Ionos vs Hivelocity: guide for 2024

Ionos vs Hivelocity: Final verdict

Looking over IONOS vs. Hivelocity, both web hosting services cater to different needs and priorities, offering distinct advantages.

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  Hivelocity (Overall grade: 7.7)
  
  
  focuses primarily on managed services, advanced technical management, and a network with high reliability. With a 99.99% uptime guarantee and actual 100% uptime since 2011, Hivelocity shines in maintaining stable connections across six continents, thanks to its extensive peering agreements and multiple global data centers. It supports various operating systems and advanced control panels, making it ideal for tech-savvy users who need granular control. Despite its strengths, the higher starting costs and lack of included email hosting and website builder may be seen as drawbacks for smaller businesses or non-technical users.
  
• 
  IONOS (Overall grade: 8.2)
  
  
  offers a blend of user-friendly tools and comprehensive performance features, making it suitable for both beginners and growing businesses. With an impressive 99.9% uptime, free SSL certificates, and robust security measures including Cloudflare CDN and georedundant infrastructure, IONOS ensures a reliable and secure hosting experience. The Click & Build functionality and free domain for the first year enhance its appeal for individuals looking for ease of use. However, it might not offer the level of customization and technical control that more advanced users might require.
  

Hosting types offered

Both platforms provide a variety of hosting types, each designed to meet the different needs of users.

Although both offer a variety of hosting plans tailored to different needs, in
certain cases, one platform may prove to be more suitable.

Detailed comparison

🏆 Winner Hivelocity: Offers an exceptional 99.99% uptime guarantee and reliable redundancy.

Hivelocity stands out with a 99.99% uptime guarantee, backed by highly secured data centers and an actual 100% uptime since 2011. Their network integrates over a dozen tier-1 carriers to ensure enterprise-grade performance and reliability across six continents. Hivelocity also provides a compensation of 5% credit for downtime below their guaranteed thresholds.

IONOS provides a strong offering with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, georedundant infrastructure, and DDoS protection via Cloudflare CDN. They provide free Wildcard SSL certificates and daily backups across all plans. Users can choose from different performance levels at an additional cost of $2/month, ensuring scalability according to needs. Daily backups and a mobile admin app add to the ease of managing hosting requirements.

🏆 Winner IONOS: Reliable and fast hosting with excellent performance features.

When comparing IONOS and Hivelocity, the former excels in terms of general performance. IONOS offers an impressive 99.9% uptime with georedundant infrastructure and incorporates fast-loading technology like HTTP/2 protocol and SSD storage. It also includes a free Cloudflare CDN that distributes websites globally for quicker load times. Its data centers are not extensively listed, but the distributed CDN compensates well for it. On the other hand, Hivelocity boasts a 99.99% uptime, high-end hardware, and a self-healing network system. With a large array of data centers across six continents and extensive peering, Hivelocity ensures stable and reliable connections, though lacking a built-in CDN.

Website Speed

IONOS sets the bar high for website speed with its combination of SSD storage, HTTP/2 protocol, and the latest PHP 8.2. These features collectively result in quicker page loads and enhanced overall performance. Hivelocity also offers top-tier speed with its high-end Intel and AMD processors and SSD storage. However, the lack of integrated CDN means that international load times may slightly lag compared to IONOS, which leverages Cloudflare for global speed enhancement.

Scalability

IONOS offers scalable performance management, allowing users to adjust their resources as needed without switching plans, with each additional performance level costing $2/month. Hivelocity provides scalable solutions through dedicated servers and custom solutions like private clouds, but the scaling specifics are not as flexible or clear-cut as IONOS. For those needing elastic scaling on-the-fly, IONOS presents a more straightforward and potentially cost-effective solution.

🏆 Winner
IONOS: Robust security features and comprehensive support make it a top choice for various hosting needs.
Both IONOS and Hivelocity, have notable differences in their approaches to technical and operational
security, as well as in their compliance with regulations.

Technical security measures:

IONOS offers a comprehensive suite of security features, including different types of SSL certificates ranging from Domain Validated (DV) to Extended Validation (EV), which provide up to 256-bit encryption for secure data transfer. In contrast, Hivelocity provides basic, business, and premium SSL certificates that cater to different security needs but are similar in encryption strength. IONOS supports multiple PHP versions, including older ones through extended support and enhances performance with JIT Compiler and OPcache. Information on PHP versions supported by Hivelocity is not specified. Both providers offer DDoS protection and malware scanning capabilities, but IONOS additionally provides automatic malware removal and SIEM software for continuous security monitoring.

