IONOS review: a new challenge to the cheap hosting market?

IONOS, previously known as 1&1, is a well-known European hosting provider with over 30 years of hosting experience and plans that cater mostly to businesses and large web projects.

At first glance, IONOS is a truly reliable provider with good resource offerings, a user-friendly control panel, and budget-friendly starting prices. But what about performance and security?

For this IONOS review, the Cybernews research team and I tested and evaluated this hosting provider in categories like performance, pricing and plans, ease of setup and use, as well as security and customer support. Continue reading to find out whether IONOS is the right choice for you.

⭐ Rating:	4.4 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
💵 Price:	From $1/month
📑 Uptime guarantee:	99.99%
⚙️ Hosting types:	Shared, WordPress, Windows, VPS, dedicated
🌎 Server locations:	The US, the UK, Germany, France, and Spain
👨‍💻 24/7 live support:	Yes
🔥 Coupons:	IONOS coupon 91% OFF!

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Pros and Cons of 1&1 IONOS

IONOS hosting review: key takeaways

Overall, IONOS is an affordable and reliable hosting provider suitable mostly for small to medium-sized businesses that require generous resources. Here are the main takeaways based on my testing and evaluation:

• Its pricing starts at $1.00/month for the 12-month Plus plan subscription, with a renewal price of $12.00/month.
• The custom hosting management panel and dashboard are intuitive and easy to use for both beginners and experienced users. The setup process also takes only a few minutes.
• IONOS offers full-stack security that includes free Wildcard SSL, DDoS protection, daily backups, and security measures for data protection. Furthermore, a free domain and website builder are included with all plans.
• In my tests, IONOS showed excellent 99.99% uptime, as well as server response time just a little above market average 600ms, and a reliable site load speed ranging from 0.5s to 1.2s.
• IONOS offers 24/7 live chat and phone support, as well as an extensive help center and knowledge base.

IONOS pricing and plans

1&1 IONOS’s pricing is on the affordable end of the spectrum, with its shared hosting prices starting from $1.00/month. Besides that, it also has quite a few other hosting solutions that include WordPress Pro, Windows, VPS, and dedicated hosting.

Type of hosting	Best for
Shared hosting	Beginners and basic websites for portfolios, blogs, passion projects, and small businesses. Take 91% now!
WordPress Pro hosting	WordPress developers, designers, and agencies.
Windows hosting	Small and medium-sized projects on the Windows operating system (OS).
VPS hosting	More advanced users who want better resources, control, and performance.
Dedicated server hosting	High-traffic websites, organizations, online stores, and advanced users.

Check IONOS Pricing Now

It’s clear that the provider has an option for every user. But, for this 1&1 IONOS review, I’ll be focusing on the provider’s shared hosting plans – the most sought-after option.

1&1 IONOS has 4 shared hosting packages with prices ranging from $1.00/mo to $9.00/mo. The trio comes with a free domain, an SSL Wildcard certificate, a professional email address, daily backups, and unlimited traffic, among other things.

Of course, teach plan has its own specifications too:

Plan	Features	Price	Renewal price
Essential	The best option for a basic or personal website. It can host 1 website and is optimized for up to 50 visitors/minute. The plan comes with 10GB storage, up to 512MB RAM, and 10 databases.	$4.00/month	$6.00/month
Starter	An excellent option for mid-sized projects or websites. It comes with 10 websites, 100GB storage, 50 databases, as well as up to 512MB RAM.	$5.00/month	$8.00/month
Plus	Ideal for mid-sized projects and is optimized for up to 200 visitors/minute. It comes with unlimited websites, storage, and databases, as well as up to 6GB RAM.	$1.00/month	$12.00/month
Expert	Best for bigger websites that see higher traffic. It’s optimized for up to 500 visitors/minute and comes with everything in the Business plan, as well as up to 19GB RAM, SiteScan malware protection, and a Content Delivery Network (CDN).	$9.00/month	$16.00/month

IONOS website hosting isn’t the most generous with its resources for its cheapest plan. For example, Hostinger’s starting shared hosting plan includes 100 websites and 100 GB of storage, which is way more than the IONOS 1 website and 10GB of storage. However, once you get to the Plus plan, the resources are very reasonable with unlimited storage and websites.

Speaking of which, I’d say that the Plus plan is the best, thanks to its huge introductory discount. For 12 months, you get tons of resources and much more for just $1.00/month.

