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In this A2 Hosting review I’ll be discussing why I recommend A2 Hosting for your websites, and why I moved most of my local South African sites, as well as my international sites to A2 Hosting.<\/p>\n
I know A2 Hosting is a US based hosting company, so you\u2019re probably wondering if it\u2019s a good idea to use them for a website that\u2019s catering to a South African audience.<\/p>\n
Aside from my international websites, I\u2019ve also moved my most important South African sites to A2 Hosting as well. In this review, I\u2019ll also share why my local websites are doing better on A2 Hosting, and I\u2019ll hopefully address some of your concerns in hosting a South African site on a US host.<\/p>\n
View A2 Hosting’s hosting options with a discount here<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Intro 2″ _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n I\u2019m no hosting guru.<\/p>\n So, I can\u2019t offer you detailed technical advice when it comes to choosing a hosting provider. However, I own numerous websites hosted with well over 30 different hosting companies. Local and International. My advice comes from my experiences with a range of providers, and from the perspective of a typical website owner who wants:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And that\u2019s exactly what A2 Hosting delivers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Here\u2019s what you can expect from A2 Hosting” _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Speed” _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you\u2019ve browsed any of the big tech sites that discuss website hosting, then you\u2019ve probably seen that most consider A2 Hosting as one of the leading hosts, if not the best host when it comes to website speed.<\/p>\n From my personal experience, I\u2019ve found them to be the quickest web host so far.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been consistently getting around a 2 second response time from sites hosted on A2 Hosting (this will however be affected by the overall size of your site).<\/p>\n As a quick comparison I\u2019ve attached a screenshot showing the response times of some of the South African sites I own that are hosted with various local hosting companies.<\/p>\n The response times don’t even come close to that of A2 Hosting. Some are just down-right pathetic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.17.2″ src=”https:\/\/www.webhostingweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/za-site-speeds.jpg” align=”center” alt=”Image of how A2 Hosting speed compares to South African hosting companies” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ box_shadow_color=”rgba(119,201,212,0.3)” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Reliability & Uptime” _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So far, I haven\u2019t had any issues with any of my websites that are hosted with A2 Hosting.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a screenshot of the average uptime of one of my A2 hosted websites over the last 2 months (September and October 2018).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.17.2″ src=”https:\/\/www.webhostingweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/a2uptime.jpg” align=”center” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ box_shadow_color=”rgba(87,188,144,0.3)” alt=”Screenshot of a website’s Uptime on A2 Hosting” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Reliability & Uptime 2″ _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n 99.99% Uptime! It doesn\u2019t get much better than that, although I have experienced many 100% Uptime months with A2 Hosting.<\/p>\n Overall, all my websites on A2 Hosting have pretty much been operating smoothly. There was one time however when one site went down. This wasn\u2019t a hosting problem. It was a plugin conflict caused by a WordPress update.<\/p>\n At the time I had no idea what the problem was. As mentioned earlier I\u2019m no hosting guru, and I\u2019m also not proficient in coding and web development.<\/p>\n So, my only option was to contact A2 hosting\u2019s support.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Support” _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With my website unable to load and just showing a white screen, I contacted A2 Hosting with a message to the effect of \u201cMy website is down, Help!\u201d.<\/p>\n Now, before I get into the response from their support, I want you to know that I\u2019ve dealt with various hosting companies support staff. Some have been okay, and others have been downright terrible.<\/p>\n I once had one of my websites hacked that\u2019s hosted on a big, very well-known company here in South Africa.<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t access the backend of the site, nor the cPanel of the hosting account. After contacting their support, they sent me the following email.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.17.2″ src=”https:\/\/www.webhostingweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/zahostingsupportemail.jpg” align=”center” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ box_shadow_color=”rgba(87,188,144,0.3)” alt=”screenshot from South African hosting support” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Support 2″ _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n It seems as though they couldn’t be bothered trying to help.<\/p>\n I didn’t care if they deleted everything, I just wanted access to the cPanel again, so I could work on getting the website back up. And by the way, the support only got back to me with that useless reply 6 days after opening a support ticket.<\/p>\n Anyway, back to A2 Hosting.<\/p>\n A short while after contacting them with my problem, I received the following message from Ryan at A2 Hosting support.