Ionos vs Leaseweb: guide for 2024

Final verdict

Looking over IONOS vs. Leaseweb, it’s clear why both hosts are so popular. They have both hosted millions of websites that run on WordPress for decades, building up a loyal customer base.

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  IONOS (Overall grade: 8.2)
  
  
  stands out for its comprehensive hosting services, including managed WordPress hosting, superior uptime guarantees, and a wide range of security features. It offers a user-friendly custom admin panel, making it suitable for both beginners and more advanced users. The extensive operational security measures, such as advanced DDoS protection, automatic malware removal, and daily backups, add a layer of reliability. However, its high uptime guarantee and cost-effective scalability options make it particularly appealing for users needing dependable service at competitive pricing. IONOS also provides excellent customer support with personal consultants, enhancing user experience significantly.
  
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  Leaseweb (Overall grade: 8.0)
  
  
  excels with its high-performance servers and extensive global network, making it ideal for high-traffic websites. With a core uptime guarantee of 99.999% and higher bandwidth options, Leaseweb is suited for businesses prioritizing speed and performance. Its detailed technical security measures and support for various operating systems add flexibility for developers. However, the lack of integrated email hosting and automated migration tools might require more technical know-how. Leaseweb’s customer service options are extensive, providing varied contact methods and SLA-based response times, which ensures efficient issue resolution. Though Leaseweb is slightly more technical, it offers a robust solution for users needing scalable, high-performance hosting.
  

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 IONOS: Excellent uptime and availability with diverse features at competitive pricing.

IONOS guarantees 99.9% uptime and employs georedundant infrastructure, ensuring your data is mirrored in two data centers. This redundancy provides uninterrupted service during maintenance or outages. Their DDoS protection and Cloudflare CDN enhance security and performance, while daily backups and redundant network connectivity ensure data safety and continuous service. With scalable performance levels and email notifications when resources hit their limit, IONOS caters to varying needs for memory, RAM, and parallel processing.
Leaseweb boasts a superior core uptime guarantee of 99.999%, outperforming IONOS’s 99.9%.
However, their shared hosting uptime is not explicitly guaranteed, with a test showing minor downtime. Leaseweb operates data centers across the globe, maintaining over 10 Tbps network capacity. Their 24/7 incident monitoring and daily configuration backups ensure data protection and issue resolution. GTmetrix rated their main website performance as above-average, reflected in a full load time of 3.3 seconds, showcasing their efficient infrastructure.

🏆 Winner Leaseweb: Known for its high-performance servers and extensive global network, Leaseweb is the leading hosting provider.

Leaseweb and IONOS both offer impressive hosting speeds, but there are notable differences. Leaseweb ensures top-tier performance with its high bandwidth servers, powerful CPUs with up to 64 cores, and global network with 29 Internet Exchanges. It also provides 43 points of presence worldwide for rapid content delivery. IONOS leverages dual platform technology, SSD storage, Cloudflare CDN, and HTTP/2 protocol to enhance speed. IONOS boasts georedundant infrastructure for high uptime, and Leaseweb guarantees a 99.999% core uptime. While Leaseweb has a more advanced global network and data center reach, IONOS offers an expansive feature set at an affordable price.

Website Speed

In terms of website speed, Leaseweb stands out with its robust CPU capacities and network speed, offering port options from 1Gbps to 100Gbps. Its high-performance servers minimize latency and enhance load times, supported by state-of-the-art data centers. IONOS utilizes SSD storage, PHP 8.2, and a Cloudflare CDN to accelerate content delivery, ensuring fast page loads through HTTP/2 protocol. Though both providers deliver excellent speed, Leaseweb’s superior hardware and network configuration make it the frontrunner for speed optimization.

Scalability

Scalability is a seamless process with IONOS, allowing users to adjust performance levels as needed, each additional level costing $2/month, and providing email notifications when upgrades are necessary. Leaseweb provides flexible server configurations with options to add GPU support and high bandwidth packages, but the cost details for scaling aren’t specified. Both hosts support scalable solutions, but IONOS offers a more transparent and direct path for users to manage and adjust performance levels themselves.

Winner IONOS: A robust hosting provider offering comprehensive security measures.

