Shopify vs IONOS: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Shopify and IONOS both offer valuable website building and hosting services, but they cater to different user needs and preferences.

• 
  Shopify (Overall Grade: 8.1/10)
  
  is a robust ecommerce platform designed for businesses looking to scale their online presence. It excels in providing comprehensive ecommerce tools, advanced marketing features, and strong security measures. Shopify’s user management system and extensive app store make it a powerful choice for serious online businesses. When comparing Shopify vs IONOS, Shopify stands out for its specialized ecommerce capabilities and superior customer support.
• 
  IONOS (Overall Grade: 6.9/10)
  
  is a versatile website builder suitable for small to medium-sized businesses and individuals looking to create professional websites without coding knowledge. It offers a wide range of customizable templates, user-friendly design tools, and reliable hosting services. While IONOS may not match Shopify’s ecommerce depth, it provides a solid foundation for general website building and basic online store functionalities. In the Shopify vs IONOS comparison, IONOS is ideal for users seeking an affordable and straightforward website building experience.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Shopify is the superior choice for ecommerce, offering a comprehensive suite of tools and features that cater to larger online businesses. IONOS, while capable, is better suited for small businesses and individuals looking to start their online store.

• 
  Shopify
  
  : With a score of 9.2, Shopify excels in providing a wide range of ecommerce tools, including advanced inventory management, multi-channel selling, and detailed analytics. Its extensive library of apps and features like Augmented Reality make it ideal for businesses aiming to scale. However, its extensive features might be overwhelming for beginners.
• 
  IONOS
  
  : Scoring 7.1, IONOS offers a user-friendly interface and customizable templates, making it a good option for small businesses. It supports various third-party payment processors and provides essential ecommerce functionalities. However, it lacks the advanced tools and scalability that Shopify offers, making it less suitable for larger online businesses.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: When it comes to creating informational and business websites, IONOS has a slight edge over Shopify. While Shopify excels in ecommerce functionalities, IONOS offers a more balanced approach suitable for a variety of website types, including informational sites.

• 
  Shopify
  
  : Shopify is primarily designed for ecommerce, offering a robust platform for online stores. Its templates are sleek and professional, focusing on product listings and sales. However, for purely informational websites, Shopify’s features might feel excessive and its learning curve steeper. With a score of 6.8, it is better suited for users who might eventually want to integrate ecommerce functionalities into their informational sites.
• 
  IONOS
  
  : IONOS provides a versatile website builder with a wide range of customizable templates and an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Scoring 7.4, it is particularly well-suited for creating professional and visually appealing informational websites. IONOS’s platform is user-friendly, making it easy for beginners to design and manage their sites. Additionally, its reliable hosting services and SEO optimization ensure that websites are both functional and visible online. When comparing Shopify vs IONOS, IONOS stands out for its balanced approach and ease of use for informational and business websites.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Shopify.

If you’re looking for a platform that offers more creative control and a wide array of design features, Shopify is the preferred choice.

Shopify’s templates are sleek and professional, ideal for ecommerce sites. They offer a sophisticated look with a focus on online stores. While the free template selection is not large, Shopify’s premium theme store provides a variety of industry-specific options, offering advanced features for a strong brand presence.

Shopify Themes

Compared to Shopify, IONOS offers a wide variety of templates and designs for their website builder. With over 200 templates to choose from, users can find a design that suits their needs and preferences. The templates are categorized into different industries and styles, making it easy for users to find the perfect design for their website. Additionally, IONOS regularly updates their template library, ensuring that users have access to the latest design trends. Whether you’re creating a personal blog or an ecommerce website, IONOS has a template for every type of website.

IONOS Themes

🏆 Winner: IONOS

. Scoring a slightly higher 7.8, IONOS edges out Shopify in terms of ease of use. Both platforms are praised for their user-friendly interfaces, but IONOS’s straightforward and intuitive interface is particularly suitable for beginners and small to medium-sized businesses.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Shopify

. Both platforms offer extensive learning resources, but Shopify’s focus on setting up and managing online stores, coupled with a vibrant network of communities, gives it the edge over IONOS, which lacks large communities across different platforms.

Shopify and IONOS both offer robust ecommerce capabilities, but they cater to different needs. Shopify, with a score of 9.2, is a comprehensive ecommerce platform that provides a wide range of tools for online businesses. On the other hand, IONOS, scoring 7.1, is a website builder that includes ecommerce features designed to help users build and manage an online store.

Shopify ecommerce features:

• Comprehensive store builder
• Shopify Payments and other gateways
• Advanced inventory management
• Multi-channel selling
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Detailed analytics and reporting

IONOS ecommerce features:

• Store Management
• Marketing Tools
• Payment and Shipping options
• Products and Inventory management

Ecommerce themes & templates

Shopify offers about 150 modern responsive themes for creating a virtual storefront, ensuring a good look on both desktop and mobile devices. While some themes are free, others cost between $170 to $380. In contrast, IONOS offers a variety of eCommerce themes and templates designed to help businesses set up their online stores efficiently and effectively. Their online store builder is tailored to support a range of ecommerce needs, from selling on social media platforms to managing a scalable ecommerce website without any coding or design skills required.

