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1&1 IONOS claims to be the ideal solution for online businesses, and it does offer some crucial eCommerce features. However, close examination shows that all that's included is the bare minimum. Some important functionality (including advanced SEO) is limited to higher-tier plans, so your business is going to miss out if you're on a budget. When you consider that, along with difficult admin dashboard navigation and hard-to-customize templates, it quickly becomes apparent that 1&1 IONOS is not as good as it might seem at first.
With Shift4Shop, you'll have everything you need to easily build, manage, and grow your online store. We even offer a free plan if you use Shift4 Payments for your payment processing — and unlike other platforms' free plans, ours is completely unlimited and fully scalable for all sizes of business. As a Shift4Shop store owner, managing your eCommerce website will never feel like a burdensome chore.
Theme selection1&1 IONOS offers a selection of modern, attractive themes. However, without some serious customization, your store is going to look just like any other — and 1&1 IONOS doesn't make it easy. There are certain changes you're simply unable to make, like rearranging text and image areas on your website, which can be frustrating. And once your site has gone live, you can't change your template at all! In contrast, Shift4Shop offers hundreds of free, top-quality themes you can customize however you wish, whether you choose to edit colors with our Theme Editor or add elements to your pages with our HTML Builder, and you can switch themes or make more edits as needed, at any time.
Integrations and add-onsWhile 1&1 IONOS advertises itself as having a large number of integrations, it pales in comparison to Shift4Shop. Shift4Shop has built-in integrations with hundreds of different software solutions that only take a few moments to connect in your dashboard, and even more are available in our app store.
“Much better – more flexibility, more features, more fun. I would have switched a long time ago had I known how easy managing an online store could be.”
– Ex-1&1 IONOS Online Store customer
Payment solutions1&1 IONOS doesn't make it easy to accept payments, as it supports very few gateways. But Shift4Shop comes with Shift4 Payments ready to go right out of the box, and also integrates with over 160 additional payment methods — and we never impose transaction fees on your sales.
Shift4Shop lets you take payments in minutes with a built-in Shift4 integration and also supports more payment solutions than any other eCommerce platform. See a full list of payment providers here.
1&1 IONOS supports few payment gateways and can be difficult to customize to the needs of your business and your customers, leading to a loss in valuable time and sales.
1&1 IONOS offers a selection of themes that can look good on first glance, but the real trouble comes when you try to customize them. Your tools are limited and you're restricted from altering certain parts of your site's pages, where other website builders would allow you much more freedom. For example, you can't add or remove text or image areas within certain locations on your website. Shift4Shop is the complete opposite, as we allow unlimited customization in an assortment of ways. Change your site's colors, font and more with our Theme Editor. Add content to your home page and many other pages with our HTML builder. And if you're knowledgeable with HTML and CSS, you can edit your theme's code directly or even create a new one from scratch — with the option to clone any theme to give you freedom to experiment. With Shift4Shop, your eCommerce website can always perfectly attain your brand image and ideals.
Shift4Shop offers the most advanced features in SaaS eCommerce, even to merchants using our free, unlimited End-to-End eCommerce plan. Our fully scalable solution includes everything you need to run a successful online store and adapt to complex business needs, with hundreds more features and superior tools than offered by 1&1 IONOS.
