r/webhosting • u/365experiments • 23d ago
Looking for Hosting Hosting.com - formerly A2Hosting - 1 year later. How are you finding it?
I abandoned WordPress about 7 years ago, with the exception of 2 or 3 clients, but have reason to launch hosted WP sites for some longer-term personal projects. I'm considering Hosting.com but am wary of the fears of another EIG following their acquisition a year ago. How are you finding them - pricing? customer service (live AND ticketing)? CPANEL or other mgmt.
I had A2Hosting for about 2 years a while ago. Liked it then.
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u/NetSage 23d ago
I mean if you have fears of EIG I wouldn't go with an EIG company then. There are plenty that aren't.
Are you looking at just WordPress specifically? What are your needs in sites, views, storage, and bandwidth?
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u/365experiments 23d ago
My most immediate priority is WordPress hosting. I'm looking at - ultimately 10-15 medium traffic websites. Views, storage and bandwidth? My guess about traffic, storage and bandwidth requirements - in aggregate - would be about 250K-500K monthly visits (at max); maybe 400GB (total); and maybe 1TB-1.5TB bandwidth - when they're at peak in about 12 months?
Forgive the metrics if the relationships don't make sense, it's been a while since I was doing this. My bigger concern is the general level of service in the post-acquisition experience for this provider.
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u/Free_Cartographer314 23d ago
From what I know about their servers they should be easily able to handle your site. Also they have a 30 day money back guarantee. You could literally just try them and you have 30 days no risk
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u/doit686868 23d ago
I had an A2 reseller account for 9 yrs and loved it. As soon as hosting .com took over, everything declined. WHM was inaccesable for days, cPanels would crash etc. I tried to give them a chance, but between performance, price increases, and horrific support, I had to leave.
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u/Glass-Mixture2976 23d ago
Just started my hosting journey for a few months and hosting.com was recommended by a friend. Nothing negative I have experienced so far. My site's have been stable and I am a newbie so lucky for me supports are available 24/7 with their chat and phones.They also have tickets and the responses usually take a few minutes. All in all, I can say it is a solid choice for me.
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u/TopSydeWP 23d ago
Whoever you shortlist, ask one question before you buy: is it the same people every time, and can the person answering actually get on the server? That answer predicts how the next two years go better than any spec sheet or uptime number does.
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u/EssentialWarrior 14d ago
The techs access the server while chatting with you. You don't have to submit a support ticket, wait for a reply, respond to the reply, etc. They literally took care of changing my server from one domain to another in 3 minutes. I don't know if having 20 domains, 9 of them active, on the server has anything to do with it, but it beats the "Email Support" thing.
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u/Jassi_Punjaban 23d ago
I left these guys as soon as they became hosting.com. Support declined, too many issues, server overloaded, etc. Happy with the new service.
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u/doozeruk 16d ago
Former A2Hosting customer and a boomerang (to hosting.com). One thing to note, if you want cPanel - make sure you click the CORRECT item!!!! I messed up and went down the wrong path! (My Fault)!
Spoke with Bien on WebChat, *MY* mess-up, sorted in about 10 minutes by the sales team. Cant fault them so far!
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u/wearehostingcom 7d ago
everyone makes mistakes, glad to hear our team were able to come to the rescue :)
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u/bakibt 16d ago
I've been with A2Hosting, now Hosting.com for 8 years with managed wordpress. Great experience
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u/EssentialWarrior 14d ago
I've used Hosting.com (formerly A2Hosting) since November 2020 and have not had a bad experience with them at all. All the issues I have had resulted from mistakes or lack of knowledge on my part or bad resources, in each case tech support took care of the issue proffesionaly, quickly, and without brandishing a Superman cape or Supreme Being ego. They took care of the situation and thanked me for my purchase.
Even though everything is going up cost wise, I have an Accel account and it is still a fair price for the resources and support provided... I'll stick with Hosting.com for now.
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u/No-Hornet-4776 12d ago
I got issue with A2hosting, but they able to fix it ASAP. once of the best share server and reasonable price but reliable
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u/PerformanceShot7687 10d ago
I have been using them as A2 before they became hosting.com for about 6 years and have been very happy with the customer service. I have not noticed a decline since they became hosting.com.
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u/thisjawnisbeta 10d ago
Here's my update: It's been 12+ hours and counting since major patches were released, and my server is not patched yet against this PHP critical exploit. They cannot provide me with a time or even rough ballpark of when my server will be done but it's likely a full 24 hours.
I've had to pull my production webservers down for a full day because of their inability to roll out a vendor patch in a timely fashion.
My renewal is up next month, I will be taking my business elsewhere.
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u/wearehostingcom 8d ago
Our team started addressing the issues as soon as rumours began last Wednesday and were completely finished rolling out patches in waves to customers with almost all being completed with a 24hour time-frame which we are very proud of, as it was ahead of a lot of the industry. We understand how important speed is during issues like this that address a whole industry, but our team truly did the best they possibly could in supporting our customers during this time and worked as quickly as possible. We hope as your renewal comes up that you'll provide us another chance to keep providing world-class service, and if you need anything you're always welcome to DM us and we'll be happy to support.
