A2 Hosting vs OVHcloud 2024: Which One Is Actually Better?

A2 Hosting’s clientele varies from beginners and casual bloggers to advanced users and growing businesses, whereas OVHcloud focuses on enterprise-level hosting solutions and works well for developers.

I tested both A2 Hosting and OVHcloud in terms of features, pricing, performance, security, and support to compare them. I was surprised to find that OVHcloud has several paid add-ons that you get for free with A2 Hosting.

A2 Hosting also has a better refund policy, while OVHcloud only offers partial refunds for specific plans. For these reasons and more, A2 Hosting came out the winner in this comparison.

Keep reading to see what makes A2 Hosting the winner of this comparison.

1. Plans and Pricing

OVHcloud Has More Plans, but A2 Hosting Has Better Value for Money

Both A2 Hosting and OVHcloud offer shared, VPS, and dedicated server hosting. A2 Hosting also provides managed WordPress hosting and reseller plans, whereas OVHcloud has cloud hosting packages.

OVHcloud has a variety of web hosting plans, which I found confusing. The Personal shared hosting plan is pretty cheap, but its range of Performance shared hosting packages (cloud-based) are very expensive.

On the other hand, A2 Hosting keeps it simple. It offers fewer shared hosting plans but includes additional resources (see more details in the features section) and comes at a lower price than OVHcloud’s Performance packages.

Unlike A2 Hosting (which has several freebies), OVHcloud has numerous paid add-ons that will increase your overall cost.

With OVHcloud, you can only subscribe on an annual basis. A2 Hosting allows you to subscribe monthly, annually, biennially, or triennially. Plus, the longer the subscription term, the more cost-effective it is.

OVHcloud provides a free domain but will charge you to migrate a website. A2 Hosting, on the other hand, doesn’t offer a free domain but website migration is free.

OVHcloud only gives partial refunds depending on your plan. In contrast, A2 Hosting has a 30-day money-back guarantee along with a prorated refund (even after the first 30 days of your subscription).

The winner? A2 Hosting. Not only do you get more features for the price, but you also get a 30-day money-back guarantee, an anytime prorated refund, and free website migration.

2. Features

Get More Features and Resource Allocation with A2 Hosting

I’ve already established that OVHcloud offers a range of shared hosting packages divided into Personal, Professional, four Performance plans, and three Cloud web hosting plans. It’s most appropriate for developers or big companies.

With OVHcloud, you get from 100 GB to 500 GB HDD disk space with the Personal, Professional, and Performance packages, and from 10 GB to 65 GB SSD storage with the Cloud web hosting plans. You’ll also get up to 200 x 5 GB email accounts, a custom control panel (OVH control panel), automatic daily backups, and an application installer.

OVHcloud provides CDN and SSL certificates for an additional charge.

In contrast, A2 Hosting is beginner-friendly, and its three shared hosting plans come with 100 GB SSD to unlimited NVMe storage, from 1 to unlimited hosted websites, and unlimited email accounts.

A2 Hosting’s freebies include an SSL certificate, Cloudflare CDN, website staging, cPanel, and Softaculous 1-click installer.
Explore more differences between A2 Hosting and OVHcloud using the following comparison table:

The winner? A2 Hosting. A2 Hosting comes with more resources, SSD and NVMe storage, and free extras with its web hosting packages. OVHcloud is limited and charges for useful features like SSL certificates and CDN.

3. Performance

OVHcloud Has Faster Page Loading Speeds Than A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting has three data center locations – the U.S.A., the Netherlands, and Singapore. On the other hand, OVHcloud operates through 12 server locations, including four in the U.S.A. and the rest in Singapore, Australia, Poland, Germany, the U.K., Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.

Both hosts only use SSD storage with specific plans, which performs much faster than traditional disk drives (e.g., HDD storage).

Another performance-boosting feature is CDN, or Content Delivery Network, which places your website on a global network of cloud servers and improves your website’s loading speed from locations around the world. A2 Hosting provides free CDN with all its plans, but OVHcloud only includes it with some.

