IONOS vs Liquid Web Comparison
Compare IONOS vs Liquid Web features, pricing, and more.
Last updated: November 2026
IONOS
6.7/10
German hosting and cloud provider offering shared web hosting, VPS, dedicated servers and public cloud services for small businesses through to enterprises.
Liquid Web
6.2/10
Liquid Web is a US managed hosting provider. It sells VPS, cloud VPS, dedicated servers and managed WordPress hosting to businesses that need hands-on server management.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.7/10 | 6.2/10 |
| Integration | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 8/10 |
| Cost | 8/10 | 4/10 |
| Customization | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Reliability | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Ease of Use | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Analytics | 5/10 | 4/10 |
| Scalability | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | Contact for pricing | $11/mo Cloud VPS Compute 2 GB |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Contact for pricing | $11/mo Cloud VPS Compute 2 GB |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Automatic Backups | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| Dedicated Servers | ||
| Free SSL Certificates | ||
| Managed WordPress | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| Uptime SLA | ||
| VPS Hosting | ||
| Content Delivery Network | Not listed | |
| Managed Databases | Not listed | |
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
| Object Storage | Not listed | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
IONOS vs Liquid Web cost by team size
| Team size | IONOS | Liquid Web |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | Contact for pricing | $11/moCloud VPS Compute 2 GB |
| 5 users | Contact for pricing | $11/moCloud VPS Compute 2 GB |
| 10 users | Contact for pricing | $11/moCloud VPS Compute 2 GB |
| 25 users | Contact for pricing | $11/moCloud VPS Compute 2 GB |
| 50 users | Contact for pricing | $11/moCloud VPS Compute 2 GB |
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 IONOS
- Higher Cost score (8/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Integration score (6/10 vs 5/10)
Why choose Liquid Web
- Higher Support score (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Reliability score (8/10 vs 7/10)
Pros & Cons
IONOS
Pros
- Shared hosting renews at a modest $8 to $18 a month and includes daily backups, unlimited traffic and a wildcard SSL certificate
- VPS+ plans include root access, DDoS protection, a firewall and unlimited traffic from $2 a month as an introductory price
- The IONOS Cloud platform covers managed Kubernetes, S3-compatible object storage and managed databases, with a Terraform provider
- Data centers in the US, UK, Germany, Spain and France, plus GDPR and data-sovereignty commitments, suit EU buyers
- Some users say 24/7 support responds quickly and is technically knowledgeable
Cons
- The introductory price can rise sharply at renewal (the Plus plan goes from $1 to $14 a month)
- Reviews and complaints repeatedly mention aggressive auto-renewal and cancellations that are hard to complete
- The control panel is described as dated
- The lowest shared hosting plan has no CDN and only one email account
- Ratings are mixed, with a G2 average of about 3.5 out of 5
Liquid Web
Pros
- Fully managed VPS and dedicated plans cover monitoring, updates and ServerSecure hardening.
- The SLA promises 99.99 percent uptime, and the dedicated page adds a 30-minute hardware replacement guarantee.
- Cloud VPS comes in compute, memory and CPU-optimized sizes, with hourly billing.
- Managed dedicated plans include 500 GB of Acronis backups and DDoS protection.
- Data centers are in the US, Europe and Australia and are assessed for HIPAA and PCI-DSS.
Cons
- Reviewers repeatedly call it more expensive than budget hosts such as Hostinger and InterServer.
- There is no built-in CDN, and it offers no managed Kubernetes or serverless products.
- The InterWorx and SiteWorx control panels can confuse beginners.
- Some recent user reviews say support has slowed since the ownership change.
- Windows servers and cPanel or Plesk licences cost extra.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
IONOS scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 6.7/10 against 6.2/10 for Liquid Web. The largest gap is in Cost: 8/10 for IONOS and 4/10 for Liquid Web.
No, neither IONOS nor Liquid Web lists a free plan.
