--- title: "ScalaHosting vs IONOS: which is better in 2026?" url: "https://hostidea.com/compare/ionos-vs-scalahosting" canonical: "https://hostidea.com/compare/ionos-vs-scalahosting" author: "Jennifer T." generated: "2026-10-15" note: "Markdown twin generated at build time from the same content as the HTML page. The HTML page is canonical." --- # ScalaHosting vs IONOS ScalaHosting and IONOS compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. ScalaHosting scores higher overall. By [Jennifer T.](https://hostidea.com/authors/jennifer-t) ยท Updated Oct 14, 2026 We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. Rankings come from the published methodology and sourced data, not from commissions. [Disclosure](https://hostidea.com/disclosure). ## Verdict [8.1 out of 10](https://hostidea.com/methodology#scoring) [ScalaHosting](https://hostidea.com/reviews/scalahosting)Wins overall Dallas and Sofia host with its own SPanel, an anytime prorated refund and a credit table that reaches 100 percent [7.1 out of 10](https://hostidea.com/methodology#scoring) [IONOS](https://hostidea.com/reviews/ionos) The former 1&1: unlimited sites and traffic from $8 a month at renewal, with a free domain and wildcard SSL ScalaHosting wins 5 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (8.1 vs 7.1). ## How do the scores compare? ScalaHosting leads on 5 sub-scores, IONOS on 0. Higher is better. | | [ScalaHosting](https://hostidea.com/reviews/scalahosting) | [IONOS](https://hostidea.com/reviews/ionos) | | --- | --- | --- | | Performance | 8.0 | 6.5 | | Uptime | 8.5 | 7.5 | | Support | 8.5 | 6.5 | | Features | 8.0 | 7.5 | | Value | 7.5 | 7.5 | | Ease of use | 7.5 | 7.0 | ## Which one is faster and more reliable? | | [ScalaHosting](https://hostidea.com/reviews/scalahosting) | [IONOS](https://hostidea.com/reviews/ionos) | | --- | --- | --- | | Overall score | 8.1 | 7.1 | | Uptime (published)Kripesh Adwani 365 d vs Cybernews 14 d; methods differ | 99.99% | 100.00% | | Response time (published)WPBeginner vs Cybernews; methods differ | 526 ms | 1749 ms | ## Which one costs less? On renewal, ScalaHosting is cheaper ($11.95/mo vs $14.00/mo). Intro prices need the listed term. Prices verified Oct 13, 2026 (ScalaHosting) and Oct 14, 2026 (IONOS). USD. | | [ScalaHosting](https://hostidea.com/reviews/scalahosting) | [IONOS](https://hostidea.com/reviews/ionos) | | --- | --- | --- | | Cheapest plan | Mini | Plus | | Intro price | $2.95/mo | $1.00/mo | | Renewal price | $11.95/mo | $14.00/mo | | Required term | 36 months | 12 months | | Websites | 1 | unlimited | | Storage | 10 GB | 350 GB | | Money back | 30 days, then prorated at any time | 30 days | ## What does each include? | | [ScalaHosting](https://hostidea.com/reviews/scalahosting) | [IONOS](https://hostidea.com/reviews/ionos) | | --- | --- | --- | | Free domain | Start, Advanced and Entry Cloud; not on Mini | One domain free for the first year on every plan: .us, .ca, .com, .net, .org, .info, .me, .biz or .online | | Free SSL | Yes | One DV wildcard certificate on Essential, Starter and Plus; unlimited wildcard certificates on Ultimate | | Automated backups | Daily, 7 restore points kept for the last 7 days | Not stated | | Free migration | Website and email migration | No | | Control panel | SPanel (free, with SShield security and spam protection) or cPanel | Not stated | | CDN | CDN integration | Not stated | | WP-CLI and SSH | Yes | Not stated | | Malware protection | Real-time, on every plan | Not stated | | Staging | Not listed on the plan cards | No | | Uptime guarantee | 99.9%; credits from 10% at 99.8% up to 100% below 99%, claimed through billing | 99.99% in the general terms, with a credit for the month proportional to the downtime, on request and at IONOS's discretion | | Money-back guarantee | Full refund within 30 days; prorated refund of unused time at any time after that; new clients only; web, reseller and VPS hosting | Not stated | | Choice of data center | Dallas, New York, Seattle or Sofia on ScalaHosting's own infrastructure; partner cloud and AWS regions for cloud plans | Not stated | | Phone support | Yes | 24/7, with a personal consultant | | Windows hosting | No | No | | Backups | Not stated | Daily backup of storage and databases with data recovery, every plan | | Free CDN | Not stated | Starter, Plus and Ultimate; not on Essential | | Caching | Not stated | Server compression and HTTP/2 listed; no caching layer named on the plan page | | SSH, SFTP, WP-CLI and Git | Not stated | Every plan, with 200 SFTP accounts, Perl and Python | | PHP versions | Not stated | 8.4, 8.3 and 8.2, with paid extended support for 5.6 and later | | Resource limits | Not stated | CPU priority 1x, 3x, 5x and 10x by plan; 262,144 inodes on every plan; cron jobs 10, 25, 50 and 100 | | Websites and traffic | Not stated | Unlimited websites and unlimited traffic on every plan; 5,000 subdomains | | Email | Not stated | 1, 2, 4 or 5 accounts of 2 GB by plan, with forwarding, webmail and anti-spam | | Data center choice | Not stated | No | | Security | Not stated | Daily malware scanning (basic, or advanced with automatic removal on Ultimate), DDoS protection, geo-redundancy | ## Company facts | | [ScalaHosting](https://hostidea.com/reviews/scalahosting) | [IONOS](https://hostidea.com/reviews/ionos) | | --- | --- | --- | | Control panel | SPanel (ScalaHosting's own) or cPanel | IONOS's own control panel (no cPanel) | | Data centers | 5 | 2 | | Support channels | chat, ticket, phone, knowledge-base | chat, phone, email, knowledge-base | | Founded | 2007 | 2018 | Visit ScalaHosting (affiliate link: /go/scalahosting)Visit IONOS (affiliate link: /go/ionos)