Ivyro.net Review 2026. Is ivyro.net good web hosting in Korea?

📄 Editorial Review

(3*) 🔧 Services: Web HostingDomain Registration Own datacenter
⇔ Redirected domains: iwinv.kr koreav.kr
🔃 This company is a reseller of cloudv.kr
IvyHosting, operating through ivyro.net, is a long-running South Korean web hosting provider operated by SmileServ Co., Ltd. SmileServ was established on June 1, 2002, with Kim Byeong-cheol serving as CEO, while IvyHosting's hosting terms date back to 2003. The service therefore has more than two decades of operating history in the Korean hosting market.

IvyHosting represents the traditional hosting side of SmileServ's wider Internet infrastructure business. Its broader ecosystem extends into virtual servers, bare-metal servers, colocation, cloud infrastructure, managed services, CDN and streaming. Some of these infrastructure services are handled through related brands, including CloudV and IWINV (iwinv.kr), while ivyro.net itself remains focused primarily on conventional website hosting, image hosting, email, domains and SSL certificates.

The portfolio includes Secure Shared Hosting, Metered Linux Hosting, Windows Hosting, Dedicated Web Hosting, WordPress Hosting, Free Hosting, Image Hosting, EZ Image Hosting, Unlimited Image Hosting, Webmail Hosting, DB Hosting, configurable DIY Hosting, Domain Registration, Domain Transfers and SSL Certificates. It is an unusually broad catalog for a traditional shared-hosting provider and includes several specialized products developed for the Korean market.

Secure Hosting is the principal Linux shared-hosting range. It uses 64-bit Linux servers, Full SSD storage, Apache, MariaDB and multiple PHP versions, including PHP 8.0 alongside older branches required by legacy applications. Five packages run from Light through Premium, with storage increasing from approximately 1 GB to 20 GB SSD and daily traffic allowances rising from 1 GB to 20 GB. The number of domains that can be connected also increases with the higher packages.

The security configuration is stronger than the very low starting price would suggest. Secure Hosting includes ModSecurity web application firewall protection, country-based connection controls, HTTP/2, free Let's Encrypt SSL certificates and RAID 1+0 storage. Customers can manage ModSecurity from their hosting account rather than having it permanently enabled with no local control.

FTP and SFTP are available for website administration. Normal shared accounts do not include SSH access, so developers requiring shell-level administration will need one of the more specialized services.

Database protection includes daily MySQL/MariaDB backups with approximately seven days of retention. Hosting and database backup functions are also accessible through the customer area. Remote database connections are restricted on ordinary shared hosting, with applications expected to connect to their databases locally.

Metered Linux Hosting is a better fit for websites that require considerably more transfer than the standard daily allowances. Plans provide approximately 10 GB, 20 GB or 40 GB of SSD storage combined with 300 GB, 600 GB or 1 TB of monthly traffic. Traffic can continue beyond the included allowance and is then billed as excess usage. This is more practical for commercial sites with variable traffic than a hosting account that simply stops serving visitors once its quota is reached.

The same general Linux environment is retained, including PHP, MariaDB, SSL and the security functionality used by the ordinary hosting platform. The main difference is the substantially larger monthly bandwidth allocation.

Windows Hosting provides a Microsoft-based environment with approximately 50 GB of website space, SSD database capacity and monthly traffic options around 300 GB or 600 GB. FTP and Microsoft SQL Server are available. This product requires more careful attention than the Linux range because its technical specifications include legacy references to Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2. Customers dependent on a particular ASP.NET, Windows Server or SQL Server generation should confirm the exact production environment before migrating a modern Windows application.

Dedicated Web Hosting is a higher-capacity web-hosting service rather than a physical dedicated server. It provides significantly larger allocations than normal shared hosting, with approximately 50 GB to 100 GB of SSD storage, 600 GB to 2 TB of monthly traffic, larger domain allowances and substantial email capacity. It is useful for customers who have outgrown entry-level shared hosting but do not need to administer an entire server.

The separate WordPress Hosting range combines SSD storage, a WordPress-ready environment, databases, FTP/SFTP access, backups and multiple connected domains. The configurations range from smaller installations with only a few gigabytes of storage to plans with around 10 GB and monthly transfer allowances reaching approximately 300 GB.

WordPress Hosting remains closer to a conventional optimized shared-hosting account than to the fully managed WordPress platforms offered by newer cloud providers. Customers retain ordinary hosting-management functions and file access rather than being restricted to a simplified WordPress-only interface. Some of the WordPress technical information also contains older PHP references, so new installations should use an appropriate supported PHP generation whenever possible.

Free Hosting remains one of IvyHosting's more distinctive services. The account includes approximately 100 MB of SSD space, a small database, PHP/MySQL support and around 100 MB of daily traffic. A website can also operate under an ivyro.net subdomain. Accounts can be renewed in six-month periods without a normal hosting subscription fee.

The limits make Free Hosting suitable mainly for testing, personal pages, small educational projects and lightweight experiments, but a permanent free hosting option is now relatively unusual among commercial hosting providers with IvyHosting's operating history.

