If you are searching for a way to make money online, there are a lot of options available to you. One unconventional approach that is rising with popularity is making money by advertising other people’s items. There are several ways this can be done. This article will help you understand how to make money by […]
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Unlike some of the other web hosting providers on the market, iPage isn’t as well-known. But the company has been around for more than 20 years and hosts over one million websites with its two data centers.
If you stumbled upon iPage for web hosting, it’s probably because you were looking for an inexpensive hosting plan.
With hosting plans offered as low as $1.99 per month, that’s the major draw for this web host.
But the cheapest web host on the market isn’t always the best—or is it? That’s what inspired me to write this guide.
I’ve been getting lots of questions lately about my opinion on iPage. How does its low-cost factor into its performance?
For those of you who are looking for a budget web host, iPage might be an option for you to consider. But before you make that decision, read through this review to make sure you have as much information as possible.
Before we talk about the pros, cons, and performance of iPage, I want to give you a brief overview of the plans that they offer. For a low-cost web host, they actually have quite a few options for you to choose from.
Like most web hosts, the shared hosting plan from iPage is the least expensive option.
But what’s unique about this web host compared to other providers on the market is the lack of shared hosting plan options. Typically, web hosts offer at least two or three different pricing tiers for shared hosting, each with different features and benefits.
iPage, on the other hand, just has this one plan.
If you decide to use iPage’s shared hosting service, you’ll also get:
You can host an unlimited number of domains on the shared plan as well.
Pricing starts at $1.99 per month if you sign up for a three-year contract. Rates for a two-year contract and one-year contract start at $2.49 per month and $2.99 per month, respectively.
If you’re interested in a virtual private server, iPage has what you’re looking for. Unlike the shared plan, VPS hosting with iPage does come with different pricing tiers and plan options.
Here’s a comparison of those three plans.
As expected, the more you pay, the more features you’ll get. CPU, RAM, disk space, and bandwidth increases at each tier.
While iPage has a reputation for being a low-cost web hosting provider, their VPS plans are not necessarily cheaper than other web hosts on the market. Their VPS services are priced about even to or higher than some other well-known hosting providers.
All of the pricing you see from the image above is the introductory offer for a three-year plan. Rates will increase when your plan renews and if you commit to a shorter term contract length.
With a VPS plan, you’ll have more customizable options. iPage will give you root access and the ability to customize your software and hosting environment.
The dedicated servers from iPage are a step above the VPS plans. You can get up to 16GB of RAM, 1,000 GB of disk space, 15 TB, of bandwidth, and 5 IP addresses with a dedicated server
Introductory rates for a three-year contract are as follows:
Those plans renew at $149.99, $194.99, and $239.99. Again, for a budget web host, I wouldn’t necessarily say that those price points are cheap.
But the dedicated servers give you complete customization. There are no restrictions to your software and hosting environment, these plans were made for those of you with more technical skill levels.
You won’t be sharing any resources with other websites if you use a dedicated server from iPage.
iPage offers web hosting solutions specifically for WordPress. If you want to start building a new WordPress website, there are two plans for you to consider.
These rates are definitely more aligned with iPage’s reputation of being a low-cost web hosting provider.
Both plans come with unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, customized control panel, as well as some pre-installed themes and plugins. The WP Essential plan also has automatic malware removal, added security, and expert WordPress support.
The rates renew at $7.49 and $10.49 per month.
Now that you’ve had a chance to review the hosting options offered by iPage, it’s time for us to look at the best parts of this web host.
Based on the plans we’ve covered, you can see that iPage has a wide range of options to choose from. There are some budget hosting solutions, as well as some higher-end offers with added features and functionality.
But ultimately, iPage is best-known for its low pricing. With shared plans offered as low as $1.99 per month, it’s very appealing to new website owners who are on a budget.
The only drawback of this low pricing is that you need to commit for three years and pay for it upfront to get that rate. Unlike other web hosts on the market, iPage does not offer month-to-month plans.
While iPage doesn’t offer free trials or month-to-month rates, the provider still stands behind their services. All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
It’s a “no questions asked” policy. If you’re unsatisfied for any reason, iPage will fully refund your hosting fees.
