European alternatives to Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a US-based provider (Sovereign cloud & hosting) operating outside the EEA (data residency: Partial). For teams that need European digital sovereignty — GDPR-safe, outside US CLOUD Act reach — here are 9 verified European providers covering the same ground.
9 verified European alternatives
Aruba (Bergamo/Arezzo, Italy) - Italy's largest hosting and cloud provider with Italian data centres, and a qualified trust service provider (ArubaPEC, on the AgID/EU Trusted List): qualified e-signatures, certified e-mail (PEC), SPID digital identity - plus one of Italy's biggest e-invoicing services. EU-jurisdiction stack across cloud, identity and invoicing.
Hetzner (Gunzenhausen, Germany) - German cloud and dedicated-server provider with data centres in Germany and Finland; family-owned, EU-native, price-performance leader.
IONOS (Germany) - German cloud platform (virtual servers, VPC, managed databases, object storage) with an enterprise-oriented model; EU-native jurisdiction.
Open Telekom Cloud (T-Systems / Deutsche Telekom, Germany) - enterprise public cloud operated from German data centres under EU jurisdiction; a sovereign-cloud staple for regulated workloads.
OVHcloud (Roubaix, France; founded 1999) - Europe's largest cloud provider: 3-availability-zone regions in Paris, Milan and Berlin, EU legal jurisdiction end-to-end - explicitly outside the reach of the US CLOUD Act. The default sovereign choice for EEA data residency.
Scaleway (Paris, France; Iliad Group) - French cloud provider with data centres in France, the Netherlands and Poland; EU-native, no US parent, no CLOUD Act exposure.
StackIT (Germany; the cloud brand of Schwarz Digits, backed by the Schwarz Group - Europe's largest retailer) - German business cloud built for sovereignty-sensitive enterprise workloads.
UpCloud (Helsinki, Finland; founded 2011) - Finnish cloud provider with European data centres; EU-native alternative for developer-centric infrastructure.
Exoscale (Lausanne, Switzerland; subsidiary of A1 Digital / Telekom Austria Group) - European cloud with zones incl. Vienna and Swiss/EU locations, positioned on data privacy and European sovereignty. NB: Swiss HQ (outside EEA); Austrian telecoms parent.
FAQ
What is the best European alternative to Amazon Web Services (AWS)?
It depends on which capability you need (Sovereign cloud & hosting). Fintechnologica lists 9 verified European options above; the top-ranked European-origin match is Aruba (Italy). Request a match for a shortlist tailored to your licence, market and EEA requirements.
Are these alternatives fully European / EEA-based?
Each provider shows its origin and EEA data-residency status (Yes / Partial / No). European origin means the company's HQ and lineage are European; the EEA flag reflects where data and the operating rail actually sit. Both are shown so you can judge sovereignty for your own requirements.
How are these verified?
Every provider is verified at source: licence type, regulator and a registry reference — not a marketing page. That is the depth G2 and Capterra don't provide.