Strato In 2020: What Do Strato Client Reviews Say?
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Our overview of Strato…
Expert Opinion
Hear from our web hosting expert, Claire Broadley.
Best Reviews
See what 10 Strato customers have to say.
Hosting Plans
Compare the best Strato hosting plans and their prices.
FAQs
Most asked Questions about Strato – answered!
Strato Introduction
Strato is part of Deutsche Telekom, one of Germany’s primary telecoms companies. Strato’s headquarters are in Berlin, and the company provides hosting services to customers all over Europe. Founded in 1998, the company has 200 employees and offers support in six languages.
In terms of focus, Strato is keen to promote shared hosting and sweetens the deal with free domain names. It also offers site builder hosting, virtual servers and dedicated servers.
Strato Hosting Plans
Strato’s hosting doesn’t really offer anything out of the ordinary. We’ll take a brief look at its plans.
- Its site builder plan is called Web Starter and gives novices the opportunity to build a basic template website. Users are tied into a 12-month contract when they sign up, and they can add up to 20 pages of content.
- Shared hosting is offered across four plans, from Basic to Enterprise, and these all appear to be Linux-based. Again, all are based on 12-month contracts. The Basic package doesn’t include any one-click script installers, which seems a little bit harsh given that less experienced users are likely to benefit from them. (It’s also a little dubious that these are marketed as being a ‘plus point’ of shared hosting when they’re not included in one plan.) Also, note that customers on shared hosting also get access to the Web Starter site builder, but on the Basic plan, you can only create 10 pages of content.
- Webshops hosting is ecommerce hosting. Three plans are offered; contract lengths are 6 or 12 months. The system offered by Strato seems to be a proprietary ecommerce platform with a limit on the number of products, pages and categories users can create.
- Strato provides three Linux VPS hosting plans and three on Windows. The minimum contract here is one month, and all plans come with Plesk. As with all plans, telephone support is only provided on weekdays.
- Dedicated servers are also offered with Linux or Windows, and again, the minimum contract length is one month. All come with Plesk pre-installed.
Strato Uptime/Downtime
I searched the Strato website, including its Terms and Conditions document, for any mention of uptime. I also checked its dedicated FAQ site. There’s no mention of an uptime guarantee at all. The Terms and Conditions do mention that Strato’s “server availability and data flow… shall be a minimum yearly average of 99%”, which may be a hint at an uptime guarantee.
If you work this out in real terms, Strato could theoretically cause more than three days of downtime – measured annually, remember – without customers having any cause to complain.
The Terms and Conditions don’t say what happens if this 99% uptime figure isn’t met, but it gives the host a huge amount of leeway, it seems hard to imagine a scenario where it couldn’t live up to it anyway.
There’s no server status page (at least, not on its public pages) and no archived information about its uptime performance.
Strato has two ISO27001 certified data centres located in Germany. Both offer UPS and diesel power backup, fire detection and a gas sprinkler system. Data is mirrored between the two facilities.
Strato Support
Telephone support is only offered on weekdays between 7am and 7pm (GMT – these are the times published on the UK version of the website). There’s no support on weekends, no obvious social media support and no live chat support.
Customers can also email support through the website, but it appears that there’s no guarantee of a reply outside the help desk’s stated opening hours.
Strato has its own FAQ website containing self help material, video tutorials and FAQs. It’s clear that the company prefers to steer its clients to this help portal rather than encouraging contact through other channels. However, when I looked for some basic topics (information about uptime, and information about its control panel), I didn’t get any relevant results, so do check the information carefully to ensure it covers the topics you’ll need to know about.
Strato in the News
In August 2000, Strato was briefly covered in the news after one of its clients registered a domain that referenced Hitler. The domain was deleted by Denic, Germany’s domain registrar, and not by Strato. Strato responded with a press release confirming that it had ceased hosting services for three unrelated extremist websites.
http://www.zdnet.com/news/germans-stamp-out-heil-hitler-domain/109539
Strato Control Panel
On shared hosting plans, the control panel in use isn’t mentioned, but all signs point to a custom control panel. Unfortunately there’s nothing in the support documentation about it, so it’s incredibly difficult to cover the control panel in this review.
Customers on virtual and dedicated server hosting plans are provided with Plesk; this is preinstalled on all packages, both Linux and Windows.
Strato Extras
As mentioned at the beginning of this review, one-click installers are provided on some, but not all, hosting plans. Notably, the Basic shared hosting plan doesn’t include them. Customers do get a certain number of free domain names, depending on the package they choose.
Strato also offers a £45 Facebook advertising voucher, 5 Fotolia credits and discounts on a couple of unrelated services.
Strato Money Back Guarantee / Cancellation Policy
All of Strato’s plans are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee. This isn’t mentioned at all in its Terms and Conditions, so it’s difficult to say how a user would go about claiming their money back, what’s included or whether there are any special rules to follow.
In terms of cancellation, all users are bound by their contract (this is 1, 6 or 12 months, depending on the product and price). If they wish to cancel, they need to do so before the contract renews. According to the Terms and Conditions, cancellations must be made by fax or in the customer’s account portal “if this option is available”. Strato reserves the right to raise prices prior to renewal as long as they offer the client some notice.
Strato Summary
Strato’s services will appeal to European users looking for a host with a data centre close by. With the backing of a major German telecoms firm, it looks like Strato is a reputable host that will be around for the long term.
