If you’re looking for an affordable, reliable, and beginner-friendly web hosting service, iPage is an excellent option to consider.
iPage has been around since 1998 and powers more than 1 million websites around the world. Its biggest advantage is its pocket-friendly pricing plan that’s among the cheapest in the web hosting industry.
But a low price doesn’t mean poor service.
iPage offers service standards that are comparable with any other leading web hosting service. With an iPage account, you get unlimited disk space and bandwidth, a free domain name with a free SSL certificate for one year, one-click WordPress installation, and a handy website builder.
In addition to its entry-level shared hosting plan, iPage also offers WordPress, VPN, and dedicated web hosting for higher-traffic websites and businesses with specific hosting needs.
This variety in plans is why iPage customers include affiliate marketers, ecommerce stores, small businesses, and even large established companies.
But iPage is most popular among beginner bloggers looking for affordable and reliable web hosting services, because of its low-priced entry-level plan.
Like any other company, iPage has its strengths and weaknesses, which I will cover later in this post.
To help you decide whether iPage is the right web hosting service for your needs, I have zoomed into its features and pricing and listed its main pros and cons in this article.
Let’s dive in.
Comparing iPage to the Best Web Hosting Services
iPage is among the best web hosting services for bloggers, affiliate marketers, and small businesses with limited budgets.
It offers a premium web hosting service’s flexibility and service standards at only a fraction of the other companies’ monthly fee.
But even on a tight budget, there are a few things that you should never compromise on when choosing a web hosting company for your online business:
- Monthly bandwidth and disk space limits
- Average server uptime and response time
- Data security
iPage excels in all those areas.
Despite being a budget web hosting service, iPage offers unmetered monthly bandwidth and disk space to all users. Plus, you get a free SSL certificate with your domain to ensure your site’s security.
And surprisingly, their server uptime and response times are also quite impressive, with most users on different forums and review sites reporting 99.99% server uptime on average.
Affiliate marketers, in particular, find iPage very attractive. For just $1.99/month, they can get a free domain for a year and the ability to host unlimited domains on a single account. Since affiliate marketers and bloggers tend to run multiple sites in different niches, they can manage their complete portfolio on iPage without any trouble.
However, despite these features, iPage did not make it to our top eight web hosting services. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad service. If we do a top eight post on web hosting services for beginners, iPage might feature in it.
But overall, there are better and more well-rounded web hosting services available.
We reached this conclusion by extensively testing all the popular and mainstream hosting services. We evaluated different web hosting services for performance, security, price-friendliness, and many other key factors that buyers consider while choosing a hosting service.
Based on our findings, we have put together a detailed web hosting buying guide that lists and ranks the best web hosting services for different audiences.
See all of our top picks here.
iPage: The Good and The Bad
Let’s take a detailed look at the different pros and cons of iPage to help you decide if it’s the right web hosting service for you.
The Good
Affordable and Straightforward Pricing: The most attractive thing about iPage is its pocket-friendly price. At $1.99/month (for a 3-year subscription) offers everything a beginner marketer or small business wants from a web hosting company.
Their shared web hosting plan offers only one price plan, which runs $1.99/month. This is quite different from other web hosting companies that usually have three to four different pricing plans for their shared hosting services.
But since iPage has positioned itself specifically to cater to the needs of beginner marketers and businesses with tight budgets, a plain and simple pricing plan works perfectly for them.
Reliable Server Uptime: Server uptime is a crucial factor to consider when evaluating a web hosting service. Nothing else matters if a service has a poor server uptime (your website is inaccessible when the servers are down.)
iPage offers 99.9% uptime which is in line with the industry practice. Every leading web hosting company guarantees 99.9% server uptime. However, they don’t always deliver on their promise.
Thankfully iPage isn’t one of them. Our research found that iPage’s average monthly server uptime hovered around 99.9%-100%.
On different forums, support sites, and social networks, iPage users have expressed their delight at their server performance. Plus, they also have 24/7 server monitoring which means the moment your site goes down, their engineers will know about it.
That is quite an achievement for a web hosting service that’s primarily known for its cheap pricing.
Free Domain And SSL Certificate: When you sign up for an iPage account, you get a free domain name for your website for the first year. You don’t need to register a domain separately. This immediately saves you $15 for the year.
Your domain name also comes with a free SSL certificate (HTTPS) which is crucial for your site and visitors’ security. Using an SSL certificate is also essential because Google Chrome highlights the sites without a valid SSL certificate as unsafe for browsing.
This can significantly impact your site’s traffic and search engine rankings.
