Table of Contents
IONOS: A Quick Overview
Whoishostingthis.com’s Editor Rating?
What Users Say About IONOS?
What Are the Pros and Cons of IONOS?
whoishostingthis.com’s Editorial Review
Who Should Choose IONOS?
IONOS Plans and Pricing
Features
Performance and Uptime
Security
Support
Recent Improvements
Compare IONOS Alternatives
What You Need to Know
What Is IONOS the Company?
How We Reviewed IONOS
IONOS standout features | |
Performance | Highly efficient and trustworthy hosting |
Average load time | Approximately 2,530 ms (milliseconds) |
Average response | Approximately 97 ms |
Free domain | Yes, one free domain for the first year |
SSL | Free SSL (secure sockets layer) certificate from GeoTrust |
One-click password | No |
Support | 24/7 support via phone, email, or live chat |
What Are the Pros and Cons of IONOS?
IONOS comes with a multitude of advantages and years of expertise within the business; nevertheless, there are certain downsides that should be considered prior to acquiring a web hosting service.
If you’re unsure which IONOS web hosting plan to choose, the following are the most prominent pros and cons to note.
What we like about IONOS
- Proven track record: Since its founding in 1988, IONOS has had worldwide success, allowing it to build a robust and forward-thinking portfolio.
- Automatic daily backups: I liked how daily backups are performed automatically and without my intervention.
- Windows and Linux hosting: IONOS provides both Linux and Windows hosting solutions.
- 30-day money-back guarantee: With IONOS web hosting, you can ask for a full refund in case you are dissatisfied with the performance of your basic services.
What fell flat
- Only one free SSL certificate per plan: All IONOS web hosting plans include a complimentary Wildcard SSL certificate with your hosting account; however, if you have more than one domain with them, you must buy any extra certificates.
- No migration services: Well, not just yet! Currently, IONOS only offers a manual migration guide, but a new tool to make automated migrations possible at no additional cost will be released shortly.
- Unreliable live chat system: Although I found customer assistance to be nothing short of excellent, the live chat support feature was often unavailable throughout the day.
- No cPanel or Plesk: All IONOS web hosting services come with their own proprietary interface, which may feel a bit different if you’re used to working with cPanel or Plesk. It certainly has its benefits, which can easily turn this con into a pro for those willing to adapt.
whoishostingthis.com’s Editorial Review
During my testing, I discovered IONOS to be incredibly dependable and to provide very efficient web hosting servers. It offers strong overall user ratings, exceptional uptime stats, great features, and an established track record.
Great range of plugins
As a website owner, I found IONOS a breeze to work with and adapt to my needs. I tested various plans, and they all came with a combination of excellent plugins from multiple content management systems like TYPO3, Joomla, Drupal, and PrestaShop.
The WordPress plugin was also accessible for installation; however, the WordPress plans offered seemed more practical for an all-around solution. IONOS allowed me to download a “WordPress for Beginners” guide, which I thought was quite helpful from a first-time user’s point of view. It covers the fundamentals of creating a WordPress site your way, including how to implement the sheer variety of free plugins and themes.
30-day money-back guarantee on shared plans
I was able to cancel and receive a full refund for shared IONOS web hosting plans within the first 30 days. This is ideal for first-time users who want to get a sense of how the platform works before committing to and growing with this web host provider.
Georedundant infrastructure
Since IONOS replicates data across 10 data centers, all of their hosting plans boast impressively high rates of uptime. This gave me confidence that my website would stay up and running even if one of the components failed.
99.95% uptime guarantee
The IONOS uptime guarantee states that your hosting servers will be online and ready to handle traffic 99.95% of the time. In my tests, IONOS servers had an average uptime of 99.995% over the last 30 days, which is even higher than the advertised statistic.
Free SSL certificate
All IONOS web hosting subscriptions include a free Wildcard SSL certificate, which protects your website and up to 10,000 subdomains. It establishes a secure connection and shields all sensitive information from unauthorized third parties.
Free domain for one year
I chose a 12-month package, and IONOS handed me a free domain name. The extensions offered were .us, .ca, .com, .net, .org, .info, .me, .biz, and .online, and I could see the regular fee that I would be paying after the initial contract period expired.
Daily backups
IONOS makes daily backups that are accessible for a maximum of six days. I preferred to preserve certain versions for a longer amount of time, so I made some additional manual ones. One thing I appreciated about IONOS is that it has a variety of different tutorials on how to achieve this in the help area.
Free professional email
Even the most basic IONOS web hosting package provides a free professional email account with 2 GB (gigabytes) of storage and a cutting-edge spam filter.
IONOS uptime report. Source: hrank.com
Site response times
IONOS has an average response time of 97 ms, which is much faster than Google’s recommended response time of 200 ms. Nonetheless, web hosting providers such as Kinsta records faster response times.
IONOS promises a 24-hour support system through email, phone, and live chat. While my overall experience was excellent, I discovered the live chat function on the website to be unavailable many times during the day. I had to resort to Twitter, where the specialists were quick to respond to my inquiries and clarify any points I was unclear on.
Compare IONOS Alternatives
IONOS is among the best web hosting providers for small and medium-sized businesses and excels in innovation, reliability, and experience. Nonetheless, there are a plethora of reliable alternative providers available. Here are a few of my current favorites after using and researching dozens of different hosting providers.
What You Need to Know
Is 1&1 the same as IONOS?
What type of web hosting plans does IONOS offer?
Is IONOS a good hosting platform for WordPress sites?
What is IONOS’s cheapest hosting plan?
Does IONOS offer domain name registration?
Does IONOS use cPanel?
How We Reviewed IONOS
I test web hosts based on the following factors
Learn more about our review methodology.