Product page customization

Shopify has a limit of three options per product, totaling 100 unique variations. This limit may not pose a significant constraint, and it is suggested that for products with numerous options, creating separate listings on Shopify can be a more manageable approach. While Shopify offers titles, descriptions, and image galleries with zoom effects, customization options like adding ribbons, size charts, and wishlists are not as straightforward. However, Shopify distinguishes itself with additional features through its extensive library of extra apps, offering functionalities like reviews, Facebook stores, eBay item importers, and a unique Augmented Reality feature for an enhanced customer experience.

On the other hand, Ionos website builder provides users with the ability to extensively customize product pages. This includes the flexibility to adjust the design and layout, ensuring that product images, descriptions, and specifications are displayed according to individual preferences. Additionally, Ionos allows for the setup and management of product options and variations, such as size and color, enabling customers to select their preferred version of a product.

Payment processing

When it comes to payment processing, Shopify offers payments with typical charges of

2.9% + 30¢

per online transaction on basic plans, and lower fees for higher-tier plans. However, it adds extra fees for using other payment gateways. Shopify Payments is Shopify’s own payment processing gateway. It allows merchants to accept credit card payments directly on their store without having to integrate third-party payment providers. This simplifies the payment process, reduces transaction fees, and streamlines the handling of finances.

IONOS, on the other hand, supports a wide variety of third-party payment processors for its website builder, including PayPal, Stripe, and Square, without charging direct fees for payment processing. Users can choose from an extensive list of payment options to suit their business needs and customer preferences, enhancing the flexibility and security of online transactions. The platform offers detailed guidance on integrating these payment methods into online stores, allowing for customization in terms of fees, order value thresholds, and geographical availability.

In conclusion, while both platforms offer robust ecommerce capabilities, Shopify’s comprehensive features and advanced tools make it a more suitable choice for larger online businesses. IONOS, with its user-friendly interface and customizable templates, is a good option for small businesses and individuals looking to start their online store.

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Winner: Shopify

. Shopify, with a score of 7.9, excels in providing a streamlined, ecommerce-focused editing experience. It’s particularly beneficial for users who prioritize efficient management of online stores. The editor is straightforward, making it easy to add products, manage inventory, and set up payment methods. Shopify’s editor is optimized for sales and business growth, with built-in tools specifically designed for ecommerce businesses.

IONOS’s editor, scoring 7.8, provides an intuitive website builder equipped with AI assistance, designed for users to quickly create professional-looking websites without needing coding skills. This platform offers customizable templates, AI-generated content, and is optimized for mobile use, ensuring a responsive design across all devices. With features that cater to both basic and advanced website needs, including eCommerce capabilities, IONOS aims to simplify the web creation process.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Shopify

. Both Shopify and IONOS offer mobile editing capabilities, but they cater to different needs and skill levels. Shopify has a dedicated mobile app that allows users to manage their online store from their mobile device. This feature enables the addition, removal, editing, and rearrangement of content on the store’s website, offering convenient on-the-go adjustments to the store’s appearance and layout.

IONOS, on the other hand, does not have a dedicated mobile app but offers limited editing capabilities through a mobile browser. This might be less convenient for users who prefer to manage their website on the go.

In summary, Shopify receives a higher rating due to its dedicated mobile app and comprehensive mobile editing features, while IONOS offers limited mobile editing capabilities.

Overall Result

:

Shopify Wins

. Shopify scores 8.1 in product testing options, offering a 14-day free trial with access to all features. IONOS, scoring 6.5, doesn’t offer a free trial but provides a 30-day money-back guarantee, during which premium features can be tested.

Shopify and IONOS offer different pricing plans suitable for various needs, with Shopify scoring slightly higher in terms of price.

Shopify’s plans are more focused on ecommerce, while IONOS offers a wider range of features for website building. Both platforms offer discounts for annual subscriptions, with IONOS offering up to a 50% discount depending on the plan. Shopify offers enterprise plans for high-growth businesses and large enterprises, while IONOS does not have an enterprise plan.

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Winner: Shopify

Shopify’s proprietary cloud-based hosting, included in all their plans, offers unlimited bandwidth and storage, a 99.99% uptime guarantee, and data centers in 5 global locations. IONOS, while offering a diverse range of hosting services and the same uptime guarantee, falls slightly short in the hosting quality score.

🏆 Winner: Shopify

Both Shopify and IONOS place a high priority on website performance and page speed, with Shopify focusing on app efficiency and theme optimization, and IONOS emphasizing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Optimization, Image and Multimedia Optimization, Caching, WordPress Optimization, and CDN. However, Shopify gets a slight edge when it comes to website speed optimization.

