A Different Look & Feel

There’s a lot to like about the company right off the bat. A Small Orange (ASO) takes a completely different approach to hosting, starting with their unique domain name.

A little strange, but it’s a bright spot of smart branding in an ocean of providers that sound like they just slammed “host” and another word together.

And where other hosting companies all seem to follow the same template for their websites (a hot girl, an “amazing deal” and a long list of features), A Small Orange continues to set themselves apart, using creative illustrations and well-thought-out design elements that let you know exactly who they are and why they’re different. It all just feels more legitimate.

So you’re probably saying, “Come on! So what if they have a nice looking site? Does that really mean we should buy hosting from them?”

No, that’s not what I’m saying. I just like to see when businesses take a risk, show some balls and go against the grain of what is seen as the “industry standard.” In my opinion it shows the character of the company and A Small Orange has A LOT of character.

Things I Like:

• Strong branding & a different feel for a hosting company.
• A really strong “Knowledgebase and Video Tutorial” section for customer questions. These guys make getting up and running easy and take care of their customers.
• Transparency in their advertising – no “unlimited bandwidth” nonsense here.
• Plans are very well priced for the value, especially when you consider the quality of the service you get as well.
• There are a broad variety of plans available, so you’ll never pay for what you don’t really need.
• They use the standard cPanel, which is the most easy-to-use interface for both beginners and veterans.
• They use Softaculous for their CMS script installs. I think this is by far the best way to get WordPress on your site.
• Fantastic response times on customer service tickets.
• My Uptime Test: 99.97%.
• Average Server Response Time: 757 ms.

Things I Don’t Like:

• There’s no phone support for basic packages, but you do get their number if you have one of the more expensive packages. If phone support is really crucial for you even at basic package levels, you can check out their sister company, HostNine. Still, ticket support is excellent and more than makes up for this.
• A Small Orange was acquired by EIG in July of 2012. This would have been a big deal a few years ago, but I’ve talked with three different important people at ASO and they all claim that EIG is letting them run completely independently. As long as it stays this way, I will have no complaints.

Really Great Service

The most amazing part of A Small Orange is their customer service.

Send them a ticket and they’ll get back to you with a comprehensive response within 30 minutes. You just won’t see this anywhere else. Don’t take my word for it – test them on it!

When I bought my VPS package from them, I initially thought it had some serious issues. Turns out I was just an idiot! I had never used a VPS host before and just assumed my cPanel would be ready as soon as I signed up for the account. ASO was extremely helpful with my set up even though some of my questions were just plain stupid.

Which Plan to Pick?

Some might think that ASO gives you too many options – others (like me) think it’s awesome because you’ll never pay for something you don’t need.

Assuming this is one of your first sites, bandwidth is not going to be an issue no matter which plan you choose – it’s all about how much disk space you need.

If you only plan on hosting one site, I recommend the “Tiny” package. If you want to host more than one, start with the “Small” package and scale up from there.

If you’re unsure of what you need, my advice is to create a ticket by contacting them atinfo@asmallorange.com and tell them exactly what you plan to do. They will recommend the package that best fits your needs.

The beauty is that you can upgrade or downgrade anytime in just a few minutes.

We recommend you give them a try A Small Orange