The scorecard
Tally: Theo 3, IONOS 2, even 1, split 2. Each round was judged on who does the work after launch, what the owner keeps, and what it costs each month. IONOS's prices, terms and help-center rules were read on ionos.com, its US site, on October 20, 2026, and Theo's come from the pricing page. Round 3, who does the SEO and growth work (the weekly work of getting the business found on Google), decides the verdict.
| Round | Theo | IONOS | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
1. Who builds the site | Drafts from a chat description or your current address | MyWebsite Now drafts with AI or starts from a template; the AI App & Site Builder works from a chat | Even |
2. Who makes changes after launch | Typed in chat on every plan; on Starter and Pro the weekly work also starts unasked | You, in the MyWebsite Now editor, or by typed request on monthly AI credits with no top-ups yet | Theo |
3. Who does the SEO and growth work | Theo, weekly, on Starter and Pro | You, working through the AI Search Manager's weekly tasks and pasting in its text | Theo |
4. Sticker price | $29.99 to $129.99 a month, no term | MyWebsite Now from $1 a month on a 1-year term, as of October 2026 | IONOS |
5. Site plus the work, per month | Starter, one monthly bill with the weekly work inside | Software from $12 a month with the work still yours, or a design service counted in edits from $45 a month plus setup | Theo |
6. Online store | No checkout of its own; your Shopify or Wix store shows on the site, paid for at Shopify or Wix | Checkout, payments and shipping inside an IONOS store plan | IONOS |
7. Domain and email | Neither included; a domain and mailbox at IONOS stay at IONOS | A domain free for the first year and at least one email address on every paid builder plan | Split |
8. Ownership and leaving | Your text and images to save on any plan; code to copy on Pro | A MyWebsite Now site cannot run outside IONOS; the AI App & Site Builder exports its code | Split |
Round 1: Who builds the site
IONOS sells more than one way to build. MyWebsite Now, IONOS's website builder, drafts a site with text and images from a few business details or starts from a template, and you finish it in a drag-and-drop editor. The newer AI App & Site Builder works from a chat, and IONOS says it can rework an existing site as well as build a new one. Hosting for WordPress installs WordPress with an AI site builder, so an owner on it is running WordPress, its editor and its plugins.
Theo starts from a chat description or from the address of the site you have now, and the first preview is usually ready within minutes. You shape that draft by typing what should change, and the first build costs nothing and comes before you pick a plan. For an owner on IONOS WordPress hosting, Theo vs WordPress covers what WordPress itself leaves to you.
Round result: even.
Round 2: Who makes changes after launch
On MyWebsite Now the owner makes each change in the editor. On the AI App & Site Builder you can fix text by hand at no cost or describe a change for the AI to make. AI changes spend credits: 150 a month on that builder's Starter plan, 300 on its Plus plan and no limit on its top plan. IONOS says 150 credits build two or three new pages from scratch. When IONOS's Starter or Plus credits run out, AI building pauses until the next month's reset unless you move to a bigger plan, and IONOS does not sell top-ups yet.
Theo has no editor to learn. On every plan, you type the change in chat and Theo makes it. Requests draw on the month's chat credits: 1,500 on Theo Basic, 4,500 on Theo Starter and 7,000 on Theo Pro, and top-ups you buy roll over and never expire. The bigger difference is who starts the work: on Starter and Pro, Theo begins the weekly search and content work unasked, while every IONOS builder waits for a request.
Round result: Theo.
Round 3: Who does the SEO and growth work
IONOS's SEO tools tell the owner what to do next. In MyWebsite Now, the AI writes a page's search title and description when you ask, page by page, on the plans that include it. MyWebsite Now Pro includes the AI Search Manager, which IONOS also sells on its own. It sets a list of tasks each week, suggests keywords and syncs your business details to online directories. Its text tool rewrites a page's text for search, and you then copy the result and paste it into your site yourself. To aim a page at keywords, you type in that page's address and drag the keywords onto it. WordPress hosting adds an SEO plugin and, on its two upper plans, an AI Assistant that writes a page or post on request. The design service, covered in Round 5, sets up basic SEO when it builds a site.
