IONOS MyWebsite is a powerful and affordable website building tool for small businesses. It offers two editor options, suitable for both beginners and advanced designers. It includes standard features such as email and traffic analytics, as well as an online store option with inventory management and social media cross-selling. In summary, IONOS MyWebsite is a great choice if you have a small business and want to expand your online presence.
PROS
- Very easy to use
- Excellent support
- Competitive pricing
CONS
- The editor is somewhat limited.
- Doesn’t allow you to add custom code
How IONOS by 1&1 Works
IONOS is a web hosting and domain registration provider founded in 1988. The company offers everything from shared hosting to cloud computing. Its MyWebsite website builder includes IONOS shared hosting with unlimited storage and bandwidth.
The IONOS MyWebsite website builder is designed for small businesses. It offers website editors for both beginners and experienced designers, and sells tools that can help your business grow. It’s ideal for small businesses that want to create a large online store but don’t want to spend a lot of money on a more advanced e-commerce platform like Wix or Shopify.
Using IONOS
We found the overall experience with IONOS MyWebsite Builder to be very smooth. You can sign up, choose a template, and start designing in minutes.
The complexity of the editor will depend on whether you sign up for MyWebsite Now, which is easier for beginners to use, or MyWebsite Creator, which is more advanced. In both cases, it’s easy to customize template styles, drag and drop content elements, and preview your site.
Hosting
: All IONOS MyWebsite plans include IONOS shared hosting with unlimited storage and bandwidth. You also get a free SSL certificate, a free domain name for one year, and a free email address on your domain.
Privacy Tools
IONOS helps you let your visitors know that you take privacy seriously. You can easily add a banner to your site that explains your cookie policy. What’s more, all forms added to your site are GDPR-compliant by default.
How to Create a Website with IONOS
The process of creating a website with IONOS MyWebsite starts with choosing a template. There are only 18 templates available, which is much less than with other similar website builders. The designs are acceptable, although they can be a bit bland. You can change templates at any time, but if you do, you’ll have to start over the design process.
After choosing a template, you can customize it and add content.
The control you have over this process will depend on whether you choose MyWebsite Now or MyWebsite Creator.
With MyWebsite Now, you have a little more flexibility in customizing your website. You will only be able to show or hide content elements in blocks that are already in your chosen template. You will not be able to drag and drop new content elements or edit the website code.
With MyWebsite Creator, you can drag and drop content elements such as text fields, images, buttons, forms, etc. You can customize the design of these elements and add effects such as video backgrounds. MyWebsite Creator also allows you to edit your website’s CSS code so that users with programming experience can make more in-depth changes to the basic design.
Regardless of which editor you use, we found MyWebsite very easy to use. You can preview how your website will look on computers, tablets, and mobile devices, and it only takes one click to activate it.
Overall, we were very happy with the IONOS MyWebsite web development process. We think most users will appreciate the flexibility of MyWebsite Creator, although MyWebsite Now can be useful for novice designers who want to get their website up and running as quickly as possible.
Adding Multimedia to Your IONOS Website
IONOS MyWebsite supports photos, videos, audio files, and PDF files. You can upload files by simply clicking on an existing media element. The files are stored in a content library, making it easy to reuse them on your website.
One of the features of IONOS that we liked the most is that the platform automatically resizes images to optimize page load times. You also have access to thousands of free images that you can use on your website. Overall, the platform’s media management is quite powerful.
Marketing Functionality with IONOS Websites
IONOS offers a few features to help you promote your business online. First, all websites include a built-in email marketing tool that you can use to send out newsletters to your contacts. It’s not the most customizable newsletter writing tool we’ve seen, but it’s quite useful if you don’t want to pay for a third-party email marketing service.
MyWebsite Creator users also have an app for scheduling online meetings. While this app doesn’t integrate with the MyWebsite online store system, it can be very useful for small businesses offering personalized services.
IONOS offers good blogging support, although you need to use MyWebsite Creator to create a blog. You can schedule posts in advance, create accounts for multiple bloggers, and add your posts to an RSS feed. You can also easily promote your new posts on social media or in email newsletters.
