iPage Hosting Review – Including Pros and Cons

1 iPage Hosting Packages

iPage provides you with only a single plan that provides different unlimited features. It provides you with unlimited bandwidth, and the ability to make many subdomains as well as parked domains. iPage offers you MySQL databases and a disk space of 50GB.

The package has several limitations, one of them being that it allows you to host only one domain and provides you with only one email account.

Despite the fact that iPage claims to provide you with unlimited bandwidth, they monitor it.

They claim to provide bandwidth needs for about 99.5% of customers. This may be true, but if you have a larger website, you may have to consider getting a virtual private server.

The ability to create many databases makes it possible for you to run diverse programming languages which make the hosting great for people working on multiple websites in diverse programming languages.

The parked domains are domains that you acquire, but you don’t use them to build websites.

The domains have so much similarity with your main domain or a current search in search engines that relate to your business.

If that you fail to direct the parked domains to your site, iPage will send the parked domain links to their parked page that has advertisements for their affiliates.

It is important to note that based on iPage’s terms of service, they don’t offer you a commission for sales as a result of using the parked domains.

2 Pricing

The hosting price of the iPage starts from $1.99 per month. The hosting packages of iPage ranges from $3 to $50 a month on average.

The higher the number of months you pay, the lower the hosting price. This pricing plan makes it easy for you to easily set up your website at a very affordable price. With just $1.99 per month, you can have a website running.

In August 2015 the iPage price suddenly increased its price to $3.25 per month and later went back to $1.99 per month after a week.

There was no explanation of why the hosting price changed, but it went back to the initial price and is still in that price range.

Those who are looking for an affordable web host can choose iPage. Especially beginners who are looking for a very cheap hosting plan.

When getting started, iPage provides you with coupons, promotions, and special deals are also offered frequently. It is possible for you to get discounts for your hosting by visiting the iPage website or looking for an iPage coupon code online.

To purchase a hosting plan, you need to sign up to get started. When you have signed up, you will get free registration for a custom domain name, access to live chat, 24/7 phone, and email support. You also get a money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the service.

3 iPage Features

• Disk Space and Bandwidth
• Uptime
• Security
• Customer support
• Server Speed
• Control Panel
• 30 Day Money-Back Guarantee
• Powered by Renewable Energy

3.1 Disk Space and Bandwidth

iPage does not give a limit of the disk space or bandwidth that they provide in their hosting plan. They say that the aim is to help all their customers have a great online presence.

Although iPage claims to provide unlimited disk space and bandwidth, they always monitor your usage to ensure that you are complying with their terms of service.

This helps them ensure that each customer is using the bandwidth and disk space for the usual purposes. If they realize that your account is using their resources beyond what is expected, they might put some constraints on your account.

If you are using your account for the right reasons, you do not need to worry. In most cases, the customers who tend to exceed the usual disk space provided by iPage are those who do file-sharing or use their accounts for storage.

This is against iPage terms of service thus they can put some constraints on your accounts.

If you exceed the standard bandwidth or disk space usage; the iPage will send you an email requesting you to reduce the usage of your bandwidth or disk space.

After sending you the email, they give you 48 hours to allow you to reduce the usage after which they take your account offline if you fail to reduce your usage. However, it is hard for customers to use their services for a small business website to surpass their usage.

It is important to note that despite the fact that most hosting companies claim to provide you with unlimited hosting; they provide unlimited usage for normal usage.

The term “unlimited hosting’ is a marketing term used by most hosting companies to attract customers thus you should not be confused about it.

3.2 Uptime

Uptime is very important in any web hosting. A good web hosting company should provide you with reliable uptime.

No matter how well-designed your website is or how informative and interesting your content is; if your readers are not able to access your website regularly then your content will be of no use.

For you to increase your conversions and your traffic, you need your web host to have a reliable uptime.

It is not possible for you to get a web host that can provide you with 100% uptime.

You need to choose a web host that is able to give you with reliable uptime and has a team of experts ready to help you in case your website goes down. iPage has been known to have reliable uptime.

