SiteGround vs IONOS
SiteGround and IONOS compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. SiteGround scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
8.0 out of 10
SiteGroundWins overall
Managed-feel shared hosting on Google Cloud with daily backups and staging; the renewals are the price
7.1 out of 10
The former 1&1: unlimited sites and traffic from $8 a month at renewal, with a free domain and wildcard SSL
SiteGround wins 5 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (8.0 vs 7.1).
How do the scores compare?
SiteGround leads on 5 sub-scores, IONOS on 1. Higher is better.
| SiteGround | IONOS | |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 8.0 (better) | 6.5 |
| Uptime | 8.5 (better) | 7.5 |
| Support | 8.5 (better) | 6.5 |
| Features | 8.5 (better) | 7.5 |
| Value | 6.5 | 7.5 (better) |
| Ease of use | 8.0 (better) | 7.0 |
Which one is faster and more reliable?
| SiteGround | IONOS | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 8.0 (better) | 7.1 |
| Uptime (published)HostingStep 243 d vs Cybernews 14 d; methods differ | 99.97% | 100.00% (better) |
| Response time (published)HostingStep vs Cybernews; methods differ | 745 ms (better) | 1749 ms |
Which one costs less?
On renewal, IONOS is cheaper ($14.00/mo vs $17.99/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| SiteGround | IONOS | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | StartUp | Plus |
| Intro price | $2.99/mo | $1.00/mo (better) |
| Renewal price | $17.99/mo | $14.00/mo (better) |
| Required term | 12 months | 12 months |
| Websites | 1 | unlimited |
| Storage | 10 GB | 350 GB |
| Money back | 30 days | 30 days |
What does each include?
| SiteGround | IONOS | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | First year only; regular renewal fee after that | 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 |
| Daily backups | Kept for 30 days; on-demand backups on GrowBig and GoGeek | Not stated |
| CDN | SiteGround CDN on Google Cloud, 170+ edge locations | Not stated |
| Email hosting | Unlimited accounts with webmail and spam protection | Not stated |
| Staging | GrowBig and GoGeek; GoGeek adds Git | No |
| Free migration | Automatic WordPress migrator on every plan; expert transfer by staff | No |
| Caching | Multilevel caching with the Speed Optimizer plugin | Server compression and HTTP/2 listed; no caching layer named on the plan page |
| WP-CLI and SSH | Yes | Not stated |
| Fair-use limits | CPU seconds per hour 1,000 / 2,000 / 4,000; inodes 200k / 400k / 600k; 768 MB RAM per process; databases up to 1 GB | Not stated |
| Uptime guarantee | 99.9% per month; 5% of that month's fee as a service-extension credit | 99.99% in the general terms, with a credit for the month proportional to the downtime, on request and at IONOS's discretion |
| Choice of data center | 11 locations on Google Cloud, chosen at signup | Not stated |
| Phone support | No | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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
| SiteGround | IONOS | |
|---|---|---|
| Control panel | Site Tools (SiteGround's own panel) | IONOS's own control panel (no cPanel) |
| Data centers | 11 (better) | 2 |
| Support channels | chat, ticket, knowledge-base | chat, phone, email, knowledge-base |
| Founded | 2004 | 2018 |