Operational security measures:

IONOS employs daily backups with up to six days of data recovery and uses georedundant data centers to ensure data protection and uptime. Hivelocity offers 24/7 monitoring and hardware diagnostics but does not detail specific backup routines. IONOS has customizable firewall rules, while Hivelocity provides advanced firewall and network security features with granular access control and regular security audits to ensure system integrity. Both hosting providers offer anti-phishing and spam filters, but IONOS integrates these with additional protection measures like SSH and SFTP access for secure website management.

Compliance and certifications:

IONOS ensures full GDPR compliance, offering robust protection for personal data processing according to EU regulations. It does not explicitly state HIPAA or PCI compliance. Hivelocity has completed SSAE-16, HIPAA, and PCI audits, demonstrating adherence to stringent data protection and payment industry standards. These certifications highlight Hivelocity’s focus on meeting diverse regulatory requirements for business and healthcare sectors.

🏆 Winner
IONOS: Offering scalability, security, and a variety of free services.

IONOS and Hivelocity each present a robust set of features, but they cater to different types of users. IONOS shines in ease of use and user-friendly tools like a website builder with Click & Build functionality, allowing for effortless installation of popular apps such as WordPress, Joomla, and PrestaShop. This feature makes it ideal for beginners who value simplicity paired with robust security and customer support. On the finer points, IONOS includes a free domain for the first year and free SSL, which are substantial benefits for small businesses and individual users. The scalability offered by their dual platform technology and georedundant infrastructure makes it flexible for growing websites.

Hivelocity, on the other hand, focuses heavily on managed services with an emphasis on advanced technical management and security. It’s more suited for users who require granular control over their hosting environment and are comfortable with command-line operations. Hivelocity shines in offering multiple operating systems like CentOS, Ubuntu, and Windows Server, and supports advanced control panels such as cPanel, Plesk, and Webmin. Although it doesn’t focus heavily on a user-friendly website builder, it provides manual and remote reboots, RAID monitoring, and proactive security patches, catering to a more technical audience.

Both providers support a range of users from beginners to experts with user-friendly website builders and WordPress staging areas. However, in terms of developer tools, both IONOS and Hivelocity offer robust options including SSH access, support for multiple programming languages, and Git for version control, thus appealing to developers looking for advanced capabilities.

Email services:

IONOS provides professional email hosting included with all their plans, which supports robust email functionalities like transactional emails and campaigns. They offer a professional email service with each hosting plan, making it well-suited for small businesses needing reliable email hosting. Hivelocity doesn’t focus on email services but rather on intensive server and security management, which may necessitate third-party email solutions if needed.

🏆 Winner Hivelocity: Hivelocity offers a wide range of flexible hosting solutions, making it an excellent choice for various needs.

Evaluating the pricing of plans among various hosting providers can be complex due to their differing pricing and renewal strategies. Additionally, certain plans require annual commitments, which adds to the difficulty of making comparisons. The prices listed are based on monthly commitments; plans requiring annual commitments are indicated. Additionally, although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.

Comparing the pricing plans of IONOS and Hivelocity reveals distinct differences. IONOS offers a variety of plans with lower monthly costs for web hosting and managed WordPress hosting, starting at just $4/month. Their plans include free domains for the first year, SSL certificates, and daily backups. In contrast, Hivelocity’s plans are higher in cost but offer extensive customization and higher performance, especially for dedicated servers and game server solutions. With options like global data center locations, custom-built solutions, and managed services, Hivelocity provides robust support and additional features suited for specific needs.

Enterprise plans

For enterprise needs, IONOS provides extensive shared and WordPress hosting plans with affordable costs and inclusive features such as SSL certificates, daily backups, and professional email services. Hivelocity, however, stands out with its custom-built bare metal servers, game server solutions, and a wide range of instant servers with high performance and global data center locations, making it a compelling choice for businesses requiring specialized and flexible hosting solutions.

🏆 Winner Ionos: Offers various user-friendly settings and extensive customer support resources.

IONOS provides a user-friendly setup with its WP Assistant for WordPress and Click & Build feature, catering to non-technical users. It offers a managed WordPress solution, making it simpler for those less familiar with web hosting. Additionally, the Click & Build feature allows users to install various CMSs like TYPO3, Joomla, Drupal, and PrestaShop with just a few clicks. This ease of use is particularly beneficial for small business owners or individuals who may lack advanced technical skills.

