iPage – is one of the most experienced and trustworthy web hosting providers. As the company claims, its primary goal is to provide the best experience for clients. Unlike some other major players on the market, iPage is not well known. Founded in 1998 in Burlington, Massachusetts, the platform has gained popularity as a hosting provider that caters to people on a tight budget. Since its launch, the company has been steadily growing and currently hosts more than a million sites for customers worldwide for 20 years and hosts more than a million sites from two world-class data centers in Boston, Massachusetts.
The provider states that their cloud platform currently serves approximately 5.5 million subscribers around the world. iPage offers a simple set of hosting products at low initial prices and with a refund guarantee, which makes it a good option for all newcomers to hosting. In this review, we will talk about the pros and cons of iPage and what kind of experience you can gain with this provider, as well as whether it is as good as it says it is.
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Pros and Cons
This is not a universal hosting provider. To some extent, its simple set of features of WordPress hosting, shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated server products will not suit everyone. The first look at iPage prices also makes you wonder if they are too good to be true. Let’s check it out.
Pros: | Cons: |
| ✔ Ultra-cheap price both in the long and short term ✔ Free domain for a year for all new clients ✔ Flexibility for growth: switching to VPS later ✔ Friendly for beginners: easy to get started ✔ The chat support quality meets expectations ✔ Excellent billing practice | ✘ Prices are updated to $8.99/month upon renewal ✘ The basic plan covers only the basic functions ✘ Unmetered hosting; has restrictions ✘ There is no free site migration ✘ Users can only post their sites in the USA ✘ Reference documents do not contain useful resources |
iPage Features
iPage offers many web hosting features that are designed to make life easier for those who are not familiar with it and want a simple start. Some highlights include unlimited storage and bandwidth, and VPS plus dedicated server plans.
- The company provides integration capabilities with well-known platforms and feature packages that will help you improve website performance and enhance security.
- iPage was built almost exclusively for beginners. It provides them with many features, including 3 different website builders, simplicity, eCommerce, and WordPress support – all in place. You can register your domain in iPage for free.
- There are also other things that iPage gives newcomers that they won’t be able to easily get on other shared hosting plans, including marketing credits up to $200, search engine optimization (SEO) assistance, a complete security package, unsurpassed technical support, and much more.
- iPage largely covers all the important elements, especially for novice developers who face the task of setting up hosting from scratch. You can protect your site using SSL and SiteLock, daily backups as a paid add-on, and also interact effectively with the audience thanks to the optional CDN. You can also start creating a website using WordPress, Weebly, or your iPage website builder.
Let’s look at some functions in more detail.
- Site Lock Security
SiteLock is a set of tools to improve the performance and security of any website. The system scans the site for vulnerabilities and malware and blocks automated bot attacks. It provides a firewall and CDN. The iPage “WP Essential Plan” contains a free custom mode of SiteLock.
- Plugins for WordPress
To help you launch your website, the service provides several pre-installed plugins for WordPress, including the Jetpack plugin, which allows you access to over 100 free WordPress themes, as well as image uploads, attack protection, statistics monitoring, and more. Other plugins are the W3 Total Cache plugin plus the Mojo Marketplace plugin.
- Google Analytics Integration
iPage offers a basic Google Analytics version built into the Dashboard so that you can easily view visitor statistics, for instance, where your visitors came from and how they interacted with your site. You can also easily activate supplementary analytics tools such as AWStats or Webalizer.
The iPage mail service comes with Roundcube email hosting in co-hosting and WordPress plans. By default, you only get 500 MB of disk space to store emails, but you can increase the volume for an additional fee. The mail service comes with all the necessary features, including support for IMAP/POP3, SSL, and autoresponders.
- WordPress Sandbox
This tool allows testing changes on your site without affecting the current working version. A copy of your site is saved on your local hard drive so that you can install plugins, modify the theme or adjust the settings without any negative consequences.
- iPage Web Hosting
This universal plan contains scalable bandwidth, unmetered disk space, and allows you to configure an unlimited number of domains and sites. You also access an unlimited number of MySQL databases, three website developers, and can set your email addresses. If you make a three-year advance, your bill will average just $1.99 per month.
Besides this scalable-shared hosting package, the company offers VPS, managed WordPress hosting, along with dedicated hosting.
- Storage: Unlimited
It is unlimited storage under a shared hosting package. You won’t have any storage restrictions for your site. However, you will have to stay within what they consider acceptable.
- Platform: CentOS Linux
All iPage plans run on CentOS Linux, which is grounded on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Unfortunately, you don’t get the familiar cPanel that most hosts offer alongside Linux hosting. In its place, iPage uses a customized vDeck version. So hosting, in general, is good as far as you get for the price. But what else does iPage offer?
