It’s been three years since we final examined iPage, and inside that timeframe, the web hosting service has improved in some areas and stagnated in others. iPage provides many engaging options, together with a brand new web site builder, excellent customer support, sturdy uptime, and low-price, shared internet hosting that depends on a single plan with “limitless” perks in a number of key areas. Just a few flaws stay that make iPage fall in need of DreamHost, HostGator, Hostwinds, and different Editors’ Choice picks, but it surely’s nonetheless a rock-strong net host that is simple on the pockets.
Shared Hosting Plans
Shared hosting, in the event you’re unfamiliar with the class, is a kind of website hosting that sees a number of websites residing on a single server. In this roommate scenario, websites share the server sources, so a big visitors surge on Site X can, sadly, negatively affect Site Y’s efficiency. Shared internet hosting is an effective choice in the event you’re searching for cheap hosting; if you would like extra server sources dedicated to your website, that you must go the VPS or devoted internet hosting routes. More on these in a bit.
Unlike HostGator, our Editors’ Choice decide for shared website hosting companies, iPage does not supply month-to-month billing choices for shared packages. You’re locked into annual subscriptions, coming in one-, two-, or three-yr plans. Thankfully, the corporate tosses deep reductions your approach the longer you prepay.
iPage has a single, Linux-based, shared internet hosting plan starting at $2.99 monthly for the one-yr choice. The value drops to $1.99 monthly in the event you select the three-yr plan. That’s a fantastic value, and the only plan’s simplicity means you needn’t do a lot analysis earlier than getting began. iPage’s shared internet hosting options limitless disk area, month-to-month knowledge transfers, and e-mail addresses, so it has the chops to develop together with what you are promoting.
HostGator’s entry-stage Hatchling plan prices $2.75 monthly for limitless storage, month-to-month knowledge transfers, and e-mail addresses. Unfortunately, HostGator requires a 3-yr dedication to achieve that value, as a one-yr plan is $3.95 monthly and the month-to-month price is $10.95 monthly. That makes iPage significantly engaging, particularly in the event you’re searching for a price-pleasant website hosting service.
One choice that HostGator provides that iPage doesn’t is the selection of both Linux- or Windows-based servers. The Windows server plan prices a bit extra ($4.76 monthly for 3 years), but it surely’s a invaluable selection in the event you plan to construct a website constructed on an ASP.NET framework.
VPS Hosting Plans
iPage additionally has digital non-public server (VPS) internet hosting. If you desire a server with extra horsepower than what shared internet hosting provides, try VPS internet hosting. This internet hosting class sees a number of websites residing on a server, although far fewer in quantity than what you may discover on a shared internet hosting server. You’ll pay extra for a VPS server, however you get extra server energy in return. If you anticipate excessive visitors volumes, or have particular compliance necessities that forestall you from utilizing shared servers, it is a good choices to think about.
The Linux-based servers have three tiers: Basic, Business, and Optimum. Basic (beginning at $24.99 monthly) has simply 1GB of RAM, 40GB of storage, and 1TB of month-to-month knowledge transfers. Business (beginning at $59.49 monthly) provides 4GB of RAM, 90GB of storage, and 3TB of month-to-month knowledge transfers. The Optimum plan (beginning at $99.99 monthly) has 8GB of RAM, 120GB of storage, and 4TB of month-to-month knowledge transfers.
iPage’s VPS plans are good, however Hostwinds, our Editors’ Choice decide, continues its reign. Its high-tier VPS plan consists of 6GB of RAM, 750GB of disk area, 9TB of month-to-month knowledge transfers, and a selection of both Linux- or Windows-based servers.
Dedicated Hosting Plans
Dedicated hosting is the tier you want while you function a website that calls for plenty of system sources. With devoted internet hosting, your website exists on a server all by itself, thus leveraging all the server’s energy. This is the {hardware} that you must energy a website designed to deal with tens of millions of tourists per yr.
iPage’s three, Linux-based devoted server internet hosting plans aren’t radically completely different from what BlueHost provides. The Startup server comes with 4GB of RAM, 500GB of storage, 5TB of month-to-month knowledge transfers, three IP addresses, and a free area title, all for $149 monthly. Next up is the $194-per-month Professional plan that features 8GB of RAM, 1TB of disk area, 10TB of month-to-month knowledge transfers, and 4 IP addresses. The excessive-finish Enterprise server plan prices $239 monthly, and ups the RAM to 16GB, the month-to-month knowledge transfers to 15TB, and the IP addresses to 5.
Those are strong numbers, however Hostwinds, our Editors’ Choice decide for devoted website hosting, is a superior selection, because of the flexibility to outfit servers with as much as 12TB of HDD storage, 64GB of RAM, and limitless month-to-month knowledge transfers. You additionally get a selection of Windows and numerous Linux working methods.
WordPress Hosting Plans
You’ve possible heard of WordPress, the service that powers greater than 30 % of all web sites. It’s simple to see why; WordPress is straightforward to make use of, and has wealthy WordPress theme and WordPress plug-in ecosystems that allow you to tweak the content material administration system as you see match.
iPage provides Linux-based WordPress internet hosting like lots of its rivals, beginning at $7.49 monthly for the WP Starter plan and $10.49 monthly for the WP Essential plan. The two are comparable in that they each supply a site title and limitless storage, e-mail, and month-to-month knowledge transfers, however WP Essential builds on that with enhanced safety and the flexibility to function limitless web sites. iPage lacks a managed WordPress internet hosting choice, which might give your website extra, white-glove help.
If you’re searching for wonderful WordPress selection, try A2. The Editors’ Choice decide for WordPress internet hosting has plans beginning at $10.99 monthly that embrace limitless e-mail, limitless month-to-month knowledge transfers, and 100GB of quick, SSD-primarily based storage. Unlike iPage, A2 additionally provides managed WordPress (beginning at $16.99 monthly).