Image hosting is another major specialization. The service is particularly relevant to South Korean e-commerce merchants who need to store product photographs separately from an online marketplace or shopping platform.

Image Hosting uses SSD RAID storage and dedicated network capacity for externally served image files. FTP access is available, with some image-hosting configurations also supporting SSH. Hotlink and external-access controls can help customers limit unauthorized use of hosted images.

EZ Image Hosting uses monthly traffic accounting and provides configurations with approximately 2 GB to 6 GB of storage and around 30 GB to 150 GB of monthly transfer. When the included bandwidth is exceeded, service can continue with additional traffic billed afterward, making it more suitable for stores with fluctuating sales campaigns or seasonal traffic.

Unlimited Image Hosting should be understood as a metered service that can continue beyond its included quota rather than as unlimited bandwidth for one fixed monthly payment. Monthly traffic allocations still apply and excess usage can generate additional charges. Its main benefit is continuity: image delivery is not automatically interrupted simply because the included monthly allowance has been consumed.

Webmail Hosting is substantial enough to be considered a separate business service rather than a minor shared-hosting add-on. Customers can operate email using their own domain after configuring the required MX records. Packages extend from smaller accounts with approximately 10 GB of total capacity to configurations reaching around 1 TB and as many as 1,000 mail accounts.

Mail functionality includes POP3 access, browser-based webmail, spam filtering, antivirus protection, automatic replies, signatures, message filtering, address books and domain-level mailbox administration. This gives organizations an option for hosting email independently from their website account.

Domain services cover widely used generic extensions such as .com .net .org as well as important South Korean extensions including .kr .co.kr .or.kr .ne.kr .pe.kr. Transfers are supported, including authorization-code procedures where the registry requires them. DNS-related services include domain parking and configuration assistance for external mail platforms.

Commercial SSL certificates are available separately from the free Let's Encrypt certificates included with appropriate hosting accounts. Geo SSL can be ordered for customers requiring a commercial certificate and installation assistance is also available.

IvyHosting is very clearly oriented toward South Korean customers. The main language is Korean and pricing is expressed in South Korean won (KRW). No complete multi-language/localized version exists, which makes the service considerably less convenient for customers who cannot work comfortably in Korean.

The website also retains the appearance and structure of an older hosting portal. It has a large catalog divided into many separate service sections, and some parts of the technical documentation contain software references from previous hosting generations. A separate mobile interface is used rather than a fully unified modern responsive design. The service itself remains active, but customers moving recent applications should pay particular attention to the exact PHP, Windows, SQL Server and other software versions supplied with the selected plan.

💰 Price & Cost

IvyHosting is especially competitive at the low end of the Korean hosting market. Secure Hosting begins at approximately KRW 750 per month for the Light plan. Larger configurations are approximately KRW 1,500, KRW 4,500, KRW 12,500 and KRW 16,000 per month, depending on storage, traffic and domain allowances.

The inexpensive monthly fee needs to be considered together with the setup charge. Secure Hosting carries an approximately KRW 15,000 setup fee, meaning the initial cost of the smallest package is considerably higher than the recurring monthly subscription alone.

Metered Linux Hosting starts at approximately KRW 8,000 per month for 10 GB SSD storage and 300 GB of monthly traffic. Larger tiers increase to around 20 GB/600 GB and 40 GB/1 TB, with the highest configuration costing approximately KRW 32,000 per month. Excess traffic is billed at roughly KRW 70 per GB.

Windows Hosting starts at approximately KRW 15,000 per month, while Dedicated Web Hosting begins at around KRW 48,000 per month. WordPress packages have historically started at approximately KRW 1,600 per month.

Common .com .net .org registrations and several South Korean domains cost around KRW 22,000 per year. Geo SSL costs approximately KRW 80,000 for one year, with longer certificate periods also available.

Prices are generally shown before VAT, although some usage-based charges are displayed with VAT included. The actual total during ordering is therefore the safest figure to use when comparing plans.

Payment methods include credit card, real-time bank transfer, virtual-account deposit and ordinary bank deposit. Card and real-time transfer payments can update a service renewal immediately, while manually deposited funds may require confirmation during normal business hours.

Secure Hosting includes a 7-day full-refund period after application. Cancellation after this initial period is calculated according to the unused service period, with setup and transaction costs potentially deducted.

There is an inconsistency between older general hosting conditions and the newer Secure Hosting pricing. Older contractual wording references a KRW 4,000 setup fee, while the present Secure Hosting packages use a KRW 15,000 setup charge. Customers canceling a service where the setup cost affects the refund calculation should verify which charge applies to their specific order.

🏢 Data Center

IvyHosting's hosting servers are located at the SmileServ IDC Center in Gasan Digital Complex, Seoul. The hosting infrastructure is therefore physically based in South Korea, making it particularly appropriate for websites whose visitors and business operations are concentrated in Korea.

The platform uses Full SSD storage, RAID 1+0 configurations, multi-level database backup systems and network capacity reaching 10 Gbps on several hosting services. Specialized image-hosting configurations also use SSD RAID 1+0 storage together with dedicated gigabit network capacity.