However, there is a non-refundable $15 fee if you registered your domain with iPage. They set this up to ensure that you won’t lose your domain if you want to transfer it to another provider.
I usually wouldn’t recommend a hosting provider that doesn’t offer some type of money-back promise. So the fact that iPage does this for their customers is definitely a positive. You can try them out knowing that you have a month to change your mind.
At the end of the day, performance is really what matters the most. If your web host can’t keep your website up and running, then it’s essentially useless.
So, how well do iPage’s low-cost plans perform? Let’s take a look.
Hosting Facts conducted a study on the performance of 32 different web hosts. They calculated the average uptime rates for each host throughout the course of one year.
As you can see from the chart, iPage cracked the top 10, ranking eighth out of the 32 web hosts in the study. The average uptime rate of 99.975% in 2018 was good enough to land this provider in the top 25% of web hosts.
Overall, that’s a very strong uptime. I’d definitely be happy with that number, especially considering the fact that it’s achievable at such a low cost.
With that said, the length of their downtime was nearly triple the amount of the top host on the list. But I truthfully wasn’t expecting iPage to compete with those figures.
It’s also worth noting that unlike other web hosts, iPage doesn’t guarantee a certain uptime rate. So if they fail to meet a certain standard, you won’t be refunded or compensated in any way. However, they do offer uptime monitoring, so you’ll be notified if your site goes down.
iPage is compatible with lots of third party tools and platforms. Here’s a list to name a few.
CMS tools:
Forum tools:
Blogging tools:
Photo gallery tools:
iPage is also compatible with ecommerce solutions like Zen Cart, OpenCart, PrestaShop, AgoraCart, TomatoCart, and OSCommerce.
We already talked about the money-back guarantee. But beyond that, iPage also offers 24/7 phone and live chat support.
They also have an extensive knowledge base, with informative guides, tutorials, and lots of other helpful information about their platform, tools, and services.
So no matter what type of question you have or problem you run into, I’m confident that you’ll be able to get that solution resolved quickly and efficiently with iPage support.
As expected with a low-cost web hosting provider, iPage has its fair share of flaws. I’ll let you know about some of the downsides of using their services. You can use this information to see if these drawbacks are worth the low price.
Again, performance is key when it comes to web hosting. Aside from uptime, which we already discussed, loading speed usually the next metric that we look at.
Check out the response times for an iPage test site over the past 12 months.
The average response time from this sample is 755 ms.
Honestly, it’s not terrible. But this number is a little too close to a full second page loading time for my liking.
Plus, this is just a test website. If you’re going to be adding pictures, video, and other media files to your site, it will slow down even more.
While iPage definitely doesn’t have the worst loading times we’ve seen, they certainly don’t have the best either.
This may not be a big deal for some of you, but I figured it was still worth mentioning.
iPage used to have environmentally-friendly web hosting. They had a landing page explaining that they ran on wind power and had a certified green certificate. However, as of late last year, this page has been removed from their website. I tried to Google it and got a 404 error instead.
The web host no longer appears on the EPA Green Power Partner List either.
iPage is a low-cost web hosting provider. I think it’s safe to say that we established that. However, their services end up costing more than you might think.
Even if you choose the lowest plan of $1.99 per month for three years, you’ll still have to pay extra for things like:
These are things that usually come free with other hosting providers.
So in your head, you might be thinking $2 per month for 36 months is just $72. Not a bad deal, right?
But as you can see from this checkout page, you’ll end up paying significantly more than that amount for some pretty basic features.
To entice customers to switch providers, most web hosts will offer a free site migration. But iPage doesn’t do that for new customers.
It will cost you $150 for their tech support to move your site to iPage servers. That cost only covers one website, which is expensive. To put that into perspective for you, Bluehost also charges $150 for site migratations, but they’ll move up to five sites for that same rate.
Unless you’re a tech wizard, you probably don’t want to try and migrate your website on your own. So this is another cost that you’ll have to incur.
Do I recommend iPage for web hosting?
