Web hosting company IONOS may not be well known outside tech circles but it has been around longer than most. Its official name is 1&1 Ionos and it was established in 1988.
The company provides many services beyond web hosting. It also packages things like SSL certificates, domain registration, email, cloud hosting, and website building into its packaging. Its reach is larger than many of its competitors with 10 data centers and 90,000 servers scattered all over the U.S. and Europe. IONOS serves eight million customers, making it one of the larger and probably one of the best web hosting providers.
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Pros:
- Large domain registry
- Super cheap pricing
- Good uptime
Cons:
- Setup is difficult
- Site migration is tough
- Hidden costs
Who is IONOS best for?
IONOS is a good web hosting service for specific people. Those who have used their products and now need web hosting would like it. Those who have the technical knowledge and want to save by claiming the introductory rates would find it the right web hosting company for them.
Finally, those who want to launch a business website and know about website building would find the introductory price for the first year is simply unbeatable.
What are the pros and cons of IONOS?
Pros
IONOS has some advantages that create loyal customers. It has a few disadvantages too. In this hosting review, we’ll look at a summary of the pros and cons.
- Large domain registry: Sometimes size matters and a large registry comes in handy when you want a domain name. IONOS is one of the world’s biggest domain registrars and company officials integrated all their products so it is a no-worry system when you want some things. Plus, packages for IONOS include one year of a free domain when you subscribe to a hosting package.
- Super cheap pricing: IONOS has the absolute cheapest rate for business web hosting than anyone on the market at $1 a month. Its other packages are cheap too. The neat feature about IONOS pricing is that all of their packages come with a no-risk, cancel anytime policy.
- Good uptime: Uptimes are important to those who own and manage websites. After all, time is money and in the case of websites, downtime means a loss of potential customers. That dramatically affects revenue. IONOS meets the industry standard of 99.9% uptime and there are no negative reviews on uptime, so this is surely the case. Top-notch page loads are ideal for small businesses and e-commerce sites.
- Fast load times: IONOS also has good memory so your website can be built with fast load times.
Cons
- Setup is difficult: No one owning a website wants it to be difficult to build or manage. Most people lack experience at this part of technical know-how so they need step-by-step guidance. IONOS, for all its positives, is still stuck in the 1990s when it comes to being user-friendly.
- Site migration is tough: There isn’t a lot of intuitiveness in pointing third-party domains to IONOS and moving a domain to the site is challenging. It’s hard to find the DNS settings of a hosting account and some basic things, like form submission, don’t work well. Other hosting sites, like GoDaddy and BlueHost, streamline this process.
- Hidden costs: These aren’t snuck in deceitfully as IONOS is straightforward in its pricing. However, you must pay attention to the plan you choose to know exactly what is included. For instance, a dedicated hosting plan has a $50 setup fee and you will need to pay extra and sign up for a separate plan to use the website builder or email marketing software. IONOS offers so many services that it’s easy to become confused about what is in each plan.
What are the top features?
There are three positive features that IONOS offers that its competitors do not always offer. Some of the best features are listed below.
Cloud infrastructure
Cloud infrastructure allows a business a lot of flexibility and customization, which is great for those who are running larger websites. It also creates security for websites because they are easily retrievable should something happen to knock the network offline.
Personal consultant
Most web hosting companies don’t offer one-on-one support but IONOS makes sure it dedicates a personal consultant to help clients on their path to website creation and management.
Having a personal consultant is not typically something any company would offer at the prices IONOS lists. That is one great added perk.
Risk-free contracts
Few companies outside of IONOS offer risk-free contracts on all its packages. Most of the time, cheap rates come with a commitment for several years. However, IONOS has policies that are upfront.
However, canceling your contract can be a bit complicated. It requires you to provide written documentation at least three working days in advance of the cancellation date. That isn’t the problem.
The problem is IONOS won’t honor your cancellation request until they send you a written confirmation. So, they can delay that confirmation and cost you more money.
What hosting types can users expect?
IONOS offers four types of hosting types:
- Shared
- VPS
- Cloud hosting
- Dedicated hosting
Shared hosting
Shared hosting is always the cheapest way to go as your website shares its pool of resources with multiple websites. An analogy would be sharing an apartment with four or five people. There are only so many resources you can use before you see problems.
IONOS has some issues with its shared hosting plans including traffic allowances, power, and unlimited storage. Most say it offers median to disappointing services, but the low price may be worth it depending on your budget.
