IONOS review: a new challenge to the cheap hosting market?
Through independent research and testing, our team of experts offers transparent and thorough reviews of web hosting providers. We use the same testing criteria for all providers to offer a fair and unbiased assessment of each hosting service.
Our in-depth articles include feedback about our hands-on hosting experience and other crucial information for potential customers.
Learn more
At first glance, IONOS is a truly reliable provider with good resource offerings, a user-friendly control panel, and budget-friendly starting prices. Despite all that, you might keep wondering whether it delivers quality services and could be a good choice for you.
At Cybernews, we’ve been testing IONOS since 2021 and recently it has moved to a respectable #2 place on our best web hosting list. Therefore, in this IONOS review, I look deeper into IONOS performance, security, pricing and plans, ease of use, and customer support.
IONOS overview
- Choose IONOS, if you want an affordable hosting provider tailored to large projects. with good performance and advanced security.
- Avoid IONOS, if you want to host high-traffic sites. In this case a better option for you is Hostinger or Bluehost.
| ⭐ Rating: | |
| 💵 Price: | From $1.00/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! |
Pros and Cons of IONOS
Our in-house research team and expert writers work hand in hand to regularly test hosting services and provide accurate and fact-checked information. Discover the ins and outs of how we test and evaluate website hosting providers.
IONOS pricing and plans
IONOS’s pricing is on the affordable end of the spectrum, with its shared hosting prices starting from $1.00/month. In comparison, other well-known hosting providers, such as Hostinger and Bluehost offer their services from $2.78/month and $1.99/month, respectively. Besides that, IONOS also has quite a few other hosting solutions that include WordPress Pro, Windows, VPS, and dedicated hosting.
Here are the types of hosting offered by IONOS and their price range:
| Type of hosting | Price range | Best for |
| Shared hosting | $1.00-10.00/month | Beginners and basic websites for portfolios, blogs, passion projects, and small businesses. |
| WordPress Pro hosting | $1.00-12.00/month | WordPress developers, designers, and agencies. |
| Windows hosting | $6.00-11.00/month | Small and medium-sized projects on the Windows operating system (OS). |
| VPS hosting | $2.00-29.00/month | More advanced users who want better resources, control, and performance. |
| Dedicated server hosting | $75.00-425.00/month | High-traffic websites, organizations, online stores, and advanced users. |
As seen in the table, IONOS offers cheapest pricing for its shared and WordPress hosting plans. While other hosting solutions are more expensive, they are still relatively affordable. For example, VPS hosting with Bluehost ranges from $46.99/month to $141.19/month, while IONOS offers it from $2.00/month to $29.00/month.
The Plus plan costs just $1.00/month if you prepay for 12 months. That is the lowest price you can get to host small scale projects.
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:
-
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
-
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, and fonts
-
You can also edit the website and add some additional information
-
In the IONOs App Center, you can install various website plugins like website translator or appointment booking calendar. The installation and setup is very easy and requires just a few clicks
- 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, such as Gmail and Microsoft Exchange
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.
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.
In the center of the window, you’ll find all the functionalities you need for your website. They can be found under the main categories – Domains & SSL, Email, Websites & Shops.
Some users find the IONOS control panel confusing, especially if they’re used to cPanel. However, I think it’s natural to need some time to get used to a new interface – it doesn’t mean 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.
Also, 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 helpful tools to simplify and accelerate the process. While not overly elaborate, it provides 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.
The IONOS custom one-click installer helps you to quickly set up your WordPress site so you can hit the ground running. It’s as simple as any other one-click installer in the market. All you need to do is enter your domain name and hit install.
In addition to the custom installer, the host also offers WordPress Setup Assistant plugin. Simply select the purpose of your site, and the Assistant will take over. It will suggest design templates, install the selected template, and install various plugins.
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.
IONOS email
IONOS email is included in all of its hosting plans. However, if you want to create a custom email, you’re required to have a registered domain with IONOS. The email setup process is rather straightforward. Upon creating an email you can select additional features, such as email archiving, virus protection, and AI email assistant. Note, that any additional features are paid, but AI assistant comes with 1-month free trial.
You’ll find the IONOS email dashboard quite familiar, as it closely resembles Gmail. It includes a calendar, address book, tasks, portal features, and design customization options.
After the creation and setup of custom email are complete, you can edit inbox settings, including the auto-responder, forwarding, and use migration tools. Remember that only 1 professional email account with 2GB of storage is available with all IONOS plans.