On Starter and Pro, Theo does that work rather than assigning it. Each week Theo finds the searches your competitors show up for and you do not, drafts service pages and posts aimed at them, and fixes technical issues. Every draft waits in the Growth tab, Theo's list of each page and fix, until you publish it or switch auto-publish on, and a weekly email counts what was added. None of it uses chat credits. The work starts once your domain and both Google connections are live. Theo does not promise rankings, and no one honestly can.
In Theo's audit of 6,861 small business websites, 47 percent of the 4,633 sites with search data got an estimated zero visitors a month from Google search (The State of Small Business Websites 2026). IONOS sites are not broken out in that report, so the figure says nothing about IONOS in particular. It measures traffic, not the reason for it.
Picture a two-truck heating and cooling company whose phone rings hardest in the first cold week. Home services and trades sites did better than average in that audit, yet 36 percent of the 440 with search data still drew an estimated zero visitors a month from Google search. On MyWebsite Now Pro, the owner opens the week's tasks, picks keywords for the furnace page and pastes in the rewritten text between service calls. On Theo Starter, the Growth tab holds a draft emergency furnace repair page one week and a furnace filter post the next, each waiting for the owner's yes.
A new furnace page will not fill the schedule in its first month. Search traffic usually builds over several months. In the first 30 days, expect the site live on its own domain and the first pages published. Google gets your sitemap (the list of your pages), and Search Console, Google's free report, starts to show your pages appearing in searches. Calls follow as those pages gain ground.
Round result: Theo.
Round 3, continued: a page that work produces
Aukamp Heating & Cooling, a heating and cooling site built by Theo, shows the kind of page that weekly work adds. Its emergency furnace repair page for Lancaster, PA, promises to answer evening and Sunday no-heat calls by phone and to explain the after-hours trip charge before anyone comes out. The top of the page, pictured below, also holds a call button and a link to try the safe checks first. See the live site.
Round 4: Sticker price
IONOS prices each plan by the month on a 1-year term, and many first-term prices rise after the first month or year. Outside its 30-day money-back window, IONOS's general terms charge a package with a set term for the whole term, even if you leave early.
Theo bills monthly with no term. Each figure below is a monthly price with the term it belongs to, as of October 2026.
| Plan | Price | Renews at |
|---|---|---|
IONOS MyWebsite Now Starter | $6 a month on a 1-year term | $14 a month |
IONOS MyWebsite Now Plus | $1 a month on a 1-year term | $20 a month |
IONOS MyWebsite Now Pro (includes the AI Search Manager) | From $12 a month on a 1-year term | Not published |
IONOS AI App & Site Builder Starter | $1 for the first month, then $19 a month, on a 1-year term | Not published |
IONOS Hosting for WordPress Grow | $1 a month on a 1-year term | $12 a month |
IONOS AI Search Manager (sold on its own) | $0 for the first month, then $29 a month, on a 1-year term | Not published |
Theo Basic | $29.99 a month, no term | No change |
Theo Starter | $69.99 a month, free for the first 30 days | No change |
Theo Pro | $129.99 a month, no term | No change |
Round 4, continued: after the first term
On the sticker, IONOS's MyWebsite Now and WordPress plans cost less than Theo. Every price IONOS publishes for them, first term or renewal, sits below Basic at $29.99 a month.
Round result: IONOS.
Round 5: Site plus the work, per month
Here the question is what it costs each month to have the pages and fixes actually done, not just to own the tools for them. IONOS sells two kinds of help: software, and a service where its staff build the site. The software is the AI Search Manager. It comes inside MyWebsite Now Pro from $12 a month on a 1-year term, or alone at $29 a month after a free first month on the same term. Either way, the tasks, the pasting and the publishing stay with you. The service is the Website Design Service. It builds a WordPress site with a basic SEO setup for $45, $65 or $85 a month on a 1-year term, plus a setup fee of $199 to $399. Its plans count edits, one a quarter, one a month or unlimited, and IONOS's examples are contact details, offers and images. IONOS's page for the service mentions optimizing text after launch but describes no weekly keyword research and no new pages drafted for search.
On Theo the work is part of Starter, $69.99 a month and free for the first 30 days. Hosting is in the same bill, nothing is added for the pages and fixes, and there is no setup fee and no contract on any plan.
Round result: Theo.
