Strengths profile
Capability rating of IONOS Cloud (1–10) — against the average of all other providers and the average of its peer group.
Assessment
IONOS impresses as a cost-efficient, highly sovereign EU cloud with a strong bare metal and container offering, but is less suitable for global, AI-intensive, or Microsoft-heavy scenarios.
USP
IONOS offers the highest operational sovereignty (10/10) combined with a very good price-performance ratio (8/10) and a broad mix of shared and dedicated hardware instances.
Recommendation
Recommended for cost-conscious companies focused on the EU market that require a mix of shared and dedicated infrastructure and place high value on maximum European control.
Last verified: 2026-07
Points in favor
- Highest operational sovereignty (10/10): IONOS achieves the maximum score in operational sovereignty, signaling full control from Europe and independence from non-European interventions.
- Strong technological sovereignty (9/10): With a score of 9/10 (avg. others: 7.3), the provider stands out through an open standard stack and low lock-in, promoting exit-friendliness and independence from proprietary technology.
- Good price-performance ratio (8/10): The price score of 8/10 (avg. others: 6.3) and a Cost Rating of 8.0/10 underscore competitiveness, particularly regarding CPU, RAM, and egress costs.
- Strong bare metal offering (8/10): With a score of 8/10 (avg. others: 4.9), IONOS offers a wide range of dedicated physical servers, which is advantageous for specific performance requirements.
- Mature containerization (8/10): The managed Kubernetes platform achieves a score of 8/10 (avg. others: 7.3), indicating a mature environment for container workloads with managed control planes.
- Comprehensive certifications: The portfolio includes important compliance standards such as C5, ISO 27001, SOC 1/2/3, and PCI DSS, strengthening trustworthiness for regulated industries.
Things to consider
- Weak AI and big data capabilities (3/10 each): The scores for AI and big data are 3/10 each (avg. others: 5), indicating a limited offering of managed training, inference, and analytics platforms.
- Weaker cost competitiveness for managed databases: Managed MySQL scores a below-average 4.0/10 in the cost comparison, which can make DBaaS-heavy setups more expensive.
- Limited global reach (4/10): The score of 4/10 (avg. others: 4.5) reflects a presence primarily limited to Europe and a few US locations, which is a restriction for a global customer base.
- Average high availability (5/10): With a score of 5/10 (avg. others: 6.8), coverage by regions and availability zones as well as disaster recovery tooling is weaker compared to the average.
- Low strategic opportunities (6/10): The score of 6/10 (avg. others: 6.3) suggests limited innovation potential and portfolio depth, only partially covering future, complex use cases beyond IaaS.
Sovereignty
All services from IONOS Cloud
89 services across 14 categories
SEAL Framework
Sovereignty Score
- 8.0/10 (80%) EU-listed provider, German government cloud anchor
SOV-1Strategic (15 %)
- 9/10 EU-listed (United Internet), German public-sector anchor
SOV-2Legal & Jurisdictional (10 %)
- 9/10EU jurisdiction only
SOV-3Data & AI (10 %)
- 8/10EU residency, customer-controlled encryption
SOV-4Operational (15 %)
- 8/10EU datacenters and operations
SOV-5Supply Chain (20 %)
- 7/10Own EU datacenters; global hardware vendors
SOV-6Technology (15 %)
- 8/10Open source & open standards, strong reversibility
SOV-7Security & Compliance (10 %)
- 8/10BSI C5 Type 2, ISO 27001
SOV-8Environmental (5 %)
- 7/10Renewable-powered datacenters
Availability & Locations
Compute
Shared Instance
Dedicated Instance
GPU Instance
Windows Server
Virtual Private Servershared & low-budget
Hot Storage
Cold Storage
VM Backup
Volume Backup