When testing the loading speeds of both hosts, A2 Hosting gave a decent score, but it wasn’t amazing. See detailed results in this full review of A2 Hosting.

OVHcloud’s page loading speed test results were slightly higher than A2 Hosting.

OVHcloud proved to be a better performer than A2 Hosting despite offering fewer performance-related features. Therefore, OVHcloud wins the performance challenge.

4. Security

A2 Hosting Offers More Security Features Than OVHcloud

A2 Hosting offers KernelCare (daily, automatic, and rebootless Kernel updates), DDoS/Brute-Force protection, dual-web hosting firewall, HackScan, Auto-Heal hosting protection, Barracuda spam filtering, and virus scanning.

OVHcloud implements DDoS protection with all its plans through VAC Technology, analyzes traffic in real-time, and prevents attacks, including DDoS and Brute-Force.

A2 Hosting uses CloudLinux OS with all its Linux-based shared hosting plans, while OVHcloud uses a similar system called LXC Technology (Linux Containers). Both technologies aim to securely isolate your account from other users on the same server to protect you against threats targeting others.

A2 Hosting provides free automatic daily backups, and OVHcloud does the same (up to 30 days).

The winner? A2 Hosting. Compared to OVHcloud, A2 Hosting has a broader range of security features to safeguard your website.

5. Support

It’s Easier to Get Help from A2 Hosting

The A2 Hosting website is well organized and much easier to navigate. OVHcloud has an overly complicated website that’s difficult to browse. Nevertheless, both hosts have extensive knowledgebase sections.

A2 Hosting’s customer support is available 24/7 via live chat, phone, and support ticket. The phone support is available in multiple native-speaking call centers for different countries around the world.

Unfortunately, the live chat support wasn’t very helpful. It took a few minutes to get connected, and even then, the agent seemed to be short on information as there were pauses between questions and answers.

Even though OVHcloud’s customer support is also available 24/7, it took three business days to get a reply when I submitted a ticket. However, once I received an answer, it was quite helpful.

Both A2 Hosting and OVHcloud don’t have the most helpful customer support, but the self-help resources are pretty good. The winner in this round is A2 Hosting. It has a better knowledgebase and more responsive customer support.

A2 Hosting Is a Clear Cut Winner

As you can see, A2 Hosting outperformed OVHcloud in four out of five categories. The best thing about A2 Hosting is that it combines both affordability and quality. To get the best out of OVHcloud, you’ll need to spend more than just a few bucks.

A2 Hosting proves effective for beginners, professionals, and owners of small to medium-sized businesses. On the other hand, I suggest exclusively considering OVHcloud for advanced users (developers) and enterprises.

A2 Hosting is also featured in our list of the top 10 web hosting services.

FAQ

Is A2 Hosting better than OVHcloud?

Yes. A2 Hosting offers better prices, a better refund policy, more features and freebies, better security measures, and better support. However, OVHcloud has slightly faster page loading speeds. A2 Hosting is also featured in our expert list of the best web hosting services.

Does OVHcloud offer WordPress hosting?

No. OVHcloud doesn’t provide WordPress hosting. However, it can be installed along with several other CMS applications from the one-click software installer when you purchase a web hosting plan. OVHcloud isn’t quite right for you? Explore the best-managed WordPress hosting services.

Does A2 Hosting offer VPS hosting?

Yes. A2 Hosting has a variety of managed and unmanaged VPS plans. Want full root access? Sign up for the Core VPS  (managed) or Unmanaged VPS plans. All VPS packages come with SSD storage and a free SSL certificate. A2 Hosting for VPS is also featured in our expert list of the best cheap and reliable VPS services.

Does A2 Hosting offer a free domain?

A2 Hosting doesn’t offer a free domain name registration. If you’re undecided about which domain name is suitable for you, check out this ultimate guide to choosing and buying a domain name.