IONOS Reviews

I bought a VPS with them, coding the basic site is complete, but the VPS did not fire up yet. Come on it is 2026 and they can not fire up a simple VPS in hours.

Do yourself a favor and spare yourself the aggravation and waste of money. By far the worst customer service and customer retention skills I've ever encountered with any business. I'm convinced they purposely make it difficult to contact or deal with customer service so they can keep soaking up cash from your credit cards every month. I honestly have nothing positive to say about them. I don't even know where to start. Cancelled their service last year, and are still dealing with unauthorized monthly billings. Unfortunately, one of our managers switched our hosting to these buffoons, after numerous, numerous phone calls and emails, we finally have control of our hosting, but now we're getting invoiced monthly from some BS Ranking Coaching. If see any offers, ads, etc... RUN, DON'T CLICK the link, FIND ANOTHER COMPANY!!

This a big scam, I paid $74 for supposedly 3 years of emails services and I was being charged monthly fees still and once I remove my card they suspended my account. I contacted customer service and they are talking about email archieving email that is auto selected that I didn’t uncheck. I ask for a refund for the remaining 2 years and 10 months and they said no refund. This is a highway robbery. Stay away.

Absolutely the WORST customer service team, I would guess that they are in India from the names I have seen. They never read emails or notes between the support staff. NEVER use a credit card with them as they will automatically charge you full price and they also move you up to the most expensive options, plus they add extras after your "deal" has run its course. It is absolutely impossible to get a credit from them if this happens to you.

Ionos played “bait & switch”/deceptive promos/hidden fees/unethical upsells … promising me a lower rate than they charged me. Then I tried to cancel, both on their site & via phone, neither worked and I was on hold on the phone for OVER 35 MINUTES and then HUNG UP ON! I’ve not been using their hosting for MONTHS & am STILL being charged (as of 3/2/26)!

The cancel option in the account does not work -- I am still charged monthly. I called to cancel and was still charged. There's no one to turn to. I was recently charged an extra $180 to pay for a new year. It's unbelievable. I was able to block their payments, but they're still sending invoices, stating I am behind on payments. Besides this, the website builder is terrible and incredibly difficult to manage.

When I contacted them to cancel, thinking this was an obvious mistake or at least something they would work with me on, I was told that even if I cancel the service, I am still obligated to pay for the full annual contract — meaning 12 months at $122 per month. So essentially, once you’re in, you’re locked in. This is not customer service — it’s a hostage contract. The pricing structure feels intentionally misleading. The promotional rate is clearly designed to get you in the door, and the long-term commitment terms are either buried in fine print or not adequately explained during signup.

I purchased a domain name in early 2025, and immediately turned off the auto renewal feature trusting it would work, then a year later I was charged for a domain name renewal. When I noticed the charge to my account I contacted their support requesting a refund and to close my account. My account was immediately closed and I was sent this statement: "In case of a domain cancellation, the domain fees already paid by you cannot be refunded."

THIS IS A SCAM! Customer support is rude and terrible, called me **, and told me they will not cancel/can't cancel my subscription or give a refund. I figured out how to cancel online and fighting for my refund.

This company refuses to cancel all of the add-ons that they put on my account. This is so frustrating as I have been a 1&1 customer for about 15 years. Now that IONOS has purchased it the company has turned out to be non-compliant. This is so sad.

My experience is much like the others, they use bait and switch. Says email address is $1 a month and then 2 months later - it's apparently $3 a month. When you subscribe at first they didn't make it super clear - only after you paid. Then they won't let you off the contract even after you cancel - and there is no self-controlled auto-renewal. - I hate these kinds of companies and I hate these kinds of witch-faced greedy CEO. GOT a degree in MBA - turn into psychopathic bulge-eyes demons.

To everyone considering IONOS, BEWARE! I am writing this as a cautionary tale—they CLOSED MY ACCOUNT without any valid explanation and stole my money in the process. I’ve only been refunded a small fraction of what I’m owed ($12), and now they are actively preventing me from accessing my own data. They won’t even allow me to export my files or transfer them to a different provider.

They allowed my account to be hacked and my card was charged $493.00. They confirmed the hack and still have NOT refunded my money in almost a month. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF.

Be aware it is a SCAM. Paid 1 year contract web hosting. Next month you will be billed with heavens knows what shit. It's good I blocked my credit card. Keep billing you with things you never asked for. People keep away - You will just wasting money….

Run away! Very sneaky on adding things to your bill. If you click in a button to see a service you have agreed to a contract. I sent email back and didn’t send the verification back in next billing cycle, which is past the 30-day cancellation period and you are stuck.

Don't be scammed by those thieves, I ALREADY CANCELED MY CONTRACT WITH THEM, but they are still trying day after day to charge MY CARD, I sent to them more than 5 emails telling that I DON'T WANT TO KEEP MY CONTRACT WITH THEM, but still receiving DAY AFTER THE THE BANK ALARM ABOUT A BLOCKED BUSINESS STILL TRYING TO CHARGE MY CARD, they are scammers, don't fall in the trap, AVOID IONOS INC!!!

