iPage Vs Bluehost: Our Comparison

Hosting a website is easy but finding the right web hosting provider according to your budget and requirements can be hectic. Every time you think of choosing a hosting company you have to go back and forth to see which is more suitable. This is because currently hosting industry is very competitive.

According to Cisco‘s annual internet report, by the year 2023 around two-thirds of the world’s population would be using the internet. Currently, in 2022, the world population is 8 billion which means there will be around 5.1 billion active internet users.

This will help you understand why the hosting industry will become more competitive every year. So, we need to find a hosting company that provides impeccable services. Not all hosting websites have similar interfaces, and this makes it very confusing to do a comparison.

So, if you’re also confused about whether you should choose Bluehost or iPage then you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll be doing a complete and in-depth comparison of these hosting companies. Let’s dig a little deep and find out which hosting provider is better in iPage vs Bluehost.

Comparison Factors for Hosting

There are several factors involved that make a web hosting company better than its competitors. For instance, we need to compare prices, features, security, and other technical or non-technical aspects.

As an individual who doesn’t have expertise in hosting, it would be a headache to figure out which website hosting has a technical advantage over the other. So, we’ll do a head-to-head comparison in every aspect and give you our opinion and recommendation on which one you should choose.

It’s also crucial to know how you need to evaluate different web hosting providers. So, we’ve listed down some factors that we’ll be using to evaluate iPage and Bluehost.

  • Pros & Cons of Using iPage vs Bluehost
  • Features offered by iPage and Bluehost
  • Free additional features are provided along with hosting
  • Speed comparison between iPage and Bluehost
  • Which hosting provider offers better development features?
  • What security features are provided by each hosting provider?
  • Price comparison between iPage and Bluehost
  • Which web hosting company has better customer support?
  • Uptime and server response time of iPage vs Bluehost
  • Which hosting company is more eco-friendly?

Pros and Cons of Using iPage Hosting

No matter how good the hosting provider is they can’t be perfect in everything. So, here we’ll be looking at some of the pros and cons of iPage web hosting.

Pros of Using iPage Hosting

  • iPage hosting plan starts at an unimaginable price of just $1.99. No other hosting provider would be hosting plan as budget-friendly as theirs
  • You can create unlimited email accounts with their hosting plan
  • They have an amazing eCommerce functionality that helps you create an online store with multiple features
  • If you buy a website hosting plan with iPage then you can host an unlimited number of websites
  • With iPage hosting, you will get a free SSL certificate
  • They guarantee 99.99% of server uptime while Bluehost doesn’t guarantee it on their website
  • iPage website hosting comes with a website builder that helps you create mobile-friendly websites within a few seconds.

Cons of Using iPage Hosting

  • They offer only 30 days money back guarantee while the domain fee and setup cost are not refundable
  • There is no website staging area so you can’t test any major changes before making them live
  • Although their customer support is good, they are not available for phone support 24/7.

Pros and Cons of Using Bluehost

We’ve listed down some pros and cons of Bluehost:

Pros of Using Bluehost

  • Bluehost has a customized WordPress dashboard and cPanel interface
  • They have high-performance servers with amazing security features
  • Their customer support staff is very good and responsive
  • Bluehost has a fast-loading speed and offers automatic updates for WordPress plugins and themes
  • Their website hosting service is very friendly for new bloggers and comes with a free domain for 1 year
  • You get a free SSL certificate and SiteLock CDN with their web hosting plan
  • Bluehost also uses performance caching to provide a better hosting experience
  • The user interface of Bluehost is very simple and user-friendly for beginners
  • Bluehost has a collection of more than 200 themes that you can choose from for developing your blog and eCommerce store.

Cons of Using Bluehost

  • The hosting plan renewal cost is much higher compared to starting price
  • They have their data center in only one location
  • Bluehost has good server uptime but it’s not guaranteed anywhere on their website
  • Their customer and technical support staff are not very well trained and knowledgeable compared to other hosting providers.

iPage Vs Bluehost Features Comparison

To begin with we’ll be doing a comparison between the features of iPage and Bluehost. Both hosting providers have a huge number of active customers and have made their mark in the hosting industry during the past few decades. However, we think that there is no hosting provider that has all the features included in their hosting plan.

We will do a head-to-head comparison of features to observe which company has more to offer to its customers. As you know that WordPress is one of the most popular CMS with a huge market share. So, instead of doing a generic feature comparison, this is specifically based on WordPress features.

    FEATURES

iPage

Bluehost


Pre-Installed WordPress


Optimized caching technology

Auto updates

Unlimited bandwidth

Unlimited email accounts

Integrated CDN

Unlimited websites

Managed WordPress Hosting

WordPress security features

Auto data backup

On-demand backup and restore

Starting plan price below $3

After seeing this comparison table for WordPress hosting features provided by iPage and Bluehost. We can observe that Bluehost gets 7 out of 10 and iPage gets 6 out of 10 points. So, for a WordPress website, we recommend you use Bluehost.

