History and Company Info

It’s always imperative that you get to know the company you are dealing with. Because background and history matter. A lot! You can’t deny it. If you don’t want to end up being scammed, you have to do your own research and should know where to look up the right, valid information. We save your time, effort, and in the long run, money. iPage itself was founded back in 1998, and though hosting wasn’t that important back then, after a few years everything changed, and all of a sudden, hosting service became a hard, competitive market. Well, iPage re-appeared in 2009, and it started to rock hard.

After some changes on the top levels of the company, and after being acquired by EIG they are in the same family as Host Gator and BlueHost. iPage claims that it’s using only wind-power generated electricity. So, if you want to help sustain Mother Earth for a longer time, you can do so by “supporting” iPage while you also set up your site and earn what you plan to earn. iPage operates in the US.

Highly Appraised Support and Holder of Guarantees

Though not iPage directly, but the company that runs it (EIG) got an A++ rating from the Better Business Bureau. This is not something that every company could get, and since iPage is part of EIG, it deserves this A++. And what does this mean? If a company gets an accreditation from the Better Business Bureau (and an A++ at that!), it means it will do everything to resolve any issue and to help the customers and close their complaints with a positive result. The Better Business Bureau accreditation could be considered as a high-level quality assurance, ensuring that every client is satisfied. If you are not someone who loves to file complaints and call customer services, then iPage is the right page!

And then, there is the guarantee. It’s nothing extraordinary, as the 30-days money-back guarantee is quite an industry standard. However, it’s a very good thing to know that it exists at all! If for any reason you are unsatisfied, and you tell them that in the first place, you can get your money back without too much hassle. But, after all, it’s just a guarantee, you probably won’t even think about it after you get your site up and running.

Hosting Service Types

As most online hosting providers, the iPage also offers you every popular hosting service you might think of, and there are some other specials too! Whether you are a sole entrepreneur, a small-business owner or a chief of a large enterprise, picking the iPage will prove to be a very good choice. From shared to dedicated hosting, everything is available. The packages will be based on Linux, but don’t worry, you will find it easy to set up your site and expand when needed!

The most basic hosting plan of iPage is called Essential, and it’s a quite nice shared hosting plan. It’s the cheapest solution, and since we are not living in the early 2000’s shared hosting isn’t bad anymore. Your site will experience no restrictions, throttles or downtimes, and you pay only a really low price for it. This hosting plan is the most popular, as it offers a nice website builder (powered by Weebly, and allows only 6 pages, for more, you have to upgrade), and the shared hosting includes WordPress, Joomla support, and a lot more supported add-ons and plugins.

If you are looking something more exciting and even more “unlimited”, you should check the iPage’s VPS hosting plan. This also includes the advanced cPanel of iPage and offers better stability and support. The VPS (which stands for Virtual Private Server) works as your own computer: it has RAM, CPU, storage, and bandwidth. The virtual server’s power depends on the package you choose. The lowest price is available for the basic package, but it also includes a lot more than the shared one. If you just want to start your online business, but you have a mid-sized budget for the website part, you should pick a VPS hosting plan. But don’t go for the highest one: if you can afford to pay a hundred bucks a month, then you should go straight to the “Startup” dedicated plan!

Dedicated hosting plans at iPage are also available. There are three of them, and they are not exactly the cheapest solutions. But, they are still in the affordable category. As we stated above, if you can afford it, the most basic dedicated hosting might be the best for you: it offers you the power of 2 processor cores, 4 GB RAM, 500GB storage, and a bandwidth of 5 Terabytes, along with 4 IP addresses! Although, it’s true that the highest VPS package has 4 cores, twice as much RAM, but offers only 120 GB storage, and 4TB bandwidth, but only two IP addresses. Now, to cut the long story short, the iPage dedicated plans are really good.

iPage offers a WordPress hosting plan too, and if you are looking for a great collection of pre-installed themes and nice WP features, you should choose this. The iPage’s WordPress hosting service is cheaper than what you will find at other hosts, and this fact makes it even better. Though iPage is recommended by WordPress, it’s not the number one the WP recommend. Well, you don’t have to listen to them, though: if you are on a budget, and you want a WordPress site, the iPage’s plan is the best for you!

Our opinion about this hosting service: The iPage is really the most reliable and stable budget-friendly host. It hosts “only” 1 million sites, but you can consider it the other way: less number of sites (e.g. other hosts have 2-3 million sites) means more power and stability to you!

The iPage Control Panel

iPage uses a nice control panel, which is fast and offers every option you might think of. With the help of this great control panel, you can set up your site in minutes, add the features you would like, and get on with your business. This is a nice user interface, and even if you’ve never had any experience with it, the iPage Control Panel will become familiar to you in a few minutes. If not, well, there helpful support agents and learning material are always there for you. Though it’s not a cPanel, this custom interface is something everyone can learn to handle. Here are a few of the available options:

FTP and The File Manager

Under the FTP menu, you can check the FTP settings of your site, and you can use the File Manager to upload or download files without a standalone FTP client. You have the option to use your favorite FTP client, of course, you can find the info in the FTP settings.

