iPage vs. GoDaddy
GoDaddy is one of the big names in the hosting industry. However, the quality of their hosting is displeasing. On the other hand, iPage is one of the few less known hosts with a knack for delivering quality hosting web solutions.
One of the most challenging tasks is picking the right web hosting solution for your website. You need to do your homework correctly, understand the features you need, and do a one-on-one comparison of various web hosting providers to settle on the best solution.
The purpose of this comparison is to help you pick the right hosting solution. Let’s take a look at two providers who’ve been in the industry, each for over a decade – GoDaddy and iPage. We will help you avoid confusion as both companies are established and have great products and packages on offer.
These two hosting solutions come with various features to consider. Besides the basics that cut across many companies, there’re more features, such as performance, security, ease of use, etc. Proper determination of what you need most to run a successful website is paramount.
Read more about this in our detailed review below.
iPage Vs. GoDaddy: Performance Comparison
Good performance does not only affect the experience of the user but also harms search engine rankings and conversion rates.
In this review, we will determine both of these two hosts’ performances based on two crucial metrics. Namely: website availability or uptime and page loading speeds.
In terms of uptime, iPage offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee. A brief background check revealed an average uptime rating of 99.85%. From our tests, the uptime rating we recorded averaged at 99.96% over a 6-month period.
GoDaddy, on the other hand, offers an uptime guarantee of 99.9% with credit promises of 5% on the subscription fee for that month if the target is not met. That said, our uptime monitoring tests showed that GoDaddy’s uptime rating averaged at 99.97% for 6 months.
Away from uptime, page loading speed is an equally vital factor. iPage showed an impressive average page load time of 1.44s, which was very impressive. A better look shows that their loading speeds can get even better with upgraded infrastructure.
GoDaddy, on the other hand, yielded a load time of 2.91 seconds. That meets the customer expectations of within or below 2 seconds. Meaning, you won’t lose much of your traffic to slowly loading content if you host your website on GoDaddy.
Server performance, like other features, also matters. iPage has two data centers in Boston, MA, which is unusual with many web hosts. Aside from that, it has diesel emergency backups and conducts daily server mirroring.
Still on data centers, GoDaddy has data centers in Phoenix, Ashburn, Los Angeles, Chicago, Singapore, and Amsterdam. Like iPage, it has diesel backups and proper infrastructure to keep your website running.
From our results, we could find a clear winner as none of the two hosts performed exceptionally better than the other. However, iPage seems to be more stable than GoDaddy most likely because of its state-of-the-art infrastructure.
iPage Vs. GoDaddy: Pricing Comparison
It’s not enough to say a hosting provider is reliable without considering the price. As such, you need to ask yourself some questions before investing your hard-earned cash with a certain host.
So, ask yourself, between iPage and GoDaddy, which one offers the most value? Also, what’s worth investing in as a website owner? Again, are the pricing terms for your preferred web host clear?
Here are some hosting plans that both of this hosts offer.
Shared Hosting
GoDaddy has Windows and Linux plans – Economy, Deluxe, and Ultimate, and Maximum. The most basic plan, Economy, gives you one website, 100 GB storage, and unlimited bandwidth. Conversely, iPage has a free domain for a year, SiteLock, a free store, etc.
Managed WordPress Hosting
Managed WordPress on GoDaddy includes all the shared hosting plans, plus the Maximum. You choose one that will help you meet your personal and business needs.
iPage on the other hand has WP Starter and WP Essentials WordPress plans. WP essentials plan comes with enhanced security, infrastructure, and support.
VPS and Dedicated Server Hosting
GoDaddy gives its customers under dedicated plans more and better options to consider. For VPS (Virtual Private Server), you have 5 Windows plans to consider and another 5 for Linux, and the same for dedicated server hosting. iPage has fewer plans than GoDaddy for both VPS and dedicated server hosting.
Here’s a quick breakdown of both GoDaddy’s and iPage shared hosting plans.
GoDaddy Plans and Pricing
Plan | Features | Price |
Economy Deluxe Ultimate Maximum | One website, free domain (for yearly subscriptions), free office 365 business email, unmetered bandwidth, 100 GB storage, and free 1-click WordPress install. All economy features plus more websites and storage. All of the deluxe features plus a free SSL certificate (one year), unlimited databases, and better processing power. All ultimate features plus free-unlimited SSL certificates and more CPU power | $4.33/Month $7.99/Month $12.99/Month $19.99/Month |
iPage Plan (s) and Pricing
Plan | Feature | Pricing |
Go Plan | FREE SSL certificateFREE standard email addressFREE website builder24/7 supportUnlimited websitesUnlimited storageFREE domain for a year | Starting at $1.99/Month |
At a glance, iPage has a better shared hosting pricing plan. But GoDaddy does better than it on VPS and dedicated server hosting – both on pricing and features. Both providers have the standard 30-days money-back guarantee for annual subscriptions with different conditions on monthly refunds.
iPage Vs. GoDaddy: Customer Support Comparison
It would help if you asked a few questions on customer support before deciding what fits your needs. For instance, what channels of communication are available and during what hours. Both iPage and GoDaddy have various customer support channels ranging from phone, email, and webchat.
Additionally, both providers have invested in website knowledge bases to guide their customers. You can contact the support teams 24 hours any day of the week. However, if you need more personalized support, you can pay for premium support on iPage and get help faster than regular customers.
