IONOS Website Builder Review (2025): Great Support, Basic Design

IONOS offers a streamlined business website builder with an AI‑driven setup that turns a few prompt answers into a polished, ready‑to‑edit draft, while bundling essentials like a free domain, business email, and 24/7 phone support.

The trade-off for this speed and value is a modest template library and section-based layouts that limit pixel‑perfect freedom. Read on for our full review of IONOS to see whether it’s a good value choice for UK businesses.

Getting Started With IONOS: My Experience

Signing up with IONOS MyWebsite Now is refreshingly quick. After creating an account, the builder asks a handful of questions – business category, site goal, visual “tone” (I went for “professional”) and a preferred colour palette (blue in my case).

From those answers, IONOS’s new AI Website Builder spins up eight starter designs you can scroll through and pick (at least it did for me) – that’s far fewer than Wix or Squarespace offer, but enough to get moving fast.

First look at the editor

Choose a theme and you land inside the Content view, which shows the homepage next to a live page outline. A vertical sidebar on the left holds the four main work areas: Content, Design, Pages and Shop.

I liked how instantly you can toggle between Edit and Preview using the top‑bar switch – there’s no loading spinner at all – but I did find myself jumping into Preview to reach another page, then hopping back into Edit to change copy. It works, yet feels like a workaround.

You can also select pages via the dedicated Pages tab (also on the left, which we’ll detail more later on), but you still need to drop back into Content to edit on-page elements.

Everything in the canvas is click‑to‑edit, but the viewport felt a little too close‑up on my 13‑inch laptop: browser zoom doesn’t affect it, so you may spend a moment panning around and scrolling on-page boxes.

Text boxes, images, and buttons are arranged in block sections rather than true free‑form drag‑and‑drop (think GoDaddy, not Wix). The upside is that the design stays neat; the downside is less freedom.

Early design tweaks

The Design panel builds on the AI setup with global controls for fonts, colour swatches, and decorative “shape themes” (waves, clouds, rectangles) that sit between sections. There’s also a simple toggle for word spacing and automatic hyphenation – small touches that help tidy typography without digging into code.

AI help is everywhere

Even on the free trial, the editor surfaces AI helpers:

• AI Text Generator & Improver: Suggests headlines or rewrites your draft copy.
• AI Image Generator: Quick ways to swap placeholder visuals without bouncing out to stock‑photo sites.
• AI SEO Text Generator: Looks at your on‑page content and proposes meta‑titles and descriptions in one click.

These tools pop up contextually (e.g. when you click a text block) and feel less intrusive than Wix’s full chatbot flow. They’re a genuine time‑saver, though you’ll want to polish the AI copy before publishing.

First‑hour verdict

IONOS gets you from blank canvas to branded draft in minutes, and its sidebar workflow is simple to understand from the get-go. The trade‑off is creative flexibility: you’re working within tidy, prescriptive blocks and the template gallery is still modest compared with Wix’s 900+ designs or Squarespace’s 150+.

The Pros and Cons of IONOS

As with any website builder on the market, there are strengths and weaknesses to what IONOS has to offer:

✅ Rapid AI‑assisted setup

IONOS’s new AI Website Builder trims the usual signup slog to a couple of prompts (industry, tone, palette) and spits out a ready‑made draft in seconds. From there, a clean four‑tab sidebar (Content, Pages, Design, Shop) keeps the learning curve low and switching in and out of Preview is instant – no spinning loaders to kill momentum.

That sheer speed makes IONOS a solid “I‑need‑a‑site‑today” option for solopreneurs or pop‑up projects.

✅ Domain and business email bundled

Every MyWebsite Now plan includes a free custom domain for the first year and at least one professional email inbox (2GB on Starter, 12GB or more on higher tiers). Most rivals charge extra (e.g. Wix and Squarespace both upsell Google Workspace), so IONOS’s bundle can shave £50 to £120 off first-year costs and keeps branding consistent out of the gate.

✅ Personal 24/7 phone support

Live agents are reachable around the clock, and you can even activate a named personal consultant, who’ll give you a direct line and email for ongoing questions – a perk rare at this price point. Compare that with Wix’s hidden call‑back form or Squarespace’s chat‑only model, and IONOS looks refreshingly human.

✅ Multilingual and SEO helper tools built‑in

Need to court overseas customers? IONOS can auto‑translate content into 60 languages and surfaces AI SEO tools (meta‑tag writer, rankingCoach integration, SiteAnalytics) right inside the editor. For small firms that can’t justify third‑party SEO suites, these one‑click optimisers are genuinely useful.

❌ Slim template library and rigid layouts

IONOS’s MyWebsite Now offers roughly 30+ industry‑specific templates. That’s professional but sparse next to Wix’s 900+ or Squarespace’s 150+ options. Design freedom is further curbed by fixed-section blocks too.