Round 6: Online store
IONOS sells the store as its own set of plans, each a website with a store inside. Checkout, payment methods and shipping are built in, and IONOS lists no transaction fees. As of October 2026 IONOS's Starter store plan is $6 a month on a 1-year term, renewing at $26, and Plus is $1 a month on the same term, renewing at $32. Pro and Expert cost more, and IONOS shows no renewal price for them.
Theo runs no checkout of its own. A Shopify or Wix store connects on every plan, its products, prices and stock show on the Theo site with a cart, and the buyer pays in the store. That store is a second subscription: Shopify's Basic plan costs $39 a month, or $29 a month billed yearly, as of October 2026. On IONOS one plan covers the site and the store.
An IONOS store does not move to Theo by itself. IONOS's help center lists a way to export the store's catalog. With that file in hand, the first path is moving the store to Shopify, which Theo recommends and connects to directly (how the Shopify connection works). If moving it is too much, the IONOS site and store stay on the main domain, and a separate Theo site goes on a subdomain such as blog.yourdomain.com.
Round result: IONOS.
Round 7: Domain and email
Every MyWebsite Now plan includes a domain free for the first year and one email address. After that year the domain renews automatically at IONOS's regular renewal fee.
Theo includes neither a domain nor email. For an owner whose domain and mailbox already live at IONOS, both stay there and only the website moves. You change the domain's website settings, for both yourbusiness.com and www.yourbusiness.com, to point at Theo and leave the email settings as they are, so mail keeps arriving at IONOS. IONOS lists pointing a domain at an outside website as one way to use it. If the domain is still connected to a MyWebsite Now site, IONOS says to disconnect it first. Where the website and email share a setting, Theo shows the extra settings to add. Without a domain, you can buy one inside Theo, registered in your name.
Check one thing before canceling an IONOS plan. A domain and mailbox that came with a website plan can sit in the same IONOS contract as the website. IONOS's help center says that once a domain is canceled, any website or mailboxes connected to it stop working at the end of the term. IONOS can move a domain into another contract in the same account, though the email addresses then have to be recreated there. Ask IONOS how to keep the domain and mailbox before you cancel the website plan.
For a business registering its first domain, a paid IONOS builder plan brings the domain's first year and a mailbox, and Theo brings neither. For a business whose domain and email already sit at IONOS, both products leave them in place. The round splits between those two readers.
Round result: split.
Round 8: Ownership and leaving
A MyWebsite Now site cannot leave IONOS as a working site. IONOS's help center says sites made with its website builders cannot run anywhere but on IONOS's own systems, for technical reasons. Its export advice is to save each page from the browser or copy the site with a free program, and it warns that licenses for images from its image pool usually do not transfer. The AI App & Site Builder is different: you can download a project's code as a zip file.
On Theo the pages, words and photos are yours on every plan, and you can cancel at any time. The cancellation confirmation shows the day the subscription ends, and the site stays live until then, so you can save your text and images first. Pro also lets you see and copy the site's code on GitHub, a code-storage service, without changing it there, and Basic and Starter have no code access.
Round result: split.
How to move from IONOS to Theo
Theo rebuilds from the live address, so a MyWebsite Now site with no export can still move. The pages on moving to Theo cover the general steps, and connecting a domain covers the domain settings.
- Run the free audit on your IONOS site's address to record its estimated search traffic, the number the move has to beat. Then give Theo that same address, and it builds a preview in the same style for you to adjust in chat.
- Publish the Theo site on its temporary address and keep the IONOS plan running while you check it.
- When the Theo site is ready, disconnect the domain from your IONOS website if it is connected to one, then add the settings Theo shows for yourbusiness.com and www.yourbusiness.com. Leave the email settings alone so your IONOS email keeps working. The switch usually goes through within a few hours.
- Once the domain is live, one Google sign-in lets Theo set up Analytics and Search Console. That connection submits your sitemap on every plan. On Starter and Pro it also starts the growth work, and SEO repair redirects old addresses that still get search visits to their new pages. On Basic, you ask for each redirect in chat.
The bottom line
Theo wins the tally, three rounds to IONOS's two, with one even and two split, and it wins Round 3, the round that decides the verdict. On Starter and Pro the keyword research, the drafted pages and posts and the technical fixes happen each week and wait in the Growth tab for your approval. IONOS's AI Search Manager hands that work back as weekly tasks and text to paste in, and its design service makes site edits by plan but describes no weekly keyword research or new pages for search. IONOS takes the sticker-price and store rounds, and the domain-and-email round splits. An owner who wants the work done belongs on Theo Starter or Pro, and Basic covers the site and hosting with edits by chat. Prices and terms as of October 20, 2026.
