It offers good value and easy WordPress setup, but 1&1’s tech support has issues.
Founded in Germany way back in 1988,1&1 IONOS is now Europe’s largest web hosting provider, hosting more than 12 million domains in its data centers around the world. The company has a vast range of products covering just about every possible need: regular shared hosting, website builder plans, simple and managed WordPress products, professional ecommerce platforms and some very capable VPS, cloud and dedicated servers. There’s real depth here, too. The 1&1 IONOS ecommerce Website Builder plan isn’t just the company’s regular shared hosting with PrestaShop pre-installed, for instance, as you’ll see with many providers. It’s a full-featured service which works for everyone from web store newbies to big established businesses, with catalogues of up to a million products, and the ability to sell on Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Instagram and more. At the budget end of the range,1&1 IONOS shared hosting scores for some unusual but capable features, available in even the low-end $4-a-month Essential plan. This limits you to 10GB storage space, but supports 10 email addresses with up to 2GB storage each, includes unlimited traffic, auto-installation of WordPress and 70+ other top web apps, and throws in a free domain for a year. Daily backups, often a premium extra, are available as standard. And all shared hosting plans come with a free wildcard SSL certificate, allowing you to secure all the subdomains for your site (login.mydomain.com, download.mydomain.com, anythingelse.mydomain.com), a very unusual touch. The $8 a month Business shared hosting plan ramps up performance, supports unlimited storage,50 email addresses and can host unlimited sites. The top-of-the-range $14-a-month Expert plan includes unlimited storage and 100 email addresses. Valuable extras include SiteLock malware protection and a performance-boosting integrated Content Delivery Network. Pricing is refreshingly simple. There are no lengthy contracts, no complicated introductory discounts, so you won’t find your costs doubling on renewal.1&1 IONOS only offers monthly billing for shared hosting (there are more options for some other products), so you just pay your $4, $8 and $14 every month and cancel whenever you like. (Beware, this isn’t the case in all countries. In the UK, the Business hosting plan costs £1 a month for the first twelve months on the annual plan, but £6 a month billed monthly. Check the small print before you sign up.) If you’re looking for WordPress hosting then any of the shared plans will get you started, but 1&1 IONOS also offers capable managed WordPress packages. These get you easier setup, preinstalled and recommended plugins, automatic updates and improved support, and are priced from $3 a month billed monthly (that’s the standard price, so it’s not going to double after a year or two.) Still not enough? 1&1 IONOS WordPress Pro plans take the technology to the next level with low-level performance optimizations (Varnish-based caching, CDN), intelligent automatic updates, staging environments to test updates without changing the live site, and much more. Prices range from $18 (one site,10GB storage) to $120 (more resources, up to ten sites,100GB storage) billed monthly. The simple managed plans are great value and trample all over many competitors, at least on the fundamentals. GoDaddy has managed WordPress plans that score for including daily backups and malware scans with even the cheapest products, for instance, but they start at $6.99 a month, even that requires a three-year subscription, and it renews at $9.99.) WordPress Pro comparisons are more difficult, as professional users will have very specific requirements. Bluehost has WordPress Pro plans that support unlimited websites and storage, for instance, come with an integrated marketing center and include valuable extras including Jetpack Premium/ Pro and (in the high-end Scale plan) unlimited video compression. The starting price of $19.95 a month over three years is much higher, but there’s plenty of extra functionality, too, and the plans may be a better option to you.
