PROS
Linux- and Windows-based Web hosting. Useful Weebly site-building software. Unlimited bandwidth, disk space, and email accounts. Robust third-party application support. Generous money-back guarantee. Dedicated and VPS hosting.CONS
No month-to-month plans. Too many dashboards. Aggressive upselling. Renewal price significantly higher than introductory price.BOTTOM LINE
iPage has a deep feature set with built-in tools to launch a blog, set up a store, and run a website. The aggressive upselling and multiple dashboards may make the platform a little intimidating for novice users, however.
Shared Hosting Plans
Unlike HostGator, the Editors' Choice for shared Web hosting, iPage does not offer month-to-month shared packages. Instead, it has more in common with Domain.com, a Web host that also offers one-year, two-year, and three-year plans.
iPage has a single shared, Linux-based hosting plan, Essential, which costs $11.95 per month. It features unlimited disk space, monthly data transfers, and email addresses, so it has the chops to grow along with your business. Like Domain.com, iPage doesn't toss additional discounts your way if you sign up for two- or three-year plans; you'll pay $11.95 per month regardless of the length of service. The month fee is a bit on high side of the shared hosting spectrum; you can sign up for Arvixe's similarly specced shared hosting for $7 per month.
iPage's shared hosting offerings are quite good, but HostGator tops it. The Editors' Choice has a similar entry-level plan that also features unlimited storage, monthly data transfers, and email addresses, but goes the extra mile with a choice of either Linux- or Windows-based servers. Don't underestimate the importance of a Windows server option. If you plan to build (or migrate) a site built on an ASP.NETframework, you'll appreciate a Windows option.
In addition, HostGator has mid- and top-tier shared hosting offerings that add bonuses, such as a toll-free phone number and a private Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate.
VPS Hosting Plans
iPage also has VPS hosting, starting at $24.99 per month. If you expect high traffic volumes, or have specific compliance requirements that prevent you from using shared servers, these are good options to consider, especially if you don't want to pay dedicated Web hosting's relatively high prices.
There are three configurations for the Linux-based servers: Basic, Business, and Optimum. Basic plans ($24.99 per month) start with just 1GB of RAM, 40GB of storage, and 1TB of monthly data transfers. Business plans ($59.99 per month) offer 4GB of RAM, 90GB of storage, and 3TB of monthly data transfers. The Optimum plan ($99.99 per month) has 8GB of RAM, 120GB of storage, and 4TB of month data transfers.
iPage's virtual private server plans are quite good, but Hostwinds, the PCMag Editors' Choice for VPS Web hosting services, edges it out with unlimited monthly data transfers and a choice of either Linux- or Windows-based servers.
Dedicated Hosting Packages
iPage's solid, middle-of-the-road dedicated server plans (starting at $149 per month) aren't radically different from what BlueHost, HostMonster, and JustHost offer. You can configure the servers with up to 1TB of storage, 16GB of RAM, and up to 15TB of monthly data transfers.
Those are solid numbers, but HostGator, the PCMag Editors' Choice for dedicated Web hosting, is a superior choice thanks to its 25TB of data transfers per month and choice of Linux- or Windows-based operating system options (iPage only has Linux-based dedicated servers).
WordPress Hosting
Like some of its competitors, iPage offers dedicated WordPress hosting, starting at $10.49 per month for the WP Starter plan and $12.49 per month for the WP Essential plan. The two are similar in that they both offer unlimited storage, email, and monthly data transfers, but WP Essential builds on that with SSD-based storage and enhanced security and customer service.
However, neither plan is of the managed WordPress variety, a type of WordPress hosting that gives your installation the white-glove treatment. For that type of hosting, check out 1&1, the Editors' Choice for WordPress hosting.
Building a Website
iPage asks a few questions to help market the website to search engines as part of the account creation process. The questions are basic, such as whether this is a business site or personal one, and what kind of topics the site will cover.
The iPage control panel is pretty straightforward. Everything is broken out in sections on a long page. There's no tabbed interface here. It's easier to find things because you just scroll down until you find the relevant icon. To my surprise, iPage offers three site-building tools. First of all, there's the basic CM4All template-based builder, which lets you build up to six pages for free. The control panel also offers the goMobi site builder, which lets you build mobile-optimized sites. The problem is that nothing on the panel indicates there is an additional $8.99 per month fee for this builder.