It was surprising to see such an established company fail to offer any uptime guarantee, or to hint at a meagre 99% uptime. This, combined with the lack of 24/7 support, would concern me if I were to sign up. Having said that, Strato’s packages are affordably priced, and for some users, the company will offer the right balance between features and their budget.
Strato Reviews by Our Community
Overall Rating from 10 Reviews by Strato Customers
| Support | |
|---|---|
| Quality | |
| Features | |
| Value |
Most Helpful Reviews
Prateek Sunal sunalcorp.com
Jun 08, 2018
Barry Mercer sovoip.co.uk
Nov 23, 2013
They seem to have issue taking payment and then blame you. I changed my card details which seemed to cause all end of trouble. They didn’t take payment despite the details being valid.
I then paid manually online (with the same card) and assumed things were fine as the bill showed as "paid". A week or so later I receive an email on a Saturday at about 4pm telling me that they have suspended my service due to "irregularities" and that I should check my account. Rather vague.
I check my control panel and sure enough all my bills are paid and there is nothing else to indicate a problem. The website tells me to contact support if all my bills are paid. I call, but they only work weekdays.
I’m incredulous that they feel they can terminate my hosting on a weekend at a time when they are unavailable to answer for their mistake. As soon as the server is back up, I’m copying everything off and moving to somewhere else.
tom watkins yard1.co.uk
Oct 18, 2013
They are useless! I have been with them for some time as they hold the registry for my domain, so in the past 2 years i have used them solely as an email provider and a way to redirect to my website using my domain. This has been a problem as their email service is detected as spam by most other email services, not ideal for business purposes!
I recently wanted to move my domain to my current hosting service, i requested 4 domain transfers well before my contract expiry, each has been turned down by strato. I changes the ips tag correctly well in advance of my contract expiry so that the transfer would leave me with minimum down town as i need my email!! This morning i have awoken to no contract, no email, no domain transfer!
I will call strato and they will offer no solution! keep clear, go with professionals.
Most Popular Strato Hosting Plans
| Basic Web | Power Web | Advance Web | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disk Space | 2GB | 6GB | 20GB |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Price | $6.58 / mo (Billed as $6.58 Per Month) ⓘPrices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate. Usual price: – Get % off! | $9.86 / mo (Billed as $6.58 Per Month) ⓘPrices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate. Usual price: – Get % off! | $16.44 / mo (Billed as $6.58 Per Month) ⓘPrices in are approximate, based on current exchange rates. The host will likely charge you in USD, or at a different exchange rate. Usual price: – Get % off! |
| Visit Strato Now | Visit Strato Now | Visit Strato Now |
| Plan | Disk Space | Bandwidth | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise Web Shared | 50GB | Unlimited | $24.66 / mo Visit Host Now |
Strato Frequently Asked Questions
- Do their hosting plans come with a free domain?
Depending on the shared web hosting plan you choose, you get either 1, 2, 3, or 5 free domains with your account for the first year.
- Does Strato have a money-back guarantee?
The company offers customers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Does Strato offer phone support?
The company is available by phone from 9 – 5:30 pm GMT for support and sales help.
- In what languages is their customer support available?
They provide support in English, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian on the phone, on their website, through their email and on their support ticketing systems.
- Where is Strato located?
The company is based out of Berlin, Germany. Two redundant datacenters that are based in Germany serve as the technical base of operations.
- What Programming Languages are supported by their services?
Their Linux web hosting plans support PHP, Perl, Ruby and Ruby on Rails.
- Can I have more than one domain per account?
Each of the company’s four shared web hosting plans will support an unlimited number hosted domains.
- Does Strato have software available to help build a website easily?
The company provides their easy to use web site builder tool called WebStarter. It offers an easy way to get your website up and running quickly.
- What security does Strato provide?
The company features specialized antivirus and antispam measures in their secured datacenter enviornments.
- Are they an ecommerce site provider with features like SSL?
The company provides a number of ecommerce applications and supports them fully. They offer support for all the features that are required for ecommerce including shopping carts, SSL, and more.
- Could I host an image-heavy site on their services?
If you need to host an image heavy site, you are best served by the features in their highest shared web hosting plan, the Enterprise Web plan. This plan allows for 50 GB of space and unlimited traffic to support the demands of such a site.
- Do they provide a control panel, and if so which one?
Since they provide Linux services, the company provides the popular cPanel to control all the features of your account.
- What payment options does Strato offer?
They accept all major credit card payment methods like Visa, MasterCard, and Discover.
- Does Strato have an uptime guarantee and do they pro-rate for downtime?
The company does not feature an uptime guarantee on its site or terms of service.
- Are there any special security features that come with their services?
For additional security SiteGuard is included on all four of their shared web hosting plans.
- Does Strato offer monthly services or is there a minimum contract?
Customers will be sign up under one year plans at a minimum.
- What is the backup policy at Strato Hosting?
The company only backs-up servers for their own usage, and on no guaranteed basis. It is best described as best effort backups. It is recommended that each customer back up their own data.
- Is there an available plan that is suitable for video streaming?
Video streaming is best suited by dedicated servers and VPS plans. This host does not openly support streaming video protocols on their shared hosting.
- Is there an affiliate program available?
The company’s affiliate program allows participants to take part in a commission-based structure with uncapped rewards, free advertising material, and daily reports and other tools.
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Strato sucks! When I first buy a domain and premium hosting in strato then I think it will be easy and will be user friendly but I found it very bad as its user interface is quite complicated and you have to buy plans to install WordPress or any other app. At last I want to say that I didn’t like strato. Es and doesn’t recommend it to anyone who want a hosting plan.