Hosting · Updated 10 November 2026 · 9 min read

European alternatives to Google App Engine in 2026

Where an App Engine app can go when you want a European provider: language support, scale to zero, cron, databases and prices for five platforms.

View as Markdown

If your App Engine app leans on a managed database and cron.yaml, Clever Cloud and Scalingo are the nearest European fit: both build Python, Java, Go, Node.js, PHP and Ruby from Git and sell managed Postgres and MySQL next to the app. Eurobase suits stateless web apps and APIs in the same languages, scaling to zero like the standard environment, on a flat plan of €10 or €20 a month + VAT. Scaleway Serverless Containers suits teams who were heading for the flexible environment or Cloud Run with their own images, and Upsun suits teams that want a full copy of the stack per branch.

App Engine replacements at a glance

Platform	Company based in	Builds from source	Scales to zero	Managed SQL database	Scheduled jobs
Clever Cloud	France	Yes	Not documented	Yes	Yes, `clevercloud/cron.json`
Scalingo	Strasbourg, France	Yes	No, containers never sleep	Yes	Yes, Scalingo Scheduler
Eurobase	Warsaw, Poland	Yes, buildpacks	Yes	No	No
Scaleway Serverless Containers	France	No, you push an image	Yes	Sold separately	Not documented
Upsun	Paris, France	Yes	Not documented	Yes	Yes, `crons` in the app config

For reference, App Engine standard gives each project 28 free F1 instance hours a day and then bills by the instance hour, while the flexible environment has no free tier and keeps at least one instance running. Prices and features are from each provider's own page, checked on 9 and 10 November 2026.

Why people look past App Engine

App Engine lets you pick European regions: Warsaw, Belgium, London, Frankfurt and Zurich all appear on its pricing page. That settles where the code runs, not who runs it. The service is still a Google Cloud product, and some contracts or public tenders ask for a provider registered in the EU. Why that matters is covered in EU region vs EU company.

There's a second reason. Google's own App Engine documentation now tells new users to evaluate Cloud Run instead and calls Cloud Run the preferred alternative. If a move is coming anyway, it's a natural moment to ask where the app should live.

What to check before you move

Your runtime. The standard environment runs Go, Java, Node.js, PHP, Python and Ruby. Confirm the new platform builds your language version from source, or be ready to write a container image.
Idle cost. Standard apps can drop to zero instances when nobody visits. Some European platforms keep every container running and bill it all month, which changes the maths for a quiet app.
Datastore or Firestore. Every App Engine app gets a default Firestore database. None of the platforms here offers a Firestore equivalent, so plan a move to Postgres, MySQL or another document store.
`cron.yaml` and task queues. List every scheduled job and queue, then find where each one will run.
The default bucket. App Engine creates a Cloud Storage bucket for each app. Pick an object store for those files, such as one from European object storage.

1. Clever Cloud

Clever Cloud builds apps from Git in languages that include .NET, Go, Java, Node.js and Bun, PHP, Python, Ruby and Rust, and it can also run a Docker image. Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis and MongoDB sit next to the app. A clevercloud/cron.json file in your repository holds crontab lines that Clever Cloud installs on every instance at each deploy, which maps well to cron.yaml. Its servers sit in datacenters the company runs itself in France, and it's certified for ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and for French health data hosting, known as HDS.

Best for: App Engine apps with a SQL database, cron jobs and a need for a certified provider.
Price: billed by the second for each instance and database, with free credits at sign-up and no card required.
What it lacks: a flat monthly price. Its cron file doesn't run on Docker applications.

2. Scalingo

Scalingo is a Git-push platform from Strasbourg with buildpacks for Ruby, Node.js, PHP, Python, Java, Go, Scala and Clojure. Scalingo Scheduler runs tasks at fixed times or intervals in one-off containers, each capped at 12 hours. It also offers managed databases, Review Apps that spin up a copy of the app for each pull or merge request, and a SecNumCloud region built on Outscale.