Most people should stick with the basic drag-and-drop site builder, which happens to be Weebly, one of our top choices for website builders. You can upgrade to the premium version or just use the basic one, which I thought were just fine for most purposes. Weebly's drag-and-drop functionality let me quickly build an attractive page complete with slideshows, contact forms, social media links, maps, and photo galleries, and more.
Setting up a test WordPress installation was easy because the database was already in place and ready to go. I clicked the WordPress icon and was directed to a page on the Mojo Marketplace where I indicated that I wanted to install the blogging software. I selected where WordPress should be installed, and the installer created our username and password and set up the entire site. The process took a little longer than with some other hosting providers, but since the marketplace queues all requests, i was able to navigate to other parts of the site and pick out other software packages while I waited.
I was pleased to see that iPage offers an import button that lets import an existing WordPress blog. Even though WordPress makes the import process easy enough from its interface, it's always nice to see the step simplified even further.
Still, it became difficult keeping track of so many different software interfaces in our testing. There is the main control panel for iPage, an entirely separate dashboard to manage applications installed from Mojo Marketplace, and all the site-builder tools have their own separate pages. It's tricky to shift back and forth from different sections of the site because each one looks different and works differently.
E-Marketing and E-Commerce
iPage offers an online store as a built-in feature. To get started, you click the ShopSite Starter icon and then a button to enable ShopSite. I did, but the page became blank. I refreshed and found the ShopSite page with a Manage My Store button. The ShopSite bundled with the Essential plan is the basic version, with a 15-product/5-page limit, no third-party application integration, and limited design options. You can upgrade to the Manager version ($29.95 per month) or Pro ($49.95 per month).
iPage offers an online store as a built-in feature. To get started, you click the ShopSite Starter icon and then a button to enable ShopSite. I did, but the page became blank. I refreshed and found the ShopSite page with a Manage My Store button. The ShopSite bundled with the Essential plan is the basic version, with a 15-product/5-page limit, no third-party application integration, and limited design options. You can upgrade to the Manager version ($29.95 per month) or Pro ($49.95 per month).
While it took a few minutes to turn on, setting up the online store was fairly easy. The store creation wizard walked me through a multistep process to develop pages, define products, and set up the payment options. The wizard is old-fashioned, but the templates are modern looking. The starter plan doesn't support color palette changes, so there is only so much you can do with the templates.
Note that when you get into ShopSite, you leave iPage and its Control Panel behind entirely. It would have been nicer to see a bit tighter integration there. If you don't want to use ShopSite, you can visit the Mojo Marketplace and download platforms such as ZenCart and osCommerce.
Security Features
iPage safeguards your email with anti-malware monitoring. You can also define the .htaccess file to restrict who has access to the server or selected sections of the website. Additionally, iPage offers Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates for $31.99 per year. As it encrypts data transferred between a computer user and website, it's an essential purchase if you want to sell products.Uptime Blues
Website uptime is one of the most important aspects of a hosting service. If your site is down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services. You do not want that. Unfortunately, iPage isn't as dependable as I'd like.
I used a website monitoring tool to track my iPage-hosted test site's uptime over a two-week period. Every 15 minutes, the tool pings my website and sends me an email if it is unable to contact the site for at least one minute. The data revealed that iPage is just a middle-of-the-road service in regards to uptime. iPage's ability to keep your website up and running isn't nearly as reliable as, for example, DreamHost's. It isn't the worst I've tested, but when it comes to uptime, you really want better.
Customer Service
Like HostMonster, iPage offers both 24/7 telephone support and an online Web chat—I tested both help methods. I dialed into the telephone tech support on a weekday morning to ask the difference between using WP Starter and WP Essential WordPress hosting. The customer service representative gave me a concise rundown of the differences.
My online Web chat experience was fairly straightforward. I waited less than a minute on a weekday afternoon to ask how to import an already existing WordPress blog. He provided a link to an iPage knowledge database article explaining what I needed to do.
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