iPage Review 2020
Overview of iPage Hosting
Speed: 767ms load time
Uptime: Over 99% uptime
Support: live chat, phone, email, 24/7
Hosting Types: Shared, VPS, Dedicated, WordPress
Pricing: Starting from $1.99 per month
Benefits and Features of iPage Hosting
If you’re looking for hosting for your website, then you’re likely evaluating several different web hosts to figure out which company has the best web hosting for your website.
One of the things that you’ll want to look for in a web host is the different features that you’ll benefit from if you use their hosting services. If a hosting provider isn’t able to provide quality services and beneficial features that you can take advantage of, then they may not be the right hosting choice for you.
We reviewed iPage hosting, and we came up with some of the benefits and features that you can look forward to as an iPage customer. Here’s what we were able to find.
A strong uptime record
One of the things that you’ll want in any hosting provider is a good uptime record for their hosting servers. If your hosting provider doesn’t have a strong uptime record, then you’ll find that your website will have a lot of downtimes where it won’t be accessible by your viewers.
A website provides no value to you unless it’s live and accessible by your customers or online audience. If your site has a lot of down-time, then it can cause damage because you’ll lose customers that leave due to frustration.
One of the things that we love about iPage hosting is the fact that they’ve been able to maintain a solid uptime record of over 99% for the last two years. This is a pretty good indicator that they’ll be reliable as a web host and that you can trust them to host your website.
Cheap Hosting Plans
When you use iPage as your hosting provider, you’ll be able to take advantage of their cheap hosting plans. The iPage hosting plans are some of the most affordable hosting plans that we have seen through our hosting reviews.
You’ll only need to pay $1.99 per month to get started with the iPage hosting plans, but there are promos from time to time that can make these plans even cheaper for you. The only downside to these cheap hosting plans is the fact that you’ll need to buy a 3-year contract to get their low hosting prices.
While the basic plans aren’t good for a big website, you’ll benefit if you have a smaller site for business or personal use, and you need a good quality web host at a reasonable price. If you have a static website that gets under 10,000 viewers per month, then these plans will be perfect for you.
Tons of extra add-ons
Another reason that you may want to use iPage as your web host is that they offer a lot of additional add-ons and features that you can use for your website, and many of these features are free for you to use.
When you sign up, you’ll be able to pick a free domain name and then they’ll also give you a free SSL certificate so that you and your audience members are always safe while they’re on your website.
You’ll also be given a branded email that has your domain name in it, and it includes email forwarding features, spam filters, virus scans and it can even be integrated with Outlook Emails. Their hosting plans also come with unlimited disk space for storage and unmetered bandwidth along with an unlimited number of MySQL databases.
If you want to run an e-commerce store, then you can use their website builder to create your own online store, and then you can use some of the open-source apps that they have in their library to handle payments safely.
These are just some of the extra add-ons that they’ll be ready to give you if you use iPage as your web host.
Access to the iPage Website Builder
If you don’t know how to code your own website, then there’s still a way that you can create a website without paying thousands of dollars to a web design agency. This method is called a dop-and-drag website builder.
When you work with iPage hosting, you’ll have complete access to their website builder, which is a tool that you can use to build your website within a couple of hours. All you’ll need to do is pick a pre-built theme and then customize that theme to look how you want and then launch your final product, which will then turn into your website.
You’ll also have access to hundreds of different website themes, which will ensure that you find the right theme for your needs. If you want to open an online store, then you can pick an e-commerce theme and then use apps and plugins to handle the payments for your online store.
This is a nice feature to have from a hosting provider because it will save you a lot of time and money on web design, and you’ll be left with a website that looks professional and functions properly.
30-Day Refund Policy
One of the things that we love about iPage hosting is the fact they provide a refund policy, which will allow you to request a refund for your hosting cost within 30 days of your purchase.
This is a nice feature to have from any hosting services because it will allow you to set up a basic website and let you test their hosting services to see if you want to commit to a long term contract.
If you’re trying to choose a hosting provider, you should always look at their refund policy to ensure that you don’t get locked into a long term hosting contract without being completely satisfied with their hosting services.
Great Customer Service
If you’ve ever used a hosting provider that didn’t have excellent customer service, then you’ll likely understand how frustrating the situation can become. You’ll spend countless hours on phone calls, live chat while trying to resolve your issue, and many times, the problems don’t get resolved quickly so that you can get your website up and running again.
We value customer support, and so we took a look at the support team that you’ll be dealing with if you use iPage hosting, and we were happy with what we found. The iPage support staff was quick to respond to any inquiries, glad to help, and they knew what they were talking about.
