Our Verdict
Whether you’re building a new website or looking for a better hosting service for an existing site, securing a reliable hosting provider is essential. There are so many options to choose from, and it can be difficult to determine which is best for your specific needs. After conducting extensive reviews of dozens of providers, Forbes Advisor India found that IONOS is one of the best hosting providers available today.
IONOS manages 12 million domains and has contracts with 8 million customers around the world. The company makes our list of the best web hosting providers, scoring so well primarily due to its affordable plans, unlimited storage and reputation for being reliable and secure. Plus, at less than INR 100 per month for the first year, IONOS has one of the cheapest introductory offers on the market.
Ionos
Price per month
INR 80 onwards
Features:
Affordable hosting plans, free SSL certificates, daily backup
Free trial:
30 days
Price per month
INR 80 onwards
Features:
Affordable hosting plans, free SSL certificates, daily backup
Free trial:
30 days
- Low-cost intro rates.
- Unlimited storage for Business and Expert plans.
- Fast website load speed.
- Free Wildcard SSL certificate.
- Inconsistent support quality
- Frequent upselling
- No free website migration
- Only one free email account per plan
What Is IONOS?
IONOS is a popular web hosting and cloud services solutions partner specializing in serving small and medium-sized businesses. The company, originally named 1&1, was established in 1988 in Europe, in 2003. In 2020, the company changed its name to IONOS.
Here are a few facts about IONOS:
- Ranks number one on Forbes’ list of best web hosting services; named the best web hosting solution for startups
- Operates 15 facilities in nine countries, including ten geo-redundant ISO 27001 certified data centers that deliver 99.9% website uptime.
- Custom support is available 24/7/365 via phone, email and chat
- Every hosting plan is backed with a 30-day money-back guarantee
- The IONOS Hosting Manager mobile app lets you manage your account from anywhere
- In addition to shared hosting services, IONOS also offers VPS, dedicated, cloud and enterprise hosting
- The company offers a wide variety of domain, hosting and cloud computing solutions
- IONOS also ranks number one on Forbes’ list of best e-commerce hosting providers
How IONOS Works
When building a website, you need a place to house your website design and data files. Web hosting is a service that provides the storage and resources you need to make your website visible and accessible on the internet.
A website hosting provider offers storage space on a server or group of servers that is designed explicitly for the purpose of housing websites. Customers pay the provider for their storage space, essentially renting it for their website’s needs.
IONOS offers all types of hosting services, including shared, VPS and dedicated hosting services.
Shared hosting—which is when your website is hosted on the same server as others—is ideal for startups and small businesses with limited traffic and modest storage needs. Because you’re sharing resources, hosting fees are considerably lower than you’d pay for virtual private server (VPS) or dedicated hosting services—which are better options for those with more advanced website hosting needs.
We’re focusing on IONOS’ shared hosting services in this review. Feel free to check out Forbes’ list of best VPS hosting services and Forbes’ list of best dedicated hosting providers if your hosting needs are more advanced.
IONOS Shared Website Hosting
IONOS offers three levels of shared hosting plans, each designed for various levels of resource requirements. You can use the IONOS builder to create your custom website in a matter of minutes, even if you don’t have any technical or coding skills. IONOS supports popular web hosting applications, including TYPO3, Drupal, PrestaShop and Joomla.
You can also build and host a website with WordPress via IONOS. In fact, IONOS is ranked best overall provider on Forbes’ list of best WordPress hosting services.
IONOS offers both self-managed and managed WordPress hosting plans. Self-managed hosting plans are ideal for those with technical backgrounds and who want more customization and greater control over their sites. Managed plans are perfect for less tech-savvy users who need a user-friendly setup and prefer to have routine updates managed for them.
Website Domain
You’ll need a domain for your website, and IONOS offers one free domain for the first year with its hosting plans. If you intend to host more than one website, you can register additional domains with IONOS.
Should you need multiple domains, you can register a new domain with IONOS for as low as INR 80 for the first year. Domain renewal fees average under INR 1,600 for most .com domains.
Is IONOS Right for Me?
IONOS is an excellent option if you’re building a relatively simple website and are looking for an affordable web hosting provider. It may not be the best option if you require a great deal of customization for your website or anticipate building a large, content-heavy site that can support extensive website traffic.
IONOS Is Best For:
- Launching a simple website quickly using IONOS’ basic templates
- WordPress websites
- Small e-commerce websites
- Startups that need a budget-friendly hosting service
IONOS Is Not Recommended For:
- Those who need their existing WordPress websites migrated to IONOS for them; while IONOS says a WordPress migration tool is coming, it is not available yet
- Content-heavy websites (e.g., sites that host large video or image files)
- Highly customized websites
- Large, high-traffic websites
What Sets IONOS Apart
While many web hosting platforms come with a pricing structure that is difficult to understand, IONOS’ is straightforward. With a rate of just INR 80 per month, IONOS beats almost every web hosting service’s introductory price, which sets IONOS apart from other popular hosting providers. IONOS is a terrific web hosting service if you need to keep costs low.
IONOS Features
In addition to budget-friendly plan fees, IONOS offers fast loading times, unlimited traffic, website security best practices, easy app installation, generous storage, extensive customer support options, business email and marketing functionality.
RAM, Storage and Bandwidth Limits
IONOS’ Essential plan comes with up to 512MB RAM, a 384MB PHP memory limit, 10GB of storage, unlimited traffic and unlimited FTP accounts. The IONOS Business plan comes with up to 6GB RAM, a 768MB PHP memory limit, unlimited storage, unlimited traffic and unlimited FTP accounts.
