Alternative to IONOS
An IONOS alternative for UK web hosting
IONOS is a large European provider, and its UK hosting page showed introductory prices that rise after a set period, so compare the price after the offer as well as the first month. We are a UK hosting company with servers in London, yearly prices from £10.03, and the same £9.99 price for a domain at renewal as at registration.
Compare fairly
What to check before choosing between IONOS and Limitless Hosting
Compare like with like. These are the points worth checking on any host's own site, with what applies to us in the last column.
| What to check | On IONOS's own site | Limitless Hosting |
|---|---|---|
| Introductory offer | Offers of a few months or a year at a reduced price were shown | Yearly price shown |
| Price afterwards | A higher standard monthly price followed; check it | Yearly prices from £10.03 to £133.79 |
| Free domain | One free domain for the first year; check what renewal costs | .co.uk or .uk £9.99, renewing at £9.99 |
| Storage | 100 GB to 500 GB NVMe SSD, depending on the plan | 1 GB to 60 GB depending on the plan |
| Email accounts | From 1 to 5, depending on the plan | Unlimited email accounts on every plan |
| Money-back | A 30-day guarantee was shown | 15 days on the first hosting order |
Prices and terms change. Always read the checkout page for the full cost, including what you will pay when the first term ends.
About IONOS
What IONOS is good for
IONOS is a large provider with an international customer base and a wide range of products, including domains, hosting, servers and website tools. Its UK hosting page showed generous storage allowances, and plan tiers that scale up in storage, databases and processing priority. If you need a lot of disk space for a site, that is a fair reason to look at it.
We offer smaller storage allowances, from 1 GB on Very Small up to 60 GB on Limitless Plus, so if your site holds a large library of files, compare the allowance on the plan you would need. In return, every plan includes unlimited email accounts, subdomains and MySQL databases, and we run LiteSpeed with Redis caching on UK servers in London.
As with every provider, the useful comparison is a total: the first term, the renewal and the extras you need. Do the sum for each.
What we saw
What the IONOS hosting page showed us
We read the IONOS UK web hosting page on its own website. The page showed two sets of offers with different promotional prices and did not explain how they relate, so we quote only part of it. Prices were shown excluding tax.
| Item | What IONOS showed (checked on 8 November 2026) |
|---|---|
| Plans listed | Standard, Plus, Premium and Ultimate |
| Standard plan | £3 a month for 6 months, then £6 a month; 100 GB NVMe SSD storage; 1 email account |
| Plus plan | £1 a month for 12 months, then £9 a month; 200 GB NVMe SSD storage; 2 email accounts |
| Free domain | One free domain for one year; the page did not say what happens after the first year |
| Guarantees and backups | A 30-day money-back guarantee, daily backup and a 99.99% uptime guarantee were stated |
These notes describe the IONOS page on the date above and may have changed since. Check the current offer, the price afterwards and the domain terms on ionos.co.uk before you decide.
See our plans and prices
Six plans, with the yearly price and the renewal price shown. Fifteen days to change your mind on your first hosting order.
Who suits what
When IONOS may suit you, and when we might
IONOS may suit you if
- You need a large amount of storage for a site
- You like a low introductory price and accept the price afterwards
- You want monthly billing options
- You want a larger provider with many products
- You want a 30-day money-back period
Limitless Hosting may suit you if
- You want UK servers in London and a UK-focused company
- You want unlimited email accounts, subdomains and databases on every plan
- You want a domain renewal price equal to the registration price
- You want free migration on Small and higher plans billed yearly
- You want live chat open 24/7 plus tickets
Pricing
How to compare hosting prices honestly
Hosting prices are rarely a single number. Many providers show a low price for the first term, then a higher price when it renews, and the length of the first term varies a great deal. A fair comparison puts three numbers side by side: what you pay today, what you pay at the first renewal, and what you pay over three years including any domain and email you need.
That applies to every host, including us, and including IONOS. Open each checkout page, pick the term you would really buy, and write down the total and the renewal figure. Check whether prices are shown with or without tax, whether a free domain is free only for the first year, and whether the plan you are looking at includes the email and databases you need.
