Company: iPage
Background: Like Hostgator and Bluehost, iPage is part of Newfold Digital (previously known as Endurance International Group), an IT services company in web hosting. iPage has been behind over a million websites since 1998. Aside from shared and WordPress hosting solutions, iPage offers other products/services like domains, email, security, and marketing solutions.
Starting Price: $1.99/mo
Currency: USD
Visit Online: https://www.ipage.com
Review Summary & Ratings
iPage is a budget web hosting provider suited for businesses seeking an entry-level hosting plan. If you own a small business, blog, or a simple website, iPage is a solid offer. The shared and WordPress hosting plans are straightforward, price-friendly, and feature-rich. Also, the security suite keeps your website safe with daily malware and spam scans. The network monitoring entices. However, it isn't clear if a VPS offer is on the table as this is missing from the product lineup on iPage's website. Hence, the possible lack of a VPS upgrade could pose a problem when your website expands. That said, iPage remains a worthy web host thanks to its feature-rich starter plan that brings absolute simplicity to the website-building experience.
Who Should Host with iPage?
iPage is more suited for those who are starting, namely small-to-mid-sized businesses, freelancers, and bloggers. The shared hosting plan (GO plan) is cheap, from $1.99/month if you commit to the 36-month duration. Unlike most other providers, iPage offers only a payment plan for its shared hosting. Depending on the size of your business and plans, iPage could be it. However, large and expanding complex websites may not suit iPage.
Pros
iPage Hosting Service Overview
What I Like About iPage
1. Simple and Affordable Plan
Unlike others, iPage keeps things simple with a single shared hosting plan. The GO plan affords you many goodies, such as unlimited websites, unlimited domain names, unlimited storage, unlimited MySQL databases, a free SSL certificate, a free domain for a year, a free website builder, eCommerce features, and more. You get all these at $1.99/month – a steal, don’t you think?
Admittedly, most budget web hosts can be easy on your pockets too. However, they don’t usually provide you with all the goodies that iPage does.
2. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Although iPage does not offer a free trial, its hosting plans offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. Hence, you can freely try out their hosting, knowing that if you’re unsatisfied, you can apply through iPage’s billing department via live chat to seek a full refund, provided it’s less than 30 days since you signed up.
The 30-day money-back guarantee only applies to basic hosting services (not domain registration fees, setup fees, or additional services). Also, only first-time hosting accounts through PayPal and credit card payments qualify for the money-back guarantee refund.
3. Free Website Builder (Simple Websites)
iPage’s website builder is AI-powered and is a noteworthy free addition to its shared hosting plan. You begin by answering several questions and iPage sources for the most suitable layout, relevant images, and some initial content for your website. There's no need to rummage through templates to design your website (iPage has hundreds of templates).
Like most website builders, iPage allows you to change the fonts, colors, add a logo, and more. The website builder is straightforward, intuitive, and easy to use, great for newbies. You’ll find creating a website with no frills easy and fast enough. iPage websites are fully mobile-responsive. However, the free version limits you to six pages which suffice for blogs and simple websites.
A library of over 550,000 images is available and explores the built-in SEO tools. If you need more pages, consider the Business plan with unlimited pages, analytics integration, and more. The eCommerce plan is essential if you wish to sell online.
4. 24/7 Live Chat Support
iPage offers support on the website, via live chat, and through its Knowledge Base. The live chat appears as a pop-up. Input your name and contact information to proceed. While some may find this acceptable, I wasn’t comfortable providing my contact information, especially for simple questions, such as asking if they offered other hosting solutions like VPS and dedicated hosting.
That said, I liked that they entertained non-existing customers. Some web hosts only chat with existing customers. iPage’s agents were overall responsive. Whether they could provide a speedy solution depends on the nature of the issue.
Some complained that iPage’s support was unimpressive. Others weren’t happy about the lack of personal touch since iPage has no phone support. I find this a non-issue as I prefer live chat since I can do other stuff on the computer while waiting rather than on the phone.
5. Site Speed
The importance of website speed to any website’s success is no stranger to anyone. Nobody wants a snail-speed loading website; the bounce rate spikes. Your website speed heavily depends on your web hosting provider and the locations of the web host’s data centers.
The acceptable page loading speed sits under two seconds, and a good average response time is under 200ms for a feeling of instant response.
iPage gave an average aggregate response speed of 119ms when tested uisng Bitcatcha. It isn’t the fastest, but the figure is good, especially with its unmetered storage and bandwidth.
iPage Drawbacks and Cons
1. Unclear Product Offerings
iPage mentions clearly on its website that they offer both shared and WordPress hosting. There is no mention of Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting, although there is mention of a VPS offering within iPage’s knowledge base articles – I find this very confusing.
The said VPS article in the knowledge base is about the technical aspects of the VPS solution. I cannot find VPS pricing and its features on iPage’s website. As such, I am unsure if iPage truly offers VPS hosting. If iPage does not have VPS, website owners who look towards future growth will find iPage limiting.
2. Hidden Fees
The introductory $1.99/month price is when you commit to a 36-month duration and is for the first term of service only; this rate automatically renews at the regular rate of $7.99/month. Most web hosts do the same. However, I wasn't happy with this significant price hike, akin to a slap on the face.
