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 gives many engaging options, together with a brand new web site builder, excellent customer support, sturdy uptime, and low-cost, shared internet hosting that depends on a single plan with “limitless” perks in a number of key areas. A number of flaws stay that make iPage fall wanting DreamHost, HostGator, Hostwinds, and different Editors’ Choice picks, however it’s nonetheless a rock-solid 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 webhosting that sees a number of websites residing on a single server. In this roommate scenario, websites share the server sources, so a big site visitors surge on Site X can, sadly, negatively influence Site Y’s efficiency. Shared internet hosting is an efficient choice in the event you’re in search of cheap hosting; if you need extra server sources dedicated to your website, you must go the VPS or devoted internet hosting routes. More on these in a bit.
Unlike HostGator, our Editors’ Choice decide for shared webhosting providers, iPage does not provide month-to-month billing choices for shared packages. You’re locked into annual subscriptions, coming in one-, two-, or three-year plans. Thankfully, the corporate tosses deep reductions your method the longer you prepay.
iPage has a single, Linux-based, shared internet hosting plan starting at $2.99 per 30 days for the one-year choice. The value drops to $1.99 per 30 days in the event you select the three-year plan. That’s an awesome value, and the one plan’s simplicity means you need not 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 your corporation.
HostGator’s entry-level Hatchling plan prices $2.75 per 30 days for limitless storage, month-to-month knowledge transfers, and e mail addresses. Unfortunately, HostGator requires a three-year dedication to achieve that value, as a one-year plan is $3.95 per 30 days and the month-to-month price is $10.95 per 30 days. That makes iPage notably engaging, particularly in the event you’re in search of a cost-friendly webhosting service.
One choice that HostGator gives that iPage doesn’t is the selection of both Linux- or Windows-based servers. The Windows server plan prices a bit extra ($4.76 per 30 days for 3 years), however it’s a helpful alternative 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 need a server with extra horsepower than what shared internet hosting gives, take a look at VPS internet hosting. This internet hosting class sees a number of websites residing on a server, although far fewer in quantity than what you will 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 site 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 per 30 days) has simply 1GB of RAM, 40GB of storage, and 1TB of month-to-month knowledge transfers. Business (beginning at $59.49 per 30 days) gives 4GB of RAM, 90GB of storage, and 3TB of month-to-month knowledge transfers. The Optimum plan (beginning at $99.99 per 30 days) 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 top-tier VPS plan consists of 6GB of RAM, 750GB of disk area, 9TB of month-to-month knowledge transfers, and a alternative 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} you must energy a website designed to deal with hundreds of thousands of tourists per 12 months.
iPage’s three, Linux-based devoted server internet hosting plans aren’t radically completely different from what BlueHost gives. 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 identify, all for $149 per 30 days. 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 high-end Enterprise server plan prices $239 per 30 days, 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 webhosting, is a superior alternative, due to 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 alternative of Windows and numerous Linux working programs.
WordPress Hosting Plans
You’ve probably heard of WordPress, the service that powers greater than 30 % of all web sites. It’s simple to see why; WordPress is simple 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 gives Linux-based WordPress internet hosting like lots of its rivals, beginning at $7.49 per 30 days for the WP Starter plan and $10.49 per 30 days for the WP Essential plan. The two are related in that they each provide a website identify 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 assist.
If you’re in search of wonderful WordPress selection, take a look at A2. The Editors’ Choice decide for WordPress internet hosting has plans beginning at $10.99 per 30 days that embrace limitless e mail, limitless month-to-month knowledge transfers, and 100GB of quick, SSD-based storage. Unlike iPage, A2 additionally gives managed WordPress (beginning at $16.99 per 30 days).
