Hosting · Updated 10 November 2026 · 9 min read

European cloud providers for developers in 2026

Seven infrastructure clouds and three app platforms from Europe, split by layer: who runs each one, where it has data centers and which managed services it sells.

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For the raw building blocks AWS, GCP and Azure sell, such as virtual machines, Kubernetes, managed databases and object storage, look at Scaleway, OVHcloud, IONOS, Exoscale, UpCloud and STACKIT, or Hetzner if plain servers at a low price are enough. If you'd rather push code and skip the infrastructure, a platform such as Eurobase, Clever Cloud or Scalingo builds and runs your app for you.

Two layers, ten providers

European clouds come in two layers, and mixing them up leads to bad comparisons.

Infrastructure clouds rent you servers, networks, storage and managed services. You assemble the stack and keep it running, much as you would on AWS.
App platforms sit on top. You connect a Git repository and the platform builds, deploys and scales the app. Some run on their own hardware, others on an infrastructure cloud from the first group.

Provider	Layer	Company	European locations	Managed databases
Scaleway	Infrastructure	France	Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Milan	PostgreSQL, MySQL
OVHcloud	Infrastructure	Roubaix, France	France, Germany, Italy, Poland, UK	PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Valkey
Hetzner	Infrastructure	Germany	Falkenstein, Nuremberg, Helsinki	None listed
IONOS	Infrastructure	Germany	Frankfurt, Berlin, Paris, London, Worcester, Logroño	PostgreSQL, MongoDB, in-memory
Exoscale	Infrastructure	Lausanne, Switzerland	Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Croatia	PostgreSQL, MySQL
UpCloud	Infrastructure	Finland	Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Stavanger, Stockholm, Warsaw	MySQL, PostgreSQL, Valkey, OpenSearch
STACKIT	Infrastructure	Schwarz Group	Seven data centers in Europe	PostgreSQL, MongoDB, SQL Server, MariaDB
Eurobase	App platform	Warsaw, Poland	European infrastructure operated by Scaleway	SQLite for Workers only
Clever Cloud	App platform	France	Own data centers in France, plus partner regions	PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis and more
Scalingo	App platform	Strasbourg, France	All data centers in Europe	PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB and more

Facts are from each provider's own pages, checked on 10 November 2026. For a closer look at the platform layer alone, read the best European PaaS providers.

What to check before you pick one

Which layer you need. If nobody on your team wants to patch servers or run Kubernetes, an infrastructure cloud will cost you time even when its price looks low.
Which managed services exist. A cloud that lacks managed Postgres or Kubernetes means you run them yourself. Compare the service list, not just the server price.
Where the company sits, not only the region. A European region on a US cloud is still a US company's service. See EU region vs EU company.
Locations outside Europe. Hetzner, IONOS and UpCloud also run sites in the US or Asia, so pick the region on purpose.
Certifications your buyers ask for. ISO 27001, BSI C5, HDS for health data and SecNumCloud in France are stated on some providers' sites and missing from others.
How you're billed. Per second, per hour with a monthly cap, prepaid credit or a flat plan all behave differently when traffic spikes.

1. Scaleway

A French cloud with locations in Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw and Milan. It sells virtual machines, called Instances, and managed Kubernetes, called Kapsule, next to managed PostgreSQL and MySQL. Its Serverless Containers run an image you supply and scale from zero to 200 instances.

Best for: teams that want VMs, Kubernetes and pay-by-use containers from one French provider.
Price: Serverless Containers include 400,000 GB-s of memory and 200,000 vCPU-s free each month, then €0.20 per 100,000 GB-s and €1 per 100,000 vCPU-s.

2. OVHcloud

A French group with Public Cloud regions in Roubaix, Gravelines, Paris, Strasbourg, Limburg, Milan, Warsaw and Erith, in 1-AZ or 3-AZ setups. The catalogue covers instances, GPUs, managed Kubernetes, a private registry, object and block storage, managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB and Valkey, Kafka, ClickHouse and AI services.

Best for: teams replacing a wide AWS footprint, and French public-sector work that needs SecNumCloud-qualified services.
Price: not listed on the Public Cloud overview.

3. Hetzner

A German host with cloud servers in Falkenstein, Nuremberg and Helsinki, plus Singapore and the US. It sells servers, load balancers, private networks and S3-compatible object storage.

Best for: teams that run their own stack and care most about the monthly bill.
Price: a CPX02 is listed at €5.49 a month excl. VAT in Helsinki and €6.49 in Falkenstein or Nuremberg, but entry plans showed as unavailable to order on 10 November 2026.
What it lacks: managed Kubernetes and managed databases. Neither appears on its cloud page.

4. IONOS

IONOS Cloud is headquartered in Germany, with data centers in Frankfurt, Berlin, Paris, London, Worcester and Logroño, and three more in the US. It offers a Compute Engine, Managed Kubernetes and databases as a service with PostgreSQL, MongoDB and an in-memory store.

