How to migrate to IONOS
Moving an existing site to IONOS — what they handle for you, what you'll do yourself, and the safe order to do it in.
Performance Reality Check Before Migrating
The data shows a desktop Time to First Byte (TTFB) of 423ms and a fully loaded time of 5.3 seconds—neither exceptional nor catastrophic for shared hosting. If your current host scores significantly faster (sub-200ms TTFB), expect a regression. Uptime is 96.27% across all tracked periods (30/90/365 days), meaning ~27 hours of annual downtime. Verify if that aligns with your tolerance.
Cost and Storage Constraints
IONOS’s Essential shared plan starts at $4/month (56% discount) but renews at $9. You get 10GB storage—enough for a basic site but tight for media-heavy projects. No free migration service is mentioned in the data pack, so assume you’re handling the transfer manually.
Migration Steps (No Surprises)
- Back up everything—files, databases, emails—before touching anything.
- Lower DNS TTL to 300 seconds (5 mins) at least 24 hours pre-migration to minimize downtime during cutover.
- Upload files via FTP/SFTP (control panel not specified in data pack) and import your database.
- Test on the temp URL (or temporary hosts file edit) before DNS changes. Verify SSL works—it’s included.
- Point DNS to IONOS’s nameservers (not specified; check their docs) only after confirming the test site functions.
Post-Migration: Monitor and Optimize
With the observed TTFB, enable caching aggressively. The 30-day money-back guarantee lets you bail if performance doesn’t meet expectations—but only if you test thoroughly within that window.