How Much Does IONOS’s Website Builder Cost?

IONOS is an average-priced website builder, with monthly fees ranging from $12 to $92 per month (when paid annually). That said, businesses can get an IONOS plan for as little as $1 per month for the first year if they sign up for a one-year billing cycle.

However, IONOS falls behind the competition when it comes to website design features and breadth of add-on tools. Pair this with its lack of a free plan and average pricing, and it has failed to make it onto our list of the best website builders for the past two years. That said, its focus on domains and hosting means it’s still a good option for large, multi-page websites that need a reliable and powerful hosting solution.

Read on for a detailed review of each of IONOS’s website builder plans, as we explore billing cycles, hidden fees, and value for money.

IONOS Pricing Plans: A Breakdown

IONOS offers four website builder plans with prices ranging from $12 to $92 per month. Three of the plans come with an optional ecommerce add-on, while the fourth and most expensive plan, Expert, contains ecommerce features by default.

Additionally, paying for a year upfront (annual billing) gets users discounted pricing for the first year.

Here’s a quick summary of each pricing plan:

For a more detailed breakdown of IONOS’s website builder features and what it’s like to use the platform, see our IONOS Website Builder review.

IONOS Starter: $6-$16 per month

Pricing:

• $16 per month on a monthly billing cycle
• $12 per month on an annual billing cycle, with the first year discounted at $6 per month

Without the online store add-on, IONOS’s cheapest plan, Starter, costs $16 per month when paying month to month, and just $12 per month when paying for the year upfront. With annual billing, you’ll also only pay $6 per month for the first year.

Our in-house team of researchers say it’s perfect for creating a website because it offers all the essentials to start a business: a free domain for the first year, an email inbox with 2GB of storage space, and professional templates that include pre-built sections for faster, easier setup.

You’ll get a competitor tracking dashboard to trigger alerts on your rival’s Google’s search rankings and social media activity. That helps keep you up to date with the competition, so you can adjust your business strategy.

Moreover, you’ll unlock 10GB of memory to create a maximum 10 pages for your website. You can also customize your colour scheme if the pre-selected ones aren’t to your liking. This plan offers a fast way to set up your website – just choose your theme, insert your content, and it’s ready! It also grants you access to over 17,000 royalty-free images that you can use for your pages. 

However, the Starter plan doesn’t include access to an online booking tool or IONOS’ Ranking Coach, which provides SEO guidance for your pages and will help improve the visibility of your website on search engine results pages. You only get those at the Plus and Pro packages, respectively.

You also can’t edit or change the layout of the pre-built elements in your chosen templates. That can lead to frustration if you have a precise web design in mind. You have to upgrade to Plus if you want to add or rearrange design elements on the page.

IONOS Starter + Online Store: $6-$25 per month

Pricing:

• $25 per month on a monthly billing cycle
• $24 per month on a yearly billing cycle, first year discounted at $6 per month

You’ll get all of the above with IONOS Starter, plus the following ecommerce features:

• Sell retail (B2C)
• List 500 products (maximum)
• Accept PayPal, credit card, and other payment providers
• Real-time shipping quotes from a range of mailing services
• In-store pickup
• Adjust pricing according to variants, like color or size
• CSV (spreadsheet) data import
• Strikethrough pricing
• Automatic “on sale” or “sold out” labels
• Customize cart using widgets

Here are some of the things you can’t do with this plan:

• No connection to: Google Shopping, Amazon, or eBay
• No connection to POS
• No B2B sales
• No direct debit payment
• No product-level inventory control
• No store management app
• No stock control at product level
• No manual order editing
• No bulk invoice printing
• No real-time parcel tracking
• No ability to configure shipping per product
• No wish lists

Is IONOS Starter good value for money?

Yes, compared with major competitors like Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy. IONOS Starter is cheaper than the basic ecommerce plan from all three of those providers.

