Companies in need of feature-rich, reasonably priced hosting should take a look at Ionos. The web host, which caters to small and large hosting needs, offers a wide array of enticing packages, including shared, virtual private server (VPS), WordPress, and dedicated hosting. However, it's Ionos' robust cloud servers that make it stand out from rival hosts and earn our Editors' Choice award for cloud hosting alongside the equally excellent DreamHost.
Shared hosting is one of the most popular forms of web hosting due to the low cost. With it, your website splits system resources (and the associated cost) with the many other sites set up on that same server. Shared hosting isn't particularly powerful, but it's cheap web hosting. Sometimes, that's all you need.
Ionos offers a standard monthly web hosting charge but reduces the price if you sign up for multi-month or annual packages. Ionos lets you choose a one-month plan with any package tier. This pricing method may not have much (if any) impact on large businesses, but a cash-strapped blogger will appreciate Ionos' one-month basic web hosting option. The shared web hosting servers use the linux operating system, which is par for the industry course.
The entry-level Essential package ($4 per month with an annual subscription) includes a free domain name if you purchase at least a six-month plan. If you instead opt to renew on a monthly basis, Essential costs $8 per month. The Essential package lets you host a single website and offers 10GB of storage, just one email account, 10 databases, and unlimited monthly data transfers. The highest of Ionos' four shared hosting tiers is Ultimate, which comes with unlimited websites and unlimited storage, making it a more robust and flexible option. Like Essentials, it limits you to creating just one email account. Unlimited costs $10 per month for a 12-month plan. Want to pay on a month-to-month basis? That costs $18 per month.
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Ionos also offers Windows-based shared hosting, which is unusual for this server type. The plans are similar but cost slightly more due to the Windows OS license. The $12-per-month Business tier provides 100GB of storage, 25 MS SQL databases, unlimited monthly data transfers, a free SSL certificate, and a free domain for one year. For $14 per month, the Pro tier provides 250GB of storage and 100 MS SQL databases. The $22-per-month Expert plan bumps this up to 500GB of storage and 500 MS SQL databases.
The linux plans are good for, say, a mom-and-pop shop that just wants to list its inventory. The miserly email account offerings are particularly limiting for larger ventures, and unusual for the category which typically offers unlimited email. However, you can subscribe to one of Ionos' three Mail plans for more accounts. HostGator, our Editors' Choice for shared hosting, offers superior shared web hosting packages for a wider user range.
VPS hosting is a step up from shared hosting. It's a more powerful option that sees your site leverage more server power. VPS hosting isn't quite cheap hosting, but it isn't overly expensive, either. You're less likely to notice a site slowdown because other sites that share the server get a big hit (something that often happens with shared hosting).
Ionos' six cloud-powered VPS offerings (starting at an extremely affordable $2 per month for 1GB of RAM, 10GB of NVMe storage, and unlimited data transfers) give you the essential tools for building a website that can handle the rigors of the internet better than traditional shared web hosting. Like Ionos' shared plans, the company's VPS plans don't offer much in the way of email; you can create just two email addresses. That's on the very low side for VPS hosting. Subscribing to one of Ionos' three Mail packages ups the number.
You can outfit the linux- or Windows-based servers with up to 24GB of RAM and 640GB of storage using the company's top-tier, $50-per-month VPS XXL package (discounted to an introductory $29 per month with a six-month purchase). Note that if you go the Windows route, the final price of your package can go up considerably due to licensing fees—$10 per vCore per month.
Ionos offers quality VPS web hosting packages, but Hostwinds, the Editors' Choice for VPS web hosting, tops them all by offering unlimited storage, unlimited domain hosting, and unlimited email. Hostwinds also offers flexible Minecraft VPS hosting starting at $4.99 per month.
Cloud hosting is becoming increasingly common. It differs from traditional hosting in that it spreads resources across multiple servers, whereas traditional hosting pulls power from a single server. Ionos has wholeheartedly embraced this type of hosting, offering multiple tiers of managed and unmanaged cloud hosting that can be outfitted with the linux or Windows operating systems.
The four plans start at 0.8 cent per hour ($5.76 per month) for a single-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, 60GB of SSD storage, and unlimited monthly transfers. The offerings max out at 12.5 cents per hour ($90.00 per month) for a 16-core CPU, 64GB of RAM, 960GB of SSD storage, and unlimited monthly data transfers. Depending on the tier, you can create between 10 and 100 email accounts, which is far more reasonable than other Ionos hosting plans.
