Getting Started
iPage is a trusted web hosting company. It that has been going strong since 1998. Whether it is a personal, business or an e-commerce website, one will get all the core features of it!
Enjoy unlimited disk space, data transfer, bandwidth and MySQL database. Receive online marketing tools to help you create a well-optimized website. Get free advertising credits on top search engines such as Google Adwords, Shopsite, and Yahoo!
iPage offers shopping carts, blogging tools, malware scanning and quality security applications. No other hosting company can offer this amount of features as iPage can for such an affordable hosting service cost of only $4.50 a month.
Why iPage?
iPage provides some of the best site building software on the web for free. iPage originally started as a web building software provider and later moved into the web hosting industry. They offer fantastic free online marketing tools like website traffic reports, visitor stats, error logs and access logs. They provide you with features such as a UPS Power Backup and a Diesel Backup Generator, plus NetApp Snapshot Data Backups. Moreover, iPage lets you take advantage of their ShopSite, osCommerce, and AGoraCart Shopping carts. Receive a free domain, a free website creation utility and gain advertising credits with Facebook, Google, and others.
Our Ratings:
Cost: 4/5
Features: 5/5
Storage Allowance: 5/5
Bandwidth: 5/5
Reliability: 5/5
Customer Service: 5/5
Technical Support: 5/5
Response Times: 5/5
Overall Usability: 5/5
Total Score: 99.89 %
Its Price
Although iPage offers competitive pricing for its Essential package, the devil is in the details. While the first contract price can go as low as $2.95 per month (2 or 3 year contracts), the renewal price can be more than double. Plus, the initial free domain users are given upon joining also carries a renewal fee. On top of that, a host of other services like directory listings or mobile versions can make one’s costs to add up. The moral of the pricing story: good bargain for first year, then prices increase. Lots of add-ons can add up, and there are numerous customer complaints regarding the anytime money-back guarantee.
It offers two main WordPress hosting plans.
WP Starter: This plan costs $3.75 per month. It comes with a customized control panel, important plugins pre-installed and handpicked themes.
WP Essential: This plan costs $6.95 per month. It offers 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.
THE GOOD
Is it Reliable?
iPage is 100% reliable and have actually won several awards in the US and Canada. Their server network is secured and contains numerous redundancies to protect important client data from surges, data corruption or malicious denial of service attacks.
It’s User-Friendly
iPage uses a very easy to use control panel known as vDeck. If you are familiar with cPanel then vDeck shouldn’t pose any problems. The great thing about the iPage control panel is how it includes one-click installments for the top web content management systems.Sign up is sort of a mixed bag. With a wonderfully priced basic plan comes the obvious: the attempt to sell oodles of add-ons. Initial signup is fine, but pretty soon one is inundated with more paid add-ons than you can shake a stick ad. iPage does not use control panel; it opts instead for vDeck. There is no loss of function, but for those of the users used to the same categories in the same order in every host, prepare to reorient themselves. Different certainly isn’t worse, though: they have integrated Google Webmaster tools within vDeck, so for those of you who had to keep two tabs open to deal with control panel and Webmaster tools, you’ve just simplified your life. Another interesting twist is vDeck’s use of SimpleScripts, which means it’s easy to install WordPress and Joomla with a simple click from home base.
This is great if one either does not have the time to do installations of WordPress or might not have the technical expertise to do so. iPage takes the hassle out of setting up a fully functioning website in minutes.
Its Up-Time is a Winner!
Along with the provision of cheapest pricing that’s available in the market, the uptime (very near to HostGator) ranks highest too. that is a total winner.iPage promises a strong 99.9% uptime. The front-end network is reliable because of redundant M7i routers and a clustered machine configuration. Ping speed tests of iPage.com show servers are, indeed, up about 99.9% of the time, as promised, and speed Is solid, too: average response time is 0.31 seconds.
Page promises that it monitors its Boston-based servers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and fixes downtimes immediately. To further emphasize their level of accountability, they post any service problems on facebook and twitter. However, you can’t make all the people happy all of the time, as you’ll see from a quick perusal of the multitude of customer complaints regarding downtime and slow servers. The free SiteLock Security plan comes into play here, blocking potential website destroyers. Fending off hackers stops problems from needing to be fixed. SiteLock Security boasts of business verification, the system scans performed daily, certificate display, and an extremely secure data center.
Their average uptime of 99.97% over the past twelve months is significantly higher than many of the other web hosts we’ve reviewed to date (and .18% better than the industry average).
It’s Eco-Friendly!
One of the exciting things about it is that it is green. the web servers and data centers are run by wind energy.
Additional Features
100% Earth Friendly – Equipment runs on wind-powered energy $100’s of Dollars in Google, Bing, and Yahoo! You also get coupons, online Shopping Cart System, Web-page for free. it also comes with Site Builder Tools, Security Software, Domain and much more.
THE BAD
If their uptime was too good to be true, right? Well, their loading time is a downer.
iPage’s page loading times started at 908ms, making it only about 23.0% faster than competition’s average (1185ms).
That is one major flaw, especially when some of the best web hosts we have reviewed deliver page loading speeds of about 500ms.
Site speed isn’t just a vanity metric. Slow page loading times negatively impact SEO, meaning lower rankings and less visibility, which = lower overall site traffic.
But if that is still somehow acceptable, slow site speed can also tank conversions by causing people to leave your site with disappointment. For instance, if your site does not load under three seconds, 50% of your visitors will most probably leave.
Domain Names Are Over Priced
iPage claims to throw in a new domain name with a 30-day money back guarantee for new account signups.but wait, there is more to it…
If you are not satisfied with it and dare ask for your money back during that thirty-day window, they’ll deduct a $15 fee for the domain name. That is a shocker! Not only do they fail to stand on their words but deduct more than other sites.
So basically, the free domain name and money back guarantee aren’t FREE after all.
Customer Care
iPage keeps their customers happy by offering them 24/7 customer service support by phone, online chat or by email. Also, all phone calls are answered in less than two minutes. iPage handles technical requests expeditiously while maintaining a courteous and professional demeanor at all times.You have access to live U.S.-based phone, chat, and online support tickets 24/7. The online ticket system averages a-30 minute response time. As far as tutorials, the User Guides will be especially helpful for beginners, but there was some impressive advanced knowledge, as well.
In addition, customer service and technical representatives can provide you with step-by-step tutorials on how to use your iPage account.
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