BUT, the entry-level IONOS ecommerce platform is not the cheapest way to build an online store. Jimdo Business is $1 cheaper per month than IONOS Starter (with an online store). But Jimdo’s creators recommend listing a maximum of 100 products with their platform, to keep your website running smoothly. That’s 400 less than the upper limit of IONOS’ basic ecommerce plan.

AND the very best deal is Square’s free plan, which allows connection to its POS, plus Apple Pay and Afterpay, (but not PayPal). Although Square charges commission fees per sale, there are no monthly subscription fees to pay, and no limit to the number of products you can list.

IONOS Plus: $1-$22 per month

Pricing:

• $22 per month on a monthly billing cycle
• $18 per month on an annual billing cycle, with the first year discounted at $1 per month

Without the online store add-on, IONOS’s Plus plan costs $22 per month when paying month to month, and $18 per month when paying for the year upfront. With annual billing, you’ll also only pay $1 per month for the first year, IONOS’s biggest discount.

With IONOS Plus, you get five times the storage of the Starter plan: 50GB of webspace and 12GB of email storage. This plan offers better flexibility as you can customize the templates and add custom HTML to your website. You can move images and text blocks around the page, unlike on the Starter plan, which limits you to IONOS pre-built design elements.

But the ultimate distinction between IONOS Plus and IONOS Starter is that the former offers SiteAnalytics and an online booking tool. While the online booking tool will give your site’s visitors a convenient way to book your services, SiteAnalytics will collect the essential metrics about your website’s performance, including the length of time a visitor stays on your page, browser type, and location. 

Like the Starter plan, Pro gives you access to customer support through live chat, phone, email, and social media. It’s worth mentioning that this is where IONOS one-ups our website builder front-runner, Wix, which doesn’t cater to customer inquiries via email. 

IONOS Plus + Online Store: $1-$35 per month

Pricing:

• $35 per month on a monthly billing cycle
• $30 per month on a yearly billing cycle, first year discounted at $1 per month

Everything above is included, plus the following ecommerce features:

• Sell retail (B2C)
• List 5,000 products (maximum)
• Accept PayPal, credit card, and other payment providers
• Real-time shipping quotes from a range of mailing services
• In-store pickup
• Adjust pricing according to variants, like color or size
• CSV (spreadsheet) data import
• Strikethrough pricing
• Automatic “on sale” or “sold out” labels
• Customize cart using widgets

These are the new features gained compared with the Starter Plan:

• Take bookings online
• Connection to Google Shopping
• Connect to Lightspeed Retail POS
• Ability to configure shipping per product
• Store management app

Here are some things you don’t have with this plan:

• No connection to: Amazon or eBay
• No connection to POS from Clover or Square
• No B2B sales
• No direct debit payment
• No product-level inventory control
• No stock control at product level
• No manual order editing
• No bulk invoice printing
• No real-time parcel tracking
• No wish lists

IONOS Pro: $17-$30 per month

Pricing:

• $30 per month on an annual billing cycle, with the first year discounted at $17 per month
• No monthly billing option

Without the online store add-on, IONOS’s Pro plan costs $30 per month when paying for the year upfront, with the first year discounted at $17 per month. There is no month-to-month price because contracts are 12 months.

Like Plus, you have the flexibility to customize the templates, including your color scheme and elements, and even add custom HTML to your backend. 

Moreover, Pro offers unlimited storage space and pages, which is a huge distinction from the other plans IONOS offers. It also employs active email syncing on all devices and 50GB of inbox storage, giving you sufficient space for daily business emails.

