A2Hosting Review Australia
Australia is located in a special area of the Earth which means a relatively big distance from the other continents. This is a problem when it comes to connect distances and most likely this is the main reason why only few submarine data cables are available between the country and other areas of the World.
At the age of satellites and mobile internet you should ask, why submarine cables are so important:
- however we already have satellites, the data between the continents is forwarded on submarine cables
- the data moves much faster on cables than satellites (TBs/second vs. GBs/second)
- cables are in safe in the deep ocean and they do not have an effect on environment
- the smaller data latency of the cables means faster data forwarding too
Source: submarinecablemap.com
Obviously, it would be logical to lie as many submarine data cables between Australia and other continents as possible, but there is a reason why big companies did not do the same so far. A new data cable’s construction works may cost hundreds of million dollars, thus the money is the primary reason why there are not more data cables.
If you live in Australia or have a company there and want to target only the domestic markets, then Australian web hosting providers can be a good choice. But if you want to reach the international customers, then the weak data connection between your visitors and the Australian server can cause a slow website displaying or even malfunctions. It is worth to observe the market and choose an alternative web hosting solution from outside of Australia.
We recommend A2Hosting. The company has data centers in 4 locations, in Michigan (USA), Arizona (USA), Amsterdam (Europe) and Singapore. Because the Asian data center is not far away from Australia, it can be used to serve both your international and domestic customers.
Why do Australian Customers Choose A2Hosting?
A2Hosting has many great features and services and these are mainly why we can recommend it for you.
- Unlimited disk space: Even if you choose the cheapest shared hosting package, you will be provided with unlimited storage. Unlimited use means a behavior that is similar to other users’ behavior.
- Unlimited bandwidth: There is no limit in bandwidth usage, until you don’t use significantly much bandwidth than average users. This means you can’t provide streaming service, management of big image galleries, moving bid audio or video files without compression, etc. Such tasks can be served by VPS or Dedicated Server Hosting packages.
- SSD drives: A2Hosting uses modern solid state drives (SSD) instead of old-fashioned HDDs. This means much faster data serving for free of charge.
- 99.9% uptime: This means maximum 1 minute 26 seconds downtime per day. According to data available on the Internet, the servers’ uptime is even better and is around 99.98% (means maximum 17.3 seconds downtime a day).
- Linux and Windows Hosting: Most of web hosting providers sell Linux based hosting packages; they come with cPanel and are ideal for running PHP based applications like WordPress and almost all modern content management systems. But when it comes to using Microsoft technologies like ASP, .NET or Microsoft SQL databases, Windows servers are better. A2Hosting offers Windows server packages as well.
- 24/7 support: The support is available 7/24 via telephone, email or onsite ticketing system. The company has different phone numbers for different countries, 17 numbers can be called by customers, many of them are toll free.
- 30-days money-back guarantee: If you are not happy with your hosting plan, you can ask for a refund in 30 days. Similar to the most hosting companies, additional services like setup fee, domain registration, SSL certification can’t be refunded.
- Free Cloudflare CDN: You can have benefit of using the content delivery network of Clodflare for free. This means your data will be served easier and your website will be displayed faster.
- Free virus protection: Your website data and emails are protected by free virus protection of the company.
- Green web hosting: A2Hosting got its name about Ann Arbor, a green city with over 50,000 trees. The company headquartered there and is dedicated to use green energy for its business. A2Hosting partnered with Carbonfund.org in 2007 to offset the company’s carbon footprint. To achieve this goal, A2Hosting plants 3 trees for every sold hosting package.
- 1-click install solutions: A versatile list of most common content delivery systems, forum engines or other software pieces can be installed with only a click. This saves your time and you don’t need to worry about making the desired database users, databases or other administrative steps!
- Up to 20 times faster servers: Bigger shared hosting and other hosting packages got the A2 Optimized Site Accelerator what can makes your site up to 20 times faster. The accelerator package contains memory, database and site cache measurements, what can run your PHP scripts faster, perform database queries more effective and display the site quicker.
