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TipsI have used iPage for a couple months now and I have to say they are not as good as they say they are. Yes, they do offer unlimited disk space, emails, mysql databases, bandwidth etc. But, there is one catch, they are constantly down.
Not too long ago my blog was down more than it was up but, I realized that the only database that was crashing was my WordPress database, the forum has never crashed and has been very fast. I have created a new database and exported all my files the new one and I am currently using the new one; hopefully this will solve my problem.
What really makes me mad about iPage is there terrible customer service. When I start a chat with someone I am usually greeted with someone asking how I am doing. Next, I tell them my problem and after about 5-10 minutes they say “I am sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you” IT TOOK YOU 10 MINUTES TO TYPE THAT? I then will repeat my problem asking if they can fix it. Next they will say, “can we have the exact URL of the error?” I give them the URL and explain that WordPress is trying to reinstall its self and its a result of my mysql database. Then they say, “It looks like your running a third party application” DUH YOU IDOITS, I just said that!
I feel like every person I talk to on iPage says the exact same thing as the other person, they never solve your problems they just forward it to someone else to deal with.
Overall iPage has nice features, the only reason my blog is so slow is because of my theme. The main reasons iPage is frustrating the hell out of me is because of their horrible support and the large amounts of downtime. I recommend you stay away from iPage unless you are going to have an HTML only website, if so iPage would be great for you because you never need to deal with databases.
Who hosts your website? What do you think of iPage? Comments Welcome!
About the Author: Billy
I have Been using computers all my life and have always been good with them. I am the owner and main blogger of BillyMcGovern.com. Follow me on Twitter @bllymcgvrn123 & Subscribe to me on YouTube
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
What’s funny, and sad at the same time, is your blog wouldn’t load for a really long time when I went to read this.
Ipage are crap waist of time!
iPage realy sucks, like my login not working, telling me the password is wrong and finally loging in after 7 or 8 tries with the same password. Then I was told they were having problems with this.
Then my site came up different every time I refreshed; missing graphics or hyperlinks missing, or most of the page missing, and it happened on two browsers. They also had me change my password over and over and had me send my site up to different locations. Some times to / sometimes to root until it was very screwed up and had the site name three times in the address bar.
Well today I got their scam. They are always telling you, you just do not know what you are doing, that is why you have all these problems BUT FOR $75 an hour they have a staff of “experts” who can correct the problems. This is the “gottcha”. The Level One “script readers” screw up your site so you need to pay the experts. What a rip. That’s my opinion !
I thought the password problem was just me! Anyway, iPage is killing my job search and some of my projects. I can’t believe that had such good ratings! What was that all about?
@Brandon how ironic…..
You are not lying I thought it was just me but its true they are always down or running really slow and that is, fucking with my SEO I’m switching to godaddy today.
I have to say I have to agree. I am using ipage and it take forever for my blog to load. It is the same as yours. I have contacted customer support and they say it is not loading slow on their end, but I know that is BS. I have tried everything and nothing will speed it up. This is how I found this page. I searched for slow wordpress on ipage and when I opened your page, I knew I was not alone. I don’t even have traffic yet. What happens when I do? I think I will have to find another host. This is just TOOOO Slow. No person will wait that long. It takes about 15 seconds for our pages to load.
Thanks
Wendy
I’m so happy to have found this article, at least I know I am not alone now.
I have been experiencing this exact same problem ever since signing up with them some weeks ago. After a long chat with someone (with a very english name) from New Delhi (i checked the log files), and being told “it seems fine from this side”, my case was eventually escalated and I received a support ticket.
About a week later the ticket gets updated to say that the issue is resolved (some problem with CGI?!?!) which is not the case and the site is still slow.
I thought it was something I had configured incorrectly, my proximity to the server, or a problem with the site backend so I spent about 2 weeks checking and optimizing everything I could lay my hands on. I even had the site tested from three different continents. Result. Fail. I also tried another fresh and clean install of Wordpress into another directory to test, and even that was slow.
Eventually, I used Firebug and Pingdom to try see what was going on and noticed that there is a very long delay between between when the client requests the data and when the server responds – sometimes over 30 seconds! So something fishy is going on or I’ve missed the boat completely on this.
Anyway, rant off, I’m going to give their tech support one more try before I see if they’ll honour their ‘anytime money-back guarantee’.
-Carl
I am having the same issue…
Just getting WordPress up and running, as well as veiwing my own page for editing is painful….now when your in cPanel it is even worse! Just switching from file manager to the database is enough to put you to sleep…or enrage you.
