design to both SiteGround ‘StartUp Plan’ and A2 Hosting ‘StartUp Plan’ and the results are as follows,

Location	SiteGround	A2 Hosting
Washington DC, USA	727 ms	1.52 s
Frankfurt, Germany	1.04 s	2.22 s
Sydney, Australia	1.90 s	2.76 s

Winner: Well, from the above speed test results it’s clear that SiteGround performed better than A2 Hosting. The site hosted on the SiteGround server loads within 2 seconds. A2 hosting performed in a mediocre range.

SiteGround vs A2 Hosting Load Impact Test

Considering speed test results only to determine the performance of a host is not enough. Especially, when the test is done for brand new sites having little or no traffic. Sometimes a website performs well when there are only a few visitors accessing it at the same time. But, as the traffic rises, the performance deteriorates.

We must check whether the performance remains the same with an increase in traffic at the same time. Here comes the need for a Load Impact test.

The test sites have been tested by sending 50 Virtual users for 10 Minutes and recorded the server response result as follows,

Here the grey line is the number of active users and the blue line is the server response time. You can see that the server response time of the site hosted on SiteGround remains almost stable even in peak traffic, i.e. 50 virtual users. Overall 22,805 requests are made within 10 minutes and the average response time is recorded as 56ms with 38 requests/sec.

On the other hand, the server response time of the site hosted on A2 Hosting seems to be fluctuating. Overall 20,402 requests are made within 10 minutes and the average response time is recorded as 180ms with 34 requests/sec.

Winner: As per the load impact test, we can conclude that SiteGround performs well even in peak traffic. The average response time of SiteGround is way better than A2 hosting. Moreover, it remains stable during the test duration.

UpTime – Who Provides Industry Best 99.99% Uptime

A 100% uptime is just near impossible to achieve and if any host promises that will be just fake. The most competitive uptime range is from 99.95% to 99.99%.

SiteGround is very much concerned about uptime and promises to maintain above 99.99%, which is regarded as the best in the hosting industry. Many have even claimed to have even 100% uptime record including WPBeginner.

On the other hand, A2 Hosting promises to deliver 99.90%, which pretty much below the most competitive range. 99.90% uptime can be concluded with 9 hours of downtime in a year, which is indeed a mediocre range.

Winner: Here again SiteGround beats A2 Hosting. However, while talking about uptime, it’s just an assumption, which depends upon various technical factors.

SiteGround vs A2 Hosting – Security and BackUp

SiteGround is pretty much concerned about its security measures. They continuously scan sites hosted on their server for malware and viruses, unlike some other hosts which scan once a day or week.

To fight against malicious bots that attempt to hack a website, SiteGround implemented an AI bases platform in 2017 and it claims to block 0.5-2million Brute-Force attacks per hour, which is quite impressive.

SiteGround provides free automatic daily backup of your site which is stored for up to 30 days on their server.

On the other hand, A2 Hosting deals with security measures in a less efficient way than SiteGround. A2 Hosting has implemented the HackScan feature in 2017 which performs quite well. Apart from that A2 Hosting mostly rely on third-party platforms to maintain security measures.

To prevent DDoS attacks, A2 Hosting seeks help from Cloudflare Servershield. It also provides a Sucuri Firewall but with an additional cost of $15/Mo.

The best part of SiteGround is that the backups created can be restored using their Backup Restore tool in a matter of a few clicks. On the other hand, in order to restore the backup on A2 Hosting, you need to upload the backup on the root directory and open a support ticket.

Hence, it can be concluded that the Security and Backup options are more automated and reliable in the case of SiteGround.

Winner: While comparing SiteGround vs A2 Hosting, I found that both the hosts provide the best possible security measures. But, here again, SiteGround outrank A2 hosting by providing daily automatic backup.

A2 Hosting vs SiteGround – Value for Money

Both SiteGround and A2 Hosting provide a huge complimentary discount for the first billing cycle. It is the most fruitful technique to attract customers.

However, it ends with a incredibly high renewal rate. My advice is to double check the offers and choose wisely.

SiteGround plans starts at $4.99/Mo for the first billing cycle, which will allow you to host 1 website with 10GB storage capacity. The basic price of that plan is $14.99/Mo, which you have to pay during renewal.

On the other hand, A2 Hosting plans starts at $1.99/Mo for the first billing cycle, that allows you to host 1 website with 100GB storage capacity. The basic price for that plan is $10.99/Mo.

Let’s have a look at the pricing tables of SiteGround and A2 Hosting for WordPress Hosting,

Winner: From the above pricing tables, we can conclude that A2 Hosting is cheaper than SiteGround, as it offers an 80% discount for the first billing cycle. There is an added benefit that A2 Hosting offers is that you can book for 3 consecutive years at that price. On the other hand, SiteGround offer can be claimed for only the first year. Hence, clearly, in this pricing comparison of A2 Hosting vs SiteGround, A2 Hosting provides more value for money.

However, SiteGround can be still considered, as it is more towards Managed WordPress Hosting.

SiteGround vs A2 Hosting – Support

Both SiteGround and A2 Hosting provide support through phone, ticket-based email, and live chat options.

SiteGround customer support system is praised everywhere. They are really knowledgeable and quick enough. SiteGround also has a large collection of Knowledgebase articles to help users to fix problems on their own.

A2 Hosting support staff is also extremely helpful. They are knowledgeable and provides an incredibly fast response to a complaint and problem. It also has a good collection of knowledge base articles to help users.

Winner: Both hosting has a nice support staff as well as knowledgebase articles to help you quickly solve your problems. It’s a tie!

SiteGround vs A2 Hosting – Who Wins!

We can’t determine the reliability of a host on the basis of a single advantage. We need to sum up all the aspects of the hosting provider to get the best out of it.

We have seen on the above comparison of SiteGround vs A2 Hosting that, both the hosting providers have some limitations and some advantages as well.

So, how can we differentiate between them?

Well, here is the best tip to choose according to your need.

Choose SiteGround, If

You are not tight on your budget and are not bothered by the Price Tag, rather, you want to choose quality as an important factor, SiteGround is the best fit for your next WordPress project. However, I am not just talking about the entry-level plan. To get the most out of it, I recommend you to choose at least the ‘Grow Big’ plan, which is accompanied by top managed WordPress features like On-Demand-Backup-Copies, Ultrafast PHP, Staging, and the ability to add collaborators to your site. For more details, you can check my complete review of SIteGround Hosting

Choose A2 Hosting, If

You are a bit tight on your budget, and you need an affordable but quality host, you can choose A2 Hosting. Again, the entry plan of A2 Hosting lacks some essential features to give a solid start to your online venture. I recommend you choose the ‘Turbo Boost’ plan, which is accompanied by powerful features like 20x Faster Server, NVMe Drive for faster read/write operations, Turbo Cache & APC/OpCache, etc

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)