IONOS is a leading web hosting company, and its website builder stands out as an attractive option for simple sites. The section-based editor is very easy to use, and there’s great security across the board. It also boasts responsive customer service and a comprehensive Help Center. The design flexibility is a little limited, but it’s a great choice if you want to get a basic site online fast.
Hosting : 10GB to unmetered storage, unmetered bandwidth
Marketing functionality : Limited
SEO/Google : SEO tools with advanced plan
Design : Section-based drag-and-drop editor
E-commerce : Optional
WordPress : No
The IONOS MyWebsite Now website builder is a site creation tool that’s designed for users with limited technical knowledge. It lacks a little on the design flexibility front, but it more than makes up for this with its user-friendly interface and attractive templates. Getting started is straightforward, and there are great introductory discounts.
What’s more, IONOS is known for its excellent performance, and it uses high-level security across the board. There’s even a 99.99% uptime guarantee, which is higher than the 99.9% guarantee we usually see. Despite the slight lack of power, the IONOS website builder stands out as an easy-to-use option that’s definitely worth considering.
The first thing you need to do is select your website builder plan and follow the prompts to create an account. IONOS will then ask you to choose a template for your site, before taking you straight to the editor. At the time of writing, there were 23 designs to choose from. Note that you can’t change your template once you’ve published your site.
Next, you can start customizing your site content. For starters, you can add your own text by clicking on the relevant elements. You can also replace the template images and videos with your own.
The global design settings let you change your overall color scheme, font, and spacing options. You can add new pages, add elements to existing pages, and re-order design elements by dragging and dropping them into position.
Overall, the website creation process is easy, and you shouldn’t have any issues getting online.
IONOS clearly targets website-building newbies with limited experience. You don’t have to have any coding or website-building experience to use it, and the templates enable you to get online in no time.
However, the flip side of this is that the simple design tools don’t offer the customizability you will need if you want a large, highly personalized site.
IONOS MyWebsite Now comes with a suite of extra features to help you get the most out of your subscription. For starters, e-commerce is available with all plans for a small extra cost. There’s a centralized store management dashboard, social media selling tools, integrated shipping, and more.
Online bookings are also available with the more advanced plans. These enable customers to book appointments online through your website. You can create flexible appointment times, and the smart scheduling features let you set your own booking rules.
With IONOS, you will also get a professional email account. Every website comes with a free domain name for the first year and a free SSL certificate. There’s an analytics tool that lets you track visitor numbers and other metrics, and the marketingRadar tool lets you track your competitors’ success.
All IONOS website builder plans come with unmetered bandwidth. Website storage ranges from 10GB to unlimited, and email inbox storage ranges from 2GB to 50GB. There’s even a step-by-step onboarding wizard to help you get started.
IONOS offers three premium subscription options, with introductory prices ranging from $1 to $15 per month. These increase to $9 to $50 per month on renewal. There are 2 tiers with each plan, and you have to pay 12 months in advance. The cheaper one lets you create a simple site, while the more expensive one includes e-commerce.
There’s no free version or free trial, which can make it a little difficult to test the platform before committing to a purchase. However, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee.
The cheapest Starter plan costs $5 per month for the first 6 months, before increasing to $9 per month for the website-only plan or $15 if you need an online store. It includes 10GB of storage, up to 10 website pages, and full access to all IONOS website templates.
The Plus package has a much more attractive introductory discount, with prices starting at just $1 per month for the first 12 months. This increases to $15 (no e-commerce) and $25 (with e-commerce) on renewal. With a Plus subscription, you will get 50GB of storage, support for up to 200 pages, advanced design tools, and online booking functionality.
Last but not least, is the Pro plan ($15 per month, $25 and $50 on renewal). It adds unlimited storage and web pages, along with advanced SEO tools.
|
|
Starter |
Plus |
Pro |
|
Introductory price per month |
$5 |
$1 |
$15 |
|
Renewal price per month (Basic) |
$9 |
$15 |
$25 |
|
Renewal price per month (With e-commerce) |
$15 |
$25 |
$50 |
|
Storage |
10GB |
50GB |
Unlimited |
|
Webpages |
10 |
200 |
Unlimited |
|
Online bookings |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
SEO tools |
No |
No |
Yes |
Every IONOS website is backed by a range of protective measures. For starters, it has DDoS protection, automatic data backups, and a free SSL certificate with every website. There are also real-time virus and malware detection tools, and the IONOS team works to remove threats before they materialize.
Another impressive feature is the 99.99% server uptime guarantee. It uses highly redundant US-based data centers, and it’s known for its excellent performance and fast page load speeds.
The IONOS website builder plans are built on its web hosting technology. It uses highly redundant data centers, and all data is stored in at least two places. This means that your site’s data is safe, even in the extremely unlikely case that one data center experiences an outage.
What’s more, it uses dual-platform technology to improve performance. In simple terms, this means that your site’s web server and storage are interlinked, leading to faster load times. IONOS also uses the Cloudflare content delivery network (CDN) to boost load speeds even more. There’s even a mobile admin app so you can manage your account on the go.
Overall, the IONOS website builder is very easy to use. Signing up for and starting your new site is very straightforward, and there’s a comprehensive onboarding guide to help you along the way.
The IONOS Presence Suite is the main central management hub. It’s intuitive and easy to navigate, and it provides links to the website builder, analytics, and more. The editor itself is also very easy to use, although the slightly limited customization options can make it hard to achieve the exact design you want.
IONOS offers 24/7 live chat and phone support. It has local support numbers for 14 different countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. We tested the live chat and were connected with a support agent immediately. They were knowledgeable and answered our questions speedily.
There’s also an excellent Help Center containing numerous self-help resources. These include step-by-step guides, video tutorials, and more complex documentation for advanced features.
All things considered, IONOS MyWebsite Now stands out as an attractive website-building option. It’s easy to sign up for and use, and there are various support resources available if you do run into an issue.
What’s more, IONOS MyWebsite Now is backed by decent security, a selection of ready-to-use templates, and various marketing and analytics features. It’s not the most powerful option in the world, but it’s an excellent choice for anyone with limited tech skills who wants to get a simple site online fast.