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Having monitored metrics such as uptime and page load speed for iPage for over 1 year, this review relies strongly on real data, including the aforementioned test metrics, customer support experience, as well as cost, functionality, usability, and more.
What is iPage
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Originally founded in 1998, iPage is a full-service domain name and web hosting provider for individuals and small businesses looking to enter the e-commerce space, and was acquired in 2010 by Endurance International Group (EIG), which also has some great brands, such as BlueHost The latter also has some strong brands such as Bluehost, HostMonster, JustHost, etc.
As of today, iPage has offices in six locations around the world and serves over one million websites worldwide through two data centers in the United States.
As we all know, EIG is very large and has very inconsistent hosting brands under its umbrella (usually somewhere between the mean and the spread). That said, we still hope to be proven wrong and maybe iPage can provide some amazing performance statistics. To find out, we built a WordPress site on the cheapest shared hosting solution and ran performance tests for 1 year, and the data was critical to the success of the site (and business).
Benefits of iPage
In addition to our favorites Hostinger ($0.80/month) and 1&1 IONOS ($1/month), iPage is one of the cheapest hosting options, and here are the biggest advantages of this company.
- Affordable
iPage costs only $1.99 per month, which makes it one of the cheapest web hosts on the market. It should be noted, however, that this price is only available for long-term deals -- 36 months -- and if you purchase a shorter term, the purchase price and renewal price will increase.
- Enhanced security options
All hosting plans come with the SiteLock Security Suite to help protect you from potential security breaches by regularly scanning for issues such as malware. Depending on the hosting plan you choose, features such as detecting and removing malicious content may also be included.
In addition, they use a firewall to further enhance security. What's more, you also get daily data backups for free, which is a nice added bonus, and the $1.99/month price makes iPage look even better considering many competitors offer it as a paid feature.
- Third-party application support
iPage connects with other merchants, making it easy for you to connect with Google Apps, PayPal, etc. This is especially useful for e-commerce sites that need to process secure payment transactions.
In addition, they offer some bonus credits for new accounts in Google Ads, Yahoo Advertising and Bing Ads.
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Most web hosts offer some kind of money-back guarantee, and iPage is one of them, but this company has a more sincere refund policy than its competitors: there are no hidden clauses. In contrast, some web hosts will not refund you if you use more traffic than the limit, or if you use a certain payment method.
iPage states that there is nothing wrong with their money back guarantee, but some fees (such as setup and domain registration fees) are non-refundable.
- Uptime
As one of the cheapest web hosting providers, iPage's uptime is excellent. In tests over the past 12 months, they have averaged 99.97%, far better than many other, more expensive web hosts.
On top of that, iPage claims to offer 7×24 uptime monitoring and if the site goes down, then their support staff will help you get back online immediately.
- Green
iPage is a Green Energy Partner with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which means that the data centers and web servers that support iPage and its users are powered by wind energy.
They purchased enough Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to offset up to 200% of their energy consumption, which is almost the same contribution as planting 100 hectares of trees! If you're looking to reduce your carbon footprint or want to partner with a socially conscious brand, then iPage is a web host to seriously consider.
- Good customer support
With budget web hosting, you don't always expect good customer support. However, iPage is impressive in this regard, and they offer reliable support services via phone, email and live chat.
Despite a 20 minute connection delay, their customer service representative answered all of our questions concisely and provided many other helpful details. We were very pleased with this, especially compared to other web hosts we have reviewed so far.
Disadvantages of iPage
iPage's pricing is unbeatable and customer support is great. But unfortunately, their other performance statistics are not as good as they could be.
- page load time
The 99.97% uptime is excellent, but the page load time is a whopping 820 milliseconds, which is only about 8% faster than the competitor's average (890 milliseconds). This may seem very bad, especially when considering that some of the best web hosts (e.g. BlueHost, Hostinger, Media Temple) are below 500 milliseconds.
Load time is not just a vanity metric, slow speeds also have a negative impact on SEO (search engine optimization), which can lead to lower rankings and less traffic.
- Expensive renewal costs
iPage offers promotional pricing ($1.99/month) for a 36-month hosting plan, but what happens at the end of the cycle? Unfortunately, our research shows that your costs will skyrocket to $7.99/month! Therefore, iPage may end up being more expensive than many of its competitors.
- Expensive domain name fees
The good news is that iPage will offer a 30-day money-back guarantee for new registration accounts, but if you request a refund during this window, they will deduct $15 from the domain fee. Technically, free domains and money-back guarantees can barely be tied together in harmony.
- no cPanel
Almost every web host offers cPanel, but not iPage, instead they use the lesser known vDeck. this is not to say that vDeck is bad, but for experienced users, cPanel is often easier to use and update than vDeck.
- not really unlimited
iPage claims to offer unlimited hosting, but when you take a closer look at the user agreement, you will find that this is not the case.
- If you are not using more CPU resources than the limit, then there is no limit. but in fact the account may be suspended when you exceed a certain CPU usage.
- iPage will ask you to reduce the number of files you have when they exceed 200,000.
- This is also true for accounts with too many MySQL/PostgreSQL data tables (over 1000).
Price of iPage
iPage currently offers only one shared hosting plan, charging $1.99/month when you sign up for 36 months at a time; $2.49/month for 24 months; and $2.99/month for 12 months. The shared hosting plan comes with unlimited storage, traffic, domain name and MySQL database, plus several integrations, applications and site building tools.
They also have two main WordPress hosting plans.
WP Starter
$3.75/month
- 1 free domain name
- Unlimited Traffic
- Unlimited Storage
- Customizable Control Panel
- Pre-installed themes and plugins
- View Details
- WP Essential
- $6.95/month
- 1 free domain name
- Unlimited Traffic
- Unlimited Storage
- Customizable Control Panel
- Pre-installed themes and plugins
- WordPress Expert Support
- Automatic malware removal
- SiteLock Professional Security
- View Details
- Domain name: one year free use
- Account registration: very easy
- Payment method.
- Account activation: very fast
- Control panel and dashboard: easy-to-use vDeck control panel
Summary
Despite having good uptime, strong security and low prices, iPage can slow down your site and be very expensive to renew. In today's hosting industry, the competition is so fierce that if you want a better web host, check out our web hosting rankings.
- Established: 1998
- Lowest price: $1.99/month
- Uptime: 99.97%
- Page load time: 820 milliseconds
- Hosting plans: web hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS, dedicated servers
- Customer support: live chat, phone, knowledge base
- Control backend: cPanel
- Payment method.
- Money back guarantee: 30 days