iPage Review

iPage has been around since 1995 (based on domain WhoIs records) but didn’t gain recognition until it underwent a company relaunch back in October 2009. Founded by Thomas Gurney in Burlington, Massachusetts, the company has since gained traction for being a hosting provider that caters to those with a limited budget.

I was given the opportunity to be one of the first few to test out iPage’s services during their soft relaunch period, which at the time, was known for being the Best Budget Hosting service for bloggers and smaller websites.

However, that was then, this is now. And in 2018, is iPage still considered good today? Let’s find out.

About iPage, the company

• Headquarter: Burlington, Massachusetts, U.S. (unverified)
• Established: 1998; major revamp in 2009.
• Services: Shared, VPS, dedicated hosting

The iPage brand is owned by Endurance International Group (EIG), a NASDAQ-listed company that owns some of the biggest names in hosting industry, including BlueHost and Hostgator. At time of writing, EIG claims that their cloud-based platform is serving approximately 5.5 million subscribers globally.

What’s in this iPage review

Pros of iPage hosting

1. Really, really cheap

After testing and using more than 60 web hosting services, here’s one thing I have learned: Most budget shared hosting providers actually offer more or less the same thing: “unlimited” addon domain, one-click app installer, basic webmail service, and so-so technical support.

There’s nothing to shout about in their feature list. Nor that the server performance and support are great.

But given the ultra cheap price tag, they work just fine for small websites.

And this is why iPage is awesome for newbies who want to start at minimum cost.

Compare iPage Price with Other Hosting Brands

If you compare iPage with other hosting brands – they are 100 – 200% cheaper than their peers. Even Hostinger – my current #1 Budget Hosting Pick, Hostinger, is selling at $2.95/mo.

iPage long-term cost – still the cheapest!

iPage’s introductory prices for the first term of service only and automatically renew at the regular rate.

Shared hosting plans renew at $7.99, $8.99, and $9.99 per month for 36-, 24-, and a 12-month term.

But as this is what most budget hosting companies are doing – iPage’s price is still one of the lowest in long run (see table).

** Note [1]: Total 5 year hosting cost = (36 x Signup) + (24 x Renewal) + Domain Cost

* Note [2]: No free first-year domain for Hostpapa and A2 Hosting. 

2. Free one-year domain for all new customers

One of the great things about iPage is that they offer a free one-year domain name when you sign up with any of their plans. This is great if you want to reduce some costs when you’re creating your website or blog. Given that domain registrations can be costly, being able to register a domain name for free is absolutely a steal!

When signing up for a plan, you’ll be taken to a page where you’ll face the option to add-on your free domain name registration.

Just put your domain name of choice under the search bar and if it’s available, you can go ahead and claim it.

* Click image to enlarge.

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3. Newbie-friendly: Smooth on-boarding process

Setting up an account for a new web host can be a hassle. Thankfully, iPage’s overall onboarding process is very newbie-friendly.

I should know because I’ve purchased their plans twice and used it both times (once for creating test accounts, the other for a friend who was starting a website). In both cases, I was able to set up my account immediately after making my payment.

This goes to show how smooth the entire process was with iPage as everything, from the ordering process to the on-boarding process, was designed to be simple and idiot-proof for the customers.

* Click image to enlarge.

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4. Flexibility to grow: Upgrade to VPS later

If you signup to iPage shared hosting, chances are you will upgrade to their VPS plan in future.

This is where Dylan Harty, iPage VPS hosting user, kicks in. I first knew Dylan when he emailed to point out some mistakes I made on this page. After some discussion, I decided to add his feedback on iPage VPS to this review. Dylan is not affiliated to iPage in any way. I do, however, paid for his effort in writing this helpful review.

iPage VPS Hosting Review

This section is a little long. In summary, here are the pros & cons of iPage VPS (according to Dylan):

5. Live chat support quality meets expectation

Back in 2017, I went and tested iPage’s live chat support team and compared them to the service quality of 27 other companies. The good news is that they performed well in the test and managed to meet my expectations.

The live chat was quick to respond, often times replying within minutes, and all of my questions and issues were answered and solved by a professional. All in all, my experience with the live chat support team was quite good.

