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EU VETTED

European cloud providers

Europe-based infrastructure and hosting providers, compared on hosting region, ownership, CLOUD Act exposure, sub-processors and recognised certifications.

European cloud providers listed here are EU- or EEA-incorporated companies running infrastructure in European data centres. The critical distinction: a US hyperscaler's EU region does not remove CLOUD Act exposure, because ownership determines legal reach, not server location. Providers such as Hetzner, OVHcloud, and IONOS are EU-owned and EU-hosted, giving a structurally different exposure profile.
EU Vetted Editorial
Verified May 2026 How we verify

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Showing all 20 alternatives in this category

Source: EU Vetted dataset, 20 products, methodology v2026.05, as of Oct 2026.

About European cloud providers

A European cloud provider, as listed here, is an infrastructure or hosting company whose operating entity is incorporated and headquartered in the EU or EEA, running its primary infrastructure in European data centres. That sounds simple, but the useful detail is in what it does not automatically mean: European hosting is not the same as European ownership, and neither one on its own removes exposure to non-EU extraterritorial law.

This page lists the providers in our directory that meet the European-cloud test, scored against what a buyer actually needs to check: hosting region, ownership signal, CLOUD Act exposure, sub-processor chain and recognised certifications. Every figure is sourced to the provider's public documentation and re-verified quarterly.

Why it matters

The reason this distinction is worth a dedicated page is that the easy version of "European cloud" (a US hyperscaler's EU region) does not answer the question most procurement teams are actually asking. Under the US CLOUD Act, data held by a company subject to US jurisdiction can be reached regardless of where the servers physically sit. An "EU region" changes the data's location; it does not change the operator's legal exposure.

A genuinely European provider (EU-incorporated, EU-owned, with no US sub-processors in the data path) has a structurally weaker exposure profile. But "genuinely European" is a chain of facts, not a logo: the operating entity, its ultimate owners, where decisions are made, and who the sub-processors are. We record each link separately so the CLOUD Act exposure flag on every listing is evidence-based. Use this page to shortlist, then open each profile to confirm the chain against your own transfer impact assessment.

At a glance

Key facts per option, checked against each vendor's own documents.

  • Aiven

    hosted in Belgium, encrypted at rest, material CLOUD Act exposure, from $5/mo.

    Best for: Engineering teams that want managed PostgreSQL, Kafka or ClickHouse from a Finnish vendor with a public DPA, with the option to place databases on a European provider (UpCloud, OVHcloud), and that can accept a management plane hosted on Google Cloud.

  • Aruba Cloud

    hosted in Italy, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure, from €1.99/mo.

    Best for: Cloud and VMware infrastructure for Italian SMBs, agencies, and public-sector buyers needing ACN-qualified hosting that stays in Italy.

  • Cleura

    hosted in Sweden, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure.

    Best for: OpenStack public and compliant cloud for Nordic enterprises and OpenStack-fluent teams wanting anti-lock-in infrastructure with EU-only data residency.

  • Clever Cloud

    hosted in France, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure, from €4.80/mo.

    Best for: PaaS and managed databases for development teams deploying apps on EU infrastructure without operational overhead.

  • Contabo

    hosted in Germany, encrypted at rest, material CLOUD Act exposure, from €5.50/mo.

    Best for: Budget VPS and dedicated servers for indie developers, small SaaS builders, and prosumers prioritising low price over enterprise compliance.

  • Cyso Cloud

    hosted in the Netherlands, encrypted at rest, material CLOUD Act exposure, from €17.50/mo.

    Best for: Dutch and EU teams, including healthcare buyers who need NEN 7510, that want managed Kubernetes and S3-compatible storage on an operator's own European hardware and can accept requesting the DPA.

  • Exoscale

    hosted in Switzerland, encrypted at rest, minor CLOUD Act exposure, from €9/mo.

    Best for: IaaS for Swiss financial-services and DACH automotive teams needing FINMA and TISAX compliance with Swiss data residency.

  • Hetzner

    hosted in Germany, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure, from €5.49/mo.

    Best for: Cloud and dedicated servers for EU teams that want low-cost German-hosted infrastructure with workloads pinned to EU data centres.

  • Hikube

    hosted in Switzerland, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure, from CHF 24/mo.

    Best for: Swiss and EU teams, including FINMA-regulated buyers, that want VMs, managed Kubernetes and GPUs from a Swiss operator with replication across three sites inside Switzerland.

  • Infomaniak Public Cloud

    hosted in Switzerland, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure, from €3/mo.

    Best for: OpenStack public cloud and VPS for Swiss and EU organisations wanting a genuine Swiss-jurisdiction cloud on the provider's own data centres.

  • Intility

    hosted in Norway, encrypted at rest, material CLOUD Act exposure.

    Best for: Managed enterprise-cloud platform for Nordic enterprises and public bodies wanting a single operated platform with a Sovereign Cloud option.

  • IONOS

    hosted in Germany, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure, from €5.04/mo.

    Best for: Cloud compute and storage for German SMBs and public-sector buyers needing BSI C5 and IT-Grundschutz coverage from a Frankfurt-rooted provider.

  • netcup

    hosted in Germany, encrypted at rest, minor CLOUD Act exposure, from €1.84/mo.

