You have so many choices out there – from VPS hosting solutions, dedicated servers and hundreds of different shared hosting services based in various countries around the world.What sets apart a good hosting solution from ordinary ones? How do you find out which one is the right for you? How will you know if the monthly rates that you need to commit to are worth it?
iPage has answers for these questions.
Yes, their servers are reliable and in fact, they are trusted by more than 1 million live sites today to power their sites. They have been around for more than a decade and the trust of their customers is still there.
iPage has other helpful features that can really boost the performance and reputation of your site. This includes:
Free domain registration for a year
Unlimited bandwidth, data traffic and even email accounts
Support for WordPress, Drupal and Joomla
Site building templates that you can use to design your site
Free online store so that you can get that eCommerce site up and running
An easy to use admin panel to serve as your dashboard
ANYTIME MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
iPage is a shared web hosting solutions company. What does this mean? There are four main types of hosting solutions:
Shared Web Hosting
Shared web hosting means that a single machine is shared or houses multiple other customers, sometimes running hundreds in a single machine. This brings down the cost of hosting but does not give you direct access to the entire machine.
Dedicated Web Hosting
Dedicated web hosting means that a single machine houses a single customer so that you have full access (and maintenance responsibilities) to that machine. Of course, this means a more expensive monthly tab for you.
VPS Hosting
VPS or virtual private server setups mean that your machine is partitioned into several virtual machines running independently from one another. Sort of like the dedicated web hosting but has a more flexible upgrade/downgrade feature.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is a configuration of several machines powering a cloud section. Sort of like a virtual server but you are being powered by various computers that are possibly in different locations around the world.
Why Shared Hosting?
Even though iPage is a shared web hosting provider only, this does not mean that they are inferior to their competitors. They have their strengths, which include the ability to support lots of eCommerce needs while at the same time, not compromising the integrity of their servers.
iPage and eCommerce
One of the biggest advantages of going iPage is that it has lots of features that go with a plan to sell and market things online. In other words, eCommerce-friendly inclusions are generously added to your standard hosting package. To be more specific, this means:
- Marketing credits for search engine hits. As of this writing, this means $100 bonus for Google Adwords. $25 Yahoo or Bing credits and even a free listing at the Yellow Pages for additional exposure for your site.
- Social media marketing credits such as the $50 Facebook ad credits can aslo help expand the reach of your site.
- Support for online shopping cart so that you don’t have to build your own shopping cart from scratch!
- PayPal integration so that credit card transactions are processed. This helps speed up the turnaround time for your customers who are very eager to seal that deal online.
- Free use of stats analytics software so that you can keep track of your visitor’s behavior. This can also help pinpoint possible improvements on your site’s design to help facilitate better user flow.
eCommerce is very much a part of our lives today. Just look at how successful Amazon.com is! It is only natural for you to want the same success for your web site and the inclusions given by the iPage team are definitely helpful especially for starting ones.
iPage for Beginners
iPage is a great choice for beginner web administrators because they have lots of guidelines for those who are just starting out. Pages can be built using their site building templates. For those who are a bit more experienced, there’s the WordPress support that you can count on so that you can easily manage your everyday content from anywhere with Internet access.
Another beginners-friendly item is their site building template tools. You don’t need to know how to code to execute the easy to read and appreciate websites. Then of course, it helps that their dashboard for web admins is so easy to use so that you don’t have to feel overwhelmed with the number of features and options for you to tinker with.
Worst case scenario, there’s always the customer support staff that you can contact via email, online chat or over the phone via the toll-free hotline.
iPage for Experts
Do not think that iPage is just for beginners. Even experts running various websites rely on iPage to host their pages. Why is that? It is because of:
- Advanced options like iPage directory listing for enhanced SEO
- iPage domain privacy for those who want to keep their WHOIS information private.
- Google Webmaster tools integration – for those who want to heavily customize their sites
It does not mean that if you are just using shared hosting solutions, that you are not serious with your web business. This actually signals the opposite – you know what you need, you know what you can afford and you know what you can manage.
Rates and Terms
The rates are simple – as of this writing, iPage charges you $1.99 for the first three months of your contract with them. This is the cheapest web hosting package out there with lots and lots of features and inclusions added into it.
| Service Length | Pricing Details | Total Price | Cancellation Policy | Refund |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | $3.95/mo | $47.40 | Anytime | Full within first 30 days, then pro-rated. |
| 2 years | $1.99/mo for first 3 months,then $2.95/mo for 21 months. | $67.92 | Anytime | Full within first 30 days, then pro-rated. |
| 3 years | $1.99/mo for first 3 months,then $2.95/mo for 33 months. | $103.32 | Anytime | Full within first 30 days, then pro-rated. |
After three months, your rates adjust to $2.99, which is still at least 50% cheaper than other web hosting solutions companies out there.
Just note that the current web promo rate of $1.99 per month applies to contracts that last at least 24 months. The same rate may also apply to 36-month contract. If you want to play it safe, you can go with the $2.95 per month plan for just 12 months. It is really up to you. You can decide how much you want to save.
Then there’s also the big perk of being able to ask for a refund at any time. No 30, 60 or even 90-day window for those who change their mind. You can change your mind ANY TIME with iPage.
Prioritizing Web Security: What iPage can offer you
What most people love about iPage is that they throw in a security suite called SiteLock to all of the packages that they support. Normally this will cost you several dollars more per month or a one-time payment of at least $100 straight up.
Beefing your site’s security can help protect you and your clients from identity fraud and hacking attempts. Security suites are not just for sites built for banks, government institutions or high profile eCommerce sites. Every site and every site owner has the right to privacy regarding their files and sources and the iPage security lock suite can help you achieve that.
Prevent attempts instead of combating ones and the SiteLock feature can really help you safe guard your site (and its server’s) information.
What kind of website needs iPage? Is this just for the experts?
Contrary to popular belief, “cheap” hosting services like iPage are not just for blogs or personal sites. Bigger, online retail sites also trust iPage. Universities, clinics and even online portfolios of artists also rely on iPage to store their content, publish it nicely and keep it accessible for their intended audience, 24/7, 365 days a year.
Blogs, online registration sites, news publishers, application hosts, retail shops, reference sites, galleries and even video hosting sites can rely on iPage to display their content in a timely and consistent manner. You don’t have to be just a blog to go for cheaper alternatives when it comes to hosting. The same way that you don’t have to be a beginner site to use WordPress.
This can be both for beginners and experts, seasoned web administrators to students, work from home blogging moms to applications developers.
But sometimes at the end of the day, you just need to try it out. So this is where the anytime money back guarantee comes in really handy. There is virtually nothing stopping you from trying out iPage and at some point, you just really have to give it a try for several months to see how your site performs with them.
Reviews
“iPageTraining made it easy to get our site online.
The hosting company itself is great, and clearly designed to be easy to use. But the tutorials on this site saved us money and time.”
“iPage hosting has everything we needed to get our shop online.
They even helped us get set up to process payments. These tutorials made it even easier. Thanks!”
“I wanted a simple solution to quickly get my portfolio up, and your tutorials helped me.
Thanks to your help, my site is awesome, and I never had to contact support. iPage has been great.”