iPage is a website hosting company, which specializes in shared hosting. The company offers various bonuses and freebies upon registration, to attract new customers. iPage has been in operation since 1998 and manages 1.5 million domains, with more than one million sites hosted at its’ data facilities. Initially, iPage is a US company, however it now serves overseas customers from 150 different countries. According to its’ website, iPage has six offices worldwide, however the location of these offices is not made clear.
iPage uses a fairly straightforward pricing structure. The company doesn’t offer tiers of shared hosting plans. Instead, it provides a basic hosting plan with unrestricted network bandwidth, disk space, databases and domains for all customers. Better still, iPage provides VPS (Virtual Private Server) and dedicated hosting packages, for customers who require a more comprehensive business hosting solution.
Monthly shared hosting plans are not
offered with iPage. Customers can register for a twelve month, twenty-four month or thirty-six month period, and the rates for the latter two options work out at just $1.68 monthly. Bear in mind however, that this lower rate for longer terms is only an introductory price. Renewals are charged at the standard price, which is $10.99 monthly for twelve months, $9.99 monthly for twenty-four months, and $8.99 monthly for thirty-six months. Therefore, the price increases more than fourfold, once customers renew their contracts.
The Essential plan from iPage provides unrestricted network bandwidth, disk space, email addresses, MySQL databases and domains. Three different website builder tools are offered, along with an inbuilt online store,
Mojo Marketplace access (to obtain more applications from third parties), cloud storage account access (free of charge), and numerous marketing and promotional tools. These features are offered with an anytime refund guarantee. In contrast to many website hosting companies, which provide fifteen to thirty day refund guarantee periods, iPage gives customers the rest of their unused fees back once they cancel.
iPage manages all the websites of its’ customers in two data facilities, situated in Boston, Massachusetts. Within these two facilities, which use N+1 DC and AC power, approximately 800
Dell servers are installed. Round the clock security is in place too. Furthermore, both data centers are designed with the same infrastructure. This enables customer data to be mirrored over clustered servers, which is a proven way of reducing downtime. Also, the company invests in diesel generators and UPS backup systems. iPage has not published any details about uptime, so nothing is guaranteed in this respect. On the servers, back up is carried out using NetApp Snapshot.
Most businesses prefer to have an email address linked to their website domain, rather than a Yahoo or Gmail account, because it makes them look more professional. Although many hosting companies limit the quantity of accounts customers can set up, iPage imposes no such limits. It is easy for customers to set up email accounts. All they have to do is visit the Control Panel and click on ‘MailCentral’, and then generate the password and account. Only one account can be set up at a time though, which is time consuming. iPage has anti malware software incorporated into its’ platform, however there is no way of seeing the rules or adjusting the settings.
The iPage support team is based entirely in North America. The company claims that customer calls are usually answered within sixty seconds, round the clock. Free basic support is included with all hosting plans. Alternatively, customers can pay extra for Premium support, which ensures a quicker resolution to any hosting issues that might arise.
Additional Information
For a critical look at iPage visit:
http://bowdonbulletin.com/is-ipage-hosting-any-good/
Install WordPress on iPage using the Mojo Marketplace Installer
Why Use iPage?