1&1 IONOS Review

2. Free SSL Security

Security is another important aspect of a hosting service. Thankfully, it is an area where IONOS excels.

The service uses a GeoTrust Dedicated SSL Certificate and a Wildcard SSL certificate. This encrypts your website for advanced security, which is something that should help you breathe a sigh of relief when you’re conducting business online.

An SSL certificate is needed to have an HTTPS website. If your URL starts with HTTP, Google will actually mark your site as unsecured. Additionally, SSL certificates protect the data that is exchanged between users and the site. This helps your customers trust you more, which is the backbone of any business relationship

The GeoTrust Dedicated SSL Certificate is included with the server, Developer Shared Hosting, and Developer eShop packages. The Wildcard SSL Certificate comes standard with all Linux and Windows shared hosting plans.

3. Free Domain and Email Account

Extras are always nice. We love to see hosting packages throw in some bonus features at no cost when you subscribe to one of their paid options.

IONOS actually offers two of the most common free features, domain registration, and email address.

A domain name is free for one year with Essential, Business, and Expert Shared Hosting Packages.

When it comes to a branded email account (another necessity if you want to be taken seriously by the people you do business with), both the Linux and Windows packages come with an email account on all levels.

4. Improved User Interface

IONOS doesn’t use the classical cPanel, instead, they have developed their own custom backend. For those who are used to the cPanel, it may be confusing and take some time to get used to in the beginning, but overall, it’s rather easy to use.

In the dashboard, you can manage domains, SSL certificates, email addresses, check your site’s statistics, and so on.

IONOS has also added an improved search bar, where you can find settings and switch between products faster.

There have been a lot of mixed feelings from other users about IONOS’s interface, especially it not being very intuitive compared to cPanel. But it seems that IONOS has made an effort on improving the dashboard usability and made it more logical to use.

Cons of Using IONOS Hosting

Now let’s have a look at what IONOS is lacking.

1. Limited Customer Support

IONOS offers 24/7 customer support for non-registered users only via phone or knowledge base. If you already have an account with them, then you can also access support via live chat from your client area.

We logged in to our account to test IONOS’s live chat and asked the customer rep a simple technical question. However, the question remained without a reply because, after a 20-minute wait, our chat got terminated due to inactivity.

After a while, we tried again and then got a message that IONOS’s live chat is unavailable.

Overall it seems that IONOS’s live chat option is inconsistent and you’re better off contacting them for help via phone or browsing their knowledge base for solutions.

2. Slow Page Loading Speed 898 ms

A slow site isn’t just annoying: when a page takes too long to load, many of your potential visitors will already look elsewhere.

Why is that?

Site performance is a big deal when Google examines your site. Your all-important SEO score, which determines your placement on the world’s most popular search engine, relies heavily on it.

Site speed is the fourth most important SEO ranking factor, behind only site security, crawlability, and mobile friendliness.

So a slow site is an immediate turnoff for Google and website visitors.

We live in an age of instant communication and instant information. If you’re lagging, chances are that the user can find another site with similar information that cares more about their experience.

IONOS delivered an average page loading speed of 898 ms in the last year.

The good news is, however, that they have been going gradually faster throughout the whole year.

3. Account Registration Only Possible in Limited Amount of Countries

One of the things that you first might not even notice about IONOS, is that you can register your account with them only in a limited amount of countries. The majority of the countries are represented but for example, if you’re located in China and want to sign up with IONOS, it’s not possible as it’s not on their list.

The same goes for most European countries. Even though IONOS was established in Germany and its headquarters are still located there, only some of the European countries are represented on the list.

Few examples where you can’t sign up with IONOS:

• China
• Iran
• Egypt
• Morocco
• Myanmar
• Europe (Poland, Romania, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Czech Republic, etc)

So, you might be better off checking before sign up, if you can even continue the registration in your country.

4. No Free Website Transfers

If you’re migrating your site to a new web host, a great way to sweeten the pot is to offer a free transfer.

It allows a new customer to take some of the stress and financial burden off of the process.

That’s not something IONOS offers.

IONOS Cost, Plans, and Payment Methods

IONOS has two different varieties of shared hosting services, each with three web hosting packages to choose from.

First, they offer Linux hosting — which is just called Web Hosting on the official website.

They also offer Windows hosting. Obviously, these different variations of shared hosting take place on different operating systems.

Both are priced well, but you get a lot more features with the Windows option. Each browser has three different levels to choose from.

Let’s start with Linux:

Over on the Windows side of things, you have a number of larger plans that come with a commitment period.

IONOS accepts PayPal and credit card payments.

Do We Recommend IONOS?

Yes, we do.

Their flexible plans for both Linux and Windows are affordable and include a lot of useful features. SSL security makes this a very secure service, and we truly liked that it comes with a free domain.

Moreover, IONOS has delivered a reliable uptime.

But there are also downsides. You can’t sign up with them in most European countries and the promoted $0.50/month pricing renews at a much higher $10.00/month.

We’re also don’t like their too limited support options and that they have a bit too slow average speed.

While IONOS doesn’t tick off as many wins as we would like, it is still a reliable hosting provider that will get the job done.

Have you used IONOS before? Please consider leaving a review below — good or bad — doesn’t really matter as long it’s helpful to our visitors.