A Small Orange has one of the oddest names of any web hosting service we've tested, but don't let that prevent you from considering it.
In fact, the service offers good plans for shared, dedicated, WordPress, reseller, and cloud hosting, with prices that should appeal to small businesses and individual users alike.
Unfortunately, A Small Orange lacks Windows servers and phone support; this combined with its lower high-end specs, prevents it from dethroning DreamHost, HostGator, Hostwinds, and Liquid Web, our top picks.
Shared Web Hosting
A Small Orange offers three Linux-based shared hosting plans: Tiny, Medium, and Large.
Tiny (starting at $5.92 per month) offers a mere 500MB of storage, a respectable 5GB of monthly data transfers, and a single domain.
Medium (starting at $15 per month) builds on the Tiny plan with 15GB of storage, 150GB of monthly data transfers, and unlimited website hosting.
The top-tier Large plan ($25 per month) boasts 30GB of storage and 500GB of monthly data transfers.
All plans come with unlimited email, which is a nice touch.
Please note that the Tiny package is the only one that lacks a monthly billing option; it's billed annually.
These are solid plans if you don't have extravagant shared hosting demands, but they don't come close to matching HostGator's shared web hosting packages.
Our top choice for shared hosting offers unlimited storage across all tiers and a choice of Linux- or Windows-based servers.
Don't underestimate that last option; if you plan to build (or migrate) a site built on an ASP.NET framework, you'll appreciate HostGator's Windows-based shared hosting packages.
Cloud VPS Web Hosting
If you're looking for servers with more power, check out A Small Orange's Linux-based, managed Cloud VPS plans.
The entry-level cloud-based virtual private server hosting plan (starting at $22 per month) has a single-core CPU, unlimited domains, unlimited email, 1GB of RAM, 30GB of storage, and 500GB of monthly data transfers—and it can scale upward if you need additional muscle.
The highest-end Cloud VPS server (starting at $165 per month) has eight CPU cores, 10GB of RAM, 250GB of storage, and 5TB of monthly data transfers.
That said, Hostwinds remains the Daxdi Editors' Choice for traditional VPS by offering greater RAM (64GB) and monthly data transfer (unlimited) totals, as well as a Windows server option.
And if you're looking for the best cloud hosting we've tested, check out DreamHost, which offers robust, wallet-friendly packages.
DreamHost's plans start at $4.50 per month (for 512MB of RAM, 100GB of storage, and unlimited monthly data transfers) and top out at $48 per month (for four CPU cores, 8GB of RAM, 100GB of storage, and unlimited monthly data transfers).
Dedicated Web Hosting
A Small Orange has a whopping eight dedicated hosting plans that span six single-CPU Linux servers and two multi-CPU servers.
The single-CPU servers have an entry-level 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD plan (starting at $109 per month), but they top out with a 16GB RAM and 1TB HDD plan (starting at $193 per month).
The two multi-CPU plans (starting at $303 per month) both have 32GB of RAM, but they differ in that one offers a 512GB SSD, while the other offers a 1TB HDD.
All plans come with five IP addresses, unlimited email, and 5TB of monthly data transfers.
Still, Hostwinds handily beats A Small Orange when it comes to dedicated server operating system options.
The company's dedicated servers come in Linux and Windows flavors, which isn't as commonplace as you might think; Linux tends to dominate the field.
Plus, Hostwinds' unlimited monthly data transfer allotment tops A Small Orange's 5GB monthly data transfer allotment by a significant amount.
A Small Orange also offers the $50 per month Clementine Managed Hosting, which gives your site the white-glove treatment, plus 2 CPU cores, 2GB of RAM, 30GB of SSD storage, and 1TB of monthly data transfers.
A Small Orange handles all the updates, patches, security issues, and the like.
It's a good option for those who don't want to handle back-end tasks.
It's designed to give you power that's somewhat comparable to dedicated hosting, but without the full cost or required administration skills.
If you need more power, the $160 per month Clementine Plus plans have the same specs as A Small Orange's standard dedicated servers, but with managed hosting benefits.
