Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

IONOS VS DigitalOcean

Compare IONOS VS DigitalOcean and see what are their differences

IONOS logo IONOS

IONOS, your digital partner for cloud solutions and web hosting, supporting your needs from websites, domains, servers, and more.

DigitalOcean logo DigitalOcean

Simplifying cloud hosting. Deploy an SSD cloud server in 55 seconds.
  • IONOS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-23
  • DigitalOcean Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-10

IONOS

Website
ionos.com
Pricing URL
-
$ Details
-

DigitalOcean

$ Details
paid $5.0 / Monthly (1 GB / 1 vCPU / 25 GB)

IONOS features and specs

  • Cost-Effective
    IONOS offers competitive pricing with a variety of packages designed to fit different budgets, making it accessible for small businesses and startups.
  • Customer Support
    Their 24/7 customer service is highly praised for its responsiveness and expertise, helping users resolve issues quickly.
  • Performance
    IONOS provides reliable performance with strong uptime statistics, ensuring that websites are consistently available to visitors.
  • Security Features
    Offers robust security features including free SSL certificates and daily backups, ensuring customer data safety.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The hosting platform comes with an intuitive control panel which makes it easy for users to manage their websites.
  • Scalability
    Provides flexible and scalable hosting solutions that can grow with your business needs.

Possible disadvantages of IONOS

  • Additional Costs
    While basic packages are affordable, addons and additional features can add up, potentially increasing the overall cost.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite the user-friendly interface, some features and settings might be overwhelming for beginners.
  • Limited Data Centers
    IONOS has fewer data centers compared to some competitors, which might affect performance in certain geographic regions.
  • Upselling Attempts
    Users have reported frequent upselling attempts, which can be slightly intrusive.
  • Complex Pricing Structure
    The pricing structure can be somewhat complex and confusing, especially with introductory offers and renewal rates.
  • Email Hosting Limitations
    The email hosting features are basic and may not be suitable for businesses with advanced email needs.

DigitalOcean features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    DigitalOcean offers a simple and intuitive interface, which is particularly helpful for developers who want to quickly deploy and manage cloud infrastructure.
  • Cost-Effective
    DigitalOcean provides affordable pricing, making it an attractive option for startups and small businesses that need cloud services but are on a tight budget.
  • Scalability
    The platform allows you to easily scale your infrastructure vertically by upgrading your droplet's resources or horizontally by adding more droplets.
  • Performance
    DigitalOcean provides high-performance SSD-based virtual machines (droplets), which offer fast and reliable performance for a variety of applications.
  • Community and Documentation
    DigitalOcean has an extensive library of tutorials and a large community of users, which can be incredibly helpful for troubleshooting and learning.
  • Managed Services
    DigitalOcean offers managed services like Managed Databases and Managed Kubernetes, which simplify the management of complex infrastructure setups.

Possible disadvantages of DigitalOcean

  • Limited Advanced Features
    While DigitalOcean is great for simple setups and small to medium-sized applications, it lacks some of the advanced features and services offered by larger cloud providers like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
  • Regional Availability
    DigitalOcean has a more limited number of data centers compared to major competitors, which might be a drawback if you need a presence in a specific region not covered by their facilities.
  • Customer Support
    DigitalOcean's customer support is primarily based on a ticketing system which could be slower and less efficient compared to the instant chat or phone support options that other cloud providers offer.
  • No Built-in Advanced Networking Features
    Advanced networking features like global load balancing are either limited or not available, which could be a concern for more complex infrastructure needs.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Switching from DigitalOcean to another provider might be challenging due to the unique configurations and setups; this could result in higher costs and effort.

Analysis of IONOS

Overall verdict

  • Overall, IONOS is considered a good option for individuals and small to medium-sized businesses looking for budget-friendly and reliable web hosting solutions. However, like any service, it might not meet everyone's needs, so prospective users should evaluate their specific requirements before choosing a provider.

Why this product is good

  • IONOS is a popular web hosting and cloud solutions provider known for its affordable pricing, reliable performance, and comprehensive range of services. It offers various hosting options, including shared hosting, VPS, cloud, and dedicated servers, making it suitable for different types of users. Customers often praise its user-friendly control panel, 24/7 customer support, and extensive security features.

Recommended for

  • Small businesses looking for affordable web hosting solutions
  • Individuals or freelancers needing a user-friendly web host
  • Users seeking diverse hosting options with good scalability
  • Customers requiring 24/7 customer support and security features

IONOS videos

IONOS Review 2023 | Best SHARED hosting provider 2023

More videos:

  • Review - 👉 IONOS by 1&1 Review [2023]
  • Review - 1&1 Ionos Review: Pros, Cons, and Alternatives
  • Review - IONOS Review | Is IONOS Web Hosting 2023 Still Good?

