Gcore vs IONOS Cloud: Complete Comparison (2026)
An in-depth comparison of Gcore and IONOS Cloud to help you choose the right tool for your business.
Last updated: November 2026
Gcore
6.9/10
Luxembourg-based edge and cloud provider offering CDN, virtual machines, bare metal, managed Kubernetes, object storage, AI GPU cloud, and DDoS/WAF security for businesses.
IONOS Cloud
6.4/10
European public cloud from IONOS offering pay-as-you-go VMs, bare metal, managed Kubernetes, databases and S3-compatible storage for businesses needing GDPR-aligned hosting.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.9/10 | 6.4/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 5/10 |
| Cost | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Customization | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Reliability | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Scalability | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Support | 5/10 | 6/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | €390/mo DDoS Protection Start | Contact for pricing |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | €390/mo DDoS Protection Start | Contact for pricing |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| Content Delivery Network | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| Dedicated Servers | ||
| Managed Databases | ||
| Managed Kubernetes | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| Object Storage | ||
| Automatic Backups | Not listed | |
| Serverless Functions | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
| VPS Hosting | Not listed | |
Gcore vs IONOS Cloud cost by team size
| Team size | Gcore | IONOS Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | €390/moDDoS Protection Start | Contact for pricing |
| 5 users | €390/moDDoS Protection Start | Contact for pricing |
| 10 users | €390/moDDoS Protection Start | Contact for pricing |
| 25 users | €390/moDDoS Protection Start | Contact for pricing |
| 50 users | €390/moDDoS Protection Start | Contact for pricing |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Gcore
- Has a free plan (IONOS Cloud does not)
- Higher Analytics score (7/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Scalability score (8/10 vs 6/10)
Why choose IONOS Cloud
- Higher Support score (6/10 vs 5/10)
Pros & Cons
Gcore
Pros
- The CDN includes 1 TB of traffic and 1 billion requests free each month, and traffic after that starts at 0.01 EUR per GB.
- DDoS protection pricing does not depend on attack size, and mitigation is not metered on any plan.
- The managed Kubernetes control plane is free with high availability, so you pay only for the nodes.
- A large edge footprint, reported at about 210 PoPs and 200 Tbps of capacity, suits latency-sensitive workloads such as gaming and streaming.
- Headquarters in Luxembourg is an advantage for buyers who prefer an EU-based provider.
Cons
- Trustpilot scores are around 2.5 out of 5, with complaints about recurring billing, refunds, and slow support.
- There is no public price list for VMs and bare metal; prices are only available through the calculator.
- The Terraform v2 provider is still in alpha and Gcore says it is not ready for production.
- The product range is very broad, which can make it harder for small teams to understand how pricing works.
IONOS Cloud
Pros
- The Kubernetes control plane is free, so you pay only for node cores, RAM and storage.
- Hourly per-resource pricing is transparent, and Savings Plans can cut dedicated core rates by roughly half over three years.
- EU-based provider with GDPR alignment and reported ISO 27001 and BSI C5 attestations.
- Strong automation options, including a Terraform provider, Cloud API, CLI and visual Data Center Designer.
- Broad catalog covering managed databases, Kafka, CDN, DDoS protection and GPU servers.
Cons
- No Asia-Pacific or Latin American regions, and multi-zone resiliency is thinner than at the hyperscalers.
- Reviewers report billing friction, renewal price increases and difficult cancellation.
- GPU capacity is reported to be limited to Frankfurt, with small default quotas.
- IAM granularity and observability depth lag behind AWS-class providers.
- Very few independent user reviews of the cloud product specifically.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Gcore scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 6.9/10 against 6.4/10 for IONOS Cloud. The largest gap is in Analytics: 7/10 for Gcore and 5/10 for IONOS Cloud.
Gcore has a free plan; IONOS Cloud does not list one.