Mojo Market and My Installs (Simple Scripts)

If you already have an experience, you probably know what the 1-Click Installer is. Well, the Mojo Market is the same, and somewhat even more. This marketplace is also connected to the 1-Click Installer shop, and you can find paid and free goodies there too. Templates, plug-ins, and other goods are available for you. Under the My Installs menu, you can find the things you already get or purchased from the Mojo Market.

Shopsite

This helps you out if you want to set up a web-shop. It’s not a free service, though, and it has a restriction – you can’t simply migrate your site and shop to another host. However, if you are planning with iPage for a longer time, you could use it, rather than scouring the web for open-source solutions.

MySQL

Well, you can build databases using the Structured Query Language, and the Mojo can handle them for you. Naturally, if you are an expert of this language, you can do whatever you like!

Website Creator

This simple tool is powered by Weebly, and it’s the easiest way to build and design your own page. It’s limited though, and you can use it to create only six pages. But, the iPage supports WordPress, and most templates are easily customizable. A free WP template can be a good start, and you can change it later. There is, however another Website Builder, which has been cooked in the iPage’s own kitchen.

Visitor Statistic

Well, every host has a page where you can check your website’s performance. On the iPage, it’s called Visitor Statistics, and it provides you with detailed information about your visitors in the form of raw data. If you are looking for analytics, third party tools (e.g. Google Analytics) are available.

iPage Databanks

It’s good to know how a host works, and how it offers you its top-ranked services. The iPage has its data center complex in Boston. There are two datacenters, and if one goes down, the system switches to the other one. This ensures perfectly good uptime. The data centers are under constant watch, and completely secured, so you can be rest assured that there is not going to be any hacking attack. Since the servers are all in Boston, you can’t choose other location for your site. But, nowadays, it only causes a few milliseconds difference if you are on the other side of the ocean.

More Tools Than You Could Handle

iPage will flood you with available tools and features. Apart from the options we mentioned above when we talked about the control panel, there are even more. For example, when it comes to content management systems, you can easily install the one you prefer (if any): Joomla, WordPress, Drupal and more are there for you. iPage offers good e-commerce solutions too, and setting up a store won’t be a hassle. You can choose from different shopping cart software, and you can opt-in for a shared SSL security and a badge showing your customers that you know their data has to be secured well!

A few years ago, iPage run promotions of 2 bucks per month starting prices. Nowadays, that would probably cause the company to go bankrupt, but the current prices are still among the lowest of the whole industry. Depending on your choice, you can get 80% or even higher discounts in the prices. As usual, the cheapest plans are the shared hosting. We already said it once, but let us repeat: shared hosting is really great nowadays, so it’s worth it for a simple business site! The Essential package, which is the most basic shared option here, starts from $3.25 per month (with a 3-years long contract), and its renewal price isn’t that bad either. This package grants you access to all the great tools we mentioned (website builder, 1-click installing, templates, MySQL, free domain), and you get “unlimited” storage and email, along with scalable bandwidth.

The next cheapest solution is the WordPress hosting, starting from $3.75 per month. This is a great solution for WordPress enthusiasts, and it’s highly recommended to everyone who runs a blog or wants to have a WP-based store. With the WP Starter plan, you get all the features of a simple hosting service, plus a customized control panel and a huge pile of pre-installed themes to choose from. You won’t get expert support, only maybe from the community. If you choose the iPage WP Essential plan, you get extra speed, better security, and support too – this pack starts from $6.75. For big site-owners, the VPS and the Dedicated server plans are recommended. These are more expensive, but if you are on a higher budget, or you are willing to go that extra mile for a perfect solution, you should choose these options.

The VPS solution (which is basically a hybrid cloud-VPS) is a good choice, as it’s still in the affordable range: its Basic plan starts from $19.99, and it gives you a virtual server with 1 processor core, 1 GB RAM, 1 Terabyte bandwidth, and 40 GB storage. Also, the package includes a custom cPanel, support, high performance, and memory-guarantee. If you remember, we already talked about the dedicated startup plan, which gives 5 Terabytes bandwidth, a half terabyte of storage, 4 GB RAM, and 2 cores to process. This starts from $119 per month, but it is affordable, and this power really worth it.

When it comes to the reliability of a web hosting service, we usually talk about the uptime. On this field, the iPage is really good. According to our observations, the iPage has a 98-99% uptime. It’s rather high, and as you will see it’s real. There are many months when there is no downtime at all, which means the users’ sites are available throughout the year, with only some small breaks. The iPage is really reliable, and they are always ready to switch if problems come. And they have to be ready because there are sometimes DDoS attacks taking place. As a user, you won’t really notice these problems. Another addition to reliability: iPage is a partner of the SiteLock, and apart from the SSL, you can opt-in for additional security. We also highly recommend the extra site-backup service.

iPage has a great support. We have seen positive user-feedbacks about them, and of course, there are some people who weren’t lucky, or couldn’t present their case properly. You can reach out to iPage via phone, live chat, email or by using their ticket system. The phone and the live chat are the instant solutions, while email options would be the most appropriate if you have a complex issue. The support agents are quite knowledgeable, though we advise that you check the knowledge base of the site before you jump into the live chat. The tech support team is really good, and if you need them to hold your hand, they can do it too!