Free Features Offered by iPage Vs Bluehost

As discussed earlier the website hosting industry is very competitive and to compete all the companies offer some free features. These additional free features give a competitive edge to hosting companies to stand out from the crowd.

For instance, hosting company “A” might provide website migration then hosting company “B” would offer free marketing credit. So, without any further ado let’s explore the premium features that you can use if you buy hosting from iPage and Bluehost.

iPage

Bluehost

  • Free domain name

  • Free SiteLock security feature

  • Free mobile friendly website builder

  • Free SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate

  • Free advertising credit on Google, Bing, & Facebook

  • Free domain name

  • Free domain privacy

  • Free SSL certificate (Let’s encrypt)

  • Free automated backups (only for 1st year)

  • Free SiteLock Content Delivery Network (CDN)

  • Free dedicated IP (only available in the pro version)

iPage Hosting Vs Bluehost Speed Comparison

This comparison can’t be complete until we evaluate the speed of iPage vs Bluehost. Loading speed plays a huge role in your website performance and user experience. If it takes your website 1 minute to load its contents completely that depicts a bad user experience and website performance.

Most users ignore the factor of speed while comparing two hosting companies. However, it must be a major decision-making factor. We did our analysis to see which website hosted on which provider performs better in terms of speed. The results are mentioned below:

Provider

Avg. Rating for Speed

iPage

4.1/5


Bluehost

4.5/5

Based on our analysis and comparison Bluehost has an edge over iPage in terms of speed. Although iPage also has good speed but Bluehost hosting has amazing loading speed. If your priority is speed, then Bluehost is the winner.

Development Features in iPage Vs Bluehost

How would you feel after buying a hosting plan that your hosting provider doesn’t support the programming language on which your website is built? If you have a custom website developed using various programming languages, then you must see its support in hosting. Otherwise, it will all be for nothing and you would have to choose another hosting.

However, if you want your website to be built on CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or Shopify then don’t worry because almost all hosting providers have support for these CMS. So, let’s see which hosting provider is more friendly for development features iPage or Bluehost.

    FEATURES

iPage

Bluhost

Git Support
WP-CLI Interface
Node.js Support
FTP/SFTP Support
Apache Software

Version 2.2.X

Version 2.4.53

Python Support

SSH Access
PHP Support

Version 7.4

Version 7.4

MySQL Database

Version 5.6.X

Version 5.6.41-84.1

Unlimited Database
PostgreSQL Database

In terms of development, Bluehost has a clear edge over iPage web hosting. This is because it has the support of many development features that iPage doesn’t offer. For instance, SSH Access, Git support, etc.

Comparing Security Features iPage Vs Bluehost

Always check the security features of the hosting provider before buying their hosting plan. Doesn’t matter how many extra features are included and how cheap the hosting plan is if they can’t ensure basic security features then it’s too big of a risk.

Usually, users don’t give much importance to security features and have a general perception that every hosting is secure. Well, it’s not completely true but if their plan includes necessary protection features then you can say that it’s reliable enough to host.

Let’s see the comparison of iPage vs Bluehost and figure out whether they have the necessary security feature or not.

    FEATURES

iPage

Bluehost

Protection from hack

Protection from SPAM

Protection from DDoS attack

Scanning for viruses

Pachman security tool

Protection from brute force

Secure Socket Layer (SSL)

Hosting account isolation

Firewall for web hosting

Two-factor authentications

Security monitoring 24/7

After comparing the security features offered by iPage and Bluehost we can observe that iPage hosting is more secure. The main reason is that iPage offers SiteLock for website security and monitoring. IPage is the winner here but keep in mind that Bluehost also has all the necessary security features.

Technology Used by iPage Vs Bluehost

Better technology used by a hosting provider means better performance and more reliability. Would you choose a hosting company that uses outdated web servers that are unreliable due to their poor performance? No right because everyone wants value for money and a company whose services can be trusted in the long term.

We recommend every hosting user to see if they are using cutting-edge technology or not. So, today we’ll be comparing iPage vs Bluehost in terms of technology. iPage has advanced high-performance web servers with 24/7 network monitoring. Their data center has a power backup by UPS and generators.

Bluehost is also equipped with top-notch technologies as they use dual quad processor performance servers. They also have a UPS and a diesel generator power backup. Bluehost also has a customized Apache web server and multiple 10 Gigabit ethernet connections.

To sum it up we’d say that iPage is more focused on the security side of technology while Bluehost has more updated and advanced technology. So, we’ll give this point to Bluehost.

iPage Vs. Bluehost Price Comparison

Finding the right web hosting provider means that it is affordable according to your budget. Website hosting prices are generally very competitive just like the features offered and every hosting company tends to keep it as cheap as possible. The is very beneficial for users and they have plenty of pricing plans to choose from.

If you’ve shortlisted iPage and Bluehost on your top favorite list, then please check out our price comparison table. To make it easy for you to understand this table has a comparison based on each type of hosting service they provide. So, let’s see which hosting is a more economical option in iPage vs Bluehost.

