IONOS vs Shopify
Both are credible choices — here's where they genuinely differ.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. They never affect our verdict.
Pricing — including renewal
| IONOS | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|
| Intro price | £1/mo intro offers common | ~£25/mo (Basic) |
| Intro requires | 12 months, then standard rate | Monthly; discount on annual |
| Renewal | Standard rates several times the intro — check before you buy | Flat published pricing — plus transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments |
| Money-back | 30 days | Free trial period |
Features compared
| IONOS | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|
| Unlimited websites | — No | — No |
| Multiple websites | — No | — No |
| Free SSL | ✔ Yes | ✔ Yes |
| Unmetered bandwidth | ✔ Yes | ✔ Yes |
| Email included | ✔ Yes | — No |
| Free daily backups | — No | — No |
| Free domain (1st yr) | ✔ Yes | — No |
| CDN included | — No | ✔ Yes |
| Staging environment | — No | — No |
| NVMe/SSD storage | — No | — No |
| UK data centre | ✔ Yes | ✔ Yes |
| No long contract | — No | ✔ Yes |
| Support | 24/7 phone + a named personal consultant | 24/7 chat |
Plan details — what you actually get
IONOS
Websites: 1 on entry plans
Storage: 10–50 GB (plan-dependent)
Bandwidth: Unmetered
Email: Included (1–10 mailboxes by plan)
SSL: Free (wildcard on higher tiers)
Backups: Recovery options; full backups plan-dependent
CDN: On higher tiers
Staging: Limited
Shopify
Websites: 1 store per plan
Storage: Unlimited products & files
Bandwidth: Unlimited
Email: Forwarding only (no mailboxes)
SSL: Free, automatic
Backups: Platform-managed (export your data too)
CDN: Global CDN included
Staging: Theme preview / duplicate themes
The verdict
Both IONOS and Shopify are credible for beginner-friendly. For those needs you won't go far wrong either way.
Choose IONOS if your priority is cheapest to run.
Choose Shopify if you care more about selling online, growing / high traffic.