Reseller Web Hosting
If you're looking to get into the web hosting business for yourself, but you don't want to deal with managing servers and other infrastructure matters, check out A Small Orange's reseller hosting packages.
With reseller hosting, you rent server space from an established player and resell it to your own customers.
A Small Orange's plans, starting at $20 per month, have 20GB of storage, 250GB of monthly data transfers, and the ability to host 30 websites.
The $28 per month midlevel tier ups the storage, monthly data transfers, and hosted websites to 25GB, 500GB, and 50, respectively.
The top-tier $40 per month service boasts 50GB of storage, 1,500GB of monthly data transfers, and 100 hosted websites.
A Small Orange also lets you apply your own branding to the servers you rent, and it supplies 24/7 email and live chat tech support.
Still, Hostwinds goes the extra mile with stacked specs in a variety of server categories, and a choice of a Linux- or Windows-based operating systems.
As a result, Hostwinds is the Editors' Choice for reseller hosting.
WordPress Web Hosting
Naturally, WordPress is also supported.
You can install the content management system from the app section within cPanel.
Once you install this, you can use WordPress to create posts, pages, slideshows, and other content.
A Small Orange has three solid WordPress hosting plans: Small, Medium, and Large.
Small (starting at $4.16 per month, billed annually) has 5GB of storage, 50GB of monthly data transfers, and unlimited website hosting.
Medium (starting at $8.33 per month, billed annually) ups the storage to 15GB and monthly data transfers to 150GB.
The Large plan (starting at $16.67 per month, billed annually) has 30GB of storage and 500GB of monthly data transfers.
Yet, TMDHosting remains the Daxdi Editors' Choice for WordPress hosts for many reasons, including its unlimited storage and monthly data transfers.
For more on the fantastically popular WordPress content management system, you can read my story, How to Get Started With WordPress.
Building a Website
cPanel is where the website-building process begins.
After you log in, A Small Orange loads a simple control panel that's both functional and attractive; it's one that appears geared to those who may be intimidated by the more technical look of the traditional cPanel.
A Small Orange gives you several tools for building a website, including Weebly, a solid web-based website-building tool.
Weebly's drag-and-drop functionality let me quickly build an attractive page complete with slideshows, contact forms, social media links, and more.
Weebly's Professional plan ($12 per month, billed annually) adds unlimited email, unlimited pages, and 75GB of monthly data transfers.
On the e-commerce side, you can sell up to 25 different products, but you'll have to pay a 3 percent Weebly transaction fee.
On the other hand, the Business plan ($25 per month) ups the offerings to 300GB of monthly data transfers and unlimited product hosting.
E-commerce fees are waived, too.
E-Commerce
If you're looking to sell products or services, A Small Orange has got you covered.
The company offers Linux-based Business hosting (Startup, Small Business, and Enterprise) that includes Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance and a free secure-socket layer (SSL certificate) to safeguard transactions.
Plus, these shared servers have fewer accounts on them, which increases their performance.
Startup (starting at $20 per month) has 40GB of storage, 600GB of monthly data transfers, unlimited email, and daily backups.
Small Business (starting at $40GB per month) bumps the RAM and storage totals to 50GB of storage and 800GB of monthly data transfers.
Enterprise ($60 per month) boasts 60GB of storage and 1,000GB of monthly data transfers.
Business hosting may be a viable option if you wish to sell a product or service.
The Softaculous app library contains the Magento e-commerce, shopping cart app.
I used Magento to create an attractive store with its drag-and-drop store builder.
Please read our Magento review for an in-depth look at this open-source shopping cart.
If Magento isn't to your liking, OpenCart is also available.
Security Features
The hosting packages come with a slew of security features.
Even with the most basic plan, you can rest easy knowing that password-protected directories, IP-blocking, and hotlink/leech protection are in place.
You can purchase a standalone SSL certificate for $39.95 per year, which is on par for SSL prices.
For even more security, you should check out SiteLock (starting at $20 per year).
Depending on the package, SiteLock executes daily malware scans, file change monitoring, automatic malware removal, and more.