3. Hidden Fees
Like most budget web hosts, iPage does not include some salient features such as malware and spam protection in its GO plan. You’ll have to purchase the security essentials separately at a minimum of $3.99/month, an introductory price that renews at $8.39/month – pricier than the hosting itself!
Also, your hosting plan has no automatic backups! Pay $2.27/month for the automatic daily backups and restores. Most other web hosts include backups and restores as part of their offerings. I shake my head at these sneaky add-ons.
4. Unlimited Hosting Isn't Exactly Unlimited
Although iPage’s GO plan is feature-rich with many unlimited goodies, you’d be surprised I am taking issue with the word ‘unlimited’. The ‘unlimited disk storage’ is one of their selling points. Click ‘Unlimited’ brings up a pop-up saying that as long as you abide by iPage’s Terms of Service and use the storage for ‘normal' operations of your website, you'll be fine. Else, you have to reduce your number of files.
Also, the ‘scalable bandwidth’ promises not to enforce any hard limits on your data transfer. However, if you consume heavy traffic which surpasses iPage’s shared hosting, you can expect them to contact you.
I know I raved a lot about iPage’s GO plan being all feature-rich with many goodies and freebies earlier. After all, it is a fact that they do give you these delectable provisions, although they come with caveats.
5. Server Location in the United States Only
It is reported that iPage utilizes two data centers in the United States. However, there isn't much information you can find on iPage’s website.
iPage Pricing & Plans Review
Both iPage’s shared and WordPress hosting plans are budget-friendly. If you commit to a year for the GO plan, the starting price is at $2.99/month else it is at $1.99/month for three years. iPage’s low prices are only for your first term, after which they soar to higher renewal prices. That said, you enjoy cost savings during the first three years, which is significant.
Shared Hosting
iPage offers unlimited disk space (you can expand your website), scalable bandwidth (no worries about traffic spikes), unlimited domain names (multiple domains under an account), and unlimited MySQL databases (expand your databases as per requirement).
Also, you get a free SSL certificate, free email (multiple email addresses under your custom domain), free one-year domain registration for each account, and more. Starting an online store is easy with PayPal, shopping carts, script integration via the 1-click installer, email marketing, and more. Yes, you can kick-start a small eCommerce store at a cheap price.
iPage offers a web-based email (WebMail) with industry-standard virus scanning. You can integrate with third-party email apps such as Outlook. Advanced email services such as Gmail and Microsoft 365 are also available.
WordPress Hosting
The WordPress Starter plan is at $3.75/month for a website. Go for the WordPress Essential plan at $6.95/month for unlimited websites, automatic malware removal, and SiteLock professional security. Take note that these are introductory prices, applicable for your first term only.
The WordPress Starter plan renews at $7.99/month for a 3-year commitment, and the WordPress Essential plan renews at $11.11/month. Other worthy web hosts offer WordPress hosting cheaper than this price, such as Hostinger and DreamHost. That said, iPage provides ‘unlimited’ storage, unlike them.
Alternatives to iPage Hosting Services
Compare iPage vs A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting has expanded to over 110,000 customers in 224 countries since 2001. Like iPage, A2 Hosting offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Unlike iPage, A2 Hosting has adequate global data center coverage in the US, Europe, and Asia, and has a more diversified range of hosting solutions.
Thanks to its unlimited NVMe SSD storage and A2 Optimized technology, A2 Hosting is widely known for its blazing speeds and top-notch performance. Turbo Servers (they claim to give you 20 times faster speeds) are available if budget is not an issue. A2 Hosting provides cPanel for you to configure and manage your hosting.
Compare iPage vs DreamHost
DreamHost is trusted by over 1.5 million websites, over 750,000 WordPress websites, and blogs in more than 100 countries since 1997. Dreamhost offers shared, cloud hosting, dedicated, managed WordPress, and VPS hosting, more varied than iPage. Unlike iPage, DreamHost guarantees 100% uptime and a 97-day money-back guarantee.
DreamHost has its custom-built control panel, much like iPage. Recommended by WordPress.org, DreamHost’s WordPress-centric infrastructure makes for robust and powerful support for your WordPress website. The WordPress Starter plan is a worthy contender to iPage’s, starting at $2.59/month.
Final Thoughts: Should You Pay for iPage?
Overall, iPage is a quality web host known for its budgeted shared hosting solution. The AI-powered free website builder, decent customer support, and plans with loads of goodies (despite the attached fine print) are good enough for a blog, small, or startup business website on a shoestring budget.
However, you may be better off elsewhere if you foresee fast take-up and have complicated needs. Also, iPage leverages too much wordplay, giving off a sense of being ingenuine. That said, iPage could still be a good choice when you know what to expect starting.
FAQs on iPage
iPage accepts payment by credit card, PayPal, check, or money order.
No. Unfortunately, iPage has no free trial. However, they have a 30-day money-back guarantee covering basic hosting fees only and are valid for first-time hosting accounts paid via PayPal and card only.
iPage offers a ‘99.9% uptime guarantee' for its hosting solutions. However, I could not find detailed documentation explaining compensation if this target isn't met. Most web hosts include such information except iPage.
It is reported that iPage utilizes two data centers. Although I could not find more details on iPage’s website, some say the servers are in the US.