Scammers terrible people! They charged me for services I don’t using. After I cancelled all my contracts they still charging me. I will To submit a complaint with customer protection services. They never send you email for renewals!

The company has a business model of not sending you a reminder on upcoming annual renewal. I was lucky and remembered that I didn't want to be charged $249 that I can get served up via wordpress and cheaper hosting elsewhere and had my contract for hosting, domain, and domain guard cancelled same day as renewal. The customer service rep verbally advised that, "I would not be charged for any contract renewal and all my agreements have been cancelled". The next day I was charged the full $259. IONOS finally indemnified me for the 179 for my hosting but regretfully did not budge on my 80. Just now I got a bill for $15 after all this because of "system glitch" as confirmed by the service representative.

Absolutely awful company, predatory contracts, predatory behavior, confusing, just a very awful company. Do not use them if you’re looking for a web host which most people are, if they’re individuals then use somebody else. These people are awful. They will swindle you. They coerce you into contracts that you didn’t actually sign and are very, very awful.

I signed up for web hosting but after being charged, saw that I was signed up for Web Hosting Grow and an E-Commerce contract as well. I called immediately to cancel since I didn't intend on buying these additional services (it was hidden and vague so many people have made this mistake). The guy over the phone told me he would cancel them. The next month, I got a $5.32 for the E-Commerce. I called to see why I was still being charged, and they told me it was because I only asked for the Web Hoisting Grow to be canceled.

Scam!! Be advised!! I signed up for a one year plan and the service was terrible so I canceled. One year later I have debt collectors coming after me for 50 dollars! Stay away. I will be investigating taking legal action against this company.

Horrible company, customer service in the Philippines. A lot of back and forth, playing games. Received charge on my bank, they try to renew at crazy $35 a year. Scam. I ASK FOR REFUND AND STILL WANT TO PLAY GAMES. Refusing after verifying and been 1.5 hours on phone. BEWARE. DO NOT USE THEM. Ever. Foreign call center. Rep asked for my credit card number and another rep said they never ask for that. FRAUD.

IONOS presents an appealing, streamlined sign-up process that quickly turns deceptive once payment is processed. After purchasing two domains with the clear understanding that email and SSL would be included, I was confronted by hidden paywalls just to activate basic services that were advertised as part of the package. The system becomes intentionally convoluted after checkout, masking upsells as “necessary activations” and leaving customers trapped in an endless cycle of surprise fees. This practice is misleading, unethical, and damaging to trust.

I purchased a 1-year plan, and they wrote saying to verify who I was, they needed either a photo of a utility bill, my government ID, or my passport. I sent them a photo of my electric bill since it has minimal personal info on it. They write back saying they want a photo of my idea. I told them I would not do so because of the risk of their server being hacked and info stolen (it happens a lot to companies these days), and for other reasons like selling private info even if they say they won't (Like Meta did). They did not even talk with me about it or try to convince me of their security; they just canceled my order. It honestly makes me wonder what they are doing with your info.

Was cheap to start but $395 to review I told them to cancel, they kept offering me "cheaper plans" finally got them to cancel, they said I'd owe zero, still took $48 from my checking and I couldn't get it back, said I "agreed" to it...I "agreed" to zero and cancel.

Refusing to cancel and contract and continue charging me for a year even though I have requested a cancellation multiple times. The customer service team is simply rude and condescending - yes should have known that I would be locked into a 12 month contract because of opting into a free trial.

They ignored repeated cancellation requests for months and kept charging me. Then they flat out refused to honor my cancellation, so I stopped their payments. I just received an honest to goodness debt collection letter for seven dollars.

IONOS ===>>>> CROOKS. Ionos is holding my domain hostage for a fraudulent fabricated contract. This is not a legitimate charge. It is not authorized. No agreement was made. The business fabricated this charge and fabricated the contract. The business is holding my domain hostage for this fraudulent claim. Ionos fabricated this contract. Contract number **. Ionos is a fraudulent operator. I have had a domain with them for five plus years which I can no longer access because they have trapped and locked my domain in a contract that I never created. This contract was created without my authorization. They have repeatedly resurrected this contract though I never authorized it or asked for it. I have made repeated phone calls to them over more than a year to stop this to no avail.

The absolute worst customer service. Canceled my account and they kept charging me and said they forget to cancel it. When I asked them HOW you think it's ok to just "forget" something like that, they said it was a computer glitch. I said that is an unacceptable response and he replied "Are you not following me?" "Do you think we are trying to take your money?" Yes that's exactly what you're doing after I called in and canceled it, with confirmation receipt and they kept pulling money from my account. Complete scam of a company. Letting my bank know that it is a scam company in case they "forget" to cancel my account again. Would give no stars if I could.

The worst decision I had ever made regarding my business was to go with Ionos. After a year of them trying to migrate my website I had enough and had to cancel all my services. They charged me for a full year and said they will not issue a refund. I wish I found this website before and saw the reviews. DO NOT USE IONOS.