Simply put, Ionos' cloud hosting packages are excellent, so much so that we crown the company an Editors' Choice winner for cloud hosting. If you want enterprise-class cloud hosting, Ionos is the way to go. DreamHost, on the other hand, is our Editors' Choice pick for smaller-scale sites that need a less demanding cloud hosting service.
When it comes to non-cloud hosting, you won't find anything more powerful than dedicated hosting. This hosting type lets your site leverage a server's full power, as it exists on the server all by itself. No system-resource sharing here. Serious, mission-critical site-runners should consider dedicated hosting as soon as they can afford it.
Ionos has several dedicated hosting tiers that are powered by either AMD or Intel servers. The plans come with either traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid-state drives (SSDs), which alter the price a bit. Ionos' dedicated servers are pay-as-you-go services that scale to match your business needs. AMD servers start at $64 per month with a two-year term, offering a Ryzen 5 Pro 3600 processor, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and 480GB of SSD storage. The highest configuration gives you an AMD EPYC 7543P processor with 256GB DDR4 RAM and 1.92TB of NVMe SSD storage for $298 per month with a two-year commitment.
Dedicated Intel servers start with the Intel Xeon E-2356G processor, with 32GB of DDR4 RAM and 512GB of NVMe storage for $85 per month with a two-year plan. The highest configuration offers an Intel Xeon Gold 5412U processor, 256GB of DDR4 RAM, and 1.92TB NVMe SSD storage for $298 per month with a two-year package. You can create as many email accounts as you need with a dedicated hosting account, as long as they don't exceed the server capacity.
Both AMD and Intel dedicated servers have Windows configuration options, starting at $38 per month for a license. All of Ionos' dedicated hosting plans include Sitelock malware protection and the RailGun content delivery network (CDN) for faster page loads.
Those are good dedicated hosting plans, but consider those from AccuWeb, which has excellent tiers of configurable linux- or Windows-powered servers. These start at $121 per month and include 32GB of RAM, 512GB of NVMe storage, and 100TB of monthly data transfers. You can outfit AccuWeb's dedicated servers with up to 256GB of memory, six 3.84TB drives' worth of NVMe storage, and unlimited monthly data transfers. As a result, AccuWeb Hosting's dedicated hosting plans reign as the category's Editors' Choice winner.
WordPress is the world's most popular content management system, one that has enough flexibility to power a blog or a Fortune 500 company's website. There are two ways to get WordPress up and running on an Ionos server. You can install WordPress on a standard server, or sign up for managed WordPress. Ionos has three linux-based WordPress packages: Start ($5 per month for the first year, then $7 per month), Grow ($1 per month for the first year, then $10 per month), and Boost ($12 per month for the first year, then $17 per month at renewal). The plans cost the same for both unmanaged and managed servers.
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Start offers 25GB of SSD storage, one email account, the ability to host a single domain, and one free URL. Grow offers 50GB of SSD storage and five email accounts. Boost, the most robust of the three options, boasts 75GB of SSD storage and 10 email accounts. All the plans have automatic malware detection and removal, automatic WordPress updates, a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate, and a curated list of recommended WordPress themes.
That's a solid offering, but WP Engine takes the crown as our Editors' Choice for WordPress hosting due to its robust, highly scalable plans. Likewise, Bluehost is an excellent WordPress host with a special design tool that gives you more WordPress customization options. (For more information on this extremely popular content management system, read about how to get started with WordPress.)
If you're looking to get into the web hosting business but don't want to deal with infrastructure matters, reseller hosting is the way to go. However, Ionos lacks reseller plans, so you must look elsewhere for that type of hosting.
PCMag recommends Hostwinds, the Editors' Choice for reseller hosting. Hostwind's plans have unlimited email, storage, and data transfers. Dedicated and VPS packages of both the linux and Windows varieties are also available, as is shared hosting, which is limited to linux. The servers have the same RAM and storage amounts as those that Hostwinds supplies directly, which is not always the case. Hostwinds also lets you apply your own branding to the servers you rent, and it supplies 24/7 tech support, too.
If you're looking to create and customize a website, Ionos offers MyWebsite, a web-building tool with the functionality you’d expect from services like the excellent Duda. MyWebsite uses a more standard layout, with the main toolbar on the left side rail. It also has drag-and-drop functionality for easy page customization without the need for coding know-how. The Starter package costs $6 per month for a six-month package and renews at $12 per month afterward. This gives you a free domain and email.
