Nevertheless, should you click on Create a Web site, Ionos takes you to a web page itemizing varied internet hosting plans. The Proceed buttons don’t point out cost, however whenever you click on on one, you’ll see that you simply’re solely getting a free trial — Ionos will routinely cost you for this plan as an add-on after the primary month.

To create an internet site with out making further purchases, I needed to return to the unique Web sites & Shops web page and click on Create a WordPress Challenge. This led to yet one more upsell — for managed WordPress internet hosting — however I did discover a button saying Handle WordPress Your self beneath. This complete course of was moderately surprising, as I’ve by no means encountered such aggressive upsells when attempting to carry out preliminary web site setup on different hosts.

The WordPress set up course of itself was partially guided, providing some preselected themes for me to select from primarily based on the aim of my web site — running a blog — and plugins to optimize the theme. The one hiccup was the dearth of computerized SSL certification, a problem I fastened with two extra fast clicks.

The WordPress set up is fairly customary, with out further instruments just like the A2 Internet hosting Website Assistant. This isn’t an enormous deal for many customers, because the WordPress dashboard is pretty easy to navigate and there are millions of tutorials that will help you. Nevertheless, you may wish to think about A2 Internet hosting in order for you your net host to carry your hand by web site creation.

The one further instrument Ionos provides for WordPress customers is Ionos Efficiency, a plugin that allows you to management varied web site settings to enhance pace.

Server administration

Ionos makes use of a proprietary system for server administration as an alternative of the industry-standard cPanel. Clicking on the Internet hosting button within the account dashboard takes you to a web page the place you may view totally different features of this method, together with Webspace — a devoted space for storage info — Databases and PHP administration.

Every part is clearly labeled and the person areas are intuitive to navigate. Actually, I discovered the person interface for Ionos’s internet hosting administration system simpler to navigate than cPanel — and I’m an skilled cPanel person.

Regardless of the simplicity of this method, it may be a disadvantage should you’re already used to cPanel and also you don’t wish to swap to one thing else. Ionos’s proprietary system can even complicate transferring your web site to a brand new host in a while, as many free web-hosting switch companies switch the cPanel from one host to a different and aren’t educated to cope with different methods. Equally, most tutorials for manually transferring your web site to a brand new host give attention to easy methods to switch a cPanel web site.

General ease of use

The unwieldy buy course of and the aggressive makes an attempt to upsell higher-tier plans after I was attempting to put in WordPress made it extremely irritating to get began with Ionos. Issues received simpler as soon as I had WordPress arrange, and I’m an enormous fan of how easy the internet hosting administration instruments are, however I’m nonetheless solely giving Ionos a 6.5/10 rating for ease of use. This is without doubt one of the lowest ease-of-use rankings of any internet hosting firm I’ve examined thus far; solely DreamHost scored decrease, with a rating of 4/10.

Ionos efficiency: Glorious uptime, mediocre pace

The following factor I thought of for my Ionos overview is how effectively the servers carry out in two areas: uptime, the share of time websites are accessible on-line for; and web site pace, how rapidly a web site masses. I additionally took a fast have a look at the efficiency instruments provided by Ionos.

Efficiency instruments

Ionos doesn’t record any efficiency instruments on the web page for shared internet hosting plans, however after I booted up WordPress, I discovered a preinstalled Ionos Efficiency Plugin. This plugin allows you to allow issues like file compression to enhance web site speeds.

Ionos Efficiency routinely allows fundamental caching, a specialised storage protocol that will increase your web site pace by lowering the quantity of knowledge guests’ browsers have to drag out of your host server.

Uptime

Uptime issues as a result of customers who can’t entry your web site will typically go elsewhere, which can lead to misplaced site visitors and revenue. Most internet hosting firms assure 99.9% uptime, which means that server points gained’t shut down your web site for greater than 10 minutes per week. Ionos goes past this with a 99.99% assure, so your web site gained’t expertise greater than two minutes of server-related downtime per week.

I monitored my Ionos web site with BetterStack for one week to see the way it lived as much as this assure — and I’m happy to report that my web site skilled no downtime in any respect, incomes Ionos a 10/10 uptime rating. This uptime rating is on par with what I’ve skilled with different high net hosts I’ve reviewed, like A2 Internet hosting and GoDaddy, and miles forward of the spotty uptime of InMotion Internet hosting.

Website pace

Website pace, a measurement of what number of seconds your web site takes to load, is important as a result of many individuals will go away your web site if it doesn’t load quick sufficient. Actually, bounce fee, the share of people that go away your web site after viewing just one web page, will increase by 32% when web site load time goes from one to 3 seconds. Many consultants suggest protecting your web site pace to lower than three seconds because of this.