I have dumped WordPress and gone ahead with Joomla! Hahaha…no joy….I may just lose my mind!
Gotta agree with Billy on the customer support. I had my comments preloaded, cause I new the ole ‘How are you doing’ was coming followed by the classic 5 min coffee break.
Gonna have to switch me thinks.
I found this page precisely because I'm having the same problem. Any other recommendations because I'm definitely thinking of switching soon. Being down sporadically for at least a quarter of a day every day is definitely a bit too much.
I found this page precisely because I'm having the same problem. Any other recommendations because I'm definitely thinking of switching soon. Being down sporadically for at least a quarter of a day every day is definitely a bit too much.
Well add me to the list who had the same issue. Just called iPage to cancel my order, the cancellation process went smoothly enough however this process left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
I don’t know if this is a common recommendation when buying hosting, but I now realize to never register a domain with hosting, always get it outside of your web hosting. I understand the fact that they can’t refund you your domain name as well as add-ons like domain privacy because it’s a one-off thing, so now I’ll be out 24 bucks with those addons whereas I could have only payed 8 bucks total with namecheap including a private domain…
The only good thing I can say is, the representative I talked to was nice and quick about the process.
I’m a new iPage customer… kind of wishing I had read this before I joined! I’m having some real problems with my wordpress site (it’s linked in my name) with them… I can make a new post and a new page… but I can’t edit anything (not my posts, pages, or my themes…) it just errors out….
This wasn’t the case at first (last night) it just started happening and… it’s quite frustrating. Any advice? Maybe I should just get out now.
I’d say get out while you still can.
Dude, I just purchased ipage hosting because it is listed as #1 on many of the sites. But I have the SAME problem. It takes 10-15 seconds to load each page change etc. Also every time I go to my page for the first time in awhile..it takes 30+ seconds.
It’s jacked..they haven’t given me a reason all they say is it works fine on their end.
Fail. I am cancelling and switching today.
I’ve been an iPage customer for almost 2 months. Their hosting is a bad joke! Even my static html pages load slowly or are down 1/3 of the time. I recently installed Wordpress and it’s virtually unusable. I thought installing a caching plugin would help the problem, but I keep losing db connections so it can only do so much. In another week I can cancel, and then transfer my domain to Hostgator. I learned from my last waste of time support call that only after 60 days of service a customer can transfer their domain if iPage registered it.
Wow. same problem with my site, I’ve only had it a few days and already contacted support twice over the poor speed (and sometimes it doesn’t even load). So what are you all switching too? I don’t want to switch, only to run into the same problem.
Tom
Exactly the SAME damn problem. My almost empty WordPress page takes 5-10 seconds to load for first time on any browser or computer. A search robot or customer is not gonna wait for the page to load that long so it’s totally pointless to make a page nobody will see or read.
I am wondering if I convert the WordPress to plain HTML page, if it will load faster?
The claim you can’t transfer the domain unless you used it for 60 days, won’t fly with me. I will initiate a charge back with my bank, and report iPage to Better Business Bureau and any institution that deals with domain registration. At least to give them a spin for the $15 for the domain name.
I just purchased my hosting from ipage yesterday and am having the same issues. However, interestingly enough when I contacted customer service they said that their server was having issues and they were working on it. They said it will be fixed within a few hours. If I am still having these issues tomorrow I will definitely be making the switch quickly.
As of now, my sites have been down for 24 hours with no indication of when it will be up.
I agree, the Live Chat is highly automated. I reckon the consultants are handling multiple callers, hence the inordinately long (and irritating) time to respond to specific questions.
They are at least very polite, irritatingly so and obviously have a well drilled strategy for handling irate callers.
I use iPage for WP blogs and after this experience I will be migrating to another hosting service. A lot of wasted time and unless I can get a refund, money lost. Reckon I lost more that that because of paid traffic that obviously could not land. Who can put a value on the lost revenue?
I just wish I had done more thorough research before opting for this cheap service. Goes to show – you get what you pay for…
I agree, ipage has some serious issue. I just had my website for a few days and my clients are already complaining that my site is loading. Can anyone recommend me a good host?
Which host are you using now, I too have been using iPage for the last couple of months but yes their hosting really sucks
Same here, I have been using Ipage since this summer, and I already have canceled the automatic renewal for hosting.. I will do a transfer for sure as it is just to slow…. 10-15 seconds delays in just not acceptable anymore… do they think we are back on dialup days or what??
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