Choosing which hosting company to entrust your website to is an important decision. With so many to choose from, it can be difficult to find the one that fits your needs. You can use this one-on- one comparison between BlueHost and iPage to help narrow down the choices.
Both Bluehost and iPage have been in the web hosting business for nearly two decades –BlueHost since 1996, and iPage since 1998 – although iPage underwent a relaunch in 2009. Both are well established. BlueHost has more than 2 million sites hosted on its servers, while iPage is a fast growing company with over 1 million hosted sites.
BlueHost and iPage both provide shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, and VPS and dedicated server plans – though the VPS and dedicated server options were recent additions for BlueHost.
BlueHost has its share of “best of” awards, including “Best Affordable Hosting,” and “Best Value Host.” iPage has also won many awards throughout the years, including “Best Budget Host,” “Best Choice for Affordable Hosting,” and “Best Value Host.”
BlueHost was bought by Endurance International Group (EIG) in 2010. iPage was brought under the umbrella of EIG in 2009. Although EIG sites are not clones of each other, there are some similarities between EIG owned hosting companies. You should keep in mind that if you have had issues with one EIG company, you may find the same problems with another one.
Uptime and Reliability
Uptime. BlueHost does not have an uptime guarantee. However, statistics show the uptime is regularly 99.9% or better. iPage does not have a guarantee either. Monitoring done on its servers since 2005 shows an uptime of 99.85%, which is still very good.
Performance. BlueHost uses 16-core AMD Opterons and builds its own servers. iPage uses Intel Xeon Quad Core Processors for their shared hosting servers.
A Bluehost-hosted website, tested on Pingdom, showed a load time of 2.37s, faster than 65% of the other sites tested. A test of a comparable iPage site resulted in a load time of 3.31s, faster than 50% of the sites tested on Pingdom.
Reliability. BlueHost’s data center is located in Utah. The data center is powered and cooled with redundant sources, with diesel backups in place for emergencies. BlueHost does not have mirrored or redundant backups of data, except for their Cloud Plans. Regular backups are kept for a maximum of 30 days.
iPage’s data centers are located in the Boston, MA, area. They use pooled server technology, with no pool being contained entirely in one rack. This means if a rack loses power, your site still stays up. iPage’s data centers are also powered and cooled with redundancy and diesel backups. Mirrored backups are done daily.
Opinion on BlueHost and iPage Performance
Neither host has an uptime guarantee, although records for both show them to be reliable. While iPage is significantly slower in Pingdom tests for response and load time, it does provide mirrored backups and pooled server technology, which should ease your mind concerning reliability.
Compare Key Features
Note: A marketing term often used by web hosting companies when describing features is “unlimited,” also referred to as “unmetered.” You should realize that it does not mean “all you can use.”
Instead, the terms refer to what hosting companies “deem reasonable usage,” and web hosting companies will suspend your site, sometimes without warning, for what they feel is excessive use.
Domain Registration. Both BlueHost and iPage are domain registrars, and both BlueHost and iPage provide a free year of domain registration for new accounts.
Website Builder. BlueHost and iPage both provide the drag-and- drop Weebly Basic, which is limited to 5 web pages. Basic is free of charge, and there is an upgrade to Weebly Premium available for an additional fee.
Databases. BlueHost and iPage both allow you to have as many MySQL databases as you wish to have.
Email Accounts. Both BlueHost and iPage allow unlimited email accounts and email forwarding.
WordPress Hosting. BlueHost and iPage both offer managed WordPress plans. Usually, managed WordPress plans will cost more than a standard shared plan. However, part of the extra cost is because managed WordPress plans are often hosted on optimized servers with features like caching and extra security for enhanced performance and stability.
Another big advantage of managed WordPress hosting is that automatic backups and updating of your WordPress sites are done for you, allowing you to focus on what’s important – the content of your site.
eCommerce Solution. Bluehost and iPage both provide some free shopping carts through their control panels, such as Magneto, ZenCart, PrestaShop, and others. WP eCommerce plug-ins are available from both hosts for WordPress sites.
iPage supports ShopSite, which is commercial store software, for a monthly fee (a free version that is limited to 5 pages is offered in their plans). ShopSite is integrated into iPage, and it is accessible from the control panel. A potential drawback is that the store is not easily transferred elsewhere, should you decide to change hosts.
Backups. BlueHost provides daily, weekly, and monthly backups, and also offers SiteBackup Pro for a fee, though it is free with the Business Pro shared plan. SiteBackup Pro allows backup and restores at the file level. iPage makes daily backups using NetApp Snapshot.
iPage also offers an optional Site Backup and Restore that schedules automatic backups and restoration at the file level, for an additional monthly fee. iPage makes mirrored backups at the server level.
