• Ionos

Ionos

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Overview

Ionos has a rating of 1.1 stars from 164 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Ionos most frequently mention customer service, credit card, and domain name problems. Ionos ranks 549th among Web Hosting sites.

  • Service
    108
  • Value
    106
  • Shipping
    49
  • Returns
    61
  • Quality
    95
Positive reviews (last 12 months): 0%
Positive
0
Neutral
0
Negative
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What reviewers want you to know

Positive highlights

No positive highlights yet

Critical highlights

  • After withdrawing $137, no refund, no customer service returns email, lost that money and I am not using the service.
  • They steal your domain name hijack your account and force you to pay them to recover it.
How would you rate Ionos?
Top Positive Review

“Great Service!”

Carlos S.
6/3/20

If you looking for reliable hosting choose IONOS and Thank me later! The speed is fast, the 24/7 service is real, they will call you back If you need assistance within minutes and they always solve all the issues, have this service for years and I didn't have a problem at all.

Top Critical Review

“Absolutely Appalling service”

Azy A.
1/30/24

Absolutely appalling customer service they don't care about your custom. Its been ten years with ionos and due to change of circumstances they made switching/cancellation process so difficult I sent them cancellation notice they didn't bother to call back despite they say they do and now covering themselves with their strict T&Cs for sake of few bucks. I wouldn't recommend neither use them again.

Reviews (164)

Rating

Timeframe

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

customer service (33) domain name (12)
Thumbnail of user azya
1 review
4 helpful votes
January 30th, 2024

Absolutely appalling customer service they don't care about your custom. Its been ten years with ionos and due to change of circumstances they made switching/cancellation process so difficult I sent them cancellation notice they didn't bother to call back despite they say they do and now covering themselves with their strict T&Cs for sake of few bucks. I wouldn't recommend neither use them again.

Products used:
cloud server
web hosting

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Value
Shipping
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Thumbnail of user crimsonkingdomsnetwork
1 review
0 helpful votes
March 12th, 2024

Absolutely the worst company in existence I highly recommend you stay as far away as possible i have bin charged 9 times for a single transaction totaling over $200 and everytime i call they hang up or transfer mr and then hang up i recommend anything other then them can't believe this is a real company at this point im going to have to change my banking information as I can't even close the account because they have to do so but they just keep hanging up so disgusting there customer service

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Thumbnail of user stephaniec2771
1 review
2 helpful votes
January 22nd, 2024

First of all their customer service is absolutely atrocious! Most of them have no idea what they are talking about. You get transfered multiple times for one simple question. They will NEVER transfer you to a supervisor even if your issue isn't resolved. Emails go down A LOT. Just don't do it. We eventually went to GoDaddy. They are slightly more expensive but worth every penny. Every person I have spoken with there is helpful and they obviously know what they are talking about. Seems like GoDaddy hires educated people and IONOS just hires people right off the street.

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Value
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Thumbnail of user jesse.wallace
1 review
0 helpful votes
May 2nd, 2024
Verified purchase

These guys had cheap hosting so I signed up for a domain to sell something. They billed me for stuff I never signed up for. After I canceled everything they kept sending me invoices forever for advertising services which I did not need or ask for and could not use as I canceled everything with them. They refuse to cancel until "contract" I never agreed to is up. They are total scum acammers and their hosting is trash. You are better off anywhere else.

Products used:
Hosting and domain services

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Value
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Returns
Thumbnail of user jchanson25
1 review
3 helpful votes
January 24th, 2024

Basically, I have been trying to cancel services with them for a couple months now. Knowing the renewal time was coming up I canceled everything online yet I was still billed after this. I called to cancel and get my refund - was told it would happen, it didn't. 2 weeks later I call again explaining what is going on and they hang up on me.

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Thumbnail of user robertf101
5 reviews
14 helpful votes
October 11th, 2015

I've used 1and1 for the last several years and have not encountered any major problems except for a service outage that lasted several days a few years ago.
On the downside, their tech support appears to be outsourced to India. Some of the techies are impossible to understand and some are quite stupid. On the other hand, I haven't needed much in the way of tech support due to the problem-free nature of their service.
My sites are relatively low traffic, so I don't know how 1and1 is for sites with heavy traffic.
All in all and knowing what I do now, I probably would use a different service if I were just starting out but, as things are going OK now, I'm not likely to switch.