6. Good and honest billing practice

Paying for a web host service is never a fun process and most of the time, hosting companies tend to add to the headaches instead of making it easier. iPage, on the other hand, practices an honest billing process and encourages their users to check the Billing Central to receive their latest statement. Plus, cancelling an iPage account is as simple as contacting their support team via live chat.

For new users, they get a 30-day money back guarantee for any iPage plan that they subscribe to. Basically, if you decided to cancel your account within that period, then you’ll get a full refund with no questions asked. It should be noted that the refund does not apply to add-on services such as purchasing a domain name.

Cons of iPage

1. Mix results in server speed test, rated C at Bitcatcha

I ran a number of speed tests on iPage, namely with Bitcatcha and WebpageTest. The Time-to-first-byte (TTFB, the measurement of server speed) on WebpageTest came out at 354ms. This was especially impressive considering that it’s a budget host that starts at $1.99/mo.

Unfortunately, The results with Bitcatcha were less than impressive as they tend to range within the B+ to C rating. While performance on U.S. servers was still quite impressive, iPage was noticeably slower in different parts of the world. Hosting services such as Interserver, Fast Comet, and InMotion Hosting manages to churn out better results (at a slightly higher cost) in terms speed.

iPage Speed Test Results at WebpageTest.org

iPage Speed Test Results at Bitcatcha

2. Prices jump to $8.99/mo when renewal

While iPage offers one of the cheapest hosting plans around, their renewal plans are unfortunately much more expensive. if you’re a blogger or a website owner on a budget, seeing the price go up when you renew your plan is not a good feeling.

With shared hosting plans, you will have to pay either $7.99, $8.99, or $9.99 per month for plans that are 36, 24, or 12-month terms respectively.

Of course, the practice of increasing the renewal fee is common among budget hosting companies, so you need to be aware of that before signing up with them.

3. Base plan covers basic features only

Since iPage Essential Plan is targeted towards website beginners and newbies, they offer only the essential features at minimum price.

Now, the plan is comprehensive enough that you can build and host a pretty good website with it. But the downside is that the features are very basic.

No SFTP, no custom cron job, no auto backup

There is no SFTP, no CDN, limited server resources, no custom cron job, no auto backup. Even iPage’s built-in website builder allows you to build only six pages (more about this later).

The whole setup, apparently, is meant for hobby blog or small business who want a simple site online.

You can, however, purchase and add in advance features when ordering.

Image on your right shows additional features you can buy from iPage during order.

Website Builder to build 6 pages only

iPage Site Builder is easy to use and good for newbies. However, the downside is that it limits you to create only 6-pages for a website.

As good as a website builder can be, having only 6 pages to work with is not good.

If you want a workaround for the page limit, I suggest building your website using a CMS such as Joomla or WordPress.

All you have to do is just install WordPress using the 1-click installer under the iPage control panel and you can start creating as many pages as you want with it.

4. Unlimited hosting limited by other constraints

First of all – there is no such thing as unlimited hosting.

Yes, iPage allows you to host unlimited addon domain at your hosting account; but it’s only “unlimited” if you are not exceeding the CPU resources allocated to your account. If you exceed a certain level of CPU usage (which it normally won’t), iPage will have your hosting account suspended.

It is clearly written in iPage TOS that the company’s hosting is only “unlimited” under normal usage.

Though iPage is not the only one in this practice – every unlimited hosting provider limit users’ server usage.

5. No free site migration for first-time customers

Transfering your site from an old host to iPage?

You’re going to have to migrate it yourself as iPage does not offer free site migration when you sign up for their hosting plans. iPage uses vDeck for its platform so if you’re using a different platform, say a cPanel, then you’re going to have quite the headache migrating all that data.

Given that other web host often include a free site migration service, for iPage to not offer one as well seems like a missed opportunity. If you’re going to do the migration process yourself, my guide on how to transfer a site might be helpful in this situation.

6. Users can only host their sites in the United States

iPage data centers are located mainly in the United States, which means you don’t get many choices on where to host your website. In fact, you can only choose to host your site in the U.S. This can be quite troublesome if you’re located outside of the U.S.

