IONOS Review

IONOS can generate a workable solution for practically every project. You may need reliable hosting for your existing website or search for a custom domain together with hosting. Finally, you may have no website yet and wish to build it, supply it with a domain, and find a decent online home for it. IONOS has enough facilities and tools to let you accomplish such goals and can offer even more.

Yet, today’s customer does not lack digital tech providers, and IONOS is one of them – not the only one. Is it the right choice for you? The following IONOS review will give you the answer.

What Is IONOS

IONOS positions itself as a hosting provider and cloud partner for small and medium-sized businesses. The company has been present in the market for over thirty years. It has come through a long process of evolution.

It all started in 1988 when the 1&1 project was launched in Germany. Its goal was to provide cheap but quality Internet services to Europe. The company developed its private infrastructure of data centers and built a powerful network, which was soon noticed and widely accepted by the European audience.

The next step was taken in 2003 when the team expanded its facilities in the USA. Its reliable services based on top-tier data centers in Pennsylvania and Kansas made 1&1 hit the top 10 best hosting providers in the country in 2004.

In 2010, the host acquired mail.com to extend its options. A partnership with ProfitBricks, a cloud appliance provider, started in 2018 and coincided with the company’s rebranding. From there on, it was 1&1 IONOS, a hosting provider with an extended portfolio of services.

Finally, the company extended its tech list and shortened its brand name to IONOS in 2020. Now, the IONOS hosting giant offers the broadest set of services, from site building to cloud computing.

Who Will Benefit from IONOS the Most?

IONOS will suit individual startups and small/medium-sized businesses searching for a quick and decent solution. The company is a great choice when you’re looking for a one-stop provider with a complete list of services.

IONOS can be the universal site builder that will let you quickly create an appealing site and provide it with a domain, any sort of hosting, eCommerce functionality, etc. The host offers truly reasonable prices, so it can also be a perfect match for those constrained with low budgets.

IONOS Pros

The mere fact that IONOS is the largest hosting company in Europe, with 12 ml domains and 8 ml customers served worldwide, is a good sign. Consider the following IONOS’ benefits when making your decision, too:

• a variety of plans;
• excellent introductory prices;
• ISO 27001 data centers across Europe and the US;
• daily storage & database backups on all shared hosting plans;
• a website builder with numerous for-business templates;
• classy cloud hosting services;
• a free IONOS app for iOS & Android;
• 30-day money-back guarantee.

It’s also good to know that IONOS’s most popular plan for shared hosting will cost you $1 a month during the first year of subscription! Yet, your features will include a pleasant pack of unlimited options: databases, websites, and storage.

IONOS Cons

Factor in the IONOS minuses as well:

• not the fastest hosting in the industry;
• no free plan;
• insufficient dedicated hosting plans.

Pay attention that IONOS offers its own control panel for maintaining your websites, domains, emails, etc. It may take time for a beginner to cope with the interface, which we consider as a certain drawback of the provider.

How Expensive IONOS Is

If you are looking for a cost-saving solution, IONOS must be one of the suitable choices for you. The company services cover shared, VPS, dedicated, and cloud hosting, as well as a domain registrar and a website builder with an eCommerce option.

No matter which service is on your mind, you can expect at least three plans to choose from. Let’s observe the IONOS pricing model for the top-preferred hosting type, shared web hosting.

You see, IONOS promotes its Plus package with plenty of unlimited resources and free options. Surely, your renewal will be the highest when compared with other plans, but you can enjoy your IONOS subscription for $12 during the year!

IONOS VPS plans start at the price of $2 a month. The cheapest package includes one vCore CPU, 512 Mb RAM, and an SSD of 10 Gb. You can improve this model for an extra cost. There are 13 VPS packages on IONOS, and each of them is easily configurable according to your needs.

We cannot say the same about the dedicated hosting plans from IONOS. Here, you can expect three SSD and four HDD solutions with limited customization.

