About IONOS

Established in Germany back in 1988, IONOS (formerly recognized as 1&1 Internet) stands as a formidable force in web hosting, boasting a workforce of 2,000 individuals. With an impressive infrastructure comprising 10 data centers, over 90,000 servers, and serving 8 million customer contracts globally, it solidifies its position as a leading provider in the industry.

In terms of market share, according to Datanyze, IONOS commands a significant 6.86%, positioning it as a major player in the web hosting industry. This places IONOS ahead of all competitors except for Google Cloud (7.82%), Amazon AWS (10.96%), and GoDaddy (14.99%).

Types of Web Hosting Available

IONOS offers a comprehensive range of hosting solutions to cater to various needs and preferences. For those seeking cost-effective options, they provide shared hosting plans suitable for individuals and small businesses.

For businesses and e-commerce ventures requiring more robust resources, IONOS offers powerful VPS (Virtual Private Server) and dedicated hosting solutions. These options are designed to handle the demands of high-traffic websites and e-commerce platforms effectively.

For developers and expert users, IONOS offers value plans tailored to their specific needs. This includes Windows ASP.NET hosting, ideal for those working with ASP.NET applications, and Deploy Now, a GitHub-friendly solution designed to streamline the deployment process. Moreover, for those requiring even greater power and reliability, IONOS provides high-powered and ultra-reliable cloud servers. These servers are equipped with ample resources to handle even the most demanding, feature-packed, and business-critical websites with ease.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting operates on a model where multiple websites are hosted on the same server. This arrangement helps reduce costs as server expenses are divided among all the accounts. However, since many sites share the same CPU, RAM, and network connection, there is a risk of performance degradation. Despite this, a well-optimized shared hosting package typically provides sufficient power for the needs of low-traffic blogs, personal websites, and small business sites.

IONOS offers three shared hosting plans, each featuring valuable perks such as free SSL, a complimentary domain, free daily backups, and seamless WordPress installation. The starter plan, designed for a single site, is attractively priced at $4 per month for the first year, with a renewal rate of $6 thereafter.

The Business plan, positioned as the mid-range option, enhances speed by allocating additional resources and supports unlimited websites. With a remarkable introductory offer, this plan is priced at just $0.50 a month for the first year, increasing to $10 a month thereafter.

For those seeking even greater capabilities, the Expert plan offers expanded resources along with premium features such as SiteScan malware protection, a Content Delivery Network (CDN), and analytics for monitoring website traffic. Despite these added benefits, the Expert plan remains affordable at $8 a month in the first year, with a renewal rate of $16 per month.

While IONOS shared hosting offers compelling features, it’s important to note some limitations. Firstly, there’s no provision for free migration assistance, making it challenging to import your site from a previous host seamlessly. Additionally, all plans provide only one email account, albeit with decent specifications like a 2GB inbox and spam filtering. However, this might not suffice for users requiring multiple email accounts.

Furthermore, tests revealed that the performance of the IONOS Business plan falls below average (further details on this will be discussed later). Despite these drawbacks, IONOS shared hosting remains a viable option for users who can accommodate the limitations, especially considering its other attractive features.

If email functionality is a concern and you prioritize value, exploring alternatives like Hostinger and HostGator might be worthwhile. These providers offer low starter prices, extended email capabilities, and comprehensive feature sets.

On the other hand, if speed is paramount, considering A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting could be beneficial. These providers go beyond the basics by incorporating advanced performance-boosting technologies, ensuring optimal website speed and responsiveness.

Managed WordPress Hosting

WordPress stands out as a widely embraced website creation tool, catering to a spectrum of needs ranging from straightforward personal sites to intricate international web stores. IONOS offers Managed WordPress hosting plans priced nearly identical to their shared hosting range.

With special offers like $0.50 a month for the mid-range plan and $3 to $8 a month for other plans (renewing at $6 to $8), these plans provide an array of features akin to shared hosting. Users can benefit from complimentary domain registration, SSL certificates, and daily backups. However, similar to shared hosting, there’s no provision for free migration assistance.

while there are similarities between IONOS’s Managed WordPress hosting and shared hosting plans, there are also notable differences. With Managed WordPress hosting, there’s enhanced email support, allowing for five email addresses with the mid-range plan and ten with the top-tier plan. Additionally, all Managed WordPress plans include malware scanning, with the top plan offering the capability to remove any detected threats. However, it’s important to note a significant limitation: while shared hosting plans support unlimited websites, Managed WordPress hosting restricts users to a single WordPress project.

IONOS’s Managed WordPress hosting plans come with WordPress-specific features aimed at simplifying website management and enhancing user experience. These include the WP Assistant for easy initial site setup, automated WordPress updates for hassle-free maintenance, and complimentary themes to customize your site’s appearance.