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Value
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Thumbnail of user aq42
1 review
0 helpful votes
April 23rd, 2024

They are just so scammy and unpleasant. Customer support is barely existent, the product (MyWebsiteNow) is absolutely god awful with so little customisation. Had cancelled my contract but continued to be billed and when I called them, they agreed it was a mistake and cancelled, only for me to continue receiving bills and when I try to contact them again they essentially have no memory of telling me it should have been cancelled. Avoid them like the plague, they will harass you and waste hours of your life, literally any other option is better, just DO NOT USE THEM.

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Thumbnail of user danielm4957
1 review
0 helpful votes
February 28th, 2024

Everything is so manual with Ionos. A simple cancellation requires you to call them/request a call back. My customer service rep, Alexcil Pilares was extremely rude and dismissive to me when I enquired about a pending charge, butting in while I was explaining the situation. There's much better out there than Ionos.

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Thumbnail of user jayw1065
1 review
0 helpful votes
March 25th, 2024

I switched to an unlimited plan and my website is full of problems. Pictures disappear off my website. My website goes down about every 3 weeks. The tech always tell me I've made changes and that is not true. The phone call with the tech is always about 1 hour long. The worst company. I don't understand how they are rated #3. Ionos is TERRIBLE

Thumbnail of user amyr2165
1 review
0 helpful votes
March 4th, 2024

Thought the monthly bill being charged was for a different service. When we realized we were paying for a service we didn't use, I contacted them. It took several calls to get it canceled. One of their reps told me our website would not work without their service which was not true as we didn't even use their service. The charge was for so long Ionos would have had to update our credit card information without our approval. Reimbursed us for 3 months. Will try to get the balance reversed on the credit card.

Tip for consumers:
It appears to be a scam now but maybe it didn't start as a scam.

Products used:
None

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Value
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user sarab1306
1 review
1 helpful vote
January 30th, 2024

I called in and spoke wth Michael (called in Tuesday, Jan 30,2024 at 6 pm Pacific Standard Time) and was on the phone for 1 hour and 18 minutes. I can tell you that Michael was absolutely useless in answering any questions. He cannot explain was SSL certificates. All he can say is that it makes the website more "secure"... but not telling you how. Then Michael is always trying to upsell you... again not caring about the client's need, but maybe only to fulfill his own quota. Then I was chatting via text on the ionos.com website with Breza T. I had to ask there times where to go and make a complaint. I finally got an answer after I said their name will be on the complaints message that I sent in. I've been with the company since 2002 (when it was 1and1.com)... that's 22 years ago. I have seen the company do well, but with the incompetent staff they have hired now, I find it a terrible company to deal with. I hope ionos.com can do better and get rid of useless staff as those staff aren't helping the company, rather they harm the company a lot. Cause now I'm thinking of moving to another company.

Service
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Thumbnail of user billbo1970
1 review
0 helpful votes
April 30th, 2024
Verified purchase

WORST customer service ever. They don't care one whit about you. Just try to cancel a service... you have to call them to do so. It will be cancelled over the phone, and then an hour later you will get an email saying that they have cancelled your cancellation because you must have made a mistake... I did not see this email several months ago and have been paying $9/mo for a webbuilder service that I do not use! Realized today that it's still part of my 'contract' and called up to cancel it again... about an hour later I got the above referenced email saying they've cancelled my cancellation request...

"This is Mona from the Sales and Cancellations Department. When I double checked your Mywebsite creator contract, I could see that there is a website associated in that. So what I did so that I cannot ruin your website, I revoked the cancellation and make it active again. "

I'm just about to call them again and start screaming!

Products used:
domain registration and email services

Thumbnail of user eddies399
2 reviews
4 helpful votes
October 17th, 2023
Verified purchase

Avoid at all cost!