It is among some of the cheap web hosting companies that have reliable uptime.

Considering that iPage is one of the cheapest web hosting providers, their uptime is similar or even better than most popular web hosting providers in the hosting industry.

iPage has an average uptime of about 99.91% which is quite impressive. They also have reliable experts who are always ready to help you when your website goes down.

3.3 Security

iPage provides you with a SiteLock security suite as security for your site. iPage and SiteLock partnered in a study that showed that over 12% of subscriber websites had malware in 2014.

SiteLock helps to avoid an unsolicited breach of security. This is achieved through regular scanning of malware and malicious files on your website.

Subject to the type of plan you have, iPage will go to your website and remove malware and any other malicious files they find on your websites. They also use a firewall to avoid any possible security leakages. They do this by providing you with updated plugins.

If you are using outdated plugins on your website, you are likely to become a target for hackers and malicious files.

They also allow you to back up your content and other files in your websites daily so as to ensure that your site quickly goes back to its normal status in the event if you were hacked or your site went down for some reason.

Considering the low cost of their plans, the security is something which iPage has not compromised with.

3.4 Customer Support

It is very important for a web host to have reliable customer support.

This makes it easy for you to solve any problem that you might be having with your hosting. Reliable customer support is the foundation of a successful service provider.

iPage has a very reliable customer support team that is always available to answer your questions and help you out in case you have a problem with their service.

The customer support executives are kind and friendly. They will take you to step by step of what you should do to solve the problem you have on your website.

They can solve most of your small issues that are common with most customers through their live 24/7 chat support.

For complicated issues, you will have to send an email to their support team for them to take care of the issue. They also provide you with 24×7 uptime monitoring to ensure that your website is live most of the time.

In the event that there is an issue with the uptime, the team of experts will be working around the clock to ensure that the issue is solved and your website is live.

This is something that most people do not expect to find in cheap web hosting providers. However, iPage provides you with reliable customer support through live chat, phone, and email.

3.5 Server Speed

Server speed is another important factor that can help increase or decrease your conversion rates. The server speed affects the amount of time your website takes to load.

If your web host has a low or poor server speed, your website will take longer to load fully. This can be frustrating and annoying to your subscribers, readers, or visitors. A site that has a poor loading speed often tends to have a high exit rate.

This means that most people coming to your website will often leave your site without even reading your content since your site takes so long to load.

This can not only result in the reduction of traffic, but it can also result in the reduction of conversions. Slow page loading can also have a negative effect on your SEO resulting in less visibility and low ranking of your website.

It is therefore important for you to choose a web host that has a great server speed to ensure that your website takes less time to load. The loading speed of iPage is about 866ms which is quite decent but since it is an affordable web hosting provider, it is understandable.

Most websites that are considered to have great loading time offer a loading speed of 500ms or less. You could opt for web hosting like Kinsta which offers a great load speed and comes along with a bunch of other features but, it would cost you fairly high as compared to iPage.

3.6 Control Panel

The control panel is a very important part of your hosting since it provides you with all the features and settings you need to set up your website.

iPage uses vDeck which is one of the less known cPanel. This makes it a little complicated for those who have not used it before or for people who are creating their first website.

Most people tend to find vDeck control panel less user-friendly than the ordinary cPanel. To make it easier for you to understand the vDeck control panel; here are some of the features to expect when you log into the dashboard.

