Last Updated on February 1, 2023 by Obaro Alidou K.
Can’t decide which one to choose between SiteGround and A2 Hosting? This in-depth and unbiased full comparison will clear your doubts and help you make the perfect choice for your online business. In this post, I’m going to clarify some key points and reveal which from SiteGround and A2 Hosting is the best.
The first time I signed up with SiteGround, I was amazed by the quality of service they deliver. Support is good, speed and uptime are better than the industry average. Then, I discovered A2 Hosting, a green web hosting which offers similar services with great support. They all use fantastic server technologies and have all the required infrastructure criteria to provide the best web hosting services we have ever seen in the market. But, as there is always a winner between two similar products, which one is the best?
The answer might surprise you….Keep reading.
A2 Hosting vs. SiteGround: #14 Hidden Reasons Why A2Hosting is the Winner
YES; I give the edge to A2 Hosting. Ok; you’ll see many people recommending SiteGround over A2 Hosting. But, after digging out the dirty faces, you will easily and surprisingly discover that A2 Hosting is better than SiteGround. Let’s go!
When you take a closer look at SiteGround and A2 Hosting, one of the first things you notice is…
1. Bandwidth
SiteGround may be one of the best web hosting services for many people but, it is metered hosting which means you need to choose your plan according to your monthly traffic. The entry-level plan, for example, allows you to get only 10,000 visits per month. The GrowBig plan allows only 25,000 visits. For higher traffic, your only choice is the GoGeek which costs much more.
Well; it might not be a problem for many customers but, in case you exceed the limits, your account will be frozen until the next month (you don’t want that). With A2 Hosting you get unlimited bandwidth instead; so no issues there.
2. Storage
Another limitation is storage. While A2 Hosting gives you unlimited SSD Storage on every plan (even the entry-level), SiteGround allows you only 10 GB on StartUp plan, 20GB for GrowBig, and 30GB on GoGeek.
A2 Hosting Vs. SiteGround: Bandwidth and Storage Comparison Table
| Disk space | Bandwidth | ||
| A2 Hosting STARTUP | 100 GB SSD | Unlimited | Details |
| SiteGround StartUp | 10 GB | 10,000 visits/month |
3. WordPress Specific Features
Most bloggers recommend SiteGround as a top WordPress Hosting Provider, and, I can’t blame them. SiteGround is WordPress focused and provides specific features like WP-CLI, Git, and Auto-updates. They even provide staging feature which allows users to launch a website in a testing environment before it goes live on the web. And, honestly, many web hosts don’t provide staging on their WordPress Hosting plans. However, A2 Hosting is an exception. Not only do they provide all the features listed above plus staging, they even go beyond with a specific WordPress feature called A2 Optimized. 
It is an in-house plugin that makes A2 Hosting stand out.
Ok; SiteGround has also launched its custom caching tool (SuperCacher). But, it is far behind A2 Optimized. In addition to caching, A2 Optimized takes your WordPress site security to the next level. Best of all, it works with the most popular CMSs and eCommerce applications including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, OpenCart, PrestaShop, Magento. 
You won’t have to go through any headache; just install the plugin and it does everything hands-free.
4. Staging and Custom Caching Requirement
A2 Hosting provides staging and A2 Optimized on every plan with no special requirement. Instead, with SiteGround, if you want staging and their custom SuperCacher, you will have to pay for the high tier plan (GoGeek); again, which cost $34.95/month! when renewing.
5. Custom Server Setup
SiteGround relies on Apache web Server plus NGINX Proxy to handle WordPress software which is a great configuration. They are also PHP7 and HTTP/2 compatible. But, what if you could get better sever optimization? Would simply be amazing! A2 Hosting servers are more optimized for WordPress than SiteGround. The A2 Turbo Servers are designed to run up to 20x faster than the industry average speed. How is that possible? In addition to CloudLinux OS, A2 Hosting uses LiteSpeed, Memcached, plus deep turbo caching to make their Turbo Servers run your Applications much faster than SiteGround in most cases.
6. Performance
One of SiteGround selling points has always been server speed. It has always maintained a good average speed going from 580 ms to 800 ms which I think is honorable for shared hosting as your site more often loads under 1s. As far as A2 Hosting is concerned, the combination of A2 Optimized and Turbo Server configuration from leads naturally to great performance. While SiteGround runs at 700 ms average, A2 Hosting delivers a load time of around 350 ms.
Conclusion: A2 Hosting runs almost 2x faster than SiteGround.
