Best European Cloud Alternatives to AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure (2025)

More European companies are moving away from US hyperscalers. Whether motivated by GDPR compliance, data sovereignty, cost savings, or simply wanting infrastructure that's closer to their users, the demand for European cloud alternatives has never been higher.

This guide compares the leading European cloud providers based on real pricing, features, and use cases.

Why Consider European Alternatives?

• Data sovereignty: US cloud providers are subject to the CLOUD Act, which can compel them to hand over data stored in EU datacenters. European providers are not subject to these laws.
• GDPR simplification: When your infrastructure provider is European, data processing agreements and transfer impact assessments become significantly simpler.
• Cost: European providers typically offer 40-70% lower prices than AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure for equivalent resources.
• Performance: For European users, local infrastructure means lower latency. A server in Frankfurt responds faster to a user in Berlin than a server in Virginia.
• Transparency: European providers tend to have simpler, more transparent pricing without the hundreds of line items common on hyperscaler invoices.

Provider Comparison

Hetzner Cloud

Hetzner is the most well-known European cloud provider, offering some of the lowest prices in the industry. It's excellent for developers who want raw infrastructure and are comfortable managing everything themselves.

Strengths:

• Extremely competitive pricing (VPS from €3.79/month)
• Dedicated server options at low cost
• Good API and Terraform provider
• Datacenters in Germany, Finland, and the US

Limitations:

• No managed database service
• No managed caching (Redis, Valkey)
• No managed application hosting
• Limited managed services overall—primarily IaaS

Best for: Developers who want cheap VMs and are comfortable managing databases, caches, and application stacks themselves.

OVHcloud

OVHcloud is the largest European cloud provider, offering a broad range of services from bare metal to managed Kubernetes.

Strengths:

• Wide service portfolio (compute, storage, network, databases)
• Managed databases for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and others
• Datacenters across Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific
• Competitive pricing at scale

Limitations:

• Dashboard and UX can be confusing for newcomers
• Support response times vary
• Some services feel less polished than hyperscaler equivalents
• No managed app hosting (WordPress, Ghost, etc.)

Best for: Mid-to-large companies needing a broad European cloud portfolio with managed services at scale.

Scaleway

Scaleway (owned by Iliad Group) positions itself as a developer-friendly European cloud with a modern interface.

Strengths:

• Clean, developer-friendly UI
• Managed databases, Kubernetes, serverless functions
• Competitive S3-compatible object storage
• Good API and CLI tools

Limitations:

• Higher VPS prices than Hetzner (starting at €7.59/month)
• Limited datacenter locations (Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw)
• Smaller community and ecosystem
• No managed application hosting

Best for: Developers wanting a modern, well-designed European cloud with managed services and a good developer experience.

DanubeData

DanubeData is a European cloud provider running on dedicated hardware in Germany. It differentiates by offering managed services at every layer—from VPS to databases to fully managed applications.

Strengths:

• All-in-one platform: VPS, databases, caches, storage, serverless, and managed apps
• Managed application hosting (WordPress, Ghost, n8n) with automated backups
• Three cache engines: Redis, Valkey, and Dragonfly
• Dedicated NVMe hardware (not resold cloud instances)
• Simple, transparent pricing in Euros
• €50 signup credit for new accounts
• Infrastructure-as-code via Pulumi SDKs

Limitations:

• Single datacenter location (Falkenstein, Germany)
• Newer provider—smaller community than Hetzner or OVH
• No bare-metal server offering

Best for: Developers and businesses wanting a complete managed platform where VPS, databases, caches, storage, and applications work together out of the box—without assembling separate services from different providers.

Price Comparison: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM VPS

European providers are 3-6x cheaper than hyperscalers for equivalent VPS resources, and most include generous traffic allowances instead of per-GB egress fees.

When to Stay with Hyperscalers

European alternatives are not always the right choice. Consider staying with AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure when:

• You need global presence: Dozens of regions worldwide for latency-sensitive global applications
• You use proprietary services: Lambda, DynamoDB, BigQuery, Cosmos DB—these have no European equivalent
• Your team already has deep expertise: The migration cost and retraining may outweigh savings
• Compliance requires specific certifications: FedRAMP, HIPAA BAA, or other US-specific compliance
• You need the full ecosystem: ML services, IoT platforms, data lakes at massive scale

When to Choose European Providers

• GDPR compliance is a priority: Simpler data processing agreements, no transatlantic transfer concerns
• Your users are primarily in Europe: Lower latency, better performance
• Cost matters: 3-6x cheaper for standard compute, generous included traffic
• You want simpler pricing: Predictable monthly bills without hundreds of SKUs
• You use standard open-source stacks: Linux, Docker, PostgreSQL, Redis—these run the same everywhere

Building a Full Stack on European Infrastructure

A common setup on DanubeData for a production web application:

The same stack on AWS (RDS, ElastiCache, S3, EC2) would cost €150-250/month depending on configuration and region.

Ready to try European infrastructure? Create a DanubeData account and get €50 in signup credit to test any service.