(Affordable, and reliable but hey! The letter “i” is not to be confused with an Apple product)
Founded in 1998, iPage is a web hosting company which is owned by Endurance International Group. EIG is a tech giant, which owns a lot of web hosting companies including BlueHost, FatCow, Host Monster and StartLogic.
Starting 20 years ago, iPage has made significant progress in the web hosting business. The multi-national company owns 6 offices at different locations of the world and has the credit of hosting over ONE MILLION WEBSITES between two data centers inside USA.
EIG Companies
Okay – majority of EIG companies definitely make it in the top 10 web hosting companies of the world. But what about an EIG product, which could take the top spot?
Well – what if iPage could make a difference? Read the following review about the nature of provided services to make up your mind.
Strongest Selling Point
The coolest and strongest selling point of iPage is that it offers the cheapest rates possible. Their pricing plans start at 1.99 dollars per month.
You may counter the statement by saying ‘Hey…That’s nothing new. Many companies start their service in a similar way but not one company starts their service that cheap.
Also, their rates are applicable to short term and long-term plans. (Some websites offer less pricings in the start, but then they lock you out of your website by insisting you pay a heavier amount after some years, But that’s not the case with iPage)
Their policy – buy domain hosting for a shorter time and get affordable rates. Buy domain hosting for a longer time and still, get affordable rates.
WordPress starter hosting plans starts at 3.75 dollars per month. Inside the holistic plan, you get a control panel, pre-installed plugins and artsy themes while WP essential plans cost 6.95 dollars per month. You get unlimited (subjected to conditions) space, speed boost and the capability to handle multiple visitors to your website, all at once without slowing your website.
Efficient Uptime
iPage gives an impressing uptime for their price. Their average uptime is 99.97% – giving worldwide competitions to fellow competitors.
Free Security
You might wonder that with all the low fees, there might be catch. But nope! It just gets better as you read this review.
All of iPage hosting plans are well-guarded by security checks, in fact, iPage facilitates the users with a SiteLock security privilege.
It acts as a frontend security panel towards your website. You’ll also be awarded with a firewall support. A good example is that any website which uses un-updated plugins makes you quite vulnerable, but with a dedicated security panel at your disposal – viola… protection, protection, protection!
Daily Backups
This feature is like adding icing to the cake. You have access to daily backups of your website. Imagining worst case scenario, even if your website gets hacked, you can restore it to your recent backups.
Good Customer Support
Our team asked some questions with the customer support of iPage and it turns out, they are really worth their caliber.
We gave them a task of website management and they efficiently guided us by using specific plugins to improve our efficiency. Also, they were fast to reach at.
No Hidden Charges – Honest Plans
A lot of websites try to con potential customers by initially, appearing affordable in the start till price finalizing takes place and you come to know that some “additional charges” have to paid, in order to affirm the ‘deal which sounded too good to be true.”
However, this is not the case with iPage. Straightforward and honest packaging plans have won their nobility into our hearts. They charge you with the same monthly rate for selected tenure.
However, there are two things you should know.
- Expensive Renewal Costs
We admit that they provide ‘low promotional pricings’, for about 1 – 3 years, but you ever wondered what happens after that?
When it is time to renew your membership, the price will jump to 8.99$ per month.
- Lack of cPanel
Almost every web host uses cPanel, but not iPage. Wonder what’s their problem? Instead, they try to go with a lesser known alternative, known as ‘vDeck.’
It gets the job done but cPanel is more user friendly and more updated than vDeck.
What Should You Do?
Well, iPage is a good option if you don’t want to invest money, don’t really care about the speed and want to casually use a website for 1 – 2 years.
But, their renewals are costly. So, better think twice before making a final decision.