IONOS Pro + Online Store: $34-$62 per month

Pricing:

• $62 per month on a yearly billing cycle, first year discounted at $34 per month
• No monthly billing option

You’ll get all of the above, as well as these ecommerce features:

• Sell retail (B2C)
• List 10,000 products
• Accept PayPal, credit card, and other payment providers
• Real-time shipping quotes from a range of mailing services
• In-store pickup
• Connection to Google Shopping
• Connect to Lightspeed Retail POS
• Adjust pricing according to variants like color or size
• CSV (spreadsheet) data import
• Strikethrough pricing
• Automatic “on sale” or “sold out” labels
• Customize cart using widgets
• Ability to configure shipping per product
• Store management app

And here are the new features gained when compared with the Plus Plan:

• SiteAnalytics Plus (improved insights)
• B2B selling options: tax exempt customers and VAT ID for EU sales
• Real-time parcel tracking
• Offline synch with POS
• Product-level inventory control
• Stock control at product level
• Manual order editing
• Bulk invoice printing
• Scheduled pickup
• Wish lists

Here are some features you don’t have with this plan:

• No wholesale B2B selling
• No connection to: Amazon or eBay
• No connection to POS from Clover or Square
• No direct debit payment
• Customer group discounting
• Volume discounts

IONOS Expert: $44-$92 per month

Pricing:

• $92 per month on an annual billing cycle, with the first year discounted at $44 per month
• No monthly billing option

IONOS’s Expert plan comes with ecommerce features built-in, instead of them being an optional add-on, as is the case with other IONOS plans. The Expert plan costs $92 per month when paying for the year upfront, with the first year discounted at $44 per month. There is no month-to-month price because contracts are 12 months.

You’ll get these extra ecommerce features:

• Wholesale B2B selling
• Integration with Amazon and eBay
• Integration with Clover and Square POS
• Direct debit payment
• Customer group discounting
• Volume discounts

Does IONOS Have a Free Plan?

Unfortunately, IONOS doesn’t offer a free trial or plan. You’ll have to pay upfront to start building a website, with a 12-month minimum contract on the majority of its plans. However, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee on IONOS plans.

If you’re concerned about pricing, Wix has a generous free plan, but it does include Wix-branded adverts.

IONOS Billing Cycles and Discounts Explained

The IONOS Starter and IONOS Plus plans have the option to pay monthly or yearly. Opting for a yearly billing cycle gets you heavily discounted pricing for the first year, and a modest discount after the first year compared to a monthly billing cycle.

IONOS Pro and IONOS Expert both have 12-month minimum contracts, with no monthly payment option. This means that, unlike the majority of website builders (including Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy), IONOS doesn’t offer a discount for paying upfront in the long term, although its first-year discount remains.

All of IONOS’ website builder plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee, replacing the free trial that competitor products offer (and IONOS doesn’t). You should know that all contracts are on auto-renew, so don’t get caught out if you’re intending to end your journey with IONOS.

Does IONOS Have Any Hidden Fees?

IONOS does not have any hidden fees, besides the fact that you have to pay for your domain renewal after the first year. Depending on your desired web domain, this will likely cost between $4-$35 per year.

This is standard across the website builder industry.

How Does IONOS Pricing Compare With Other Website Builders?

Here’s a quick comparison of IONOS with top website builders:

Is IONOS good value for money?

IONOS didn’t perform well when it came to functionality and design in our research, nor does it cost much less than competitors.

This may come as a surprise, given the offers emblazoned all over the IONOS website for $1 per month subscriptions. But the true cost of the website builder has to be calculated over time, specifically over the length of the entire contract (which is 12 months, in most cases). 

Truth be told, IONOS isn’t one of the best ecommerce platforms on the market. There are plenty of stronger competitors. 

Shopify is arguably better value for money than IONOS, because you can sell unlimited products on its Basic plan for $29 or $39 per month (depending on billing cycle). IONOS Pro, by contrast, costs $25 or $50 per month and limits product listings to 10,000. The only caveat is Shopify charges transaction fees per sale, whereas IONOS doesn’t. So, whether it’s better value for money will largely depend on the price points and volume of your sales.

Although Shopify pricing can seem steep, it’s worth investing in because its inventory management tools and multichannel selling options can help you scale your online sales more effectively than IONOS.