Best for: teams that want the same push-to-deploy feel as App Engine plus a managed Postgres.
Price: a 256 MB container costs €7.20 and 512 MB costs €14.40, estimated over 30 days and excl. VAT. Postgres starts at €7.20 a month excl. VAT for 512 MB of memory and 10 GB of storage. New accounts get a 30-day free trial.
What it lacks: scale to zero, so a container with no traffic still costs its monthly price.

3. Eurobase

Eurobase builds a server in Node.js, Python, Go, Java, Ruby, PHP or .NET with Paketo buildpacks and runs it as a container on European infrastructure run by Scaleway, a French provider. Like the standard environment, containers scale to zero when traffic stops, and the next request waits for a fresh start. A Procfile with one web: line sets the start command, much as entrypoint does in app.yaml. Frameworks such as Next.js, Nuxt and Astro run on V8 isolates instead. You deploy from GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg, Forgejo or Gitea, or let a coding agent do it through the MCP server and CLI.

Best for: stateless App Engine services, APIs and web front ends that should cost a known amount each month.
Price: free to start; paid plans cost €10 or €20 a month + VAT and cover the whole 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, a Firestore replacement, scheduled jobs to replace cron.yaml, Dockerfile builds and preview deployments. Eurobase doesn't support Django yet. ISO 27001 and SOC 2 work has started but neither is certified.

4. Scaleway Serverless Containers

Scaleway, a French cloud provider, sells Serverless Containers: you push an image and it runs in Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw or Milan, from zero instances up to 200. That makes it a close European match for the flexible environment's custom runtimes, or for Cloud Run, minus a build step from source.

Best for: teams that already produce container images and want to pay only for what runs.
Price: each month the first 400,000 GB-s of memory and 200,000 vCPU-s are free; after that it's €0.20 per 100,000 GB-s and €1 per 100,000 vCPU-s.
What it lacks: builds from a Git repository. Producing the image, pushing it to a registry and deploying it are your job.

5. Upsun

Upsun is Platform.sh SAS, trading as Upsun, based in Paris. Each branch can get its own environment with the services it uses, and a crons block in the app config runs scheduled tasks. Its regions run on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud or OVHcloud, and the regions page names the provider for each one, so check it if leaving Google is the point.

Best for: teams whose review process needs a full copy of the app and its services per branch.
Price: a project fee of €9 a month and a user licence of €10 a month, with CPU, memory and storage billed per second on top.
What it lacks: a fixed monthly total, since resources are metered on top of the project and user fees.

How to choose

App Engine plus Cloud SQL and cron jobs: Clever Cloud or Scalingo, which keep app, database and schedules on one bill.
A stateless service on the standard environment that sleeps when idle: Eurobase, with a database hosted elsewhere if you need one.
A flexible environment app with a custom Dockerfile: Scaleway Serverless Containers, or Clever Cloud's Docker runtime.
Branch environments matter most: Upsun, once you've checked the cloud under your region.

Frequently asked questions

Does Google App Engine have a region in the EU?

Yes. Warsaw, Belgium and Frankfurt are EU regions for App Engine, and Europe also has London and Zurich outside the EU. You can't change an app's region after you set it, and the provider is still Google Cloud whichever region you pick.

Is App Engine being replaced by Cloud Run?

Google's documentation recommends Cloud Run to new users as the preferred alternative and calls it the latest evolution of its serverless products. Cloud Run is a Google product too, so switching to it doesn't change who runs your app.

What replaces Firestore or Datastore in Europe?

None of the platforms in this list offers a managed Firestore. Most teams move the data to PostgreSQL, which Clever Cloud, Scalingo and Upsun run for you. For a hosted Postgres in Europe with auth and storage, see European Supabase alternatives.

Which European platform scales to zero like App Engine standard?

Eurobase containers and Scaleway Serverless Containers both drop to zero instances without traffic. Scalingo states that its containers never sleep.

Can I keep using Cloud SQL after moving the app?

You can while you migrate, as long as the new platform can reach the database over the network. Every query then travels between two providers, which adds latency, and the data stays with Google until you move it.