IONOS is a popular cloud services solution and web hosting provider for small/medium-scale businesses. Besides, Squarespace is an all-in-one compact CMS website builder well-known for its stunning designs. Both IONOS vs Squarespace sites have their specifications; among them, one can choose as per their requirements. The article below will highlight all of the beneficial features and drawbacks of these IONOS vs Squarespace services while creating a comparison between IONOS vs Squarespace.
IONOS Vs Squarespace: A Brief Look
| IONOS | Squarespace | |
| Pros | ✔️Competitive price hosting provider ✔️Several templates ✔️Create multilingual sites ✔️24/7 customer support | ✔️Advanced website builder ✔️Functions Numerous templates ✔️Free SSL certificate ✔️Blogging Feature |
| Cons | ❌No creative freedom ❌No free plan options | ❌No phone supports ❌Page speed is not good enough |
| Suitable for | E-commerce store, bloggers, small businesses, | Artists, e-commerce stores, musicians, bloggers, photographers |
| Selling points | E-commerce stores, bloggers, small businesses, | Blogging features Many templates Reliable uptime Easy-to-use interface |
| Attributes | E-commerce plan Online store Additional website languages Unlimited bandwidth and storage Social media integration | E-commerce plan Online store Additional website languages Unlimited bandwidth and storage Social media integration |
| Customer support | Live chat, email, phone, community forum, knowledge base, multilingual, social media, ticketing system | Live chat, email, knowledge base, social media, community forum |
| Domain | Free domain for the first year | Free domain for the first year |
| Security | Password protection Backup and store SSL certificate | Password protection Two-step verification SSL certificate DDoS protection |
| SEO | Responsive design | Responsive design Meta titles Meta descriptions Image optimization Customize URLs A sitemap Redirect URLs |
| Shipping options | Real-time shipping quotes | Real-time shipping quotes |
| Payment options | Credit cards PayPal | Credit Cards PayPal Cryptocurrencies Mastercard Discovery American Express |
IONOS vs Squarespace: The Website Builders Are Best For?
IONOS
Between IONOS vs Squarespace, IONOS is a suitable website builder for blogs with its numerous essential features. Such features include a commenting section, article categories, social bookmarking, and many more. Other than this IONOS can be a great option for small businesses with suitable tool options. Such as personal email accounts, built-in email marketing, social media integration, multilingual websites, SEO tools, etc. The service also offers three different plans for e-commerce businesses. Check out IONOS Review for detailed analysis.
Squarespace
The website builder Squarespace among IONOS vs Squarespace is best for anyone who wants to present visual work online, like artists, photographers, designers, etc. Squarespace is also appropriate for blogging as it contains several relevant beneficial built-in tools. Additionally, it offers two e-commerce plans with features for creating a desired website. Numerous small-scale businesses rely on Squarespace to create a website. It contains SEO tools, emails, and more to make website creation easier. It includes several templates for site creation including restaurant, music, photography, etc.
Ease of Use
IONOS
The website builders IONOS vs Squarespace are different from one another in certain characteristics, although both of them try to make it easier. You can start by selecting one of the templates and IONOS has divided them into categories for convenience. Further, the templates contain sample images and text to show how your website will look like.
IONOS lets its users drop and drag widgets from the menu on the side to make it effortless, here IONOS from IONOS vs Squarespace is a winner. You can add text, maps, videos, contact forms, means anything to your website by finding them under categories. The only drawback is editing interface has sectional division. You can add or remove content around but not everywhere. Which means you cannot customize the design up to a hundred percent.
Squarespace
Squarespace from IONOS vs Squarespace, is not the easiest web builder and does not contain the most intuitive tools. However, the provider has the feature “drag-and-drop” to restrict elements from dragging everywhere. It takes some time to be used to it and eventually, the user learns the method. The website builder of Squarespace is straightforward and you are done just by adding text and images.
The user in the latest Squarespace version cannot change the templates just by choosing them. Instead, you can create a desired design manually, This aspect makes it a better option when you compare IONOS vs Squarespace manual deign capabilities. Which is quite a time-consuming process and is the only drawback of this service. You can go through the Squarespace Review in case detailed information is required.
Security
IONOS
- Password Protection: The provider is featured with password handling. Which you can implement to limit others from accessing the website. Although IONOS vs Squarespace have a tough competition in security aspects.
- SSL Certificate: The certificate is beneficial for e-commerce stores to encrypt sensitive information and data such as payment details of customers. Each plan of IONOS comes with a featured SSL certificate.
- Restore and Backup: You can enable daily backup attributes to keep your website saved and available for restoration at times of need.
Squarespace
- Two-Step Verification: It is an added layer for better security to protect your account from hacking. This means you’ll receive an email or message with a code to log in every time while logging in to your account. This feature makes Squarespace a winner here among IONOS vs Squarespace.