Unlimited Bandwidth And Disk Space: There are no limits on your site’s monthly bandwidth consumption or the amount of data it stores on iPage servers.
That’s a huge plus for small businesses and beginner bloggers.
However, iPage does enforce a fair usage policy, which means that if your site starts consuming significantly more resources than an average website or starts overloading its servers with unnecessary files, iPage will ask you to limit your usage.
But that rarely happens because most small business sites and even regular blogs never reach such traffic numbers.
In your site/online business’s early phases, you can consume iPage’s bandwidth and disk space without any worries.
SSD Storage: iPage stores your data on SSD storage devices that are much faster than traditional hard drives. This speeds up data transfer to and from your site and results in an overall enhanced user experience.
Enhanced Security Features: iPage’s security features are comparable with any other shared web hosting service. I’ve already mentioned the free one-year SSL certificate, which is vital for your site’s and visitors’ security.
Besides, iPage has its own firewall designed to protect your site from any hacking attempts. It also manages daily/weekly backups of your site that you can use with a single click.
iPage users also get access to SiteLock security, ensuring that your site remains free of malware and virus attacks.
One-Click WordPress Installation: WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system (CMS) and it lets you set up a professional website in no time.
As an iPage user, you don’t need to download and install WordPress to your website manually. Instead, you can use their simple one-click WP installation feature to set up your WordPress website in just a few minutes.
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee: iPage comes with a generous 30-day money-back guarantee for all shared hosting accounts. If you think their service standards are not up to the mark, simply get a refund within the first 30-days—no questions asked.
Free Website Builder: All iPage hosting plans include their modern and user-friendly website builder. It’s a drag & drop website builder that allows you to customize your site’s look and feel without needing a designer. Plus, it comes with dozens of ready-to-use templates that you can activate with a single click.
The Bad
Slow Server Speed: Sever speed largely determines the load speed of your website. And your site’s load time has a direct impact on its search ranking.
Before writing this article, I had heard that iPage has significantly improved its server speeds. Unfortunately, my research found the complete opposite.
I tested a couple of sites hosted on iPage with a Succuri load time tester, and here are the results.
The most important thing to consider in a page speed test is its first-byte time. As you can see, the first-byte time and the overall scores are acceptable for different locations in the USA.
But for Europe, Brazil, Australia, and several other countries, the scores are below average.
This is a serious issue that can impact your business performance if your target audience is outside the US.
Poor Customer Support: Timely customer support and issue resolution are critical things to consider when choosing a web hosting service. Unfortunately, iPage doesn’t have a great reputation when it comes to customer support.
They offer live chat, email, and phone support, but their record in resolving customer issues isn’t anything to write home about. This is one reason why they have an abysmal score on sites like TrustPilot, G2, and Capterra.
Their current and past customers have repeatedly complained about non-cooperative staff behavior and unnecessary delays in resolving even the most straightforward problems.
High Renewal Costs: iPage has an attractive pricing plan, true. But the low prices don’t apply when you renew your account.
Their renewal prices are almost three to four times higher than the original price, making it one of the most expensive web hosting services for renewals.
For example, you pay only $1.99/month for a three-year hosting plan. But when renewing for the same plan for another three years, you’ll have to pay $7.99/month. That still may not seem like a ton of money, but it’s four times as much as your starting rate.
Other web hosting companies also charge higher rates on renewal, but it’s far more common for those to be closer to double the starting rate. Proportionally, iPage charges a lot more than the industry average.
No cPanel: iPage’s web hosting account comes with its own control panel, not the popular cPanel that many of us are used to. This might be a problem for users who’re more comfortable with cPanel.
No Free Site Migration: Many web hosting companies offer free website migration for users who want to shift their sites from their previous host.
Not iPage.
For a single site migration, iPage charges a $150 fee.
iPage Pricing and Options
Let’s explore the different web hosting packages and pricing options iPage offers.
iPage Pricing
iPage mainly promotes its shared web hosting Go Plan on its website, designed for beginner marketers, bloggers, and small businesses.
However, it offers several other web hosting packages as well that are designed for different end-users.
Apart from its main shared web hosting plan, iPage offers WordPress shared hosting plans, dedicated web hosting, and VPS hosting for businesses looking for greater control of their hosting resources.
These hosting types have multiple pricing packages that offer different features for large, medium, and small businesses.
Let’s take a closer look at each of iPage’s hosting plans and what they offer.
iPage Web Hosting Plans
iPage’s Go Plan is their main offer that attracts a lot of press and attention because of its low rates.
It is an ideal plan for newbies, beginner affiliate marketers, and small businesses that only need a website to maintain an online presence.