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.17.2″ src=”https:\/\/www.webhostingweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/a2hostingsupportemail-1.jpg” align=”center” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ box_shadow_color=”rgba(87,188,144,0.3)” alt=”support email received from A2 Hosting” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Support 3″ _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n Not only were A2 Hosting\u2019s support staff quick to reply, they also resolved the problem with barely any information from my side, and they explained what the problem was.<\/p>\n A2 Hosting\u2019s support is brilliant so far.<\/p>\n They actually go out of their way to troubleshoot and resolve issues. Unlike so many other hosting companies whose outsourced support will expect you to do it yourself while merely offering suggestions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Optimization 1″ _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you\u2019re planning to build your website with WordPress or any of the other major CMS platforms like Drupal or Magento etc. A2 Hosting provides significant performance optimization for them.<\/p>\n I can however only comment on the WordPress optimization as that\u2019s the only CMS that I use.<\/p>\n Below is a screenshot of the built-in A2 Optimization for websites built on WordPress.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.17.2″ src=”https:\/\/www.webhostingweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/a2optimizedfeature.jpg” align=”center” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ box_shadow_color=”rgba(119,201,212,0.3)” alt=”screenshot of the A2 Optimized feature for WordPress based websites” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Optimization 2″ _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n It’s simple enough to start benefiting immediately from A2 Optimization as most of it’s already enabled as soon as WordPress is installed on your domain. Then it’s mostly a case of enabling or disabling options and you’re done.<\/p>\n A2’s Optimization also shows warnings and suggestions for making your website more secure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”SSL 1″ _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Take a look at the image below<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.17.2″ src=”https:\/\/www.webhostingweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/2018-11-03_2-45-44.png” align=”center” box_shadow_style=”preset2″ box_shadow_color=”rgba(119,201,212,0.3)” alt=”website without ssl certificate” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”SSL 2″ _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n Doesn’t inspire you with much confidence does it?<\/p>\n That’s because there’s no SSL certificate installed.<\/p>\n Now look at the following image:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.17.2″ src=”https:\/\/www.webhostingweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/2018-11-03_3-57-05.png” align=”center” box_shadow_style=”preset2″ box_shadow_color=”rgba(87,188,144,0.3)” alt=”website with ssl certificate” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”SSL 3″ _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n Much better right?<\/p>\n This website has a SSL certificate installed.<\/p>\n Usually if you want a SSL certificate, you’ll pay anywhere between a few hundred to a few thousand rand per year with a South African hosting provider.<\/p>\n A2 Hosting provides free SSL certificates for your domains.<\/p>\n *There are some SA hosts that also provide free SSL certificates (when I have time I’ll try publish a list of some of them).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Why A2 over ZA host” _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At the time of writing this review, I haven\u2019t found a South African hosting company that can compete with the speed, performance and support that A2 Hosting provides.<\/p>\n So I want to take this opportunity to address the only other possible concern you could have for using an overseas based hosting company for a South African website\u2026 SEO.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve had people ask if hosting a South African website on US servers will have a negative effect on it\u2019s ability to rank well in Google and other search engines for South African audiences.<\/p>\n The answer’s simple – No, it won’t have a negative effect.<\/p>\n The faster speeds can actually help you rank better.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re using a .co.za domain name, Google already knows that it\u2019s a South African website meant for a South African audience, and your site will be indexed in its Google.co.za database by default.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re using a .com, .net or other general domain extension, you can choose the country you wish to target in Google\u2019s Search Console as shown in the image below.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.17.2″ src=”https:\/\/www.webhostingweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/2018-11-01_7-28-53.png” align=”center” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ box_shadow_color=”rgba(87,188,144,0.3)” alt=”Screenshot of targeting options in Google Search Console” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”What Are Others Saying About A2 Hosting?” _builder_version=”3.17.2″]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A2 Hosting have over 19560 5\/5 100% reviews.<\/p>\n One user, Michael P, says he uses A2 Hosting for their sites as well as for all of their clients\u2019 websites. He mentions their pricing being the best as well as their hosting providing the fastest speeds for their websites to meet Googles speed requirements. He also notes their support being incredibly fast and efficient.<\/p>\n\n
Here\u2019s what you can expect from A2 Hosting<\/h2>\n
Speed<\/h3>\n
Reliability & Uptime<\/h3>\n
Support<\/h3>\n
Optimisation<\/h3>\n
Free SSL Certificate<\/h3>\n
Why Choose A2 Hosting Over South African Hosting Providers?<\/h2>\n
What Are Others Saying About A2 Hosting?<\/h2>\n