Both Bluehost and iPage are cheap hosting service providers who are well-known for offering feature-rich hosting solution at affordable price. And in below Bluehost vs iPage, we will compare them from features, speeds, reliability, customer support, and pricing to see why iPage is best for personal web site and Bluehost is better for business related site.
Who are Bluehost and iPage
Bluehost (www.bluehost.com), one of the best cheap hosting in the industry, has been providing hosting service since 1996. The company very focuses on Linux-based hosting solution and is well-known for their feature-rich, fast, reliable and affordable hosting service. It’s now managing over 3 millions domains, which make it one of the largest web hosts in the world.
Bluehost has 3 datacenters, all of them are located in Provo, UT.
iPage (www.ipage.com) is a wind-energy hosting provider, who has been hosting various websites for many years. Its hosting solutions comes with good features at very low price. Their customers are mainly individuals.
Both data centers of iPage are located in the Boston, MA area.
Bluehost vs iPage on Features
Both Bluehost and iPage provide “Unlimited” hosting solutoin, but Bluehost provides more advanced features than iPage, such as Shell Access, dual versions of PHP, Python, PostgreSQL, and etc, which will give much more convenience to the webmasters when hosting a site. To know the detail, please see below table:
| Features | Bluehost | iPage |
|---|---|---|
| Free Domain |  |
|
| Domain Hosting | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Scripts | PHP 5.2.x, PHP 5.3.x, CGI-BIN, Perl, Python, RoR | PHP 5.2.x, CGI-BIN, Perl |
| Database | MySQL, PostgreSQL | MySQL |
| Shell Access | |
|
| Control Panel | cPanel | vDesk |
| Free Advertisement Credit | $100 Google Adword Credit | $100 Google Adword Credit |
| Free CDN Service | |
 |
| www.bluehost.com | www.ipage.com |
Bluehost vs iPage on Speed
The server speed of Bluehost is better than iPage. Even those both companies use Tier-4 world-class datacenter, Bluehost deploys more powerful web servers with carefully design on hosting architecture and server configuration.
To gain better security, speed and control more web server, Bluehost enhances existing Centos Linux to
- Improve the efficiency of file writing and back up;
- Optimize the performance of MySQL database;
- Monitor cpu or disk I/O of each account to avoid cpu or disk I/O intensive processes take the system down or slow down other users or more important processes.
We have tested WordPress performance in both Bluehost and iPage shared server, and the result showed that Bluehost is around 20% faster than iPage in most locations.
BlueHost VS iPage > Customer Service
BlueHost and iPage firmly believe that award-winning technical support is the unique way to help customers exclude all worries and troubles. Thus, they allow live chat, phone and email for people to contact the in-house support teams. The support staffs wait there round the clock to provide webmasters with effective solutions.
Besides the manual support, there are numerous hosting tutorials made for people who wish to learn more hosting skills. The technicians collect a large number of FAQs and give an answer to each one.
- Live chat support – Both BlueHost and iPage allow you to contact their support teams via live chat. All you need to do is clicking on their live chat buttons to start a talk with their support experts directly and get solutions in an efficient manner.
- Toll-free phone support – Phone supports of the two companies are available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. In this case, whenever you came across some unexpected problems, dial the number 888-401-4678 and 1-877-472-4399 to get BlueHost and iPage professional assistance.
- Email and ticket support – When things going wrong, you can also access the companies’ supports by sending an email or opening a ticket. They will grant you with a response as fast as they can.
- Knowledgebase – Both of the two web hosts provide a variety of guide, tutorials, and other articles within their knowledgebase sections. By the way, BlueHost knowledgebase is more informative than its rival, containing abundant resources for users to learn about many aspects of their websites and accounts.
- Social media & Blog – In order to help users interact with each other, the two companies support some common social media like Facebook and Twitter. BlueHost also maintains a blog covering an extensive range of hot topics.
Similarities and Differences between BlueHost and iPage
In fact, both web hosts are good hosting providers who have a lot in common. To make it clear that which one stands out in the competition, we have listed out their similarities and differences as follows.
Similarities
- Both web hosts release affordable hosting solutions which come with a 30-day money back guarantee.
- With either of them, your website will experience a reliable hosting environment.
- In the event of emergencies, you can get effective assistance from the two web hosts.
Differences
- iPage shows more generosity on the allocation of server resources, giving your website enough room to grow at the same pricing level.
- BlueHost delivers a much faster speed thanks to the more advanced facilities and cutting-edge technologies, which means that BlueHost loads each page in the shorter time.
- With the more extensive knowledgebase and useful blog, BlueHost can be better at customers’ service.
Bluehost vs iPage on Pricing
The list price of Bluehost is $6.95/mo, and now, through special promotion link offered by Bluehost, people could receive 44% off, after which the price is $3.95/mo only. And for iPage, its list price is $7.95/mo, and now they promote their service with 75% off, which the price could be low to $1.99/mo.
Below is the price comparison chart between these two companies, as you could see, iPage is around 60% cheaper than Bluehost.
| 1 Year Term | 2 Years Term | 3 Years Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluehost | $5.95/mo | $4.95/mo | $3.95/mo |
| iPage | $3.5/mo | $1.99/mo | $1.99/mo |
Money Back Terms:
- Both of companies guarantee “Anytime Money Back”, 30 days full money back.
- Both of them accept credit card and Paypal payment.
Who is Better
Compared with iPage, Bluehost provides its customers with faster hosting and more professional customer service, but iPage is cheaper, and its customer service and quality of the service are also great. So, it’s not easy to choose between Bluehost and iPage, and below is our recommendation.
If you plan to built a personal blog, home web site, or non-business related site, iPage is obviously a better choice for its quality service and unbeatable price.
If your web site is business-related or you plan to make your blog or web site to be business-related in the future, then Bluehost is better than iPage since it’s faster which will bring better experience to the visitors.
To know about both company, please visit www.bluehost.com or www.ipage.com, you could also check out our Bluehost Review and iPage Review.