The short answer
Pick Theo if
You want new pages and fixes drafted for you each week on Starter or Pro, published when you approve them or by auto-publish. You would rather type a change than learn an editor, you prefer a monthly bill to a 1-year term, and you want your IONOS domain and email left where they are. Basic is $29.99 a month for the site and hosting. Starter, with the weekly growth work, is $69.99 a month and free for the first 30 days, and Pro is $129.99.
What IONOS leaves to you
Every edit and new page after the first draft falls to you, in the editor or by typing requests on monthly AI credits, unless you pay for the design service, whose plans set how often IONOS makes edits. The weekly search work comes as tasks, suggested keywords and rewritten text you paste in yourself. Leaving a MyWebsite Now site means saving copies of its pages, because IONOS says the site cannot be used outside its systems. You also handle the renewals after the first term, for the plan and the domain.
Frequently asked questions
Is Theo better than IONOS?
Yes. On Starter and Pro, Theo drafts the pages and makes the fixes each week, holding new pages for your approval. IONOS's AI writing tools wait for your request, and its AI Search Manager gives you tasks and text to act on yourself. IONOS takes the sticker-price and store rounds, one round is even and two are split, and none of those rounds is about the work of getting the business found.
Is the IONOS AI Search Manager the same as Theo's growth work?
No. IONOS's help center describes the AI Search Manager setting weekly tasks, suggesting keywords, syncing your business details to directories and rewriting page text that you copy and paste into your site. The changes to your pages are yours to make. Theo's growth work on Starter and Pro finds the searches, drafts the pages and posts, makes the fixes and holds each new page for your approval, inside the plan price.
Can I keep my IONOS domain and email if I switch to Theo?
Yes. The domain stays registered at IONOS and the mailbox stays there too. You point the domain, with and without www, at Theo and leave the email settings alone, after disconnecting the domain from any MyWebsite Now site. If the domain and mailbox came with your website plan, ask IONOS how to keep them before canceling that plan. A canceled domain takes its connected mailboxes with it at the end of the term.
Will I lose my Google rankings if I move from IONOS to Theo?
Rankings can shift after any move, and no one can say where they will settle. Keeping the same domain makes the change smaller. When you connect Google, Theo sends it the list of your new pages, and old IONOS addresses that still get visits from search are pointed at their new pages: automatically on Starter and Pro, and on request in chat on Basic.
Is IONOS cheaper than Theo?
On the sticker, yes. MyWebsite Now Plus is $1 a month on a 1-year term and then $20 a month, as of October 2026. Theo bills monthly with no term: Basic is $29.99 a month, Starter is $69.99 and free for the first 30 days, and Pro is $129.99. What Starter and Pro add is the weekly work: keyword research, new pages and posts drafted for search, and technical fixes. No IONOS plan describes that weekly work.
Can I export my IONOS website?
It depends on the builder. IONOS's help center says a MyWebsite Now site cannot be used outside IONOS, so its export advice is saving each page from the browser or copying the site with a free program. The AI App & Site Builder lets you download a project's code as a zip file. Theo needs neither, because it reads the live address and rebuilds the pages as a draft for you to check.
Does Theo have a free trial, and how does it compare with IONOS's?
The first Theo build is free, and you see the preview before choosing a plan. Starter is then free for the first 30 days. IONOS lets you test a website builder plan for a limited time and refunds any charges if you cancel during that trial, and its paid builder plans carry a 30-day money-back window. After those 30 days, leaving early still means paying for the rest of the 1-year term, while Theo bills monthly and you can cancel at any time.
What happens to my IONOS online store if I move to Theo?
It does not come across on its own. IONOS's help center lists a way to export the store's catalog, and Theo's first suggestion is moving the store to Shopify, which connects to the Theo site directly on every plan. If that is too much, leave the IONOS site and store on the main domain and add a separate Theo site on a subdomain such as blog.yourdomain.com. Keep the IONOS plan running until the store has a new home.
See what Theo would build for you
Your first build is on Theo, and you see the site before you choose a plan.