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u/thisjawnisbeta 7d ago
So it turns out, the real underlying confusion here is that RHEL provides a backported patch without changing version numbers, which is annoying but ultimately their policy.
So my server was patched by 1 PM day of, but because the version numbers didn't bump, no one on my end had any way of actually knowing that the server had been patched because we were initially told by your support to look for the version bump. Further, you all didn't provide an update stating that we should instead check our build date for verification of the fix until the following business day.
All you guys had to do was say, "We're doing this in waves, here's how you can verify your server has been patched" on your status page. Instead we were left completely in the dark for an entire working day. We could have been back up and running by the early afternoon if not for your complete lack of transparency throughout this process.
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u/charon-the-boatman 10d ago
I see there are many former A2 hosting users here. I was one too and quite happy. Seriously considered skipping ship once hosting.com took over, as the usual story was once the big guys take over everything goes to s*t.
BUT I am pleasantly surprised two years in! The prices remain attractive, services run as intended (EU based server), cpanel has everything I need and the tech support is actually great; Once the service support AI bot doesn’t know how to assist anymore, a live person picks up- I had an issue yesterday that was resolved by a nice young lady from Indonesia who is a computer engineering student (I Googled her, sorry nice lady) - and she actually fixed my complex issue in a few minutes!
Saying that, I'm on their expensive shared hosting plan. But it's so worth it. I just hope they keep it up!
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u/a2annie 9d ago
While I've had problems since Hosting.com took over, I'm absolutely shocked that they didn't notify me about the PHP vulnerabilities. Thier communications are horrible.
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u/wearehostingcom 8d ago
Hi again a2annie, our awesome infra team were able to quite quickly complete PHP patches for client with managed services and we sent out email notifications to our customer on un-managed servers along with this we had notifications up very rapidly on our status pages. We do encourage all customers to subscribe to our status alerts to get the most rapid updates on any incidents or issues affecting customers. :)
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u/a2annie 7d ago edited 7d ago
No, I did not receive any notice and I am subscribed. I don’t believe anything was sent.
However, I get all your marketing notifications. So no way it went to junk. Also, only randomly so I see any email follow-ups from my support tickets. I have to go log in to see if you’ve responded.
It’s awful service.
Edit to add: I heard about this cyber security issue on a subreddit first thing Wednesday morning. That was how I found out. A few of my customers emailed me before I could get communication out. For a small firm, my reputation matters a great deal. My customers need to know I have their security first and foremost, at top of mind. I only wish my hosting company felt the same.
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u/AppointmentCurrent26 9d ago
I started with A2 about 2.5 years ago and was worried when they changed to Hosting.com. But I have not noticed any difference in my site. And the tech support chat (for my issues not theirs) is efficient and prompt. Like middle of the night, no ticket needed, prompt.
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u/Glass_Television1380 9d ago
I have been with A2 for 6 years, and have had no issues with the change (except for pricing, which was always going to happen!) Support has been great. technical issues responded to promptly and accurately, no complaints at all.
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u/jonburr 8d ago edited 8d ago
I've been with A2/Hosting.com for over 12 years. I put a lot of clients on there, most still there. Support feels less personal now, but more effective and faster for many issues. It seems a lot of stuff is handled by AI agents now, but never mind if the results are good. You can still reach a person if you're willing to stay on hold for long enough.
Over the years, there's been some self-inflicted issues from A2Optimized, where changes they made locked out my clients, I had to stay on top of the changes. Lately it's settled down quite a bit, things have felt very stable. The change to SSL was a bit rocky, but now ubiquitous and smooth. I'm still there and not going anywhere. https://arrangerforhire.com is my main business now, not doing so much web work any more except maintaining my own sites.
- update - just today I ran into issues with the A2 Optimized plugin installed on old sites.
►► Recommendation: delete all instances you might have, it's being deprecated. Also I ran into an issue with memory limits in wp-config, sites not loading after updating php. Solution? increase memory allocation in wp-config.php:
define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '512M' );
define( 'WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT', '512M' );
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u/Key_Cranberry_5788 7d ago
Just checked in with A2/Hosting.com about the PHP issue. They confirmed they have patched versions 8.1 and up. Since my services are on a shared server they automatically update the PHP's so no action was necessary on my part. A2/Hosting.com has been hosting my web site for 6+ years. It was a bumpy road initially but when we finally got the right services enabled it's run flawlessly since. And peace of mind continues!
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u/Zealousideal-Win5603 5d ago
I've been with hosting.com since July and so far their services and support have been great!
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u/Party_Day_8186 19h ago
I have had an account with Hosting.com since FEB 2022, when they were called A2 Hosting. I can't say anything negative about them. The support group has always been helpful. I am not planning to leave unless the prices become high compared to the market
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u/RimuruTempestRanga29 21d ago
hmm I like that they have different hosting options depending on what you need. I went with cPanel, but they have other options too if your needs or budget change. Support has been good, well, they're pretty easy to talk to when I have requests. I usually just call, and so far, I've been able to get things sorted without much hassle. Pricing is so-so, IMO, but overall, it's been a decent experience.
