iPage Hosting is an Endurance International Group (EIG) brand, acquired in 2010 from founder Thomas Gorny.
Originally started in 1998, iPage Hosting now has offices in six worldwide locations serving over 1 million websites between two data centers in the U.S.Phew, that was a mouthful.
There’s a slight hesitation that occurs when we find out we’re reviewing yet another EIG-owned company. Our experience with most of them has been, well, not great.
They’re big. Well known. And wildly inconsistent (typically falling somewhere between average and poor).
That being said, we want to be proved wrong. Maybe iPage could, delivering stunning performance statistics that we can’t deny or hide.
To find out, we set up a WordPress website on their ‘Essential’ shared hosting plan in June 2015. We’ve been running performance tests ever since to monitor the most important hosting characteristics like uptime and speed which are critical to your site (and business) success.
You can even see the results for yourself, click here on ‘History’ to dive deeper into the data.
First, the good news. iPage is perhaps the cheapest hosting option available. Like, cheap cheap.
VERY Inexpensive Hosting
iPage Hosting comes in at only $1.99 per month, making it one of the cheapest web hosts available in the marketplace.
The great news, is that not only does this rate apply to their long-term deals (like 36 months), but also their shorter, minimum one of 12 months too.
That means you won’t necessarily have to get locked into (or pay upfront) a three-year deal (like many other hosts out there required) just to get the best advertise rate.
Pretty Good Customer Support
You don’t always expect the lowest cost provider to have good support. But iPage bucks that trend, providing decent support through phone, email and live chat.
Despite the twenty-minute connection delay, their rep answered all of our questions directly with additional helpful details along the way. We were very satisfied, especially when compared across all of the other web hosts we’ve reviewed this far.
(It’s worth mentioning that our background checks revealed mixed reviews. So buyer beware I guess.)
Good Security Options with SiteLock Security
All iPage Hosting plans come with a SiteLock security suite which includes daily backups. This is a nice added bonus that many other web hosts will charge additionally for, making that super low $1.99 look even better yet.
Third Party Application Support and Integration Options
iPage plays well with others, connecting simply with Google Apps, PayPal, and more. That’s especially helpful for eCommerce websites who need to handle secure payment transactions.
iPage also throws in some bonus credits on new accounts for Google AdWords, Yahoo, and Bing.
Upfront, Honest Pricing
Many web hosts appear inexpensive at first. Especially most EIG brands who are frequent perpetrators of this trick.
Things look rosy until you click ‘Checkout’ and discover (to your dismay) that to lock-in that great deal you’ve been told about thus far, you’ll have to fork over three-years worth, all at once.
Fortunately, iPage is different – charging you the same monthly rate no matter which duration you’d prefer (assuming a minimum of 12 months). Honesty and transparency goes a long way in our books.
iPage’s pricing is virtually unbeatable. Their customer support is pretty good too!
While iPage’s pricing is among the cheapest we’ve seen, their uptime is among the lowest we’ve seen too. That’s not good.
Overview on iPage shared hosting plans
Here’s a quick overview of the hosting plans offered by iPage:
Shared Hosting: iPage currently only offers one shared hosting plan called the ‘Essential Plan’. This plan costs $1.99 per month when you first sign up and can cost up to $11.95 per month when it is time to renew your hosting.
Their shared hosting plan comes with unlimited storage, bandwidth, domain names and MySQL databases. It also comes with several integrations, apps and site builders.
WordPress Hosting: They have two main WordPress hosting plans:
WP Starter: This plan costs $3.75 per month. It comes with a customized control panel, important plugins preinstalled and handpicked themes.
WP Essential: This plan costs $6.95 per month. It comes with all the features of the Starter plan, and it uses SSD-based infrastructure to boost site speed and performance. It has unlimited disk space and malware protection, and they claim it can handle millions of visitors monthly.
Quick Facts
Free domain? Yes.
Ease of Signup: Fairly easy sign up process.
Payment Methods: Credit Card, PayPal.
Hidden Fees and Clauses: Refunds only issued to Credit Cards, and they charge a $35 fee for early cancellation. Customers cannot use ‘excessive’ amount of CPU resources; although they do not specify what they mean by ‘excessive’.
Upsells: Lots of upsells.
Account Activation: Quick activation.
Control Panel and Dashboard Experience: Easy-to-use vDeck control Panel.
Installation of Apps and CMSs (WordPress, Joomla, etc.): Easy installation of popular apps and CMSs via their control panel.