A2 Hosting vs Hostwinds – Which Web Host is Better?

With the number of web hosts available today, you might find it a bit difficult to select one out of the thousands. 

To be sure, though, A2 Hosting and Hostwinds are some of the most popular, known for the reliable services they offer.

Now, if you’re looking for a more in-depth comparison between these hosts, then keep reading. I’ve pitted A2 Hosting vs Hostwinds to highlight their key differences.

Hopefully, this comparison will give you greater insight on which option will be able to provide the features best suited to YOUR needs.

Ready? Let’s go!

A2 Hosting vs Hostwinds - A Side by Side Comparison

For this comparison, we’ll look at:

• Uptime and performance

• Ease of use

• Migration services

• Products and features

• Security

• Pricing

• Customer Support

Uptime and Performance

You’ll be happy to know that both A2 Hosting and Hostwinds boast a high average on uptime. 

As of now, A2 Hosting’s uptime average comes up at 100% (August 2023), while Hostwinds is at 100% (August 2023). With this, you can be sure that your site will be online for the most part. 

Pretty impressive, right? 

Meanwhile, when it comes to performance, both hosts provide SSD storage space. This will make loading speeds faster, especially when it comes to data-rich content such as videos.

CDN is also provided to optimize data flow, routing traffic to the nearest data center. So no matter where your visitor is located, the loading speed is still fast. 

A2 Hosting takes it a step further with a wide range of different data centers across continents such as Asia, Europe, and the US. 

This, combined with its Turbo Boost feature which promises 20X faster speeds, makes A2 Hosting part of the top 10 web hosts with the fastest loading speeds.

Hostwinds, on the other hand, only has centers in the US and Amsterdam, which means the speeds get slower if located in a different region.

Ease of Use

In terms of user-friendliness, both A2 Hosting and Hostwinds offer an intuitive site creation and management process.

With both hosts, you get access to simple one-click plugin installs. You can add functionality to your site without having to deal with any code.

Moreover, both hosts come with the traditional cPanel. You can access all your site management options such as email management and site analytics on one dashboard.

Both hosts also come with their own site-building tools. With this, you get a bunch of different themes to help you create a unique site without having to deal with any learning curve.

Migration Services

If you already have an existing website, you’ll be delighted to know that both A2 Hosting and Hostwinds offer FREE migration services for 1 site on their basic plans.

If you decide to get a higher-end plan, then you can migrate even more sites. Make sure to check into this carefully if you have more than one existing site.

Products and Features

A2 Hosting and Hostwinds offer a ton of different features and products that appeal to different users.

A2 Hosting’s Startup plan already has 100GB of storage space, which is more than enough. 

Hostwinds goes even further by offering not only unlimited storage space but unlimited bandwidth as well. 

You get FREE email support with both hosts, too. So if you’re looking to keep in touch with your clients and site visitors, this is a very helpful feature. 

Ono top of that, you get FREE domain names for a year. This can save you around $10 to $15 on your first year of hosting with either provider. 

As for products, you’re given a good selection to choose from. 

With A2 Hosting, besides their Shared Hosting, you can go for WordPress Hosting, VPS Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, or Reseller Hosting. 

Hostwinds offers more than that, with Shared Hosting, Business Hosting, Reseller Hosting, VPS Hosting, Cloud Hosting, and Dedicated Hosting. 

Security

Another thing you should not forget to check is the security features of the web hosts you are planning to subscribe to.

Thankfully, almost all packages offered by both A2 Hosting and Hostwinds include a multitude of security features. These include:

• Free SSL that will encrypt your users’ sensitive information to prevent any nosy hacker from being able to access it.
• DDoS protection puts up a firewall between your site and hackers that try to flood your site with bots in an attempt to take it down.
• Server security with 24/7 server monitoring that ensures data safety, along with backup power to keep your site online in the event of a power outage.
• Backups that are run daily by Hostwinds and weekly by A2 Hosting to make sure that the latest version of your site is available in the event of any data loss.
• Hostwinds offers site scanning that aims to detect and contain any malware that may have found its way onto your site, preventing any damage before it happens.

Pricing

After checking on everything we’ve discussed, there’s still one thing that you might be worried about - pricing. 

Here’s a table of each of their hosting plans and their corresponding price range:

As you can see, A2 Hosting offers a cheaper starting point with their Shared Hosting plans.

It’s important to note that Hostwinds offers customizable packages that are priced based on the number of resources you choose - you get more flexibility and customization with their Dedicated Hosting. 

Customer Support

Customer support is a crucial factor that you should look into, especially if you are not that familiar with technical troubleshooting. 

It’s not enough that you can reach them when you need help at any time of the day. They have to be able to resolve the issue for you at the quickest possible time as well.

That said, both A2 Hosting and Hostwinds provide 24/7 customer support available through live chat and phone to answer your queries, with average response times.

But between the two, Hostwinds is more proactive when it comes to website monitoring as it automatically sets up a support ticket if their support system detects issues with your site.

Both hosts also make sure you are equipped with resources to help you out - they both have extensive knowledge hubs with numerous guides and articles to help you deal with general site issues.

Conclusion

Winner Board:

As you can see, both hosts are pretty equal. They’re both user-friendly, have great products and features, offer secure security measures, vary in pricing, etc…

But if you want standouts, then A2 Hosting is better in uptime and performance, while Hostwinds excels in customer support. 

That said, it really all depends on what YOU want. So go ahead and pick one of these two well-known hosts. Rest assured you’ll be in good hands.