IvyHosting's DNS infrastructure includes addresses such as 115.68.95.13, 115.68.95.14 and 115.68.168.17. The 115.68.0.0/16 network is associated with SMILESERV / AS38700, providing the company with its own identifiable Korean network presence rather than placing the hosting platform behind an unrelated low-cost reseller network.

Security measures include ModSecurity web application firewall protection, country-based access restrictions, SSL/TLS support, RAID storage and multiple backup layers. The business also carries an ISMS information-security certification reference and e-business liability insurance coverage of up to KRW 100 million.

The availability arrangement differs from the conventional percentage-based SLA used by many international hosting providers. There is no explicit 99.9% or 99.99% uptime guarantee for the normal IvyHosting services. Hosting is operated on a continuous 24-hour basis, while compensation depends on the duration of an interruption attributable to the company.

An outage lasting up to four hours can result in service time equal to twice the inaccessible period or equivalent points. Company-caused outages lasting between four and twelve hours can qualify for three additional service days or an equivalent point credit.

If service failures attributable to the provider reach at least 120 hours during one month, the customer can receive a refund for the unused remaining months or one additional month of service or points. Free services are excluded from this compensation arrangement.

This is less straightforward than a conventional financially backed percentage SLA. Businesses operating transaction-heavy or mission-critical applications should consider the actual outage-compensation formula rather than interpreting the continuous-service wording as a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

✍️ Customer Support

Customer assistance is handled primarily through telephone support and the 1:1 inquiry system inside the customer area. The main customer-service telephone number is 070-7451-2347.

Normal telephone working hours are Monday through Friday from 08:00 to 17:00, with a lunch break from 12:00 to 13:00. Telephone support is closed on Saturdays, Sundays and South Korean public holidays.

The online inquiry system remains useful outside normal telephone hours, particularly for technical questions that do not require an immediate conversation. Customers can also receive Kakao notifications after an inquiry receives a response.

Some older service information still refers to 09:00-18:00 telephone assistance and 24/365 board-based support. The main customer-center schedule of 08:00-17:00 is the more appropriate expectation for normal telephone contact.

Self-service assistance covers common hosting tasks involving domains, FTP, email accounts, traffic, databases and general account administration. Notices also provide ongoing maintenance and service information.

For South Korean customers, the combination of telephone support and account-based inquiries is practical. International customers face a much larger limitation because the service is primarily Korean-language and does not provide the type of English-language 24/7 live-chat support common among global hosting brands.

🔨 Control Panel

IvyHosting uses its own hosting-management environment rather than cPanel or Plesk for its principal shared-hosting services.

The central customer interface is My Page, where customers manage hosting services, specialized hosting products, payments, domains, email, SSL certificates and account information. Hosting-specific functions include traffic management, account upgrades and backup-related operations.

Website files can be managed through FTP and SFTP, while selected specialized hosting services additionally provide SSH access. Ordinary shared-hosting customers normally work with databases locally rather than allowing direct external database connections.

Image-hosting services include Webalizer statistics and related account tools. Email hosting has its own administration environment for creating and managing mailboxes, passwords and domain-level email settings.

The proprietary interface covers the core functions required by IvyHosting's service catalog, although customers coming from cPanel, Plesk or a modern cloud dashboard will need to adapt to a more traditional hosting-management workflow.

🎯 Conclusion

IvyHosting is a distinctive South Korean provider because it combines extremely inexpensive traditional hosting with infrastructure backed by SmileServ's long-running server and network operation. Its 2002 corporate history, Korean data-center presence, AS38700 network, SSD storage, RAID configurations, database backups and web-application firewall protection give the platform considerably more substance than the low entry prices initially suggest.

The Linux hosting range offers particularly strong value for small Korean websites. Secure Hosting combines low recurring fees with SSL, ModSecurity, SSD storage, database backups and multiple PHP environments, while Metered Linux Hosting gives higher-traffic projects a practical upgrade path.

Image Hosting is another area where IvyHosting remains unusually specialized. Korean online sellers that rely heavily on remotely served product images have multiple traffic and storage models available instead of being forced into a generic shared-hosting package.

Free Hosting remains useful for testing and small personal projects, while Webmail Hosting can scale from a small business mailbox installation to organizations requiring hundreds of email accounts. Domain and SSL services make it possible to manage most conventional website requirements through the same customer account.

The main disadvantages are equally clear. The website and management environment are dated compared with newer cloud platforms, Korean is effectively required, some product information retains legacy software references, Windows Hosting needs careful compatibility checking, and there is no conventional 99.9% or 99.99% uptime SLA for standard hosting.

For customers in South Korea seeking low-cost Linux hosting, local Seoul infrastructure, specialized image hosting, email hosting or a provider with more than two decades of operating history, IvyHosting remains a practical option. Businesses requiring a modern cloud interface, current enterprise Windows environments, English-language support or a financially defined percentage uptime SLA will generally be better served by a more modern infrastructure platform.

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