Hivelocity offers a range of control panels, including cPanel, DirectAdmin, Plesk, and others, providing flexibility depending on the user’s preference. It supports various operating systems, giving more choices for tech-savvy users. Hivelocity also offers instant server deployment, which can be advantageous for those who require quick setup. Its managed services for Linux, cPanel, and Windows can offload administrative tasks from users, making server management more straightforward for those with less technical expertise.

IONOS does not specifically highlight automated migration tools but provides extensive support, including 24/7 customer service and personal consultants, to aid with the process. Hivelocity offers managed services that likely assist with migrations, although it’s not explicitly stated whether they have automated tools or whether these services incur additional costs. The emphasis is more on manual assistance through their support channels.

IONOS and Hivelocity both offer well-documented help centers. IONOS has a comprehensive Help Center with 24/7 customer support through multiple channels and the added benefit of personal consultants for tailored advice. Hivelocity boasts an extensive, regularly updated knowledge base covering a wide range of topics. Both provide article databases and accessibility for both technical and non-technical users, making them reliable resources for troubleshooting and improving website performance.

The platforms provide extensive knowledge bases filled with guides, how-to articles, and instructional content. IONOS offers a wide range of resources alongside 24/7 chat and phone support. Hivelocity also boasts a detailed help center with an intuitive search function and around-the-clock support via live chat, phone, and ticketing, ensuring comprehensive user support.

🏆 Winner IONOS: Efficient and flexible user management that allows streamlined control over roles and permissions.

IONOS allows users to create, clone, and delete roles, offering a high degree of customization in managing user access. Each role has distinct parameters like Name, Status, and User assignments, making it easy to track and manage access rights. Unlike IONOS, Hivelocity doesn’t provide detailed information about its user role management, which limits its flexibility. IONOS also excels in allowing users to assign multiple roles, enhancing flexibility and control over user permissions. By default, users are assigned an Administrator role with full permissions, ensuring broad access management capabilities from the start.

IONOS provides a user-friendly interface for managing roles and permissions within its Cloud Panel. The Overview page lists all roles along with essential information, and the Permissions page offers in-depth details about roles, including assigned users, descriptions, creation dates, and permissions. The tool’s clean layout and intuitive design make navigating through user management options straightforward. Hivelocity, lacking specific user interface details, does not offer direct insights into its management tools, indicating a potential gap in user experience compared to the structured and accessible interface of IONOS.

IONOS shows a strong capacity for effective access control measures by allowing detailed customization of permissions. Users can assign permission groups like “Display,” which grants access to all Cloud Panel sections. This level of granularity supports efficient management of a growing number of users, ensuring each role has appropriate access without complex configurations. Without detailed access control capabilities for Hivelocity, IONOS’s structured and transparent approach stands out for efficiently managing user access and growth.

IONOS User Roles Table:

🏆 Winner
Hivelocity: A hosting provider with exceptional uptime and extensive global data center locations.

IONOS offers a comprehensive 24/7 customer service experience through multiple channels, including phone, chat, and email. Customers have access to a personal consultant during standard business hours, adding a layer of tailored assistance. With a help center, community support, and a 30-day money-back guarantee, IONOS ensures users have ample resources at their disposal.

Hivelocity also delivers 24/7 technical support, accessible via phone, live chat, and a ticketing system. While it doesn’t provide a personal consultant like IONOS, it compensates with an impressive array of walk-through articles and instructional videos. Exceptional uptime and reliability stand out among Hivelocity’s key strengths, making it a favored choice for many users.

Ionos vs Hivelocity: User feedback

The user feedback on the hosting provider is highly mixed. Some customers appreciate the affordability and ease of use, particularly for startups, and praise the good customer support and convenient packages. However, many others criticize the company’s unreliable service, outdated user interface, and poor handling of issues, including severe downtime and inadequate customer support. There are also concerns about deceptive business practices and difficulty with account management, leading to significant dissatisfaction among long-term users.

Hivelocity is highly praised for its exceptional customer service, reliable server performance, and knowledgeable technical support. Long-term users, some with over a decade of experience, commend the company for its personalized support and rapid response times, often highlighting near-instant ticket resolutions and a proactive approach to addressing issues. Additionally, the infrastructure and network reliability receive strong accolades, with many users experiencing minimal to no downtime. While a few noted the increasing prices and occasional variability in support quality, the consensus is that Hivelocity offers an outstanding hosting service marked by dependability and top-tier customer support.

Ionos vs Hivelocity: FAQ