Home » Should I use iPage Hosting – A Complete Review

Should I use iPage Hosting – A Complete Review

Sezmi

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7.5 Out Of 10

What is iPage?

iPage Hosting, a well-established hosting company, targets the budget-conscious and entry-level market. They are part of Newfold Digital’s large holding company for hosting brands, which also includes Bluehost as well as HostGator.

iPage is a well-known and trusted provider of hosting services at an affordable price.

They also offer hosting and a line of complementary products like domain names, website builders (i.e. their iPage builder )

iPage offers a variety of web hosting services, including a shared host and a VPS plan . A dedicated server option is also available along with custom products like WordPress hosting.

Is iPage Legit?

Yes, iPage exists. They are an established, large hosting company, but they also have a subsidiary of Endurance International which is one the largest web service corporations.

iPage was founded in 1998. It has grown to be one of the most well-known and popular hosting brands. iPage is a straightforward, simple, and affordable hosting provider.

iPage is a legitimate company. They’re not a small-scale hosting company.

What is iPage used for?

iPage can be used to host websites or web applications. Their marketing focus is on hosting affordable websites and offering free software with every hosting plan. They offer a variety of products, from domain names and hosting to email and web design.

Many iPage reviews are online. They often include user-generated reviews based upon anecdotes or personal experience. This is fine, but I prefer to look at the benefits and drawbacks of hosting.

As I have stated in my reviews of web hosting providers, it is all about finding the right fit for you based on your needs and resources. As an iPage customer, here are my pros and cons as well as an overview of iPage products.

Hosting plans for iPage

iPage offers a variety of hosting plans. Here is a quick overview of each.

Web Hosting

Web hosting (i.e. Shared) is the mainstay of website hosting. Each account is hosted on a Linux server. They can run WordPress and any other application on a LAMP stack . It is a reliable and cost-effective way to host most websites. This guide provides more information about shared hosting. iPage offers a single plan, the Go Plan (formerly iPage Essential).

* Prices per month for a 36 month subscription

Get iPage For $1.99 per month

WordPress Hosting

WordPress can be run on shared hosting. However, many hosting companies offer WordPress hosting plans to meet customer demand and the hardware requirements of WordPress. Many hosting companies offer WordPress hosting that is identical to their shared hosting plans.

iPage offers a WordPress Hosting Plan. It’s a shared hosting plan that includes pre-installed plug-ins. View their plans.

VPS Hosting

VPS hosting allows you to have a set amount of server resources without the need to lease an entire server. Your website can live on the same server that other websites, but you are in complete control of what resources are available to you. This guide will help you learn more about VPS Hosting. iPage offers several affordable VPS plans.

Hosting dedicated to your needs

You can lease an entire server through dedicated hosting. This is the best way to get maximum control and performance. iPage offers a variety of affordable dedicated hosting products.

iPage Website Builder

Website builders are available in a variety of formats, including drag-and-drop and template-driven designs. They help people get online using websites that do not require any knowledge of HTML/CSS, Javascript or HTML/CSS. Many hosted website builders offer their software with only their own hosting. These include:

• Wix
• Weebly
• Squarespace
• Jimdo
• Strikingly
• WordPress.com

In another article, I’ve described website builders.

Self-hosted website builders are not locked in, while hosted website builders have one. iPage offers a template-driven, self-hosted website builder. This template-driven website builder is included with a hosting plan. It offers many of the same functionality and ease-of-use as a hosted one. Visit iPage’s builder.

iPage Alternatives

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The Best Web Hosting

Pros of iPage

There are many iPage reviews online. These reviews are usually based on personal experience and anecdotes. This is fine, but I prefer a different approach. In all my best Web Hosting reviews I have mentioned that there is no “best” web host. It all comes down to the right fit for your project, based on your budget, experience, and expertise. These are the advantages of using iPage.

Plan & Feature Simplicity

Pricing plans are a major problem in the hosting industry. It’s difficult to compare company plans because they rarely match one another.

While some companies limit the number of websites they allow, others offer a variety of discounts for high-end prices. The middle (or “Best Value!”) is the best value. The middle (aka “Best Value!”) is often a mixture meant to help you make a decision.

iPage is known for its simplicity. They offer one shared web hosting plan. You have unlimited access to the three “D’s”, which I refer to as the core of the product you are purchasing. You can have unlimited domains, unlimited MySQL Databases, and unlimited disk space.

iPage offers unlimited email addresses, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains, and a free SSL certificate along with all plans.

Technically speaking, all accounts are subject to file-sharing and abuse policies. iPage must prevent anyone from interfering on other customers’ websites because the servers are shared between several customers.

Second Aside iPage offers a separate “WordPress Plans” option. This plan allows you to run WordPress. This item will be covered in more detail in the Cons section. Basically, their WordPress hosting page serves as an upsell. It’s not anything special.

*If you’re looking for WordPress hosting specifically, be sure to check my Hosting vs. WordPress Hosting Explained article.

Regardless of your preference, iPage offers a single plan that includes all the primary features. It’s easy to compare and to judge.