IONOS performance
IONOS performance is very good, considering what you pay. The host is 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 evaluate 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 100% uptime with high reachability. That’s very much in line with the provider’s uptime guarantee of 99.99%%. By comparison, Hostinger’s and Bluehost’s uptime results in our tests were also 100%.
That said, maintaining 100% uptime all the time is virtually impossible, as 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 averaged to around 914ms. To compare with other providers, Hostinger showed a stable 175ms response time, below the market average of 600ms, and Bluehost had a 154ms response time. In this case, IONOS demonstrated an average response time above the 200ms mark, which is considered an excellent result. While 914ms is not terrible, it indicates room for improvement.
Overall, IONOS uptime is really good. Meanwhile, its server response times are slower than desired.
IONOS website speed
Further, I tested the provider’s website speed on a fully built WordPress site. It did relatively well in this test with the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). What you want here is to see an LCP below 2.5s, which is considered incredibly fast and good news for user experience.
In the case of IONOS, LCP for the Virginia server was 3.352s, which is above Google’s recommended 2.5s. While it’s not an ideal result, LCP scores that fall within the range of 2.5-4s are still considered good, but could use some improvement.
Briefly, IONOS loads websites fairly quickly. That’s what matters for organic traffic and user experience.
IONOS stress testing
Lastly, to test IONOS traffic-handling ability, a stress test was carried out. 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 want to note that 50 VUs would be equal to 50,000 monthly visitors –a massive load on the server, especially a shared one.
So, I eased up and gradually slashed the number of VUs until IONOS passed with 10 VUs, which is about 10,000 monthly visitors. It might not sound like a lot but, trust me, that’s still far more than what most websites on shared hosting experience.
Extremely reliable, fairly stable, and fast, IONOS delivers performance worthy of praise. At this price point, it surpasses many of its competitors with ease.
Security: is 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, and DDoS protection.
- SSL certificates. 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. These backups are automatically stored for up to 6 days, allowing you to recover files easily. For a budget host, weekly backups are more common than daily automated backups, making this a notable advantage for 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 IONOS’ DDoS protection is activated by default.
- Site Scan. A basic version is included to scan for malware. Some of its features include daily malware scanning, reputation monitoring, spam and blocklist monitoring, and a platform scan for WordPress.
- Georedundant infrastructure. IONOS stores your data in two separate data centers, about 60 kilometers apart, to protect against data loss and outages.
Overall, I’m impressed with 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 |
| ❌ 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, IONOS doesn’t provide a support email address but does offer multiple phone numbers for different countries.
When testing the phone support, I always found someone available to take my calls, 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 the live chat was sometimes 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, IONOS support via phone and live chat are excellent. Plus, its knowledge base and help center are extremely helpful as well.
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 at affordable prices. Additionally, the provider’s security suite is comprehensive, with the option to add 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 Bluehost or Hostinger. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that IONOS deserves second place among the best hosting providers.
| Feature | 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 one click with its installer. | |
| Performance | The host is remarkably reliable and its website loading times are top-notch. 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 two 24/7 support methods – live chat and phone line. Additionally, you can browse the seemingly endless help center for solutions. |
FAQ
What is IONOS?
IONOS is a well-known European hosting provider that is focused on providing services to businesses and large web projects. Additionally to web hosting services, it also offers domain registration and cloud computing.
Does IONOS offer a free trial or money-back guarantee?
Yes, like most hosting providers on the market, IONOS offers a standard 30-day money-back guarantee. It lets you test out the services risk-free and get your money back on no questions asked basis.
Are there any hidden fees with IONOS?
No, IONOS is very transparent about its pricing. Therefore, there are no hidden costs attached to any of its hosting plans.
Can I migrate my website to IONOS?
Yes, you can migrate your website to IONOS. The migration process consists of a two-step process. First, you have to prepare your domain for transfer with your old provider and access the authorization code. Next, initiate transfer to IONOS and confirm the transfer with the authorization code you obtained from your old provider.
What are the best alternatives to IONOS?
The best alternatives to IONOS are Hostinger and Bluehost. Hostinger, though pricier, is a great alternative because it offers more features and surpasses IONOS in performance. Bluehost is another great alternative. Similarly to IONOS, it’s a cheaper provider but Bluehost offers more WordPress-specific features.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are markedmarked