Meanwhile, you can swap colours, fonts, or decorative “shape themes”, but you can’t drag an element exactly where you like. Creative brands will feel boxed in.

❌ One site per subscription

The builder is tied to a single project. If you need a second site, you’ll have to buy another contract or move to traditional hosting, plus WordPress. That’s fine for a lone brand, but agencies or serial side‑hustlers should look at Wix, Squarespace or GoDaddy, all of which let you juggle multiple sites under one login.

❌ Promo pricing jumps after year one

Headline UK deals are eye-catching at £6 per month (Starter, first 6 months), or even £1 per month (Plus, first 12 months), but renewals rise to £10 and £16 respectively, while Pro renews at £30 after its initial £17/month for 6 6-month term. Budget-savvy users should factor that bump. (All UK prices excl. VAT.)

❌ No app marketplace, few integrations

Unlike Wix’s enormous App Market or Shopify’s plugin bazaar, IONOS is a mostly closed shop. Core extras (bookings, analytics, rankingCoach SEO) are baked in, but if you rely on niche tools (for instance, Eventbrite embeds or advanced CRM sync) you’ll hit a wall fast. Mid‑size businesses that plan to extend functionality over time may outgrow the platform.

How Much Does IONOS Cost?

IONOS splits its pricing into two tracks: MyWebsite Now for regular sites (three plans) and Online Store for ecommerce (four plans). All plans include a free domain for the first year, an SSL certificate, and at least one business-grade email inbox. Intro prices are tied to a 12‑month commitment and jump at renewal, so check the “then only” column before you budget.

The IONOS ecommerce plans are the same as the above, except they are bundled with online store functionality. The prices for these plans are:

• Starter + Online Store: £6/month for 6 months, then £24/month
• Plus + Online Store: From £1/month for 6 months, then £28/month
• Pro + Online Store: From £32/month for 6 months, then £62/month

Is IONOS good value?

Even after the price bump, Plus at £16 per month undercuts many rivals’ comparable UK tiers while bundling a domain and business email.

The headline £1 per month promo deals are among the cheapest ways to test ecommerce we’ve seen in 2025 (for UK teams), though serious sellers should budget for renewal, or compare with Shopify’s £19 to £259 per month core plans (first three months often £1/month, as well), with Shopify Plus from US$2,300/month (USD only for this top tier plan, even in the UK).

There are no additional IONOS platform transaction fees on website sales – you’ll only pay the usual card-processor rates.

For side-projects and local businesses that prize an all-in-one bundle over an endless feature bazaar, IONOS is a cost-effective choice overall.

What Are IONOS’s Key Features?

AI Website Builder and Content Suite

When you start a MyWebsite Now project, an AI wizard turns three prompts (industry, style, color palette) into a fully laid‑out site: headers, hero images, placeholder copy, even section dividers. Inside the editor, contextual helpers appear exactly where you need them:

• AI Text Generator/Improver: Drafts headlines, calls‑to‑action, or rewrites your own copy with a tone slider (formal‑casual).
• AI Image Generator: Produces copyright‑free visuals from short prompts, then auto‑sizes them to the grid.
• AI Color Palette Generator: Swaps every accent on your site to a fresh, harmonious set in one click.
• AI SEO Text Generator: Scans each page and proposes meta‑titles, descriptions and keyword hints.

All four tools ship with the Plus plan and above, so you don’t pay extra for what Wix or Squarespace often gate behind higher tiers.

Design Controls and “Shape Themes”

IONOS works on a section‑block system: you can’t drop content absolutely anywhere, but the guard‑rails keep layouts consistent on mobile screens. The Design panel lets you:

• Swap global fonts and color swatches instantly.
• Toggle automatic word‑spacing and hyphenation for tidy text flow.
• Insert playful shape themes (waves, clouds, rectangles) between sections to break the box‑y feel without touching code.

Because every change is global, you avoid the “one‑page looks different” syndrome, common when beginners tweak individual blocks.

SiteAnalytics and rankingCoach SEO

Even the £1 per month (promo price) Plus plan includes SiteAnalytics: real-time charts for visitors, page views, referrers, devices and geography.

Need deeper insight? SiteAnalytics Plus (Pro plan) unlocks CSV export and PDF reporting for clients or investors.

For hands‑on optimisation, IONOS bundles rankingCoach Standard: it audits your pages, spies on up to five competitors, then feeds you bite-sized tasks (add alt‑text, claim a directory listing) that tick off when done. It’s SEO coaching for busy owners who don’t speak “schema markup”.

Integrated online booking

Service businesses get a native booking engine (Plus plan and above). You can:

• Build staff calendars with custom availability.
• Let clients pick time slots and receive automated email reminders.
• Sync appointments to your phone’s calendar app.

