Stack category
European Cloud Providers
Cloud infrastructure is where your workloads physically run — IaaS (compute, storage, networks) and PaaS (managed runtimes) — and the single most consequential layer for data sovereignty.
Why this layer matters for sovereignty
Physical location of servers is the root of data sovereignty: data stored in an EEA data centre falls under the GDPR regardless of where the company you buy from is headquartered.
US-incumbent clouds are subject to the CLOUD Act and US executive orders (Section 702 FISA); European providers are not.
Open standards (OpenStack, S3 APIs, OCI images) keep the exit cost low — a sovereign provider you can't leave is not sovereign.
European providers are frequently price-competitive with the US incumbents at small and mid scale.
What to look for
EEA/EFTA data centres, ideally in the country your compliance demands (DE, FR, and Nordics are well covered).
ISO 27001, C5, or SecNumCloud attestations if you sell to the public sector.
A real data processing agreement under Article 28 GDPR.
API compatibility (S3, OpenStack, OCI) so migration out is plausible, not theoretical.
European & open-source cloud infrastructure providers
Curated as part of the European Stack Builder. Badges reflect the organization's origin — EU, EEA, EFTA, and UK count as European.
Scalable cloud infrastructure focussed on sustainability and data sovereignty
cloud provider focusing on digital sovereignty and S3-compatible object storage
Hosting and domain provider offering cloud servers and managed services
PaaS built on open standards and open source components for production reliability
Sustainable cloud platform offering automated OpenStack IaaS and Jelastic PaaS
Managed DevOps platform for deploying open-source tools on dedicated VMs
Cost-effective hosting giant known for high-performance dedicated and cloud servers
Independent ecosystem offering eco-responsible cloud and storage solutions
Swedish hosting provider offering web hosting, VPS, dedicated servers, and colocation
Enterprise-grade cloud provider with a focus on data sovereignty
Affordable, high-performance hosting and cloud provider with managed services
Secure Enterprise cloud based on OpenStack and T-Systems standards
Innovative cloud provider offering servers, services, and AI infrastructure
Frequently asked questions
What is a sovereign cloud?
A sovereign cloud processes and stores data inside the EU/EEA under EU law only — no US CLOUD Act exposure, transparent ownership, and GDPR-native processes. European providers such as OVHcloud, Scaleway, Hetzner, IONOS, STACKIT, and Exoscale offer it; the EU's own guidelines for non-US clouds have made it a procurement requirement in much of the public sector.
What are European alternatives to AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud?
Established European cloud providers include OVHcloud, Scaleway, Hetzner, IONOS Cloud, Exoscale, STACKIT, Infomaniak, UpCloud, Aruba Cloud, Clever Cloud, gridscale, and Seeweb — plus specialist platforms like Aiven (managed open-source data), Elestio (managed open-source tools), and Scalingo (PaaS).
Is a European cloud more expensive than AWS?
Often the opposite at small and mid scale. European providers compete on transparent per-instance pricing without the egress-fee games of the US incumbents; Hetzner and netcup in particular undercut AWS on raw compute by a wide margin for typical web workloads.
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