A2 Hosting runs almost 2x faster than SiteGroundClick To Tweet
7. Security
The biggest area A2 Hosting excels at is security. I’m not talking about SSL Certificates, Firewalls, and Virus scans as both web hosts provide this stuff. Instead, I’m pointing out an important security feature most people don’t talk about…
Virus and Malware Removal
SiteGround has everything in place to prevent and nothing to solve. Here is what I mean: With SiteGround, when your site gets hacked or infected by a malicious attack, you are alone; the company doesn’t solve the problem for you. You most of the time lose your files and databases (in case you don’t have any backup). If you don’t want that, you will have to pay someone to clean your site. And, it might cost up to $400+ to clean an infected or hacked website depending on the damage level.
Sound familiar? But, don’t worry because A2 Hosting has got you covered. As pointed out earlier in this section, the biggest area A2 Hosting excels at is security features. In effect, A2 provides Perpetual Security, which is an around the clock hacks, Virus, and Malware detector. In addition, your hosting includes automated patching with patchman enhanced security for most popular applications like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. The cooler thing, when your site is hacked or infected, you are not alone. A2 Hosting takes real pleasure to clean and take it back as it was! Oh, and it is free.
A2 Hosting cleans your infected or hacked website for free which SiteGround doesn’t.Click To Tweet8. Entry Process Limits
I can’t explain why no hosting comparison site mentions this topic despite its importance.
Entry process is the number of users who can access your website pages at the same time. When a user accesses a page on your site, he opens one connection that is being executed in a few milliseconds and when the content of your website is loaded in his browser, the connection is closed. So, as most users pause for a few seconds or even minutes to read, a concurrent connection limit of 10 could allow up to 30 visitors to browse your site at the same time. When you have massive traffic and the entry process limit is low, your site will most of the time be crashing, making you lose your readers or clients.
Going back to our comparison, SiteGround allows you 20 concurrent connections on their GoGeek plan which is at the top level. You drop $34.95/month and get a tiny 20 Entry process limits! A2 Hosting instead, allows 15 on STARTUP plan and 35-100! concurrent connections with DRIVE and TURBO plans.
In fact, when you purchase a DRIVE or one of the TURBO plans, the minimum entry process limit with A2 is 35. Now, when your site demands more, depending on the server load, you are allowed to use up to 100 concurrent connections (I like it).
Bottom line: With A2 Hosting, your site handles up to 5x more simultaneous visitors than SiteGround. As a result, your site will nearly never crash with A2.
With A2 Hosting, your site handles up to 5x more simultaneous visitors than SiteGround. As a result, your site will nearly never crash with A2.Click To Tweet9. Inode limits
Inode limit is one of the top server resource caps to look up before buying a hosting service and, I don’t understand why nobody mentions that in hosting comparisons.
Ok; seems like I’m the only guy on earth who cares about important things when it comes to web hosting comparison. So, let’s go…
SiteGround allows users 150,000 inodes on the StartUp plan. It is ok to start a blog and even handle a small website. But if you upload files or frequently release long form blog posts with beautiful images, you could hit the limit sonner than expected; and it costs $11.95/month! What is wrong with SiteGround! I don’t really see why I would drop such amount of cash and get hard limits on everything.
Unlike SiteGround, A2 hosting allows you 600,000 inodes no matter the hosting plan you purchase (even the lowest plan).
A2 Hosting allows 4x more inodes than SiteGroundClick To TweetA2 Hosting vs. SiteGround: Inodes and Entry Process limits Comparison Table
| Inodes | Entry Process | ||
| A2 Hosting STARTUP | 600,000 | 15-100 | Details |
| SiteGround SartUp | 150,000 | 10 | Visit SiteGround |
10. Scalability
What if your website grows and can’t stand on shared hosting? You normally need a cheap VPS hosting which is more powerful and stable. Unfortunately, SiteGround doesn’t provide VPS Hosting. In case your site outgrows shared hosting, they only have a cloud hosting ranging at $80-$240/month which:
- You don’t essentially need
- Is Pricey for a small to middle size project
- Is known for CPU warning
- Is complicated to manage for a non-techy guy.
With A2 Hosting you get a wide range of hosting going from shared hosting, cloud, VPS hosting, dedicated server, WordPress hosting, Reseller, and Managed Hosting. No matter what kind of growth you reach, with A2, you think longevity. Don’t just be a consumer, be a smart buyer.
11. Support
Both web hosts have a great support team. They provide responsive, knowledgeable, and user-friendly help. However, A2 hosting has the edge with its well-known Guru Crew support. They are more professional and tend to solve complex issues much faster than SiteGround.
