The editor: guided building with AI
IONOS gives you two ways to get started, and the choice you make up front shapes the rest of the experience.
MyWebsite Now editor (section-based)
Unlike Wix’s pixel-level drag-and-drop, IONOS uses a section-block system. You assemble a page from pre-built content blocks — hero, about, services, gallery, contact — and customise each one. The guard-rails keep layouts consistent across desktop and mobile screens, which means beginners are far less likely to end up with a site that looks broken on phones.
The trade-off is creative freedom. You can’t drop a text box anywhere you like, resize images pixel by pixel, or rearrange elements inside a block with total freedom. For most small business owners, that’s a feature, not a bug. For designers who want full control, it can feel restrictive.
AI site generation
IONOS’s AI builder asks you a short set of questions about your business, the pages you want, and your preferred tone, then generates a complete starter site with copy, images, a colour palette and layout in place. There are also built-in AI tools for generating images, logos, SEO meta descriptions and individual page copy as you edit.
The AI sites are a solid starting point, especially for users who would otherwise stare at a blank template. As with any AI-generated content, the copy benefits from a human editing pass before launch.
Templates and design
This is the area where IONOS most clearly lags its competitors. The template library sits at around 49 designs covering the main industries — restaurants, tradespeople, consultants, portfolios, simple online stores and personal sites. Quality is perfectly competitive; quantity isn’t. Wix, Squarespace and Hostinger all offer far larger libraries.
The upside of the smaller library is that every template is fully responsive, clean and modern — IONOS hasn’t left old designs lying around. You can also change fonts and colours globally in one click, insert shape dividers between sections, and toggle hyphenation and word-spacing for tidier text. It’s a tighter, more opinionated toolkit than Wix’s, and that’s its appeal.
Pricing: how much does IONOS cost?
IONOS splits its pricing into two tracks: MyWebsite Now for standard websites and Online Store for eCommerce. There’s no permanently free plan, but every paid plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try the editor risk-free. The table below reflects IONOS’s UK pricing on 12-month contracts — renewals are noticeably higher, so check the small print before you commit.
| Plan | Intro price | Best for | Key features |
|---|
| Starter | £1/mo | Simple personal sites | 10 GB storage, up to 10 pages, 1 email inbox (2 GB), free domain |
| Plus | £1/mo | Small businesses | 50 GB storage, up to 200 pages, SiteAnalytics, AI SEO tools |
| Pro | From £16/mo | Growing brands | Unlimited storage, unlimited pages, full AI suite, priority support |
| Online Store Plus | £1/mo | Testing eCommerce | Unlimited products, social selling, no transaction fees |
| Online Store Pro | Check priceGBP not yet verified | Established stores | Unlimited webspace, advanced analytics, AI generator tools |
Prices and promotions change often — see IONOS’s current pricing and offers.
Ease of use
IONOS is genuinely easy to use, arguably easier than Wix for complete beginners. The section-block approach means every choice you make is constrained to something that will look good on mobile, so there’s far less rope to hang yourself with. The dashboard is uncluttered, tooltips are clear, and onboarding takes you step by step from domain to published site.
More advanced tasks — configuring multi-step forms, connecting a third-party payment gateway, or setting up complex shipping rules — require digging into submenus and, occasionally, a chat with support. Nothing is hidden, but nothing is flashy either. The editor prioritises clarity over polish, and most users will appreciate that.
Not sure it’s the right fit? Every plan is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee — build something real before you commit.
Try IONOS risk-freeKey features
SEO and marketing
IONOS’s SEO feature set scales with the plan. Starter gives you the basics — editable headings, meta descriptions and image alt text. Plus and Pro add SiteAnalytics (real-time visitor charts, referrers, device and geography data), an AI meta-tag writer, and integration with rankingCoach, a third-party SEO tool that walks you through on-page improvements. You can also connect the site directly to Google Search Console.
For marketing, IONOS offers an add-on called Email Marketing Plus, plus native social media integrations and auto-translation into up to 60 languages — handy if you serve customers beyond your home market. The marketing suite is less bundled-in than Wix’s, and you’ll pay extra for some of it, but the core pieces are present.
eCommerce
IONOS splits eCommerce into its separate Online Store product rather than bolting it onto the website builder. The Online Store plans support unlimited products, social selling (Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, eBay), abandoned cart recovery, wishlists, digital and physical goods, and — a genuine differentiator — no transaction fees at any tier. Shopify and many rivals take a cut of every sale unless you use their own payment processor; IONOS doesn’t.
The trade-off is depth. The app ecosystem is a fraction the size of Shopify’s, reporting is less sophisticated, and advanced inventory, shipping or POS integrations are limited. For independent merchants selling up to a few hundred SKUs, it’s more than enough. For scale, look elsewhere.
Blogging
Blogging is the weakest part of the MyWebsite Now offering. There’s no dedicated blogging platform in the way Wix Blog or WordPress provides one — you can publish news-style posts using content blocks, but you don’t get advanced category or tag management, gated posts, or a mature editorial workflow. If content marketing is central to your business, you’ll want IONOS’s managed WordPress product instead of MyWebsite Now.