• FTP Management Panel – It gives you access to all your FTP details. The FTP management panel allows you to delete, create and edit FTP users. It also allows you to select the default directory location.
• File Manager – It is a simple tool used to manage all your FTP details without a client. You can download and upload files. It allows you to create new files from scratch as well as edit present files.
• Free 1 GB Cloud Storage – It is an EIG service that provides free JustCloud for all iPage customers. It is a service similar to DropBox that meets all your storage requirements.
• Mojo Marketplace – Mojo Marketplace is iPage’s 1-Click Installer. It is a marketplace linked to the 1-Click Installer that provides you with so many free items such as plugins, themes, graphics & logos and other types of add-ons. It is very easy to use but you can still get assistance in setting the service of your choice.
• My Installs (SimpleScripts) – It is similar to the Mojo market. However; My Installs shows you what has already been installed on your account.
• MySQL – It allows you to edit, create or delete any field in the database. You can use Mojo or MySQL to create databases while installing your script.
•  Shopsite – It is an open-source feature that is integrated into iPage. It is a form of a paid open-source shop that provides you with numerous features. Another drawback associated with Shopsite is that it ties you down into your iPage contract and does not let you move your shop to another host.
•  Visitor Statistics – It is the old version of statistics that provide you with Webalizer and AWStats. This feature allows you to see raw data. It is not so useful for people who want to get data that can help web designers create quality websites or get insight into bounce rates. If you want to get data that can help you improve your webmaster skills, you may have to consider using Piwik. which is an open-source or Google Analytics.
• Website Creator – It is a drag and drop website builder by CM4All and Weebly that allows you to quickly and easily create a great website without requiring technical skills.

3.7 30 Day Money-Back Guarantee

iPage provides you with a 30-day money-back guarantee. This gives assurance to most customers who may feel unsure about the service.

If you find that the hosting service does not meet your requirements before 30 days, you can opt out of the hosting service, and iPage will refund you your money.

3.8 Powered by Renewable Energy

iPage purchases Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) to equalize energy use by about 200%. This is similar to planting about 244 acres of trees. The certificates are proof that the power you use is from renewable sources.

4 Pros of iPage

Pros

• It is a cheap and affordable web hosting that makes it ideal for people creating their first website.
• iPage belongs to the Endurance International Group (EIG), a renowned company that also owns the popular web hosting companies such as Bluehost.
• It allows you to create many databases making it possible for you to run diverse programming languages. This makes iPage great for people working on multiple websites.
• iPage provides you with coupons, promotions, and special deals frequently to make it possible for you to get discounts for your hosting.
• This web host provides you with an uptime of about 99.91% which is quite impressive considering the price range.
• iPage has reliable experts who are always ready to help you if your website goes down.
• iPage provides you with a SiteLock security suite to help avoid an unsolicited breach of security.
• They provide regular scanning of malware and malicious files on your website.
• iPage allows you to back up your content and other files in your websites daily to ensure that your site quickly goes back to its normal status if you were hacked or your site went down.
• They have a very reliable customer support team that is always available to answer your questions and help you out in case you have a problem with your website.
• You can contact the iPage team of experts through live chat, phone, and email if you have any questions or concerns.
• iPage provides you with a 30-day money-back guarantee to give assurance to customers who may feel unsure about their service.
• iPage purchases Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) to equalize energy use by about 200%.
• iPage shared hosting has editable PHP.INI, unlike most shared hosting providers.

Cons

• iPage has a high renewal price that changes to $12.95/mo for 12-month hosting and $11.95/mo for 24 months term.
• iPage at times experiences downtime for DDOS attacks.
• Some of the iPage servers tend to have a soft boot on the first registration.
• The setup of dedicated servers may take about 12-48 hours.

5 Conclusion

iPage is a budget-friendly web hosting that makes it easy for people on a tight budget. It is a reputable and reliable hosting service provider that offers you the same features and quality that other web hosting companies provide.

It has a user-friendly design that is easy to use and has all the settings and features you need to set up your website.

The process of purchasing an iPage hosting plan is not only fast but smooth too. iPage has a team of experts who are there to guide you on how to get started with their service. If you are looking for low priced, and reliable web hosting, consider trying out iPage.

The process of setting up a website on this hosting is straightforward and hosting account is set within a few minutes. The iPage experts are also of great help to all the new customers. Their 24/7 live chat is very reliable and resourceful.

You can also email them or call them to talk to an expert who will help you solve your problem.

Overall, iPage is super affordable, reliable, offers good customer support and a remarkable hosting if you just want to test out waters and see whether your new venture or blog will work out for you or not.