Hosting Security. To prevent and remove malware, BlueHost and iPage both provide the basic SiteLock service free. BlueHost provides SiteLock Pro free on its higher tier plans. BlueHost states that it has internal processes to protect against DDoS in place, as well.
All Bluehost plans have a free Shared SSL certificate. The top shared plan on BlueHost comes with a free Private SSL certificate. Shared SSL is available with iPage plans through the control panel. Private SSL certificates may be purchased from iPage.
Control Panel. BlueHost uses cPanel but has extensively modified the interface. iPage uses vDeck, a relatively new control panel, which, with the latest version (4), is fairly powerful.
Affiliate and Reseller Programs. With BlueHost’s affiliate program, you make $65 for each referral, with no monthly limits. You can make up to $150 per referral with iPage’s affiliate program, and its reseller program provides branding.
Extras. BlueHost has $100 in Google AdWord credits and $50 for Bing/Yahoo ads. iPage has $200 in credits – $100 for each. BlueHost will migrate an established website if you have one elsewhere, though it charges a premium for the service. iPage provides 1 GB of cloud storage with its plans, and a free YP.com listing for your site.
Opinion on BlueHost and iPage Key Features
There are many similarities between these two when it comes to features. Both have Weebly, both allow unlimited databases and email accounts, both have excellent affiliate programs, and neither uses the standard cPanel. There aren’t enough differences to say one is more feature-rich than the other.
Hosting Plans & Pricing
Note: Competition leads to aggressive pricing and constant changes, with a great deal of promotional pricing. You can usually save more when you sign up for longer terms of service, especially since promo pricing is usually only good for the first term of service.
Even without promo pricing, longer terms of service usually result in a break in pricing. The prices below are the listed prices for the hosting companies at the time of this comparison.
BlueHost. BlueHost offers three shared plans. With Basic, you get one site, 50 GB of storage, and unlimited bandwidth and email accounts, at a promo price of $3.95 per month. Plus, at $6.95 per month, increases sites allowed to 10, and the storage to 150 GB. A CDN is also part of the Plus Plan.
The Business Pro is the most useful for those sites that are larger in size. At $14.95 per month, Business Pro offers unlimited sites, as well as unlimited bandwidth, storage, and email accounts. A CDN, Private SSL, dedicated IP, and Sitebackup Pro are included in this top tier plan.
All the shared BlueHost plans also come with a free domain registration for one year. BlueHost offers three scalable Cloud plans for an additional fee, which mirrors your data in three places for reliability and faster load times.
BlueHost has four managed WordPress plans based on VPS technology. BlueHost states this improves performance since fewer sites are hosted per server. The smallest plan, blogger, at $12.95 per month, is limited to 100 million visits, 30 GB of storage and five sites. The top plan, the enterprise, priced at $85 per month, has 240 GB of storage, unlimited bandwidth, and 30 sites.
The other two, professional at $37.50, and business at $60 fall in between. All have free CDN and SiteLock (the bottom two tiers have SiteLock Pro, business has SiteLock Premium, and the top tier provides SiteLock Enterprise).
iPage. iPage makes it easy to choose a shared plan. There is only one plan, with all the features of top tier plans of other hosts, for $3.25 per month for the first term. Unlimited domains, email, databases, disk space, and bandwidth come with the EssenAlso, a free online store, and the basic SiteLock service is offered. iPage shared plans also come with free domain registration for one year.
iPage’s two managed WordPress plans are competitively priced. WP Starter, at $3.75, mainly differs little from their regular shared hosting with unlimited domains, email, disk space, and bandwidth. WP Essential, at $6.95, is SSD-based for faster performance. The plan provides WordPerfect expert support, and it has the same unlimited bandwidth and storage that WP Starter has. They both come with a free domain registration for one year.
VPS and Dedicated Plans: BlueHost has four VPS plans. BlueHost’s $14.99 per month standard VPS tier is pretty limited, but it would be suitable for an individual or small business that needed slightly more performance than a shared plan would allow. The other three plans provide better features and are priced at $29.99, $44.99, and $55.99 per month.
BlueHost VPS plans have bandwidth limits of 1 TB to 4 TB. iPage’s three VPS plans allow unlimited domains and unlimited databases. They offer 1 GB, 3 GB, and 4 GB of bandwidth, and are priced at $19.99, $47.99, and $79.99, respectively.
BlueHost has three dedicated tiers, allowing 3, 4, and 5 IPs, and priced at $74.99, $99.99, and $124.99 per month, respectively. iPage also has three plans, starting from $119.99 per month. iPage allows an unlimited number of domains and databases on all three dedicated tiers.
