iPage has been around since 1998, so it is clearly one of the oldest web hosting companies still operating today. It is owned by Endurance International Group (EIG), the owners of two other web host companies – Bluehost and HostGator. iPage is popular and currently hosts over one million websites.
iPage offers shared hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers. It also has reseller packages for entrepreneurs. Its shared hosting option is one of the most affordable we have come across, and it is packaged in a single plan.
If you’re considering iPage as the new home for your website, you will want to stick around for this review. We’ll break down the plans on offer, explore its features, performance, and pricing, and list out the pros and cons of this web host provider.
But first, a quick review.
Quick Review
- Acceptable uptime
- Mediocre speeds
- Great customer care, with 24/7 phone support, live chat, and email
- Knowledge base
- Shared, WordPress, VPS, and dedicated web hosting
- Free domain for the first year
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- vDeck control panel
- No Windows servers
- Two data centers located in the US
- Unlimited websites
- Unlimited bandwidth, disk space, and MySQL databases
- Free SSL certificate
- Free website builder
Overview
Most of the web hosting providers of its era have long gone under, but iPage still stands strong today. At least that’s what the numbers say. With over one million websites currently hosted on its servers, iPage is undeniably still a popular option for web hosting.
It is quite affordable too. Its shared hosting plan is one of the cheapest you are going to find around from any top web hosting provider. But how does it stack up against the rest of its rivals in terms of performance and features? We’ll see about that.
iPage offers domain names with a ton of domain name extensions for sale. For web hosting, it offers shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated server plans to cater to your preferences and website needs.
Shared Hosting
This form of web hosting is perfect for personal websites and small businesses. As the name implies, it involves sharing a server and the server’s resources among multiple websites. These websites are each allocated space on a server by the web host, and they are assigned resources based on the plan they purchase.
Unlike most other web host companies which offer a variety of shared hosting plans to choose from, iPage goes another route. There is only one shared web hosting plan on iPage, eliminating the need to ponder over multiple choices. The intended aim is for it to satisfy all shared hosting needs. It does just about that, at least on the surface.
iPage’s Go Plan starts at a jaw-dropping $1.99/mo., for a 36-month subscription that adds up to $71.64. It comes with unlimited websites, unlimited disk space, and unmetered bandwidth. Of course, in reality, the “unlimited” tag is a misnomer for shared hosting, but it is still nice that there are no frustrating limits.
In addition, you also get a free SSL certificate and free website builder. There is a free domain thrown in, but it must be noted that this is only free for the first year. You will be required to pay subsequently. For website building, you get a 1-click WordPress installation and a drag-and-drop builder.
It is not the best shared hosting plan around, price and unlimited features considered. There are issues that need considering such as the lack of monthly billing for payment. Also, there is no cPanel. Instead, iPage uses vDeck, an alternative that is frankly not as handy and efficient as cPanel.
VPS Hosting
The next tier of hosting is VPS hosting. It is a middle ground between shared hosting and dedicated hosting. VPS web hosting is suitable for websites with more traffic than is comfortable for a shared server. Here a website gets its own virtual server even though it still shares a physical server with other sites in reality.
The advantage is that there are fewer websites to share with this time. Also, the website owner gets a certain level of control over the server and its resources, like bandwidth and processing power.
iPage has three VPS plans. They are not quite as cheap as the shared plans, relatively. The Basic plan starts from $199.99/mo. It offers 1 Core CPU, 1 GB of RAM, and 40 GB disk space. Bandwidth is capped at 1 TB, and it comes with one IP address.
Up next is the Business plan which iPage recommends. It improves on the Basic plan with 4 GB of RAM, 90 GB disk space, and 3 TB bandwidth. It starts from $47.99/mo. Finally, we have the Optimum plan which starts at $79.99/mo. It offers 4 Core CPU, 8 GB of RAM, 120 GB disk space, and 4 TB o bandwidth.
Dedicated Server
For big websites that attract a ton of traffic, sharing a server in any form may be detrimental to sustained performance. For these sites, a dedicated server is a way to go. Here, an entire server is assigned to the website, alongside full control of it.
As a result, the website gets to enjoy optimum speeds, security, and excellent uptime. As you can imagine, dedicated web hosting is markedly more expensive than other forms of hosting.
iPage has three dedicated hosting options – StartUp, Professional, and Enterprise. The StartUp is the entry-level plan, and costs start from $119.99/mo. The Professional plan is recommended by iPage and starts at $151.99/mo. It comes with 8 GB of RAM, 1 TB of disk space, and 10 TB of bandwidth. Lastly, there’s the Enterprise plan which starts at $191.99/mo.
Pros
When you sign up for a 36-month package, iPage is almost dirt-cheap. It also has quality customer support.