Here’s a look at what the Go Plan offers.
For just $1.99/month, iPage Go Plan offers unlimited domain registrations, unlimited bandwidth and disk space, a free domain and SSL certificate for a year, 24/7 support, the basic version of its website builder, and many other valuable features.
There’s a catch, though: to get iPage for $1.99/month, you’ll need to sign up for their 36-month plan, all paid together. If you go for a 12 or 24-month plan, the rates are $2.99 and $2.49/month, respectively.
iPage WordPress Hosting Plans
iPage offers two different WordPress hosting plans explicitly designed to help bloggers and small businesses quickly set up their WordPress sites.
How is WordPress hosting different from the regular shared hosting plan?
Go Plan (regular shared hosting) has many features that WordPress users do not need. In WordPress hosting, iPage has replaced all such features with more specific tools and offers valid for WordPress users.
Here are the two WordPress hosting plans iPage offers.
Let’s take a quick look at each of them.
WP Starter
WP Starter is designed for complete beginners and offers only one website per account. However, you still get a free domain and SSL certificate for one year, along with unlimited storage and bandwidth.
Plus, your WordPress website comes with several pre-installed themes and necessary plugins so that you don’t need to worry about any of the technical stuff.
You can sign up for the WP Starter plan for $3.95/month (same price for 12, 24, and 36-month sign-ups.)
WP Essential
WP Essentials is designed for more experienced bloggers, marketers, and WordPress users managing a portfolio of sites.
On top of everything WP Starter offers, WP Essentials gives you unlimited websites, malware removal service, and a free SiteLock account for added security.
You can sign up for WP Essentials for $6.95/month.
iPage VPS Hosting Plans
Virtual Private Servers (VPS) are a popular choice for startups and agencies hosting multiple client sites. VPS hosting accounts exist on shared servers but mimic the environment of dedicated servers.
The websites hosted on VPS servers enjoy better security, performance, and reliability at a much lower cost than a dedicated hosting service.
iPage VPS Hosting is available in three different pricing plans.
Basic: For $19.99/month, you get 40GB disk space, 1GB of RAM, 1TB of bandwidth, and 1 Core CPU. Plus, a free 1-year domain registration and cPanel access.
Business: For $47.99/month, you get 2 Core CPU, 4GB RAM, 90GB of disk space, and 3TB of bandwidth along with 2 IP addresses. This is the most popular VPS hosting plan by iPage.
Optimum: This plan is for businesses that require more resources. At $70.99/month, it offers 8GB of RAM, 120GB disk space, 4TB of bandwidth, and 4 Core CPU.
iPage Dedicated Hosting Plans
As the name suggests, a dedicated web hosting server is dedicated to your site only. There’s no sharing with other sites like in a shared or VPS hosting plan.
Dedicated hosting services are considerably more expensive than shared hosting but offer much more reliable and faster services.
iPage dedicated hosting services are available in three different plans.
Startup: The Startup plan costs $119.99/month and gives you 4GB of RAM, 2 Core CPU, 500GB disk space, and 5TB of bandwidth. It is a good choice for bloggers and marketers looking to scale their online businesses.
Professional: The Professional plan costs $151.99/month and offers everything 2x the Startup plan. It is ideal for profit-making high-traffic sites and online businesses.
Enterprise: The Enterprise plan is for high traffic sites that are growing quickly and consume a lot of resources. It offers everything in the Professional plan, plus 16 GB of RAM and 15TB of bandwidth.
As you can see, iPage offers several pricing plans for different business types, but their Go Plan remains the most popular because it is ideal for beginners and small businesses.
Comparing The Best Web Hosting Services
If you think iPage is the right service for you, great. But if you’re looking for alternatives, make sure you see our top picks for the best web hosting services.
- Bluehost – Best web hosting overall
- HostGator – Best for scaling your small business
- Web.com – Best for simple business websites
- Hostinger – Best if you need a lot of storage
- DreamHost – Best for simple hosting
- SiteGround – Best for keeping uptime above 99.99%
- InMotion – Best price for hosting two websites on one plan
- Nexcess – Best for experienced WordPress users
- A2 Hosting – Most dependable web hosting for global traffic
iPage is undoubtedly among the best web hosting services for beginners because of its price and features. It gives you everything you need to get started with limited resources and grow your business to a level where you can start considering more robust hosting options.
However, iPage is not the best value for money if your site is quickly growing and needs more resources and add-ons. I’m not saying it’s terrible, but there are better web hosting services that offer much more value in the same price bracket, especially when you consider the high renewal costs of iPage accounts.
