Hosting comparison
The decisive question is not only where a website is hosted, but what the hosting stack stores about visitors by default.
Managed hosting
- Hetzner — 7 days, configurable — DE / EU
- IONOS — 8 weeks — DE / EU
- STRATO — 6 weeks — DE / EU
- manitu — product-dependent — DE
- Mittwald — 60 days — DE
Ask whether access logs can be disabled, anonymised or shortened, which retention period applies, and whether support or security systems keep additional request data.
Servers and VPS
With your own server you usually have more control, but you also need to inspect the full stack: web server, reverse proxy, application, firewall, intrusion detection and provider-level logs.
International privacy & free-speech hosting
A favourable jurisdiction does not replace a data-minimising server configuration. Providers with specific privacy or free-speech characteristics are therefore shown separately from a strict no-logging assessment.
| Provider | Product | Jurisdiction advantage | Logging note |
|---|---|---|---|
| OrangeWebsite* | Shared hosting | Iceland · privacy and free-speech focus · servers in Iceland | Not a no-logging claim: OrangeWebsite documents processing of IP addresses/visitor behaviour; shared hosting includes raw log files. |
| OrangeWebsite* | Cloud VPS | Iceland · privacy and free-speech focus · servers in Iceland | VPS server logging is largely configured by the operator; provider/security processing must still be considered separately. |
* Affiliate link: We may receive compensation if you purchase a service. This does not affect our assessment.
What to compare
- ✓ Access-log configurability
- ✓ IP handling and retention
- ✓ Upstream proxy/CDN logging
- ✓ Security-system retention
- ✓ Clear documentation and support answers