Finally, IONOS’ top-tier Pro plan users can personalize the visitor experience based on how they entered your site, first-time visitors, and more. For example, you can place a coupon code on your homepage that will be visible to new visitors but not to others.
SEO Functionality & Add-Ons with IONOS Websites
IONOS MyWebsite offers powerful SEO features. To get started, you can add a title and meta description to every page of your website. You can also add alternative text to images and videos to help search engines better index your site. What’s more, MyWebsite optimizes your content, including images, so that your site loads as quickly as possible.
To analyze your visitor traffic, IONOS offers a built-in analytics tool. You can also integrate Google Analytics.
ECommerce
With IONOS, users can quickly launch their online store without spending a lot of time on the technical details of setup. Users can choose from three subscription levels for online store builders to suit their needs.
All ecommerce templates include drag-and-drop sections such as:
Fraud Detector. Any major e-commerce site can be targeted for fraudulent purchases. IONOS has a fraud detection engine that helps store owners identify fraudulent transactions. Users can receive alerts if transactions trigger certain conditions, such as originating from IP addresses called botnets or indicating malicious activity.
Sales Tax Calculator: Changes in tax rates are determined automatically. Users can also set up their businesses as potential customers for sales tax purposes and mark certain customers as tax-exempt.
Multilingual Store: Users can publish different versions of their online stores in different languages.
Instagram/Amazon/eBay: With the integrated app solution, customers can sell on Amazon, eBay, and even Instagram.
Payment Processing: Stores created with the Builder can accept payments made via PayPal as well as major credit cards. Additional payment gateways can be configured depending on the store’s location. Some users may prefer to configure options such as Stripe and Bitcoin.
Scalability
IONOS e-commerce websites are also scalable, with features that allow users to expand their store as their business grows. This includes comprehensive inventory management (members can add up to 10,000 products and electronics to their stores), customer wish lists, and B2B support. Stores created with the IONOS website builder are based on expertly designed, user-friendly templates that are suitable for beginners. Automatic tagging of products for sale and a drag-and-drop functionality allow users to sell their inventory online without any technical expertise.
IONOS offers 24/7 customer support via phone, email, and live chat. You can also request a free personal consultant, a single point of contact for all your website questions.
For self-help, IONOS offers a comprehensive online knowledge base with tutorials for MyWebsite Now and MyWebsite Creator. While the tutorials don’t include many screenshots or videos, they are quite comprehensive.
IONOS by 1&1 Pricing
IONOS offers three plans: Starter, Plus, and Pro. The Starter plan includes access to MyWebsite Now, while the Plus and Pro plans use the more advanced MyWebsite Creator software. You can add e-commerce capabilities to any of the three plans for an additional fee.
All plans are billed annually, and you can get a significantly lower price for the first year. There’s no free trial, but you can request a refund if you cancel within the first 30 days of your subscription.
IONOS vs GoDaddy
IONOS and GoDaddy are very similar when it comes to building a website for small businesses. GoDaddy offers slightly better tools for email marketing and online meeting booking, but we prefer IONOS’s e-commerce functionality. We think IONOS is a better choice if you’re planning to open an online store.
IONOS vs Bluehost
IONOS offers a much simpler design process than Bluehost, and more powerful e-commerce features. However, Bluehost is based on WordPress, so it’s worth considering if you’re looking to start a blog rather than an online store.
IONOS vs Wix
Wix is more customizable than IONOS, and offers paid plugins to expand your e-commerce potential. However, it is also significantly more expensive than IONOS. As a result, we think Wix is ideal for online businesses looking to boost their marketing and sales efforts, while IONOS is a better option for companies just starting out selling online.
Bottom Line
IONOS MyWebsite is a powerful and affordable website builder that offers a variety of tools that small businesses need. With this builder, you can create a highly personalized website, communicate with your customers via email using your own domain, and sell products online with local shipping or pickup. There are many things I like about IONOS MyWebsite, but we also found some drawbacks for businesses new to online sales.
However, IONOS MyWebsite is not for everyone. The platform does not offer a blog feature in its most basic plan, and it is not as scalable as e-commerce-focused website builders like Wix. Overall, we think IONOS is the best option for businesses that want to expand their online presence without spending a lot of money to open an online store.