Unfortunately, A Small Orange's MailChannel email service does not support DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) authentication technology for added security.
On the upside, it supports Sender Policy Framework (SPF).
Excellent Uptime
Website uptime is one of the most important aspects of a hosting service.
If your site is down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services, which is obviously bad for business.
For this testing, I used a website monitoring tool to track my Small Orange-hosted test site's uptime over a 14-day period.
Every 15 minutes, the tool pings my website and sends me an email if it is unable to contact the site for at least 1 minute.
The data revealed that A Small Orange is very stable; it didn't go down once during the two-week testing period.
You can count on it to be a rock-solid foundation for your website.
Solid Customer Service
Should a problem arise, A Small Orange gives you three ways to seek help.
The company has a deep knowledge database, live web chat, and email support.
Unfortunately, the company offers zero telephone support.
That's a big downer considering that web hosts like Dreamhost and GoDaddy have 24-hour phone support.
On the upside, A Small Orange's customer service team quickly responds to queries.
I web chatted with a customer service representative on a weekday afternoon and learned the difference between traditional hosting and reseller hosting.
The rep answered my question quickly and thoroughly.
I had a similar experience when I reached out the next morning.
A Small Orange has a lengthy 90-day money-back guarantee that outclasses most web hosts' 30- or 60-day refund policies.
That said, Dreamhost offers an even more impressive 97-day money-back guarantee.
A Juicy Web Host
A Small Orange makes it simple to create a website suitable for personal or small business use, and it's cheaper than much of the competition.
That said, the web host lacks features that are offered by well-rounded (and more expensive) services, such as Dreamhost, HostGator, and Hostwinds.
But if you have humble needs and want to save a few dollars, A Small Orange gets the job done.
A Small Orange Web Hosting
Cons
Lacks Windows-based servers
No telephone tech support
High-end specs aren't as good as the competition's offerings
The Bottom Line
Affordable, easy to use, and sporting excellent uptime, A Small Orange is a web host that satisfies on multiple fronts.
A Small Orange has one of the oddest names of any web hosting service we've tested, but don't let that prevent you from considering it.
In fact, the service offers good plans for shared, dedicated, WordPress, reseller, and cloud hosting, with prices that should appeal to small businesses and individual users alike.
Unfortunately, A Small Orange lacks Windows servers and phone support; this combined with its lower high-end specs, prevents it from dethroning DreamHost, HostGator, Hostwinds, and Liquid Web, our top picks.
Shared Web Hosting
A Small Orange offers three Linux-based shared hosting plans: Tiny, Medium, and Large.
Tiny (starting at $5.92 per month) offers a mere 500MB of storage, a respectable 5GB of monthly data transfers, and a single domain.
Medium (starting at $15 per month) builds on the Tiny plan with 15GB of storage, 150GB of monthly data transfers, and unlimited website hosting.
The top-tier Large plan ($25 per month) boasts 30GB of storage and 500GB of monthly data transfers.
All plans come with unlimited email, which is a nice touch.
Please note that the Tiny package is the only one that lacks a monthly billing option; it's billed annually.
These are solid plans if you don't have extravagant shared hosting demands, but they don't come close to matching HostGator's shared web hosting packages.
Our top choice for shared hosting offers unlimited storage across all tiers and a choice of Linux- or Windows-based servers.
Don't underestimate that last option; if you plan to build (or migrate) a site built on an ASP.NET framework, you'll appreciate HostGator's Windows-based shared hosting packages.
Cloud VPS Web Hosting
If you're looking for servers with more power, check out A Small Orange's Linux-based, managed Cloud VPS plans.
The entry-level cloud-based virtual private server hosting plan (starting at $22 per month) has a single-core CPU, unlimited domains, unlimited email, 1GB of RAM, 30GB of storage, and 500GB of monthly data transfers—and it can scale upward if you need additional muscle.
The highest-end Cloud VPS server (starting at $165 per month) has eight CPU cores, 10GB of RAM, 250GB of storage, and 5TB of monthly data transfers.
