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Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers.
Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers.
If you are looking for a web hosting service for your WordPress website, IONOS should be on your radar. The website offers top-notch customer service and reliable performance for an affordable rate.
Managed WordPress users all over the world rely on IONOS, especially since the company has been providing top web hosting services since 1988. It has over eight million global customers and 15 brick-and-mortar offices in nine countries that serve over 2,000 employees in 40 countries.
Our IONOS hosting review includes information about the services, web host features, and prices. Read on to learn more information about their shared hosting plan and website builder.
Before changing its name to IONOS, the company called itself 1&1. They offer several hosting options like
If IONOS doesn’t work for you, or you live in a country that doesn’t offer their services, you can choose from alternative hosting providers.
Bluehost
offers good uptime with an easy-to-use dashboard and website building platform. They offer 24/7 customer support. Bluehost offers an all-in-one website platform that lets you get started quickly with plenty of optimization, marketing, and analytical tools for scalable growth with peace-of-mind reliability, security, and backup data protection.
Bluehost takes pride in offering 24/7 support for all of its products. They offer shared hosting for blogs or small websites, online store support with WooCommerce hosting, and managed WordPress hosting for a low monthly rate. Most of their packages are under $15 per month with 36-month terms. Most hosting companies increase prices after 12 months of service.
When you join Bluehost, you can take advantage of their collection of themes, branding tools, and plugins. If you have any questions about their products, their service team is always available to help. They can help with everything from tech problems to SEO questions. The Bluehost dashboard includes information about user comments, visitor analytics, and live users.
Hostinger has one of the fastest load times in the industry as well as multilingual customer support. Customers appreciate Hostinger’s affordable pricing. Hostinger offers a 30-day money-back guarantee when you sign up for a 12-month program. They include free SSL and Cloudflare, along with a free .com domain name.
The hosting site provides single-shared hosting, premium-shared hosting, business-shared hosting, WordPress hosting, and a robust website builder. Many of their packages cost less than $5 per month. They also offer 24/7 support with any package. You can access the support via chat to talk to experts who can solve any tech problem.
Hosting also offers scalable plans so you can start with a small site and upgrade as you grow. As your needs grow, Hostinger can provide large-scale support. Their powerful and easy-to-use panel includes a collection of WordPress-optimized tools.
Dreamhost is another good choice as they offer unlimited bandwidth and an affordable month-to-month plan. Their 97-day refund period is one of the longest in the industry, giving you time to try the service and decide if it is right for you. At under $3 per month, you might not be able to say no to Dreamhost.
PCMag has named Dreamhost the Editor’s Choice for five consecutive years, proving that the site stands by service. They offer several service levels like the Shared hosting plan for people who want to get started with a website. This introductory play includes one website with unlimited traffic and unmetered bandwidth. It also has SSD storage and pre-installed WordPress.
Dreamhost also includes a website building with free automated WordPress migrations. If you want more, you can purchase the DreamPress package that comes with 30 GB of SSD storage, unlimited email, and 24/7 WordPress support. Dreamhost packages cost more than those on other sites, but the service is unparalleled.
The host also offers a Virtual Private Server for unlimited websites and 30 GB of SSD storage. Most of the packages include customer service with real people who provide tech services at any time of the day or night. Dreamhost prides itself on its 100% uptime guarantee backed by several brick-and-mortar locations for plenty of redundancy.
Hostgator
is one more web hosting site that is ideal for any small business that wants plenty of storage and hosting options. It’s located in the US and offers unmetered bandwidth and DDOS protection and a domain registrar on the cloud server.
The popular hosting platform offers several packages including the Hatchling, Baby, and Business. All packages include a free SSL certificate and domain name. With the Hatchling package, you get hosting for one website with one-click WordPress apps. The Baby and Business packages include unlimited websites with other useful features.
Hostgator offers introductory rates below $6 per month on all of its packages as well as one free domain name for 12 months. They offer unlimited storage, unmetered bandwidth, and eCommerce tools. The platform hosts more than two million websites.
When you are paying for web hosting, you want your website up as often as possible. In the year between April 2020 and March 2021, IONOS recorded an uptime of 99.98%, which is about as close to perfect as possible online. That missing .02% came from natural disasters that forced their customer service center offline.