In short, yes. They have low-cost shared hosting plans, as well as options for VPS, dedicated servers, and WordPress hosting.
Just be aware that those advertised rates have some conditions attached to them. You’ll need to commit for three years to get the best price, and then your rates will go up when it’s time to renew. Plus, you’ll need to pay extra for all of your add-ons.
With all of that in mind, iPage is still a reputable and reliable web host with high uptime rates and great customer support.
For those of you who are on a budget but still aren’t sold on iPage, check out my list of the best cheap web hosting services for some alternative solutions.
Questions About Renters Insurance, External batteries, Audiobooks, Bike Repair, and More!
SUBTITLE – Reader Mailbag
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. How necessary is renters insurance?
2. Mental health disorder concerns
3. Nursing home costs
4. Uncomfortable political talk from coworker
5. External battery recommendation
6. Details of 401(k) matching
7. Free audiobooks for vacation?
8. Personal bankruptcy question
9. Bike maintenance and repair kit
10. Exercise motivation outside of gym
11. Sunscreen recommendations
12. Frugal cookbook recommendations
There are few things in this world that feel better than climbing into a comfortable bed after a long, physically exhausting day.
It takes about all you have left in the tank just to get ready for bed, and then you climb in and slip under the covers, with your body resting on a soft surface, and your whole body just feels relaxed and good. Sleep comes over you with shocking rapidity and soon you’re drifting off into a well-earned slumber.
There are few things like it in the world.
On with the questions.
My daughter is renting an apartment with some friends and she says that the landlord requires renters insurance. Is this a real thing? I rented an apartment for years at her age and never had renters insurance.
– Diana
Yes, renters insurance is a real thing. It typically covers the loss of the renters property in the event of a wide range of unfortunate events and any liabilities incurred by a disaster in which the renter is at fault (like causing a fire).
In the past, many renters went without insurance and thus, if the building burnt down, the property owner had to hope that their own insurance would cover it.
Today, many landlords require the tenants to have a renters insurance policy, often as a condition of their own insurance policy on the building.
It’s not a big deal. Renters insurance is usually really inexpensive and covers many common rental issues. If it’s a requirement, she should definitely get the insurance, and she should consider it anyway for personal protection.
I love your blog, especially the questions and answers. I read one just now about “privilege” and it made me think of my daughter, who has a serious mental health disorder. She is in her mid twenties and has had so many challenges in her life that those who are healthy have no understanding of. I feel like she started way behind most people, even as a child. It’s been a ton of work for us as her parents, but mostly for her. We hope that she will be completely independent at some point, but we are not there yet. Do you have any suggestions for planning for her future financially? My husband and I are starting to think about retirement and have enough saved for ourselves, but we aren’t sure how to provide for her since her future is uncertain. She will finish an associate’s degree this year with a good GPA, but has no idea where to go from there.
– Connie
It is very difficult for me to give you specific advice without knowing the details of your child’s mental health condition and the long term prognosis for it.
My first suggestion would be to talk to the doctors who are primarily in charge of helping her with her condition and see what they suggest. There are a lot of resources out there for parents in your situation to help with that kind of planning. There are also likely support groups where you can find others who are dealing with the same issues you are in the same community and can share both resources, friendship, and emotional support, and those doctors (or one of their staff members) can point you in their direction.
I think a key part of this is some very honest conversation between you and your partner about what you can do to best provide not only for your daughter, but for the two of you as well. What is the best future you can reasonably provide for the three of you? The thing to remember is that you should only consider making your own situation worse if it actually helps her in a significant way. If the things you would do to “help” don’t actually improve things for her and makes your own situation worse so that you can’t provide real help at a later time or significantly reduces your own quality of life, it is not a good choice, even if it feels like one. Make absolutely sure that the things you do are truly improving her situation going forward and not just things to make everyone feel better in the moment, because if you’re throwing money and effort to very elusive “feel good” moments, you’re hindering all of your futures.
Whatever you choose to do, lead with love. Make it clear to your daughter every day, with every decision, that you love her, and that the things you’re doing are at least in part to prepare her for a world that will someday not have you in it.