Company only gives a days notice for renewal of hosting plan at increased price every year. A day is not enough time to move files out and they count on this. To retrieve files after expiration not only do you pay the increased price but also a reactivation fee. How is this not considered corporate extortion? They need to be investigated by the consumer protection agencies!

Tip for consumers:
Avoid at all cost! They spend more time trying to get reviews deleted. Not trustworthy!

Products used:
Hosting

Service
Value
Shipping
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Thumbnail of user gregory.vovchok
1 review
0 helpful votes
February 24th, 2024

These are scammers who will continue to harass you for years and set collectors on you even after you close your account/contract. Be careful, stay away from these scammers!

Products used:
web hosting, web domain

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Value
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Thumbnail of user johnd9004
1 review
0 helpful votes
February 14th, 2024

Almost a week later and I still do not have a functional hosting package.
Their support staff don't have a clue what they're doing, and their ridiculous dashboard has no logic behind its design whatsoever. It's almost impossible to find what you're looking for.
I have had multiple online chats with their support staff, and was assured that AutoSSL would be free, but when I try to activate it, they try to upsell expensive SSL certificates instead.
And now they're removed the live chat option from their support page with the only contact option a UK phone number.
There are also no visible email addresses on their site.
What sort of hosting company allows contact only via phone?
I cannot emphasise just how incompetent and useless these people are.
With other hosts, my hosting package has always been up and running within minutes of registering, besides the obvious delay of DNS propagation, but with Ionos, a week later I still have nothing usable.

For your own sanity:
Avoid. This. Company. At. All. Costs.

Thumbnail of user dianed2104
1 review
0 helpful votes
February 24th, 2024

My husband and I opened a £10 a month contract with Ionos last May. I was to pay for small extras for
Google or something. My husband was paying £10 a month for the contract. But they attempt to take his money as well.was told that these extra's were not part of the contract and could be cancelled
At any time. Firstly I have cancelled them several times and then they put them back up and try and charge me. 3 invoices and one of them for £24 which I would never have agreed to because it would take a while to populate the website. You cancel them and then they want you to ring them. And when you try and ring them you can't get through which is why we cancelled with them in the first place. There is no telephone support. You can't get through. My advice to anyone is take it to Action Fraud. I have cancelled my card twice and they just pick it back up. I have already registered this with Action Fraud and they are waiting for confirmation that they do it again. They knew they had done wrong and refunded everything. These people
Must be desperate. I am instructing my bank to dispute them if they are not cancelled / refunded. This is cyber crime at its worst. Don't touch them with a bargepole.

Tip for consumers:
That when they continually track your cards when you have cancelled them then you need to record it with Action Fraud. I am also reporting them to Martin Lewis at moneysaving expert.com

Products used:
None of them. they were too complicated for us and very limited

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Thumbnail of user tom.cobbs
1 review
2 helpful votes
January 9th, 2024

Based on my experience it seems they intentionally do not warn you when your Cc is going to expire and hope you fail to renew. Then they immediately shut down your domain and force you to buy your domain name back at an exorbitant price. In my opinion this company and it's business practices are nothing but an unethical scam. Customer service is non-existent. They will not take Cc payment over the phone. They forced me to pay the $7 renewal with a WIRE TRANSFER! Really? Then after wiring the money, they still refused to re-activate my account saying they had deleted it due to the ONE DAY PAST DUE of a $7 bill because the date on my Cc had expired! AVOID AT ALL COST!

Tip for consumers:
This company, it's customer disservice, and poor ethics are disgusting!

Products used:
Domain hosting

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Value
Shipping
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Thumbnail of user dannj6
1 review
1 helpful vote
February 16th, 2024

I made the mistake of trying their service out for a year, on 2021, because of a coupon I had, worst experience I've had with any web hosting company. When I canceled the service they adamantly confirmed the cancellation, on a 2/2022, and sent me on my merry way but Nooo…They proceeded to charge me over $200 for the contract again, on 2/2023, and it took me many days of calls back and fort to get it cancelled and refunded *partially*. Now I'm making this review to warn anyone else thinking of getting any service from our dear scammer at IONOS. This 2/2024 they proceeded to charge me again for some "security service" and a domain, according to them I "forgot" to cancel last year. I have the cancellation invoice btw. Somehow they managed to get my credit card detail even though I removed that card from my account. Now they are telling me there is no way to cancel this auto renewal domain, which is bullcrap. I am back at it again having to spend a week calling them to close my account for good. NEVER AGAIN.