If your potential visitors have to wait five seconds or more for a web page to load, they will go elsewhere. A slow site doesn’t just turn away customers, it also slows your Google ranking. The search-engine giant uses site-loading speed to determine your site ranking. In fact, site performance is the fourth most important tool for ranking sites in a Google search.
Rather than trusting your site performance to a low-quality hosting site, you can trust IONOS and its impressive site speed. If your customers can find something on a faster site, they will go there. IONOS has an average page-loading speed of 797 ms in the year between April 2020 and March 2021.
The only issue with IONOS is that the site did slow subtly in the last few months of the recorded year. If you do decide to use IONOS for your web hosting, take time to notice loading speed.
With so many hackers looking for easy information about customers and their finances, SSL security matters. IONOS uses a GeoTrust Dedicated SSL Certificate and a Wildcard SSL certificate for advanced security in a dangerous online universe.
To use an HTTPS website, your host needs to have an SSL certificate. Without HTTPS, Google cannot consider your site secure. Customers who want to buy from you will be reluctant to enter their personal information and credit card numbers if you do not have a secure HTTPS address.
The GeoTrust Dedicated SSL certificate comes with the server and two packages: the Developer Shared Hosting and Developer eShop Packages. IONOS includes the Wildcard SSL Certificate with the Linux and Windows hosting plans.
IONOS includes several freebies with web-hosting plans. The notable freebies include domain registration and email addresses. The free domain name comes with three hosting packages: Essential, Business, and Expert Shared. Then, you get a branded email account, which proves to your customers that you are a legitimate business owner.
Many hosting platforms use a cPanel, but the IONOS has a proprietary interface. If you’re familiar with the cPanel, you might need time to get used to the new interface. After a few rounds with it, you’ll see why IONOS designed its own interface.
The interface includes a dashboard so you can keep your eyes on your site’s statistics along with managing the SSL certificates and email addresses. IONOS also includes a robust search bar.
While robust customer support is useful, it is slow. If you want immediate help when buying a web hosting package, you must call the hosting service at a data center. You might have to wait on hold or leave a message, but a customer service representative will return your call.
Unfortunately, IONOS has a slow response through email, chat, and social media. The live chat is sporadic, showing that IONOS does not use a chatbot, but a live agent. You can get the fastest answers in the site’s knowledge base or by making a phone call.
If you want to work with IONOS, you have to register in certain countries. IONOS has a list of countries where they do not offer hosting. If you live in China, Iran, Egypt, Morocco, and some European countries, you cannot use IONOS hosting services.
The company started in Germany, but it still limits European users in Poland, Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Finland, and more. New users should check that IONOS functions in their country before signing up with the company.
If you already have a website and want to move to IONOS, you will have to pay their website transfer fee. Some hosting sites offer free transfers, but not IONOS. Offering a free transfer takes some pressure off of new customers and gets many to sign up immediately. Not offering it creates an additional burden for new customers, who also have to call to get the service.
When you sign up with IONOS, you get to pick from a large list of features for newbies and veterans alike.
If you use WordPress or WordPress Pro, you can choose a plan catered to the popular platform. Newbies benefit from using the WordPress Assistant which is a virtual wizard that helps you set up your account along with recommending themes and plugins that fit your niche through the hosting company.
Today’s internet users don’t wait around for slow-loading websites. If you want to rank in Google, your site needs to load quickly. While your internet provider is responsible for your loading speed, IONOS offers several tools that help your website load quickly even with unlimited traffic.
The speed-enhancing features include RailGun CDN, SSD storage, and HTTP/2 protocol. When you trust IONOS to host your site, you can trust that they use the latest tools to keep websites functioning at their peak.
IONOS designed its dashboard and site builder to meet the needs of rookie and veteran web developers. They have cron jobs for repetitive tasks, as well as access to SSH, FTP, and SFTP. Their latest platform supports Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and SSI.
Unfortunately, rookie web developers might struggle a bit when connecting to their domains and setting up their CDN. Once you finish those tasks, the rest of the first steps are relatively easy. To use IONOS, you have to create an account, which might take a couple of minutes. Then, you connect to a domain to install WordPress, which should take about five minutes.
After installing WordPress, you can choose from IONOS’s list of scalable resources. These include options like extra memory, added performance, RAM, and other capabilities. Don’t worry, if you don’t choose any scalable resources now, you do it later. IONOS does charge small monthly fees for these resources.