Our own plans are priced per year when billed yearly: Very Small is £10.03, Small is £21.18, Medium is £33.45, Large is £44.60, Limitless is £66.89 and Limitless Plus is £133.79. A .co.uk or .uk domain is £9.99 a year and £9.99 at renewal. Billing terms cost about the same per month, so choose the term that suits your cash flow. You can read more in our guide to how much web hosting costs in the UK.
Our side
The figures on our side of the comparison
On every plan
What every Limitless Hosting plan includes
UK servers in London
Your site is served from London, which suits visitors in the UK.
LiteSpeed and Redis
A LiteSpeed web server with Redis object caching for dynamic sites.
Security layers
Free SSL, Imunify360, a ModSecurity firewall, DDoS protection and CloudLinux isolation.
Unlimited email accounts
Plus unlimited subdomains and MySQL databases, with spam protection and an external mail relay.
WordPress and apps
One-click WordPress, and Node.js and Python selectors.
Weekly remote backups
Kept for about a month. Take your own copy before big changes too.
Storage
How much storage a website really needs
Large storage numbers look impressive, but most small business websites use a tiny fraction of them. A typical brochure site or small WordPress blog is often a few hundred megabytes, and a busy shop with many product photos may use a few gigabytes. Storage becomes the deciding factor for sites with big media libraries, video, downloads or years of email.
Work out your own figure. Check the size of your current site folder and database, add your mailboxes, and allow for growth over a year or two. Then choose a plan that covers that comfortably. Our guide to bandwidth and disk space explains the difference between the two and how much you tend to need.
If your needs are big, compare the plan allowances honestly, including any fair-use conditions on unlimited features. If they are modest, other things, such as renewal pricing, caching and how quickly you can reach support, may matter more.
Moving
Moving from IONOS, step by step
Measure your site
Check the size of your files, database and mailboxes so you pick a plan with enough room.
Back up
Download files and databases and note your email settings.
Choose a plan
Small or higher on yearly billing includes free migration.
Test the copy
Check it on a temporary address before visitors see it.
Update DNS
Point the domain at us and consider moving the domain later. See pointing a domain to hosting.
Before you decide
A checklist before you leave IONOS or stay
- List every website, domain and mailbox you have with the provider today
- Find out when each plan and each domain renews
- Write down the price at renewal, not only the first-term price
- Export or back up your site files, database and email before touching anything
- Lower your DNS TTL a day before any change so it takes effect faster
- Confirm you can unlock your domain and get its transfer code, if you plan to move it
- Test the new site on a temporary address before changing DNS
- Keep the old plan running until the new one has been working for a few days
Being plain
What we do not offer
Limitless Hosting is UK web hosting. We do not sell reseller hosting for the UK, and we do not offer a drag-and-drop website builder or VPS servers. If any of those are what you need, check that IONOS or another provider offers them on the plan you are looking at, and choose on that basis.
If you want a site you can build with WordPress, a custom PHP application, or a Node.js or Python app, our shared plans cover that, with one-click WordPress and selectors for Node.js and Python. Not sure which describes you? Ask our live chat before you buy.
Moving from IONOS to us is a common request. On Small and higher plans billed yearly, our migration is free, and the Limitless Plus plan includes a free .co.uk or .uk domain for the first year when billed yearly.
- 15-day money-back guarantee on your first hosting order
- Free migration on Small and higher plans billed yearly
- Live chat open 24/7, plus tickets
- Weekly remote backups kept about a month
FAQ
Common questions
Does IONOS offer more storage?
The plans we read showed 100 GB to 500 GB. Our plans range from 1 GB to 60 GB, so compare against what your site needs.
Is the first-month price the real price?
Not for long. Check the price after the offer ends on any provider.
Can I keep my IONOS domain?
Yes. Point its DNS at us, or transfer it later.
Can you migrate my site?
Yes, free on Small and higher plans billed yearly.
How much is a .co.uk domain with you?
£9.99 a year, and £9.99 at renewal.
Keep reading
Related pages
Thinking of moving from IONOS?
Pick a plan, tell our live chat what you are moving, and keep the old plan running until the new site is checked.