Do you have any thoughts on this article?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-25/u-s-nursing-home-costs…
How much should we be preparing for nursing home costs?
– Gary
To be frankly honest, I have no idea, and neither does anyone who attempts to forecast those costs out beyond the next ten years or so.
If I had to give an honest guess about the long term future, my guess is that by the time I would need such care, it will be done by robotics. I fully expect the nursing care I need in my final years will be done almost entirely by robots with occasional remote doctor visits while I’m still in my own home until the very end, when there may be some hospice care.
The thing is, I don’t know this. I don’t know what care options are going to be available when I’m 80. I don’t know if I’ll be around when I’m 80. Will the nursing home system be like it is now? Will there be a move away from nursing homes toward automated home health care? What options will be on the table for people in forty years? We simply don’t know.
I think the best thing most of us can do is fund our retirement accounts as much as we possibly can. This is particularly true the younger you are. Dump in that money now so it has 50 years to grow before you have to consider these issues.
If you’re in a shorter term situation, where you think you might be in a nursing home situation within a decade or so, I’d start looking at insurance right away. Beyond that… it’s just too murky, so I’d just save money in general savings for whatever may come.
I really love my job and the income I make and so I don’t want to rock the boat but there is one thing that really bothers me and I don’t know how to handle it. One person who is a manager but not my manager regularly engages in political topics. He has opinions I would consider extreme but he voices them in a way that implies that we all just agree with his views. This would bother me a lot if I were under him, but I mostly just hear it at the water cooler and so on. I don’t mind disagreeing with someone but I don’t want to hear about it at work and I don’t want to have people assuming that this is how I feel. I’d rather they either know what I actually think or better yet know nothing at all about my politics so it’s a non-issue. I don’t want to argue politics at work because I think that’s a worse solution but this is very frustrating and off-putting. It’s keeping me and a few others at our desks when we might want to be collaborating and networking. What can I do without really rocking the boat?
– Ellen
Your best bet for you personally is to do nothing at all. You may want to look for a few people who are sticking to their desk a lot and check in with them to see if they also find the political talk off-putting and spend time hanging out with them and avoiding the political talk. You might find yourself with a nice small lunch group out of that.
If you want to actually do something about it, talk to the manager one on one about it. Simply tell him that there are people who take the issues he is talking about deeply personally and are becoming disengaged with the office culture because of it, regardless of whether they agree with him or not. Give an example of how one of his recent talking points could actually be taken as commentary on something they’re dealing with in their own personal life outside of work. If he blows it off, then there’s a genuine managerial problem going on here and this individual probably shouldn’t be managing people in a large organization, because this is feedback that a good manager will listen to and use to adjust their own behavior to help everyone succeed. That’s their job.
If I were in your shoes, I’d probably go for the former strategy and just seek out people who want the office to be apolitical and associate with them.
Do you have a recommendation for a good bang for the buck external battery for charging cell phones?
– Jane
For things like these, I always turn to Anker. They have really made a name for themselves (for me) for making low cost but high quality charging devices and other similar devices.
My absolute favorite external battery of theirs is their 20100 mAh PowerCore. It’s about the size of two bars of soap bolted together on the ends, but it does an amazing job of storing a ton of juice and charging devices on the go. This type of battery is best carried in your bag when you’re out and about.
If you’re looking for something smaller that might fit in a pocket well, I’d recommend this PowerCore 5000 mWa model. It’s about the size of … a good-sized candy bar, maybe, and fits nicely in the pocket. It holds about one full phone charge for a newer cell phone and maybe two charges for an older phone and can charge very nicely when it’s in your pocket. It’s probably what you want if you’re out and about and just want something light in your pocket that will ensure your phone doesn’t run out of gas.
Those two options should cover you. I have had nothing but great experiences with Anker and their prices are always at the very least competitive among the bargain-priced chargers.
I don’t understand how my employer 401(k) match works at my new job. Can you explain it in non-Greek?
