IONOS Shared Hosting vs DreamHost
A detailed comparison to help you choose between IONOS Shared Hosting and DreamHost.
Quick Verdict
3.5/5
IONOS Shared Hosting
0 reviews
3.9/5
DreamHost
0 reviews
DreamHost is rated higher (3.9 vs 3.5). IONOS (1&1) offers shared hosting from €1/month with German/EU servers and a free domain. cPanel-like control panel, WordPress one-click install, and GDPR-compliant EU hosting. one of the oldest web hosts (since 1997)
IONOS Shared Hosting German shared hosting from €1/month | DreamHost WordPress hosting with 97-day money-back guarantee | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.5 (0 reviews) | 3.9 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $1/mo✓ | From $1.99/mo |
| Best for | European buyers wanting GDPR-aligned shared hosting on owned German infrastructure with generous included features — personal sites, local businesses, and WordPress beginners who will pick a tier by its renewal price | Privacy-conscious WordPress site owners and small businesses who want an independent host with transparent renewals and room to change their mind |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | — | — |
| RAM | — | — |
| Storage | 100 GB | — |
| Bandwidth | — | — |
| SLA uptime | 99.99% | 100%✓ |
| Data-center count | 10✓ | 4 |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | Frankfurt x2, Berlin (DE), Paris (FR), London, Worcester (UK), Logrono (ES), Las Vegas (NV), Newark (NJ), Lenexa (KS) (US) | Ashburn VA; Hillsboro OR; Amsterdam NL; Singapore |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | eu datacentergdpr compliant | managed optionbackups includedus datacenter |
| Visit IONOS Shared Hosting → | Visit DreamHost → | |
IONOS Shared Hosting
Pros
- + Very low entry pricing ($1/mo Plus intro) on owned German infrastructure with 10 ISO 27001 data centres
- + NVMe storage on all tiers, unmetered traffic, geo-redundancy, daily backups and DDoS protection included
- + Free domain, wildcard SSL, and professional email bundled with every plan
- + Better developer surface than most shared hosts: SSH, SFTP, WP-CLI, git, cron, selectable PHP versions
- + 24/7 support plus a free personal consultant; 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- - Renewal jumps are brutal (Plus $1 -> $14/mo; up to ~1,300%), with a 2026 price adjustment on some tiers
- - Custom IONOS control panel instead of cPanel/Plesk — workflow and plugin ecosystem don't transfer
- - Shared-resource ceilings (CPU priority ladder, 512MB-class RAM on lower tiers) limit busy sites
- - Free domain is year one only; monthly billing without a term costs 2-3x the annual promo rate
- - Beginner-scoped product: no root, no staging; growth means moving to IONOS VPS or cloud
DreamHost
Pros
- + Independent and employee-operated since 1997 — not part of a hosting conglomerate
- + Renewal rates shown next to promo rates and below the market average for the tier
- + Daily automated backups, free SSL and unmetered bandwidth on WordPress plans
- + Four datacenters (US East, US West, Amsterdam, Singapore) on NVMe infrastructure
- + Month-to-month billing available; long refund window on shared plans (verify current terms)
Cons
- - Guarantee messaging is inconsistent — 97-day window advertised on shared plans but 30-day shown on current WordPress pages
- - Custom control panel instead of cPanel is a migration cost for some workflows
- - Email billed separately on WordPress plans after a three-month trial
- - No phone support on entry plans; chat may start with an AI assistant
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