Technical security measures:

Both IONOS and Leaseweb offer strong technical security features, but IONOS stands out with its wide range of SSL certificates—Domain Validated (DV), Organization Validated (OV), and Extended Validation (EV). These certificates come with up to 256-bit encryption, ensuring secure data transmission. IONOS also supports all PHP versions from 4.0 to the latest, including JIT Compiler and OPcache for performance enhancement. Leaseweb offers SSL certificates too but does not specify the variety or encryption level. Additionally, Leaseweb features a hardware-based DDoS IP Protection service that reroutes traffic during attacks. However, the specific PHP versions supported by Leaseweb are not mentioned.

Operational security measures:

IONOS provides extensive operational security measures such as advanced DDoS protection, automatic malware removal with certain plans, daily backups, and georedundant data centers. Their customizable firewall rules and intrusion detection systems add another layer of security. Leaseweb’s operational measures include 24/7 managed cyber security through its SIEM SOC service and collaboration with Northwave for periodic penetration testing. Leaseweb also uses Acronis Backup solutions for different backup needs. While both providers offer proactive threat monitoring, IONOS includes more automated features like malware removal and comprehensive backup solutions.

Compliance and certifications:

Both IONOS and Leaseweb comply with GDPR, which safeguards customers’ personal data. Leaseweb also adheres to PCI DSS, ensuring secure handling of payment information. IONOS doesn’t explicitly mention PCI compliance but appears to focus on data protection, suggesting a commitment to secure transactions. Information on HIPAA compliance is not specified for either provider.

🏆 Winner: Leaseweb: Leaseweb provides a cost-effective hosting solution suitable for diverse web hosting needs.

When examining the features of IONOS and Leaseweb, there are some notable distinctions. IONOS offers an all-encompassing suite of services starting from user-friendly managed WordPress hosting, daily backups, and a content delivery network (CDN) with Cloudflare, enhancing website performance and security. Furthermore, they include a free SSL certificate and professional email hosting, which simplifies the setup for new users. An exceptional add-on is a $55 credit for Fiverr services with their managed WordPress plans, which can significantly assist new website owners needing additional support.

Leaseweb, while more streamlined in its offerings, focuses on a faster deployment process with their VPS plans and maintains high availability with no downtime. Their ease of use is evident through an easy-to-use control panel and support for various operating systems, making it a viable option for developers needing reliability and control. While they don’t mention a free domain or email, their hosting plans are more flexible in scaling to higher SSD storage options and a plethora of mailboxes, catering well to mid-sized businesses looking for a performance-driven solution.

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 Leaseweb 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 offers comprehensive email hosting, providing a professional email address with each of their plans. This includes the capacity for transactional emails and personalized email campaigns, without additional costs for third-party services. On the contrary, Leaseweb does not emphasize email services in their plans, which can be a drawback for users who require robust email hosting features. While there’s no direct mention of transactional emails or reselling of services such as Google Workspace, it’s clear that IONOS offers a more integrated email solution suitable for most users.

🏆 Winner IONOS: Affordable pricing plans with a variety of features for diverse hosting 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 Leaseweb highlights some key differences. IONOS offers a broader range of web and managed WordPress hosting plans with introductory discounts and additional features like free domains, SSL certificates, and professional email. Leaseweb, on the other hand, provides straightforward web hosting plans and a variety of cloud and dedicated server options with different pricing structures. While IONOS includes enhanced security and support features across its plans, Leaseweb emphasizes flexibility in VPS and dedicated server configurations. The pricing models and additional features provided by each hosting provider cater to different user needs, with IONOS being more feature-rich in lower-tier plans and Leaseweb offering extensive scalability for high-end requirements.

Enterprise plans

For enterprises, IONOS offers scalable cloud solutions with various performance levels, enhanced security features, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Leaseweb caters to enterprise needs with dedicated servers featuring multi-core Xeon processors, extensive SSD storage options, and robust SLA plans offering rapid response times and hardware replacements. Both providers offer comprehensive enterprise solutions, but IONOS’s feature-rich lower-tier plans and additional free services might cater more effectively to growing businesses, while Leaseweb’s strength lies in scalable and flexible high-end configurations.

