A Small Orange is no longer a host you can sign up with. Endurance International Group bought it in July 2012, its service ratings fell apart by 2015, and the brand passed to Newfold Digital when Endurance became Newfold in 2021. As of September 24, 2026, asmallorange.com only shows a customer login portal.
What happened, in one sentence
A well-liked independent host from Atlanta was bought by the biggest hosting roll-up of the 2010s, lost the service quality it was known for, and was slowly absorbed until only a login page was left.
Timeline
| Date | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | A Small Orange is founded in Atlanta; it later moves to Austin, Texas | LinkedIn, WHTop |
| July 2012 | Endurance International Group buys A Small Orange, including its HostNine reseller brand | Endurance S-1, Choose Web Hosting |
| 2015 | Its Review Signal rating drops to 43%, down from the 70s in earlier years | Review Signal |
| Christmas 2015 onward | A long outage hits most, if not all, of its VPS customers | Review Signal |
| February 10, 2021 | Endurance is taken private by Clearlake and combined with Web.com Group to form Newfold Digital | Newfold press release |
| 2023 | A customer reports the A Small Orange homepage redirecting to web.com | XenForo forum |
| June 18, 2025 | Newfold folds the Web.com brand into Network Solutions | Newfold, TechRadar |
| By April 20, 2026 | asmallorange.com redirects to Network Solutions | WHTop |
| September 24, 2026 | asmallorange.com redirects (HTTP 301) to a customer login page | WTH check |
The pattern is familiar. Endurance buys a small host with a loyal following, moves it onto shared infrastructure, and the reviews sour. Review Signal, which tracks what customers say on social media, called this “the oft-repeated story” in its January 2016 write-up.
Who owns A Small Orange now?
Newfold Digital. That’s the company Endurance International Group became in February 2021, when private equity firm Clearlake completed its roughly $3.0 billion takeover and merged it with Web.com Group.
Inside Newfold, A Small Orange seems to have been handed down the Web.com line. In a 2023 forum thread a customer reported its homepage pointing to web.com. Web.com itself was folded into Network Solutions in June 2025, and by April 2026 asmallorange.com pointed there too.
See our Newfold Digital ownership guide and Network Solutions review.
What should existing A Small Orange customers do?
If you still pay an A Small Orange invoice, do these four things this week.
- Log in at the customer portal and write down your plan, renewal date and renewal price.
- Download a full backup of files, databases and email. Keep it off the server.
- Check your PHP version and site health. In that forum thread, a customer’s site broke after a PHP upgrade with no warning. Test your site on a current PHP version before your host does it for you.
- Find your domain. If A Small Orange registered it, confirm you can reach the DNS and transfer settings. Remove the transfer lock if you plan to leave.
Should you stay? If your site is small and working, there’s no fire. But the brand you pay no longer has its own website, which makes this a fair moment to shop around.
Where should A Small Orange customers go instead?
Pick based on what you run, not on the old brand’s reputation.
- A small blog or brochure site: mainstream shared hosting is fine. Compare renewal prices, not intro prices.
- WordPress that earns money: managed WordPress hosting is worth the extra cost for backups, staging and support that knows WordPress.
- Several client sites (the old HostNine reseller crowd): look at reseller or cloud plans where each site is isolated.
Our two-minute hosting quiz sorts you into one of those groups and names specific hosts. For the full list of who bought whom, see web hosting mergers and acquisitions.
What was A Small Orange known for?
Happy customers. For years it sat near the top of Review Signal’s rankings, in the 70% range, which is why its fall to 43% in 2015 stood out. It also sold VPS, dedicated and reseller hosting, the last through HostNine.
FAQ
Is A Small Orange still in business?
Not as a brand you can buy from. On September 24, 2026, asmallorange.com sent visitors straight to a customer login page and showed nothing else.
Who bought A Small Orange?
Endurance International Group, in July 2012, per Endurance’s own 2013 IPO filing. Endurance became Newfold Digital in February 2021.
Is A Small Orange part of Bluehost?
Not directly. Both belong to Newfold Digital, but A Small Orange’s site has pointed to web.com and later Network Solutions, not Bluehost.
Why did A Small Orange get so many bad reviews?
Review Signal’s data shows ratings falling in 2015, after the Endurance purchase, ending with a VPS outage that began around Christmas 2015.
Can I move my site off A Small Orange myself?
Yes. Back up, import files and databases at the new host, test, then point your DNS to the new server.
Sources
- Endurance International Group Form S-1 (2013)
- LinkedIn: A Small Orange
- Choose Web Hosting: all Endurance brands
- Review Signal: The Rise and Fall of A Small Orange
- XenForo community: Did something happen to asmallorange?
- Newfold: Clearlake completes acquisition of Endurance, forms Newfold Digital
- Newfold: Network Solutions and Web.com consolidate
- TechRadar: Network Solutions eats the Web.com brand
- WHTop: A Small Orange
- A Small Orange customer login
Related
- Newfold Digital ownership guide
- Network Solutions review
- Web hosting mergers and acquisitions
- Which web hosting should I use? (quiz)
- Best web hosting
Update log
- : Rewrote and fact-checked the page: the first full update since 2023.
- : Prices and facts checked against the cited sources, read September 24, 2026.