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 often known as “white label internet hosting,” refers back to the enterprise of making your individual webhosting enterprise from instruments and providers you resell from bigger internet hosting corporations. If you are seeking to get into the webhosting enterprise, however you do not need to cope with infrastructure issues, take a look at iPage’s reseller hosting packages. Unfortunately, in contrast to most different webhosting providers, iPage does not record its reseller specs on its homepage—it’s essential to name a customer support agent to glean extra info.
We really useful Hostwind’s reseller packages. Starting at $8.99 per 30 days for limitless e mail, storage, and knowledge transfers, Hostwinds’ plans provide devoted and VPS reseller packages of each the Linux and Windows varieties. It has shared, reseller internet hosting, too, however it’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 assist.
Building a Website
Most folks will probably persist with the fundamental drag-and-drop website builder, which occurs to be Weebly, certainly one of our high selections for website builders. You can improve to the premium model or simply use the fundamental one; Weebly’s drag-and-drop performance allows you to shortly construct a lovely web page full with slideshows, contact kinds, social media hyperlinks, maps, and photograph 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 images. Web Builder creates responsive web sites that work effectively on desktop or cellular. In addition, Web Builder allows you to create as much as six, free webpages, and features a free picture library and web optimization instruments.
There are paid choices, too. The builder’s enterprise tier ($6.99 per 30 days) allows you to construct limitless pages and revel in improved analytics choices. The e-commerce plan ($12.99 per 30 days) 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, organising an iPage on-line retailer was a reasonably simple affair. iPage makes use of StoreSite as its different e-commerce alternative. The retailer creation wizard walked us by a multistep page-development course of, helped us outline merchandise, and assisted in organising cost choices. The wizard is quaint, however the templates are engaging and fashionable.
Note that while you enter StoreSite, you permit iPage and its management panel. We would’ve most popular tighter integration, on this regard. If you do not need 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 per 30 days, billed yearly) gives day by day malware scans, blacklist monitoring, and automatic bot assaults blocking. Prevent ($14.99 per 30 days) provides database scanning and quicker response occasions. The top-end Prevent Plus ($24.99 per 30 days) has steady malware scans and PCI compliance scanning.
Additionally, iPage gives Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates beginning at $39.99 per 12 months. 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 increased tiers that characteristic safety for a number of subdomains and e-commerce.
Strong Uptime
Website uptime is among the most vital elements of a internet hosting service. If your website is down, shoppers or prospects will probably 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 software to trace our iPage-hosted check website’s uptime over a two-week interval. Every quarter-hour, the software pings our web site and sends us an alert whether it is unable to contact the positioning for at the least one minute. The testing knowledge revealed that iPage’s uptime is rock strong, simply happening for one temporary interval in the course of the 14-day check interval.
Customer Service
iPage gives each 24/7 phone assist and a web-based net chat—we examined each assist strategies. We dialed into the phone tech assist on a weekday morning to ask the distinction between utilizing WP Starter and WP Essential WordPress internet hosting. The customer support consultant shortly responded, and gave us a concise rundown of the variations. Likewise, our on-line net chat expertise was a reasonably easy, useful affair. We waited lower than a minute on a weekday afternoon earlier than an iPage assist rep fielded our query concerning on-line buying 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 so much going for it, together with high quality plans, sturdy uptime, and a educated buyer assist group, although the shortage 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 provide extra well-rounded internet hosting plans.
If you are in search of cloud internet hosting, DreamHost is a incredible choice. Likewise, HostGator is a really useful net host that provides month-to-month plans and wonderful devoted servers. Finally, Hostwinds’ reseller and VPS plans are terrific choices for small or massive companies. iPage, nevertheless, is an especially cost-friendly internet hosting choice that you must take a look at in the event you’re on a decent finances.
For extra on getting began on-line, learn our tips about how to create a website. You also needs to take a look at our story on the best way to register a domain name in your web site.
Pros
Cons
The Bottom Line
Despite lacking a couple of options that will propel it into the higher echelon, iPage stays a worthy net host due to its new web site builder, wonderful customer support, and powerful uptime.