    FEATURES

iPage

Bluehost

WordPress Hosting

$3.75

$2.95

Reseller Hosting

$49.95

not available

Shared Hosting

$1.99

$2.95

VPS Hosting

$19.99

$59.99

Dedicated Servers

$119.99

$79.99

Managed Hosting

not available

$19.95

After comparing between pricing plan of iPage hosting and Bluehost, we can say that iPage has a clear edge over Bluehost. So, if you’re looking for a more economical option then you should prefer iPage web hosting plans.

Server Performance in Terms of Uptime

Website servers are the most vital part of every web hosting company. Every aspect of a hosting company depends on the server’s performance. Think of website servers as the heart of hosting providers and if their data center has a server with better performance then you should opt for that company.

Here we are discussing server performance in terms of uptime because we’ve already reviewed the hardware part in the technology section. Both iPage and Bluehost provide 99% uptime but there is no claim about this on the website of Bluehost.

One more thing that we must consider is the data center location. It’s better to have a data center located as far apart as possible just to be safe if data is lost in one data center. So, let’s see which hosting has a data center located in multiple locations.

Data Center Location Comparison

DATA CENTER LOCATION

iPage

Bluehost

Location #1

Boston, MA

Provo, Utah

Location #2

Location #3

Location #4

This might seem a tie here because both hosting providers have data centers in only one location. However, there are claims that Bluehost has its data center in India, UK, and China. Although we couldn’t find any confirmation from Bluehost’s official website, we can still give it benefit of the doubt.

Which Hosting Has Better Customer Support?

Everyone needs help from customer support at some point to solve an annoying issue. We’ve all been there and from experience, we can say that customer support is very crucial for the success of a hosting company. Let’s compare the customer support features of iPage vs Bluehost.

SUPPORT FEATURES

iPage

Bluehost

Phone support

Priority support

Ticket support

Website migration

Email support

Live chat support

Bluehost wins with flying colors for support features because they have all the necessary features, and their response time is also comparatively better than iPage hosting. While the iPage support team can only help you through live chat and phone calls.

Types of Website Hosting Offered

All companies offer popular, in-demand, and common types of hosting services like WordPress and Reseller. But some additional types are not offered by every company. Don’t consider this as a comparison, its purpose is to provide you with information. So, let’s see what types of hosting services iPage and Bluehost offer.

Types of Website Hosting Offered by iPage

  • Dedicated Hosting
  • Shared Hosting
  • WordPress Hosting
  • VPS Hosting
  • Reseller Hosting

Types of Website Hosting Offered by Bluehost

  • Dedicated Hosting
  • Shared Hosting
  • WordPress Hosting
  • VPS hosting
  • Managed Hosting
  • WooCommerce

Which Website Hosting Is Greener?

Both hosting providers iPage and Bluehost make their efforts to stay eco-friendly and follow green business practices. These companies have made a reputation in the hosting industry for being green. Based on our comparison both are good, but we couldn’t find the green hosting certificate of Bluehost. So, we’d conclude that iPage website hosting is greener.

Some users take the factor of green web hosting lightly, but it has a huge environmental impact that is affecting millions of people around the world. This also helps your company with its brand identity.

iPage Website Hosting Is Best For

If you have a very low budget and want to host an unlimited number of websites, then iPage website hosting best option for you. As their hosting plan starts as low as $1.99 per month and even on that plan you can host an unlimited number of websites.

iPage might not be suitable for many things but every hosting provider has some specialty and for iPage, it is affordability with unlimited resources. If you think these are your requirements, then don’t hesitate in buying their hosting plan.

Bluehost Website Hosting Is Best For

The WordPress hosting plan of Bluehost is better than all other hosting providers. Even WordPress itself recommends its users to use Bluehost for WordPress hosting.

When you want to create your website on WordPress with unlimited disk space and have a medium budget for hosting then opt for Bluehost. It’s also very friendly hosting for beginners who don’t have any prior experience with hosting a website.

Overall Comparison Between iPage Vs Bluehost

As we discussed at the beginning of this article that a single hosting provider cannot be perfect in every aspect. After reading this article until now you’d observed the same thing that in some cases iPage was better and sometimes Bluehost turned out to be better.

Now we’ll do an overall comparison of iPage vs Bluehost to see which hosting provider is the winner. So, without any further ado, let’s find out the winning hosting company.

COMPARISON FACTORS

iPage

Bluehost

Features comparison

Speed comparison

Development features

Green comparison

Server Performance

Security features

Support features

Price comparison

After seeing this comparison, we can see that Bluehost turns out to be the winner. This doesn’t mean that iPage hosting isn’t great but if we compare it with GreenGeeks then it fell short.

Conclusion (Our Verdict)

While purchasing a pair of shoes we compare them with some other options to see which one is more comfortable and value for money. Similarly, before purchasing a hosting plan you must compare it with other hosting providers.

This will help you in making the right decision based on your requirements. We’ve compared all aspects and if you still have any queries then please do let us know in the comment section down below. We’ll be glad to help.

Leave a Comment