Personal consultant
One genuine IONOS perk: every customer can activate a named personal consultant who’ll give you a direct phone line and email address for ongoing questions. At this price point, that kind of one-to-one service is unusual — most competitors at £1–£18/month offer only chatbots, general queues, or chat-only support.
Performance, security and support
IONOS hosts sites across ten geo-redundant, ISO 27001-certified data centres in nine countries, backing a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Sites are mirrored across two facilities for resilience, and performance in independent tests is consistently solid, though heavy image-driven sites benefit from connecting a CDN (IONOS doesn’t include one by default).
Security basics are well covered: free SSL on every plan, malware scanning, DDoS protection at the network level, and GDPR-compliant data handling — a meaningful advantage for European businesses or any company serving EU customers. Automatic site-level backups are included on higher plans but not on Starter, which is worth noting.
Customer support is available 24/7 via phone, live chat and email, plus the optional personal consultant. In our testing, phone response times were under two minutes; chat responses varied more, occasionally stretching to ten or fifteen minutes at peak times. Staff were polite and well-informed for standard questions, though more specialised queries sometimes required escalation.
Our scoring breakdown
The bottom line
IONOS isn’t trying to be the flashiest website builder, and that’s exactly why it works for the audience it targets. What you get is a simple, guided editor, a bundle that genuinely includes what most competitors upsell, and one of the lowest entry prices of any major builder. The trade-offs — fewer templates, less design freedom, steeper renewal pricing — are real and worth weighing, but for the small business owner who wants a dependable site up in an afternoon at minimal cost, IONOS is hard to beat.
Start with the 30-day money-back guarantee on Plus or Pro, build something real, and decide before the renewal whether the long-term price still adds up for you.
IONOS vs the competition
How it stacks up against the other builders we rate most highly. Scores are each brand’s overall rating from our own review of that platform.
Builder
Score
From
Best for
Score
9.9
From£1/mointro, then from £16/mo
Best forCheapest bundled extras — domain, email and a personal consultant included
Score
9.8
From£9/moLight, annual ex VAT
Best forDesign freedom and room to grow
Score
9.5
From£2.99/mo48-mo term, renews £10.99
Best forLowest long-term cost on a multi-year term
Score
9.3
Best forUK-based hosting and UK support
Who should use IONOS?
The budget-conscious small business
You want a professional site at the lowest possible price, and you’re happy to trade template choice for a bundle that already includes a domain, email and support.
We’d start on Plus — £1/mo intro, then from £16/mo
Tradespeople and local service providers
A simple, trustworthy online presence with opening hours, a contact route and a handful of pages — nothing more complex than that.
We’d start on Starter — £1/mo intro
European or EU-facing businesses
GDPR-compliant, geo-redundant EU hosting matters more to you than the size of the template library.
We’d start on Plus — £1/mo intro, then from £16/mo
Independent merchants avoiding transaction fees
You’re selling a modest catalogue and want to keep 100% of every sale rather than lose a percentage to the platform.
We’d start on Online Store Plus — £1/mo intro
If the widest possible template library, pixel-perfect creative control, a serious blogging platform or a high-volume online store are near the top of your list, weigh IONOS against Wix and the other builders in the comparison table above — each scores higher on one of those points.
Ready to build your website with IONOS?
Start a MyWebsite Now plan from £1/month with a free domain, business email and a named personal consultant — backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Visit IONOSFrequently asked questions
Is IONOS really £1 a month?
Yes — but only for the first 12 months, on Starter, Plus and Online Store Plus. The £1/month rate is a promotional intro price on a 12-month contract, and it renews from £16/month after the first year. Pro and Online Store Pro have their own pricing; always check the „renews at“ figure on IONOS’s own pricing page before committing.
Does IONOS have a free plan?
No. Unlike Wix or Hostinger, IONOS doesn’t offer a permanently free tier. It does, however, back every MyWebsite Now plan with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try any plan risk-free for a month.
Does IONOS include a domain and email?
Yes. Every MyWebsite Now plan includes one free domain for the first year (renewing at standard registrar rates after) and at least one business-grade email inbox — 2 GB on Starter, more on higher tiers. Most competitors charge extra for business email.
Is IONOS good for SEO?
Yes, though the depth of the SEO toolkit depends on your plan. All plans let you edit headings, meta descriptions and image alt text. Plus and Pro add SiteAnalytics, an AI meta-tag generator, and rankingCoach integration. You can also connect Google Search Console directly. SEO performance on a well-optimised IONOS site is competitive with any mainstream builder.
Can I sell online with IONOS?
Yes. IONOS offers a dedicated Online Store product, starting from £1/month on the intro rate, with unlimited products, social selling across Facebook, Instagram, Amazon and eBay, abandoned cart recovery, and — notably — no transaction fees on any plan. It suits small-to-medium stores; high-volume sellers may still prefer Shopify.
How does IONOS compare to Wix?
IONOS is cheaper and simpler, with a stronger built-in bundle — domain, email and a personal consultant all included. Wix offers a far larger template library, pixel-level drag-and-drop and more creative freedom, and it scores 9.8 to IONOS’s 9.9 in our reviews. If price, guidance and European data handling matter most, IONOS wins; if design flexibility and the biggest template library matter more, Wix is the stronger pick.
