Is iPage.com Web Hosting a Big Scam?
Is iPage web hosting a scam? Are they scamming their customers? Is iPage stealing money from their customers? Can a scam web host operate a legit business?
In this article, I will answer all these questions and will give you some very useful information about iPage, but first, let’s clarify something:
iPage.com is not a scam web hosting. They are a registered web hosting company in the United States and they operate as a legit business for a very long time (since 1998). There might be some problems, just like with any other service provider, but iPage is not a scam company.
That said, let’s see what are the potential problems with iPage, and which are the most common complaints.
Why Customers Complain about iPage?
I’m an iPage customer for a very long time. I purchased an account from them, even before starting this website. I never had any major issues with them. However, not all customers seem to be happy about their service.
Just before writing this article, I did some research about iPage, and I came across various complaints.
I found out, that most people complain about their money back policy. Other customers complain about renewal pricing, database errors and server performance, while some other customers had problems using their platform, including iPage’s website builder.
Is it true, that iPage offers such a bad service?
As mentioned before, I’ve never experienced any major problem with this company.
There are few things I don’t like about their service and I can understand why some customers are unhappy with their service.
In the following I will share my experience and view on some of the major iPage complaints you can find on the web.
iPage Server Speed
Not so many customers complain about iPage’s server speed, which in my opinion is the biggest issue with this company.
As I wrote about this in my iPage review, the shared servers are a bit slow. When you access a website hosted on iPage for the first time, it feels slow. Once the website is fully loaded, you can navigate easily, but still sometimes, you will get that “please load faster” feeling.
iPage Price Renewal
iPage has a special intro offer for all new hosting accounts. Most customers will go ahead and buy their shared hosting plan without reading their terms, policies and renewal rates.
In case you can’t find the renewal price link on iPage’s website, here is a screenshot of it:
The company makes the pricing very clear on their website. However, most customers face the higher prices, only when their hosting account is due to renew and they are charged automatically.
Yes, by default hosting accounts are set to renew automatically to ensure their customers, that the service is not interrupted.
I’ve seen many complaints about iPage’s “bad” renewal practices. Customers have being calling iPage “thieves” and have been complaining about “fraudulent activity” at credit card companies.
It is true that a shift from $1.99 / month to $7.99 / month is significant, especially if you didn’t know about it. It is a $6 / mo increase in price.
You should know that many hosting providers use this marketing technique.
At SiteGround, for instance, you can purchase their GrowBig plan for a special price of $5.95 / month, with a minimum of 1 year subscription. This plan will renew at $19.95 / month. This is a $14 / mo increase in price.
Other hosting providers such as HostGator, InMotion Hosting, BlueHost or A2Hosting use the same strategy.
All of them are thieves and scam hosting providers? No, not at all!
iPage Hidden Fees
Are there any hidden fees at iPage? What should you expect?
Personally, I’ve never been charged by iPage for a service or product I did not order. I’ve never experienced any hidden fees to be applied to my bill by accident or by will.
That said, it was strange to read over the hate reviews, in which customers were complaining about getting billed by iPage for services they did not order.
Some people complained about the renewal of their hosting account, being a hidden fee from iPage.
As far as I’m concerned, iPage does not have any hidden fees, which will be applied to your hosting bill.
iPage Money Back Complains
From my research, I found that the majority of customers complain about iPage’s money back policy.
I found out, that most customers will sign up with iPage, because they offer some really good tools for a low price. However, when they face some difficulty with iPage’s website builder, or with WordPress, they will decide to cancel their account and get a refund.
Well, if you are in the 30-days timeframe, you will get a full, 100% refund for your web hosting purchase. And if you’ve read the terms on signup, you will know, that the free domain you registered, will be deducted from this amount. The free domain will cost you $15 if you cancel your account.
Also, additional purchases, such as domain privacy, backup or other service are non-refundable.
It is very important to ready the terms of any service, before you sign up to any hosting company or to any service.
iPage False Advertising
I’ve found reviews in which some customers were complaining about iPage’s false advertising.
They claim that although the company offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth with their shared plan, some terms apply. I’ve read through iPage’s terms and indeed, there are some restrictions that come with the unlimited disk space and scalable bandwidth.
Here is a screenshot taken from iPage’s user agreement on March 1st, 2019:
You should note, that shared hosting plans are not good for file hosting and sharing. These hosting plans are designed for general website hosting. There is no difference with iPage’s Essential Plan.
Conclusion
I don’t say that iPage is perfect and it is the go to hosting company for everyone. They do offer decent hosting service for a low price.
If you are starting your first website or blog and want to take advantage of their big discount, go ahead and sign up with iPage.
If you are looking for a new host for your already established website, which receives decent traffic, iPage is not for you. In this case you should choose a host that can offer you more performance, such as HostGator or InMotion Hosting. These services, though, come at a higher price.
David Cross
David is the chief editor at WebHostingMedia right from the beginning. He has a great passion for building and managing websites and creating helpful content. He is also interested in programming - currently learning python.
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They do in fact scam their customers. They charged me a completely different price than what their website listed when I clicked “Checkout.” WITHOUT telling me, they added a 3-year hosting plan to my domain, not to mention not registering my domain for 2 years like I selected at checkout. It took 4 phone calls, 4 emails and over a week to get it ironed out, with them claining their website wouldn’t do that, even after I emailed them a receipt and screenshots of their website. I will never purchase from them again.