Service | iPage | GoDaddy |
Phone Email Live chat Knowledgebase ‘How to’ Video tutorials Forum | Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes | Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes |
Despite both providers having various support options, GoDaddy has lots of negative online reviews regarding their support. There are not so many complaints about iPage so far as its support is more responsive, making it better.
iPage Vs. GoDaddy: Ease of Use Comparison
in simple terms, ease-of-use refers to how fast users can learn to use a product with efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction. In this context, it boils down to how easy it is to use a particular web hosting service over the other. Let’s have a look at how both hosts compare when it comes to user-friendliness.
Web Installer
Both iPage and GoDaddy have easy-to-use one-click installation tools. iPage has a drag-and-drop website installation feature that is suitable for beginners. It also comes along with free Weebly basic. You can also consider upgrading to premium if you need upgraded features.
GoDaddy, like iPage, comes with a friendly interface suitable for starters in website building. Their drag-and-drop feature makes it easy to include all the desired features in your website. Besides, it comes at a discounted promo price of $1/month.
CPanel
iPage and GoDaddy come with different kinds of control panels. GoDaddy has a basic cPanel that has all the features you expect as a customer. We found the icons clearly labeled and easily identifiable. For windows plans, GoDaddy has Plesk that makes it easy for users to access its services.
iPage provides many products for its customers. Their vDeck cPanel is arguably one of the easiest to use in the industry. However, not many users utilize it as many prefer the standard cPanel provided by the company. You do not need any technical knowledge to use either cPanel.
Navigation
Navigation is vital when determining the ease of use. There’s a lot of information on both iPage and GoDaddy websites, impacting how easy it is to navigate the sites. GoDaddy is relatively challenging to navigate as they offer more plans and products, making the site a bit complicated.
iPage is also not easy to navigate because of its website design. It involves a lot of scrolling, especially if you need some information that’s only available at the footer. Users prefer easy-to-navigate websites, and these two providers haven’t provided precisely that.
iPage Vs. GoDaddy: Security Comparison
iPage and GoDaddy take customer security seriously with various measures in place. GoDaddy subscribers enjoy daily malware scans that detect and prevent malware.
Daily backups are also available on GoDaddy with an option to request cloud storage for them at a small fee. GoDaddy also has a working partnership with SiteLock which has helped bolster the company’s security.
SiteLock brings about a simple set up that’s critical for security. The set up helps prevent malicious software and website traffic, eventually protecting your brand’s image. It also plays a vital role in protecting user data from external attacks and breaches.
GoDaddy also has properly-secured data centers. For instance, there’s an uninterrupted power supply to the center with instant back up power sources installed. 24/7 CCTV monitoring is in place with high-quality cooling systems also installed.
iPage scans user data and everything else daily to detect and prevent malware. It also provides customizable email filtering on its interface. Its partnership with SiteLock that works similar to GoDaddy’s has been vital. iPage can also backup your data daily to its cloud storage at a small fee.
As you can see, security is a critical factor. Both have a partnership with SiteLock, and that makes them both reliable. Besides, they offer daily scans that keep malware away and offer daily backups at small fees.
iPage Vs. GoDaddy: Features Comparison
If you’re using these two for the first time, this section matters most. The features these companies have should guide your choice on what’s best for you. Here is a breakdown of all the features you should expect on iPage and GoDaddy.
iPage Features
- Unlimited storage to help you build your website
- A free domain for one year to every new subscriber
- 99.99% uptime guarantee
- Scalable bandwidth that makes data transfer seamless
- A free SSL certificate for secure and encrypted website management
- Unlimited domain names depending on user need – all under one account.
- Unlimited MySQL databases for all your websites
- Easy to use 1-click WordPress installer
- A robust knowledge base on the company website
GoDaddy Features
- A free annual subscription to Microsoft office 365 business email
- A free SSL certificate and routine malware scans
- A free domain for you
- Updated WordPress software and plugins
- Easy site migration
- A free email account for you
- 99.99% uptime guarantee
- SEO visibility features
- Automatic daily backups
- 24/7 WordPress technical assistance
iPage Vs. GoDaddy: Our Pick
As you can see, choosing between iPage and GoDaddy can be a real dilemma. We have compared them with insights into some vital features. Now, let us determine the winner from this review.
- Performance: iPage has better load speeds and its uptime is above industry standard. It also has extra features such as daily server mirroring that guarantee server speeds and reliability.
- Plans and pricing: GoDaddy offers budget pricing for all plans. But iPage has simplified its offer with only one plan and unlimited features making it a winner.
- Customer support: Both companies have lots of customer support channels. GoDaddy customers post a negative review about its customer support while iPage customers seem satisfied.
- Ease-of-use: iPage can almost effortlessly win on this feature. Its vDeck is excellent once users get used to it, making it a better pick during our testing.
- Security: Both companies offer free SSL certificates, which are fundamental to security. They also both partner with SiteLock for enhanced security.
- Features: iPage has lots of features such as unlimited bandwidth, emails, databases, etc., most of which can benefit established companies. Compared to GoDaddy, iPage is greener and consequently an excellent pick.
While both iPage and GoDaddy come with positives and negatives, a more in-depth look into what they’ve to offer, made us pick iPage as the best in this review. You can also check this post for more GoDaddy alternatives.