IONOS is a German web hosting company founded more than three decades ago. It has double headquarters in Germany and the US. In total, it employs more than 2,000 people in 40 countries and serves millions of customers.
You can register a wide variety of domain names on IONOS for relatively low prices, and the platform supports dozens of TLDs.
We’ve tested IONOS to give you a detailed, unbiased review. We evaluated it based on specific criteria including customer support, ease of use, pricing, features, etc.
Subscriptions and Prices
There is not one price that suits everyone for IONOS domain names. The platform charges different fees for different TLDs, but they generally cost $10 to $100 per year.
Common domain extensions such as .COM, .NET, and .INFO cost between $10 and $20 annually on IONOS. On the other hand, unusual extensions (eg .CASINO, .CEO) go up to $200 per year.
IONOS offers substantial discounts for domain names in the first year. If you pay for several years at once, the company will only charge $1 the first year. It is a promotion strategy that seems to work well for the platform.
Depending on the country you live in, you may see additional charges from state and local taxes. These costs are usually less than 10% of the original purchase price and are therefore not a cause for concern.
IONOS offers some of the most competitive prices you will ever find for domain names. The company has a 30-day money-back guarantee on every purchase.
Functions
A domain name is the most crucial part of any website. It’s how customers will find you, and you’ll be at a serious disadvantage if you don’t pick a good domain. However, don’t be alarmed. IONOS allows you to purchase a wide variety of domain names.
Buying a domain name on IONOS is easy. The first step is to go to the Domains page. This page contains a search bar where you can check if your desired domain is available. If it’s available, you can add it to your cart right away. You need to create a customer account before buying a domain name on IONOS, and the process is simple. The company accepts payments via PayPal or credit/debit cards.
You can also transfer domain names that you have registered elsewhere to IONOS. Any domain you want to transfer must be registered for at least 60 days. Don’t forget to disable the domain transfer lock with the registrar who owns the domain you want to transfer.
Moving a domain to IONOS is a simple process. The most important thing you need is a unique authorization code from the registrar you come from. Please note that your domain name settings are not automatically transferred to a new registrar, so you will need to re-implement them on IONOS.
You can use as many subdomains as you want for each domain registered on IONOS. Subdomains are an additional part of your domain name that you can use to organize your website. For example, you can host a separate online store with a subdomain associated with your website’s domain name (store.mywebsite.com).
A big advantage of IONOS is that you can assign a free email address to any domain you register on it. However, this email is limited to 2 GB of storage. If you need more, you have to pay.
IONOS also awards free SSL certificates for all its domains. An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that verifies the identity of a website and enables an encrypted connection between a web server and the end user’s browser. Any website without an SSL certificate will be marked as “not secure” by major browsers such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. But don’t worry, IONOS will give you one for free.
You also get free privacy protection for every domain name you buy on IONOS. This security prevents your contact details from being accessible through the WHOIS database. This way, spammers or online marketers can’t retrieve your contact information and bombard you with requests.
Interface and in use
Signing up with IONOS is quite simple and is a required step to purchase any of the company’s services. You must choose a service before signing up. You also need to provide basic information such as your name and email address to create an account.
However, the IONOS backend user interface is quite complex. It is not as modern as what you will see with other competitors.
Customer service
IONOS offers customer support via telephone and live chat. You can contact the company 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which is commendable. But when we researched for this review, we noticed a trend of complaints about IONOS’ customer support staff being slow to respond and inexperienced at handling complex issues.
The competition
The main competitors of IONOS are Bluehost, GoDaddy, Namecheap and Dynadot. IONOS beats most of its competitors in pricing. However, it is not as user-friendly as many competitors.
final verdict
IONOS is an ideal domain registrar. It’s affordable and offers free extras like SSL certificates and privacy protection. However, it is not the best in usability. We also noticed aggressive upselling of the company, which can be distasteful.
