There are 6 strong European-headquartered alternatives to AWS for cloud infrastructure: OVHcloud (France), Hetzner (Germany), Scaleway (France), IONOS (Germany), Exoscale (Switzerland) and UpCloud (Finland). All are headquartered in Europe with European majority ownership, operate data centres exclusively in Europe, and offer genuine sovereign cloud infrastructure — compute, storage, managed databases, Kubernetes, object storage and networking — without exposure to the US CLOUD Act or FISA 702.
The three US hyperscalers — Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure — together host the majority of European digital infrastructure. Their dominance creates a structural dependency that European organisations are increasingly motivated to address. The CLOUD Act means US authorities can compel these providers to disclose European customer data regardless of where it is stored. Significant outages across the hyperscaler footprint have also underscored the resilience risk of centralised dependency on foreign infrastructure.
| Provider | HQ Country | Pricing Model | Key Differentiator |
|---|---|---|---|
| OVHcloud | France | IaaS / Managed | Europe’s largest cloud by infrastructure, own data centres |
| Hetzner | Germany | IaaS / Dedicated | Developer-favoured pricing, strong performance, own DCs |
| Scaleway | France | IaaS / Managed | Developer-first managed services, sustainability focus |
| IONOS | Germany | IaaS / Managed | Enterprise-grade with broad European DC coverage |
| Exoscale | Switzerland | IaaS / Managed | Swiss sovereignty focus with strong GDPR posture |
| UpCloud | Finland | IaaS | High-performance VMs with transparent pricing |
OVHcloud — France
OVHcloud is Europe’s largest cloud provider by infrastructure, with data centres across Europe and a full IaaS and managed services portfolio — compute, object storage, managed Kubernetes, databases, and a broad public cloud. Family-owned and focused on European data sovereignty, it is the most AWS-comparable European option at scale. Strong SecNumCloud credentials for regulated French public sector workloads.
Hetzner — Germany
Hetzner is a German family-owned provider popular with developers and SMEs for its competitive pricing, strong performance, and German and Finnish data hosting. Offers cloud instances, dedicated servers, and colocation from its own data centres. A pragmatic choice where price-performance matters more than a full managed-service catalogue.
Scaleway — France
Scaleway is a developer-focused French cloud provider owned by Iliad Group, with a strong managed services offering — managed Kubernetes, databases, serverless functions, object storage — and a clear sustainability commitment. A good fit for engineering teams that want AWS-style managed services from a European provider.
IONOS — Germany
IONOS is an enterprise-grade German cloud and hosting provider owned by United Internet AG, with strong compliance credentials and broad European data centre coverage. Well suited to enterprises needing both traditional managed hosting and modern cloud infrastructure from a single European vendor.
Exoscale — Switzerland
Exoscale is a Swiss cloud platform operated by A1 Digital, offering IaaS and managed services with a focus on simplicity, GDPR compliance, and European data sovereignty. Particularly strong for workloads where Swiss jurisdiction and a predictable operational model matter more than hyperscaler breadth.
UpCloud — Finland
UpCloud is a Finnish cloud provider valued for its high-performance virtual machines, transparent pricing, and EU-based infrastructure across multiple European regions. Strong choice for performance-sensitive workloads on European infrastructure with clear SLAs.
Why choose a European alternative to AWS?
European cloud providers keep your infrastructure, customer data, and application logs in European jurisdiction, removing the structural exposure to the US CLOUD Act and FISA 702 that applies to AWS, Azure, and GCP regardless of which region you select. For organisations subject to GDPR, NIS2, DORA, or the growing body of sector-specific sovereign cloud requirements, a European provider materially simplifies compliance and supply-chain security reviews.
European clouds also align with the EU AI Act. Workloads handling personal data or AI training pipelines benefit from running on infrastructure not subject to US discovery, and several European providers publish transparency documentation regulated buyers increasingly expect. For procurement teams preparing AI risk registers, a European cloud materially reduces downstream obligations.
For resilience, diversification away from the three US hyperscalers reduces single-vendor concentration risk — something European public-sector buyers and regulated financial services firms are explicitly required to consider under DORA and similar frameworks. A pragmatic starting point is a hybrid approach: keep sensitive workloads on European infrastructure and migrate additional estates progressively as workload portability increases.