While these additions may not be groundbreaking, they offer a slightly enhanced WordPress experience at no additional cost. This makes the Managed WordPress plans particularly appealing for users focused on mastering WordPress, building small or straightforward sites, and prioritizing affordability over speed. With the opportunity to obtain a year of the Business plan for just $6, this represents an exceptional value proposition, especially for those with modest website requirements.

IONOS’s WP Pro range targets business users and individuals seeking enhanced features and performance. Promising a 300% speed boost through additional server resources, these plans cater to those prioritizing website speed and efficiency. Noteworthy features include both automatic and manual backups, ensuring data security and peace of mind.

Additionally, smarter automatic updates are implemented to minimize the risk of security patches causing issues, thus maintaining site stability. Moreover, the WP Pro plans offer the functionality to preview website changes before deploying them live, enabling users to review and fine-tune their content with confidence.

VPS Hosting

VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting represents a significant upgrade from shared hosting by providing users with increased resources and ensuring exclusive access to those resources, thereby vastly enhancing performance. While shared hosting accounts may struggle to handle tens of thousands of visits per month, a well-configured VPS can manage hundreds of thousands, if not more, visits.

IONOS offers an extensive range of 13 VPS hosting plans, providing users with unparalleled flexibility and choice. These plans come with a comprehensive set of features, including unlimited traffic, unlimited email accounts (up to the storage limit of your chosen plan), free SSL certificates, and round-the-clock customer support. Furthermore, users have the option to host their VPS in multiple locations, including the USA, UK, Germany, or Spain, allowing them to select the most suitable geographical location for their needs.

The entry-level plan starts with modest specifications including 1 CPU core, 512MB RAM, and 10GB storage, priced at a nominal $2 per month. While this option is budget-friendly, its limited resources may restrict functionality. The most powerful plan boasts impressive specifications with 8 CPU cores, 24GB RAM, and 240GB storage. Priced at $24 per month for the first six months, with a subsequent increase to $45, this plan offers excellent value for the provided resources and performance.

One notable aspect of IONOS’s VPS plans is the option to include Windows operating system, although it comes with a substantial increase in cost: an additional $10 per core. This price hike is attributed to Microsoft’s licensing rules rather than IONOS’s pricing strategy. Despite the higher cost, these VPS plans with Windows can be valuable for users with demanding, high-traffic, or business-critical websites.

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting is widely regarded as one of the most robust and powerful hosting solutions available. With dedicated hosting, there’s no sharing of resources such as RAM or network connections because the entire server is exclusively allocated to your website or application. This makes it the ideal choice for serious high-traffic sites where optimal speeds and continuous uptime are imperative, such as news websites, busy e-commerce platforms, and any other online ventures.

IONOS offers a concise selection of four dedicated server plans, which is fewer compared to some specialized competitors. Each plan is equipped with a comprehensive set of features to meet diverse hosting needs. These features include a complimentary domain, SSL certificate, malware scanning for enhanced security, Railgun CDN to accelerate website speeds, and unlimited traffic allowance. Users also have the option to customize their servers by choosing regular hard drives (HDD) instead of solid-state drives (SSD). While this may slightly reduce speed, it increases storage capacity, with a maximum capacity of 2TB.

Website Builder

Website builders are an excellent solution for those without prior website development experience or a clear understanding of how to create a website. These platforms typically offer a variety of pre-designed site templates that users can choose from. Once a template is selected, users can easily customize their site by dragging and dropping various elements such as text, images, maps, videos, and contact forms onto the page.

IONOS offers a user-friendly website builder equipped with free templates, a vast library of over 17,000 royalty-free images, a complimentary domain, and free SSL security. However, it’s important to note that the plans come with a single email account.

The Starter plan is attractively priced at just $1 per month for the first year, with a renewal rate of $5 per month thereafter. Meanwhile, the Plus plan provides additional features such as blog support, expanded design options, and integration with business apps like bookings and reviews. This plan is priced at $5 per month for the initial 12 months, with a subsequent renewal rate of $10 per month.

IONOS allows users to add a web store to all plans, starting from no initial cost on the Starter plan, which remains at $1 per month for the first year and increases to $12 upon renewal. Even the highest plan only requires an additional $15, making it $25 per month for the first six months, followed by $35 thereafter. Regardless of the chosen plan, users gain access to essential features such as payment and shipping support.

While IONOS’s website builder is a practical tool, it may not stand out compared to competitors due to several limitations. The selection of templates is limited, and the quality may not meet some users’ expectations. The editor itself is basic, lacking advanced features that users may desire for more customization. Despite its limitations, the Starter account from IONOS presents an exceptional value proposition at just $1 per month.

