919 East Jefferson Blvd.
Phoenix, AZ 85034
888-511-4678
iPower was founded in 2001 and quickly became one of the largest and most well known hosts online. Today, iPower operates out of two wind powered data center in Boston, MA, and has more than 700,000 customers.
Review
|
Sales
|
|
|
I wanted to speak with a member of iPower’s sales department before signing up for a shared hosting account. iPower offers sales support via a toll free telephone number, live chat and email. I chose to reach out to live support and was connected to a representative named Christopher within five minutes. Christopher was able to immediately answer my sales questions, though he had a bit of a pushy edge, encouraging me not to use the web site to sign up, but to instead sign up via live chat so that he could make a commission. Since live chat did not offer a secure connection with which to share my credit card details, I thanked Christopher for his time, and went back to the iPower’s website to begin my hosting experience.
|
Setup
|
|
|
Paying for a web hosting plan with iPower took approximately ten minutes of my time. Once the process was finished, I received a letter welcoming me to iPower that listed all the details of my new plan, including my username and password needed to setup my account. I was able to begin immediately uploading my website to iPower.
|
Billing
|
|
|
I chose to pay for web hosting by the month with iPower and though I had no billing issues to speak of while a client, the moment I cancelled my account, my troubles began. iPower did not cancel the billing to my credit card and as a result, I was billed each month for three months following my account cancellation. I was able to finally resolve this matter, but not with iPower. I was forced to issue a stop payment with my financial institution.
|
Pricing
|
|
|
iPower’s smallest plan is $3.95/month (if paid one year in advance), but comes with a $10 setup fee. Even with the added fee, iPower’s pricing structure is well within the average range.
|
Reliability
|
|
|
During the few two months with iPower, I experienced regular SQL crashes, daily instances where my control panel would not fully load in my browser, and unreliable email delivery. Many emails would take 12 hours or longer to reach their intended recipient. I asked to be moved to another server. While I didn’t have any SQL problems on the new hardware, my control panel and email remained unreliable. The email became so untrustworthy that I was forced to switch to a gmail address.
|
Help & Support
|
|
|
iPower gives customers support by telephone, live chat and an online help desk. I found live chat to be tremendously responsive and helpful, but email and help desk tickets would often go unanswered for more than 8 hours. The average wait time for telephone support is one hour.
|
Uptime
|
|
|
My premium monitoring tool that’s used to keep track of my domains indicated a few instances of downtime while I was with iPower, but nothing that fell below their 99.9% uptime guarantee.
|
Guarantee
|
-
99.9% uptime guarantee
-
30 day money back guarantee
|
Terms of Service
|
|
iPower’s Terms of Service are available online. Highlights include:
-
$35 early cancellation fee
-
User solely responsible for backing up website
-
A late fee of $7 will be assessed to accounts not paid on time
-
$50 minimum charge to reinstate accounts
|
Bottom Line
|
Advantages
|
-
Innovative vDeck control panel
-
Reliable network
-
24/7 support
-
Competitive prices
-
Environmentally friendly company
-
Excellent live chat support
|
Disadvantages
|
-
Unreliable email servers
-
Setup fee on some account packages
-
Slow help desk and email support
|