Best for: German companies that want a provider headquartered at home.
Price: its US price page lists 2 vCPUs and 8 GB of RAM from $0.044 an hour.

5. Exoscale

A Swiss cloud based in Lausanne and part of A1 Digital. Zones are Frankfurt, Munich, two in Vienna, Geneva, Zurich, Sofia and Zagreb, with Madrid announced. It sells instances, managed Kubernetes called SKS, object storage and managed PostgreSQL and MySQL.

Best for: workloads that must stay in Switzerland or Austria.
Price: resources are billed by the second, and an SKS Starter cluster is free, without an SLA.

6. UpCloud

UpCloud is a registered Finnish company. It sells cloud servers, GPU servers, block storage, managed Kubernetes, managed object storage and managed MySQL, PostgreSQL, Valkey and OpenSearch. Its European data centres are in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Stavanger, Stockholm and Warsaw, with more outside Europe.

Best for: teams that want a smaller provider with the core managed services.
Price: billed by the hour; see UpCloud's pricing page.

7. STACKIT

The cloud of the Schwarz Group, with seven data centers in Europe and more under construction. It offers a Compute Engine, the managed STACKIT Kubernetes Engine, object storage and managed PostgreSQL, MongoDB, SQL Server and MariaDB. Its site shows C5 and ISO 27001 seals.

Best for: larger companies that need C5 for German customers.
Price: not listed on its home page.

8. Eurobase

Eurobase is an app platform, not an infrastructure cloud. It deploys from GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg, Forgejo or Gitea, runs frameworks such as Next.js, Nuxt and Astro on V8 isolates and servers in Node.js, Python, Go and other languages as containers. Functions, file storage and logs come with it, and coding agents can deploy through its MCP server and CLI. It's a business registered in Warsaw, Poland, and your app runs on European infrastructure operated by Scaleway, a French provider.

Best for: developers who want a European app host without operating any of the layer below.
Price: a Free plan, then €10 or €20 a month + VAT for the workspace. There are no usage charges today: work over a limit is refused, apps on V8 isolates and Functions stop until the monthly reset, and containers and static sites keep serving.
What it lacks: managed Postgres, MySQL or Redis, Dockerfile builds, preview deployments, and KV, queues or Durable Objects. ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certification is still underway, not held. GitHub and GitLab Inc. are US subprocessors when you connect them.

9. Clever Cloud

A Git-push platform on its own French hardware, with five availability zones in the Paris region and partner regions such as London on IONOS and Warsaw on OVHcloud. It offers PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch, Cassandra and its own Materia databases. It states ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and HDS certification, with a SecNumCloud zone on request.

Best for: apps that need a managed database and certifications next to the code.
Price: by instance size and count, with free credits to start.

10. Scalingo

A Heroku-style platform from Strasbourg with all data centers in Europe and no data transfer outside the EU. It sells PostgreSQL with pgvector, MySQL, MongoDB, OpenSearch, InfluxDB and caching. It's ISO 27001 certified, with an HDS option and a SecNumCloud region on Outscale.

Best for: teams leaving Heroku, and regulated French workloads.
Price: containers from €7.20 a month for 256 MB, estimated over 30 days and excl. VAT. Databases are priced separately.

How to choose

Decide whether you want to run infrastructure. If not, start with the platforms and read the PaaS comparison.
If you do, list the managed services you use on AWS, GCP or Azure today and check each one against the catalogue above.
Shortlist providers with locations where your users and contracts need them.
Ask each one for its subprocessor list and certificates before you move data.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a European alternative to AWS?

Several clouds cover the core of what most apps use on AWS. Scaleway, OVHcloud, IONOS, Exoscale, UpCloud and STACKIT all sell virtual machines, managed Kubernetes and managed databases. Their catalogues are smaller than AWS's, so check each service you depend on.

Which European cloud is cheapest?

For a plain server, Hetzner's list price starts at €5.49 a month excl. VAT. The cheapest bill overall depends on what you'd otherwise run yourself, because a missing managed database or Kubernetes service costs engineering time.

Can I run Kubernetes on a European cloud?

Yes. Scaleway with Kapsule, OVHcloud, IONOS, Exoscale with SKS, UpCloud and STACKIT each sell managed Kubernetes. Hetzner doesn't list one, so on Hetzner you run the cluster yourself.

Do I need an infrastructure cloud or a platform?

If you want to deploy a web app from Git and not think about servers, use a platform such as Eurobase, Clever Cloud or Scalingo. Choose an infrastructure cloud when you need control over networking, custom databases or workloads a platform doesn't support.

Where do European clouds store objects?

Most of them sell S3-compatible object storage in their European locations. Prices and egress rules differ a lot, so compare them in our object storage guide.