A Small Orange claims to provide the best web hosting service at an affordable price, which is very appealing to many webmasters. At the same time, people may doubt this statement. In order to eliminate their concerns, our editors have made an in-depth review of the company based on its reputation, price, features, reliability, speed, and technical support. Note that all the results presented come from real world testing and customers feedbacks.
Reputation
Since its establishment in Atlanta in 2003, the company now has over 70 employees and provides web hosting service for thousands of people all around the world. Although the company invests a lot of money in upgrading its technologies and infrastructures, it is still far from being a leading role in the industry.
A Small Orange Review
Website: http://www.asmallorange.com/
Reputation
Features
Performance
Support
Price
$2.92/mo
Price
The company offers five plans named as Tiny, Small, Medium, Large and Super. The prices of these packages range from $2.92/mo to $30/mo. For the cheapest plan – Tine, its price is quite affordable, even lower than the average in the market. However, in regard to the most expensive one – Super, its price is even higher than many VPS plans.
Price
Tiny
Medium
Super
Regular
$2.25/mo
$10/mo
$30/mo
Discount
N/A
N/A
N/A
Money Back
90 Days
90 Days
90 Days
How to Claim
Not Recommended
Not Recommended
Not Recommended
Apart from price, money back guarantee is an indispensable factor of worry-free purchasing. Considering this, the company offers 90 days money back guarantee. However, instead of full refund, this company provides prorated one which means only unused portion can be refunded. Actually, this policy poses threats to the interests of customers under the condition that offering full money back is a fashion in today’s market.
Features
A Small Orange is rich-featured for it provides unlimited POP3/IMAP mail accounts, MySQL databases, mail lists, subdomains and FTP accounts. Apart from those basic features, the company also adds some advanced ones in recent years such as PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby on Rails, SSL and many more. However, as for the most important feature like unlimited disk storage and monthly bandwidth, the company offers limited ones.
Feature
Tiny
Medium
Super
Disk Space
250 MB
5 GB
25 GB
Bandwidth
5 GB
100 GB
500 GB
Databases & MySQL
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
FTP
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
cPanel
Perl/Python/Ruby on Rails
SSD
One of the merits of this company is that it utilizes the user friendly cPanel which is featured with easy-to-recognize icons and icon names. Thus, managing email, files and many other things can’t be easier any more. Moreover, in order to simplify the installation process of lots of software, the company also offers a 1-click installer named as Softaculous that is integrated with cPanel. With this tool, people can install more than 100 scripts successfully with comfort and ease.
Performance
The company promises to provide at least 99.9% uptime. With the purpose of figuring out the real situation, our editors have carried out a performance testing and set up a new website hosted with A Small Orange. The new site is monitored 24×7 continuously for one month; as a result, it keeps a good uptime track record as it says.
The reason that A Small Orange has such good performance is that it uses quality server and state-of-the-art data centers. The data centers are monitored over CCTV, and the servers are located behind multiple redundant lines of physical security. Besides, the company utilizes the standard climate control, fire suppression, redundant power batteries and diesel power to ensure the appropriate operation of the data centers.
Our editors also pay attention to their page loading speed while supervising its uptime. Because the company invests a large sum of money in improving the speed, it has SSD disks which are 3 times faster than the mechanical ones. As the result shows, its server response time is 665ms on average which is just a normal but not extraordinary speed.
Technical Support
A Small Orange takes customer service seriously, thus it provides 24×7 technical support through various ways such as toll free phone call, live chat and email. Whenever people have questions, they can get touch with the company in a short time.
Besides, all of the support staffs have at least 5 years’ experience in this field. Before officially working as in the company, they have to pass the strict selection process and constant training. Thus, they are all qualified and able to provide professional suggestions to all customers.
Conclusion
Obviously, the company provides 99.9% uptime as well as good after-sale service. However, when it comes to its price, money back and features, it is not recommended. For those who are seeking for web hosts with budget-friendly price, rich features and unmatchable customer service, our editors have carefully selected several ones. Check the detailed information in below.
Rank
Shared Host
Highlights
Price
1
BlueHost
Free doman name
Unlimited site hosting
Enhanced cPanel
US-based support
Free $100 Google AdWords
Free $50 Facebook credits
PHP, Ruby on Rails, Python, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SSH
To learn more, visit http://www.bluehost.com/
$3.95/mo
2
JustHost
Free domain name
Unlimited addon domains
$100 Google credits
$50 Twitter credits
The best developer-friendly budget web hosting provider
30 days full refund & anytime money back guarantee
To learn more, visit http://www.justhost.com/
$2.25/mo
3
A2Hosting
Free domain name
Unlimited domian hosting
cPanel control panel
100% US-based support
Use coupon BHSA2CODE for 34% off 12/24 months billing
Use coupon BHSCODE for 51% off 1/6/12 months billing
To learn more, visit http://www.a2hosting.com/
$3.92/mo
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