Value Pricing

Hosting companies offer standard pricing, which they will discount depending on how long you sign up. Most hosting companies offer a discount for the first one year.

iPage is no exception. The Go plan costs $9.99 per month and you can sign up for 3 years to get a $7.99 per-month renewal.

iPage allows you to sign up at a special introductory rate for up to three years. For less than $80, you can get unlimited web hosting for 3 years. This is a great deal. This is a very rare situation, even for budget-minded hosts.

There are some catches, which I will mention in the cons section. However, the great value of deep discounts for a long time and unlimited features is an amazing benefit.

Support channels for customers

As I mentioned in other web hosting reviews it is impossible to say whether a company offers exceptional or terrible customer service to each customer. It is difficult to tell as a customer whether you are dealing with one exceptional or one terrible employee, or if it’s all about the company’s culture.

Although I don’t have much experience with iPage customer service representatives, I did find two customer service indicators – one pro and one con at iPage.

iPage’s support team is available 24 hours a day via email, tickets, chat and phone. This is a positive. All their support channels are easy to find and use. They offer a money-back guarantee that is quite impressive.

This range of support channels can be very useful for a shared hosting company in a low-budget market. It is a great way to stand out.

Despite this, the huge asterisk represents the shared hosting company part – although iPage may have great support, they don’t sell service. They sell for a price. I wouldn’t expect sustained, high-quality support like what you might get at companies such as InMotion and SiteGround.

Cons of iPage

iPage is just like any other web host. You can find many iPage complaints online. Many of these complaints are valid. Some are just anecdotal. These are some of the cons I encountered while using iPage as a hosting platform.

Upsells are all around

Hosting industry upsells aren’t unique. These upsells are common and can be very helpful in providing more services to customers, while making the company more profitable.

There’s a point where upsells become annoying and confusing.

iPage certainly crosses this line. They go above and beyond GoDaddy’s notorious upsells. There are upsells after upsell, from iPage’s initial signup to your account to access the backend of your website. Many are so clever that they automatically add to your cart without you knowing.

You can even get premium WordPress plugins up-sold directly from your WordPress installation.

While some offers may be interesting, most of them are not. These are just reworded benefits that are technically already part of your account (or are things that should be included in it, such as automatic backups).

iPage even offers a whole page on “WordPress Plans” that focuses on upselling features that aren’t actually features. Although their Essential plan is capable of running WordPress, they have added “features” that can be up-sold to WordPress users. Find out more about Web Hosting and WordPress Hosting here.

WP Essential has some real features, such as SSD servers. However, it’s mostly fluff. This is not the SiteGround, WPEngine, or InMotion that offer truly customized WordPress features.

You don’t need to sign up for any upsells. However, it is a disadvantage when you choose iPage.

Performance is average

A good hosting server will not only host your website files but also deliver them as fast as possible to every visitor who visits your domain name address.

There are many factors that affect how fast your website loads. It is possible to have the fastest server on the planet and still have a slow website because of issues on your side. You want your hosting server to be fast so you can focus on your side of things.

iPage uses a Burlington data center, Massachusetts, USA, and throttles my server’s memory by a little.

They offer good bandwidth and uptime. Here’s what their data center did with my website when it was first set up.

There are many factors that affect website speed. However, Time to First Byte is the best way to assess your web host. This measures the speed at which the server returns the first byte information to a browser after it sends a request.

iPage may not be the best performing website, but it is fine if you have a small website that only has a few visitors.

Knowledgebase & Self-Help Support

A company’s Knowledge Base section and self-help section are two of my favorite indicators of customer service culture. It’s usually a sign of good customer service if a company invests in these resources and has staff who actively monitor the comments.

iPage does not have either. Although they have a knowledge base, it is not up to par with other companies. Customers looking for quick solutions must submit tickets to customer service as they don’t have staff interaction in the knowledgebase.

Custom Backend

You will need a dashboard or hosting server backend to log in to, install software (such WordPress), reset your account information and set up a new hosting account. Most companies use a software known as cPanel. It is simple and straightforward. While some companies may make it look great, others will stick with the same software. Another huge advantage of cPanel? It’s easy to solve problems because it’s so widespread.

iPage doesn’t use cPanel. The backend is built using software called vDeck. It’s fine but confusing at times. It is definitely outdated compared to the clean-up cPanel backends you’ll find at hosts like:

• Bluehost Review
• InMotion Hosting Review

iPage also offers auto-installs of common software such as WordPress, Joomla, etc., but they use custom scripts instead of the more popular Softaculous and Fantastico. Their custom script is more complicated and confusing than the other hosts.

You can also manually install the software Auto-installing apps makes the process easier and less complicated.

Although iPage’s backend functions well, it is not as functional as other hosting companies.

Is iPage worth it?

Overall, I found hosting to work well for what they were. They’ll work well for small websites. They offer deep discounts on plans, which you can lock in for three years. This is their biggest selling point.

Sign up for iPage if you think that this pricing is appealing to you.

InMotion hosting is a shared hosting company that offers affordable pricing, long-term pricing and superior products. You can also visit HostGator (check out my review) if your preference is to pay monthly.

You can also check out my best WordPress Hosting list or my best Web Hosting list.