Hetzner vs IONOS

What Hetzner is

Hetzner sells cloud instances and dedicated servers from European data centres at prices well below the large clouds. The economics are the reason to use it, especially for bandwidth-heavy or always-on workloads where hyperscaler egress dominates the bill. What you give up is breadth: far fewer managed services and regions, so anything beyond compute, storage and networking you build yourself.

What IONOS is

IONOS sells domains, shared web hosting, WordPress, VPS, cloud and dedicated products; this record focuses on US Linux shared Web Hosting. Current tiers bundle a domain, SSL, professional email, SSH/SFTP/WP-CLI, databases, one-click apps, daily backup/restore and 24/7 support. Promotional one-year prices rise to disclosed monthly renewal rates, taxes apply, and apparently unlimited sites, storage or databases remain bounded by shared compute, file-count and acceptable-use constraints.

What Hetzner is built to do

Cloud and dedicated servers

Offers virtual instances and bare-metal machines from the same account.

European data centres

Hosts in German and Finnish sites, with a US region added later.

Generous included traffic

Bundles substantial outbound traffic instead of billing every gigabyte.

What IONOS is built to do

Shared hosting tiers

Allocates websites, geo-redundant storage, databases and compute levels by plan.

Developer tools

Includes SSH, SFTP, WP-CLI and database access for supported web projects.

Bundled operations

Provides SSL, DDoS protection, daily backup/restore and 24/7 support.

Account mobile app

Offers iOS and Android account functions such as notifications and payment-detail management.

Choose Hetzner if

• Teams comfortable managing their own infrastructure who care about cost.

Choose IONOS if

• Conventional PHP, database and WordPress sites that fit shared resource and file limits
• Buyers who value domain, email, SSL and hosting in one provider account
• Projects whose full first-year and renewal costs have been documented before purchase

Skip IONOS if

• The application needs root access, persistent custom daemons or guaranteed compute isolation
• The website is expected to exceed file, database, CPU or memory limits despite an unlimited label
• No independent export, backup, domain-transfer and cancellation procedure is maintained

Hetzner: pros & cons

• Price per unit of compute is hard to beat
• European data residency
• Dedicated hardware available
• Fewer managed services than AWS or GCP
• Support is documentation-first
• Account verification can be strict

IONOS: pros & cons

• Broad bundle: Domain, SSL, email, databases, SSH tools, app installation, backups and support are packaged together.
• Published renewal figures: Plan cards show first-year discounts and the subsequent monthly price.
• Developer access: SSH, SFTP and WP-CLI support conventional PHP and WordPress workflows.
• Product ladder: Shared, WordPress, Deploy Now, VPS, cloud and dedicated services cover different control requirements.
• Promotional discontinuity: The $1 Plus offer requires a one-year term and then rises to $14/month at the reviewed date.
• Shared-hosting limits: CPU, memory and a 262,144-file ceiling constrain even plans marketed with unlimited resources.
• Bundle complexity: Domains, email, hosting and optional products can renew on separate terms and require cancellation planning.
• Backup scope needs verification: Included daily restore does not remove the need for off-provider file and database copies.