Guide
hosting.com (formerly A2 Hosting): plans, renewals and what you get
The short answer
hosting.com, the new name of A2 Hosting, starts with a Starter shared plan for 5 sites: $1.99 a month for a 4-year term, which is $95.49 up front and covers your first three years and a fourth. It then renews at $13.99 a month ($167.88 a year). It suits owners of a few small sites who can pay four years at once.
The short version
- Cheapest plan for one WordPress site: Starter, hosting.com’s entry shared plan. It allows 5 websites, 15 GB of NVMe storage and 5 mailboxes, with daily backups and an AI website builder for WordPress.
- 3-year cost: $95.49, paid up front for a 4-year term ($1.99 a month). That one bill covers years 1 to 4.
- What renews: Starter renews at $13.99 a month, or $167.88 a year, starting in year 5. The free domain is free for the first year only.
- Who it is for: people who want several small sites on one plan, with a 30-day money-back guarantee and a written uptime credit.
Hosting.com is the new name of A2 Hosting (announced May 2025). A2hosting.com now redirects to it, and its terms still name A2 Hosting, LLC as the operator. We have not used hosting.com ourselves. Everything here comes from its own pages, terms and help center. Its prices load in the browser, so we read them there on October 23, 2026.
What the cheapest plan really costs over three years
Web hosting is the rented server space your site lives on. Hosting.com’s plan page shows only a 4-year (48-month) price, paid up front.
| How you pay | Year 1 | Years 2 and 3 | 3-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| (a) Starter, prepay 4 years at the intro price | $95.49 (covers years 1 to 4) | $0 | $95.49 |
| (b) Starter, pay 12 months, then renew yearly | Not published | $335.76 | Not published |
The arithmetic:
- (a) The page says “Pay $95.49 today” for the 4-year term. Your first renewal comes in year 5, at $13.99 a month: $13.99 × 12 = $167.88 a year.
- (b) No 12-month price was shown, so we cannot total this row. The renewal years alone are $13.99 × 24 months = $335.76. The page does not say which renewal term the $13.99 applies to; we used two 12-month renewals.
So two renewal years in row (b) cost more than three times the full 4-year prepay in row (a).
Its terms say plans renew automatically for the same length of term, the renewal invoice arrives 14 days early, and “prices may change between Renewal Terms.” Its billing FAQ says promotional prices are for new orders only.
The free domain: the comparison page says it is free “for the first year.” Hosting.com’s .com page offers “a free .com for the first year,” with the footnote “*2 year purchase required,” and also shows a domain at $11.99 for the first year. A .com renewal price is not published on the pages we checked, so budget for one from year 2. No new .com price has been published for Verisign’s November 1, 2026 wholesale increase, from $10.26 to $10.97 a year (see our news post).
The plans in one table
| Plan | Intro price and term | Renewal price | Sites | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter (shared) | $1.99/mo, 4 years ($95.49 up front) | $13.99/mo | 5 | 15 GB NVMe |
| Pro (shared) | $3.79/mo, 4 years ($181.93 up front) | $19.99/mo | 10 | 50 GB NVMe |
| Max (shared) | $7.79/mo, 4 years ($373.90 up front) | $27.99/mo | 50 | 100 GB NVMe |
| Managed WordPress, smallest plan | Not published | Not published | 1 WordPress install | 20 GB NVMe |
Mailboxes: 5 on Starter, 20 on Pro and 40 on Max. The WordPress page shows no readable prices or plan names. Its smallest plan lists 30,000 visitors and 100 GB of bandwidth.
What is included
- SSL: a free SSL certificate on every shared plan. Max lists a “premium SSL certificate.”
- Backups: shared plans list daily backups, and the plan page says you can “restore to any point in the last 30 days.” The managed WordPress plans keep daily backups for 14 days. A restore fee is not published.
- Backup fine print: the terms say free backups are made with “commercially reasonable efforts,” may skip some email files and stop past 50 GB. Keeping your own copies is “solely your responsibility.”
- Email: 5, 20 or 40 mailboxes.
