As of 29 Oct 2026, the panel rates IONOS MyWebsite 2.5/5 and STRATO Homepage-Baukasten 2.5/5 in Website Builders. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 2 of the 6 judges pick IONOS MyWebsite and 3 pick STRATO Homepage-Baukasten, 1 calls it a tie. IONOS MyWebsite scores higher on 3 of 7 criteria (Forms, bookings & business features, Editor, templates & design control and SEO, analytics & visibility). STRATO Homepage-Baukasten scores higher on 4 of 7 criteria (Hosting, domains & portability, European sovereignty, Imprint, privacy & cookie compliance, plus 1 more). Provenance — IONOS MyWebsite: EU-Made; STRATO Homepage-Baukasten: EU-Made. Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made.
The panel splits. IONOS MyWebsite leads on editor and design (5.0 vs 4.2, four lean IONOS, one STRATO, one tie) and forms and business (4.0 vs 3.0, five lean IONOS). STRATO Homepage-Baukasten leads on hosting and portability (5.7 vs 5.0, four lean STRATO), sovereignty (5.5 vs 4.8, four lean STRATO), legal compliance (6.2 vs 5.8, two lean STRATO, four tie) and pricing transparency (7.2 vs 7.0, one lean STRATO, five tie). SEO and marketing sits closest (4.0 vs 3.7, two lean IONOS, four tie). Weighted totals split: the freelance designer has IONOS 4.8 to STRATO 4.3, the marketing lead IONOS 4.8 to 4.7, the data protection officer 5 to 5, the skeptic STRATO 5.3 to IONOS 5.2; no totals appear for the small-business owner and practice owner. Sovereignty attributes: STRATO's data residency reads EU-only, ownership unknown; IONOS's ownership reads listed, data residency unknown; both list US Cloud Act subprocessor exposure.
Choose IONOS MyWebsite if
You need the editor the panel favors: four judges lean IONOS MyWebsite on editor and design (5.0 vs 4.2), where the skeptic and small-business owner scored the AI generator and template gallery at 6.
Forms and business features decide your choice: five judges lean IONOS MyWebsite there (4.0 vs 3.0).
Your buying mirrors the freelance designer's or the marketing lead's view: their weighted totals are IONOS MyWebsite 4.8 to STRATO 4.3, and 4.8 to 4.7.
You want an owner on the record: IONOS MyWebsite's ownership attribute reads 'listed', while STRATO Homepage-Baukasten's reads 'unknown'.
SEO and marketing tools are your focus: two judges lean IONOS MyWebsite (4.0 vs 3.7) and four tie, with SEO and analytics tools named on its pages.
Choose STRATO Homepage-Baukasten if
Your policy requires data residency in the EU: STRATO Homepage-Baukasten's data residency attribute reads EU-only; IONOS MyWebsite's reads unknown.
Hosting matters most to your team: four judges lean STRATO on hosting and portability (5.7 vs 5.0), citing German data centres, a permanently included domain with SSL and 10 GB webspace.
You need legal texts that update automatically: two judges lean STRATO on legal compliance (6.2 vs 5.8); its texts are generated with IT-Recht Kanzlei and updated when the law changes.
Sovereignty carries extra weight in your review: four judges lean STRATO (5.5 vs 4.8).
You compare published prices line by line: STRATO leads pricing transparency 7.2 to 7.0, with one judge leaning its way and five tying; plans list introductory and regular prices, VAT included, and "Einrichtung: 0 €".
Read this comparison as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.
The Marketing Lead
Owns the website of a forty-person engineering firm and is measured on enquiries, not on page views. Wants landing pages built without waiting for the agency, clean URLs, redirects and structured data, analytics that work without a consent wall in front of every visit, and form entries that reach the CRM instead of a shared mailbox.
IONOS MyWebsite
This judge's pick
STRATO Homepage-Baukasten
Criterion by criterion
Editor, templates & design control
IONOS MyWebsite
Templates are grouped into seven industry categories and an AI generator drafts a complete site with matching texts and images from a few inputs; sections and colours are flexibly editable and a preview shows the design on desktop, tablet and smartphone. I found no public information on multilingual pages, custom code, collaborator roles or version history, which is what usually caps a builder for an agency-grade site.
STRATO Homepage-Baukasten
The web editor is WYSIWYG with a wide catalogue — 29 industry templates and more than 130 designs — plus responsive layouts, widgets, an image database and free AI website, text and image generators, which is enough to build a landing page without the agency. We found no public information on separate mobile editing, custom code, collaborator roles or version history, and the features page lists the multilingual function as not available.
Hosting, domains & portability
IONOS MyWebsite
Hosting arrives with an included domain, a free SSL wildcard certificate, plan-by-plan redundant storage in two geographically independent data centres, unlimited bandwidth, a tariff-dependent CDN and SSH/SFTP access, plus mailboxes on the own domain. A backup and restore function and any documented export of site content are not described, so leaving the platform is an open question.
STRATO Homepage-Baukasten
A domain is permanently included with an SSL certificate, 10 GB webspace and unlimited traffic, STRATO names its own German data centres, a minimum 99% annual availability is committed in the terms (99,99 % quoted for the webhosting offer), and two mailboxes run on the own domain. We found no public information on exporting pages, content or media — only imports from WordPress, Wix or Jimdo into STRATO are documented — and self-service restore of versioned backups is not described, with the terms making regular backups the customer's job.
