STRATO web hosting: plan, backups and location compared

For the reference project, we look at Hosting Starter with a twelve-month minimum term. The plan includes every component: a permanently included domain that can also end in .de, an SSL certificate, a mailbox on your domain, MySQL databases for WordPress and the backup function. So there are no extra costs for domain or email in the reference project.

STRATO uses an introductory price: in this variant the first month costs nothing, after that the regular monthly price applies. There is no setup fee with a twelve-month term. Billing is monthly, and STRATO states its prices including VAT.

Alternatively, you can book Hosting Starter with a monthly term. The monthly price is then a little higher, and a one-time setup fee is added. Calculated over 24 months, the variant with a twelve-month term costs less.

After the minimum term, the contract continues indefinitely according to the terms and conditions and can be cancelled at any time with one month’s notice. The larger plans Basic and Plus add more storage, domains, mailboxes and databases. You do not need them for the reference project.

You install WordPress at STRATO with a one-click installation from the customer login. In the classic web hosting, you handle updates of WordPress, theme and plugins yourself. If you want to hand this off, STRATO has a separate product called Hosting für WordPress, where according to the provider WordPress, theme, plugins and PHP are updated automatically. That product has less storage at entry level and is not part of this entry.

On the technical side, even Hosting Starter offers SSH access in addition to SFTP. The shell is limited to the start directory of the respective account. According to the plan page, WP-CLI and Git are also available. In the customer login you can switch PHP between versions 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5. For PHP 8.0 to 8.3, the help pages state a memory limit of 512 MB per script and a maximum execution time of 240 seconds.

According to the plan page, Python and Ruby are available from the Basic plan upwards. STRATO mentions no staging feature, where you try out changes on a copy of the website, either on the plan page or in its help pages. STRATO gives no figures on loading times or on the number of PHP processes for its web hosting.

According to its help pages, STRATO backs up the web space daily. For packages on the new platform, meaning all booked since 31 March 2025, the daily backups of the last 14 days are available in the customer login. With BackupControl, you restore either the complete backup or individual folders and files. STRATO backs up databases separately, also daily, and keeps the backups for up to two weeks. You access them in the database management. The help pages do not say whether a restore costs extra.

For the customer login, you can switch on two-factor sign-in with an authenticator app. To protect the website, every plan includes SiteLock Scan; the automatic clean-up SiteLock Repair is part of the Pro plan.

For data protection, the location matters: according to STRATO, it runs its own data centres exclusively in Germany, in Berlin and Karlsruhe, and has them certified to ISO 27001 every year. STRATO automatically includes the data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR in contracts concluded since 18 July 2022. For older contracts, you conclude it in the customer login at no extra cost.

Hosting Starter permanently includes one domain at no extra cost. According to STRATO, you can choose endings such as .de, .eu, .com, .net and .org. You book further domains for a fee or switch to a larger plan: Basic includes three, Plus five domains.

For email, the entry-level plan includes one mailbox with 3 GB of storage on your own domain. That is enough for one person or a general contact mailbox. If you need several mailboxes, for a team for example, it gets tight: Basic and Plus each include two mailboxes, Pro five.

You reach customer service via contact form and email as well as through the service hotline. According to the contact page, the hotline is staffed Monday to Friday from 8 am to 8 pm and at weekends from 10 am to 6:30 pm. STRATO offers a round-the-clock hotline as a paid add-on. The contact page mentions no chat. Support on offer, however, says nothing about how well you are helped in an individual case.

In our view, STRATO web hosting suits a single website or a WordPress blog with its own domain, where you want to bundle web space, domain, SSL and email with one provider. The entry-level plan fully covers the reference project, backups run daily, and both the data centres and the company’s registered office are in Germany.

The offer fits less well if you need many mailboxes, manage several client projects or like to try out changes on a staging copy first. If you want to hand off WordPress updates completely, take a look at the separate Hosting für WordPress or at the managed WordPress providers in the comparison.

Developers get SSH, WP-CLI, Git and current PHP versions, but have to make do with a shell limited to the web space. Pay attention to the term when you book: the introductory price requires a twelve-month minimum term.