IONOS

IONOS (formerly 1&1) is a full-range hosting provider: it's used for hosting websites, registering domains, professional email, online-shop hosting and cloud servers. It's Europe's biggest hosting company, owned by Germany's United Internet, with a UK operation and data centres across Europe and the UK. For a typical user it's the one-stop place to put a small-business or WordPress site online, with a free domain for the first year, SSL and email included. Its main draw in this comparison is price: web hosting starts at US$1/mo, the cheapest genuine hosting offer on our UK list — a real plan rather than a limited trial.

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It depends on the job, but for pure hosting value IONOS usually wins. Its web hosting starts at US$1/mo — far below GoDaddy's entry price — and it's backed by large European data-centre infrastructure, so budget-conscious UK sites get more for less. Independent hosting tests tend to score IONOS ahead of GoDaddy too. GoDaddy's advantages are brand familiarity and its domain tooling, where it's the world leader. The two share one pattern worth watching: both are cheap in the first term and step up noticeably at renewal, so compare the long-term price, not the sign-up teaser. For a UK budget website, IONOS is the sharper deal; for domain management, GoDaddy.

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IONOS web hosting starts at US$1/mo on the intro term — and importantly that's a genuine plan, not a time-limited trial. As with almost every host, the introductory rate rises when the first term ends — to around US$8/mo on the entry tier, more on higher tiers — which is the number that matters for a long-term commitment. Domains, professional email and managed WordPress are priced separately on top. The one thing to watch on the headline US$1/mo offer is the term length you sign up for, because the low rate is locked to that period — after which the standard renewal price applies. Read the renewal line before committing and it's an excellent-value entry point.

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No — IONOS is German. It's part of the United Internet group, headquartered in Montabaur, Germany, and listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange. It does run a substantial UK operation (and even owns the British host Fasthosts), so you're supported locally, but the company itself is German, not British.

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A few worth weighing. The biggest is the renewal jump: the US$1/mo intro is genuinely cheap, but in percentage terms the step up to the standard rate is steep, so the long-term cost is a lot higher than the sign-up price suggests. The control panel feels more corporate and less polished than Hostinger's, which some beginners find fiddly. Several features you might expect included — backups, extra mailboxes and similar extras — are paid add-ons rather than bundled. And IONOS assigns each customer a named 'personal consultant' as first point of contact, which is either a helpful perk or an upsell channel depending on your taste. None are dealbreakers at this price, but go in clear-eyed.

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Yes — IONOS offers 24/7 support by both phone and live chat, and it assigns every customer a named 'personal consultant' as their first point of contact, which is unusual at this price point. In practice the quality is generally solid, and having a dedicated contact can be genuinely useful. The one thing to keep in mind is that the same consultants also suggest upgrades and add-ons, so treat the relationship as part support, part sales: decide what you actually need first, and don't feel obliged to take every recommendation. For round-the-clock availability, though, IONOS delivers.

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