Home » Hosting Reviews » Host vs. Host Reviews – Hosting Comparisons by IsItWP Experts » HostGator vs. iPage Comparison (2021) – Here’s the Winner!
HostGator vs. iPage Comparison (2021) – Here’s the Winner!
Last updated on December 24th, 2020 by Editorial Team
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Looking for the best web hosting provider? iPage and HostGator are 2 of the most well-renowned hosting providers out there. But which truly has the best web hosting service: iPage or HostGator?
Not all web hosting services are created equal. It’s important to understand how these 2 hosting providers differ from each other, regarding their pricing plans and features. Using our unbiased comparison between HostGator and iPage, we’ll help you decide which one is the best choice for your websites.
HostGator vs. iPage – Overview
Both HostGator and iPage are hosting brands operated by Endurance International Group, an extremely highly-regarded web hosting company.
HostGator is geared towards providing a wide range of different hosting options and services. They offer several hosting options that iPage doesn’t offer, including cloud hosting and reseller hosting.
Conversely, iPage is focused on delivering the most affordable hosting plans in the industry in order to fit every budget. Their web hosting plans start at $1.99 per month, which includes a free domain name and SSL.
HostGator vs. iPage – Page Speed and Uptime
Without a doubt, speed and uptime are the most important factors you need to consider when choosing a web host.
To test whether HostGator and iPage actually live up to their hype, we decided to analyze their page speed and uptime guarantees by signing up with each of them and creating 2 test sites.
To mirror the live environment on our test sites, we installed a WordPress theme and published dummy content along with some images.
Then, we conducted a few different experiments on these test sites with the following tools:
- Pingdom: To analyze the website speed.
- Load Impact: To monitor how these hosting servers handle a traffic surge during a peak load time.
- Bitcatcha: To determine how these hosting servers perform from 8 different geographical locations.
According to our Pingdom speed test, our HostGator site took 691ms to load when tested from Dallas.
However, our iPage test site loaded in 2.6 seconds which is faster than only 60% of all tested websites, and way slower than our HostGator site.
According to Load Impact, our HostGator server responded quickly until there were about 80 visitors at a time.
When it came to iPage, the response time was slow when there were about 50 users on the site. After that, the page speed remained stable despite having more live users.
According to our Bitcatcha test, HostGator’s server was rated C; whereas our iPage site was rated C+.
Winner: HostGator
HostGator vs. iPage – Ease of Use
All hosting plans from HostGator come with cPanel for managing your web hosting accounts. They also offer 1-click installers for popular website scripts, such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
On the other hand, iPage doesn’t offer cPanel. Instead, they offer their own customized version of a control panel which they refer to as vDeck. However, if you’re accustomed to cPanel, which is the most popular web hosting control panel in the world, then there’ll be a bit of learning curve to tackle before mastering vDeck.
Both of them also provide a website builder developed in-house for users who want to build a site without having to hire a developer.
Winner: HostGator
HostGator vs. iPage – Features
With HostGator, you’ll get everything you need to kick off your new site from the ground up. Whether you want site builder tools or 1-click application installers, SEO tools or backup solutions, HostGator has got you covered. They also offer a 45-day money back guarantee to try out their hosting services risk-free.
However, when it comes to features, iPage run circles around HostGator.
One-size-fits-for-all plan: iPage offers only 1 shared hosting plan, which allows you to host unlimited websites; whereas, with HostGator, you’ll have to sign up for an expensive plan in order to get unlimited website hosting.
Free domain name: When signing up for a hosting plan, you’ll get a free domain name with iPage.
Winner: iPage
HostGator vs. iPage –Support and Documentation
Both HostGator and iPage offer 24/7 expert assistance when in need via phone, chat, and ticket-based emails. Their knowledge bases are pretty straightforward, without fluff, so you can easily resolve web hosting issues on your own as well.
Winner: It’s a tie
HostGator vs. iPage – Pricing
Here’s a head-to-head comparison between the pricing of different hosting options from HostGator and iPage:
| Shared | WordPress | Cloud | VPS | Dedicated | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HostGator | $2.78 /mo. | $5.95 /mo. (Cloud) | $4.95 / mo. | $19.95 / mo. | $119.00 / mo. |
| iPage | $1.99 /mo. | $3.75 /mo. | – | $19.99 / mo. | $119.99 / mo. |
As you can see, iPage’s introductory plans are way cheaper than HostGator’s. If you’re looking for affordable shared or WordPress hosting plans, then consider iPage.
iPage doesn’t offer Cloud or reseller hosting. But the pricing for VPS server and Dedicated servers offered by HostGator and iPage are almost the same.
You can also use our HostGator coupon code to get a BIG discount.
iPage also made to our list of the best free web hosting companies.
Winner: iPage
Recap – HostGator vs. iPage
After our comparison, we believe that HostGator is a better hosting company than iPage overall. Not only does HostGator provide more hosting options, but they also offer a vast array of tools to easily launch a website from the ground up.
HostGator always strives for excellence by constantly upgrading its infrastructure as well as user experience.
While iPage comes with 30-day money-back guarantee, HostGator lets you try their service for 45 days risk-free.
You can also check out our expert’s comparisons between…
- HostGator vs GreenGeeks
- HostGator vs InMotion Hosting
- HostGator vs Liquid Web
- HostGator vs A2 Hosting
We hope this article helped you find the best web hosting provider for your site. If you enjoyed this comparison, check out our complete HostGator review and full iPage review.
