Complete iPage Review will be discussed in this article. Numerous hosting companies that offer inexpensive web hosting each make the claim to be the best. We are here to offer insight into how iPage compares to its rivals as seasoned web hosting reviewers who have looked into a wide range of options.
IPage web hosting has some compromises, like the majority of budget web hosts. It’s reasonable for almost any budget, but it falls short of the speed and performance standards of more expensive hosts in the web hosting sector. Does iPage’s low cost offset its subpar performance? Everything you ought to know about iPage web hosting services, including price, performance, features, support, usability, and more, is covered in this review.
ipage hosting plans review
Shared hosting, virtual private server (VPS), and dedicated hosting services are the three types of hosting that iPage provides. Your website coexists on a server alongside thousands of other websites when you use transferred hosting. Your website can experience a slowdown if another website on your shared server experiences a significant increase in traffic.
You don’t have to communicate resources with any other websites because dedicated hosting gives your website its own server. When you use a dedicated server, you never have to worry about another website affecting your performance. VPS hosting can be believed of as a hybrid between shared and dedicated hosting. You and other websites use the same server, but you have exclusive access to a subset of the server’s resources.
You’ll probably begin with a shared web host if this is your foremost time starting a blog or affiliate website. One of the most affordable shared hosting packages nowadays is offered by iPage. The iPage web hosting plan is now available for $1.99/month during a promotion.
What functions does iPage provide? Affordable Hosting: It’s challenging to locate a competing web host that can match iPage’s pricing. If you choose the three-year plan, the monthly cost is just $1.99.
The iPage user dashboard is simple to use and ideal for new users. With a few clicks, WordPress can be installed. You can also create your website’s layout using a free website builder. A regular dot com domain name from iPage costs $19.99 per year, but you can acquire one for free for the first year. Unlimited Domains: With iPage web hosting, you may add as many more domains as you’d like to your hosting account. If you like, you can obtain a free domain name each day. Also check Monitive Review
2. VPS Hosting
The advancement from shared web hosting is VPS. VPS can provide you with the speed and performance you require if your website has outgrown the help you can get from a shared server. It strikes the ideal balance between dedicated and shared.
Compared to other hosting companies, iPage falls somewhere in the middle for VPS hosting. With equivalent metrics, its entry-level package is less expensive than Bluehost’s. Contrarily, GoDaddy charges the same amount (before renewal) as iPage’s Basic VPS package for a server with two CPU cores, two gigabytes of RAM, and one hundred gigabytes of disk space.
3. Dedicated Hosting
If your website is popular and successful and receives a lot of traffic, dedicated hosting can be of interest to you. Although dedicated servers are the priciest choice, they will provide you with the finest speed & performance.
Pricing
Promotional pricing for all of iPage’s web hosting plans is available. You should thoroughly read the tiny print in this plan as you would with other web hosting packages. You will need to renew your hosting plan whenever your initial term expires, frequently at a greater price than what you originally agreed to. Sometimes renewal rates are double or treble the promotional rates. You can receive a costly surprise if you have auto-renewal set up.
Let’s examine their joint strategy as an example. Only if you prepay for 36 months of hosting will you be eligible for the $1.99/month promotion price. You will pay a little bit extra each month if you prefer a shorter term, such as 12 or 24 months.
Ipage performance: Speed and Uptime
Performance is one of iPage’s main flaws. If you want to earn money online, it’s imperative that your website loads quickly and is trustworthy. We’re examining two crucial measures for performance: speed and uptime. What happens with the speed test on iPage? Let’s be honest: not very well. All around pretty awful performance. Since all of iPage’s servers are in Boston, users outside of the US will experience poor speeds. Speed is therefore useless, but what about dependability? Let’s examine the uptime for iPage. On their website, iPage offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Pingdom[1], which has uptime statistics going back to 2015, claims that Ipage doesn’t deliver on its guarantee.
Over 400 outages & 15 hours of total downtime were recorded by iPage in 2021, which had a 99.82% uptime rate. Even with the most affordable web servers, a certain level of downtime is pretty undesirable for site owners who are trying to create an audience or make sales online. Those 15 hours of downtime might cost you hundreds or actually thousands of dollars if you depend on your website for affiliate commissions, product sales, or even display ad revenue. If you want speed, have a look at this list of the fastest hosting companies.
iPage Features
1. Free Domain Registration
All of iPage’s plans include free domain registration. After a year, you must pay the regular renewal fee to maintain your free domain name registration.
Depending on your domain extension, prices change. That amounts to $19.99 a year for a typical.com domain, which is about average for domain hosting. Directly from the dashboard, you may transfer domain names to your account. Your current domain registrar will need to provide you with an authorisation code. Your transfer ought to be finished in seven days or less if you follow all the dashboard instructions.
