| iPower Prices | Pros | Cons | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current Promotion | |||
| .com: $6.50 .net: $6.50 .org: $6.50 .biz: $6.50 .info: $6.50 Transfers: $6.50 |
Besides Netfirms, iPower has the lowest .com price, and unlike Netfirms, there is no quantity limit Free domain name forwarding and masking Free domain name with any hosting package Free WHOIS privacyFree "catch-all" mailbox Free customizable domain parking page 24/7 toll-free, customer support iPower hosts over 700,000 websites |
iPower.com is poorly designed and has terrible load times A mailbox costs $3.95 per month for 50MB of storage iPower's domain control panel (powered by vDeck) is difficult to navigate and, similar to the website, has relatively slow load times |
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Name IPower, Inc. Web Site www.ipower.com Founded Boston, Massachusetts 2001 Country USA Email Support support@ipower-inc.com Phone Support (888)511-HOST Visit iPower |
Summary iPower is cheap. For those of you who like a bargain, this is it. iPower will let you purchase $6.50 domains to your heart's content (note: this is a similar price to what the GoDaddy Discount Domain Program offers, but without the $89.99 annual fee). However, you pay for what you get. Of all of the large domain name registrars, we think that iPower has the worst website and one of the worst domain name control panels (it does offer bulk management features, but still, it looks like it was designed in 1997 and load times are pretty terrible). Nevertheless, if you can get past the poor design, you will quickly recognize that despite the bargain price, iPower still offers a number of great, free domain features, including free WHOIS privacy, domain forwarding/masking and a "catch-all" mailbox. Phone support is not too shabby either; its toll-free and 24/7. Services iPower only lets users register the primary TLDs (.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info and .mobi- although we have tried to register .mobi domains a couple times and this registration service has always been down). As we mention above, iPower is cheap. The company tries to get users in the door with domains at wholesale prices, so that they can upsell more expensive hosting products. We have spoken with iPower's management about this strategy, and they said that iPower will remain a deep discount domain registrar for the foreseeable future. The vDeck 1.0 control panel is a relic and has terrible load times; however, it is pretty functional once you get the hang of it and makes it relatively easy to modify nameservers, forwarding options and so forth for a bunch of domains at once. Finally, iPower offers free WHOIS privacy, which is great if you have a large number of domains that you are uninterested in selling and are sick of getting spammed. Size iPower is one of the ten largest web hosts in the world. Currently, it hosts over 700,000 websites. Customer Support Customer support is decent. The staff is readily available via phone, chat and email. As for the 24/7 toll-free, phone support, a technician answered our calls after a wait of about 5 or 6 minutes (about average for a large registrar/web host). The support technicians that we reviewed were upbeat and stated that at iPower they wanted 100% customer satisfaction before moving on- always nice to hear! Room for Improvement (1) Management desperately needs to refresh iPower.com's web design, update its domain name control panel (vDeck 3.0, please!) and for that matter, the hosting software could use an update as well. How can you trust a web hosting company with a corporate website that has atrocious load times? Not a good sign! (2) iPower constantly tries to upsell its premium domain and hosting products during checkout and even after you purchase the domain through the toolbar, etc. (of course, you should give iPower a pass on this one, given the bargain bin prices). |
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