Build a Web Store

IONOS’ website builder enables the creation of web stores accommodating up to 10,000 products. However, it may lack advanced features and operates on IONOS’ shared hosting, which tends to be slower than average.

Having a separate web store builder gives you access to more professional features. It offers numerous benefits such as the ability to sell digital products, support for favorites and wish lists, implementation of volume discounts, and integration with platforms like Amazon and eBay. The top-tier plan is priced at $35 per month for the initial six months with an annual subscription, and $50 thereafter. This option is particularly suitable for larger online stores or those with ambitious eCommerce goals.

Alternatively, you can leverage popular platforms like WooCommerce, PrestaShop, or OpenCart to construct your online store. IONOS offers straightforward shared hosting plans tailored for each platform, starting at $0.50 per month in the first year and increasing to $8 per month thereafter. For enhanced speed and reliability, you also have the option to invest in a VPS or dedicated hosting plan.

Utilizing platforms like WooCommerce may require more effort as you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the system, but they offer immense capabilities. These platforms have the potential to construct and oversee even the most extensive eCommerce projects.

Does IONOS have a good web hosting speed?

While every web host boasts of lightning speeds, the real question is: do they deliver? To investigate, we subscribe to a shared hosting plan, create a basic website using a standard WordPress template, and utilize top-tier testing and monitoring services to rigorously assess its performance.

Uptime.com evaluates the site’s availability by accessing a test page every five minutes over a period of fourteen days. Impressively, IONOS achieved a flawless score of 100% uptime, indicating that the site was accessible for every visit throughout the testing period.

Subsequently, GTmetrix accessed a test page and measured the time it took to display the main content, referred to as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). This value signifies the speed at which your pages are likely to appear in the browser. A lower LCP indicates faster loading times, contributing to a more positive user experience for visitors.

IONOS’ Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measured at 1.3 seconds, which placed it 13th out of our last 15 tests. In comparison, most providers scored between 0.6 to 0.8 seconds. While a 1.3-second LCP is still considered acceptable, it’s evident that IONOS lags behind many competitors in terms of speed, which may impact user experience.

IONOS’s performance in this aspect was subpar as well, with the site averaging only 9.8 requests per second. In comparison, most providers manage between 14 to 16 requests per second. While this may not be a significant concern for low-traffic sites with few simultaneous users, it’s still a noticeably inferior performance compared to many competitors.

Ease of Use

Upon logging into numerous web hosting platforms, you’ll encounter familiar industry-standard interfaces. These include WHM (Web Host Manager) for account management, cPanel for essential website management tasks, and Softaculous for seamless installation and management of WordPress applications.

IONOS opts for its proprietary custom control panels instead of utilizing industry-standard platforms. While this approach may offer advantages such as cost savings on license fees, it also means that even experienced users will need to invest some time in familiarizing themselves with the system to locate the functions they require.

Functions within IONOS’ custom control panels may not always be organized intuitively, leading to challenges in locating common tasks. For instance, tasks as routine as logging into a WordPress site may require more time to find than anticipated. While the website search engine’s concept is commendable, it doesn’t consistently perform effectively across all queries. In our testing, we attempted to identify the appropriate keywords to guide a WordPress newcomer on how to log into the dashboard but encountered challenges in achieving the desired results.

For experienced users who extensively utilize various low-level cPanel and other features, this deviation from standard control panel interfaces could indeed pose a significant issue. Even after locating the desired functions within IONOS’ custom control panels, there’s no assurance that they will produce precisely the same results as expected. If your requirements are limited to basic hosting management tasks such as configuring your domain, setting up email addresses, and installing WordPress, then the differences in control panel interfaces may not be a significant concern.

Customer Support

IONO provides support through various channels, including its knowledge base, phone, email, and live chat. The support site features an extensive library of articles, thoughtfully categorized into topics such as WordPress, Email, Domains, and SSL Certificates. While some articles may be concise, the knowledge base contains a wealth of valuable information, making it a valuable resource for users seeking assistance with their hosting needs.

If live chat or email is your preferred mode of support, you’ll find that they function effectively with IONOS. The support team responds promptly and accurately, swiftly guiding users in the right direction to address their queries or concerns.

Conclusion

While IONOS may make some compromises with its shared hosting offerings, such as the absence of free migration and limitations on email accounts, the overall value remains exceptional. Additionally, the company provides an array of WordPress plans to meet various needs. Furthermore, IONOS offers VPS, dedicated, and cloud hosting solutions, catering to a broad spectrum of users, from hobbyists to small and medium-sized businesses, as well as enterprise clients.