12. Backup limitations
A2 Hosting is the only host on earth that provides Server Rewind Backups. And you know what? You get up to 50 GB storage for backups. Now, coming to SiteGround, how much space do you think you are allowed to use for backups when you only get 10 GB storage on your hosting account? I let you find the answer yourself.
13. Money-back guarantee
Let me be straight… SiteGround gives a 30-day money back guarantee. It is good but, with A2 Hosting, you have hassle-free anytime money-back guarantee. They are so confident and know you won’t be canceling. So much so that they allow clients to request a refund anytime. Once more, A2 Hosting wins!
14. Pricing
Last but not least, A2 Hosting hasthe best pricing in addition to all the above advantages over SiteGround. A quick recap goes like this… SiteGround already provides:
- Less storage
- Less bandwidth
- Lower inodes limits
- Lower Entry Process
- Lower performance
SiteGround doesn’t:
- Scale with you
- Clean your website if it gets hacked/infected
As if it wasn’t enough, SiteGround is up to 200% pricier than A2 Hosting. 
A2 Hosting STARTUP Vs. SiteGround StartUp
| A2 Hosting Lite | SiteGround StartUp | |
| Websites | 1 | 1 |
| Space | 100 GB SSD | 10 GB |
| Monthly traffic | Unlimited | 10,000 visits |
| Free site transfer | Yes | Yes |
| Staging | Yes | No |
| Price | $3.92 | $3.95 |
| Renewal | $7.99 | $11.95 |
A2 Hosting STARTUP IS THE WINNER
A2 Hosting DRIVE Vs. SiteGround GrowBig
| A2 Hosting DRIVE | SiteGround GrowBig | |
| Websites | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Space | Unlimited | 20 GB |
| Monthly traffic | Unlimited | 25,000 visits |
| Free site transfer | Yes | Yes |
| Staging | Yes | No |
| Price | $4.90 | $5.95 |
| Renewal | $9.99 | $19.95 |
A2 Hosting DRIVE IS THE WINNER
A2 Hosting TURBO BOOST Vs. SiteGround GoGeek
|
A2 Hosting TURBO |
SiteGround GoGeek |
|
| Websites | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Space | Unlimited | 30 GB |
| Monthly traffic | Unlimited | 100,000 visits |
| Free site transfer | Yes | Yes |
| Staging | Yes | Yes |
| Price | $9.31 | $11.95 |
| Renewal | $18.99 | $34.95 |
A2 Hosting TURBO IS THE WINNER
A2 Hosting Vs. SiteGround: Plans, Price, and Features Full Comparison Table
A2 Hosting |
SiteGround |
|
| Technology | CloudLinux, NGINX, LiteSpeed, Turbo Server up to 20x faster | CloudLinux, NGINX |
| PH7.x | Supported | Supported |
| HTTP/2 Protocol | Yes | Yes |
| Caching | LSCache, Memcached, Varnish, A2 Optimized | – |
| WP-CLI, Git, Staging | Included | Staging is included with GoGeek plan only |
| Custom Caching | A2 Optimized, Turbo Server | SuperCacher (available on GoGeek plan only) |
| Custom Security feature | Perpetual Security, Patchman enhanced security, free HackScan | – |
| Free Firewalls | Included | Included |
| Free hacked site cleaning | Yes | Not supplied |
| Storage | Unlimited | 10GB-30GB |
| Bandwidth/month | Unlimited | 10,000-100,000 |
| Average Load time | 350 ms | 700 ms |
| Uptime | 99.98 | 99.99 |
| Support rating | 10 | 8.9 |
| Hosting Service | Shared, WordPress, VPS, cloud, dedicated, reseller, managed | Shared, WordPress, cloud |
| Inodes limits | 600,000 | 150,000-450,000 |
| Entry process limits | 15-100 | 10-20 |
| Price | $3.92-$9.31 | $3.95-$11.95 |
| Renewal price | $7.99-$18.99 | $11.95-$34.95 |
| Money back guarantee | Anytime (details) | 30 days |
| Overall rating | 9.9 | 8.0 |
|
|
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Claim your 51% Special Discount
A2 Hosting Vs. SiteGround: Conclusion
Both web hosting solutions are great. But, after the 14 facts pointed out above, it is hard to turn your back to A2. With faster load time, unlimited SSD storage and bandwidth, super secured servers, custom server technology, higher resource allocation, free virus/malware removal, and 200% cheaper prices, A2 Hosting wins the prize over SiteGround. If you want a fast, secure, reliable, and affordable web hosting service to host your blog, business website, eCommerce, or a wiki site, you should give A2 Hosting a chance.
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Cheers!
Obaro
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