iPage Review – Start Blogging Or Get Your New Site Up Easily

Do you want to start blogging or get a new website online?

Great! You’re in for an amazing journey.

My name is Johnny, and I’ve been blogging and making websites since 2005.

Why does that matter to you? Well, in the past 10 years, I’ve tried many different hosting providers.

After a few months using iPage, I can share with you the pros and cons…

• PRO – It’s easy to setup and manage websites on iPage. Their platform makes it really easy to start and grow a blog or business site using WordPress.
• PRO – Super easy 1-click automatic WordPress blog/website setup. I use WordPress.. Here’s why… It’s so easy to build any kind of site with it, and it doesn’t cost any extra.
• PRO – Flexible plans. They added VPS and Dedicated hosting options recently, so you can start with the most popular, most affordable $2.75/mo Essential Plan, and later on if your site ends up receiving thousands of visitors daily, and the cost of high-performance hosting is justified, you can now upgrade to VPS or Dedicated hosting with iPage.
• CON – They offer the popular Weebly website builder, but it’s not the latest version. I personally don’t care because I don’t use website builders and I find them restrictive.But if you are set on using a website builder, check out my list of the top 10 website builders. I personally use WordPress. Here’s why…
• CON – iPage does not offer month-to-month payment. Like most web hosts, they only offer 1 year, 2 year and 3 year plans paid up front. See the “money-saving tip” below for a solution.

Should I Use iPage’s Essential Plan?

It’s easy to get your website online fast with the Essential Plan. This entry-level plan makes it easy for non-technical people to get a website online and performing well.

You can start your site today for just $9.99 per month $2.75 per month (80% off – I’m not sure when the sale ends) and you get a comprehensive web hosting solution that is perfect for your blog or business website.

The term “essential” is perfect for iPage’s offering because it comes with all the features that you may need now and in the future. For that price, it may be the best hosting offer you can possibly get.

There are 12-month, 24-month, and 36-month terms. It’s important to note that the hosting price goes down the longer you stay with iPage. Additionally, the regular rate applies to clients who wish to renew their subscription.

Features & Ease Of Use

As mentioned earlier, iPage’s Essential Plan is tailored for beginners and advanced website owners and developers alike. That said, the list of features is pretty long. Some of the main features include:

Super-easy website builder (PERFECT for newbies): If you have zero knowledge or experience with HTML or other complex coding and programming, don’t worry because you can still build your dream website. That’s because iPage offers you the use of their comprehensive website building tools to enable you to come up with a great-looking and highly functional website without the need to hire a professional web developers to do the work for you.

Easy 1-Click Setup For Popular Website Apps like WordPress: Installing apps to make the management of your website even more convenient is the wise thing to do. Luckily, with the essential plan from ipage, you get access to a control panel equipped with quick and simple installation wizards. Tools to help your online store are also available. Now, you can have your catalogs, coupons, and shopping carts enabled on your website. Plus, you also get assistance in applying for accepting credit card payments.

Tools to enhance your professional image: iPage enables you to customize the email address that would go with your account. This way, you won’t be forced to use tacky usernames like officesupplies137 or cleaningneedz just to suit your business. With customizable emails addresses, you can have a choice of putting a dignified username with an @yourdomain.com server name. Additionally, when you start marketing your website and your business, iPage will grant you advertising credits on major search engines. Now, your website’s ads will not appear on and be associated with nondescript websites.

World-class security features: iPage understands how important security is for their clients. Any website that transacts business online gets sensitive information that should only be accessed by authorized individuals. With iPage’s basic Sitelock Plan (which comes with FREE domain), you are ensured that your website is free of malware and is protected against threats from hackers.

Take note that this free feature is only applicable to the first domain name that you register. If you plan on having multiple domains, you will need to pay $14.95 a year for each additional domain.

iPage Hosting Is Reliable Yet Affordable

Whether you are launching a website for business or personal purposes, it is important to keep it up at least 99% of the time. This may sound like such a high percentage but any lower and you would be experiencing downtime for hours. Being inaccessible for long periods can ruin your reputation and drive away potential customers.

The good news is that iPage promises an uptime of 99.9% and several third-party groups have proven this number. How can the company keep up this uptime rate? Here are the reasons:

• iPage uses the fastest servers available in the market. iPage maintains these servers with the latest software packages.
• iPage’s data centers consist of several servers that can take over should one shut down. These factors serve to ensure that their clients experience minimal service interruptions.

Enjoy Your Peace Of Mind With Great Tech Support

iPage caters to beginner website owners and developers, and they address their clients’ need for assistance in just about everything. This is why the company has set up a lot of avenues for these clients to reach their pool of highly skilled support staff. Any customer who needs a question answered regarding his/her account, web development, and other matters can reach iPage via live chat, email, or phone line.

These support avenues are available the 24/7. Some existing clients have stated that the more reliable option in reaching the support staff is via email or phone call rather than live chat. On top of that, iPage also offers tutorials and a FAQ section on their website where clients can read up on tips and steps in addressing common technical issues.