That said, Hostwinds remains the Daxdi Editors' Choice for traditional VPS by offering greater RAM (64GB) and monthly data transfer (unlimited) totals, as well as a Windows server option.
And if you're looking for the best cloud hosting we've tested, check out DreamHost, which offers robust, wallet-friendly packages.
DreamHost's plans start at $4.50 per month (for 512MB of RAM, 100GB of storage, and unlimited monthly data transfers) and top out at $48 per month (for four CPU cores, 8GB of RAM, 100GB of storage, and unlimited monthly data transfers).
Dedicated Web Hosting
A Small Orange has a whopping eight dedicated hosting plans that span six single-CPU Linux servers and two multi-CPU servers.
The single-CPU servers have an entry-level 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD plan (starting at $109 per month), but they top out with a 16GB RAM and 1TB HDD plan (starting at $193 per month).
The two multi-CPU plans (starting at $303 per month) both have 32GB of RAM, but they differ in that one offers a 512GB SSD, while the other offers a 1TB HDD.
All plans come with five IP addresses, unlimited email, and 5TB of monthly data transfers.
Still, Hostwinds handily beats A Small Orange when it comes to dedicated server operating system options.
The company's dedicated servers come in Linux and Windows flavors, which isn't as commonplace as you might think; Linux tends to dominate the field.
Plus, Hostwinds' unlimited monthly data transfer allotment tops A Small Orange's 5GB monthly data transfer allotment by a significant amount.
A Small Orange also offers the $50 per month Clementine Managed Hosting, which gives your site the white-glove treatment, plus 2 CPU cores, 2GB of RAM, 30GB of SSD storage, and 1TB of monthly data transfers.
A Small Orange handles all the updates, patches, security issues, and the like.
It's a good option for those who don't want to handle back-end tasks.
It's designed to give you power that's somewhat comparable to dedicated hosting, but without the full cost or required administration skills.
If you need more power, the $160 per month Clementine Plus plans have the same specs as A Small Orange's standard dedicated servers, but with managed hosting benefits.
Reseller Web Hosting
If you're looking to get into the web hosting business for yourself, but you don't want to deal with managing servers and other infrastructure matters, check out A Small Orange's reseller hosting packages.
With reseller hosting, you rent server space from an established player and resell it to your own customers.
A Small Orange's plans, starting at $20 per month, have 20GB of storage, 250GB of monthly data transfers, and the ability to host 30 websites.
The $28 per month midlevel tier ups the storage, monthly data transfers, and hosted websites to 25GB, 500GB, and 50, respectively.
The top-tier $40 per month service boasts 50GB of storage, 1,500GB of monthly data transfers, and 100 hosted websites.
A Small Orange also lets you apply your own branding to the servers you rent, and it supplies 24/7 email and live chat tech support.
Still, Hostwinds goes the extra mile with stacked specs in a variety of server categories, and a choice of a Linux- or Windows-based operating systems.
As a result, Hostwinds is the Editors' Choice for reseller hosting.
WordPress Web Hosting
Naturally, WordPress is also supported.
You can install the content management system from the app section within cPanel.
Once you install this, you can use WordPress to create posts, pages, slideshows, and other content.
A Small Orange has three solid WordPress hosting plans: Small, Medium, and Large.
Small (starting at $4.16 per month, billed annually) has 5GB of storage, 50GB of monthly data transfers, and unlimited website hosting.
Medium (starting at $8.33 per month, billed annually) ups the storage to 15GB and monthly data transfers to 150GB.
The Large plan (starting at $16.67 per month, billed annually) has 30GB of storage and 500GB of monthly data transfers.
Yet, TMDHosting remains the Daxdi Editors' Choice for WordPress hosts for many reasons, including its unlimited storage and monthly data transfers.
For more on the fantastically popular WordPress content management system, you can read my story, How to Get Started With WordPress.
Building a Website
cPanel is where the website-building process begins.
After you log in, A Small Orange loads a simple control panel that's both functional and attractive; it's one that appears geared to those who may be intimidated by the more technical look of the traditional cPanel.