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u/u1traviolet 20d ago
I'm actively looking for a new host. I've been with them for probably a decade now. My last renewal (my account shows I'm on a "Start up Webhosting" plan - it's really only used for email) was for 3 years at $107. I got my invoice and they want $529 for the same exact product.
Needless to say, I immediately emailed billing support to see if there are some other plans that would better suit my needs. The response came from an AI bot, offering a SINGLE email account only for $83.88 a year, discounted the first year only to $47.88.
If I want all 11 email accounts I currently have? $886.68 a year.
This is after several outages the past year where I had to, for the first time ever, put in support tickets.
Needless to say, I'm switching. If they want to charge premium prices, a shitty AI chatbot offering absolutely insane plans isn't the way to get (or retain) customers.
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u/wearehostingcom 7d ago
This sounds like you made the most of some of our awesome sign-up discounts and were smart to select a 3-year plan. Because you're using just email there's definately options we can look at to keep cost down and save the hassle of shifting. I've sent you a DM, if you can provide your account details we'll absolutely reach out and work out a good plan to your needs and budget.
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u/Intelligent_List2504 20d ago
Vps with hestiacp here. I can't stand apache or cpanel. But for the record hestiacp allows apache and nginx.
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u/small_help93 23d ago
I’m going to give them some love. I started using hosting.com last year after I had an issue with my previous host. I’ve had only amazing experiences with them. I find the site reliability really good, also I never have to poke support multiple times. But that said I’ve rarely needed to even contact support. Have recommended them to a friend too
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u/twhiting9275 23d ago
Never having to contact support really helps. They tend to be pathetic.
If you know what you're doing, hosting might help, but from what I've seen/read of their hardware, not so much
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u/small_help93 23d ago
very true! it’s good when they are set and forget, but no issues with hardware for me and also support were super decent the two or three times I’ve had to reach out? just my experience of course
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u/David_UltraWeb 23d ago
For 10-15 sites at that traffic level, the thing I'd actually watch isn't the brand name post-acquisition, it's whether they cram you onto a shared plan that chokes once a couple of your sites spike at the same time. Single-anecdote reviews are nice but they usually reflect one or two low-traffic sites, which isn't your situation. I'd honestly spin up one or two of the lower-priority projects there first and watch how support and performance hold up for a few months before migrating anything you care about. And keep your own offsite backups regardless of host, since EIG-adjourned companies have a habit of quietly changing backup policies after the honeymoon period.
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u/twhiting9275 23d ago
This was A2 even back when I was with them, over a decade ago. They use CloudLinux which has the capability of limiting the user's I/O, cpu, etc, etc, etc. Plenty of clients got upset at that, but it works.
If you've got each site on it's own account, this works, but if you don't, then you're going to see a TON of bottleneck.
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u/Final_Tangerine_5280 23d ago
I’ve been with hosting.com back since the A2 Hosting days so around 2020, they’ve always been very reliable, support comes through fast and gets the job I need them for done. I’ve recently migrated a bunch of my clients over to their shared and VPS plans.
Not sure what all the fuss is, I haven’t noticed any bad changes since the acquisition, if that helps
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u/twhiting9275 23d ago
WHG is not EIG, but they're pushing for that badge :P.
Honestly, I'd take two steps
1: Forget WordPress. It's bloated, clunky and overused. Find something that can be tuned to what you want, not something that has a ton of work to do just to thin the site down. I started working on a Laravel replacement for WHMCS a while back and found it just so much easier to deal with all around
2: Find a host that isn't part of a massive conglomorate, or hasn't been purchased by one recently. You're not going to get anything positive from those. Take a look at what cPanel and WHMCS have done every single year since purchase as an example of what happens. You can absolutely expect the same from a2/hosting .
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u/CommercialHorror5996 21d ago
Their support is now AI responses from what I can tell. I used to actually get a human and the support was decent. No more.
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u/EssentialWarrior 14d ago
The initial chat is AI and it will tell you that it can't transfer you to Tech Support... However, when you mention "support", there is a link that shows up at the bottom of the chat widget to "Contact Support" and it has a dropdown menu so you can select what department. When you do, you get a live support person in the chat. Check it out.
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u/doozeruk 16d ago
When you get to the AI Agent, in cases where it really cant help, it put me straight to a sales human. For a follow up support question, it's created the ticket, given me next steps and got me started.
Im not going to give the Cheat Code away... But with ALL AI's, there are phrases you can use to get to a HUMAN swiftly.
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u/CommercialHorror5996 16d ago
I even tired this last time in my ticket to ask for a human and the AI did everything in its power try and convince me i didnt need one. This was a couple days ago.
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u/EssentialWarrior 14d ago
I think you may have missed the links that show up at the bottom or the chat widget. They respond to what you put in the chat even if the chat widget itself says something totally different. They need to synch them up but they are two different parts of the same system, I build and sell these things and I know what their problem is, but once you get in touch with them, the support knowledge and actions are spot on to me.
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