As per usual, prices are cheaper with longer billing terms, and renewal rates are higher. For example, the Plus plan is just $1.00/month with a 12-month plan, but it renews at $12.00/month.

Lastly, we need to talk about its money-back guarantee. 1&1 IONOS has a 30-day money-back guarantee that covers hosting, yet things like server usage fees and Search Engine Marketing setup fees are not included.

In sum, IONOS is as cheap as it gets. You get a hosting solution that can host multiple websites as well as generous unlimited storage and databases. Moreover, the provider has plenty of options to scale, too.

Hosting management: is IONOS easy to use?

IONOS is an intuitive and easy-to-use service with a custom control panel for hosting management. The panel is functional, clean, and beginner-friendly. That said, if you’re used to the classic cPanel, you might need some time to familiarize yourself with the IONOS control panel.

IONOS setup process

The IONOS setup process is quite simple for new customers and involves only just a few steps. It might get a little more complicated if you want to transfer an existing domain or a WordPress site. I found it to be pretty straightforward and intuitive. The best part about IONOS is that all plans include a website builder, so once you sign up for hosting and create your domain, you can also build a website right there and then. Here’s what the IONOS setup process looks like if you get a new domain:

1. Log in to your account. Head to the website builder if you want to start everything from scratch. Otherwise, you can migrate an existing website.
2. Choose whether you want to create a website with AI or do it yourself. The AI option will lead to some questions about your business. If you do it yourself, you can choose a template, themes, color palettes, fonts, and more.
3. You can also edit the website and add some additional information.
4. In the IONOs App Center, you can install various content management systems like WordPress. The installation and setup is very easy and requires just a few clicks.
5. In the Email section on your account, you can set up email addresses either with IONOS Webmail service, or any other third-party email provider.

If you already have a domain, you should transfer it to IONOS before setting up your IONOS account. Otherwise, you can also point your domain to IONOS in the Domains & SSL section of your account.

Additionally, if you already have a website, you can migrate it to IONOS. Keep in mind that the migration process differs for sites with different CMS. For WordPress, you can either migrate it manually or install a WordPress migration plugin. Unfortunately, IONOS doesn’t offer WordPress migration support.

IONOS control panel

The IONOS control panel also doubles as the main dashboard. Hence, everything you need to run your website – from hosting to domain and security – is right here on one interface. As a whole, the interface is clean, intuitive, and user-friendly.

Upon the login, you’ll see the main dashboard that works as the control panel. This is what it looks like:

Right at the very top is a prompt to complete the next step of the setup process if your account is new. And, to the right are the suggestions for search engine optimization with the option to access the detailed analysis.

But, smack in the center is where the treasure is at. This is where you’ll find all the functionalities you need for your website. They can be found under the main categories – domains & SSL, email, hosting, and security.

Some users find the IONOS control panel to be confusing, especially if they’re used to using cPanel. However, I think it’s only natural to need some time to get used to a new interface – it doesn’t mean that the IONOS interface is bad, it’s probably just different.

In fact, I find that the interface is very beginner-oriented. Everything is well-organized, intuitive, and practical. I don’t foresee any trouble navigating the panel, both for first-time and experienced users.

And, if you do need help navigating, the search bar is there for you. It helps you quickly find things like domain and WordPress, which brings us to the next part.

IONOS WordPress management

For WordPress installation and management, IONOS offers some help to simplify and accelerate things. Nothing too elaborate but it still has helpful tools and features like a one-click installer and setup assistance.

Whether you opt for a managed WordPress, unmanaged WordPress, or shared hosting plan, the provider offers basic setup assistance to make the content management system easier. One of the main assistance rendered is via its custom installer.

IONOS custom one-click installer helps you to quickly set up your WordPress site so that you can hit the ground running. It’s just as simple as every other one-click installer in the market. All you need to do is type in your domain name and hit install.

Besides the custom installer, the host’s WordPress Setup Assistant plugin is also available. Just pick the purpose of your site, and the Assistant will pick up the reins. It’ll help to suggest design templates, install the selected template, install various plugins, and more.

It’s a great assistant to have for beginners, that have no idea where to start with WordPress. Those who prefer a more hands-off approach will also appreciate the simplifying of the WordPress setup.

All things considered, IONOS is very easy to use. Its custom control panel/dashboard might not be the most powerful and cutting-edge interface in the industry, but it’s beginner-friendly, neat, and intuitive. Meanwhile, the customers’ 1and1 WordPress hosting review was right: WordPress setup and management is a breeze with the host.

