ASmallOrange

I hate writing reviews, but this is overdue. I moved a bunch of sites and domains from 1&1 in March 2015 because they were so WordPress unfriendly to A Small Orange because they were recommended by one of my theme developers. After moving a fair number of domains and diving into a dedicated server, I found out that they had been purchased by Endurance International Group (EIG) (list of properties they own is). Support hadn't seemed to suffer, and then... Right about the two year mark, which apparently is typical, support went off the deep end. I couldn't get anyone to answer error issues, I usually knew more than tech support, and then my server went off line for no apparent reason three times in a week. Each time it was down for around 24 hours, and I had to be the one to notice it had gone offline. Finally, in a fit of frustration, I crashed the thing, after moving domains and important files elsewhere (AWS in particular), I had full site backups AND a full server backup. It took them THREE WEEKS to get that server back online! That was with paying for PRIORITY SUPPORT! By then I had two cloud servers spun up on Digital Ocean managed with ServerPilot.io, I am getting my domains wholesale, and have migrated important email accounts to Gmail. Costs a whole lot less with more control and security, and I'm not beholden to an idiot helpdesk. Documentation with DO and SP have been great so far, as have the limited number of interactions I've had with them. Do your research before going with a new host. STAY AWAY from any host connected with EIG! You will eventually be sorry. Besides, everyone else is going to eat their lunch. Now, even though I have moved all of my domains and cancelled my server, they are still charging me for domains. I've had gone through the list, which is hard to read, and turned off automatic renewal several times. Today another charge came through and more than a dozen domains had renewal turned on. I had to go through them one by one. No way I missed that many while moving. And even after they are moved, they are active on your account. That's just plain stupid. There. My $0.02 about ASO.

I don't often write reviews, but the complete lack of support at A Small Orange certainly deserves it. I paid for their priority support plan, too. It seems that every company that Endurance International Group (EIG) acquires goes into the toilet about two years after acquisition. A theme developer recommended ASO about 18 months ago and 12 months ago I invested in a dedicated server. Within the last four months, that server has developed inconsistencies that made a graceful reboot impossible. I requested that it be looked at, but was ignored. On July 1 the server completely crashed, and as of today (July 21) the server is still dead! I paid for backups, but also had the server backed up to AWS S3. Every site was individually backed up to AWS S3 as well. They have not requested my backups and about once a week I get a pathetic email saying they are "working on it." They should have provisioned a new server and installed the backup. This should have been easy. The basic takeaway is to STEER VERY CLEAR of any company under the EIG umbrella. You can find a list here (http://researchasahobby.com/full-list-eig-hosting-companies-brands/).