Tip for consumers:
I believe this company should get sued for their borderline scammer tricks and deception to its customers.

Products used:
Domain service and website builder.

Service
Value
Shipping
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Thumbnail of user coreyf313
1 review
0 helpful votes
April 16th, 2024

When you sign up for service they will include things listed as "free". When it comes time to renew a year later your bill shoots up an additional $40 for a domain because of the previous "free" stuff they tacked on. They are extremely predatory in their emails and threaten to send you to collections. They will call you multiple times to try and sell you services but will never call you to discuss the bill with the extra charges. You can even go to your account and cancel the contract with the extra things, but they never approve it and it sits as pending.

Products used:
Domain hosting

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user jacobm1403
1 review
1 helpful vote
February 21st, 2024

Tacked on multiple services I didn't want, overcharged multiple times, and billed for months at a time. Ridiculous business!

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Thumbnail of user mobilegaming
1 review
0 helpful votes
March 6th, 2024

Stuff is always broken
Domain corruption
Staff is clueless
Its overpriced
Misleading
Offers stuff and then takes it away
Very slow
Horrible ux

Tip for consumers:
conplete garbage and will never be buying from them again - looking forward to transferring everything i own to another provider

Products used:
domains, hosting, ssl, wordpress, other

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user jr239
2 reviews
6 helpful votes
January 29th, 2024

Purchased IONOS web hosting for a company website. Chose this host because our company has used it previously for other projects. Purchased the "Web Hosting Plus" package for a low - medium traffic website. As someone who has hosted with other companies, the experience here is lacking and it turns out that it's going to yield higher costs in the long run. For example, you can't use a 3rd party SSL certificate so you have to buy one from IONOS, even if you've already paid for one elsewhere. The free wildcard SSL that came with the package I purchased can't be used unless I use their nameservers. I'm not interested in using their nameservers for a variety of reasons. Everything here is an upsell, and they even employ "scare tactics" to aid in this. "There have been 34 attempted attacks on your website already. Buy our security scan blah blah blah" Totally fake, considering this is a dev site with a brand new domain with zero SERPs history behind it. Should have just gone through some extra steps internally to use a different web host. Would have saved money, time, and effort in the long run.

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Thumbnail of user huntgior
1 review
1 helpful vote
February 15th, 2024

They called me offering a service, I declined. They then added the service to my account anyway and I called them to cancel it as soon as I saw it was added to my account. I then check back 3 months later to see I was being charged for the same service I already called to cancel. I got an email saying that they were forwarding my claim to collections because I didn't pay the service I never agreed to… Stay away from these dirty scammers, they are willing to screw you over for two monthly payments then to keep your other services business. I have moved all of my domains to NameCheap and have had a much better experience.

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Thumbnail of user herseyk
2 reviews
5 helpful votes
October 15th, 2011

For what I use 1and1 for, it has worked very well and priced fairly.

I use it for domain registration only. Can register and have a domain active in minutes, it seems. Their prices are about the best I've seen consistently, without odd add-ons later. With the domain you get one one free email address which I forward all to my recipient email acct.

Thumbnail of user brandeeogunjobi
1 review
0 helpful votes
March 25th, 2024

I have never had so many issues with their servers! They are partnered with Sitelock,,,, now all my sites get injected. If my files on your server and they are basic HTML why are they getting shutdown. No help... just want more money to FIX? The problem YOUR SERVERS created. I had to delete my websites. Their hidrive doesn't restore the site as was sold to me you have to manual upload. DO YOU HAve new ownership? WHAT Happened to your customer service? IONOS IS GOING DOWNHILL...

Products used:
Hosting and Hidrive

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1&1 Internet is one of the World's largest Hosting Providers - We offer a range of US services, such as: Hosting Solutions, Domains, Websites. Start your Project today!

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