Hostinger vs IONOS – Which Web Hosting is Better?

If you ask any website owner about what they look for in a web host, the answers will almost always be: reliable, fast, and secure. 

Yep, the ideal web host should have a reliable uptime rate, fast site speed, and lots of security measures. 

Without those three things, you’re probably going to worry about your site going down, bounce rates rising, or hackers getting in.   

Do Hostinger and IONOS match those 3 must-haves?

What other features do both providers offer?

Which one is better?

In our Hostinger vs IONOS comparison review, we’ll find out the answer to these questions and much more. 

We have a lot to cover, so let’s get started right away! 

Hostinger vs IONOS - A Side by Side Comparison

To compare the web hosts, we’re going to look into:

• Uptime and performance
• Website building
• Migration services
• Products and features
• Security
• Pricing
• Customer Support

For a quick reference, check out this chart:

Let’s get into the details. 

Uptime and Performance

Are Hostinger and IONOS reliable? 

One of the most important questions on web hosting revolves around reliability and for good reason - you don’t want a lot of downtime! 

Hostinger is able to go beyond its 99.9% uptime guarantee. Independent reports show that it can reach 99.95% at a time.

Unfortunately, as of Mach 2021, they reached an uptime low of 99.75%. In one year, they went offline for 23 hours. 

As for IONOS, at the moment, they excel in uptime, with a whopping 99.98% average. Users hardly experienced any downtime in the past year. 

Are Hostinger and IONOS fast?

Nobody wants a slow website. Even if they’re interested in your content, people’s patience can only stretch so much when they’re waiting for a site to load. 

What Hostinger lacks in uptime, they make up for in speed.

Hostinger has several data centers spread all over the world. This means that, not only do they have a better speed for audiences around the world, but you also get to choose which data center to use! 

So if your audience is in Asia, then you’re better off choosing the Asia-Pacific data center. 

Also, Hostinger has a LiteSpeed Caching feature. This improves your site speed even when you’re far from the data center. 

IONOS might lack these features, but that doesn’t mean they have slow loading speeds. In fact, it only takes 797ms to fully load a site - that’s less than 1 second!

Website Building

Of course, we don’t stop at uptime and performance. 

Other features like website building tools also make the whole hosting experience better. 

Hostinger’s Shared hosting plans have a free WordPress site builder. However, if you’re not a WordPress user, you have to pay for their Zyro site builder which starts at $2.90/month.

IONOS doesn’t have its own site builder, but they do offer one-click WordPress installation.

Migration Services

Need to transfer your site to another provider?

Hostinger’s migration services are handled by a customer support team. And the best part is that you don’t have to pay for their services!

IONOS, on the other hand, doesn’t offer migration services. You’ll have to transfer it yourself. They do, however, offer many comprehensive instructions on how to get it done. You won’t be completely on your own.

Products and Features

To compare their products and features, we’re going to look at their most basic Shared Hosting plans:

To be sure, both providers have higher plans that offer even more features. 

Domain

As you can see from the chart, Hostinger lacks a free domain. 

To get a free domain, you have to get their Premium or Business Shared Hosting Plan which costs twice as much as the Single plan. 

On the other hand, IONOS has a free domain name for a year for all their hosting plans. 

Control Panel

Both Hostinger and IONOS have custom-built control panels, with Hostinger’s being the more user-friendly interface. 

Security

A lot of people are fixated with uptime, speed, and prices, and rightly so. But you shouldn’t forget security, too. 

Your web host’s security features are responsible for shielding your website from malware and hackers. 

It’s normal for SSL certificates to be given away for free in hosting plans, but what’s more important is the other security measures placed to protect servers and sites. 

Hostinger has a Cloudflare Nameserver feature that adds additional protection to the firewall. To add to that, you have a weekly backup for your site. 

For IONOS, it has a 6-day backup, data recovery, site scan, and DDoS protection. 

Pricing

You probably already know that Hostinger and IONOS are both affordable. 

But let’s take a look at just how affordable their hosting plans are:

In general, IONOS has more affordable hosting plans. But if you’ve looked at the prices of its Shared hosting plans, you’ll notice something unusual. 

Their Essential plan, which is their basic plan, is more expensive than their Business Shared hosting plan.  

The Essential plan is priced at $4/mo while the Business plan is at $1/mo.

But if you look closely, the Business plan only has this rate for the first 12 months. After that, you are charged $10 a month. So in the long run, the Essential plan is still more affordable since it renews at $6/mo.

Customer Support

Both Hostinger and IONOS only have one way to contact their customer support. Hostinger only has live chat, while IONOS only has phone calls. 

Hostinger is known to have fast response times, while IONOS might take some time to answer your calls. 

Hostinger vs IONOS: The Verdict

So which web host is better?

It depends on YOUR needs and preferences. 

If you want fast speeds, free migration services, and responsive customer support, then Hostinger might be more down your alley. 

But if you’re looking for high uptime rates, free domain, more security features, I suggest you look into IONOS. 

We hope this article has helped you pick the best choice!