Overall, we were pretty pleased with the support service that we were provided, and it’s a massive plus in our books because we value top-notch customer service. If you like to have fast customer support, then we would recommend iPage hosting.
Disadvantages of using iPage Hosting
When you’re in the process of buying web hosting for your website, you’ll likely be looking for the perfect web host. This is a big mistake because the perfect hosting provider simply doesn’t exist.
This is because there are flaws within every hosting company, and it’s up to you to weigh the pros and cons and then make an educated decision on which hosting provider is the best for you and your website.
We took a critical look at iPage hosting, and we were able to find a few disadvantages that you’ll experience if you use iPage as your web host. Here’s what we found.
Below Average Loading Speeds
If you’re looking for a hosting provider for your website, then you’ll likely want your web host to be fast so that you can provide a great viewing experience to your audience members.
We did a review of over 30 different web hosts, and we found that the average loading time within the hosting industry was 700ms. Unfortunately, when we tested iPage hosting, we found that they had a load time of only 767ms, which was below the industry average.
While this load time is barely below the average, we will place it at a disadvantage because there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to the loading times from iPage hosting.
Common High Renewal Rate Scheme
While the higher renewal rates scheme isn’t new to anyone, it’s something that you’ll want to be aware of so that you know what you’re getting yourself into before you make a hosting purchase.
Basically, when you buy hosting, you’ll see a really low price for hosting. This fee will only apply to your first hosting contract, and then when you go to renew your hosting plan, you’ll have to pay the standard hosting fee.
For example, if you buy the cheapest hosting plan from iPage, then you’ll only need to pay $1.99 per month for your first contract. However, if you’re going to renew your contract with this plan, then you’ll be paying about $7.99 per month when you renew your hosting plan.
You should always check the renewal prices for your hosting plans so that you avoid any surprises in the future, which could result in you switching web hosts, and needing a website migration.
No Free Website Migrations
If you’re looking to change your hosting providers, then you’ll need a website migration so that you can use another hosting service. We love to see it when a hosting company will cut costs for new customers by letting them transfer their website for free.
Unfortunately, when you use iPage hosting, you’ll need to pay a one-time fee of $150 to migrate an existing website to their hosting services. This doesn’t make much sense to us because it becomes a roadblock for new customers who would like to change hosting companies.
While iPage isn’t the only company to charge money for a site migration, they have some of the most expensive migration services. Although you’ll be getting a good website migration for your money and there will be no headaches, we believe that iPage could do better in this area.
No traditional Control Panel (cPanel)
Most of the hosting companies that we have reviewed will provide you with some dashboard that will act as your control panel so that you can easily manage and access any features that relate to your website.
This isn’t the case with iPage since they replaced the traditional looking cPanel with their own version that they call the vDeck.
If you’re a beginner in the hosting space, then this likely won’t be a huge issue, and you’ll find that the vDeck is easy to use. However, if you’re used to the old cPanels, then you may not love the new feel of the iPage vDeck dashboard.
iPage Hosting Plans and Pricing
When you’re in the process of choosing a hosting provider for your website, you’ll want to take a look at the plans that the hosting provider can offer. If the hosting plans don’t provide a lot of features for a reasonable price, then they may not be the best hosting provider for you.
You want the hosting plans to be full of add-ons that you’ll be able to use and at a price that is within your budget. This way, you’ll get the best of both worlds–great hosting at a reasonable price.
iPage hosting has four different types of hosting that you’re able to purchase, and they also offer different hosting plans within each hosting tier. Here are the four types of hosting that iPage has to offer:
- Shared Web Hosting
- VPS Hosting
- Dedicated Hosting
- WordPress Hosting
We will take a look at each f these hosting tiers so that you’ll be able to make an educated decision on which hosting plans are the best for you and the hosting needs that you have for your website.
iPage Shared Web Hosting
You’ll find that the shared hosting plans are some of the most common forms of web hosting because they are the cheapest type of web hosting, and many websites aren’t large enough that they require a lot of data. This makes the shared hosting plans the ideal solution for many smaller sites.
If you have a more extensive website, then you should probably stay away from basic shared hosting plans because they’ll likely not have enough hosting resources to handle all of your website traffic. This can result in slow load times and poor viewing experience for some of your audience members.
When you use iPage shared hosting, you’ll find that they offer just one hosting plan, which is a ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ type of plan, which will cost you around $1.99 per month for the first contract term and then it renews at just $7.99 per month.
