Hosting · Updated 10 November 2026 · 9 min read

Where to host a WebSocket app in Europe in 2026

Idle timeouts, sticky sessions, instance limits and prices for running WebSockets, Socket.IO or live updates on European platforms.

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Most European platforms accept WebSockets, so the real differences are idle timeouts, sticky routing and how instances scale. Eurobase suits a WebSocket app on one or a few instances at a flat €10 or €20 a month, Scalingo and Upsun document sticky routing for apps spread over several containers, Scaleway Serverless Containers lets you set the request timeout yourself, and Sliplane or a Hetzner server suit a socket server you run and tune yourself.

WebSocket hosting at a glance

Platform	WebSockets	Documented connection timeout	Same client, same instance	Starts at
Eurobase	Inbound, on containers and V8 isolates	Containers close a socket after 60 s without data	Not documented	Free, then €10 a month + VAT
Scalingo	On by default	Data at least every 59 s	Sticky Sessions by cookie	€7.20 a month excl. VAT
Upsun	On a route with cache and request buffering off	Not documented	Sticky routing by client IP	€9 per project a month plus resources
Clever Cloud	Supported, per its own blog	Not documented	Sticky sessions setting	Billed by the second
Scaleway Serverless Containers	Listed as a supported request type	Request duration you set, 10 s to 60 minutes	Not documented	Free tier, then billed by use
Sliplane	Works through its TLS, per its Soketi guide	Not documented	One server per service	€9 for 1 vCPU and 1 GB, excl. VAT
Hetzner	Whatever your server runs	You decide	You configure it	€5.49 a month excl. VAT, if available to order

Prices are from each provider's own page, checked on 9 and 10 November 2026.

What to check before you deploy a socket server

The idle timeout. Most proxies close a connection that carries no data for about a minute. Send a ping or heartbeat more often than the host's limit, and make the client reconnect on its own.
Sticky routing. Socket.IO falls back to HTTP long-polling, and its docs say every request from one client must then reach the same server. With more than one instance you need sticky sessions or a WebSocket-only transport.
Broadcasting across instances. A message sent on instance A doesn't reach clients on instance B unless something relays it, usually a Redis adapter. Check where that Redis can run.
Scale to zero and releases. A stopped or replaced instance drops every open socket, so the client should reconnect on its own, waiting a little longer after each failed try.

1. Eurobase

Eurobase builds your repository from GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg, Forgejo or Gitea and hosts it on European infrastructure run by Scaleway, a French provider. The company is registered in Warsaw, Poland. A Node.js, Python or Go server runs as a container: once a WebSocket or event stream has started, it has no time limit, but it closes after 60 s without data from your app, and a Eurobase update can also end it, so clients should reconnect. Containers scale to zero when idle, and a container app runs at most 1 instance on Free, 2 on Starter and 3 on Pro.

Apps on V8 isolates, such as Hono, also accept inbound WebSockets. There, a socket counts as one request for its whole life, with 30 s of CPU on paid plans and 50 ms plus a small reserve on Free. Outbound WebSockets from an isolate aren't supported, and there are no Durable Objects to coordinate sockets. See Containers and static sites and Workers for every limit.

Best for: live dashboards, notifications or a small chat on one or two instances, at a known monthly price, deployed from Git or by a coding agent through the MCP server and CLI.
Price: free to start; paid plans cost €10 or €20 a month + VAT and cover every project in 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: documented sticky sessions, managed Redis for a Socket.IO adapter, Dockerfile builds and preview deployments. ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certification is still underway, so neither is held yet.

2. Scalingo

Scalingo, from Strasbourg, says WebSockets, server-sent events and long-running connections are available by default. Its router gives a new connection 30 s for a first response, then expects data at least every 59 s. Its Sticky Sessions feature pins each visitor to one web container with a cookie, and a deployment, restart or scaling change resets that cookie. Redis is sold as a managed add-on.