- Third-party tools
iPage is compatible with many platforms and third-party tools like the ones listed:
CMS Tools:
- Drupal
- WordPress
- Joomla
Blogging Tools:
- B2evolution
- PixelPost
Forum Tools:
- SMF
- phpBB
- Gbook
Photo Gallery Tools:
- Gallery2
- ZenPhoto
The service is also compatible with some eCommerce solutions such as OpenCart, Zen Cart, AgoraCart, PrestaShop, TomatoCart, and osCommerce.
Dashboard
The hosting provider’s user interface puts ease of use above everything else. iPage strives to be accessible to as many users as possible. In general, the provider succeeds due to the ease of use, starting from the registration process right up to setting up the first WordPress site through a simple control panel.
- Create a dream website
iPage provides various tools for creating a site. You can use WordPress or a different CMS, Ecwid e-commerce platform, website builder Weebly, or its own website builder.
- Control Panel
If you are a novice developer, then such complex control panels as Plesk and cPanel may seem confusing to you. Therefore, the service provides its tools, which makes it easy to adjust the most vital aspects of your hosting without overloading you with unnecessary information. The panel allows easy navigation through the main hosting functions, but the outdated design could be updated.
- Get to Know the Website Builder
iPage offers basic setup wizards to help you in the process of setting up your site. These wizards are adapted for each of the site constructor platforms. For instance, the WordPress wizard can generate the starter few pages and provide you with hints to start setting up your site.
- Advanced Options: Magic One-click Installation
To begin with, installing WordPress and many other applications in one click is very simple. For instance, there is a WordPress icon on the control panel. By clicking on it, you will be redirected to the Mojo Trading Platform, where you will enter your domain name and install WordPress step by step. We barely scratch the surface, as you have a variety of options to choose from.
Template Designs and Customization
If you limit yourself to one website creator, the hosting provider offers three far-reaching site creation options. They offer their website constructors, Weebly, and Ecwid eCommerce site builders.
Weebly
If you are already used to Weebly and prefer to work with something a little familiar, or you just want to try something different, you have the choice of Weebly. This website builder is often ranked among the best website creators because of how much functionality it contains and how easy it is to use.
Weebly offers several interesting automatic features, such as linking sections to the most visually appealing places to make your site look as attractive as possible.
Ecwid ECommerce Builder
If you need great features from a dedicated eCommerce developer, you can try Ecwid. This one is well known and widely respected. However, note that since Ecwid is a third-party linker, you can get it yourself, without having to link to an iPage hosting subscription.
Ecwid allows you to add checkout pages and product pages to your website and integrates seamlessly with Weebly, WordPress, and many other builders. By design, some of its plans also come with an SSL certificate, which means you don’t have to buy it from iPage separately.
iPage Website Builder
This site constructor comes with over 100 mobile-friendly templates. All of them are also responsive, which means that your site automatically adjusts to the size of the user’s screen, so it is displayed attractively. The iPage website builder allows you to create a basic website of 6 pages. All you have to do is customize these sections according to your preferences. You can also create your website entirely from the browser; there is no need to download any applications.
- The iPage website builder is intuitive, allowing you to add things like galleries for your images, contact forms, buttons, maps, various typography and color screens, email registration, Twitter embedding, and even Facebook comments.
- iPage will also allow you to add metadata and keywords to your website to boost your SEO. They also collaborate with Unsplash, so you have the option to choose high-resolution images, no matter what industry you work in.
- The iPage website builder is intuitive and allows you to add things like galleries for your images, contact forms, buttons, maps, and more.
- As for e-commerce, the iPage website builder includes integration with PayPal, which is very convenient if you want to sell things on your site.
The provider offers 3 tools for creating websites:
- Constructor Based on all CM4 Templates: You can create up to 6 pages for free. One downside is that it doesn’t work with Chrome, which can be frustrating because we all love Chrome. Another drawback is the slowness of this constructor, which is sure to annoy you.
- Basic Website Builder: Use this one because it’s fast, simple, and you can also do a lot with the basic version!
- GoMobi Website Builder: You can create mobile pages. That’s fine, but you’ll have to pay an extra $8.99 a month if you want to use it.
- K. Simplicity explains the increased efficiency and speed of operations that users experienced while working. It’s easier to find things, there’s no tabbed interface here, and you can find the appropriate icon for all the necessary operations.
In general, if you have planned and sorted everything, the functionality will not disappoint you.
Security System
SiteLock is a set of tools to improve the performance and security of any website. The system scans the site for malware and malfunctioning and then blocks any automated attacks. It also provides a firewall with CDN.