The IONOS Expert plan comes with up to 19GB RAM, an 896MB PHP memory limit, unlimited storage, unlimited traffic and unlimited FTP accounts.
Ease of Use
IONOS makes creating and managing your website easy; you can launch a simple website with IONOS in mere minutes. IONOS has its own drag-and-drop website builder that comes with hundreds of customizable design templates. WordPress hosting plans are also available, which allow for more website customization options.
IONOS offers one-click installation for more than 70 popular third-party applications. While most users find the IONOS dashboard intuitive and user-friendly, tech-savvy users report facing challenges using the IONOS interface to tailor their websites via advanced customizations.
Each IONOS shared hosting plan comes with one free business email and up to 2GB of email storage. Frankly, the one email limit is a bit low for the advanced plans, but you can purchase additional emails for an add-on fee. Email forwarding, webmail 2.0, anti-phishing and anti-spam are included in all plans.
Marketing
IONOS offers a few marketing features with its plans. SiteAnalytics, Google Sitemaps and 10 to 100 mailing lists are included with each IONOS shared hosting plan.
User Dashboard/cPanel
IONOS has made several improvements to the user experience over the past few years. Those with modest technical skills typically find the IONOS user experience largely positive, while beginners may experience a steeper learning curve.
More advanced users who are accustomed to working with cPanel—which IONOS does not have—sometimes report some confusion with IONOS’ proprietary tools.
Security
Every website hosting plan comes with a free SSL certificate with 256-bit encryption. IONOS server facilities are ISO 27001 certified, and geo-redundant hosting means that your data is mirrored in two data centers. Geo-redundancy ensures that a website remains live even if one server is down for maintenance or an unexpected outage. IONOS also includes malware and DDoS protection with its hosting services
IONOS Pricing and Plans
*IONOS does not use cPanel, but rather uses its own proprietary control panel.
The IONOS Essential Plan
The Essential plan is economical for smaller websites with minimal storage and processing needs. The plan costs INR 300 per month for the first year and renews at INR 500 per month. The Essential plan includes up to 512MB Ram, a PHP memory limit of 384MB and a 10GB storage limit. The plan also comes with 10 MariaDB 10 or MySQL 8 databases, up to 2GB each, and ten mailing lists.
The IONOS Business Plan
The Business plan costs just INR 80 per month for the first year of the plan and renews at INR 800 per month. This mid-tier plan is a budget-friendly option for small to medium-sized websites with modest storage and processing needs.
The Business plan includes up to 6GB RAM, a PHP memory limit of 768MB and unlimited storage. The plan also comes with unlimited databases, unlimited websites and 25 mailing lists.
The IONOS Expert Plan
If you need more computing power, you’ll need to go with IONOS’ Expert plan, which is ideal for those with multiple or larger web projects. The Expert plan costs INR 650 per month for the first year and renews at INR 1,300 per month. It comes with unlimited websites, unlimited storage and unlimited databases, plus 100 mailing lists. The Expert plan also has up to 19GB RAM and an 896MB PHP memory limit.
Customer Service and Support
IONOS offers extensive customer support options; you can contact the company 24/7 via telephone, email or live chat. Forbes used both phone and online chat support when writing this review and found the experience in both instances to be helpful, prompt and courteous.
The company hosts an extensive online help center and an online community where you can connect with other users. The online resources are ideal if you want quick answers and prefer to seek them yourself rather than reach out for personalized help.
Customer Feedback
Feedback on IONOS customer reviews is mixed. Positive reviews mention unbeatable pricing, responsive support and platform stability and reliability. The less favorable reviews comment on website glitches, billing misunderstandings, pushy upselling and complications with launching websites.
Additional Features Worth Noting
IONOS offers website development and design solutions through its MyWebsite Design Service. The IONOS team of designers and copywriters will create a website with up to seven pages for you; they’ll even develop a logo for your business. Choose from three levels of website and design maintenance services.
The IONOS Design Service S is perfect for businesses that require a relatively small website and anticipate minimal changes. This plan includes a website design with up to three custom pages and edits once a quarter. The fee is INR 2,500 per month, plus a one-time setup fee of INR 16,000.
The IONOS Design Service M is ideal for medium-size websites that require more frequent updating. This plan includes a website design with up to five custom pages and one website edit per month. The fee is INR 3,600 per month, plus a one-time setup fee of INR 16,000.
Those with more significant website needs may want to go with IONOS’ Design Service L. For INR 5,000 per month, plus a one-time setup fee of INR 16,000, you’ll receive a website with up to seven custom pages and unlimited website edits.
IONOS also offers e-commerce design services. For INR 5,700 per month, plus a one-time setup fee of INR 80,000, the IONOS e-commerce site developers will create an online store with three pages, ten products and ten product detail pages. Your website will come complete with payment and shipping setup, Facebook and Instagram Shop integration, and unlimited maintenance, edits and updates.
All website design plans require a minimum 12-month commitment and renew month-to-month after the first year. Each website is optimized for search. IONOS offers a free consultation to see if this service is a fit for you.
Our Expert Opinion
Overall, IONOS has a solid reputation for reliability and security and offers the lowest introductory pricing we’ve found in light of the number of features provided. We recommend IONOS for startups and small businesses on a tight budget.