How does A2 Hosting compare with HostGator? As it turns out, A2 Hosting more than holds its own against the competition here. And in fact, in most cases, A2 Hosting is probably the better choice. While HostGator has been one of the more well-established hosting companies around, A2 Hosting has its own impressive history. More importantly, A2 Hosting’s features, performance, and support have proven to many people (including myself) that they’re a superior choice for hosting websites.
A2 Hosting and HostGator both offer three different levels of shared hosting plans. Across the board, we would say that A2 Hosting provides better value—with better features at lower prices for each level of web hosting. In particular, if fast hosting or WordPress is your primary concern, then you’ll appreciate A2 Hosting’s optimized hosting services, content delivery network, and optional Turbo Servers for even greater speed.
| Features: 100% | Features: 77% |
| Speed and Performance: 98% | Speed and Performance: 83% |
| Customer Support: 98% | Customer Support: 79% |
| Value: 99% | Value: 78% |
| TOTAL: 98.8% | TOTAL: 79.3% |
| Get 45% Discount on HostGator |
A2 Hosting and HostGator both offer separate website builder plans that include their own website builders for easier website creation. Both website builders provide ready-made templates you can choose from along with drag and drop editing for easy customization of your site. And, you can create different types of websites with each builder including eCommerce. That being said, neither of their respective site builders should be considered a primary reason for purchasing their hosting. In this category, I would call it a draw.
WordPress hosting is definitely a priority to both A2 Hosting and HostGator. Each of these web hosts offer WordPress hosting not only with their shared hosting plans, but also as part of their managed WordPress hosting packages. However, in this category A2 Hosting is definitely the winner.
| A2 Hosting | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Preinstallation | ||
| Auto Updates | ||
| Auto Data Backups | ||
| On Demand Backup and Restore | ||
| Website Staging | ||
| Optimized Caching | ||
| WordPress Security | ||
| Managed WordPress Available? |
A2 Hosting includes excellent premium WordPress features with their hosting that are usually found in more expensive managed WordPress plans. To start off with, A2 Hosting’s environment is optimized for both WordPress speed and security. Plus, you get automatic updates and data backup. Free Cloudflare CDN is also included to speed up your page loading times. And, if you opt for the Turbo Server plan, your WordPress sites can run even faster with LiteSpeed cache and the A2 optimized site accelerator. A2 Hosting now even includes website staging for your WordPress sites—a great feature that lets you test out changes before pushing them out to your live site.
For WordPress hosting, I recommend A2 Hosting.
| Ticket Support | ||
| Email Support | ||
| Phone Support | ||
| Live Chat | ||
| Free Website Migration | ||
| Priority Support Available |
| PHP Support | 8.3 | 8.3 |
| Unlimited Databases | ||
| PostgreSQL Databases | ||
| Node.js | ||
| SSH Access | ||
| Git | ||
| Python | ||
| FTP/SFTP | ||
| WP-CLI |
In terms of eCommerce applications, A2 Hosting and HostGator are basically the same. What separates the two here are the features included with your hosting plan—such as the ones I’ve mentioned above. Because you get superior hosting features regarding speed and security, A2 hosting is our preferred choice over HostGator.
A2 Hosting includes free SSL with all of their hosting plans. You also get perpetual HackScan security, their enhanced Patchman security tool, and solid state drives (SSDs). Also, WooCommerce users can also get LiteSpeed Cache with the A2 Hosting Turbo plan.
Based on my personal experience, because A2 Hosting provides superior website speed and customer support—two factors that are highly critical for eCommerce website hosting—they are the winner in this category.
Advantages of A2 Hosting over HostGator:
Advantages of HostGator over A2 Hosting:
When it comes to website speed between A2 Hosting and HostGator, A2 Hosting is the winner. With their optimized environment for speed and security together with their Swift and Turbo Servers, A2 Hosting consistently posts faster website speed times in our testing. And as a customer of A2 Hosting and HostGator, my personal websites also run faster at A2 Hosting.
See below for some sample speed test results from GTmetrix:
Both A2 Hosting and HostGator offer 99.9% uptime guarantees. However, I would give the edge in performance to A2 Hosting. The customer support response time at A2 Hosting has also been superior to that at HostGator. I also prefer the backup and restore policies and procedures at A2 Hosting. And lastly, A2 Hosting offers an anytime money back guarantee, while HostGator has a 45 day guarantee period.
Started Business: 2003
BBB Rating: A+
Data Center Location: Michigan, USA; Arizona, USA; Amsterdam, EUR; Singapore, Asia
Price: $2.99 mo. – $12.99 mo.
Unlimited Bandwidth: Yes
Unlimited Storage: Yes
Unlimited Email: Yes
Host Multiple Domains: Yes
Hosting Interface: cPanel
Server Uptime: 99.9%
Refund Period: 30 Days
Dedicated Hosting Available: Yes
Advantages of Choosing A2 Hosting:
Started Business: 2002
BBB Rating: F
Data Center Location: Multiple SoftLayer Locations
Price: $5.56 mo. – $13.56 mo.
Unlimited Bandwidth: Yes
Unlimited Storage: Yes
Unlimited Email: Yes
Host Multiple Domains: Yes
Hosting Interface: cPanel
Server Uptime: 99.9%
Refund Period: 30 Days
Dedicated Hosting Available: Yes
Advantages of Choosing HostGator:
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