A Small Orange gives you several tools for building a website, including Weebly, a solid web-based website-building tool.
Weebly's drag-and-drop functionality let me quickly build an attractive page complete with slideshows, contact forms, social media links, and more.
Weebly's Professional plan ($12 per month, billed annually) adds unlimited email, unlimited pages, and 75GB of monthly data transfers.
On the e-commerce side, you can sell up to 25 different products, but you'll have to pay a 3 percent Weebly transaction fee.
On the other hand, the Business plan ($25 per month) ups the offerings to 300GB of monthly data transfers and unlimited product hosting.
E-commerce fees are waived, too.
E-Commerce
If you're looking to sell products or services, A Small Orange has got you covered.
The company offers Linux-based Business hosting (Startup, Small Business, and Enterprise) that includes Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance and a free secure-socket layer (SSL certificate) to safeguard transactions.
Plus, these shared servers have fewer accounts on them, which increases their performance.
Startup (starting at $20 per month) has 40GB of storage, 600GB of monthly data transfers, unlimited email, and daily backups.
Small Business (starting at $40GB per month) bumps the RAM and storage totals to 50GB of storage and 800GB of monthly data transfers.
Enterprise ($60 per month) boasts 60GB of storage and 1,000GB of monthly data transfers.
Business hosting may be a viable option if you wish to sell a product or service.
The Softaculous app library contains the Magento e-commerce, shopping cart app.
I used Magento to create an attractive store with its drag-and-drop store builder.
Please read our Magento review for an in-depth look at this open-source shopping cart.
If Magento isn't to your liking, OpenCart is also available.
Security Features
The hosting packages come with a slew of security features.
Even with the most basic plan, you can rest easy knowing that password-protected directories, IP-blocking, and hotlink/leech protection are in place.
You can purchase a standalone SSL certificate for $39.95 per year, which is on par for SSL prices.
For even more security, you should check out SiteLock (starting at $20 per year).
Depending on the package, SiteLock executes daily malware scans, file change monitoring, automatic malware removal, and more.
Unfortunately, A Small Orange's MailChannel email service does not support DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) authentication technology for added security.
On the upside, it supports Sender Policy Framework (SPF).
Excellent Uptime
Website uptime is one of the most important aspects of a hosting service.
If your site is down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services, which is obviously bad for business.
For this testing, I used a website monitoring tool to track my Small Orange-hosted test site's uptime over a 14-day period.
Every 15 minutes, the tool pings my website and sends me an email if it is unable to contact the site for at least 1 minute.
The data revealed that A Small Orange is very stable; it didn't go down once during the two-week testing period.
You can count on it to be a rock-solid foundation for your website.
Solid Customer Service
Should a problem arise, A Small Orange gives you three ways to seek help.
The company has a deep knowledge database, live web chat, and email support.
Unfortunately, the company offers zero telephone support.
That's a big downer considering that web hosts like Dreamhost and GoDaddy have 24-hour phone support.
On the upside, A Small Orange's customer service team quickly responds to queries.
I web chatted with a customer service representative on a weekday afternoon and learned the difference between traditional hosting and reseller hosting.
The rep answered my question quickly and thoroughly.
I had a similar experience when I reached out the next morning.
A Small Orange has a lengthy 90-day money-back guarantee that outclasses most web hosts' 30- or 60-day refund policies.
That said, Dreamhost offers an even more impressive 97-day money-back guarantee.
A Juicy Web Host
A Small Orange makes it simple to create a website suitable for personal or small business use, and it's cheaper than much of the competition.
That said, the web host lacks features that are offered by well-rounded (and more expensive) services, such as Dreamhost, HostGator, and Hostwinds.
But if you have humble needs and want to save a few dollars, A Small Orange gets the job done.
A Small Orange Web Hosting
Cons
Lacks Windows-based servers
No telephone tech support
High-end specs aren't as good as the competition's offerings
The Bottom Line
Affordable, easy to use, and sporting excellent uptime, A Small Orange is a web host that satisfies on multiple fronts.