The “WP Essential Plan” includes a free custom SiteLock version. You will be given access to the SiteLock dashboard, using which you can view site statistics and even configure the security icon to display on your site. You can also use the paid services of a security expert to clean up your hacked web pages through the SiteLock911 service.
Performance
In the long run, performance is the most important thing. If your web hosting can’t keep your site up and running, it’s useless. So, how well do low-cost iPage plans work? Let’s take a look.
iPage is very fast in some places, and the actual uptime exceeds the warranty provided. The company offers an industry-standard – 99.9% uptime for all hosting products. The positive thing is that the company’s existing clients report an actual uptime of up to 99.98%.
Since iPage does not have the best reputation for loading time, particularly not in the USA, our team conducted a test dry using the time tester Sucuri. So, the overall performance has reached the A+ level, but this general metric does not give a complete picture.
The time for Dallas, Montreal, and Toronto is 0.004, 0.135, and 0.107 seconds. Accordingly, other North American locations, such as Los Angeles, showed slightly worse time by 0.399 seconds, and European sites, such as London and Frankfurt, showed surprisingly good speeds.
Up to this point, everything was fine, but Singapore and Bangalore showed shocking results, so carefully study the target markets before signing up.
The average uptime of 99.975% in 2018 was high enough to place this provider in the list of top 25% of web hosting.
Generally, this is a very good uptime, especially because it can be obtained at such a low price. Note that, unlike its competitors, iPage does not promise a certain uptime rate. Therefore, if they do not meet a standard, you will not receive any compensation. However, they offer their customers uptime monitoring, so you will be informed if your site crashes.
When it comes to web hosting, performance is the key factor. Apart from uptime, which we have already discussed, download speed is typically the next metric we pay attention to.
The average response time for the iPage test site for the last 12 months is 755 ms. It’s not bad, but this number is too close to the time of the full load of the second page.
Besides, it’s just a test site. If you are going to add images, videos, and other multimedia files to your website, it may slow down even more. Definitely, iPage doesn’t have the worst loading time, but it’s not the best either.
Customer Support
We have already mentioned the refund. Apart from that, iPage offers round-the-clock phone and live chat support. The chat is available 24/7. To start a chat, you first need to fill out an online form. Then you can ask questions.
Each time a user from our team sent a request, a polite support employee who answered all their questions contacted them almost immediately.
For simple answers and important material, iPage offers an extensive knowledge base with informative tutorials, guides, and lots of other useful info about their tools, platform, and services. Therefore, no matter what type of question you have or the problem you encounter, we are sure that you will be able to solve this solution swiftly and efficiently with the help of iPage support.
The iPage hosting responsive team is always there. iPage guarantees round-the-clock technical client support for all hosting products, thanks to solutions such as VPS and dedicated servers.
Pricing and Plans
iPage offers attractive prices, but watch out for high upgrade rates and paid add-ons. For all co-hosting products, the hosting offers an incredibly low price, comprising unlimited storage space, free SSL certificates, as well as a free domain name. Prices for its servers correspond to industry averages, and the basic WP plan comes with a free SiteLock security system.
Here’s what to expect in terms of plans and prices.
- iPage Web Hosting – from $2,99;
- iPage VPS hosting – from $19,99;
- iPage Dedicated Server – from $119,99.
The fantastic prices that iPage advertises are only valid for your initial subscription period, and you have to pay for the full three years in advance. For example, the starting price of $1.99 a month that they advertise for their shared hosting plan means you need to pay 36 months, and at the end of the subscription period, the price boosts to $7.99 per month. If you select 24 months instead, you will pay $2.49/month, and an annual subscription will cost you $2.99 a month. In each of these cases, after the expiration of the initial period, the shared hosting plan will be updated at the usual iPage rates.
Final Verdict: Simple Hosting for Everyone
iPage is a great service for beginners and those who do not have much technical experience but want as many features as possible for their website. The company provides remarkable performance and support but with a bit confusing pricing and a quite functional interface. iPage makes hosting experience easy for everyone, including novice developers, thanks to a simplified control panel. However, this service also provides great features, and all its plans come with excellent chat support.
The conclusion is that iPage is best suited for entry- and mid-level developers dealing with small and medium-sized sites. They have inexpensive shared hosting plans, as well as selections for VPS, dedicated servers, as well as WordPress hosting. Just keep in mind that some conditions are attached to the advertised packages. You will need to dedicate three years to reach the best price, and then your rates will rise when it’s time to renew. Furthermore, you will have to pay extra for all your add-ons.
To wrap up, iPage is still a trustworthy web hosting with excellent uptime rates and friendly support.