Because the tool is baked into the same sidebar, you avoid embedding third‑party widgets or paying separate SaaS fees. We found that a simpler path than Wix’s paid Bookings app or Squarespace’s standalone Acuity subscription.

IONOS’s Online Store Features

Fast catalogue setup

The same AI wizard you meet in the website builder carries into ecommerce: describe your product range and the system pre‑loads category pages, tax settings and sample listing blocks.

Uploading inventory is simple: Drag a CSV or paste rows and map columns, and you’re done. Starter supports 500 SKUs, Plus 5,000, Pro 10,000, and Expert lifts the lid completely for enterprise‑scale catalogues. That progressive ceiling lets you start small without re-platforming later.

Omnichannel sales in a click

Every store plan pipes products to Facebook Shops, Instagram Shopping and TikTok Ads Manager. You author listings once, tick the channels you want and stock stays synced.

Higher tiers also enable Google Shopping feeds and Google Ads Remarketing from the same dashboard – no third‑party feed builder or extra monthly bill. For side‑hustlers courting social commerce, that’s a huge time saver over Shopify’s app‑based workflow.

marketingRadar competitive tracker

Unique to IONOS is marketingRadar (bundled with every store tier). It monitors up to 10 competitors’ Google rankings, ad campaigns and social posts, then surfaces “opportunity alerts” when rivals discount or increase spend.

Think of it as a lightweight SEMrush inside your shop: you spot gaps, tweak pricing or keywords, and ride the wave before your audience notices.

Advanced product SEO

Product pages inherit the AI SEO generator of regular plans, but Pro and Expert unlock Advanced Product SEO: JSON‑LD markup for rich snippets, auto 301 redirects on slug changes, and image alt‑text prompts. Pair that with rankingCoach Standard tasks and your listings land higher without hiring an SEO specialist.

What is IONOS’s help and customer support like?

IONOS punches above its weight and redeems its score with a solid 4.5/5 score for customer help and support. Unlike almost all other similar platforms, IONOS allocates a single web design consultant to your account. 

They’ll be accessible via email, live chat or phone for guidance, ensuring a single point of contact throughout your web build journey. When we contacted IONOS web chat with questions about using the website builder, the response was almost instant – even though it was 6:30pm in the evening.

For a quick comparison: a simple question to Jimdo took weeks to get a response – with several email requests asking for confirmation that I even wanted a response. And after all that, the answer finally came: “Sorry, we can’t help you.”

How Does IONOS Compare With Other Website Builders?

Wix: Best for unlimited apps and design freedom

If you crave endless plug‑ins and pixel‑perfect freedom, Wix is still miles ahead. Its vast app market fills almost any feature gap, and its drag‑anywhere editor lets you break the grid. That’s something IONOS’s section‑based layout simply won’t do.

Wix also bundles social‑post creators and detailed analytics, whereas IONOS tops out at basic profile links and its own SiteAnalytics dashboard. Wix is pricier, however, and takes longer to learn. Plus, you’ll need a separate Google Workspace subscription for business email.

Squarespace: Best for polished visual brands

We’d say Squarespace wins on raw aesthetics, offering polished templates. Free‑form spacer blocks give designers more breathing room than IONOS’s rigid “block inside a block” approach.

It also sneaks ahead on built‑in social content tools. But Squarespace offers chat‑only support and no bundled email, and newcomers may find its minimalist editor slower to navigate than IONOS’s straightforward sidebar.

Hostinger: Best for low‑cost AI launches

Its AI builder shares IONOS’s basic ethos of being fast, affordable and stripped back, but offers even fewer in‑house extras (no booking engine, no rankingCoach‑style SEO tool). Hostinger’s lightweight editor feels less clinical and its backend runs snappier on low‑powered laptops, yet you’ll miss IONOS’s personal consultant, email bundle and native analytics if you plan to grow.

Shopify: Best for serious ecommerce scalability

Serious store owners who need advanced inventory controls, sophisticated shipping rules or physical POS hardware should still look to Shopify in 2025.

IONOS’s store plans cover the fundamentals (up to unlimited SKUs, social selling, wish‑lists), but they don’t match Shopify’s enormous app ecosystem or deep reporting. For entrepreneurs testing ecommerce waters, IONOS is cheaper and easier to launch; for scale‑ups, Shopify remains the heavyweight.

GoDaddy: Best for quick, phone‑backed launches

GoDaddy and IONOS both have appealing speed, phone‑first customer care and an uncluttered workflow. GoDaddy’s design flexibility is roughly on a par (good for rapid builds, limiting for perfectionists) and its free tier is handy for experiments.

IONOS edges forward with bundled business email, multilingual tools and stronger SEO guidance, while GoDaddy counters with a broader (though still modest) set of social‑media marketing widgets.

How We Reviewed IONOS