A2 was incorporated in 2003 and is a popular alternative to other leading shared hosting service providers. Hostgator was founded in 2002 and is one of the top 3 shared hosting companies in the world right now. Are shared server or VPS plans of HG better than those of A2? Which company offers more features? Below, we’ve compared the features and plans of the two firms.
Data centers
When it comes to data centers, A2 Hosting has the upper hand over HG as it has data centers on three continents. Two data centers are in the US, and one is in Amsterdam and Singapore. HG has two data centers. Both data centers are located in the US.
Shared Hosting
A2 has launched four shared, managed, and dedicated plans. The shared subscription of the firm are – Startup, Drive, Turbo boost, and Turbo Max. Only the Startup server supports a single website out of four plans. Although Startup supports one site, it offers a good amount of storage memory i.e. 100GB.
The Drive, Turbo, and Boost A2H packs offer unlimited bandwidth and storage memory and are enabled with daily site backup service. They cost 5.99, 6.99, and 12.99 dollars per month. According to A2, its Boost servers offer five times more resources than non-Turbo boost shared machines, and the sites hosted on Turbo/Turbo Boost machines are 20 times faster than those hosted on other shared servers.
Each shared server of Hostgator offers unlimited storage memory. Hatchling machines enables its users to host one website, and it costs 2.75/month. The Baby and Business shared subscriptions are priced at 3.50 and 5.25 dollars per month. They support unlimited websites.
A2 doesn’t offer a free domain, but the Hostgator packages come with a free domain. HG and A2H shared plans offer a free site migration service. The daily backups are not activated for the Startup server of A2. HG has enabled daily backups for each of their shared packages. Turbo/Turbo Boost VPS supports cloning and offers a staging environment. It lets users harden their site’s security with one click of a button.
Users of Hostgator and a2 Hosting servers can create unlimited email addresses. a2 supports PHP 5.x to PHP 8.0. HG supports PHP 5.x to 7.4.x. The two companies enable their users to change the PHP versions from the control panel and protect the websites from DDoS attacks. They let users activate SSL certificates/HTTPS for their sites. These were some of the major differences and similarities between the shared subscription of the two hosts.
VPS
A2 offers four unmanaged and the same number of managed VPSes. The unmanaged plans will cost half if you buy the 3-year subscription. The unmanaged plans are – Runway 2, Runway 4, SuperSonic 8, and Supersonic 16. Runway 2 has 250GB SSD, 2GB RAM, and a 2-core processor.
Runway 4 VPS features 4GB RAM, a 4-core processor, and a 450GB SSD. SuperSonic 8 VPS has 8GB RAM, 150GB NVMe storage, and a 2-core processor. SuperSonic 16 VPS comes with 16GB RAM, 250GB NVMe storage, and a 6-core processor.
The Managed plans of A2 are Lift 4, Lift 8, Lift 16, and Mach 8. These packs are priced between 54.99 and 89.99 dollars. They offer 8GB to 16GB RAM, 150 to 400GB SSD, and 2-core to 8-core processors. The costliest Managed VPS of A2 is powered by the LiteSpeed webserver and the LSCache plugin. As in the shared plans, you can create unlimited email addresses. Each managed VPS is enabled with APC/Opcache and Memcached. The company also provides 1 to 5 cPanels.
Hostgator provides three cloud and three unmanaged VPS packages. The company’s Cloud VPSes are Hatchling, Baby, and Business Cloud. These three subscriptions come with unlimited storage memory. The unmanaged VPS are Snappy 2000, Snappy 4000, and Snappy 8000. The Baby plan costs 4.95 dollars/month, and it offers 2GB RAM and a 2-core processor. Snappy 2000 server provides 2 RAM and a 2-core processor like the Baby server and has a 120GB SSD. It cost 19.95 dollars. Snappy 4000 VPS has a 2-core processor, 4GB RAM, and 165GB SSD.
The Hostgator Baby cloud VPS has a 4-core processor and 4GB RAM. Snappy 8000 server has 8GB RAM and a 4-core processor. It features 240GB SSD and is priced at 39.95 USD/month. Business cloud server ships with a 6-core processor and 6GB RAM. It offers free SEO tools, a dedicated IP address, and a Positive SSL certificate. Each Hostgator cloud VPS offers cPanel. Unmanaged VPS users will have to buy a cPanel license to use it. Hostgator enables its VPS users to schedule backups. The plans let you make site transfer requests and come with a Softaculous one-click software installer tool.
Money-back guarantee, uptime, and support
The shared/managed servers of A2H and Hostgator carry a 30- and 45-days money-back guarantee. According to the two firms, the uptime of their servers is over 99.8%. HG offers email, live chat, and phone-based support. A2 provides email and live chat support.
Reasons to choose A2H:
Latest PHP: PHP 8 is the most recent version of PHP. It is faster and offers more features than PHP 5.6 to 7.4. If your WP theme and plugins you’re currently using are compatible with PHP 8.0, you can switch to the latest edition of the Hypertext preprocessor with one click of a button.
Caching: Some A2H plans are enabled with high-performance caching systems such as Memcached and APC/Opcode and offer higher resources than cheaper plans.
LS Cache: 2 shared servers of A2 are powered by the LiteSpeed webserver. If you purchase one of these two subscriptions, you can install and use the LS Cache plugin. LS Cache is one of the most popular free caching plugins for those unaware. It is one of the few WP plugins that can generate critical CSS.
Reasons to choose Hostgator:
Free domain: The cloud and shared plans of HG ship with a free top-level domain.
Attractive cloud plans: The cloud VPSes of the company offer good configuration for a low cost.
Backups: Hostgator has enabled backups for all shared, cloud, and VPS plans.
Reliable: HG is one of the most reliable hosting companies on the internet. I’ve used it in the past and found it good.