🏆 Winner
IONOS: IONOS offers a high level of user-friendliness and comprehensive support, making it a preferred choice for web hosting.

IONOS utilizes its custom-built admin panel, which is designed to be straightforward and accessible to both technical and non-technical users. The panel allows seamless navigation for website management, with features like the WP Assistant for those who opt for WordPress hosting. Additional tools such as Click & Build make the installation of popular applications like TYPO3, Joomla, Drupal, and PrestaShop straightforward. Users can also enjoy managed WordPress hosting with customizable updates, free plugins, and themes, contributing to an easy and intuitive setup experience.

Leaseweb, on the other hand, offers a more standard yet efficient approach with its Customer Portal. While the portal is not tailored for any specific user group, it provides clear, structured pathways for setting up various hosting services. The steps from receiving the order to delivery are well-documented and user-friendly, though the interface may require a bit more technical understanding compared to IONOS. Furthermore, Leaseweb’s setup offers quick delivery times, making the initial stages of web hosting quite efficient.

Both hosting providers offer services and tools for site migration, but IONOS stands out with its comprehensive assistance. IONOS provides straightforward click-and-build tools, which streamline the migration process. The personal consultant feature also assures additional support. Leaseweb doesn’t explicitly offer automated migration tools; it focuses more on a manual and guided approach. While effective, this might require users to have a bit more technical know-how compared to what IONOS demands.

The help center resources of IONOS are notably extensive and accessible, providing users with a comprehensive set of guides and 24/7 customer support. The availability of a personal consultant adds an extra layer of support that is personalized and practical. Leaseweb also offers a detailed help center, complete with FAQs, cheat sheets, and a structured ticketing system for customer care. Though thorough, it may come off as slightly more technical and less hands-on compared to IONOS.

🏆 Winner
IONOS: Streamlined user role management and customized permissions.

IONOS offers comprehensive and detailed user management features compared to Leaseweb. In IONOS, user roles and permissions are visually organized in the Cloud Panel where users can create, clone, and delete roles. The platform provides an in-depth look at role statuses and user assignments, with default Administrator roles that offer full permissions. Leaseweb, on the other hand, uses popular control panels like Plesk and cPanel, which typically include user management features, but specific details about role customization are less clear without referring to additional documentation.

IONOS has a dedicated user interface within its Cloud Panel for managing user roles and permissions, where intuitive tables and editing options ease the modifications. Leaseweb’s management features rely on external control panels like Plesk and cPanel, adding a layer of flexibility but potentially complicating the user experience depending on the chosen control panel.

Access control in IONOS is highly effective, allowing detailed customization of permissions for each role via the Permissions Page. The ability to use quick selection for permission groups makes it simpler to manage a growing number of users. Leaseweb, offering multiple control panels, likely has adaptable access control, but the efficacy may vary depending on the chosen software, making it less streamlined than IONOS.

IONOS user roles table:

🏆 Winner Leaseweb: Extensive customer service options and availability make Leaseweb the superior hosting provider.

Both IONOS and Leaseweb offer solid customer support, but Leaseweb stands out with a wider array of contact options, including fax and an online contact form. Leaseweb’s response times also vary by SLA, allowing customers to choose a plan that matches their urgency needs. Leaseweb supports multiple languages and various billing cycles, making it highly customizable for different users.

IONOS provides 24/7 award-winning support with direct access to personal consultants during business hours, which is a notable benefit. However, Leaseweb edges ahead by offering more advanced support services and a comprehensive customer portal. Additionally, Leaseweb’s proactive monitoring and incident resolution services provide extra peace of mind.

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.

The hosting provider excels in offering comprehensive services with impressive billing and contract flexibility, making it easier for businesses to manage their finances. Users appreciate the choice between “Volume” and “Premium” network options, which cater to different performance needs, and find the support and user interface to be intuitive and straightforward. However, customers have raised concerns about high charges for excess traffic, restrictive password policies, inconvenient login procedures, limited payment gateways, and a lack of variety in available system distributions. Overall, while the service is robust and user-friendly, there are areas in need of improvement to enhance the customer experience.

FAQ