IONOS MyWebsite Review: The Business Website Builder

Although you might feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of options offered by IONOS when you first start to manage your website, the editor is actually nicely structured. It’s easy to drag & drop specific elements, before moving everything to exactly where you want it on the page. You do have to get used to it all first, though. If you’re looking for a more straightforward alternative, you may want to check out another provider like e.g. Wix.

The templates provided by IONOS are aimed at specific industries, yet you are free to modify them to suit your own requirements. It’s even possible to modify tablet and smartphone designs to your own taste.

Although the designs here are modern enough, you’ll find more stylish options if you go with another provider like Wix or Squarespace. IONOS may have an impressive image archive containing 17,000 pictures, but some of them are standard stock photos that look very contrived. The good news is that you can access the source code for the templates and make changes that way if you are in developer mode.

A small IONOS banner is displayed at the bottom of the page by default, but you can get rid of this with just one click of the mouse.

One of the biggest selling points is that it’s possible to select one or more languages at any point (from the 60 available). You can add and deactivate these as required, without having to delete them. There’s also the option of machine translation using Google Translate (but you should never use the text produced without having it checked and edited first). The website editor itself is available in 9 languages.

Even the STARTER package comes with a free domain for one year. You can pick from: .com, .co.uk, .ca, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .eu, .online. The alternative is to transfer one over to IONOS (connecting an external domain isn’t possible unfortunately). SSL encryption is activated by default. You get an email address and inbox included too to keep things nice and simple.

You can add up to 3 layers, which should be plenty in most cases. Having said that, it would be better to have a little extra flexibility here for more complex navigational structures.

There’s no proper app store, but you can create your own widgets. These may come in the form of a pop-up advertising a special deal or containing information for returning visitors. For example, if you have someone who has already visited your website and taken their time to buy something, you might want to activate an automatic discount code pop-up.

You can use the IONOS mobile app to edit and manage your website or shop on the go, with the option to check customer details, change contracts, register domains, get in touch with contacts and access the help center directly.

You can add an online store with the Shop plan. The interface is based on Ecwid. IONOS also offers their so called e-shops. These options are designed specifically for ecommerce, though.

You can change the page title and description, URL, and indexing via the SEO settings. Even 301 redirects can be set up, which is important if you ever change URLs of a page. Blog posts SEO titles have some limitations.

To be fair, the blog function is pretty easy to use. Looking at things from a search engine optimization point of view, though, it would be nice if the SEO title was separate from the post heading. Unfortunately, only one field is currently provided here. You can also import existing blogs using the RSS import function. Bear in mind that you can’t create a blog with the MyWebsite Now editor.

You can use the IONOS statistics tool (WebAnalytics) to keep track of visitor numbers, page impressions, bounce rate and much more. You can also add standard solutions like Google Analytics and Matomo using the relevant code.

You can set up your own forms and we think it’s a nice touch that there is direct compatibility with a few other service providers including MailChimp and Constant Contact. You can even link Google Sheets to your site.

You can set up a separate password for each individual page. There’s no option at all for a member area, which is a shame.

A newsletter tool is included from the STARTER plan onwards, but we didn’t test it out.

There is an element that allows you to use custom HTML or JavaScript in your website, or you can add this code within the page header.

With the Plus and Pro packages, you get unlimited storage space and pages.

You can create a backup at any point and everything is also backed up automatically every time you click to publish the website. Restore a saved version with just one click of the mouse.

IONOS is one of the few providers that does offer support over the phone. However, we would recommend reading the FAQs before calling the hotline. Alternatively, you can always send the support team an email. And you can always use the live chat when you need help too. You are assigned a single point of contact, which is another nice touch that sets IONOS apart from the competition. When we tested their customer support, they answered our questions quite fast and satisfactorily. However, they can be a bit commercial sometimes, trying to sell you extra features or tools for your website (it seems to be dependent on the support agent) which could be annoying for some users.

Once you’ve worked out how to move the elements around anywhere you want, the editor is actually fun to work with. It’s just a shame that you can’t give it a go for free without having to go through the full registration process. And don’t forget that you’ll have to wade your way through all the package options and prices before you can get going.