Disaster Recovery
Managed Databases
Network & Security
Network
- Virtual Data Center
- Virtual Private CloudSoon
Public IP
Gateway
Load Balancer
- Network Load Balancer
- Application Load Balancer
- Cloud Load BalancerSoon
Public DNS
Private DNS
- Cloud DNS Soon
Firewall
- Network Security Groups
- Network ACLSoon
Private Connectivity
Dedicated Connectivity
DDoS Protection
Orchestration
Container Registry
Orchestration
Virtualization
Hypervisor
- KVMOpenStack-basiert, kein direkter Zugang
Instance as a Service
Managed Virtualization Platforms
Bare Metal Virtualization
Management
Identity Management
Audit Trail
Command Line
Collaboration
- IONOS Nextcloud Workspace (Sovereign Workplace)
- Microsoft 365
- Google Workspace
- Hosted Exchange
- IONOS E-Mail
- HiDrive (Cloud-Speicher)
Big Data
Dashboards
Data Streaming
Messaging
Big Data Plattform
Log Monitoring
AI & Machine Learning
Assistant
Translation
Audio Analysis
- AI Model Hub Soon
Computer Vision
NLP
Image Generation
Machine Learning
Document Intelligence
- AI Model HubSoon
Compliance & Certificates
C5German cloud security catalogue
ISO 20000IT service management system standard
ISO 27001Information security management system
ISO 50001Energy management for data centers
SOC 1,2,3Service organization control audit reports
- Available
PCI DSSPayment card data security standard
ISO 9001Quality management system standard
Cost Indication
Rating
- 8.0/10
CPUvCPU/h
- 8.0/100,0120000 €
GPUH100/h
- 7.5/105,4657534 €
RAMGB/h
- 9.0/100,0020000 €
VMwareCPU/h
- 7.2/100,1410959 €
Managed MySQLRatio1/4
- 4.0/100,3400000 €
Block StorageGB/h | 3000 IOPS
- 4.6/100,0002055 €
S3 StorageGB/h
- 9.5/100,0000096 €
Kubernetes-Service-PremiumCluster/h
- 10.0/100,0000000 €
Generative AI-Token InputLLama3.3-70B per 1Mil tokens
- 9.6/100,6500000 €
Generative AI-Token OutputLLama3.3-70B per 1Mil tokens
- 9.6/100,6500000 €
Egressper GB
- 10.0/100,0000000 €
Resources & sources: IONOS Cloud
Verified primary sources: products, pricing, compliance and locations straight from the provider.
Frequently asked questions about IONOS Cloud
Who is IONOS suitable for?
IONOS is particularly suitable for cost-conscious companies focusing on the EU market. The provider is ideal for customers who need a mix of shared and dedicated hardware instances and prioritize high operational sovereignty.
How sovereign is IONOS?
IONOS exhibits very high sovereignty, with a SEAL Score of 8.0/10 (80%). Of particular note is the operational sovereignty with the maximum score of 10/10 and technological sovereignty at 9/10, underscoring independence and EU control.
How is the pricing at IONOS?
IONOS achieves a price score of 8/10 and a Cost Rating of 8.0/10, indicating competitive prices. However, actual costs depend heavily on the specific workload and services used, with CPU, RAM, and egress being rated particularly well.
Where is IONOS particularly strong?
Strengths lie in operational sovereignty (10/10), technological sovereignty (9/10), and the bare metal offering (8/10). Containerization (8/10) and the price-performance ratio (8/10) are also outstanding categories. Added to this is a broad sovereign workplace portfolio (Nextcloud Workspace, M365/Google Workspace resell, Hosted Exchange; collaboration 7/10).
What are the limitations?
Limitations exist in AI and big data (3/10 each) and global reach (4/10). Additionally, high availability is below average at 5/10, and some services such as confidential computing are still listed as 'announced'.
What does the managed database offering look like?
The managed database portfolio achieves a score of 7/10 and includes MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and in-memory DB. These are genuine DBaaS offerings, although managed MySQL is less competitive in the cost comparison with a value of 4.0/10.