The website builder has an AI component for quickly building pages. However, AI website builders sometimes disappoint.
For a more versatile toolset, you can opt for Plus ($1 per month for six months, $18 per month upon renewing), which gives you multilingual website options and dynamic site functionality with video backgrounds and animations. The Pro tier offers specialized, dynamic content delivery options for your visitors for $15 per month for six months ($28 per month upon renewing).
If you want to sell products, the Ionos e-commerce website builder (starting at $1 per month for six months) lets you pick one of several layouts and designs. It lets you drag-and-drop prefab design elements, but there wasn't much we could manually tweak in our testing. Ionos prompts you to (optionally) enter your sales tax ID and whether you want to display items with or without the sales tax included in the price. You can add products, list delivery methods and accepted payment types, and more. There's also a customer database for keeping track of your customers.
Ionos also offers dozens of apps for improving your website, including Amazon Deals, PriceGrabber, and Square Point of Sale. However, many are only available on the top-tier Online Store Expert plan (which is $90 per month).
For more on getting started online, read our tips on how to create a website. You might also want to check out our story on how to register a domain name for your website.
Ionos includes a GeoTrust Dedicated SSL Certificate (encrypted website security that protects data exchanges between users and your site) free of charge with its Server, Developer Shared Hosting, and Developer eShop packages. If you don't have one of those plans, you can purchase a GeoTrust Dedicated SSL Certificate starting at $25 per year. Alternatively, you can buy a full GeoTrust True BusinessID Extended Validation SSL Certificate costing a hefty $200 per year.
A free SSL Wildcard and Site Scan from SiteLock are free features offered by Ionos to protect your website from hackers, malware, and unauthorized access. If you opt to display the SiteLock Trust Seal on your website, your visitors will see real-time verification that the site is secure.
Website uptime is a vital element of web hosting. If your site goes down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services. It's in your best interest to find a reliable web host that can keep your site up and running. Otherwise, customers may go elsewhere and never come back.
Ionos has a 99% uptime guarantee, which means your site should be available at nearly all times. You can view Ionos' server status via its Ionos Status Page.
If you have any problems with your hosting plan or simply have a hosting-related question, you can rest easy knowing that Ionos offers 24/7 email, web chat, and telephone support. How a company's customer service department responds to your complaint or query is vital, so we tested Ionos' mettle by placing calls on a weekday morning and evening.
We wanted to know the difference, if any, between Ionos' standard web hosting and its WordPress hosting offering. About two minutes later, an Ionos support person fielded our call. The rep correctly stated that the WordPress hosting lets Ionos automatically update WordPress and any installed plug-ins—something that users would otherwise manually handle with Ionos' standard offering. You can only access that support through a phone call or by signing into an Ionos user account. Many competing services have open online support options, either through email or online chat.
Ionos also has a personal consultant service for anyone who's signed up for hosting. The free service connects you to an agent who offers hosting tips and advice. For example, we learned how to use Ionos' website-building software. You can also use the service to learn how to grow your audience by having your business appear on Google Maps. It's a handy service that more companies should duplicate. The personal consultant is available via web chat, email, or telephone.
Ionos offers a decent 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can cancel the service at any time. That said, DreamHost leads the pack with an impressive 97-day money-back guarantee for shared hosting plans.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Ionos)
Ionos Web Hosting
- 5.0 - Exemplary: Near perfection, ground-breaking
- 4.5 - Outstanding: Best in class, acts as a benchmark for measuring competitors
- 4.0 - Excellent: A performance, feature, or value leader in its class, with few shortfalls
- 3.5 - Good: Does what the product should do, and does so better than many competitors
- 3.0 - Average: Does what the product should do, and sits in the middle of the pack
- 2.5 - Fair: We have some reservations, buy with caution
- 2.0 - Subpar: We do not recommend, buy with extreme caution
- 1.5 - Poor: Do not buy this product
- 1.0 - Dismal: Don't even think about buying this product
Read Our Editorial Mission Statement and Testing Methodologies.
Ionos offers feature-packed hosting (particularly in the cloud department), excellent customer service options, and a useful website builder. As a result, it is an Editors' Choice winner in the cloud hosting category. That said, several of Ionos' plans have relatively skimpy email capacities. If you need cloud hosting with more email accounts, check out DreamHost, our other Editors' Choice winner for cloud hosting services. It has unlimited email with almost every plan.
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