I created a take a look at web page simulating a easy homepage with two pictures and two textual content bins and ran pace checks on WebPageTest at totally different instances of day over the course of 5 days. I additionally examined from units in a number of areas, permitting me to simulate how worldwide customers could expertise Ionos websites.

By means of these checks, I got here up with the next common web site speeds (bear in mind, decrease numbers are higher):

Primarily based on these numbers, the common web site speeds are:

• An common cellular web site pace of 3.63 seconds.
• An common desktop web site pace of 2.31 seconds.

This equals out to an general common of 2.97 seconds. Whereas this does fall underneath the advisable most of three seconds of loading time, it’s not nice, particularly when in comparison with GoDaddy’s 2.29 second common or HostGator’s 2.41 second common. The one internet hosting firm I’ve skilled worse loading speeds with was InMotion Internet hosting, which had an abysmal common loading pace of three.84 seconds.

Loading pace will range for customers primarily based on their location, web plan and the system they’re utilizing, however my checks present a very good illustration of the common person’s expertise, giving me the arrogance to grant Ionos a 7.5/10 pace rating. This rating is disappointing, particularly contemplating that I left Ionos Efficiency on throughout my pace checks, but it surely’s not unhealthy sufficient for me to recommend avoiding Ionos altogether. You possibly can at all times enhance web site pace with a caching plugin apart from Ionos Efficiency, a lot of that are free.

General efficiency

Ionos has wonderful server uptime, on par with what I skilled with different CNET-recommended internet hosting firms like A2 Internet hosting and GoDaddy — and higher than some hosts, like HostGator. The location pace isn’t so nice. My Ionos web site skilled the second-highest loading time of any take a look at web site I’ve created thus far, but it surely’s nonetheless cheap, main Ionos to earn an 8.75/10 efficiency rating.

Ionos safety: Higher than many rivals

Ionos offers the next safety protocols for all clients:

• Safe socket layer (SSL) certification: A safety protocol that encrypts information despatched to and out of your web site, defending delicate info like e-mail addresses submitted by a contact type. SSL certification additionally alerts that your web site is protected; some VPNs and browsers gained’t even let customers open a web site with out it. Furthermore, Google could penalize websites with out SSL certification, making it tougher to your web site to rank effectively.
• Firewall: Software program that scans all information making an attempt to enter your web site, stopping malware and different threats from harming it. No firewall is ideal (there’s at all times an opportunity one thing will get by), however a very good one will defend your web site from most malware.
• Malware scanning: A day by day scan of your web site to find any malware that makes it by the firewall. You’ll be instantly notified of any threats found. Customer support can then stroll you thru the method of eradicating them.
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) safety: A DDoS assault includes malicious site visitors flooding your web site in an try and overwhelm the server, inflicting it to close down. Ionos provides complete safety in opposition to these assaults to maintain your web site operating repeatedly.
• Automated backups: Ionos creates day by day backup copies of your web site which can be saved in a separate server for six days. In case your web site goes down, you may get well it utilizing considered one of these backups.

This is without doubt one of the most complete safety packages I’ve seen for shared internet hosting customers, with the automated backups being particularly notable. Even A2 Internet hosting, which provides multilayered malware safety, doesn’t supply automated backup on its lowest-tier plan.

Ionos buyer assist: The most effective within the biz

If one thing goes fallacious together with your web site, you need to have the ability to attain customer support rapidly and get useful solutions to your questions. Ionos guarantees 24/7 customer support through dwell chat and cellphone, plus a private advisor who Ionos claims will present personalised recommendation on bettering your web site. There’s additionally a data base you need to use to determine fundamental issues by yourself. I examined all of those buyer assist avenues to find out if Ionos lives as much as its guarantees.

Data base

The Ionos data base known as the Assist Heart and offers solutions for performing many fundamental web-hosting duties, together with area transfers, web site setup and SSL certification. There’s a search bar on the high, plus buttons resulting in sections associated to numerous web site administration duties.

Every button results in an space the place you may rapidly view fundamental solutions and discover hyperlinks to articles about performing extra advanced duties. I particularly just like the accordion-style content material blocks that decrease info you’re not more likely to want, so that you’re not overwhelmed whenever you open the web page.

The articles themselves are clearly laid out, with step-by-step directions and pictures exhibiting easy methods to carry out every step. Nevertheless, not one of the articles I checked out included video tutorials, which might be an impediment for customers preferring studying by video. This results in the Ionos Assist Heart incomes a 9/10 rating.

Direct communication

Ionos provides 24/7 customer support through dwell chat and cellphone, plus a private advisor who could be contacted between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. ET. Your private advisor will also be reached through each dwell chat and cellphone.