This plan comes with unmetered bandwidth, unlimited disk space for storage, a free SSL certificate for security and a free domain name, which would cost you around 14.99 per year. You’ll also have access to the iPage website builder, which means you can use hundreds of professional themes to build your website within hours.
Overall, we are pretty happy with the shared hosting plan that you can purchase through iPage, and it’s a pretty good deal when you consider that it costs less than a coffee would at your favourite coffeehouse.
iPage VPS Hosting Plans
If you have a slightly larger website and you decide that your website needs more hosting resources so that you can provide a consistent viewing experience to your audience members, then you may want to use a Virtual Private Server (VPS).
A virtual private server is similar to shared hosting because you’ll still be sharing a hosting server. However, your website will have an allotted amount of hosting resources that you don’t get with shared hosting.
If you tend to get traffic spikes on your website and you need to know that your site can handle them, then you’ll likely want to start using a VPS web hosting plan or else your audience members may experience lags and slow loading times.
iPage hosting has three different VPS plans:
- Basic Plan – Only 19.99 per month
- Business Plan – Just $47.99 per month
- Optimum Plan – From $79.99 per month
These hosting plans are excellent because you’ll have full root access to your hosting server, which means that you’ll be able to customize and configure your settings so that you can give your website the best chance for success.
These hosting plans are also scalable, which means that you can easily upgrade your hosting plan with the push of a button. This feature will be beneficial if you’re trying to save money while growing a website because you’ll only need to pay more for hosting as your site grows.
If your website is getting up to 200,000 viewers per month, then you’ll likely benefit from using the iPage VPS hosting plans for your website.
iPage Dedicated Hosting Plans
If you have an extensive website, then you’ll likely want to look into buying a dedicated hosting plan. A dedicated hosting plan is a hosting server that is dedicated to hosting one website.
The beautiful thing about dedicated hosting is the fact that you’ll have access to all of the resources within your server. You won’t be bogged down by slower websites on your server or need to share any resources with other sites.
If you’ve ever used a dedicated server, you’ll know that they are way more expensive than other forms of web hosting. This is because you’re paying for the server by yourself, and there aren’t other websites with which to share costs.
iPage currently has three different plans within their dedicated hosting tier:
- Startup Plan – From $119.99 per month
- Professional Plan – From $151.99 per month
- Enterprise Plan – From $191.99 per month
You should always double-check to make sure that your website requires a dedicated web host. This is because it can become expensive to use dedicated hosting, so you should ensure that your website needs a dedicated web host before you commit to a long term contract.
If your website is getting over 200,000 viewers every month, then you’ll likely benefit from using a dedicated hosting plan.
iPage WordPress Hosting Plan
If you’ve been around the internet for a while, then you’ve likely heard of WordPress. WordPress is one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS), which allows you to set up and manage your own WordPress website.
If you have a WordPress site, then you’ll likely want to buy WordPress Hosting for your website to ensure that you’re giving your website the best chances for success in a competitive online space.
iPage Hosting has two different WordPress Hosting Plans:
- WordPress Starter Plan – Just $3.75 per month
- WordPress Essential Plan – Only $6.95 per month
When you use the WordPress Hosting plans from iPage, you’ll have access to hundreds of pre-installed website themes and plugins to help your website function better.
The iPage WordPress Hosting has been optimized to decrease the amount of time that it will take your viewers to access your website by 2.5x, which means that your website will become even faster when you use the iPage hosting plans.
Another thing that we like about iPage hosting is the fact that they have teamed up with a company called Sitelock, which allows you to have extra security features for your website so that you can keep your audience members safe and secure.
Do We Recommend iPage Hosting?
Yes, without a doubt! We would recommend iPage hosting to anyone who needs a reliable web host that can provide high-quality hosting services at a reasonable price.
While iPage has an excellent uptime record, they have a load time, which is slightly below average. This won’t affect you very much if you have a smaller website, although you may encounter issues if you have a large site.
We found that iPage has an excellent support team that was responsive, helpful and happy to make sure that all our issues were resolved. This is nice to see, especially when it can become a massive frustration for customers when the support team is sub-par.
We also love the extra features and benefits that you’ll find with each hosting plan that you purchase from iPage. Many hosting companies will charge you extra for these same features, but it’s nice to get them for free from iPage.
Overall, we would say that iPage is a great web host that can provide you with a cheap hosting plan for your website. Since they have slower load times, we would suggest that they are best for smaller to medium-sized sites.
