If you are searching for reliable hosting providers for your website, A2 Hosting, and BlueHost are large names within the hosting industry with 20 years of experience.
As an SEO expert who has hosted and optimized hundreds of websites with various web hosting companies, including A2 Hosting and BlueHost, I know what to look for in hosting plans and dedicated hosting.
In this article, I will evaluate A2 Hosting and BlueHost based on their features, price, and more.
Table Of Contents
What Is A2 Hosting?
A2 Hosting is a Linux-based hosting provider that offers shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting servers, reseller hosting, and dedicated hosting. All of their plans include excellent uptime, great support, and lots of freebies.
What Is BlueHost?
BlueHost is among the largest hosting providers and official WordPress-recommended hosting servers. They offer a variety of plans for beginners or businesses with 24/7 customer support and lots of useful features.
A2 Hosting Vs. BlueHost Comparison
Both A2 Hosting and BlueHost offer powerful performance and flexibility with affordable pricing. However, there are some differences that may help you make the final choice.
1. Performance and Uptime Comparison
The uptime and performance of your website are crucial when choosing basic hosting, so make sure never to sacrifice it.
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting uses SSDs to improve its website speed and performance and also offers a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee. They also have unmetered bandwidth to keep up with a small business owner’s website.
Their VPS hosting and shared hosting are quite reliable, and the page speed is consistent.
BlueHost
BlueHost hosting also uses SSDs and offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee. However, their uptime guarantee also includes scheduled maintenance. Their VPS hosting and shared hosting is a little less reliable than what is offered by A2 hosting.
2. Customer Support Comparison
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting offers 24/7 customer support by phone, live chat support, and email. A2 Hosting also provides an extensive knowledge base and community forum where users can ask any questions and find answers.
This is also where you can find tips on how to keep the website speed consistent. However, the support team is not too responsive and it may take them time to answer your queries.
BlueHost
The BlueHost customer support team also offers 24/7 customer support by phone, live chat, and email. They also provide a knowledge base and community forum, and they tend to offer a lot more information to their customers.
3. User Interface Comparison
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting users the cPanel interface to allow users to manage their email accounts, files, and databases. Their interface is simple and easy to use and has a modern look and feel.
It has less options for controlling your accounts than BlueHost, so if you want a more professional website, it may not satisfy your needs.
BlueHost
BlueHost’s cPanel interface includes a range of tools and features to manage hosting accounts, the website builder, the domain manager, and the email manager.
The interface is straightforward, modern, and simple to use. It offers a variety of features and is very easy to use, even if you are an absolute beginner in the field.
UI is the saddle, the reins, and the stirrups. UX is the feeling from riding a horse.
– Dain Miller, Web Developer, CEO at Dain Miller Coaching
4. Migrations Comparison
Both A2 Hosting and BlueHost offer free site migration, but there are differences in speed.
A2 Hosting
A2 completes most migrations in 24-48 hours. They offer migrations on all accounts.
BlueHost
BlueHost offers migrations only on qualifying accounts based on the WordPress version and PHP version.
5. Security Comparison
Considering security, A2 Hosting offers more generous protection, while BlueHost covers the basics and charges extra for advanced options.
A2 Hosting
When it comes to security, just like all hosting platforms, A2 Hosting also offers SSL certificates, DDoS protection, and service monitoring.
However, there are some essential features A2 Hosting includes that BlueHost doesn’t:
- Automatic Backups: A2 Hosting includes daily automatic backups with the Drive plan and up, and BlueHost offers free backups with the Choice Plus hosting plan and up or $2.99 per month with a third-party tool.
- 24/7 Monitoring: A2 Hosting offers 24/7 network monitoring for all plans.
BlueHost
BlueHost also includes basic security features like SSL certificates and DDoS protection, but if you want anything else, you will need to spend some more money.
BlueHost charges extra for more advanced security options, such as automated backups and 24/7 monitoring.
6. Website Builder Comparison
A2 Hosting
With A2 Hosting, you get ready-made templates that can be used to build and host unlimited websites. Their drag-and-drop editor makes the process easy and creative, and you have hundreds of templates to choose from.
