STRATO HiDrive

STRATO HiDrive is the cloud-storage and online-backup product of STRATO GmbH, one of Germany's oldest and largest web-hosting companies, founded in 1997 and headquartered in Berlin. STRATO was owned by Deutsche Telekom until 2017, when it was acquired by United Internet AG — the publicly listed German internet group behind 1&1 and IONOS — so the ownership chain is entirely German and EU: no US parent, no US private equity, no US VC. The sovereignty posture is among the strongest in the file-sharing category. STRATO operates **two high-security data centres physically located in Germany**, is **ISO 27001 certified**, carries the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs "Trusted Cloud" seal, and holds TÜV Nord certification. Default encryption is server-side AES-128 with secure TLS transport; for sensitive use cases STRATO offers an **optional zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption add-on for around €2/month**, which moves key control to the customer. As a German company with German hosting and a German listed parent, CLOUD Act exposure is `none`. The single gap at audit is documentation linkage: STRATO unquestionably provides a GDPR Auftragsverarbeitungsvertrag (DPA) — it is a standard, regulated part of doing business as a German processor — but the canonical DPA and sub-processors URLs were not directly captured from the public site, so the compliance score is held one notch below maximum at 4/5 pending that verification. The product UI is German-first with English available. Pricing is paid-only (free trial months, but no permanent free tier): Starter 500 GB at €6/month, Basic 1 TB at €7.50/month, Plus 2 TB at €12.50/month, Family 2 TB / 5 users at €17.50/month, and Business 1-10 TB from €20/month, with meaningful annual discounts. HiDrive supports a REST API and WebDAV access, making it usable for automated backup workflows. Best fit: German and EU SMBs and individuals who want a large, established German vendor with in-country data centres, recognised certifications, and an optional zero-knowledge layer — and who do not need a free tier.