IONOS performance

IONOS performance is very good, considering what you pay. The host is remarkably reliable and pretty fast. Meanwhile, its traffic-handling ability could be better but still absolutely not a cause for concern.

For this IONOS review, I put the provider under intense pressure and ran 3 types of tests to check its uptime and response time, speed, and stress-handling ability.

IONOS uptime and response time

To test IONOS reliability, I tested the uptime and server response time – that is, how long the site stays up and running, and how long it takes to respond to a user request. For almost a month, the host maintained a 99.99% uptime with just 3 outages totaling 3 minutes. That’s very much in line with the provider’s uptime guarantee of 99.99%. By comparison, Hostinger’s uptime in our tests was 100%, while Bluehost showed a 99.96% uptime.

That said, a few minutes of downtime is inevitable for things like server maintenance. In any case, its current uptime gives all signs that IONOS is a reliable hosting provider with a healthy server.

As for server response time, the provider’s results were less impressive. Its response times mostly lingered around the 700ms mark and eventually averaged at 758ms. To compare with other providers, Hostinger showed a stable 511ms response time, below the market average of 600ms, and Bluehost had a 971ms response time. In this case, IONOS falls in the middle, but still above the market average.

Overall, IONOS' uptime is really good. Meanwhile, its server response times are slower than desired, but they are showing signs of improvement.

IONOS website speed

For this IONOS review, I tested the provider’s website speed on both an empty WordPress site and a built one. Both did well in this test with the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). What you want here is to see an LCP below 600ms for a blank WordPress site and below 2.5s for a built one, which is considered incredibly fast and good news for user experience.

The empty site LCP for San Antonio took 1.2s, which is not an ideal result, but still pretty good. Meanwhile, London and Mumbai saw longer times to load LCP at 0.4s and 1.5s, respectively.

Next, I tested the speed of a fully built site. The LCP took 1.2s to load in San Antonio, 0.5s in London, and 2.1s in Mumbai. For each location, the LCP load was below Google’s recommended 2.5s. By comparison, Hostinger’s LCP load took just 0.4s in San Antonio, and Bluehost’s average load time was 1.3s. Therefore, between the best hosting providers, IONOS site load speed falls towards the faster end.

Briefly, IONOS loads websites fairly quickly. And that’s what matters for organic traffic and user experience.

IONOS stress testing

Finally, it’s time for a stress test so that I can assess 1&1 IONOS’ traffic-handling ability. To start things off, I sent 50 virtual users (VUs) to my test website.

Ideally, I want a flat blue line (speed) as the gray line (number of visitors) heads up. Meanwhile, the red line (failure) shouldn’t be there.

Regrettably, 50 VUs overwhelmed the server quite a bit. The site started to slow down, and the response time rapidly increased.

By comparison, Hostinger’s server response time remained low and stable even as the number of users and requests increased. That said, I do want to note that 50 VUs would equal around 50,000 monthly visitors. That’s a massive load on the server, especially a shared one.

So, I eased up and gradually slashed the number of VUs until 1&1 IONOS passed with 10VUs. That’s about 10,000 monthly visitors. It might not sound like a lot but, trust me, that’s still a whole lot more than what most websites on shared hosting would see.

That said, I do want to note that 50 VUs would equal around 50,000 monthly visitors. That’s a massive load on the server, especially a shared one.

Extremely reliable, pretty stable, and fast, IONOS performance is one to earn it some praise. At this price point, it overpasses a lot of its competitors easily.

Security: is IONOS secure? Security: is 1&1 IONOS secure?

IONOS covers all the security basics for hosting and also offers additional more advanced security solutions. Among the offered features are SSL Wildcard certificates, daily backups, DDoS protection, and more.

• SSL certificates – 1&1 IONOS offers a free SSL Wildcard certificate for all plans to enable an encrypted connection between your site and your visitors. A free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate is the bare minimum, but it’s certainly a pleasant surprise to get a Wildcard SSL instead. This protects not only the main domain but also all subdomains as well.
• Backups – The provider offers automatic daily backups for both webspace and databases. Here, backups of up to 6 days are automatically stored so that you can recover files easily. For a budget host, a weekly backup is more common than daily automated backups. So, that’s one more point in favor of 1&1 IONOS.
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection – DDoS is an attack where traffic from various compromised systems floods a targeted site to overload it. DDoS attacks often cause the targeted site to be inaccessible, so it’s a good thing that 1&1 IONOS’ DDoS protection is activated by default.
• Site Scan – A basic version is included to scan for malware. Some of the included features are daily malware scan, reputation monitoring, spam and blocklist monitoring, and platform scan for WordPress.
• Georedundant infrastructure – 1&1 IONOS keeps your data in two separate data centers about 60 kilometers apart to protect against data loss and outages.