So, is iPage Hosting Right For You?

Yes. iPage is the perfect choice for you if you want easy-to-use, affordable hosting that can grow with you as your website grows and your needs increase. If you’re still not sure about iPage for your website, make sure to do your homework and read more customer reviews to get a wider perspective.

Bryan revealed his own personal experience with their website builder in his recent iPage review a few weeks ago, so it’s worth checking out.

With the affordable yet high-quality Essential Plan and the multitude of features that comes with it, it is not surprising that millions choose to rely on iPage for their hosting service needs. Besides these, iPage also makes use of green energy to run their servers. Not only are you getting a lot out of what you are paying, you are also given the opportunity to help the environment.

Kudos to iPage!

Before we get down to serious business, did you know that iPage is owned by Endurance International Group (EIG), the same company that owns the major players in web hosting such as Bluehost, HostGator and Fat Cow? Add iPage to the list and together, they are hosting millions of websites!

Not impressed?

That’s great, because this is not how you go about choosing a web host.

Just because a company can boast hundreds of thousands of customers doesn’t really mean it’s the right one for you. Yes, it helps boost their credibility, but it only shows that they are good at sales and marketing. In fact, when a hosting business starts to grow beyond its means, the quality of their services might suffer, and it also means that they will stop caring about their existing customers.

Trust me, the last thing you want from your web host is a customer support team that doesn’t really care! However, what if these companies managed pile up all these customers by providing high-quality services at affordable prices?

Long story short, you must assess a web host for what it is instead of getting impressed with big numbers. So, let’s evaluate iPage while keeping the all important factors like pricing, features, uptime, customer support, and technology in mind.

Hosting Plans and Pricing

iPage offers three different types of hosting plans, from shared hosting to VPS and dedicated servers. Let’s have a look at all three of them.

Shared Hosting – The Essential Plan

iPage started off as a low-budget web hosting provider for bloggers and startups. The Shared Hosting plan continues to be one of their most popular plans. At just $2.75/month, you can enjoy the following features:

• Free domain registration
• Unlimited hosting space and bandwidth
• Free online store builder and script library
• 1 GB of free cloud storage

What’s more, you can host unlimited domains!

You will have to sign up and pay for 2 years of hosting upfront, but even if you want to sign up for just one year, the price will only slightly climb to $3.50 (which is no big deal, given the kind of hosting and features that you are getting). Having said that, I suggest you sign up for two years, because the discounted rates are only for first term of services. Afterwards, you will be charged at regular rates.

A good web host must have easy upgrades available so that you won’t have to go through the hassle of migrating to another host, when your website starts to outgrow the resources offered in a shared hosting plan.

But wait, didn’t I say that their shared hosting plan comes with unlimited disk space and bandwidth?

It does, but just like any other hosts, shared hosting plans have some strings attached, and these strings are known as Fair Usage Policy. In a shared hosting plan, you are basically sharing the server with hundreds (or thousands) of other websites. When one of these websites starts to eat up more than its fair share of resources, the host will tell that website to upgrade to a premium hosting plan.

The good thing about iPage is that they will send you a 48-hour notice, unlike some other hosts who will just take down your website without notifying you.

Virtual Private Servers (VPS)

Once you’re ready to take it up a notch from shared hosting, take note that you don’t have to go straight for a dedicated server. Instead, you can go for VPS, which are virtualized operating systems running on one machine. You will get something in-between the shared hosting (because you are still sharing the machine) and dedicated hosting (because you have dedicated resources, more privacy, and total control).

VPS hosting is the perfect choice for ecommerce stores or small- to medium-sized companies/businesses.

iPage has four different levels of VPS hosting. The Basic Plan comes with 1GB RAM and 1TB bandwidth, starting from $19.99 per month. Then there’s the Business Plan with 4GB RAM and 3TB of bandwidth, which is available at $47.99 per month. Lastly, there’s the Optimum Plan which comes with 8GB RAM and 4TB of bandwidth, which is available at $79.99 per month.

Dedicated Hosting Plan

As the name suggests, a dedicated hosting plan means that a server will be solely devoted to your use, so the flexibility, security, control, support, and the speed is unparallel to any other type of web hosting.

All dedicated hosting plans at iPage come with fully managed support, and they range from $119.99/mo to $191.99/mo (you will get 16 GB RAM, 15 TB bandwidth, and 1000 GB storage in that)

Customer Support

If you check out online reviews for different hosts submitted by customers, you will find mixed sentiments for almost all popular services. It doesn’t matter how good or how bad they are – there will be some who approve, and there will be some who disapprove their services.

The truth is that all hosts will look good as long as your website is up and running, and you don’t encounter any issues. Only then will the real challenge start. The real test of a web host starts when something goes wrong with your website and you need to get in touch with the customer support staff for help. This is where you can differentiate between the good and the bad.

