iPage Hosting is a hosting company targeting the entry-level and budget-conscious end of the market. They’re one of Endurance International’s (a large hosting brand holding company) brands, along with Bluehost, HostGator and others.
You can check out iPage’s plans here.
They’ve been around in some form since 1998, but only recently re positioned themselves as a pure-play hosting company. They specialize in Linux shared hosting (ie, the type of hosting used by most companies who run their site with software like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc), but also offer VPS and Dedicated server plans for higher traffic websites.
After their sister company, Bluehost, changed their pricing, I had a few readers asking what I thought of them. So while shopping for a new budget host for a side project, I decided to sign up and give them a try.
Here’s my iPage Hosting review – structured with pros & cons based on my experience as a customer.

Disclosure – I receive referral fees from companies mentioned on this website. All opinion and data are based on my experience as a paying customer or consultant to a paying customer.

Pros of iPage

There are a lot of iPage hosting reviews online – usually with user-generated reviews based on anecdotes and personal experience. That’s fine but I take a different approach. Like I mention in all my hosting reviews, there is no such thing as a “best” web host. It’s all about the right fit for your project based on your goals, budget, experience & expertise. Here are the pros (advantages) for considering iPage.

Plan & Feature Simplicity

One of the biggest frustrations in the hosting industry is the confusing pricing plans. Company plans rarely match plan-for-plan so it’s hard to make direct comparisons.
Some companies cap the number of websites on the lower end, others add a bunch of bonuses to their high-end pricing. The middle (aka “Best Value!!!”) is usually a mix meant to get you to make a decision.
iPage’s biggest pro is their simplicity. They have one shared hosting plan. It provides unlimited access to what I call the 3 “D’s” that make up the core of what you are buying. They allow unlimited Domains (ie, the number of websites you can have on your account); unlimited Databases (the number of software installs to run your websites on your account); and Disk Space (ie, the amount you can store on your servers).
iPage also provides unlimited email addresses and a free one-year domain with their plans.
Aside – from a technical perspective, all “unlimited” accounts do have abuse & file sharing policies. Since the servers are shared among several customers, iPage has to prevent any single person from interfering with other customers’ websites.
Second Aside – iPage does offer a separate set of “WordPress Plans.” The confusing thing about that option is that their Essential plan can run WordPress. I’ll cover this item more in the Cons section, but basically, their WordPress hosting page is just an upsell – it’s nothing particularly special.
*If you are shopping for WordPress specifically – be sure to read my Web Hosting vs. WordPress Hosting, Explained post.
Either way, iPage has a single plan with all their primary features. It’s simple to judge and simple to compare.

Value Pricing

Most hosting companies have standard pricing that they discount based on how long you sign up for. And most hosting companies also provide a discount for the first year.
iPage is generally no different. Their Go plan runs $9.99 per month, and you can renew at a slightly lower $7.99 per month rate if you sign for 3 years.
However, iPage does do 1 pricing tactic differently. They offer deep discounts – often down to $1.99 per month (though this can vary some). You can usually find that promo through this link.
And, iPage lets you sign up at that introductory rate for up to 3 years. You can get 3 years of unlimited web hosting for less than $80. That is very good. Very few hosts, even in the budget end of the market, discount that deeply for that long.

 
There are a couple of catches that I’ll mention in the cons section, but the deep discounting for a long period of time with unlimited features is a great value.

Support Channels

Like I’ve mentioned in other hosting reviews, declaring that a company provides amazing or horrible customer service to every single customer is impossible. It’s hard to know as a single customer if you are dealing with the one amazing or the one horrible employee or if it’s the general culture of a company.
I have limited experience with customer service reps at iPage, but I did find 2 customer service indicators – 1 pro and 1 con at iPage.
The pro of iPage’s support is that they are available 24/7 across all support channels – email, tickets, chat, and phone. They make all their support channels easy to find and simple to use.
For a budget market shared hosting company, that range of support channels is useful and a good way to stand out.
That said the giant asterisk is the budget shared hosting company – while iPage might have good support on the surface, they are not selling service. They are selling price. I would not anticipate sustained, high levels of support like you might find at companies like InMotion or SiteGround.

Cons of iPage

Like any web host, iPage has disadvantages. There are plenty of iPage complaints to be found online. Plenty are valid, and some are simply anecdotal. Here are the cons that I found while using iPage for hosting.

Long-Term Pricing

Like I mentioned in the pros – iPage has a really good discount offer, especially since you can lock it in for up to 3 years. If price is your only real consideration, it’s worth it to sign up for the full 3 years, even if you aren’t sure your project will last that long.
However, there are 2 disadvantages for iPage’s long-term pricing.
First, the renewal pricing is alright, but it’s nothing stellar. You can get better renewal pricing at HostGator. And you can get a much better product for a slightly higher renewal price at either Web Hosting Hub or even InMotion Hosting.
Second, if you aren’t sure how long your project will last, iPage does not allow for monthly pricing. That’s also something you can get at HostGator.
So overall, their discounted rate is great, but long-term their pricing is also a disadvantage.
It also directly relates to the next disadvantage of iPage – upsells everywhere.

Upsells Throughout

Upsells are not unique to the hosting industry. They are a common and often helpful way to provide more services to customers while also making the company more money.
However, there’s also a line where upsells stop being useful and start becoming exasperating and confusing.
iPage definitely crosses that line. They even go beyond GoDaddy’s infamous upsells. From iPage’s initial sign up all the way through to your account to the backend of your website, there is upsell after upsell. And so many are super-sneaky. They get automatically added to your cart.