BlueHost
BlueHost doesn’t have its own website builder for your domain, so you would have to use a third-party app to build your website with BlueHost. This makes using BlueHost a bit more complicated.
7. Useful Features Comparison
Each platform has several unique useful features that will help you in hosting a website.
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting’s standout features include the following:
- Domain Registration: With A2 Hosting, you have the ability to register a new free domain or transfer an existing domain.
- SSL Certificates: A2 Hosting enables you to choose from several certificate options such as single site SSL, wildcard SSL, advanced SSL, and free SSL.
- Turbo Hosting: A2 Hosting incorporates turbo hosting to increase resource allocation by decreasing the number of users on each shared server to provide faster websites.
- Developer-Friendly: A2 Hosting provides the most updated software for developer hosting, such as PHP compatibility, Apache 2.2 version, Python 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2, and more.
- Perpetual Security: Besides basic security features such as SSL, they provide HackScan protection to protect against hacking attempts, dual firewall, virus scanning, and more.
BlueHost
BlueHost’s standout features include:
- WordPress Compatibility: Bluehost offers a WordPress-focused control panel that includes a 1 click WordPress installer, free domain, free SSL certificate, WordPress staging, and more.
- Anytime Money Back Guarantee: BlueHost prides itself on offering a 30-day money-back guarantee without any hidden fees.
- Reliable Uptime: BlueHost has a great track record for uptime, and they guarantee a 99.96 percent uptime.
8. Pricing Comparison
A2 Hosting
These are the pricing plans offered by A2 hosting:
- Startup ($2.99 per month): Includes one website, 100 GB SSD storage, unlimited transfer, 5 databases, free SSL certificate, money back guarantee, perpetual security, 24/7 support, 99 percent uptime, phone support, email support, live chat support, brute force defense, and more.
- Drive ($5.99 per month): Includes everything from the previous plan plus unlimited websites, unlimited storage SSD, unlimited databases, and A2 cloud backup.
- Turbo Boost ($6.99 per month): Includes everything from the previous two plans plus turbo servers, performance plus traffic surge, Litespeed web server, A2 optimized site accelerator, and more.
- Turbo Max ($14.99 per month): Includes everything from previous plans plus 4GB physical memory.
BlueHost
These are the pricing plans offered by BlueHost:
- Basic ($2.75 per month): Includes a free domain, free SSL for the first year, free CDN, 1 website, 10 GB SSD storage, free WordPress migration, malware scanning, and 24/7 support.
- Plus ($5.10 per month): Includes everything from the previous plan plus unlimited sites, free domain for life, free SSL for life, 20 GB SSD storage, staging environment, and email marketing.
- Choice Plus ($5.10 per month): Includes everything from the previous two plans plus 40 GB SSD storage, daily website backups for the first year, domain privacy, multi-site management, seamless updates, performance insights, staging site, plugin collections, client invoicing.
- Pro ($13.06 per month): Includes everything from previous plans plus 100 GB SSD storage and lifetime daily website backups.
FAQs
Why Is BlueHost So Affordable?
BlueHost is so affordable because it offers shared hosting plans. When using shared hosting plans, your website isn’t the only one on the server, and that is why their services are cheaper because multiple sites are splitting the cost.
Is Bluehost a Good Option for Beginners?
Yes, BlueHost is a good option for beginners. They help bloggers and small businesses to get their websites up and running quickly. It is a simple-to-use platform that is very easy for any beginner to use.
A2 Hosting Vs. BlueHost: Which Is Better?
Which is better out of these two platforms depends on what your website needs. A2 Hosting is a good option when you have an eCommerce website or when you are on a budget.
Overall, we recommend BlueHost. BlueHost provides free SSL certificates, a free content delivery network, hosting for a WordPress site, a free domain, reliable web hosting, affordable prices, decent storage space, and anything else you could ask for when hosting a website.
BlueHost is ideal when you need efficient plans that have flexible features such as a user-friendly cPanel, great technical support, and more for an affordable price.
Try BlueHost today and start your website off on the right path.
Our #1 Recommendation: Bluehost
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