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A2 Hosting has not carried that name since April 2025. World Host Group bought the company in January of that year and renamed it hosting.com, and many 2026 reviews still describe it as independently owned. The same A2 Hosting figures against Kinsta are in our Kinsta and A2 Hosting comparison.
Both hosts run LiteSpeed on the plans compared here, which removes the usual explanation for a performance gap. What remains is a price difference of 5.5 times across three years, peaking at 5.8 in year four. The same A2 Hosting figures set against Newfold Digital’s Bluehost are in our Bluehost and A2 Hosting comparison.
The Short Answer
Hostinger, 4.2 against 3.3, and the margin is unusually wide for two hosts running the same web server.
A2 Hosting still has strong published response times and developer tooling. What it also has is a renamed product, a changed owner, and three claims its own coverage cannot agree on.
Head to Head
| Hostinger Premium | A2 Turbo Boost | |
|---|---|---|
| Advertised | $2.99/mo | $6.99/mo |
| Intro term | 48 months | 12 months |
| Renews at | $10.99/mo | $20.99/mo |
| Three-year total | $107.64 | $587.64 |
| Six-year total | $407.28 | $1,343.28 |
| Web server | LiteSpeed | LiteSpeed |
| Phone support | No | Disputed |
| In our benchmark | 5th of 34 | not covered |
| Owner | Private, ~30% PE-held | 25-brand portfolio |
| Trading name | Unchanged | hosting.com since 2025 |
| Our score | 4.2 | 3.3 |
The Price Across Three Windows
Hostinger asks $2.99 a month for 48 months, then $10.99. A2’s Turbo Boost asks $6.99 for 12 months, then $20.99.
Twelve months costs $35.88 against $83.88. Three years costs $107.64 against $587.64. Six years costs $407.28 against $1,343.28.
The ratio peaks at four years, where A2 costs 5.8 times more. It narrows to 3.3 by year six because Hostinger’s own renewal arrives at month 49 — the full field is here.
Turbo Boost is the tier where A2’s reputation lives, and it is also the tier where the renewal triples.
Both Run LiteSpeed, Which Matters
In most comparisons here, one host runs LiteSpeed and the other runs Apache, and that difference explains a large part of the response gap.
Not this time. Hostinger runs LiteSpeed on every plan. A2’s Turbo tiers run LiteSpeed with NVMe storage, which is exactly what the Turbo name refers to — and it decides which caching plugin will work.
So a buyer choosing between these two is not choosing between architectures. Published response figures for A2 sit between 150 and 198 milliseconds, and Hostinger’s own published figures include a 246 millisecond server response and a 707 millisecond time to first byte from the same test.
⚠️ Those are different measurements rather than a clean win either way, and we would rather say so than pick the flattering pair.
What Changed at A2
In practice, the acquisition closed around 29 January 2025 and the rebrand to hosting.com completed on 28 April 2025.
World Host Group dates from 2019 and manages more than 25 hosting brands serving over 700,000 customers. Its other holdings include Doteasy, WebHostPython and ColombiaHosting.
⚠️ A review published in August 2026 still praises the company’s independent ownership. That was true once. It stopped being true eighteen months before that review appeared.
Three Things A2’s Coverage Disputes
We could not settle any of these, which is unusual for a host this widely reviewed.
The first is the plan structure. One 2026 review states LiteSpeed runs only on Turbo plans while standard tiers use Apache. Another states the rebrand moved the fast infrastructure to every tier.
The second is the refund policy. One source describes an anytime money-back guarantee as an industry-unique feature. Another says that perk moved into standard terms.
The third is telephone support. One 2026 review lists it as a strength. Customers writing publicly in the same period say the numbers were removed and support runs through chat.
Hostinger has no telephone line either, so that last point does not separate them. It does mean neither host answers the phone, which is worth knowing before either purchase.
Ownership
Hostinger is privately held in Vilnius, with a private equity firm holding around 30 percent by its own account. It owns its infrastructure and has no sister brands.
A2 Hosting sits inside a portfolio of more than 25 brands. That is not hidden, and several hosts we have reviewed sit inside similar groups. It is still the opposite of what its current coverage describes — we traced one of those groups in detail.
Neither structure should decide a purchase on its own. Both should be known before one is made.
Winners by Category
Three-year cost: Hostinger, by $480.00.
Six-year cost: Hostinger, by $936.00.
Renewal rate: Hostinger, at $10.99 against $20.99.
Web server: a draw, both LiteSpeed on the plans compared.
Published response times: A2, on the figures available.
Benchmark coverage: Hostinger, which appears in the project we cite throughout.
Ownership clarity: Hostinger, by not having changed.
Telephone support: a draw, neither offers it.
When to Choose A2 Hosting Instead
You want developer tooling at a shared price and the published response figures matter more to you than the renewal. The same A2 Hosting figures against a Cloudways server are in our Cloudways and A2 Hosting comparison.
You are buying for one year rather than three. At twelve months the gap is $48.00 rather than $480.00, which is a different decision entirely.
You have confirmed the current plan structure and refund terms directly, because three separate claims about them contradict each other in print.
How We Research
Every figure comes from the two underlying reviews, where each is attributed to a named source with its window. The acquisition and rebrand come from the company’s own announcement and its parent group’s press release. Where sources contradict each other we list the contradiction rather than choosing.
Our criteria are on our About page. The long versions are in our Hostinger review and our A2 Hosting review.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hostinger, by $480.00 over three years. It costs $107.64 against $587.64 for A2’s Turbo Boost plan, a ratio of 5.5 to one. Over six years the gap widens to $936.00 while the ratio narrows to 3.3.
No. World Host Group acquired it in January 2025 and renamed it hosting.com in April that year. Several 2026 reviews still use the old name and describe the company as independently owned.
On the plans compared here, yes. Hostinger runs LiteSpeed on every plan and A2’s Turbo tiers run LiteSpeed with NVMe storage. Whether A2’s lower tiers do is one of three points its own coverage disputes.
Neither. Hostinger runs chat and email with an AI assistant that transfers on request. A2’s phone support is disputed, with one 2026 review listing it and customer accounts from the same period saying the numbers were removed.
World Host Group, a company founded in 2019 that manages more than 25 hosting brands serving over 700,000 customers. Hostinger is privately held in Vilnius with a private equity firm holding around 30 percent.
The Verdict
Hostinger, 4.2 against 3.3, and the price gap does most of the work.
Five and a half times more over three years would need to buy something the cheaper option lacks. Both run the same web server, neither answers the phone, and one of them appears in the benchmark we cite in every review.
Choose A2 if the developer tools decide it and you will buy annually. Otherwise the arithmetic is not close.