SEO, analytics & visibility
IONOS MyWebsite
Analytics are documented across the range — marketingRadar tracking from the Starter plan, SiteAnalytics Plus on Pro and WebAnalytics Plus on Premium and Ultimate — alongside an AI SEO assistant, rankingCoach Standard and automatic SEO optimisation. I found no public information on editable URLs, redirects, sitemaps or structured data, which is exactly what I need before moving a landing page.
STRATO Homepage-Baukasten
There is an AI SEO assistant for the site's meta data plus the marketingRadar, and the captured pages give different figures for the rankingCoach tool's availability by plan. We found no public information on sitemap generation, 301 redirects, editable clean URLs, structured data or built-in visitor statistics, so clean URLs and redirects would have to be verified elsewhere before I migrate anything.
Forms, bookings & business features
IONOS MyWebsite
An integrated online booking tool is documented on higher plans, an online shop can be added, and marketing tools are named as a category. The pages are silent on contact forms — field types, spam protection, where entries are stored or any CRM or newsletter connection — so the business layer is only half-evidenced.
STRATO Homepage-Baukasten
Appointment booking is named as an example of the builder's additional functions, and a shop arrives as an add-on through separate SmartWebshop or WooCommerce tariffs with payment processing and product management. We found no public information on contact or custom forms, spam protection, where entries are stored or export, or on CRM, calendar and newsletter integrations — exactly the pieces that decide whether an enquiry reaches our CRM instead of a mailbox.
Imprint, privacy & cookie compliance
IONOS MyWebsite
The German legal package is strong: GDPR-conform imprint and privacy texts from the named partner IT-Recht Kanzlei München, checked daily and updated automatically, with liability takeover in case of a cease-and-desist letter, offered as a paid add-on at 8 € per month for a website. A consent banner that blocks scripts until consent, GDPR handling of form entries and accessibility are not described, which holds it in the middle band.
STRATO Homepage-Baukasten
STRATO works with IT-Recht Kanzlei so owners generate AGB, a withdrawal notice, privacy policy and imprint in a few clicks, with those texts automatically updated when case law changes; an optional cease-and-desist protection add-on is offered and an accessibility statement is published at a dedicated address. A data processing agreement is available, but we found no public information on a consent banner that blocks scripts on the owner's own site or on GDPR handling of form entries.
European sovereignty
IONOS MyWebsite
The contracting entity is IONOS SE in Montabaur, Germany — commercial register, VAT ID and a German data protection officer are published — a data processing agreement is offered, data sits in two geographically independent data centres, and the vendor publicly claims EU legal compliance for customer data. Data-centre locations and the subprocessors behind CDN, email or analytics are not stated on the captured pages, so the chain beyond the entity itself is unproven.
STRATO Homepage-Baukasten
The contracting entity is STRATO GmbH in Berlin under German law with an exclusive jurisdiction of Berlin (Charlottenburg), a published data processing agreement and a data protection officer, hosting runs in STRATO's own German data centres, and the parent is United Internet. We found no public information on a subprocessor list with locations or on security certifications such as ISO 27001 or SOC 2 for the builder, and the privacy policy's hashed sharing of customer data with US marketing platforms concerns the vendor's own marketing rather than the site chain.
Pricing transparency
IONOS MyWebsite
Every plan shows the introductory price with its duration, the regular price afterwards, the 10 € setup fee and VAT inclusion, domain registrations list introductory and renewal prices, the legal-text add-on is priced openly, and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee. The notice period and shop transaction fees are not published, and the captured pages give different figures for the Plus plan, so a multi-year cost is close to computable but not complete.
STRATO Homepage-Baukasten
All three SmartWebsite plans are public with introductory price, its duration, the regular price after it and zero setup (Basic "0 €/Mon. für 1 Monat danach 7 €/Mon.", Plus "1 €/Mon. für 12 Monate danach 12 €/Mon.", Pro then 18 €/Mon.), prices include VAT, the domain is permanently included, and the terms state a one-month notice period with auto-renewal and four weeks' notice on price changes. Add-ons such as the cease-and-desist protection, the SmartWebshop tariffs and the 24/7 hotline are named without public prices, and service fees are listed with examples but no amounts, so a multi-year total cost cannot be fully computed.
Sovereignty, side by side
Dimension
IONOS MyWebsite
STRATO Homepage-Baukasten
Legal entity
Not determined
Not determined
Hosting location
Not determined
Not determined
Hosting options
Not determined
Not determined
Open source
Not determined
Not determined
Data processing agreement
Not determined
Not determined
Transfer impact assessment
Not determined
Not determined
Facts, side by side
Only facts both products carry under the same definition — anything else would not be a fair row.
Questions about IONOS MyWebsite and STRATO Homepage-Baukasten
Which is better, IONOS MyWebsite or STRATO Homepage-Baukasten?
As of 29 Oct 2026, the panel rates both 2.5/5. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 2 of the 6 judges pick IONOS MyWebsite and 3 pick STRATO Homepage-Baukasten, 1 calls it a tie. Which one fits depends on the criteria that matter to you; the table on this page shows both side by side, and each judge’s reading has its own page. Both were scored by the same AI bench under the same rubric, from public evidence only, as the methodology describes.
Is IONOS MyWebsite or STRATO Homepage-Baukasten European?
IONOS MyWebsite is European (EU-Made). STRATO Homepage-Baukasten is European (EU-Made). Provenance is read from each company’s own legal pages: who builds it and who owns it.