IONOS is a German web hosting company founded over three decades ago. It has dual headquarters in Germany and the United States. 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 at relatively low prices and the platform supports dozens of TLDs.
We tested IONOS to give you a detailed and impartial opinion. We rated it on specific criteria including customer support, ease of use, price, features, and more.
Packages and prices
There is no single price for all IONOS domain names. The platform charges different fees for different TLDs, but they usually cost between $10 and $100 per year.
Widely used domain extensions like .COM, .NET and .INFO cost between $10 and $20 per year on IONOS. On the other hand, uncommon extensions (e.g. .CASINO, .CEO) cost up to $200 per year.
IONOS offers significant discounts on domain names for the first year. If you pay for several years at once, the company charges as little as $1 for the first year. It’s a promotional strategy that seems to work well for the platform.
You may see additional charges from state and local taxes depending on your country of residence. These fees are usually less than 10% of the original purchase fee and therefore not alarming.
IONOS offers some of the most competitive prices you can find for domain names. The company has a 30-day money-back guarantee for every purchase.
Features
A domain name is the most critical part of any website. That’s how customers will find you, and you’ll be at a serious disadvantage if you don’t choose an appropriate domain. However, don’t worry. IONOS allows you to purchase a wide range of domain names.
Buying a domain name on IONOS is easy. The first step is to head to its Domains page. This page contains a search bar where you can check if the desired domain is available. If it is available, you can immediately add it to your cart. You must create a customer account before purchasing a domain name on IONOS, and the process is simple. The company accepts payment via PayPal or credit/debit cards.
You can also transfer domain names you have registered elsewhere to IONOS. Any domain you want to transfer must be registered for at least 60 days. Remember to disable the domain transfer lock on the registrar holding the domain you wish to transfer.
Transferring a domain to IONOS is a simple process. The first thing you need is a unique authorization code from the registrar you are moving from. Remember that your domain name settings are not automatically transferred to a new registrar, so you need to implement them again on IONOS.
You can use as many subdomains as you want for any domain registered on IONOS. Subdomains are an additional part of your domain name that you can adopt to organize your website. For example, you can host a separate online store with a subdomain linked to your website’s domain name (store.mywebsite.com).
One of the benefits of IONOS is that it allows you to assign a free email address to any domain you register there. However, this email is limited to 2 GB of storage. You will have to pay if you need more than that.
IONOS also assigns free SSL certificates for all of its domains. An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates 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 is marked as “not secure” by major browsers such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. But don’t worry, because IONOS gives you one for free.
You also get free privacy protection for any domain name you buy on IONOS. This protection prevents access to your contact information through the WHOIS database. This way, spammers or online marketers cannot harvest your contact information and bombard you with solicitations.
Interface and in use
Registration on IONOS is quite simple and is a mandatory step to purchase any of the company’s services. You must choose a service before signing up. You will 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’s not as modern as what you’ll see from other competitors.
Customer service
IONOS offers customer support by phone and live chat. You can contact the company 24/7 which is commendable. But, while researching for this review, we noticed a tendency to complain that IONOS customer support staff were slow to respond and inexperienced in dealing with complex issues.
The competition
The main competitors of IONOS are Bluehost, GoDaddy, Namecheap and Dynadot. IONOS beats most of its competitors on price. However, it’s not as user-friendly as many rivals.
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 terms of usability. We also noticed some aggressive upselling from the company, which can be unpleasant.
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