If you are new to WordPress, take a couple of minutes to rise up to hurry with our piece on how to get started with WordPress hosting.
Reseller Hosting Plans
Reseller internet hosting, which is also referred to as “white label internet hosting,” refers back to the enterprise of making your individual website hosting enterprise from instruments and companies you resell from bigger internet hosting firms. If you are trying to get into the website hosting enterprise, however you do not wish to take care of infrastructure issues, try iPage’s reseller hosting packages. Unfortunately, not like most different website hosting companies, iPage does not record its reseller specs on its homepage—it’s essential to name a customer support agent to glean extra data.
We really useful Hostwind’s reseller packages. Starting at $8.99 monthly for limitless e-mail, storage, and knowledge transfers, Hostwinds’ plans supply devoted and VPS reseller packages of each the Linux and Windows varieties. It has shared, reseller internet hosting, too, but it surely’s restricted to the Linux working system. Hostwinds additionally allows you to apply your individual branding to the servers you hire, and it provides 24/7 tech help.
Building a Website
Most individuals will possible persist with the essential drag-and-drop website builder, which occurs to be Weebly, one among our high selections for website builders. You can improve to the premium model or simply use the essential one; Weebly’s drag-and-drop performance allows you to rapidly construct a horny web page full with slideshows, contact kinds, social media hyperlinks, maps, and picture galleries.
iPage has its personal web site builder that is included in each customary plan. Like Wix, this merely named Web Builder duties you with answering questions that causes the clever builder to spin up a website. The AI-powered web site builder selects a template and preliminary photographs in your website, so you do not have to hunt for templates and pictures. Web Builder creates responsive web sites that work nicely on desktop or cell. In addition, Web Builder allows you to create as much as six, free webpages, and features a free picture library and search engine marketing instruments.
There are paid choices, too. The builder’s enterprise tier ($6.99 monthly) allows you to construct limitless pages and luxuriate in improved analytics choices. The e-commerce plan ($12.99 monthly) allows you to promote merchandise on-line, handle stock, and combine PayPal choices.
E-Commerce Options
Although it took a couple of minutes to activate in testing, establishing an iPage on-line retailer was a reasonably simple affair. iPage makes use of StoreSite as its different e-commerce selection. The retailer creation wizard walked us by a multistep web page-growth course of, helped us outline merchandise, and assisted in establishing cost choices. The wizard is quaint, however the templates are engaging and fashionable.
Note that while you enter StoreSite, you allow iPage and its management panel. We would’ve most popular tighter integration, on this regard. If you do not wish to use StoreSite, you’ll be able to go to the Mojo Marketplace and obtain different e-commerce platforms, resembling osCommerce and ZenCart.
Security Features
iPage safeguards your e-mail with malware monitoring, and helps the DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF) authentication expertise for added safety.
iPage additionally has a number of different safety choices. For instance, there’s SiteLock, a safety app with three tiers: Essentials, Prevent, and Prevent Plus. Essentials ($3.99 monthly, billed yearly) provides each day malware scans, blacklist monitoring, and automatic bot assaults blocking. Prevent ($14.99 monthly) provides database scanning and sooner response occasions. The high-finish Prevent Plus ($24.99 monthly) has steady malware scans and PCI compliance scanning.
Additionally, iPage provides Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates beginning at $39.99 per yr. These encrypt the info transferred between a consumer’s PC and the web site they’re visting, making them important purchases if you wish to promote merchandise. There are additionally larger tiers that function safety for a number of subdomains and e-commerce.
Strong Uptime
Website uptime is without doubt one of the most necessary elements of a internet hosting service. If your website is down, shoppers or clients shall be unable to entry your services or products. You are not looking for that. Fortunately, iPage proved extraordinarily reliable in our testing.
We used a web site monitoring instrument to trace our iPage-hosted take a look at website’s uptime over a two-week interval. Every quarter-hour, the instrument pings our web site and sends us an alert whether it is unable to contact the location for at the least one minute. The testing knowledge revealed that iPage’s uptime is rock strong, simply happening for one temporary interval throughout the 14-day take a look at interval.
Customer Service
iPage provides each 24/7 phone help and a web-based net chat—we examined each assist strategies. We dialed into the phone tech help on a weekday morning to ask the distinction between utilizing WP Starter and WP Essential WordPress internet hosting. The customer support consultant rapidly responded, and gave us a concise rundown of the variations. Likewise, our on-line net chat expertise was a reasonably simple, useful affair. We waited lower than a minute on a weekday afternoon earlier than an iPage help rep fielded our query relating to on-line purchasing cart choices.
iPage guarantees a 30-day a reimbursement assure, and returns your unused charges while you cancel. That’s a candy deal, one which we want extra net hosts would undertake.
Good, Straightforward Web Hosting
iPage has loads going for it, together with high quality plans, strong uptime, and a educated buyer help workforce, although the dearth of month-to-month subscription plans and cloud- and Windows-based internet hosting choices knock it down a couple of notches. DreamHost, HostGator, Hostwinds, and our different Editors’ Choice picks supply extra nicely-rounded internet hosting plans.
If you are searching for cloud internet hosting, DreamHost is a incredible choice. Likewise, HostGator is a really useful net host that gives month-to-month plans and glorious devoted servers. Finally, Hostwinds’ reseller and VPS plans are terrific choices for small or massive companies. iPage, nevertheless, is a particularly price-pleasant internet hosting choice that it is best to try in the event you’re on a good finances.
For extra on getting began on-line, learn our tips about how to create a website. You also needs to try our story on learn how to register a domain name in your web site.
