creoline

What creoline does

creoline GmbH is a German enterprise managed hosting provider founded in 2009 and headquartered in Altenberge, Germany, operating as a private limited liability company (GmbH) with a headcount between 11-50 employees. The company delivers a unified hosting platform built on NVMe SSD hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) storage, LiteSpeed web servers with integrated LSCache, NGINX load balancing, and a global content delivery network (CDN) with up to 30 points of presence (POP) worldwide. Its product portfolio is organized into four primary layers: V-Servers (Linux, Windows, Agency, LiteSpeed), managed App Servers (Shopware, JTL Shop, WordPress, GitLab, Nextcloud, JTL-Wawi), Accelerators (CDN, Redis, OpenSearch, Elasticsearch, NGINX), and Extensions (Storage Box, Domains covering 1,200+ top-level domains, SSL/TLS Certificates, Plesk Licenses), with a higher-level Solutions tier that includes Virtual Private Cloud, Managed Shopware Cluster, High Availability, Anycast DNS, Extended Support, and a Partner Program for agencies and resellers. The company holds ISO-27001, PCI-DSS, and GDPR-compliant German data residency certifications, and maintains partner status with Shopware (Recommended Hosting Partner and Technology Partner Platinum), GitLab (Open Partner), eco.de, and the Cloud Services Made in Germany initiative.

The business model is built on recurring monthly subscriptions across virtual server hosting, managed application hosting, and performance add-on services, with custom enterprise solutions quoted on a bespoke basis. Go-to-market combines a self-serve marketplace configurator at marketplace.creoline.com targeting small and mid-sized businesses with direct enterprise sales consultations and a channel program for agencies and resellers. All offers are restricted to business customers (B2B only, with VAT applicable), and pricing is not publicly disclosed. The company serves e-commerce businesses, digital agencies, developers/IT teams, and reseller partners, with named customers spanning online retail, sports (Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA), fashion (Fashiontrendshop/Cinque, Gusti Leder), automotive retail (Equiva), office supplies (Office Partner), and floral delivery (Fleurop). The company is founder-led by Linus Holtstiege (Founder & CEO) and has accumulated an Excellent Trustpilot rating across 285 customer reviews, reflecting strong customer satisfaction within its core German B2B hosting niche.

Name

creoline

Legal name

creoline GmbH

Website

https://creoline.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

creoline GmbH is a German managed hosting provider founded in 2009, offering virtual servers, managed application hosting for Shopware, JTL, and WordPress, plus CDN and performance accelerators. It serves B2B customers including e-commerce retailers, digital agencies, and mid-market enterprises with GDPR-compliant, ISO-27001-certified infrastructure.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Altenberge

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Virtual Server Hosting: Subscription-based virtual server hosting including Linux, Windows, Agency, and LiteSpeed servers with configurable resources
2. Managed Application Hosting: Managed hosting services for e-commerce platforms (Shopware, JTL Shop), WordPress, GitLab, and Nextcloud
3. Accelerators and Add-ons: CDN, Redis, OpenSearch, NGINX load balancer, and other performance accelerators as add-on services
4. Domain Registration: Domain registration services offering over 1,100 different domain extensions with DNS management
5. SSL Certificates: Domain and organization validated certificates for business security
6. Storage Solutions: Storage Box providing FTP and SFTP storage services
7. Enterprise Solutions: Virtual Private Cloud, Managed Shopware Cluster, High Availability systems, and Extended Support subscriptions

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

creoline GmbH is a German enterprise hosting provider that sells virtual servers, managed application hosting, content delivery, domain registration, and SSL certificates on a subscription basis. Its portfolio spans V-Servers (Linux, Windows, Agency, LiteSpeed), managed App Servers (Shopware, JTL, WordPress, GitLab, Nextcloud), performance accelerators (CDN, Redis, OpenSearch, Elasticsearch, NGINX), and enterprise solutions such as Virtual Private Cloud, Managed Shopware Cluster, High Availability, and Anycast DNS. The company targets online retailers, digital agencies, and development teams with GDPR-compliant infrastructure hosted in Germany.

