A year ago, we signed up for a Turbo hosting package with A2Hosting. In hindsight, I probably should have set a reminder for the renewal date instead of relying on A2 to notify me just three days before it was due! (For comparison, Tsohost gives at least a month’s notice.) But that’s on me.
As expected, the renewal price is steep—over $300 for a year. As a new customer, you can get the same plan for half that price for three years.
So, instead of moving to another host, is there anything stopping me from simply signing up for a new hosting package with A2 on a 1/2/3-year plan and then shifting my site over?
By the way, I didn’t realize I hadn’t posted this earlier due to missing the flair, but in the meantime, I’ve confirmed via live chat that I can take out a new subscription/service and simply backup and restore from one account to the other.
If anyone has any reasons why this might not be a good idea, please let me know!
Basically, I’m considering staying with them but at the new customer pricing for 1/2/3 years.
Hopefully, someone who has done this before without any issues will chime in. I’ve scanned through the Terms of Service but didn’t see anything that stands out.
Apologies for any confusion—the query was more focused on the renewal process. In terms of moving, I could always go back to SiteGround, where the site was hosted before, so I do have other tried and tested options.
To answer your questions:
Domains: I have 3 domains, but they’re hosted elsewhere.
Storage: The current site uses under 4GB of storage and requires very little bandwidth.
The site has been hosted for around 20 years and runs on very old PHP tech, but it’s still functioning without any issues.
There’s also a second site that I planned to migrate from old to new, but I haven’t had the chance to do that this year. Ideally, I’d like to have enough space to run both sites simultaneously within the next 12 months, so a bit of breathing room would be beneficial.
Gotcha, I personally avoid committing to renewals beyond one year, especially if they try to sweeten the deal with marketing incentives. A lot can change over the course of a few years, and you might end up wasting money or being stuck with a service you no longer want until the renewal date.
For 1-2 domains and around 10GB of storage, you’re looking at about $30-40/year, which is reasonable for small sites.
If you’re dealing with 3 or more domains and need more than 10GB of storage, the cost could easily double, depending on the provider.
A2 Hosting is a complete scam—stay away from them. Not only are they expensive, but they also don’t offer perks like a free domain or unlimited subdomains, which other providers like Hostinger do. I signed up for their hosting package during the Black Friday sale in November 2023, but even then, the deal was costly. I hosted my sites within their maximum limit of three subdomains.
In late August 2024, I emailed them to inform them that I wouldn’t be renewing my hosting in November and deleted my credit card details from their site. Within 24 hours, I received several emails stating that my account had been terminated for violating their Terms of Service. Supposedly, nine months after hosting my websites, they suddenly found evidence of phishing—conveniently just after I informed them that I wouldn’t renew.
As a result, they didn’t allow me to use their hosting services for the remaining three months, even though I had paid for a full year. This seems like pure revenge on their part. They are outright cheats and scammers, and I deeply regret using their services. I plan on reporting them to regulatory and enforcement authorities.