2. Unlimited Storage
According to iPage’s hosting page, customers can use an infinite amount of disk space as long as they abide by the company’s terms and regulations. “Unlimited” disk space in shared web hosting nearly usually comes with some restrictions. A shared system cannot support a website that consumes entirely too many server resources. Every website on the shared server may see a performance hit if that occurs. In cases where they’ve had to work with clients to cut back on the number of files on their servers, iPage hosting has a disclaimer. They include a “soft cap” of 20,000 files on the disk space according to their terms of service.
3. Scalable Bandwidth
The amount of bandwidth your web host provides you with will ultimately decide how quickly your site loads. The majority of shared hosting services assert that they provide limitless bandwidth, and iPage makes a comparable claim with “scalable bandwidth.” No shared server can genuinely provide you with infinite bandwidth, the truth is. Hosting firms generally use the word “unlimited” rather than providing exact figures because the majority of websites will never require more bandwidth than a shared server can offer.
4. Unlimited MYSQL Databases
Your website saves and organizes data using MySQL databases. Different sorts of data are arranged into distinct tables in a MySQL database. Although it’s not the same as file storage, web hosting depends heavily on it. 1,000 database tables and 3 GB in total database size (or 2 GB for a single database) are the soft limits set by iPage for MySQL databases, similar to those for storage capacity. If you exceed such thresholds, iPage will ask you to reduce the size of your databases or switch to a VPS or dedicated account.
Should you be concerned about their constraints? The quick response is no, not really. For a WordPress website, the typical MySQL database size is 85 MB[2]. It would take years of daily content updating for a brand-new website to even approach those levels in your database.
5. Free SSL certificate
Even if you only intend to maintain a straightforward information blog, you need keep your website safe. An SSL certificate notifies users and web browsers like Chrome that they can trust your website. It is even a ranking indication for Google[3]. To put it another way, you require this certificate.
Every iPage web hosting package includes a free certificate that you can instantly activate from the dashboard. Many shared web hosting companies already include free SSL as a standard feature, so they don’t really have an edge. Don’t fall for iPage’s attempt to upsell you on a premium SSL certificate for an extra $3/month.
6. WordPress Hosting
With their shared hosting package, iPage provides a free WordPress installation. With only a occasional clicks from the dashboard, setup is really simple, and in less than five minutes, WordPress will be operational. Managed WordPress hosting options are also available from iPage. If you simply want to get a WordPress site up and running, the iPage WordPress hosting plan can be helpful. The WP Starter plan costs $3.75 per month, and the WP Essential plan costs $6.95 per month, which is a little better expensive than their basic Go Plan. When your term expires, you’ll pay increased renewal prices, just like their other hosting plans.
7. Website Builder
If running a WordPress website is not what you’re after, iPage offers a free site builder that can guide you through the web creation process. To create a unique web template, the iPage Website Builder guides you through a series of questions. Also check Code Reviews Best Practice
The template they create for you can be used, or you can explore a variety of pre-made designs arranged by website type (blog, online store, etc.) and niche (fashion, photography, sports, etc.). There are two premium tiers and a free tier for Website Builder. All hosting options come with a free website builder like this one. You may create a 6-page website with it, use pre-made designs, and choose from more than 550,000 stock photos. The Business tier offers all the Starter capabilities as well as unlimited pages, revision history, and analytics information for $6.99/mo.
The eCommerce tier, which costs $12.99 per month, enables you to sell things online, track and manage inventory, integrate PayPal, and provide promotional coupons. It also delivers you access to all the Start and Business capabilities. Their website builder is adequate, but it lacks drag-and-drop tools and other things that make life easier that are offered by other web providers and content management systems.
8. cPanel
For backend site management, almost every web hosting service makes use of cPanel. If this is your first experience managing a website, you might find the amount of capabilities in cPanel to be a little intimidating. In comparison to cPanel, iPage’s control panel is significantly easier for beginners to use. You may get a summary containing domain information and options on the dashboard. You may access Website Builder, WordPress, email administration, security, DNS & nameservers, and transfers via the sidebar on the left.
You should be aware that iPage makes a lot of effort to upsell you in their dashboard. For instance, clicking the SSL option in the left sidebar will direct you to their purchased certificate. But you can activate the free SSL iPage advertised by turning on the LetsEncrypt Free SSL option found on the main page.
Support
Roadblocks are unavoidable if you intend to operate your website for a number of years. You can solve site-related problems with the aid of a strong tech support system. The 24/7 service that iPage advertises is not necessarily of high caliber. It’s true that iPage’s support staff responds to requests very quickly. You’ll probably hear back from their customer service representatives in less than five seconds if you contact them. Sometimes the support staff lacks the technical expertise to address your inquiries. When that occurs, they will open a support ticket, and you will have to wait for a response.
Here are a few Trustpilot testimonials criticizing iPage’s inadequate customer service:
- Some issues may wait, but if your entire website is down, it can be agonizing to wait hours or days for assistance.