- Developer friendly environment: A2Hosting provides an up-to-date server environment for developers, where all the major scripts and services are available. You can find PHP 5.x and 7.x, MySQL 5.6, PostgreSQL 9.6, Python and Perl, Apache web server, Node.JS, FTP and SFTP, SSH and SSL.
- Enhanced security: A free HackScan Protection service runs behind hosting packages so the attackers are caught before they reach your site. Other kinds of security measurements, including firewalls, DDoS protection are also available.
We rank A2Hosting on #2 position in our list of best WordPress hosts in Australia.
Hosting Packages of A2Hosting
The entry-level web hosting service of A2Hosting is called Shared Hosting as available both on Linux and Windows operating systems. There are 3 packages for both of them, and their feature list is almost the same.
While there is no difference between server resources, Windows and Linux offer different hosting environments. Linux packages come with cPanel and ideal for running PHP, Python or Perl code pieces, using MySQL or PostgreSQL databases, web servers like Apache and common services like Node.JS.
In opposite of this, Windows based packages are ideal for Windows related services, including ASP or .NET, Microsoft SQL databases and MVC or Silverlight frameworks. cPanel is not available for this operating system so you will get Plesk instead.
Apart of these operating system related specialties, both versions have the same packages:
- Lite: It is suitable for a single site and you can add up to 5 databases to it. It starts at $3.92/month for Linux and $4.90/month for Windows. The regular prices are $7.99/month and $9.99/month.
- Swift: This package gives you 2 times more server resources and you can add an unlimited number of databases to it. It starts at $4.90/month for Linux and $5.88/month for Windows. The regular prices are $9.99/month and $11.99/month.
- Turbo: This package provides you the same features as Swift does but also contains the A2 Site Accelerator service, making your site up to 20 times faster. It starts at $9.31/month and $10.78/month. The regular prices are $18.99/month and $21.99/month.
The Reseller Hosting service of A2Hosting is also available on both operating systems and the main details of the offers are also the same. The smallest package is called Bronze and gives you 30 GB storage, 400 GB data usage, 40 user accounts and a free eNom Reseller Account.
Linux version comes with WHM control panel and starts at $13.19/month, while its regular price is $19.99/month. The Windows version uses Plesk control panel and starts at $14.51/month, its regular price is $21.99/month.
There are versatile offers of VPS packages at A2Hosting and you can purchase Unmanaged VPS Hosting, Managed VPS Hosting with Linux and Managed VPS Hosting with Windows. Root access can be also ordered for both operating system packages.
The Unmanaged VPS Hosting packages come without operating system so you are free to use your own ideas. The smallest package of it gives you 20 GB storage, 1 CPU core, 2 TB bandwidth usage and 0.5 GB memory. It starts at $5/month.
The more robust Managed VPS packages provide more server resources. The smallest package of them offers 4 GB memory, 75 GB storage, 2 TB bandwidth usage and 4 virtual CPUs. It starts at $32.99/month for Linux and $36.29/month for Windows. The regular prices are $49.99/month and $54.99/month.
Dedicated Server Hosting packages are also available at A2Hosting, both in managed and unmanaged versions. The unmanaged packages are cheaper; the smallest package is available from $99.59/month. It contains 8 GB RAM, 2 times 500 GB storage, 10 TB transfer and 2 cores of an Intel 3.1 GHz CPU.
The smaller managed Dedicated Server Hosting package starts at $141.09/month. It provides you the same server resources as the unmanaged version but also contains a free SSL and a free cPanel license.
Conclusion
Is A2Hosting good for Australians? The answer is YES. Its nearest data center in Singapore can serve both your Australian and international customers. The versatile product range can serve your websites from their start and able to handle the high traffic.
The pricing is clear and there are no hidden costs. By choosing A2Hosting you will have a reliable and well performing hosting for your business!
