mittwald web hosting: plans, costs, backups and mStudio for agencies and businesses

For the reference project we look at Webhosting S, mittwald's entry-level plan. According to the provider, it is intended for one project, such as a web business card or a blog. It includes one virtual CPU, 1 GiB of RAM and 20 GiB of storage. Website, database, email and backups share this storage; you can expand or reduce it.

The plan includes:

• email with unlimited addresses and mailboxes as long as the storage lasts
• any number of SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt
• automatic daily backups
• SSH access and one-click installation of WordPress

A domain is not included. You book the .de domain in addition to the hosting. It has a monthly price but is billed annually in advance and runs for at least one year. In addition, there is a one-time setup fee per domain. The comparison includes the domain and the setup fee as mandatory extra costs over the 24 months.

mittwald states its prices excluding VAT; the comparison adds German VAT. The provider does not mention an introductory price for new customers with a later regular price, and according to the plan details there is no setup fee for the web hosting. The contract term is one month, with 30 days' notice to the end of the term. You choose the billing interval yourself: monthly or every three, six or twelve months. If you significantly exceed the booked storage, mittwald reserves the right to charge for the additional storage used. The Webhosting M and L plans offer more RAM and storage.

mittwald has no dedicated managed WordPress product. WordPress runs in the regular web hosting and is managed in mStudio, mittwald's control panel. There you install WordPress with one click. According to the provider, you apply updates with a click or automatically. mittwald does not mention provider-managed caching on its WordPress page; you take care of plugins, caching and settings yourself.

According to the provider, web hosting is shared hosting for one CMS or shop project. Within the project you can create several apps. This helps with staging: one click creates a 1:1 copy of an app in which you try out changes before they go live.

On the technical side, the plan offers:

• PHP 8.2 to 8.5 at no extra charge, older versions require the paid PHP Extended Support
• a memory_limit of 256 MB that you can adjust, and up to 20 PHP-FPM processes
• a shared MySQL database instance with additional database users and external access
• SSH with stored keys, Git, WP-CLI and cron jobs from an interval of one minute

According to the provider, you cannot run your own Docker containers in web hosting. For that, mittwald refers to the vServer, which is also intended for several projects. In this comparison, information on availability and loading times comes exclusively from the provider.

According to the provider, mittwald backs up projects automatically every night. The provider gives different figures for retention: the plan page states 30 days, the plan details a retention of up to twelve months, and a blog post on mStudio states at least seven days, which you can extend to up to one year via a schedule. You can also create manual backups. According to the provider, manual backups and schedules incur no further costs, but they use your storage. The space for the automatic backups also counts against the booked storage quota.

You can restore backups yourself in mStudio: whole directories, single files or databases. So you do not have to download an archive and upload it again by hand.

For logging in to mStudio, mittwald offers two-factor authentication. According to its WordPress page, mittwald uses fail2ban on its servers against brute-force attacks.

According to the provider, the websites are hosted in the company-owned data centre in Espelkamp in North Rhine-Westphalia. According to mittwald, TÜV Rheinland has confirmed the implementation of the ISO 27001 standard. The operator is Mittwald CM Service GmbH & Co. KG, based in Espelkamp.

You conclude a data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR in the customer centre under the contract data. For agencies that need data processing agreements with their own clients, mittwald also offers the paid AV Manager.

At mittwald you always book domains together with hosting. Besides .de, many other endings are available. You can connect domains registered with another provider without limit; you manage DNS records in mStudio. Domains have a minimum term of one year and are billed annually in advance. According to the domain page, mittwald shows the exact domain prices in the control panel; the comparison uses the price from mittwald's public interface.

For email, the number of addresses, the number of mailboxes and the mailbox size are unlimited according to the provider until the booked storage is full. Email archiving is available as a paid option.

You get any number of SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt at no extra charge. You can integrate certificates from other providers for a monthly surcharge.

You can reach support by phone, chat and ticket system. There is a separate phone number for mStudio products such as web hosting. According to the contact page, the phone line is staffed Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 6 pm; at night, at weekends and on public holidays you can reach staff via an emergency number in urgent cases. The plan page describes customer service as available around the clock. The channels and hours offered say nothing about how well support helps in an individual case.

According to the provider, mittwald aims its offers exclusively at commercial customers. The web hosting is therefore not intended for private individuals. Clubs should check before booking whether they can sign up, even though mittwald mentions the M plan for club websites.

In our view, mittwald is mainly suited to agencies and freelancers who manage several client projects. mStudio groups projects in organisations, gives clients and colleagues their own logins with their own permissions and helps with staging through app copies. Freelancers and small businesses get a company website with any number of mailboxes, daily backups, a data processing agreement and a short notice period.

If you want to run WordPress without dealing with updates and technology, mittwald offers tools for installation and updates, but no managed WordPress with caching by the provider. Developers use SSH, Git, WP-CLI and cron jobs; the vServer is intended for your own containers.

In our view, mittwald is less suitable for beginners without a registered business and for anyone looking for an all-in-one package with an included domain.