Some web hosting companies will go all-out to help their clients and will continue to help until the issue is resolved. However, there are many hosts (mostly resellers) out there who don’t even have the technical know-how or time to get you out of the trouble. In between these two extremes, there are companies where you will get mixed feedback. At times, you will get top-notch support and sometimes it will be below par. Typically, the VPS or dedicated hosting clients will get the best support, while shared hosting clients will be left wanting for more.

Thankfully, this is not the case with iPage, as they provide 24/7 phone support for all of their customers, which is quite impressive. But you need to keep in mind that you will have to wait for around half an hour because of the long queue. I personally prefer submitting a support ticket, because they usually respond within 24 hours and that’s quite good.

The chat support is good for quick questions, billing, upgrade, or pre-sales inquiries.

Technology

For the geeks or anybody else interested in all things tech, it’s worth noting that iPage has two massive data centers in Boston, both of which have 24/7 security and are running on N+1 power. According to their website, their network infrastructure is made of pooled server environment, which means the first available machine will respond to requests and serve the desired web pages, resulting in faster load time and uninterrupted services.

All machines have another similar cluster machine that will instantly take over in case the primary machine crashes, and there’s another set of storage units that are meant specifically for backup purposes. In short, iPage has the latest technology and equipment needed for uninterrupted services.        

And in case you are interested, iPage is a green hosting company.

For every kWh of energy they use, they will purchase twice the amount in form of REC’s (Renewable Energy Certificates). If you are running a business, you can use the Green Certificate badge on your website for a little bit of reputation building.

Just keep in mind, though, that going for an eco-friendly web hosting company is not the only thing you are supposed to do for going green.

Website Builder & Add-Ons

It would be a lot easier if you have the budget for hiring graphic designers and web developers who can come up with a customized design. But for small businesses, blogs or online stores, it’s an entirely different story.

You can always start with a ready-made template/theme from CMS like WordPress or Magento, or use the site builders. And once your website starts generating income, you can use it to give your website a more personalized look. But if you’re just starting out, it might not be wise to squander all your money on bells and whistles.

There are many different web site builders and templates available, but your best bet is to use the ones endorsed by your host. You might get some discounts, but more importantly, you won’t need to worry about the compatibility of these add-ons or page builders.

The following are my personal favorites from the pack of tools and add-ons available at iPage:

Weebly Drag & Drop Builder. You can access Weebly builder through your control panel. It’s a quick and easy way to create, set up, and launch your website. Once it’s ready, you can publish it on web while following the guidelines in this article.

Ecwid E-Commerce. iPage has partnered with Ecwid, which is a popular ecommerce plugin that allows you to sell from anywhere on your website or Facebook Page. You can easily use it with websites made on WordPress or Weebly. If your business website or blog is getting good numbers of traffic, you can easily try to monetize this traffic by selling online. Instead of redesigning the entire website from ecommerce perspective, simply use Ecwid and add “Buy Now” buttons to your website or Facebook Page.

Doba. If you don’t have a product or you can’t source and manage suppliers, no worries because you can sign up with Doba and access a database of more than 1.5 million products to sell on your website.

Simply choose a product from their database that will be of interest to your website visitors or blog readers and use the images provided by suppliers to sell. Once you get the order, the product will be shipped directly to your customers and you can keep the profits.

As an iPage customer, you can sign up for a free 14-day trial, and if it seems to be working, you can opt for a paid plan after two weeks.

But always make sure that you have gone through the regular prices before signing up for any of these services. Don’t try these add-ons or any other additional services unless you have made up your mind that you really need them.

WordPress. For bloggers, there’s the easy-to-use WordPress installation tool. And if, for some unfathomable reasons, you don’t want to use WordPress, there are other options like B2evolution or PixelPost as well. In either of these cases, installation is really simple and is just a matter of clicks.

Security Features

Internet is growing fast, even as we speak – and so are the security threats! For an average blogger or business owner, it’s next to impossible to deal with hackers or cyber offenders. Not that a reputed hosting company will guarantee 100% security, but it can at least create a secure environment and keep hackers at bay.

iPage has done exactly that, with their firewalls, pooled structure, database lockdown, and strict encryption practices. They provide services that can detect security breaches or loopholes that hackers can exploit.

When you are hosting a website on iPage, you can use daily malware scan to make sure your websites don’t have a virus that might affect your visitors (because if it happens, you can kiss your credibility goodbye). You can get your domain verified, and place a security badge on your website (it helps with the conversion).

But is it any good?

There’s no host that can be termed the absolute best for one and all. What really makes iPage a viable option is the kind of pricing and all-inclusive packages they have for startups. iPage is known for its budget-friendly hosting plans, and those are as good as a shared hosting plan can get. And when you are not paying premium prices, you shouldn’t really be fuming over minor stuff.

If you ask me, iPage is a really good platform to launch your blog, online business, or ecommerce store. Just pay for a year or two of their services, and invest all of your time and resources on growing your business. In case of a technical glitch, know that you can bank on iPage’s customer support team to get your site back as soon as possible, and that’s all you need.

And when you’ve made up to the next level, iPage has the upgrade options available. All you need to do is to write them a short email, and your website will be transferred to a better hosting plan.