- Additionally, users have complained that iPage help tried to upsell them on premium products rather than attempting to fix their problems.
- In the end, iPage’s almost immediate reaction time cannot compensate for their subpar customer service.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Low cost. Few shared hosting packages can match iPage’s pricing. Just be infallible to be aware of the expiration of your initial term and the beginning of your increased renewal charges.
- Easy of use. The fact that iPage is a hosting platform made with beginners in mind is evident on their backend. It’s simple to locate and use email setup and one-click WordPress installations.
Cons
- Zero Free Backups. Some essential features offered by competing shared hosting systems are not present on iPage. The major flaw is the absence of daily free backups.
- Bad Support. The reputation of iPage’s support team as being subpar. Although response times are fast, it irritates me that support staff is unhelpful and there are always upsells.
- Performance difficulties. Expect to be let down by iPage if you’re seeking for a hosting service with respectable uptime and load times. Since all of their servers are in the US, visitors from other countries may see appalling load times.
Ipage vs BlueHost
This iPage review has just looked at iPage on its own so far. But how does it compare to other well-known web hosting packages? Let’s see how iPage stacks up against Bluehost in terms of performance, cost, usability, features, and customer care.
Performance Test
One of the multiple important items to take into account when selecting a web host is quick and dependable performance. The lowest solutions for shared web hosting typically come with inferior performance. Despite the fact that both companies solely have American data centers, iPage outperforms Bluehost in terms of performance ratings and fully load times.
Pricing Comparison
The cost-effectiveness of iPage’s shared hosting package has already been acknowledged. With iPage, you can make significant financial savings over Bluehost’s most affordable package. A three-year hosting plan from iPage costs $1.99 per month, or $71.64 up front.
For the first year, Bluehost’s entry-level plan is discounted to $3.45/month; thereafter, the regular renewal fee applies. Let’s use the $9.49/month renewal fee for a two-year plan as a baseline for comparison. Bluehost would cost $269.16 in total for three years, which is roughly four times the cost of iPage.
Ease-of-Use
While iPage makes use of its own control panel interface, Bluehost makes use of cPanel. There are many possibilities with cPanel, and there may be a slight learning curve. However, once you figure it out, cPanel is actually rather simple to use and intuitive. The dashboard on iPage is straightforward and follows a minimalistic approach. Submenus conceal more complex or infrequently used features, reducing the sense of overwhelm new users may experience using cPanel.
Other Features
Both businesses provide one-click WordPress installs, a 30-day money back guarantee, & a free domain name for one year. Both include comparable premium add-on services like Sitelock Security and domain privacy. With its Website Builder, which has drag-and-drop capability and more customizability, Bluehost outperforms iPage.
Support comparison
We already brought out iPage’s terrible customer service, but how does it stack up against Bluehost? Support isn’t a key selling factor for Bluehost or iPage. Although iPage has a quick response time, their customer service representatives are frequently unhelpful and eager to upsell. Bluehost provides slower response times but generally better service.
What are their Trustpilot ratings?
Bluehost has a 3.0 rating compared to iPage’s 1.7. Both of those ratings are subpar, but Bluehost comes out on top in this case.
FAQs
Where are the servers for iPage located?
Two data centers in Boston, Massachusetts house the iPage servers. If you use iPage, visitors from outside the US might have trouble loading your website quickly. Use a free CDN like Cloudflare as an option.
How Can I Upgrade My iPage Account To Host A Second Website?
You can add a second website to your iPage hosting account by entering into your account, navigating to the domain dashboard, and choosing “Purchase Domain.” After purchasing, your new domain will be shown on your domain dashboard, where you can install WordPress or utilize the Website Builder.
How Can I Reach iPage?
There are two ways to reach iPage. From the option at the base of the home page or the contact page, you may access their online chat assistance. iPage’s toll-free number is 1 (877) 472-4399.
How Can I Get Rid of My iPage Account?
By navigating to the dashboard, clicking on the hosting tools button, and choosing hosting renewal, you can delete your iPage account. From there, you can quickly close your account or cancel your automatic renewal payment.
Is cPanel Used by Ipage?
IPage does not make use of cPanel. Instead, they administer the back end of the website using a custom dashboard.
Is iPage Still Valuable in 2023?
IPage is not the finest choice for a hosting service. Yes, it’s inexpensive—$1.99 per month for three years may be the lowest cost shared hosting option available. However, this hosting service’s low price has a catch. You shouldn’t skimp on either speed or dependability when it comes to web hosting. The hosting service, uptime, and load times offered by iPage are subpar. Website owners should probably stay away from iPage if they want to expand their audience or start an online business.
You can get far better performance from other hosts, like Siteground, for a fair fee. Only if you’re just starting out with website management and want to do so on the smallest feasible budget can we suggest the iPage hosting plan.