IONOS Review

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IONOS (formerly known as 1&1 IONOS and 1&1 Internet) is a web hosting and cloud partner company servicing businesses in any industry for more than 30 years. Whether you need domains, website building, or SSL certificates, IONOS can give you fast, reliable solutions. 

IONOS stands out the most for its web hosting services, including specialized offerings like georedundant infrastructure and scalable performance management. 

IONOS brand logo.

IONOS Compared

IONOS didn’t make our top list, but that doesn’t make it a poor product. However, the best web hosting service for most people is Hostinger because of its affordable monthly price and free weekly backups. Sign up for Hostinger today and receive 80% off on its Single Shared Hosting plan.

Want to read more about the top best web hosting companies? We reviewed dozens of options and narrowed it down to the top 10. If you want to scope out all of your options, see all of our top picks here.

About IONOS

Although IONOS didn’t make it onto our top list, it still offers decent products and services for all your website functionality needs. The ultimate aim of IONOS is to provide fast and scalable hosting for any website. 

IONOS’ suite of products includes shared and dedicated web hosting, domains and SSL, website building and design, ecommerce design, WordPress hosting, email services, and self-managed servers. 

IONOS Health and Stability

IONOS was founded in 1988 in Germany and is currently owned by United Internet as a privately held company. The company has an investment from Warburg Pincus and has a total funding amount of $497 million as of 2022. 

Today, IONOS employs more than 4,000 employees in 40 countries, with its headquarters remaining in Germany. With a 3.2-star rating on Glassdoor, many present employees are happy with their work and life balance. The only downside is that all corporate decisions come from Germany, causing a disconnect between employees in other countries.

IONOS Pricing

IONOS stands out for its affordable pricing, specifically for its Business plan, which starts at $0.50 per month for the first year. With this plan, you get unlimited websites, storage, databases, and enhanced CPU and MEM resources. 

IONOS has two additional pricing tiers for small businesses and enterprises. 

IONOS Pricing Structure

IONOS has a simple pricing structure across all of its products and services. Each service offers three to four pricing tiers that users pay every month. 

The rest of IONOS’ services that don’t include web hosting start at $1 per month and increase depending on ecommerce volume, customization capabilities, how many products you sell, and synchronization across devices. 

IONOS Pricing Comparison

IONOS’ pricing for its web hosting is quite affordable, especially for the first year. Web hosting for small businesses starts at $4 per month and goes up to $6 per month after the first year. While enterprises can expect to pay $8 per month and then $16 per month after the first year, which includes every IONOS web hosting feature. 

Compared to other web hosting companies, IONOS offers lower pricing more often than not, depending on the company you compare it to. For example, Hostinger starts at $9.99 per month and increases to $16.99 per month for its most extensive plan. On the other hand, Bluehost is one of the more expensive companies, starting at $9.99 but increasing to $28.99 per month for its Pro plan. 

DreamHost seems to be one of the only web hosting companies with low pricing across the board, as both of its plans start at $2.95 per month, with an incredible 97-day money-back guarantee.

IONOS Trials and Guarantees

While IONOS doesn’t have a free forever plan, it does offer an extremely affordable price on its Business plan for the first year, at only $0.50 per month. All of IONOS’ pricing plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee. 

IONOS Web Hosting Review

Compared to other web hosting companies, IONOS stands out for its affordable, feature-rich plans and the extensive support it offers its users. You could benefit from IONOS if you are looking for a variety of shared or dedicated hosting solutions. 

IONOS can work for a business of any size because its plans are completely scalable. Not only can you find web hosting solutions, but you can also build, market, and manage your brand from its intuitive interface. To read more about IONOS’ competitors and how they stack up against each other, check out our top picks for web hosting solutions. 