- SSL Certificate: The feature is pre-installed with every subscription plan. It encrypts all the information that is added to the website to keep it secure for users specifically when they are making online purchases.
- Password Protection: You can protect the pages of your website through a password. Therefore, nobody can publically get access to them.
- DDoS Protection: The service also has a built-in security system for DDoS and virus protection, which creates a barrier to getting malicious traffic.
Plans
IONOS
IONOS offers two distinctive web building plans “e-commerce plans and website plans”.
Website Plan varies depending upon your knowledge of coding. Every relevant plan comes with the following features:
- SSL and Hosting Certificate
- A website editor
- 24/7 customer support
- Numerous templates suitable for different devices
The user can allow IONOS to build a website design for them. The prices are a bit higher extending from $30 to $60/month. If you are looking for a marketing website builder, you can buy one of its two plans for $17 or $23 per month. On the contrary, if you want to create an online store you can rely on any of the three e-commerce plans of the service. Let’s have a look at the specifications of these eCommerce plans;
| Plan | Online Store | Advance Online Store | Online Store Expert |
| Price | $25 | $50 | $75 |
| Storage | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Domain | Free for the first year | Free for the first year | Free for first year |
| Transaction Fee | No fee | No fee | No fee |
| SSL Certificate | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Support | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 |
| Number of Products | 5,000 | 10,000 | 1 million |
| Google & Amazon Selling for Shopping | Not available | Not available | Not available |
| Multilingual Website | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SEO | Basic | Advanced | Advanced |
Most Importantly the first month of every plan is for free.
Squarespace
The provider offers four versatile website-building plans, here Squarespace has an edge when IONOS vs Squarespace are compared. However, Squarespace does not permit a free plan, but every plan comes with a fourteen-day free trial. It is not mandatory to enter your payment before the end of the trial payment. Let’s have a look at the details of all the features of every plan;
| Plan | Personal | Business | Commerce (Basic) | Commerce (Advanced) |
| Price/month | $16 | $26 | $30 | $46 |
| Price/month (Annual billing) | $12 | $18 | $26 | $40 |
| Domain | Free for the first year | Free for the first year | Free for the first year | Free for first year |
| Storage | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Emails | NA | One Google and Gmail workspace free of cost during the first year | One Google and Gmail workspace free of cost during the first year | One Google and Gmail workspace free of cost during the first year |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Backup | NA | NA | NA | NA |
Additionally, you can get fourteen days money-back guarantee. This means you can cancel your plan during the first two weeks without losing money.
Features
IONOS
The service other than 24/7 customer support, several templates, and an SSL certificate, also offers;
Multilingual Websites
One of the most beneficial features of IONOS is its multilingual website creation, making IONOS a winner in this aspect between IONOS vs Squarespace . You can translate a website into 62 different languages. Moreover, you can add 25 languages at the same time to your website. For instance, French, English, Spanish, and many more. This can be a great option for international companies to reach a wider audience.
Target Visitors
Another important aspect of the provider for website builders is its customization options, one plus point for IONOS here from IONOS vs Squarespace contrast. You can customize a website to deliver certain features differently according to who sees it and at what time they see it. This is a perfect feature for seasonal deals. For example, if a coffee business creates a website, they can add some seasonal drinks.
Squarespace
Other than the mobile-optimized website, SSL certificate, numerous templates, 24/7 customer support, etc. the website builder also offers;
- E-commerce Features
The extensions of Squarespace contain 23 third-party apps that help in building your desired site, quite a distinct feature. This aspect adds a plus point to the builder while differentiating IONOS vs Squarespace. These apps are divided into four different categories;
- Finance
- Products and Inventory
- Marketing and Sales
- Shipping and Fulfilment
Acuity Scheduling is the latest addition to Squarespace features. Through this, Your website clients can easily book classes/appointments, as per your schedule.
- SEO Tools
Squarespace offers some necessary SEO Tools such as, an add on point to the builder from IONOS vs Squarespace contrast.
- Customization of URLs.
- Alt Tags for images.
- It includes a sitemap.
- Themes are mobile friendly, a vital feature for SEO as per Google’s recommendation.
- It offers a free SSL certificate for site protection and is necessary for website ranking.
- Customization for meta titles and meta descriptions.
- Support AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) a Google project to load websites faster on mobiles. However first, you need to make it enable so it can start operating. Squarespace among contemporaries is the only website builder that offers AMP.
- Social Media Integration
Social media in this modern era has become an important part of the business world. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate a website through social media. Through Squarespace, you can link your website to more than 20 social media platforms, another plus point to the service when talking about IONOS vs Squarespace comparison. You can also enable a feature ‘social feeds’ for visitors to keep track of all recent updates.