    Best for: Budget VPS, ARM64, and AMD EPYC dedicated servers for indie developers and small SaaS builders who want low-cost German-hosted infrastructure with hourly billing.

  • OVHcloud

    hosted in France, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure, from €5/mo.

    Best for: Public cloud and bare metal for regulated industries and public-sector buyers needing SecNumCloud-grade sovereign isolation in France.

  • Scaleway

    hosted in France, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure, from €2/mo.

    Best for: Cloud and GPU infrastructure for AI teams and regulated EU buyers wanting French sovereign-cloud hosting with HDS coverage and an ANSSI SecNumCloud qualification in progress.

  • STACKIT

    hosted in Germany, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure.

    Best for: Sovereign cloud infrastructure for EU public-sector procurement, DORA-regulated finance, and large corporates wanting a non-VC-funded German operator.

  • Stackscale

    hosted in Spain, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure, from €395/mo.

    Best for: Private cloud and bare-metal infrastructure for Iberian and Benelux enterprises and integrators needing ENS High and EU-only hosting.

  • T Cloud Public (formerly Open Telekom Cloud)

    hosted in Germany, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure.

    Best for: Enterprise OpenStack public cloud for large DACH organisations and German public-sector buyers migrating off AWS, Azure, or GCP.

  • Thalassa Cloud

    hosted in the Netherlands, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure, from €5/mo.

    Best for: Kubernetes-native cloud for Dutch and EU DevOps teams wanting an EU-owned, API-first platform and able to accept an early-stage provider.

  • UpCloud

    hosted in Finland, encrypted at rest, no CLOUD Act exposure, from €5/mo.

    Best for: High-performance cloud servers for developers, SaaS builders, and EU SMBs wanting a Finnish-hosted alternative to DigitalOcean or Linode.

How to choose

Weigh each provider against the requirement that actually decides your shortlist. If you need raw infrastructure (IaaS), weigh the established European players against hosting region, ownership and certification: a clean ownership chain matters more than headline price for sovereignty-driven buys. If you need managed services, check the sub-processor list closely: managed databases, email and CDN layers are where US sub-processors most often re-enter an otherwise European stack. If certification is written into your tender, filter by SecNumCloud (France), BSI C5 (Germany) or EUCS and confirm the certification covers the specific service. If you are a solo founder or small team, the lower-cost European hosts will usually serve you well; price and developer experience are more likely to settle the choice than a formal compliance framework. Sort the table above by compliance score, hosting region or CLOUD Act exposure to find your shortlist. Targeting a single jurisdiction? See the dedicated pages on German cloud providers and French cloud providers.

Switching from US cloud & hosting?

Side-by-side European alternatives (same hosting, ownership and CLOUD Act checks) for the US tools most often replaced in this category.

Related collections

Frequently asked questions

What counts as a European cloud provider?
On this page, a European cloud provider is one whose operating company is headquartered and incorporated in the EU or EEA, with its primary infrastructure in European data centres. We keep ownership and hosting as separate signals: a provider can be EU-hosted but US-owned, or EU-owned but rely on US sub-processors. Each profile shows both so you can apply your own priority rather than trust a single label.
Is a European cloud provider automatically outside the US CLOUD Act?
Not automatically. The CLOUD Act can reach data held by a company subject to US jurisdiction regardless of where the servers sit, so a US-owned provider's 'EU region' does not, on its own, remove exposure. A provider that is EU-incorporated, EU-owned and free of US sub-processors in the data path has a much weaker exposure profile. We record the ownership and sub-processor chain on every listing so the exposure flag is evidence-based, not assumed.
How is this different from the cloud hosting category page?
The cloud hosting category lists every hosting product in the directory. This hub is the same data framed around the procurement question 'which cloud providers are genuinely European', with the editorial context, certification framing and FAQ that a buyer evaluating sovereignty needs. Use the filters here to narrow by country, certification or CLOUD Act exposure.
Which certifications should I look for?
It depends on your jurisdiction. SecNumCloud is the French sovereign-cloud reference; BSI C5 is the German cloud-security benchmark; EUCS is the pan-European scheme still being finalised. ISO/IEC 27001, 27017 and 27018 are widely held baseline security standards. The comparison table lets you filter to any of these, but read each as a scoped signal, not a blanket guarantee.
Can a European cloud provider still be subject to non-EU law?
Yes, depending on its ownership and sub-processor chain. A provider incorporated in the EU but ultimately owned by a non-EU parent may still fall within the reach of that parent's home jurisdiction. Conversely, an EU-owned provider that uses a US-incorporated CDN or managed-database layer may route data through a sub-processor covered by extraterritorial law. This is why each listing records the full ownership and sub-processor chain, not just the primary hosting location.
What is the difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS on this page?
All three layers are listed here when the provider is EU-incorporated and EU-hosted. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) gives you raw compute, storage and networking; Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) adds managed runtimes, databases and middleware; Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a finished application. The compliance questions are similar across layers, but the sub-processor list tends to grow as you move up the stack. Filter by service type in the comparison table to narrow to the relevant layer for your evaluation.

How we verified every listing here

For each product we read the public DPA, sub-processors document, hosting region declaration, certifications, and corporate ownership records. Each is timestamped. Signals are editorial, re-verified quarterly. We never accept self-attestation.

Read methodology