Shopify’s approach to enhancing site speed includes app optimization by removing unneeded app code, conditionally loading apps, avoiding immediate pop-up displays, and incorporating app functionality directly into themes. This approach leverages Shopify’s fast servers and CDN network to boost load speed. Shopify also suggests utilizing Google AMP for faster mobile page loads, although with some design compromises. Analysis of three Shopify sites showed a range of Shopify speed scores from 14 to 75, Google PSI scores from 8 to 80, and load times varying from 10.6 seconds to 2.3 seconds. Continuous maintenance and optimization are essential for keeping Shopify stores fast.

IONOS, on the other hand, focuses on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Optimization, Image and Multimedia Optimization, Caching, WordPress Optimization, and CDN for speed optimization. However, both load times and Page speed scores vary widely, depending on the optimization and user’s location. IONOS also emphasizes on LCP, FID, CLS improvements for Core Web Vitals.

🏆 Winner: Shopify.

Shopify scores 8.7, significantly outperforming IONOS, which scores 6.5. Shopify offers over 8,000 apps in its App Store, covering a wide range of functionalities, while IONOS offers over 100 plugins. Shopify’s plugins and integrations enhance ecommerce by offering advanced sales, marketing, and payment options, streamlined shipping, sophisticated inventory management, improved customer service, in-depth analytics, seamless accounting integration, creative store design, mobile app support, enhanced security, multi-channel selling, product review tools, dropshipping and print-on-demand support, language localization, and accessibility improvements. On the other hand, IONOS plugins can enhance the functionality of the website by adding features such as ecommerce capabilities, social media integration, SEO optimization, and contact forms. Additionally, users can also find plugins for customizing the design and layout of their website, adding galleries or sliders, and integrating third-party tools and services.

Shopify Applications

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Overall Winner: Shopify

. Shopify stands out for its more advanced ecommerce-focused marketing tools, especially in analytics and ad campaign management. IONOS, while offering a solid set of marketing tools, is more suited for general website building and marketing.

🏆 Winner: Shopify

. In the Shopify vs IONOS comparison, Shopify takes the lead with a customer support score of 8.6. Shopify offers 24/7 support through chat, email, and phone, ensuring that users can get help whenever they need it. The platform also provides clear tutorials, an extensive community forum, and a valuable marketing blog, making it easier for users to find solutions and grow their businesses.

IONOS, with a customer support score of 7.3, also provides 24/7 support through phone and ensures that users can reach out for help at any time. While IONOS offers reliable support, it lacks the comprehensive resources and community engagement that Shopify provides. Additionally, IONOS does not offer enterprise-level support, which can be a limitation for larger businesses looking for more tailored assistance.

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Winner: Shopify

. Shopify’s security measures are more comprehensive and robust, with a focus on data privacy, secure infrastructure, encryption, and limited access. They also comply with data privacy regulations, practice data minimization, and ensure user control and transparency. Additional security measures include two-factor authentication, regular audits, and a dedicated incident response team.

IONOS also provides robust data storage and protection measures, including secure file storage with options for backup, easy data transfer, and enhanced access security. However, Shopify’s security measures are more comprehensive, earning it a higher security score of 9.0 compared to IONOS’s 7.5.

🏆 Winner: Shopify

. Shopify, with a score of 7.9, utilizes AI mainly to enhance the ecommerce experience. Its AI features focus on customer behavior analysis, personalized shopping experiences, inventory management, and sales predictions. While Shopify’s AI is powerful, it is more business and data-centric compared to IONOS’s design-focused AI.

IONOS, scoring 7.2, leverages AI to streamline the website creation process, offering personalized design recommendations, automatic content generation, and SEO optimization. However, it lacks AI-driven ecommerce features, which are a strong point for Shopify.

🏆 Winner: Shopify

. Shopify’s user management system is more structured and detailed compared to IONOS.

• Shopify enforces staff account limits based on plans, ranging from 2 to 15, with Shopify Plus offering unlimited
  accounts. Collaborators with limited access are also an option.
• IONOS permits multiple users for website editing. However, there is no mention of user roles and permissions, nor is there information about limitations on the number of users allowed to edit a website.

Shopify User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

User Feedback

Shopify’s slightly higher rating on G2 Crowd can be largely attributed to its specialization in ecommerce. Its comprehensive features, ease of use, and robust customer support cater specifically to online businesses, leading to high user satisfaction among those seeking a dedicated ecommerce solution.

IONOS, on the other hand, has a mixed bag of reviews, primarily because it is mostly known as a hosting provider with a website builder as an additional product. Users appreciate its great packages, personalized support, and streamlined interface for IT professionals. However, some users encounter issues with backend functionality and find customer service representatives too pushy. Despite occasional short outages, the overall reliability and responsiveness of the service are appreciated by users.

FAQ