You can also choose how and where you want to access your IONOS dashboard. The company offers a smartphone app that lets you access your products, billing information, and administrative tasks.
IONOS has a drag-and-drop website builder that comes with its web hosting packages. It seamlessly integrates with social media platforms as well as online scheduling tools. To make your website building easy, the IONOS builder includes templates and over 17,000 stock images, too.
When you call IONOS, the sales representatives will tell you about their dedicated hosting services and their three packages. IONOS offers hosting for Linux and Windows on a different dedicated server. The Windows version offers more features.
The pricing structures increase after the renewal, but the first year is affordable. You can use a credit card or Paypal to pay for your service.
The Essential plan starts at $4 per month and later increases to $6 per month. The hosting provider includes one website with unmetered bandwidth and 10GB of storage. You get one email account, a free domain, and basic CPU and MEM resources.
The Business plan is $1 with a $10 renewal. This service includes unlimited websites and unmetered bandwidth and storage, along with one email account, a free domain, and enhanced CPU and MEM resources.
The Expert plan is $8 per month with a $16 renewal. This service includes everything that comes with the Business plan along with maximum CPU and MEM resources, SiteScan, CDN, and a free domain. The Expert plan has unlimited storage in the shared hosting package.
The Windows plans have slightly different names and a few other features for each hosting account.
The Business plan is $5 per month with a $10 renewal. It includes one website, 100GB of storage with unmetered bandwidth, an email account, and a domain. This is a great package for a small business that needs an affordable web hosting company.
The Pro plan includes $6 and $12 with five websites, 250 GB of storage, along with unmetered bandwidth. The Expert plan is $8 and $16 with 50 websites and 500 GB of storage. Both have a free domain and one email account, but the Expert plan also comes with CDN.
Before you choose IONOS, check out some of the FAQs.
The opening plans are some of the lowest in the industry. When the prices increase after renewals, the prices are in line with other websites. Some websites have slightly lower prices, but they may not offer the same type of features. Others might have higher prices, but they maintain their price points for longer than one year.
When you choose a hosting site, you should look at more than the price. Uptime is one of the most important features, as downtime can hurt your sales and productivity. Before committing to IONOS or another hosting site, look at their uptime guarantee, customer service experiences, and dashboard details.
Most hosting sites offer packages under $20 per month, even for robust, large-scale hosting. Several also offer packages for under $5 per month. Some have unlimited resources, while others limit email addresses or storage. Find the product that fits your needs, then look at the price.
IONOS has upfront pricing that only has a few extra costs. The first is the $50 set-up fee for dedicated hosting. The site charges extra for their website builder and email marketing apps. They also charge for backups. Fortunately, they work seamlessly, so paying the extra fees are worthwhile.
No one wants to see surprise charges on their monthly bills. When you sign up with IONOS or another hosting site, check your account before you commit to extra features. Some features might be free for a month or two, then the charges start accruing.
You might consider receiving a monthly bill rather than having an automatic payment. While they are convenient, many people lose track of what they are paying when they don’t see an automatic bill.
Remember that web-hosting sites like IONOS have to charge taxes on their products. So, even if the site promises a $1 monthly rate, you will have to pay your state and local taxes. These aren’t hidden costs, but they can be surprising for users who aren’t expecting them on their monthly bills.
No. The company’s cancellation procedure is challenging. You have to call, mail, or email your cancellation request. You must send the request so it arrives no later than three days before your renewal date. Then, IONOS has to reply in writing to confirm your cancellation. If you don’t receive a written confirmation, your account is still active.
No company wants to lose business, so before you close your account, give your hosting company time to correct any issues. Remember that when you switch hosting platforms, you have to migrate your site and learn to use a new dashboard. The process of switching can be time-consuming and stressful.
Sometimes, hosting sites will lower their monthly rates to keep customers. So, if you have an issue with your monthly rate, talk to your provider. They might accommodate your financial issue and lower your monthly rate. If they can’t lower the payment, they might add features to keep you as a satisfied customer.
Many hosting sites offer affiliate, referral, and partner programs. IONOS has more than 20,000 partners like agencies and web professionals that use the program for benefits, tools, products, and next-level support.
IONOS offers partner-level prices like no setup fees and cloud server credits. They also offer flexible contract terms for partners. Partners get a special portal where they can access, adjust, and supplement their products without having to use several usernames and passwords.
