Strato vs Krystal
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Strato and Krystal.
Quick Verdict
3.3/5
Strato
0 reviews
4.0/5
Krystal
0 reviews
Krystal is rated higher (4.0 vs 3.3). German hosting provider founded 1997 in Berlin, part of United Internet's IONOS Group (Deutsche Telekom sold it in 2017). KVM VPS with NVMe and unmetered traffic from 4 euros/month, plus dedicated servers, managed servers, shared hosting, and HiDrive storage. Data centers in Germany. Krystal is a UK hosting company running entirely on renewable energy. Shared, VPS, and reseller hosting. UK-focused with strong ethics, GDPR compliance, and Reforestation pledge per signup.
Strato German VPS from a Deutsche Telekom subsidiary | Krystal UK hosting powered by 100% renewable energy | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.3 (0 reviews) | 4.0 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $4/mo✓ | From $7/mo |
| Best for | German small businesses and self-hosters who want a German data center, German-speaking support, and a trusted mainstream brand for their VPS, and will pay a premium over budget hosts for it. | UK and EU businesses, charities, agencies and resellers who want transparent resource allocations, real UK support and verifiable green credentials, plus a UK-anchored cloud with S3-compatible storage |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 1 vCPU | 1 vCPU |
| RAM | 2 GB | 2 GB |
| Storage | 60 GB✓ | 10 GB |
| Bandwidth | — | — |
| SLA uptime | — | 99.99% |
| Data-center count | — | 3 |
| €/vCPU/mo | €4.00✓ | €7.00 |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €2.00✓ | €3.50 |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ✓ | |
| Snapshots | ✓ | |
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | — | London, United KingdomAmsterdam, NetherlandsNew York, United States |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | nvme storageipv6backups includedeu datacentergdpr compliantwindows available | eu datacentergdpr compliant |
| Visit Strato → | Visit Krystal → | |
Strato
Pros
- + German data centers (ISO 27001 certified annually since 2004) — clean GDPR story
- + KVM with full root, NVMe storage, unmetered traffic on up to 1 Gbit/s
- + Long operating history since 1997 with 2M+ customer contracts
- + Broad ecosystem: domains, email, HiDrive storage, Acronis backup, managed servers
- + Rescue system, VNC console, upstream firewall, and basic monitoring included
Cons
- - Price-performance trails Hetzner and netcup at every tier (VPS M: 10 euros/mo)
- - Introductory prices (from 2 euros) jump 4–5x at renewal, plus a 9 euros setup fee
- - Backups not included and no snapshots on the VPS line; SLA is an optional paid add-on
- - German-first market: German-language docs and support, VAT-inclusive consumer pricing
- - No published CPU allocation policy (dedicated vs shared vCores) and no cloud-style API
Krystal
Pros
- + Shared plans publish real CPU and RAM allocations — rare at this price
- + Concrete SLA: 100% network availability with service credits, 99.99% cloud uptime target
- + Verified sustainability: B Corp, 1% for the Planet, ISO 27001, renewable-powered data centres
- + UK-based support with phone access and a 60-day money-back guarantee
- + Krystal Cloud adds per-second VMs, S3-compatible storage and T4/L4 GPUs in London, Amsterdam and New York
Cons
- - Priced well above budget shared hosts for comparable raw resources
- - UK-centred: shared hosting is London-only, no APAC regions
- - 24/7 emergency phone support only on the pricier plans
- - Inconsistent DDoS figures (4,000Gbps vs 2.0 Tbps) across its own pages
- - Unlimited storage and bandwidth are bounded by inode limits and fair use
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