Money-Back Guarantee: BlueHost and iPage both have the industry standard 30-day guarantee. If you have the free domain registration on BlueHost or iPage, they will withhold a domain registration fee from any refund, and you will keep the domain name.
Opinion on Hosting Plans Pricing
iPage offers simplicity and a lower price for shared hosting. The VPS plans offered from both are similarly priced with similar features. BlueHost’s dedicated plans are slightly lower priced but have stricter limits than iPage’s plans on some of the features.
Ease of Use
Control Panel. BlueHost uses cPanel, but with an extensively modified interface. cPanel users may need time to adjust to it. iPage uses the newer vDeck, which in Version 4 offers features comparable to cPanel. However, vDeck is not as widely used, which could cause issues should you decide to change hosts at a later time.
One-click Installer. BlueHost uses the MOJO Marketplace one-click installer for easily installing nearly one hundred applications. iPage uses SimpleScripts, which is also a one-click installer, though it has fewer integrated applications than MOJO Marketplace.
Website Navigation. Both BlueHost’s and iPage’s sites provide the information you need to choose a plan. Both have helpful comparison charts for comparing tiers in their plans. Both are clean, and user-friendly.
Opinion on Ease of Use
This is basically a tie, though MOJO Marketplace does offer more applications for one-click installation.
Technical and Customer Support
One area for which BlueHost receives low marks from customers is support. iPage gets high marks from customers for service and support, and its support personnel are considered friendly and knowledgeable.
BlueHost and iPage both have a phone, email, and live chat 24/7. BlueHost has a blog and a forum, and an extensive knowledge base. iPage has user guides and a knowledge base. iPage has a Community Directory which lists all the websites hosted on iPage by genre. iPage also has an app called Tapp, which gives you access to a mobile resource for the web hosting information.
Opinion on User Support
Although both hosts have multiple options for contact, iPage has a clear advantage in customer support, based on customer reviews. The Community Directory and Tapp application are useful tools not found from most hosts.
User Reviews
Note: Never, never, never use a review as the deciding factor in choosing a web host. Reviews are almost always posted by those who are passionate, so most customers who post reviews are either strongly negative or strongly positive. However, you should use reviews as a guide if a hosting company is consistently rated highly or poorly for something.
Negative Reviews for BlueHost and iPage
BlueHost. Nearly every negative review for BlueHost concerns customer support. Long wait times, rudeness, and repeated tickets for the same issue, are commonly listed.
iPage. iPage, too, has most of its negative reviews relating to support. Some have left negative reviews concerning the effectiveness of SiteLock, which, surprisingly, isn’t mentioned as often for BlueHost.
Positive Reviews for BlueHost and iPage
BlueHost. Most positive reviews from customers of BlueHost praise the prices and the features provided in the plans.
iPage. gets positive reviews for the simplicity of its pricing, and for the unlimited bandwidth and storage at budget prices. Many reviewers comment on how easy it is for a beginner to get a site up on iPage.
Opinion on User Reviews
Overall, iPage gets far more positive reviews than negative ones. The overwhelmingly negative reviews for customer service with BlueHost might be something to consider if that is a feature that is important to you.
Which hosting is best for you?
BlueHost and iPage have features that make them appealing to those seeking a web host.
Reasons to choose iPage over BlueHost:
- One shared plan with “unlimited” everything
- Lower pricing for the first term of service
- Lower-priced managed WordPress plans
Reasons to choose BlueHost over iPage:
- More options in shared hosting
- Uses cPanel – though with a modified interface
- More applications available for one-click installation
BlueHost’s managed WordPress plans are more expensive than many hosting companies’ plans, but the features in them make them very popular – as indicated by the fact that more than 1 million WordPress sites are hosted on BlueHost.
iPage’s managed WordPress plans are full-featured and budget-priced. iPage is well suited for the beginner looking for simplicity and low cost.
Small businesses will find the unlimited bandwidth and storage appealing. Both of these hosting companies offer good prices for the amount of features they provide.
BlueHost and iPage are only two of the many web hosting companies available. If you are looking for a host with fast load and response times and premium features, SiteGround, though slightly higher priced, would be worth checking out.
For another host that is an excellent choice for managed WordPress, and that has one of the best money-back guarantees in the industry, you should look into InMotion Hosting Hosting.
Do you have any questions about BlueHost or iPage? What have been your experiences with web hosting in general? Leave your comments and let us know.
Mark is a serial entrepreneur and editor of www.aawebmasters.com. He loves web design, online marketing, social media, and e-commerce. He enjoys working with a variety of web professionals on many projects.