Partners can connect with other partners through the IONOS network. This network allows partners to find freelancers, designers, and clients who want to grow their businesses through IONOS. The collaborative process builds partnerships that understand how to use the IONOS hosting services.
IONOS also offers a three-step affiliate program. To get involved, you order a product, then recommend it through an email, domain forwarding, or a link. If someone buys the product, IONOS gives you a commission. You can use the affiliate program after your 30-day trial package finishes.
You can earn commissions on web hosting, dedicated hosting, the website builder, and your domain name. IONOS requires you to add your customer ID to any orders so you can receive commissions off of your referrals.
IONOS pays you rewards for your unused domains. When you enter your account, find your unused domains in the Domains & SSL menu option. Select the unused domain and click on the button for earning money on it. Then, choose the option where you can recommend IONOS through your domain.
If someone orders a product from IONOS from your unused domain, you earn a commission. If you send enough customers to IONOS, you might earn more than enough to pay your monthly fees for web hosting services.
IONOS pays commissions to the financial account you have listed in your dashboard. Actual commissions vary by product, and IONOS has put limits on how many commissions users can earn each year. Commissions start at $1 for a simple back-office product and go up to $240 for a 12-month contract for a WordPress Pro Agency subscription.
IONOS has been hosting websites since 1988, so the company knows what it is doing. However, other sites that have higher rankings from the experts. For example, Hostgator ranks higher because it has better customer service support. Bluehost ranks higher because it specializes in WordPress hosting.
Some hosting providers have 100% guaranteed uptime, while IONOS promises to be live 99% of the time. If uptime is important, then you might look elsewhere for website hosting.
When you sign up with IONOS, you get a personal consultant to help you with your web hosting needs. However, other websites have faster service from experts, showing that IONOS has a weakness.
If you need help designing your website, IONOS offers experts who can build your website, help you with maintenance and basic SEO. This service adds an extra fee to your monthly bill, but it gives you time to do other things rather than worrying about your website design and functionality.
IONOS also offers local listing services for a small monthly fee. The company offers two packages that put your website on the map and handles reputation management. The packages include adding your business information to important directories. Then, the site connects your social media accounts to draw more customers with the goal of boosting your Google ranking.
IONOS has outstanding customer service that involves several methods. To order service, new customers have to call IONOS. If no one answers, you must leave a message so the sales team can call you back to talk about their services. IONOS does not offer a chat or email service for new customers.
Of all of the service features, having to call for a new service is the least popular feature. But, once you sign up, you get a consultant who will help you via email or chat at any time of the day or night. The consultant will help you with all services and features, which is better than most other hosting services.
After activating the personal consultant, you have access to the live chat service. Unfortunately, it only works when an agent is available, so you will receive a notification about checking back when the agent is online. Having a live chat is useful, but only when someone can reply to your questions.
IONOS offers an email address for customer service questions. Unfortunately, the IONOS agents do not reply quickly, sometimes making customers wait 24 to 48 hours for a response. The responses are helpful, but they are very slow.
IONOS also provides customer service through its Facebook page. Usually, IONOS replies faster to Facebook questions than to those they receive via email or chat. The responses vary based on which country you access, with the US Facebook having the fastest response.
We like IONOS, especially with the Linux and Windows options. IONOS is affordable and filled with features. We had issues at first with the proprietary platform, but after a few go-rounds with it, we figured it out and have since become savvy with it.
We also really like the SSL security features, the free email address, and the free domain. We also appreciate the IONOS loading speed and practically perfect uptime. Even the price is right, with the $1 monthly pricing for businesses, and the increased price of $10 is still very affordable.
Remember that monthly cost isn’t everything. Several sites offer reliable hosting with outstanding customer service and 100% uptime guarantees for under $5 per month. Pick a hosting site that meets your needs and budget.
What we don’t like is the slow customer service. We also don’t like that we have to pay a fee to transfer web hosting services to IONOS, especially when so many other services offer it for free. Transferring to a new host is time-consuming and stressful, so we like when businesses waive that fee.
IONOS isn’t the best option for everyone, but it is a great choice for many businesses looking for a reliable and affordable web hosting service. We recommend looking at alternative web hosting services before committing to IONOS. After seeing what other web hosting sites offer, you might find IONOS is perfect for you.
