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IONOS

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IONOS is a German web hosting and cloud company that began as 1&1 in 1988 and has used the IONOS name since 2018. Its company IONOS SE is an ICANN-accredited registrar A company that registers domain names for customers with the registry. Full definition (IANA registrar ID The unique number that identifies an ICANN-accredited registrar. Full definition 83) and an accredited .es registrar. According to IONOS, it is part of the United Internet group.

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Industry roles and organizations

Updated on 5 min read

IONOS is a web hosting and cloud company based in Montabaur, Germany, that began as 1&1. One of its companies, IONOS SE, is a registrar accredited by ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers The nonprofit that coordinates the global DNS and gTLD policy. Full definition, which means it can register domain name A readable internet name made of labels separated by dots. Full definition for its customers in gTLD generic top-level domain A top-level domain not tied to a country, run under ICANN contracts. Full definition such as .com. It also registers .es names, and it sells domains alongside hosting, email and website tools.

What IONOS is

IONOS sells web hosting, email, website building and cloud services, with domain names as part of that offering.

IONOS SE has its address in Montabaur and is entered in the commercial register of the Montabaur local court. According to the group’s annual report for 2025, IONOS SE is wholly owned by IONOS Holding SE, which belongs to IONOS Group SE, a holding company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. As of 31 December 2025, United Internet AG held 63.8% of IONOS Group SE’s shares.

The company traces its origin to 1&1, which it says was founded in 1988. It took the IONOS name in 2018 and has used “IONOS” on its own, without “1&1”, since January 2020, according to the company.

As of October 2026, IONOS’s US website states 22 million domains under management, a figure that covers all TLD top-level domain The last part of a domain name, after the final dot. Full definition and is counted by the company’s own method.

Its role in the domain system

IONOS acts as a registrar. A registry The central database and system of a top-level domain, or loosely the organization that runs it. Full definition runs a top-level domain such as .com; a registrar sells names in it to the public and passes each registration Obtaining the right to use a domain name for a set period. Full definition to the registry.

As of October 2026, official records show:

  • IONOS SE holds IANA registrar ID 83, with the status Accredited. The same IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority The functions that coordinate the root zone, IP addresses and protocol numbers. Full definition list gives its RDAP Registration Data Access Protocol The modern protocol for looking up domain registration data, replacing WHOIS. Full definition service at rdap.ionos.com.
  • ICANN’s list of accredited registrars shows IONOS SE, ID 83, with the country Germany.
  • Red.es The Spanish public body that manages the .es domain through its unit Dominios.es. Full definition, through its unit Dominios.es, lists IONOS SE as one of 107 accredited .es registrars, which it calls “agentes registradores”.

The ID 83 accreditation appears in ICANN’s monthly registry reports Monthly gTLD figures per registrar that registries file and ICANN publishes. Full definition under the name 1 & 1 Internet AG from January 2011, the earliest report checked for this page. The records consulted do not show when the accreditation began.

IONOS SE does not appear on the member list published by DENIC Deutsches Network Information Center The Frankfurt-based cooperative that runs Germany's .de domain. Full definition, the registry for .de, as of October 2026. The sources for this page do not show how IONOS handles .de registrations.

The monthly reports also give a sense of scale. At the end of June 2026, the reports filed by Verisign The company that operates the .com and .net registries. Full definition, the registry operator The organization that holds the contract or mandate for a TLD and sets its rules. Full definition for .com and .net, show 4,005,965 .com names and 337,314 .net names under ID 83, out of 170,253,825 .com names in total. ICANN withholds these reports until three months after the end of the month they cover, so June 2026 is the latest month available as of October 2026.

History in dated steps

A registrar’s name can change while its IANA registrar ID stays the same. ICANN’s monthly .com reports show this for ID 83. The months below are when each name appears in the reports checked, not the legal dates of the changes:

  • 1 & 1 Internet AG: from January 2011 to January 2016.
  • 1&1 Internet SE: from the April 2016 report.
  • 1&1 IONOS SE: from the April 2019 report.
  • IONOS SE: from the November 2021 report.

Other steps, as the company describes them on its US website:

  • 1988: 1&1 is founded.
  • 2003: 1&1 launches 1&1 Inc. in Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, in the United States.
  • 2018: 1&1 combines its web hosting, applications and server product lines with the cloud infrastructure business of ProfitBricks and becomes IONOS.
  • January 2020: the brand “1&1 IONOS” becomes “IONOS”.
  • 8 February 2023: initial public offering (IPO) of IONOS Group SE.
  • September 2023: IONOS is included in the SDAX, a German stock index.

The annual report adds that the shares have been in the MDAX index since 23 June 2025.

What it offers in domains

The US website lists domain registration, domain transfer Moving a domain name from one registrar to another. Full definition, bulk domain search, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates and a WHOIS The legacy lookup service for domain registration data, now replaced by RDAP for gTLDs. Full definition tool, next to hosting, email, website building and cloud products. The US terms say that a domain registration is subject to the UDRP Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy ICANN's out-of-court process for trademark disputes over domain names. Full definition, to policies adopted by ICANN, and to registrar and registry procedures. They say that IONOS accepts transfers of names from other registrars. They also say that IONOS may act as “Designated Agent” for a material change to the registrant The person or organization that holds a domain name registration. Full definition of a name, a role used in a change of registrant A change of a domain's owner details, with confirmation steps. Full definition.

The company’s abuse page separates its two roles. It asks for complaints to go both to the registrar of a domain and to the hoster of the content: when acting “purely as a registrar”, it says, it may be unable to reach the content, and only the hoster can resolve such cases quickly, unless the domain name itself clearly indicates abuse.

Registrar and contracting company

The company that signs with a customer is not always the company that holds the accreditation. In the United States, the terms name IONOS Inc., a Delaware corporation located in Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, as the contracting The stage when a successful applicant signs its Registry Agreement with ICANN. Full definition party. IONOS Inc. says it “acts only as an intermediary” between the customer and “the organization providing the domain name”. The ICANN accreditation ICANN approval that allows a company to register gTLD domains as a registrar. Full definition, ID 83, is held by IONOS SE in Germany.

As of October 2026, the Spanish terms are those of IONOS Cloud S.L.U., another subsidiary of IONOS SE, and the German terms are those of IONOS SE itself. The German terms also describe IONOS as an intermediary for domains and apply DENIC’s terms to .de names.

  • reseller A business that sells domains using another registrar's accreditation. Full definition. A reseller sells names under another registrar’s accreditation. IONOS SE holds its own, ID 83.
  • IONOS Group SE. The listed holding company. The accredited registrar is its operating subsidiary IONOS SE.
  • Arsys A Spanish hosting company and domain registrar based in Logroño, accredited by ICANN and by Red.es as a .es registrar, part of the IONOS group. Full definition. A Spanish subsidiary of IONOS SE; Arsys says it joined the group in August 2013. IANA lists “Arsys Internet, S.L. dba NICLINE.COM” as a separate accredited registrar, ID 379, with its own RDAP service.

A worked example

A customer in the United States registers example.com through IONOS. Under the US terms, the customer’s contract is with IONOS Inc. registration data The information kept about a domain and its owner. Full definition for the name, looked up through RDAP, shows the registrar as IONOS SE, IANA ID 83.

If the customer later moves example.com to another registrar, the Transfer Policy ICANN's rules for moving gTLD domains between registrars and changing registrants. Full definition applies, as with any accredited registrar.

Sources

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