Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Comparison

After 3 years of testing, let’s compare Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting and find out how they’ve performed so far…

Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting – Testing Method

  • Prior to testing, I have setup identical content on all 8 Live Test Sites
  • Each week over 80,000 speed & uptime tests are run using independent tools, GTmetrix & Pingdom
  • GTmetrix Logo 50Pingdom Logo 50

  • Test results below are from 04 Apr 2016 to 22 Dec 2018

Test #1: Speed

The GTmetrix Speed Test checks how long it takes for a website to fully load using a desktop internet browser. This test is then repeated every hour throughout the week (1,340 times).

  • Lightning Base’s Speed has been outstanding since it was added in Apr 2017, consistently finding itself in our Top 2 Hosts. It started with a bang by finishing fastest across the first half of 2017, and has continued that good form with 2nd fastest load times across H2 2017 & H1 2018, and 3rd fastest in H2 2018.
  • A2 Hosting’s speed was impressive in 2016, and they typically found themselves in the top 2 of our 8 hosts. Unfortunately, their extremely poor uptime performance led to their removal on 28th Jan 2017. Read below for more details.
  • Lightning Base is currently 2nd, while A2 is 9th in our Speed Rankings.
Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Speed Test Results - Apr 2016 to Dec 2018

H2 2018 Results

Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Speed Test Chart - Jul 2018 to Dec 2018
Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Speed Test Results - Jul 2018 to Dec 2018

H1 2018 Results

Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Speed Test Chart - Jan 2018 to Jul 2018
Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Speed Test Results - Jan 2018 to Jul 2018

H2 2017 Results

Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Speed Test Chart - Aug 2017 to Dec 2017
Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Speed Test Results - Aug 2017 to Dec 2017

H1 2017 Results

Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Speed Test Chart - Jan 2017 to Aug 2017
Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Speed Test Results - Jan 2017 to Aug 2017

2016 Results

Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Speed Test Chart - Apr 2016 to Dec 2016
Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Speed Test Results - Apr 2016 to Dec 2016

Test #2: Uptime

The Pingdom Uptime Test confirms that the website is actually accessible to visitors. This test is then repeated every minute throughout the week (80,640 times).

  • Lightning Base have also performed brilliantly when it comes to Uptime, with only 65 minutes of downtime since Apr 17. To put this into perspective, nearly all of our other hosts have experienced more than 65 minutes of downtime in 1 week!!
  • A2 Hosting performed extremely poorly when it came to Uptime. This was especially evident in Q4 2016, where downtime was a whopping 575 minutes, which is almost 10 hours. This continued into 2017, with a further 939 minutes downtime in just 3 weeks. This unbelievably bad performance resulted in A2 Hosting being replaced by Namecheap for future testing.
  • Lightning Base is currently 1st and A2 is 10th in our Uptime Rankings.
Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Uptime Test Results - Apr 2016 to Dec 2018

Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting – Overall Test Results

The Overall Ranking accumulates the results from the speed & uptime tests to determine the #1 Host.

  • Lightning Base’s performance has been excellent across the board, and are currently ranked #1 in uptime & #2 in speed tests. They have consistently been in our Top 2 hosts, and have only just missed out on the coveted #1 overall ranking.
  • Even though A2 Hosting were able to perform impressively when it came to loading times in 2016, their weakness was always poor uptime. This became a serious problem in Q4 2016 and continued into 2017. Unfortunately, this led to A2 being unable to compete with our other hosts, and ultimately requiring them to be replaced.
  • Lightning Base is currently 2nd and A2 is 10th in our Overall Rankings.
Lightning Base vs A2 Hosting Overall Test Results - Apr 2016 to Dec 2018

How do Lightning Base & A2 Hosting compare to our 8 other Hosts?