If your target audience is in a specific region outside of the U.S., say United Kingdom or India, then you might suffer performance drops when it comes to speed and server resources.  You can alleviate some of that issue by using caching plugins to improve loading speed for users.

7. Not so helpful Help Documents

The purpose of Help Documents is to assist you with issues that you might face with using a web host.

Unfortunately, with iPage, there’s barely any useful guide or tips that can actually be of use to you, let alone help you troubleshoot your problems.

Their Advanced Hosting page is so barebones, it only covers a few subjects on the dedicated and VPS topics section. If you want more information that’s actually helpful, you’re going to find it outside of iPage.

8. Aggressive up-selling and overpriced website builder

Most cheap hosting companies practice up- and cross-selling. Hosting companies usually promote add-on services and web applications to offset the big price cuts given to their users. These services usually include necessity for website owners from all walks of life – SSL certificates, advanced email hosting features, domain names, CDN services, email marketing tools, and so on – and I am cool with that.

But iPage has apparently crossed the line with their up-selling practice. New customers are now auto opt-in to services they might not need when they place their order. This includes website security and expensive site backup & restore features.

Also iPage is now charging $10.99/mo for their website builder – which in my opinion, is over-priced. In contrast, Weebly costs just $8/mo and that includes hosting and hundreds of pre-built themes. If you are signing up to iPage, be very caution during the check out process – make sure that you don’t signup with any software or web service you don’t need.

iPage Hosting Plans & Pricing

Shared hosting plan

* For more details on iPage’s Essential Plan, please refer to table on your right.

VPS hosting plans and details

Compare iPage Hosting

iPage vs GoDaddy (Price & Features)

Despite being a budget hosting provider, iPage offers quite an array of features that are useful for a person who’s just starting out on their blog or website. When you compare it to GoDaddy, iPage etches out as the better choice.

The reason being, not only do they offer similar features to GoDaddy, they are much cheaper in terms of their hosting plans.

iPage vs BlueHost (Price & Features)

Although both companies  are under Endurance International Group (EIG), it’s hard to compare iPage to Bluehost as they cover different features and run on different pricing strategies.

iPage Essential Plans are very basic and suitable for users with multiple low traffic sites. BlueHost, on the other hand, includes more features in their shared hosting plans to cater the needs of advanced users. You can learn more about BlueHost in this review.

Quick Recap & Verdict: Should You Host at iPage?

Quick recap:

Given that there are both pros and cons; negative and positive reviews on iPage; should you still go with the hosting company?

The decision is yours to make.

iPage is certainly not the best web host you can get in market,

• iPage scored 51 in our 80-point review checklist (WHSR rating: 3.5-star, revised Feb 2018).
• Their original shared hosting plan offers very basic features.
• Company’s technical support seems poor based on many negative users feedback found online.

Recommendation: iPage hosting is for… 

But, they are one of the cheapest hosts! iPage is recommended for,

• For newbies and bargain hunters, iPage’s ultra-low price tag is hard to be ignored.
• iPage is reliable (uptime constantly >99.95%), extremely cheap ($70+ for first three years), and easy to start (smooth signup process)
• There are very few web hosts that can provide the same bargain.

iPage Alternatives

iPage is less than ideal in today’s hosting market. They used to my #1 budget hosting pick due to its ultra-low price. They are still considered very cheap – given that global hosting price start averagely at $4.84/mo, iPage $1.99/mo plan is quite a steal. But the aggressive up-selling practice – summing up with other drawbacks mentioned above – is a big turn-off.

If you are looking for something similar to iPage hosting but not iPage, here are some choices to consider (links point to my reviews):

• Other similar hosting brands under EIG (iPage management): BlueHost and Hostgator.
• Other similar budget hosting plans that we recommend: InMotion Hosting, Interserver, A2 Hosting, Hostinger.

Order iPage at Special Price $1.99/mo

Visit: https://www.ipage.com

(P/S: We use affiliate links in this review. If you purchase via our link, it will credit WHSR as your referrer. This is how I keep this site alive for more than 9 years and publish more data-driven hosting reviews like this one. Your support is highly appreciated. Buying via my link doesn’t cost you more – in fact, I can guarantee that you’ll get the lowest possible price for iPage hosting. )