- Free migration: “free managed migration” on shared plans, and “free migrations” on every WordPress plan.
- CDN: not included on the shared plans. Every WordPress plan lists an “Enterprise CDN.”
- Staging: on Pro and Max, not Starter. Every WordPress plan includes it.
The uptime promise
Hosting.com’s server maintenance policy says “We target a 99.9% uptime level” for shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated accounts. Its help center says this uptime is measured monthly and allows about 43 minutes of downtime a month.
If it misses, the credit is “5% of the monthly fee for the affected Service for each full hour of downtime,” “capped at 100% of one month’s fee.” Credits are not automatic: you open a ticket, and support must confirm the outage. Scheduled maintenance, attacks on its servers and problems on your side do not count.
The numbers do not all match. The plan comparison lists a 99.95% “uptime commitment” with credits on all three shared plans and an SLA “Not Included,” while the Max card lists one. The WordPress page lists a “99.99% uptime guarantee” with no credit terms. Ask support which promise applies to you.
Leaving later
- Full backup: the help center shows how to archive your files with a command over SSH and covers MySQL databases separately. It describes no one-click download of files plus database.
- Refund window: 30 days from your first purchase, for hosting and email, once, first term only. Domains and renewals are excluded, and non-refundable domain fees (amount not stated) come out of the refund. After that, no refunds for unused time.
- Cancellation fee: none listed. Pick “end of billing cycle” to keep the site live until your paid time runs out. The account then stays suspended, with data kept, for 14 days before it is deleted. “Immediate” removes your data right away. A downgrade can carry a $25 migration fee.
- Free domain: cancelling hosting does not cancel the domain. It keeps renewing at the standard rate until you cancel or move it. We found no help article on moving a domain away. The terms set a 60-day transfer lock after a change of registrant. Our domain transfer guide has the steps. An expired .com costs $100 to redeem, so keep auto-renew on until it moves.
Who it is right for, and who should look elsewhere
Right for:
- People running a few small sites: Starter allows 5 sites and 5 mailboxes.
- Owners who can prepay 4 years and want 30 days of daily backups.
- Anyone who wants a written uptime credit and a 30-day refund window.
Look elsewhere if:
- You do not want to prepay 4 years to get the $1.99 price, or you want a published 12-month price.
- You need staging or a CDN on the cheapest shared plan.
- You want a low, published .com renewal. Compare registrars in our best domain registrars guide.
New to how the pieces fit? Read domains and hosting.
Sources
hosting.com: Web Hosting plans, plan comparison, Hosting for WordPress, Service Terms (operator, renewals, backups, refunds), Refund and Billing Policy, Server Maintenance Policy (uptime), Billing FAQ, uptime credits, cancelling a service, shared hosting backups, .com pricing, domain prices and redemption fee. Rename: A2 Hosting press release, May 7, 2025 (PR Newswire).
Questions people ask
Is hosting.com the same company as A2 Hosting?
Yes. A2 Hosting announced in May 2025 that it was becoming hosting.com, a2hosting.com now redirects to hosting.com, and hosting.com's service terms still name the operator as A2 Hosting, LLC, a Delaware company.
How much does hosting.com cost for three years?
Starter costs $95.49 up front for a 4-year term ($1.99 a month), so your first three years cost $95.49. It renews at $13.99 a month ($167.88 a year) from year 5. No 12-month price was shown, so we cannot total a pay-yearly plan. The free domain also renews from year 2 at a price not published on the pages we checked.
What uptime does hosting.com promise?
Its server maintenance policy targets 99.9% uptime a month, while its plan comparison lists a 99.95% uptime commitment on the shared plans. Under the policy, if it misses you can claim 5% of that month's fee for each full hour of downtime, up to one month's fee, by opening a support ticket.
Can I get a refund from hosting.com?
Web hosting and email have a 30-day money-back guarantee from your first purchase, usable once. Domains are excluded, and non-refundable domain fees are taken out of the refund. After 30 days there are no refunds for unused time.
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