Overall, I’m impressed with 1&1 IONOS’ wide-ranging basic and advanced security measures, especially considering its affordability. It’s far more generous than its peers.

IONOS customer support

24/7 live chat	✅ Yes
Email	❌ No
Tickets	❌ No
Phone support	✅ Yes
Knowledge base	✅ Yes

IONOs offers a few different support channels: 24/7 live chat and phone support, and a knowledge base with countless articles and tutorials. Interestingly, unlike other providers like Hostinger, IONOs doesn’t provide a support email address but offers quite a few phone numbers for different countries.

When testing the phone support, there was always someone available to pick up my calls at all times, and the agents were helpful as well as efficient. The 24/7 live chat also connected me to an agent pretty fast – however, I had to try a few times as sometimes the live chat would be too busy with no agents available. Nevertheless, my overall experience with IONOS 24/7 support was positive.

The IONOS’ help center includes hundreds of support articles, sorted various topics from domains to data protection to online marketing and technical support. Each article is well-written and carefully structured.

Fast and efficient, 1&1 IONOS support via phone and live chat is excellent. Plus, its knowledge base and help center are extremely helpful as well.

Video review

If you want to learn more about this provider, you can watch our IONOS review on YouTube:

IONOS review: the final verdict

Based on my and the Cybernews research team’s testing and evaluations in this review, it’s clear that IONOS is truly one of the best hosting providers, especially for business sites and large projects. It offers excellent resources with its business-oriented subscription plans for affordable pricing. Additionally, the security suite is complete with the option to get more advanced site security measures. In our tests, IONOS also showed excellent performance – uptime, server response time, and site load speed are all on the levels of other top providers like Hostinger and Bluehost.

Feature	4.4 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆	Cheap and secure web hosting
Pricing	★ ★ ★ ★ ☆	IONOS pricing is affordable with its Plus shared hosting plan priced at just $1.00/month, thanks to a huge introductory discount.
Ease of Use	★ ★ ★ ★ ★	The provider is very easy to use. Its custom control panel is neat, well-organized, and functional. Plus, WordPress setup requires just a click with its installer.
Performance	★ ★ ★ ★ ☆	The host is remarkably reliable and its website loading times are top-notch, too. However, its performance could be improved with more speedy server response times and better traffic-handling ability.
Security	★ ★ ★ ★ ★	IONOS has you covered with its full stack of security solutions. All the basics are covered and you also get some nifty advanced features.
Support	★ ★ ★ ★ ☆	The provider has 2 24/7 support methods – live chat and phone. Additionally, you can browse the seemingly endless help center for solutions.

Final recommendation for IONOS?

Cheap, easy to manage, and secure, 1&1 IONOS is best for beginners, smaller websites, and those on a budget.

Buy IONOS

Alternatives to IONOS

1&1 IONOS might be one of the largest web hosting providers in the world but it isn’t necessarily the perfect choice for you. In that case, I’d recommend checking out these two alternatives: Hostinger and Bluehost.

Hostinger

Hostinger offers quality cheap web hosting with prices starting at just $2.54/month – it is more expensive than IONOs cheapest offers, but the Hostinger entry plan includes more resources like storage and websites. Additionally, Hostiger has consistently delivered an incredible performance with 100% uptime and remarkable speed.

Besides that, Hostinger is known for its ease of use, too, thanks to its intuitive proprietary hPanel. Plus, its helpful and efficient support team will readily lend a hand whenever necessary.

Visit Hostinger

Bluehost

Bluehost offers an array of plans and solutions, but based on our testing, it is one of the best providers for WordPress. Unlike IONOS, it offers 1-click WordPress installations, help with migrating a WordPress site, and caters mostly to beginners in hosting rather than large businesses. Bluehost plans start at $1.99/month, and the cheapest entry plan offers the same resources as IONOS with 1 website and 10GB of storage.

Additionally, Bluehost includes various marketing and SEO tools to help optimize your site and offers pretty good and stable performance with 99.96% uptime and good site load times.

Visit Bluehost

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