How Good is iPower Hosting?

iPower Hosting is one of the established leaders in helping small and medium-sized businesses succeed. Their basic plan includes unlimited space and bandwidth. You can instantly put up blogs, forums, and galleries. Their template site-building is simple and easy to put together. Their pro plan, which is one of the best plans they offer, is at a reasonable price of $5.95 per month. You do need to have a year-long subscription when you use iPower Hosting. If you have a large company, you may want to check out a different hosting site to help support the demands of website hosting.

Our Official iPower Hosting Review

Though iPower has been one of the most widely used web hosting sites, they are not without its issues.  They have been in business since 2001, and they do market their products to small and medium-sized businesses.  It’s great for those wanting a hosting service for a company that’s just starting out, but if you’re looking for an expansive web hosting service, you may want to go in another direction.  Their simplistic design of creating a website makes it easy for anyone to get online, and expand their web presence.

Best Features of iPower Hosting

While iPower does have some inconsistency issues, they have been trying to revamp its services to handle customer complaints.  They are typically seen as the middle ground between cheap and expensive web services, and the competition is fierce.  As they try to keep pace with their competitors, their low-priced plans may not be enough to keep up.

They Offer Low Prices

One of the biggest reasons why people use iPower is because their basic plans won’t leave them broke.  Their introductory rates are cheap, and it’s easy to find out where the renewal price rates are.  You can pay month-to-month for some plans, and you can save more money if you want to commit to iPower.  Their Starter plan is basic, and comes in at $5.95 a month, along with a one-year commitment.  You will receive 5GB of disk space, 250GB of monthly data transfers, and a domain.  An email account is included with the basic plan.

If you’re looking at the Pro plan, it starts at $7.95 a month and offers unlimited disk space, unlimited monthly data transfers, unlimited domains, and 2500 email accounts.  The Pro Plus starts at $11.99, includes everything in the pro plan, and includes three free URLs and unlimited email accounts.  As you upgrade, the plans do become more expensive, especially if you’re going to use Windows.  The Windows Pro plan starts at $83.40 a year, and you get a free URL, 25 domains, 1000 email accounts, unlimited storage, and other features.

iPower Web Hosting Pricing Table

iPower WordPress Hosting Pricing Table

VPS Packages

iPower has Linux-based VPS packages available, well.  Their VPS Basic package starts at $24.99 a month, with a URL, 1GB of RAM, 40GB of storage, 1TB of monthly data transfers, and unlimited email included.  If you’re looking for a higher plan, their top-tiered shared hosting plan is $79.99 a month.  You get 8GB of RAM, 120GB of storage, 4TB of monthly data transfers, and other unlimited options.  While it is one of the more expensive packages, it can all even out in the long run.

Easy to Install WordPress

WordPress is one of the essentials for a website, and iPower makes it easy to install WordPress to your website.  You can install WordPress on the standard Linux-based server, or sign up through the managed WordPress hosting site.  There are different prices for each plan, and the WP Starter plan is $3.75 a month and includes a free URL, customized control panel, pre-installed themes, and a plug-in.  The site backups data daily, and there are monthly data transfers, storage, and email accounts for the starter plan.

If you’re looking for a different plan, the WP Essentials package starts at $6.95 a month and delivers a speedy drive.  The high-end security package and specialized customer support make it one of the better options.  Since iPower is designed specifically to install WordPress, it takes out a lot of work to install it.  It has everything you need to start your website and create your pages and posts.  It’s an excellent choice for those who don’t have experience with WordPress or putting a website together.

Downsides of iPower Hosting

While there are some issues that stand out with iPower, and it is not perfect, it is serviceable.  You may not want to spend too much time focusing on this hosting site, but it is better to have an idea of some areas they may come up short.

Setting up a Web Site

One of the biggest drawbacks to iPower is setting it up.  There is a $10 fee included, which can catch you off-guard if you’re not paying attention.  If you want extra security, you can add domain privacy for an extra $9.99 a year, adding to the total cost.  It does take off your contact information from the website.  Once you pass through that, you will enter the confirmation page, where two add-ons are already checked off.  If you don’t want them (an automated daily backup and security tool), you’ll be asked if you want an SSL certificate, domain privacy, and other options.

While navigating through this gauntlet, it can become distressing and a pain.  If you want to get an SSL certificate, it’s $49.99 a year, which is cheaper than other packages offer.  It is difficult to get through the setup process, especially if you don’t know what to do or look for when making a purchase.  It is a complex system that has almost too many options available, but they do offer a lot of WordPress projects.  Once you get past all the payment information, it gets easier from there.  It does require patience and a lot of reading.

Customer Service

If you have to call customer service, you may be waiting for a few minutes.  While someone will answer within a few minutes, there isn’t a waiting period.  So, you could be spending up to a half hour waiting for someone, but you’d never know.  The representatives can be knowledgeable about their products, but may not know some answers.  While every customer service agent won’t know everything, they can at least guide you to the right person and connect you directly.  It’s not the worst customer service and it could be nitpicking.

Linux Bias

iPower only offers servers powered by Linux, which makes Windows hosting difficult.  While you can choose to use Windows hosting, you should be prepared to spend more money.  If that’s not a problem, you won’t have too much to worry about when you’re setting up your website.  However, if you want to use Windows, you would be better off using a different hosting site that won’t cost you an arm and a leg for creating a website.

The Bottom Line

If you’re just starting out getting a website put together, iPower isn’t the worst choice available.  It does work well with WordPress, making it easy to post blogs and content.  However, if you’re wanting a web hosting site, you may want to go in a different direction.  The biggest issue appears to come from people who know what a web host should be capable of, and iPower doesn’t appear to have the functionality to support those experienced users.  There have been complaints about their customer service, but that shouldn’t deter you from using them.

If you’re a larger company, you may want to focus on a different web hosting service that can provide you with everything you will need.  While iPower is capable, they don’t have the clout to handle large websites.  They will do, but if you don’t feel like you can commit to a year-long commitment when you sign up, you may want to look elsewhere.  If you’re wanting a hosting service to handle any WordPress products, iPower is an excellent choice, since they provide everything you need from WordPress.

iPower Reviews

2.2 / 5 Reviewer

{{ reviewsOverall }} / 5 Users (3 votes)

Pros

1. A well-rounded hosting site
2. Easy to use
3. Adding stores is easy

Cons

1. May need a year-long commitment for some plans
2. May lack Windows services
3. Not ideal for complex ventures

Summary

If you’re looking for a web hosting service that allows you to work on your first website, iPower is probably going to be your best bet. While it’s not ideal for businesses with a vast following, the simple and easy to use tools are perfect for beginners. While the year-long commitment isn’t in the best interest of small businesses, it does allow you to become familiar with their services.

Support1.5

Speed3

Features2.5

Value2

Transparency2

What people say... Leave your rating

Order by: Most recent Top score Most helpful Worst score

Be the first to leave a review.

Verified

{{{ review.rating_title }}}

{{{review.rating_comment | nl2br}}}

Replies ({{review.rating_replies.length}})

This review has no replies yet.

Show more

Show more

{{ pageNumber+1 }}

Leave your rating

Your browser does not support images upload. Please choose a modern one

• Support
• Speed
• Features
• Value
• Transparency