A Small Orange Web Hosting

Over a year ago, I was using a web hosting service that turned out to be a repackaged version of GoDaddy. The web hosting plan was cheap at $6.95 a month, and it even came with 300GB of space. However, the control panel was difficult to use, and I kept having problems accessing my account. It felt sleazy and I hated dealing with it.

So I started looking into other options. I surfed through WordPress forums to see what bloggers were recommending, and saw that A Small Orange was getting glowing reviews. There were hardly any negative comments about the company, which was a good sign.

There were a few things about A Small Orange's hosting packages that appealed to me...

• Low prices: It's hard to beat $5 a month for reasonable web hosting. I've gone with web hosts that offered far less for more money.


• No outrageous promises: Whenever a web host claims you get "unlimited" space or bandwidth (or obscene amounts of it), I get uneasy. There is no way any web host can truly give you "unlimited" bandwidth and space. A Small Orange is upfront about what you get.


• Responsive team: When I emailed the company for more information about the billing procedure, someone got back with me right away and answered my questions. It didn't look like a cut'n'paste response, either--the answer was specific and conversational.


• Flexible billing options: The guy who got back with me said I could pay on a month-by-month basis, or just pay for a few months at a time, or pay for a whole year if I wanted to. I even have the option of paying with PayPal.


• Referral system: If you refer other people to A Small Orange, you get a discount on your own web hosting equal to the monthly price of the plan they buy.


• Clean site: Their web site isn't cluttered with a bunch of fluff and nonsense. It's minimalist, easy on the eyes, yet professional.

You know what's funny about some web hosts? They'll give you an "unlimited" amount of bandwidth and space, but then they'll only let you set up a couple of MySQL databases, or only let you have so many domains.

A Small Orange doesn't impose artificial restrictions like that, thank goodness; since I make niche web sites, I need a lot of domains and MySQL databases! Apart from an unlimited number of domains, subdomains, and email accounts, you get some other things:

• Fantastico: I've already mentioned it, but I'll say it again: Fantastico makes life easier when it comes to installing scripts like WordPress and phpBB.


• PHPMyAdmin: A nice tool for accessing and manipulate your MySQL databases.


• Webalizer and AWStats: These tools are visual aids that show you how your sites are being accessed.


• PHP and Perl: Frankly, all web hosts ought support these two languages. If they don't, pfft!


• Ruby on Rails: Actually I have no use for it, but at least ASO is keeping up with the bleeding edge stuff. Someone else might love it.

Here's a breakdown of the different hosting packages A Small Orange offers:

• Tiny: 75MB space, 3GB bandwidth, $25 per year.


• Small: 400MB space, 10GB bandwidth, $5 per month.


• Medium: 1000MB space, 25GB bandwidth, $10 per month.


• Large: 2500MB space, 60GB bandwidth, $20 per month.


• Super: 4500MB space, 100GB bandwidth, $30 per month.

I currently use the Small package, which is more than sufficient for my needs.

If A Small Orange sounds like just the thing you've been looking for, head on over to their site and click on Services, then Shared Web Hosting. Click on the hosting package you want and follow the instructions.

PS: Want an additional $5 off your order? Use this coupon code: purpleorange