Bluehost vs A2 Hosting – Which Web Hosting is Better?

So you already narrowed down your web hosting choices to Bluehost and A2 Hosting. But, you’ll want to know, which one is better? 

Both web hosting providers are great at what they do and a lot of people can attest to that.

The easiest way to go about this is to compare the two in several areas. Areas such as:

• Uptime and performance

• Website building

• Migration services

• Products and features

• Security

• Pricing

• Customer Support

Without further ado, let’s review these areas and figure out which web hosting is better for YOU. 

Uptime and Performance

Uptime and performance are the two most important factors in any website. I mean, no website owner wants their sites down, and web visitors want fast-loading sites. 

Bluehost has a very impressive track record of having a 99.93% (August 2023) uptime. This is rare for a lot of web hosts. 

Sure, a lot will say that they have a 99.9% uptime, but that is mostly said for marketing purposes. This is not their usual average. 

You can be sure that Bluehost doesn’t fit into that category as they always deliver what they promise. 

Fortunately, A2 Hosting isn’t like that, either. Even though their uptime is 100% (August 2023), they stick to that number. Also, that‘s still a very high uptime rate. 

What about speed?

Among the two, A2 Hosting usually has a faster loading time of 288 ms (August 2023) on its websites thanks to the SSD speed boost and the A2 Optimized feature.

Nonetheless, Bluehost is not that far behind as well with speeds of 616 ms (August 2023). The provider has a very fast loading speed in several large cities across the world. Sometimes, their site speed even goes faster than the average. 

Website Building

Don’t have experience in creating a website? Don’t worry, both Bluehost and A2 Hosting have their own website builders. 

But which one is better?

A2 Hosting has a drag-and-drop builder that makes it very user-friendly to anyone with experience or not. You can also easily install WordPress.

However, when compared to Bluehost, it is way behind. 

In fact, Bluehost is one of the three hosting providers that WordPress recommends. This alone makes it the ideal web host for people planning to create a WordPress site. 

And it doesn’t stop there. 

Bluehost is also home to free and premium themes that you will love. With hundreds of themes to choose from, you’ll easily find one that will suit your brand.

Speaking of WordPress, check out this video on how to create a WordPress site with BlueHost:

Migration Services

What if you already have a web host before and you want to go to either Bluehost or A2 Hosting. Will they be able to cover your site migration? 

Thankfully both A2 Hosting and BlueHost offer a free WordPress migration for a single site on their Shared packages.

But unlike BlueHost, A2 Hosting also supports free migrations for non-WordPress sites, too, which is a real help if your pre-existing site runs on another CMS.

Products and Features

Comparing Bluehost and A2 Hosting based on their features alone can be challenging since both have the basic features you need to run your website. 

Features like WordPress themes, SSL certificate, website builder, and domain are available in their basic plans. 

So it all comes down to their unique features and strengths. 

If you check out A2 Hosting’s website, you’ll find that their basic plan has an extensive list of features - from security to e-commerce one-click installs and 100GB of storage. 

This is what makes it very impressive to a lot of beginners. After all, extra features are always welcome as long as the price remains reasonable. 

On the other hand, you have Bluehost who offers a full suite of essential features that’s ideal for beginners. That includes a bunch of quick installs and themes for your WordPress site with 50GB of storage.

And if you’re only just starting, you’d love the fact that it has all the things you’ll need in setting up your presence online.

Security

Even if you’re not a technical person, you should make sure that you check your web host’s security features. 

You don’t want to lose your website or have any of your and your customer’s information leaked. 

When it comes to security, A2 Hosting has more features than Bluehost. 

This is mainly because A2 Hosting has a robust security package that’s included even in their most basic plan. 

They call it ‘Perpetual Security’, which is a suite of antivirus and HackScan features that protect your website 24/7. 

Unfortunately, Bluehost doesn’t come close to the security suite of A2 Hosting. 

For their basic plan, Bluehost only has a free SSL to go with the package. But I appreciate the fact that they can give you a full site restoration in case your data gets wiped out.

Pricing

Both Bluehost and A2 Hosting have shared hosting, WordPress, VPS, and dedicated server plans. 

As you go up the tiers of web hosting types, the monthly fees also increase. 

However, these two are very different when it comes to their prices, especially since they have several different packages under a particular type of hosting. 

So to give you a better idea of the price range of each hosting type, let’s take a look at this table:

It’s clear which web hosting provider has the most affordable packages. 

This is one of the main reasons why Bluehost is ideal for price-sensitive individuals or businesses. 

But of course, I want to emphasize that there are so many factors to the pricing, like lock-in subscriptions and features. 

For both Bluehost and A2 Hosting, you get a cheaper monthly fee if you subscribe to them for 3 years as opposed to just doing it monthly. 

Customer Support

Not a lot of people realize how important customer support is until they experience technical difficulties with their website. 

And for that reason, you should only be considering providers that have 24/7 customer support (because problems can happen anytime!). 

Lucky for us, both Bluehost and A2 Hosting have 24/7 customer service features. 

But there’s just a slight difference. 

A2 Hosting has maintained its email support while Bluehost hasn’t. 

This means that customer service is only reachable on call and live chat for Bluehost. 

This makes A2 Hosting a better choice for people who prioritize all types of availability. 

Nonetheless, these two web hosting services have very strong customer support. 

Both have step-by-step guides and beginner videos and tutorials that will easily help you set up and solve basic issues.

BlueHost vs A2 Hosting - The Verdict

So which one is better? 

To be sure, both Bluehost and A2 Hosting shine in certain areas. 

If you prioritize affordability, and features, Bluehost might be the better option for you. But if you’re more into security, customer support, and performance, then you might consider A2 Hosting the better provider.