– Bart
In Bart’s original message, he copy and pasted a paragraph from his workplace manual which I chose to excise because it immediately indicated where he worked. However, I can easily explain the arrangement without the original text.
At Bart’s workplace, they match 100% of the first 4% of contributions. So, if Bart’s total contributions are at 4% or below, the workplace will match that contribution in full.
All contributions above 4% and up to 8% of Bart’s pay are matched at a 2/3 rate. So, if Bart’s total contributions are at 6%, they’ll match the first 4% at 100%, then the remaining 2% at a 2/3 rate, for a total employer match of 5 1/3% if Bart is contributing 6%.
Then, all contributions above 8% and up to 12% of Bart’s pay are matched at a 1/3 rate. So, if Bart’s total contributions were 10%, his employer would match the first 4% entirely, then match 2/3 of the next 4%, then 1/3 of the final 2%. That adds up to 4% plus 2 2/3% plus 2/3%, or 7 1/3%.
It’s easiest with a system like this to just add the contributions for each segment together.
What if Bart contributes the maximum amount that gets a match, 12%? This is what I would recommend. His workplace would match the first 4% in full. Then, they’d match 2/3 of the next 4%, a total of 2 2/3%. Then, they’d match 1/3 of the final 4%, a total of 1 1/3%. In total, this adds up to 4% plus 2 2/3% plus 1 1/3%, or 8%. If Bart contributes 12%, his employer will match with an 8% contribution, so 20% of Bart’s pay will wind up in his 401(k). That’s a pretty nice deal, and I recommend he jumps at it.
Do you know where I can get free audiobooks for my family to listen to on vacation? Used to use Audible but it’s too expensive.
– Emily
Besides the library, you mean? The library is the obvious place to go to get a free audiobook for your summer trip. On ours, we’re planning on listening to a couple of library audiobooks.
Another really good source is this LibriVox, which is a collection of audiobooks of public domain books. They’re all read by humans with varying degrees of quality, but most of them are at quite good. I think that many of the readers are people who just enjoy reading aloud.
Aside from those options, Audible has a number of free audiobooks that regularly rotate, and there’s a pretty solid free audiobooks app for the iPhone.
Amongst those options, I’m sure there’s something you can find worth listening to.
I’m having really hard time paying my bills. I showed my brother all of the bills and he said I should go bankrupt. I don’t know how to go bankrupt or what’s bad about it or what is good about it?
– Sloane
Bankruptcy is the legal process you go through when you are able to demonstrate to a court that you no longer have the means with which to pay your debts. Depending on the type of bankruptcy, some of your debts may be discharged, which effectively means they vanish and you no longer owe them.
There are two main types of personal bankruptcy. One is called Chapter 7, and it’s generally for people with a low income as you have to demonstrate that your income is below the average in your state to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. You also usually have to take mandated credit counseling classes. In this case, they take what liquid assets you have – your cash and things you can easily sell – and use it to pay off the people you owe money to as far as that goes, and then the rest of the debts go away.
The other option is Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and in that situation, the court basically comes up with a debt repayment plan for you that’s kind of a compromise between what you can possibly afford and what you owe. You’re then forced by the court to follow that payment plan. This allows you to keep most of your stuff, but you’ll be under a pretty strenuous debt repayment plan for several years.
In both cases, your credit is usually in very poor shape for seven to ten years, making it hard to get loans of any type. However, bankruptcy is often the only solution for people who are in a very bad debt situation.
You should contact a bankruptcy lawyer in your area for the specific details on the rules in your state.
My son graduates from college in August and we are buying him the bike he’s wanted for years, clocking in at about $3,000. (He has no student loans thanks to his hard work and our savings if you’re wondering why we don’t just help with that.) We want to get him some good tools to maintain and repair the bike with as he has this beat-up kit he uses for his old bike. The place we’re buying the bike from has about fifty recommendations that just feel like overkill and all of the publications we’ve found seem to have unnecessarily long lists, too. Suggestions?
– Max
The exact things to get depends on the bike itself, but there are a few things that he’ll definitely use.