What Makes IONOS Web Hosting Great

Screenshot of IONOS web hosting page.
IONOS offers fast and scalable hosting for any website at an affordable rate.
  • Feature-rich plans: IONOS stands out for its affordable yet feature-rich plans. IONOS heavily discounts each plan for the first year, but the value for money is still incredibly high after renewal. For example, you only have to pay $0.50 per month for the first year on its Business plan, and although it renews at $10 per month afterward, you still get access to unlimited websites, storage, and databases with enhanced CPU and MEM resources. And for its Essential plan, which is only $4 per month, you still get everything in the Business plan but without the unlimited access—though it’s still great value. 
  • Simple plugin compatibility: Whether you want to enhance your website or not, IONOS gives you the option and works seamlessly with some of the most common plugins on the market today. IONOS has popular web hosting applications, such as TYPO3, Joomla!, Drupal, and PrestaShop—but it also offers plugins for various areas, including ecommerce, marketing automation, analytics, and bug tracking, to name a few. 
  • PHP-extended support: IONOS offers PHP-extended support, which is certainly helpful for anyone looking for a web hosting solution. PHP stands for hypertext preprocessor and is a side scripting language that helps web servers run smoothly. IONOS’ PHP-extended support allows its users to automatically upgrade to the most current version of the server without any hassles. Any new IONOS user also has the option to transfer their old website onto the IONOS server and choose PHP extended support for free. 
  • Good security measures: You never have to worry about stolen data, as IONOS offers a decent level of security on its more inexpensive plans. With IONOS, you can expect DDOS protection, free backups and restores, and a wildcard SSL. IONOS will protect your website from incoming attacks and back up your data for up to six days, allowing you to recover any lost data with one click. 
  • Dual platform technology: Another excellent part of IONOS’ web hosting solution is that it utilizes dual platform technology to perform top speeds and 99.9% uptime. With IONOS’ dual technology, the web servers and storage are on the same platform, which means fewer mechanics need to work hard to provide you with a faster-performing website. 
  • Personal consultant: One of the exclusive features of IONOS is that it offers a personal consultant to all its customers. You get tailored advice from a single point of contact by phone, email, or chat. You can expect your consultant to advise you on how to get the most out of your product, explanations of any technical jargon, reports on how your website is performing, and support for any problem you might be facing. You can also reach your consultant during business hours or request a callback. 

Where IONOS Web Hosting Falls Short

Screenshot of IONOS web hosting page - 2
IONOS performance depends on what level your website is running on.
  • High protection limited to one plan: Again, it’s excellent that IONOS offers decent security features for the bulk of its users. However, it’s unfortunate that you have to pay $6 more per month to obtain a higher level of protection and performance. Currently, IONOS only offers SiteScan malware protection, a Content Delivery Network, and SiteAnalytics Plus to users on its Expert plan, which starts at $16 per month. The price is still affordable compared to other companies on the market, but it would be better if IONOS offered some version of these areas on its inexpensive plans. 
  • Fees for additional performance levels: If you want your website to perform at its highest capacity, you will have to pay an extra $2 per month for any additional performance level. While the fee isn’t particularly high, the levels max out at five, meaning you would have to pay an extra $10 per month on top of your plan fee for 19GB RAM and 768MB PHP memory. 
  • Some customer support delays: While IONOS has excellent customer support across the board, a few reviewers claim that it’s still a bit slower than expected. Ideally, a company should respond within business hours, but IONOS sometimes pushes that into a couple of business days. However, it’s not all bad because 99% of IONOS users still heard back from a consultant, which is a much better track record than some other web hosting companies have.  

IONOS Web Hosting Compared

While IONOS is a decent web hosting platform because of its feature-rich and affordable plans with additional support, the best web hosting platform for most people is Hostinger because of its powerful servers and free features. 

Final Verdict

IONOS offers excellent and affordable web hosting solutions for businesses of any size. If you want to invest in a platform that offers extensive support and feature-rich plans at VERY low prices, you won’t be disappointed with IONOS. 

With more than 30 years in the industry and 4,000 employees across 40 countries, IONOS is a reliable company, and we recommend IONOS to any business that needs an intuitive web hosting solution. 


Source: quicksprout

IONOS Review