Recently, IONOS added three packages designed for WordPress. Available at $1, $2, and $6 a month, these plans go with limited but well-thought-out amounts of storage RAM, etc. They also include such crucial features as malware protection, site analytics, customizable updates, and more.

IONOS Performance

The physical resources of IONOS include 10 secure data centers located across Europe and the US. The IONOS host guarantees 99.9% uptime on its web hosting page, and you can even expect more. The result with our IONOS-shared-hosting site was 99.95%.

How fast did our pages load? We used GTmetrix to measure our website’s performance. Thus, we got an average LCP of 1.1s, which is not the best practice among hosting providers. Yet, this is a fairly acceptable result that will suit small projects with no high-traffic requirements.

Security and Protection

IONOS’ data centers have ISO 27001 certificates. That is, they comply with the highest international standard of digital security. The host provides all its packages with free SSL certificates, DDoS protection measures, and daily backups.

IONOS also offers numerous features to optimize your website’s security. For a small extra cost, you can connect such security tools as Domain Guard and DNS Pro to your domain. The benefits will include the following:

• protection against DNS hijacking;
• ownership authentication;
• login two-factor authentication;
• DNSSEC to enhance your security measures.

You can also buy a premium SSL certificate from GeoTrust. The purchase can be made right on the IONOS website. The starting price is $20 a year for one domain.

IONOS Control Panel

When it comes to the maintenance of websites, a distinctive trait of IONOS is that the host offers its own products instead of standard ones widely used on other hosting platforms. Thus, you won’t see traditional cPanel, the Softaculous installer, and so on. This affects the platform’s usability.

Don’t get us wrong. The IONOS cPanel is not bad – it’s different. While a pro user can get into the IONOS interface quickly enough, a total newbie might need to contact support on a regular basis to cope with it. That may cause disappointing delays in managing your websites.

If you know little or nothing about how to install WordPress, establish several email accounts, tune up your domains and subdomains, connect add-ons, and so on, be ready that you’ll need an expert to help you with your settings. You can also rely on IONOS support (which is actually not bad!).

Web Building Tools

IONOS now has an easy-to-use website builder, so everyone can carry out their website project from creation to publishing online with the help of IONOS tools. The platform offers its own site builder with a weird name, MyWebsiteNow.

But don’t beat your head with the name since the IONOS site builder is a simple instrument. Even a user with zero knowledge and experience in web development can manage to create their own website with its help. Moreover, IONOS provides business-oriented, beautifully-designed templates. Everyone can customize them easily and fast, thanks to drag & drop and other code-free options.

There are three plans for this website builder at IONOS. Like with other services, IONOS promotes the Plus package, available for $1 a month. You’ll only need to subscribe for 12 months. The other two plans, Starter and Pro, are two extremes with the simplest and the most advanced sets of features. Both plans support a 6-month subscription and will cost you $5 and $15 a month, respectively.

No matter which plan you choose, you can opt for a simple site builder or one with eCommerce functionality. The latter option is vital for your project if you plan to launch an online store. Interestingly, you can use this version of the web builder at the same price during your initial period. It will cost you a bit more only after the promotional period is over.

Customer and Tech Support

IONOS includes free 24×7 support in all its plans, no matter which product you choose. You can contact the specialist via the following means:

• email;
• online chat;
• phone number.

We have checked all the methods. It took us about 15 minutes to get a response to our email. 10 minutes was necessary to get connected to a manager via the phone. Luckily, IONOS allows you to request a callback. Be sure the team will contact you just within the preset time.

The platform also offers a massive knowledge base. You can access it by clicking the Help Center menu at the bottom of the IONOS website.

Is IONOS Worth Trying?

Yes! IONOS is a great hosting company with an abundance of services.You can push your digital project into reality, from creating a website itself to supplying it with a domain, any type of hosting, security extras, eCommerce features, and more.

IONOS is a secure and reliable solution for the widest range of customers. However, the platform will suit personal websites, small online stores, and medium-sized businesses the most.