European alternatives to Amazon Web Services
Amazon's cloud, the backbone of a huge slice of the internet, from startups to governments. Even its European regions answer to a US parent under the CLOUD Act, which is the whole reason data-sovereignty rules exist.
Company information about Amazon Web Services
- Company
- Amazon.com Inc.
- Headquarters
- Seattle, United States
- Founded
- 2006
- Data jurisdiction
- United States
- Ownership
- Publicly traded
- GDPR
- No
- Open source
- No
- Infrastructure
- Own infrastructure
Why people switch away from Amazon Web Services
Answers to US law
AWS is a US company, so even its European regions ultimately answer to American law under the CLOUD Act – the exact reason data-sovereignty rules exist.
Flagged for market dominance
The UK's competition regulator concluded in 2024 that AWS and Microsoft's grip on the cloud market, reinforced by steep egress fees, restricts competition, and ordered remedies to make switching easier.
Deep government ties
AWS holds major US government and intelligence contracts, including classified cloud work, raising questions about how separate commercial and state use really are.
Everyday annoyances
- Egress fees trap you in. Moving data out of AWS costs real money even when moving it in was free, which is a well-known tactic that makes switching providers expensive on purpose.
- Pricing is famously confusing. Hundreds of services with usage-based pricing make it genuinely hard to predict a bill in advance, and surprise five-figure invoices are a recurring horror story.
- Outages ripple across the internet. Because so much of the web runs on AWS, a single regional outage has repeatedly taken down large chunks of unrelated websites and apps at once.
- Support costs extra. Timely human support sits behind a paid support plan that can cost thousands a month – the free tier leaves you largely on your own.
- Data centres are power-hungry. AWS's data centres use enormous amounts of electricity and water for cooling, and Amazon's own emissions have grown alongside its cloud business despite renewable pledges.
European alternatives to Amazon Web Services
Family-owned German cloud and dedicated server provider founded in 1997. Own data centres in Germany and Finland, no outside investors, no VC pressure, delivering reliable European infrastructure at unbeatable prices.
Slovenian content delivery network and cloud storage provider founded in 2017. Operates 120+ PoPs worldwide with European ownership and no ties to US Big Tech. Simple pricing, no hidden fees, GDPR-compliant infrastructure.
S3-compatible object storage launched by German cloud provider Hetzner in December 2024. Store data in certified European data centres in Falkenstein, Nuremberg, or Helsinki. From €4.99/month per TB with no egress charges within the EU network zone.
Swiss web hosting from Infomaniak, Europe's leading independent hosting provider. Shared web hosting, WordPress and domains on owned, 100% renewable-powered data centres in Switzerland, under strict Swiss privacy law with no data exploitation.
France's largest cloud provider with 43 data centres across Europe and beyond. Family-founded in 1999, publicly listed, with a strong focus on data sovereignty and competitive pricing.
French cloud provider with data centres in Paris and Amsterdam. Eco-friendly infrastructure, GDPR-native, competitive pricing.
Lithuanian web hosting giant serving 29 million users in 178 countries. Affordable shared, VPS and cloud hosting with a custom control panel and strong European infrastructure.
Want more options? Browse all European Hosting & cloud infrastructure alternatives →
People also replace
Heroku 
Vercel 
Netlify 
DigitalOcean 
Linode 
Alibaba Cloud Start somewhere.
Switching everything overnight is not realistic. Start where it matters most: your email, your cloud storage, your business tools. Replace one thing at a time.
The European Alternative already exists.
Pick Europe.
Why avoid United States-owned services?
CLOUD Act
Forces US companies to hand over data stored anywhere in the world upon government request, including data on European servers.
FISA Section 702
Authorises mass surveillance of non-US persons using data held by US tech platforms, without a warrant or notification.
GDPR vs US law conflict
EU courts have repeatedly found that US surveillance law conflicts with European fundamental rights. Schrems I and II both invalidated EU-US data transfer agreements.