VPS
There is a trade-off for the lowest cost plan and some of that trade-off comes in IONOS VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting features. Yet, it does a fairly good job
VPS is typically a good compromise between having a shared host and a dedicated host. It offers some space and bandwidth you can call your own, unlike shared hosting packages, and yet keeps prices much lower than web hosting packages with dedicated servers.
In the case of IONOS, its VPS hosting falls behind its competitors in its RAM and CPU cores that give power to websites.
Cloud hosting
It is IONOS’ cloud hosting that sets it apart from competitors. It has eight different cloud plans, making it highly scalable. That also makes it simple to upgrade as you need. You can start on a small, cheaper plan and move up when necessary.
Dedicated hosting
Dedicated hosting is also something IONOS does well. It is a good option for those whose websites are gaining heavy traffic or sites that need a customized control panel.
Websites in this category are assured of solid performance and security. Fifteen data centers support this within IONOS across the world. That’s twice the number of its nearest competitor. You can choose a data center close to your audience, making your site as fast as possible.
What’s performance and liability like for IONOS?
IONOS performance is solid with it outperforming bigger web hosts but is a little slower than others. So, its performance would fall somewhere in the middle but is still good for websites. Website tests show it is consistent.
It has good uptimes too and meets industry standards of 99.99 percent uptime.
What kind of security is in place?
IONOS has excellent security. It has data protection by identifying and blocking bad login attempts and two-factor authentication.
It also offers website security by protecting it against spam, data loss, viruses, and malware. Email accounts are protected as well, with exchanges encrypted to protect information.
IONOS also includes a free SSL (Secure Sockets Layers) certificate with 256 encryption with all contracts. This type of certificate provides the ultimate protection during data transfers and lets viewers of your site know you are a safe site to visit.
Daily backups occur too, so you don’t need anyone on the backend handling this.
What’s the cost of IONOS?
Each hosting type offers several plans with one being basic, one aimed at businesses, and one targeting larger businesses. For simplicity, we are listing the price ranges under each time of hosting.
- Shared hosting costs between $4 and $14 per month.
- VPS hosting costs between $10 and $40 a month, depending on which of the four business plans you choose.
- Dedicated hosting starts at $75 a month and can cost as much as $170 a month. Dedicated hosting plans also have promos for each of the four plans that can save you close to 30 percent over three months.
- SSD/NVME plans begin at $75 a month and go up as high as $170 a month. Like the dedicated server plan, this plan also has promos on all four choices, saving around 30 percent.
- WordPress hosting: There are three plans available under WordPress hosting where prices start at $9 a month and go up to $15 a month. There are 12-month commitment promos on these packages as well that significantly reduce rates to as low as one-tenth of the normal cost.
- Cloud hosting has four plans with the cheapest one at $15 per month and the most expensive set at $65 a month.
What can users expect in terms of customer tech support?
Customer support can make all the difference when it comes to how well you like your web hosting company and IONOS offers the best experts available. It has 24/7 phone support every day of the year. It also has a live chat, but times, when it is available, are unclear. Expert plans, like the VPS and dedicated hosting, have free email support that comes with a reasonable response time.
The company also has how-to guides, a good knowledge base, and frequently asked questions.
It also has an extra support option where you can get personal support from your consultant completely free.
FAQs
Is IONOS suitable for large-scale businesses?
It depends on what you consider a large-scale business. If you are referring to companies like Home Depot and Porsche, then IONOS is definitely not the best. However, it might be an excellent place to start if you own a start-up business because of its very low prices before and after the one-year renewal period.
If you just started a WordPress site and want to use your resources in building an audience rather than actually selling products, you can definitely take advantage of its low prices. But IONOS is not the best option out there, especially for medium to large businesses.
Does IONOS have reseller web hosting plans?
Unfortunately, IONOS does not have any reseller web hosting plans. If you are looking to create a web hosting plan business of your own, there are many better choices. However, you should expect to pay a higher premium for plans like these.
Reseller plans allow you to put your branding on web hosting without dealing with infrastructure and other operations. You can definitely find a different provider that offers resellers a chance to be an affiliate.
Does IONOS offer a free SSL Certificate?
Unfortunately, it does not include a free SSL certificate for your website because of its meager price. However, it offers SSL plans that cost as low as $20 per year, which is a pretty good deal on top of its low monthly plans compared to other web hosting options. Other web hosting platforms might offer a free SSL certificate, but the monthly subscriptions significantly cost more than IONOS’ most expensive plan.
What is the cheapest IONOS web hosting plan?
While some web hosting services have $20 per month plans, IONOS web hosting’s cheapest plan only costs $4 per month, which is about 400% more affordable. But because of its very low prices, do not expect the best performance and reliability.
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