IONOS

IONOS is Europe’s largest Provider of Hosting services and domain registration, headquartered in Montabaur, Germany. The company is part of the United Internet AG group and serves over 6,5 million customers through active contracts across 18 markets. The legal entity is IONOS Group SE, listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since February 2023.

The story starts in 1988, when it was founded as 1&1 EDV-Marketing GmbH by Ralph Dommermuth and Wendelin Abresch. In 2018, 1&1 merges with ProfitBricks (cloud solutions), creating 1&1 IONOS. In January 2020, the company becomes IONOS. The IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (February 8, 2023) and joining the SDAX index (September 2023) mark a new chapter.

IONOS runs over 100,000 servers across 10 in-house data centers, all ISO 27001 certified: Frankfurt (x2), Berlin (Germany), Paris (France), London and Worcester (UK), Logroño (Spain), Las Vegas, Newark, and Lenexa (USA). All are geo-redundant — data is replicated across different locations.

The lineup covers: shared web hosting (from $1/month), managed WordPress (from $1/month), VPS with Plesk included (from $2/month), enterprise dedicated servers (from $70/month), professional email (from $1/account/month), domains, SSL, eCommerce, and a full cloud platform with Compute Engine, Kubernetes, and managed databases.

A standout feature is the dedicated personal consultant, included free for every customer, no matter the plan. This specialist is available 24/7 by phone, chat, and email, with tailored support. This approach sets IONOS apart from most competitors that only offer generic support.

On the tech side, IONOS uses NVMe SSD storage, Apache and NGINX servers, PHP 8.x, MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Node.js. All plans include unlimited traffic, DDoS protection, free Wildcard SSL certificates, and daily backups. VPS plans include Plesk Web Host Edition for free.

IONOS guarantees 99.99% uptime, one of the highest guarantees in the industry. 30-day money-back guarantee on all plans. ISO 27001 certification across all data centers ensures strong security standards.

The team has around 4,200 employees across 70 countries, managing over 22 million domains. The company serves everyone from freelancers and startups to large enterprises, and recently added AI services too: AI Model Hub, GPU servers, and a 24/7 AI receptionist.

Promo prices are very competitive ($1/month for Hosting and WordPress), but renewals are significantly higher. The company focuses on the US and Western Europe, with no data centers in Asia-Pacific or Eastern Europe.

For users in Romania, IONOS is a solid pick thanks to competitive pricing, robust infrastructure in Europe, and a 99.99% uptime guarantee. The data centers in Frankfurt and Berlin deliver low latency for Central and Eastern Europe.