Ionos emerged from the merger of 1&1 Internet and ProfitBricks in 2018, combining one of Europe’s largest web hosting companies with a German IaaS platform built by cloud computing veterans. The result is a provider that spans everything from $1/month shared hosting to enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure.
As a subsidiary of United Internet AG, Ionos operates ten data centers across Europe and the US, serving over 8.5 million customer contracts. That scale gives them significant purchasing power for hardware and network capacity, keeping prices competitive against both budget hosts and hyperscalers.
The cloud infrastructure side offers virtual machines, managed Kubernetes, S3-compatible object storage, and a solid set of networking tools. Their Data Center Designer provides a visual drag-and-drop interface for architecting infrastructure — a feature that’s genuinely useful for teams who think visually about network topology. The platform also includes managed databases, CDN services, and DNS management.
Ionos positions itself as the practical choice for European SMBs. Their deployment assistant walks less technical users through server setup, while the API and Terraform provider satisfy DevOps teams. Pricing is transparent with per-minute billing and no hidden fees for basic operations.
The company earned ISO 27001 certification and operates under strict German and EU data protection regulations. For businesses that need GDPR-compliant hosting with local support in German, English, French, or Spanish, Ionos covers more ground than most competitors in the European mid-market.