DigitalOcean videos

DigitalOcean Review 2018 ( Why it Might not be Good for Blogging )

More videos:

  • Review - DigitalOcean vs AWS
  • Review - SITEGROUND VS DIGITALOCEAN 🤑 HONEST 💯 PROMO CODES

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to IONOS and DigitalOcean)
Web Hosting
25 25%
75% 75
Cloud Computing
0 0%
100% 100
Hosting
24 24%
76% 76
VPS
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using IONOS and DigitalOcean. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare IONOS and DigitalOcean

IONOS Reviews

12 Best Cheap Dedicated Servers Ranked
1&1 IONOS is the love child of German hosting giant 1&1 and IAAS cloud specialists ProfitBricks. The result was a much-needed upgrade in enterprise server offering and a step towards conquering new markets.
8 Best Shared WordPress Hosting Providers in 2025 (Compared)
Our next shared WordPress hosting provider, IONOS, is one of the more affordable options on our list. Coming in at $6 per month for 12 months, IONOS gives you plenty of bang for your buck. With the Essential plan, you’ll get 10 GB of storage, 10 databases, a free domain for 1 year, and a free SSL certificate for $6 per month.
8 Best Free VPS Trials In 2024 [No Credit Card Required]
Lots of us don’t know about Ionos but we are well known about 1 & 1. 1&1 is the best-reputed hosting service provider in the US market. Ionos is a sub-branch of 1&1.
5+ Cheap VPS Hosting UK Server Provider 2023
Using a low-cost VPS service has many advantages with IONOS. The biggest one is how inexpensive it is to set up and maintain this kind of server. As a result, using these kinds of VPS services will cost you three times less than using dedicated servers. By using this service, you can save a lot of money each month and put that money into running other aspects of your business.
Top 50 Cheapest Cloud Services Providers | Affordable Cloud Hosting
For small and medium-sized businesses, IONOS is their web hosting and cloud partner. We specialize in IaaS and have a wide range of digital solutions to offer. We manage over 8 million customer contracts and host over 12 million domains in our own regional data centers in the US and Europe, making us Europe’s largest hosting company.

DigitalOcean Reviews

Top 5 Best Ubuntu VPS Providers for 2024
Overview and Unique Selling Points DigitalOcean simplifies cloud computing for developers, offering scalable infrastructure designed to grow with your project. Known for its developer-friendly platform, DigitalOcean provides an extensive range of services from Droplets to Kubernetes, all supporting Ubuntu. Their SSD-only cloud servers, flexible API, and transparent pricing...
Best Linux VPS [Top 10 Linux VPS Provider 2024]
DigitalOcean makes it easier to handle your server using one click. They have a predictable and transparent pricing model. So, you can know all about the pricing. But aside from all of its advantages, the pricing for the DigitalOcean is relatively high compared to other VPS hosting solutions available in the market. For example, their basic 2GB RAM VPS is $12. In addition,...
Source: cloudzy.com
8 Best Free VPS Trials In 2024 [No Credit Card Required]
*These all are DigitalOcean cloud provider-based plans. Plans vary according to your choice of Cloud Provider.
10 Best Web Hosting Companies in India(December 2023)
Straightforward and intuitive, DigitalOcean's interface allows you to deploy your cloud infrastructure quickly and without hassle.
Source: www.vikatan.com
Top 50 Cheapest Cloud Services Providers | Affordable Cloud Hosting
Our goal is to make cloud computing as simple as possible so that developers and businesses can spend more time creating software that makes a difference in the world. You’ll love the cloud computing services you need, with predictable pricing, developer-friendly features, and scalability. DigitalOcean consistently outperforms other cloud providers in terms of price while...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, DigitalOcean seems to be a lot more popular than IONOS. While we know about 66 links to DigitalOcean, we've tracked only 5 mentions of IONOS. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

IONOS mentions (5)

  • Create a custom domain without automatically having a new e-mail provider.
    So I am currently trying to setup my own mail domain and have almost no clue. After some time I got across ionos.com where I can setup my custom domains. And I did find some domains I want to buy. But now I am uncertain, because if I get this payment right I will automatically get an e-mail box for ionos:. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Reccomendations for a website provider for a small business?
    I've been using Ionos (ionos.com - mind the spelling) for professional and hobby stuff for years. Great product and service; wide variety of offerings from pre-installed to roll yer own. Not the least expensive and not the most, but I've found I genuinely get what I pay for. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Is there Any free hosting services that host your Django website and list it to the internet and they take payments from the revenue of the ads in the website?. I searched a bit and found some, but nothing clear on the policy.. Anyways I'm just looking for a way to get started besides pythonanywhere
    You can buy domains for like a buck. Try ionos.com. You can also use railway.app and you get credit. It's pretty cheap after that. Try that or digitalocean first and if you like, get a domain name. But you only need a domain name for some use cases if you are just learning. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • I run a high five-figure per month blog network - AMA
    The first site I sold was made with the website builder included with a cheap hosting package from 1and1.com (note: I am not recommending/advocating for them, I don't know if they even exist anymore). Source: about 2 years ago
  • Gmail is Blocking My Pop3 Emails
    I use mail.ionos.com (formerly 1and1.com) as my email provider for my business accounts, which I then have gmail route to my personal inbox as an outside pop3 account. I also send mail from this pop3 account via my personal gmail (labeled as the pop3 account). Source: over 2 years ago

DigitalOcean mentions (66)

View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing IONOS and DigitalOcean, you can also consider the following products

Bluehost - One of the largest and most trusted web hosting services powering millions of websites. Join Bluehost now and get a FREE domain name!

Linode - We make it simple to develop, deploy, and scale cloud infrastructure at the best price-to-performance ratio in the market.

GoDaddy - GoDaddy makes registering Domain Names fast, simple, and affordable. Find out why so many business owners chose GoDaddy to be their Domain Name Registrar.

Amazon AWS - Amazon Web Services offers reliable, scalable, and inexpensive cloud computing services. Free to join, pay only for what you use.

HostGator - HostGator is a leading provider of web hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers. Discover why over 9,000,000 websites trust us for their hosting needs.

Vultr - VULTR Global Cloud Hosting - Brilliantly Fast SSD VPS Cloud Servers. 100% KVM Virtualization