First, get him a decent set of Allen wrenches that range from about 2 mm up to 12 mm or so in size. Most bikes use screws that operate with Allen wrenches. You should also get him a small set of open-ended wrenches, also in metric size between 5 and 20 mm. Get him a good chain brush and chain lube and cleaner, a couple of extra tire tubes, and a tube patch kit. Also get him a floor pump and a gauge so he can keep his tires aired up. That stuff will handle almost all of the maintenance he’ll do himself.
Again, I’m not sure about specific recommendations about which of each item to get because I’m not sure what you want to spend, but if you focus on that handful of items, you’ll be in good shape for most maintenance and basic repairs. He may need a few other items if he decides he wants to replace the brakes or something like that, or he may just want to take it to the shop. A gift card to a bike shop near where he lives might be okay to help with this, too.
Decided to end my gym membership because it’s adding up to more than $1000 a year and I can’t really afford it. Thought I could stay motivated exercising at home with some free weights I got from Craigslist and bodyweight exercises but I find it hard to do it. I think I just think of home as a place to rest/eat/sleep/relax and not to work out.
– Jeremy
You probably do have that mindset in your head that your home is a place for relaxation, eating, and sleep, so you may need to turn to other motivational tools to help you push through it.
One strategy I’ve seen that really works is to use a “reward checkoff.” Define a particular exercise routine that you want to do, then print off a grid of paper of whatever size works for you and put it on the fridge or tape it to the wall. Each time you do that workout at home, mark off a spot on that grid. When that grid is full, give yourself some predetermined reward, maybe some kind of exercise gear you’ve been wanting. The goal isn’t the reward, but to establish exercising at home as normal.
Another thing that works pretty well, at least for me, is to visualize yourself doing the thing you want yourself to be doing. In your case, frequently imagine yourself working out at home. Imagine yourself doing the pushups and lifting the weights and all of the other things you do as part of your workout. Imagine it often. You’ll find that it eventually feels more normal to actually do it.
Give these two strategies a try for the next month or two and see if they help.
Read your earlier sunscreen recommendations. Do you think this is a product where name brand makes a difference or is store brand okay?
– Amy
My experience is that store brand sunscreen is perfectly fine and the thing that matters most is the SPF level on the bottle. My family and I have used only store brand sunscreen so far this summer and no one has gotten any kind of sunburn after applying (I got a minor burn on my knees one day because I didn’t put any on) even though several of us are fair-skinned.
If you’re unsure, look at the ingredients. You’ll find a lot of similarities between brands.
If you want more specific recommendations, try to avoid zinc oxide and titanium dioxide as they can penetrate the skin, choose unscented options, and choose lotion-based and water-resistant options. Those things actually make a difference. In the absence of specific features that can distinguish them, I’ve never found any significant difference between name brand and store brand sunscreens.
Saw your recent mention of your love for cookbooks and wondered if you had any recommendations. Mostly looking for ones that have lots of easy cheap recipes.
– Danielle
There are four that I can personally recommend. There are many more out there, but I have personally used and enjoyed these.
100 Days of Real Food on a Budget by Lisa Leake focuses on using real, whole foods as the backbone of meals but doing it in a cost-effective way. The recipes here are pretty healthy and tasty and aren’t too hard to pull off. However, the other cookbooks do aim for even cheaper recipes by comparison; this is the one to choose if you’re prioritizing health as much as the low price of a recipe.
Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4 a Day by Leanne Brown is probably the best for truly inexpensive meals that are easy to prepare, but compared to the previous cookbook, there’s not as much of a commitment to healthy eating with this one. This one prioritizes “cheap” over “healthy” while still being tasty.
Good Cheap Eats by Jessica Fisher goes in yet another direction, focusing on really delicious meals above all else. The recipes are still pretty inexpensive, but the focus of this book is more on delicious as a top priority.
My final choice, Budget Bytes by Beth Moncel, really nails the “quick” element of meal preparation. There’s a lot of multitasking with the recipes in this book but they almost always clock in at an overall low time to completion while still keeping costs low and producing really tasty, impressive meals.
I think they’re all good, and I’ve drawn on all of them over the years.
Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.
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