1. Cheap Web Hosting
If you skim through iPage’s website, it is likely that the first thing you will notice is its very attractive pricing. In fact, it is one of the most affordable web hosting companies in the industry.
iPage has a single shared plan which starts at $1.99/mo. This is undoubtedly a bargain, as you can see from the features it offers. Because there is only one plan, it stands up to the upper tier of shared hosting plans from other web hosting providers and is good value for money. The dedicated server plans start at $119.99/mo., another bargain.
Of course, it must be noted that the iPage plans you see are calculated at the rate for its longest package – 36 months. If you prefer not to commit for that long, you will have to cough out more. Still, it is generally an attractive web host to consider if you are on a budget.
2. Great Customer Support
iPage’s customer support is friendly and commits to getting your complaints handled as quickly and efficiently as possible. It is also 24/7/365, so you can reach out at any time and from anywhere around the world.
There are a variety of methods to contact them through – telephone calls, live chat, and ticketing. We tried out the Live Chat feature and were able to get hold of a customer care representative after only a very short delay.
In addition to the personal contact with representatives, iPage also has a knowledge base that covers a lot of the… well, bases. It is structured into several categories, with extensive resources including articles, tutorials, and walk-throughs available to help you with inquiries.
3. Decent Uptime
Every website needs to maintain high levels of uptime in order to ensure that visitors access the content they need. If your website experiences downtimes a lot, chances are that your traffic will move on to another alternative. This quickly translates into lost revenue and an eroded reputation.
iPage may be an affordable web host that presents good value for money on some of its plans, but all of that means little if your visitors cannot access your site. We monitored iPage’s uptime over a period of three months using the UptimeRobot tool.
In that time, we found that iPage averaged about 99.91% uptime. That is not a fantastic result by any means, but it is not poor. iPage has an uptime monitoring feature, so you will be alerted when your site experiences downtime. It also has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, with a compensation package attached.
For a web hosting provider that ranks nearer the top in terms of uptime, you can check out SiteGround.
4. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
If you find that you are unimpressed with iPage’s web hosting service and decide not to commit, then you can take advantage of its 30-day money-back guarantee. This policy is no questions asked. As long as you request a refund within the first 30 days, you will get back your subscription in full.
There is a caveat to take note of. If you register a domain through iPage, you will not be eligible for the money-back guarantee. What this means is that you will not lose the domain name, but you can transfer it to another web host.
Cons
On the flip side, there are a number of cons you should know about before you take a decision to subscribe for a plan.
1. Mediocre Response and Loading Time
Response and page load times have a direct effect on how long your website visitors will spend on your website. The longer it takes your website to load, the higher the chances of your visitors moving elsewhere, period. Google also penalizes websites that are slow, in terms of SEO rankings.
iPage does not impress when it comes to this performance metric. When we monitored our test website’s speeds over a period of a couple of weeks, results showed an average of 718 ms speed.
In contrast, A2 Hosting, a web hosting that prides itself on speed, returned an average of 246 ms.
2. No Free Website Migration
Website transfers are considered a freebie these days, with most web hosting companies offering a form of free migration. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with iPage.
If you are considering moving your website from your current host, iPage has the professionals who will handle it for you. But for the privilege, you will be required to fork out $150 per site, which is frankly ridiculous.
3. No cPanel
cPanel is by far the most popular system used by web hosting providers for website administration. If you’ve used it before, you’ll understand why. cPanel’s human-friendly and intuitive interface is the reason it is used by many providers. As a result, website owners migrating to new platforms using cPanel don’t need to adjust to a different system.
iPage does not use the cPanel dashboard but instead uses vDeck. Although it is not a terribly poor alternative, it is not as intuitive and user-friendly as cPanel is. Additionally, users who are used to cPanel will need to get used to this new interface.
4. No Free Backups
Another extra cost to take note of is website backups. Regular backups are beneficial because they guard against the chances of losing your website’s content. Many web hosts throw in backups as a perk. Not so with iPage.
iPage offers backups as a feature, but it is only available with two paid plans. The Basic plan starts at $2.27/mo. and only lets you back up a single website. The Pro plan, on the other hand, allows you to back up unlimited websites. Pricing starts at $3.28/mo.
5. Security Costs Extra
Even more extra costs to be worried about here. SiteLock is a website security and monitoring feature that helps protect your website from nasties like malware and a variety of attacks. It helps insulate your website from cyber threats, providing daily scans to identify vulnerabilities.
It is a feature offered by iPage but does not come for free. Instead, there is a range of prices, depending on the extent of the protection it will offer. Price starts from $1.99/mo. all the way to $24.99/mo.
Summary
All things considered, iPage is a solid web host option that offers pocket-friendly pricing, as well as great customer care, and a host of features. But on the other side of the coin, there are factors to consider such as average speeds and a ton of extra costs that add up to prevent it from being considered a top web host provider.
There are frankly better alternatives out there, such as SiteGround or Bluehost. Even then, it is not a poor option, especially if you have a tight budget to consider.