A2 Hosting and HostGator are both businesses specializing in web hosting services, which allow individuals and organizations to make their website accessible on the Internet. If you’re considering using one of these hosting services for your or your company’s website, you might be wondering which one is the better option. Here’s the rundown on A2 Hosting versus HostGator:
Cost is one of the most important decisions you as a customer must consider when choosing between two services. Which one can give me the most while costing me the least? For pricing, A2 Hosting starts at $3.92 per month (this is an upgrade from their previous $7.99 monthly charge) whereas HostGator is $3.95 per month. While there’s not much of a difference between these two prices, you would be saving a few cents with A2 Hosting. But these are just the general prices for shared hosting. Prices can also vary depending on which web hosting service you need. For example, A2 Hosting has reseller hosting starting at $13.99 per month, VPS hosting starting at $5.00 per month, and dedicated hosting starting at $99.59 per month. Meanwhile, HostGator has a specialty service, WordPress hosting, starting at $5.95 per month, VPS hosting at $9.98 per month, and dedicated hosting at $76.56 per month.
Another important factor when picking a service is customer support. Will I be treated right as a customer? Will I get the best service I can possibly get if a problem occurs? A2 Hosting has a good reputation with customer service, with over 97% of its customers saying they would recommend A2 Hosting to a friend, and around-the-clock call support with actual people (instead of an automated support system). Meanwhile, HostGator can’t boast such a good reputation. Many customers claim in online reviews that their technical support is slow, taking days or weeks to reply if you have an account issue (which can affect your business if there are problems with your business’s website), and that they charge fees for their repair services which, according to these customers, don’t always do the job right.
Speed is also an important factor to consider. If you’re using an Internet service, naturally you want it to be fast. You don’t want to waste your time waiting for a slow website when you should be running your business and managing your own website! A2 Hosting seems to have the upper hand again, with fast service and quick results, whereas HostGator appears to be frustratingly sluggish. This is thanks to A2 Hosting implementing special Turbo servers for its speed.
Now, what about value? This is arguably the most crucial element when deciding between services. As a customer, you’re going to want to choose the service that has the better value. A2 Hosting and HostGator have varying, competitive prices and similar features and service offers, but A2 Hosting’s stellar reputation with personal customer care and superior speed seems to top the more technically impaired HostGator once again, giving A2 Hosting more value points. Not to mention, A2 Hosting is an award-winning service, having won the “Top 10 In Action Best Web Hosting” award in 2015.
What about features? Again, A2 Hosting and HostGator are similar in the kind of features they offer. A2 Hosting and HostGator both offer shared, VPS, reseller, and dedicated hosting services. They have also both recently implemented Cloud hosting, which can be a huge plus for websites in this day and age. However, HostGator also offers a special WordPress hosting service, which is great for blogs.
Finally, what about downtime and uptime? HostGator beats out A2 Hosting again, boasting a 100% guaranteed uptime over A2 Hosting’s only 99.9% uptime. Both services also claim that any maintenance issues or server outages on their end do not count as downtime. It also looks like downtime does not seem to be a recurring technical issue for both of these services, meaning you can be assured that your website will almost always be up and running, and never down on your own customers.
So what’s the final verdict? Whether you’re a developer, marketer, small business owner, or work for an Ecommerce company, A2 Hosting is the better service for you. While some of their prices are a little higher than their HostGator equivalents, you get better value, better speed, and better customer service, which can make up for the extra dollars you spend for monthly hosting. A2 Hosting is especially helpful for small business owners, since the lower quality customer and technical support can provide extra and unnecessary obstacles for promoting and managing your small business. A2 Hosting is also the better option if you work for an Ecommerce company. Since your company is totally based online, naturally you’d want a service that provides higher quality speed and technical support.
To explore more hosting options check out our DreamHost vs. InMotion Hosting post.
Last Updated on April 30, 2018 by Jake