Product overview

creoline is a German enterprise hosting provider offering a unified platform-plus-modules architecture. The core portfolio spans four categories: V-Servers (Linux, Windows, Agency, LiteSpeed), App Servers (Shopware, JTL Shop, WordPress, GitLab, Nextcloud, JTL-Wawi), Accelerators (CDN, Redis, OpenSearch, Elasticsearch, NGINX), and Extensions (Storage Box, Domains, Certificates, Plesk Licenses). Solutions layer includes Virtual Private Cloud, Managed Shopware Cluster, Extended Support, High Availability, Anycast DNS, and Partner Program. The platform is built on enterprise-grade hardware with NVMe SSD HCI storage and positions around performance, security, and scalability for business customers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Linux Server

Quantifiable outcome

• Fast search results for catalogs with 100,000+ products or variants using OpenSearch
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• eco - Association of the Internet IndustryminorOthersMembership in eco.de, the leading German internet industry association representing and supporting digital businesses in Germany.
• Cloud Services Made in GermanyminorOthersPart of the Cloud Services Made in Germany initiative catalog, showcasing German cloud providers meeting quality and data protection standards.
• Shopware AGcoreTechnology or IntegrationShopware Recommended Hosting Partner and Technology Partner Platinum. creoline offers optimized managed hosting for Shopware 6 with NGINX and NVMe SSD storage, plus managed Shopware clusters for enterprise deployments.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• netcup: German virtual server and hosting provider competing on price-performance VPS and root-server offerings. Directly comparable to Creoline's core VPS portfolio for SMB and developer customers in Germany.
• Mittwald CM Service: German hosting provider focused on CMS and web agency hosting (TYPO3, WordPress, Shopware). Comparable to Creoline in its agency- and CMS-oriented GTM and managed hosting bundles for the German-speaking market.
• Hetzner Online: German hosting provider offering virtual servers, dedicated servers, cloud, and storage with competitive pricing. Directly comparable to Creoline on core VPS and managed hosting products, competing for the same European SMB and developer customer base.
• maxcluster: German managed hosting provider specialized in Shopware, OXID, and other e-commerce platforms, with Platinum Shopware Technology Partner status. Direct niche competitor to Creoline for managed Shopware clusters and high-availability e-commerce deployments.

Broad incumbents

• OVHcloud: European hyperscale cloud and bare-metal hosting provider headquartered in France with strong presence in Germany. Competes with Creoline on VPS, dedicated servers, and managed hosting while offering broader public cloud capabilities.
• Host Europe GmbH: German hosting and domain provider serving SMBs and resellers. Comparable to Creoline on virtual servers, domains, and managed hosting for the European market.
• Strato GmbH: Large German web hosting provider offering shared hosting, VPS, servers, domains, and SSL. Comparable as a mass-market German hosting competitor, particularly in domains, SSL, and entry-level VPS segments.
• IONOS: One of Europe's largest web hosting and cloud providers (formerly 1&1), offering shared hosting, VPS, dedicated servers, and cloud services. Comparable to Creoline as a German-headquartered hosting incumbent with a broader portfolio spanning SMB to enterprise.

Emerging players

• Cloudways (DigitalOcean): Managed cloud hosting platform focused on simplified deployment of PHP apps, e-commerce platforms (WooCommerce, Magento), and WordPress. Comparable to Creoline on managed application hosting for e-commerce stacks, though operating at broader international scale.
• Syseleven: German managed cloud provider focused on OpenStack-based infrastructure, Kubernetes, and Shopware-ready hosting. Comparable to Creoline on managed Shopware hosting and DACH-focused cloud infrastructure, with a more cloud-native orientation.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/creoline

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about creoline