I examined the overall dwell chat first and was linked to a buyer assist consultant in underneath two minutes, an identical response time to what I’ve skilled with different net hosts like A2 Internet hosting and GoDaddy. They have been well mannered and useful, offering an instantaneous resolution to my downside. This earns Ionos a dwell chat rating of 10/10.

Subsequent, I reached out through cellphone. A customer support agent responded nearly instantly, transferring me to a different division primarily based on my questions. I used to be pleasantly stunned to search out myself talking to the brand new division in two minutes. This new division offered useful solutions and your entire dialog solely took 14 minutes, a pace solely matched by GoDaddy’s cellphone service. My solely grievance is that they tried to promote me e-mail internet hosting, lowering the score from what would have been a ten/10 to a cellphone assist rating of 9.5/10.

Lastly, I tried to contact my private assist advisor. Reaching out through dwell chat received a near-instant response from a special assist consultant who mentioned my agent was engaged on a special case and provided to reply my questions themselves within the meantime. In addition they advised me a cellphone name may permit me to succeed in my private advisor quicker.

I referred to as the quantity for my private assistant and acquired the identical solutions: My private advisor was unavailable, however the one who picked up could be glad to assist. This leads me to imagine that private consultants are given a better caseload than they will moderately handle, forcing them to depend on different workforce members to help everybody. 

The consultant I spoke to additionally defined that they can assist me with any technical points I’m having however not present superior assist on issues like optimizing my web site design, which is what I anticipated from a service claiming to supply “personalised recommendation.” I used to be considerably dissatisfied by this due to Ionos’s advertising and marketing about private consultants, however I’m nonetheless happy with the quick, useful service.

General customer support

Regardless of my incapability to contact my private advisor, I had a wonderful expertise with Ionos customer support on each dwell chat and cellphone. This earns Ionos a buyer assist rating of 9.5/10, the very best customer support rating I’ve given any firm thus far. That is notably spectacular contemplating that almost all net hosts I’ve examined provided common and even abysmal customer support, with the second highest-ranking firm, GoDaddy, incomes solely 8/10.

Popularity

Together with my very own testing, I learn different Ionos evaluations to find out how different clients really feel in regards to the firm. I used to be happy to find that Ionos has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot, and the BBB web page exhibits no excellent complaints.

Ionos worth

Now that we’ve established how effectively Ionos stands by itself, it’s time to ask the final huge query: How does Ionos evaluate to different widespread net hosts?

Right here’s a fast have a look at the choices from three of the most well-liked web-hosting firms:

Primarily based on this information, we are able to come to the next conclusions:

• Ionos’s beginning costs are common. The bottom beginning value from Ionos, $1 a month, is available in under the entire introductory costs listed above. Nevertheless, the Necessities plan — the plan most learners will need — begins at $4 a month, a better price than the costs of comparable plans from GoDaddy, DreamHost and A2 Internet hosting.
• Ionos’s renewal costs are low. The Necessities plan solely prices $6 per thirty days on renewal, a value solely matched by DreamHost. The Starter plan additionally is available in underneath $10 a month (particularly, $8 per thirty days) on renewal, which continues to be lower than the lowest-cost plans provided by HostGator and A2 Internet hosting.
• Ionos provides mediocre storage on the lowest-tier plan. The 10GB storage of the Necessities plan is matched by HostGator’s Hatchling plan and the A2 Internet hosting Ignite plan, however notably lower than the 50GB of DreamHost’s Starter plan. Nevertheless, 10GB continues to be sufficient for no less than 100 net pages, and you’ll improve to the Starter plan for 100GB of storage for simply $2 extra per thirty days.
• Ionos provides above-average safety. All Ionos plans embrace 24/7 malware scanning, a characteristic not included within the lowest-tier plans from DreamHost or HostGator. A2 Internet hosting’s safety suite — obtainable for all customers — does embrace 24/7 malware scanning, however day by day backups — a characteristic constructed into each Ionos plan — aren’t included.
• Ionos’s WordPress instruments are restricted. Guided setup is obtainable for all Ionos WordPress customers, however there’s no web site assistant like those provided by HostGator and A2 Internet hosting. Ionos additionally doesn’t supply WordPress auto-updates, a characteristic included with the lowest-tier plans from each DreamHost and A2 Internet hosting, on its common shared internet hosting plans.

Briefly, Ionos doesn’t supply the identical stage of options as different widespread net hosts coated right here, particularly not for WordPress customers, however the options it provides are wonderful for the low long-term prices. This earns Ionos a worth rating of 9/10.