IONOS | ionos.de Reviews 21,686

I literally have not been able to transfer my domain in the past 2-3 weeks, asked customer support about it and they assured me it's working, but i'm pretty sure it's not since since there's no domain connected to my contract. tried starting the process again, but after two weeks it's still just taking me to a payment page with a broken iframe (like it won't load at all lol) through i already purchased my subscription. and this review thing is asking me for a vertagswhatever, it's all mostly in german anyways, even though CS said they have an english option. but on the upside i guess i'm learning german, not that i ever wanted to.

Helpfull friendly support who adressed my needs and wants in a perfect package to book

Very well explained, lots of patience and very friendly!

Where else in the world do you see a virtual server — an automated, instantly deployed service — come with a setup fee? Leave it to some traditional German providers like IONOS, Strato, and Netcup to invent a “setup charge” in 2025 for something that takes 30 seconds to spin up.

On top of that, they slap nearly 20% VAT on it, pushing the first month cost up by almost 200% compared to the advertised base price.

Why would any rational customer choose this when providers like Hetzner, OVH, Vultr, and countless others offer cleaner, simpler pricing without setup traps or long-term contracts?

IONOS might have solid infrastructure, but their outdated pricing tactics and lack of flexibility make them a poor choice in today’s global VPS market.

Time to modernize, IONOS. This isn’t 2004 anymore.

Why IONOS Is Not a Suitable Hosting Provider for Business Use – A Short Anecdote

On February 5, 2025, we received a notice from IONOS informing us that our database would be migrated between February 24 and March 9, 2025. The message explicitly stated:

“Access to your databases will remain unchanged on the new platform. You can continue to use your usual credentials to connect to your databases.”

The lack of a precise migration date within this 14-day window was already a concern—especially given our years of experience with IONOS and the unfortunate pattern that every technical change tends to come with issues.

We ensured that our lead developer was on standby throughout the entire period, and we set up alerts to detect any website disruptions. But the two-week window passed—without any migration.

Then, on May 27—nearly three months after the originally scheduled timeframe—we received another email stating that the migration would now take place between June 16 and June 27, 2025. Once again, we were assured that no changes on our end would be necessary and that database access would continue using the same credentials.

However, on July 7, without any prior notice and right in the middle of a busy Monday at 12:00 noon, the migration was suddenly executed. Our website went offline for several minutes. During that short period, we received hundreds of error notifications due to failed database connections.

The cause? Despite IONOS’ repeated assurances, the migration significantly impacted our setup. The database was no longer accessible via localhost—it had been moved to a remote server requiring port-based access. Additionally, the connection method had been changed from socket to TCP port communication. Naturally, this meant our application could no longer connect. Fortunately, our developer was on-site and quickly identified and resolved the issue.

But the problems didn’t stop there: parts of the migration were performed using incorrect character encodings, causing widespread display errors for special characters and umlauts across our website. We’ve now spent hours manually correcting these issues.

To top it off, the promised call-back from our so-called “personal advisor”, L. D., never happened. Unsurprising—perhaps even for the best.

Conclusion: IONOS has once again proven that it is unsuitable for any business-critical hosting needs, thanks to poor communication, broken promises, and technical unreliability.

Thanks for helping on a Sunday evening, this is greate. The agents are always very friendly!

For now the best experience in this sector! I got help on the spot! Competent and very friendly personal! I’m happy to have changed to IONOS so far!

No waiting time, competent, calm, patient and service-minded personal who helped to solve my problem

I can only describe the customer service at IONOS as top-notch! Always quick to respond, incredibly helpful, and very professional. Every interaction was smooth and pleasant. Truly outstanding support – thank you, IONOS!

They do not allow contract termination. I was getting internet from 1&1.de, and when I moved they did not allow me to terminate my contract. Even though I did the contract termination online a month ahead of time, they are still trying to force me to pay for DSL. Do not trust Ionos or 1&1!

1. good customer-service by phone

2. ssl-zertif. for external domain at good price.

Excellent support engineer, patient, clever, friendly, professional