hosting.com (formerly A2 Hosting) vs alwaysdata
A detailed comparison to help you choose between hosting.com (formerly A2 Hosting) and alwaysdata.
Quick Verdict
3.5/5
hosting.com (formerly A2 Hosting)
0 reviews
3.9/5
alwaysdata
0 reviews
alwaysdata is rated higher (3.9 vs 3.5). hosting.com, formerly A2 Hosting, offers managed and unmanaged VPS plans and fully managed servers with NVMe storage and LiteSpeed, plus free migration and 24/7 in-house support. French managed hosting platform with a free 1 GB plan and paid managed-cloud plans from EUR 5/month, supporting many languages, databases, email and SSH access.
hosting.com (formerly A2 Hosting) Managed VPS and servers with NVMe storage and LiteSpeed | alwaysdata Managed cloud hosting with integrated development tools and databases | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.5 (0 reviews) | 3.9 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | freemium |
| Starting price | From $3.99/mo✓ | From $5/mo |
| Best for | WordPress, PHP, and cPanel workloads — content sites, stores, and agency client hosting — that want LiteSpeed performance, in-house 24/7 support, and managed VPS options, with the discipline to buy long terms and budget renewals. | European developers, agencies, and public-sector buyers who need EU data residency, managed hosting, and developer tooling without enterprise complexity. |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ✓ | |
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | Ann Arbor MI, Phoenix AZ, Amsterdam, Singapore (classic four), expanded to 20+ global locations post-rebrand | — |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | nvme storageus datacentereu datacenterapac datacenter | free tiereu datacentergdpr compliant |
| Visit hosting.com (formerly A2 Hosting) → | Visit alwaysdata → | |
hosting.com (formerly A2 Hosting)
Pros
- + Strong base hardware everywhere: AMD EPYC CPUs, NVMe SSDs, LiteSpeed with caching, HTTP/3 and Cloudflare Enterprise CDN on WordPress plans
- + Clear managed-versus-unmanaged VPS split with published resource tables and an explicit SLA scope (99.9% power/network)
- + In-house 24/7/365 support (the Guru Crew) plus free migrations and free SSL on all plans
- + Post-rebrand footprint of 20+ global locations across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific
- + Root access, OS choice (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Debian 12, AlmaLinux 9), and scalable resources on self-managed VPS
Cons
- - Renewals run 2–4x introductory rates across shared and VPS lines
- - Self-managed add-ons are expensive — cPanel from $16.19/mo can exceed the server price on entry plans
- - Bandwidth allowances inconsistently published; some entry unmanaged VPS plans use SATA SSD rather than NVMe
- - Mid-integration after the World Host Group acquisition: branding and support transition reports from users
- - No hourly billing, no free tier, and no GPU or S3-compatible storage products
alwaysdata
Pros
- + Free-for-life 1 GB plan with no credit card required
- + Clear published pricing with concrete support commitments (15-minute tickets)
- + French data residency with owned infrastructure and native IPv6
- + Real developer tooling: SSH, Git, multi-language versions, hosted email and databases
- + Two decades of operation with major French institutions as references
Cons
- - France-only footprint — no North American or APAC presence
- - Plus tier caps at 8 CPU / 8 GB RAM, then a jump to €369/month Max
- - No managed Kubernetes, S3-compatible object storage, or marketplace ecosystem
- - Small community — troubleshooting knowledge base is thin outside their docs
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