Best for: a Socket.IO app on several containers with Redis on the same platform.
Price: €7.20 a month excl. VAT for a 256 MB container, or €8.64 excl. VAT in its SecNumCloud region. The smallest Postgres, 512 MB and 10 GB, is also €7.20 a month excl. VAT. A 30-day free trial is included.
What it lacks: scale to zero. Its pricing page says containers never sleep, and they're billed by the minute while they run.

3. Upsun

Upsun is the trading name of Platform.sh SAS, in Paris. A WebSocket route needs its cache disabled, because the router's caching requires buffering, and your app needs request buffering switched off too. A route can turn on sticky routing, which picks the instance from a hash of the client's IP address, so scaling up or down can move clients to other containers. Regions run on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud or OVHcloud, and the regions page names the provider for each.

Best for: routing defined in config, with a European region you pick.
Price: a €9 project fee and €10 per user each month, with resources billed per second on top.
What it lacks: a published idle timeout for open sockets in its routes docs.

4. Clever Cloud

Clever Cloud is a French platform. A post on its own blog says WebSockets work with Node.js and Play 2 apps, and its application settings include sticky sessions through an X-Clever-Cloud-Sticky-Id cookie, off by default.

Best for: a realtime app that wants Redis and Postgres add-ons in the same console.
Price: resources are billed by the second up to a maximum you set, with free credits for new accounts.
What it lacks: a documented idle timeout for long-lived connections.

5. Scaleway Serverless Containers

Serverless Containers come from Scaleway, the French cloud company. The FAQ lists WebSockets with HTTP, HTTP/2 and gRPC as request types a container can handle, and you choose HTTP/1.1 or HTTP/2 in the advanced options. The limits page sets the HTTP request duration between 10 s and 60 minutes, a concurrency target of 80 per instance and up to 200 instances. It runs images from a container registry, so you build and push them yourself.

Best for: teams that build images in CI and want a timeout they control.
Price: 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.

6. Sliplane

Sliplane, based in Berlin, runs Docker services on a server you rent from it. Its guide to self-hosting Soketi, a Pusher-compatible WebSocket server, shows WSS on port 443 with Sliplane handling TLS, so a socket server or your own app runs as a normal container.

Best for: a Socket.IO or Soketi server next to its own Redis container, under one server price.
Price: the Starter server with 1 vCPU and 1 GB is €9 excl. VAT.
What it lacks: a free plan, and published proxy timeouts for open connections.

7. Hetzner

Hetzner is a German host that rents cloud servers. You pick the reverse proxy, its timeouts and how clients stick to a process, and you handle patching, TLS and failover.

Best for: high connection counts on a budget, if you run Linux yourself.
Price: the CPX02 is listed at €5.49 a month excl. VAT in Helsinki and €6.49 in Falkenstein or Nuremberg, but the cheapest plans showed as unavailable to order on 10 November 2026.
What it lacks: any managed layer.

How to choose

Live updates or a small chat, fixed budget: Eurobase, with a heartbeat under 60 s.
Socket.IO across several containers with Redis beside it: Scalingo or Clever Cloud.
Config-driven routing and a choice of cloud region: Upsun.
Long sessions with a timeout you set: Scaleway Serverless Containers.
Many sockets on one cheap machine: Sliplane, or a Hetzner server you manage.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my WebSocket disconnect after about a minute?

The platform's proxy closes connections that carry no data. Eurobase containers allow 60 s of silence and Scalingo expects data every 59 s. Send a ping every 20 to 30 s and reconnect on close.

Do I need sticky sessions for Socket.IO?

Yes, when you run more than one instance and keep long-polling enabled, according to Socket.IO's own docs. Scalingo, Upsun and Clever Cloud document sticky routing. The alternative is to force the WebSocket transport on the client.

Can I run WebSockets on a serverless platform?

Some, yes. Scaleway Serverless Containers lists WebSockets as supported, and Eurobase accepts them on containers and V8 isolates. When an idle instance stops, its sockets go with it.

How do I send a message to clients connected to different instances?

Use a pub/sub layer, usually Redis with the Socket.IO Redis adapter. Scalingo and Clever Cloud sell Redis next to the app; on Eurobase, point the adapter at a Redis hosted elsewhere.