Corporate Website Hosting, Cloud Act and EU Sovereignty in Dublin (2026)

The verdict in three sentences

For a mid-sized company whose website collects data through contact, job application or customer portal forms, hosting is no longer a purely technical choice: it is part of the GDPR record of processing that auditors ask to see, whether the company sits in Lyon or Dublin. In 2026, an OVH VPS costs 15 to 60 EUR a month, managed Scaleway 40 to 200 EUR, AWS in the Paris or Dublin region 80 to 400 EUR, and managed services add 150 to 600 EUR excl. VAT a month depending on the service level. The right choice depends on five measurable criteria: EU location, exposure to the US Cloud Act, backups, 99.9% SLA and exit cost.

What a GDPR audit checks on hosting

A serious GDPR audit does not stop at the privacy policy. It traces the chain: where form data is stored, who can access it, which processor is listed in the record, which data processing agreement (DPA) was signed, and whether a transfer outside the EU is possible. Since the Schrems II ruling, and despite the Data Privacy Framework adopted in 2023, a US-owned host remains subject to the Cloud Act even when its servers are in Paris or Dublin. Data protection authorities (the CNIL in France, the Data Protection Commission in Ireland) do not ban these hosts, but they expect a transfer impact assessment and supplementary measures, especially for HR or health data.

2026 comparison of offers for a corporate site

The figures below assume a corporate site of 50 to 150 pages, 20,000 to 80,000 visits a month, with forms and a light secure area.

An OVH VPS is the cheapest, but it needs someone for updates, firewall and monitoring: without managed services it becomes the weak link. Managed Scaleway (databases, containers, object storage) reduces that workload. AWS offers the widest range of services and resilience, at the price of a variable bill and a Cloud Act analysis to document. Exit cost is the most overlooked criterion: a site built on proprietary services (Lambda, DynamoDB, advanced CloudFront) can cost 5,000 to 15,000 EUR excl. VAT to migrate, against 1,500 to 4,000 EUR for a standard container architecture.

Mini case study

Julien, CIO of a 450-employee industrial company in Lyon with a sales office in Dublin, hosts the website on AWS in the North Virginia region, with job application forms stored in a US SaaS tool. The GDPR audit flags an undocumented transfer outside the EU.

Option A: stay on AWS by moving to an EU region, with a transfer impact assessment and customer-managed encryption. Cost: 250 EUR a month of hosting, 400 EUR a month of managed services, 3,500 EUR of migration and 2,000 EUR of legal analysis, i.e. 13,300 EUR in year one.

Option B: migrate to managed Scaleway with forms brought in-house. Cost: 130 EUR a month, 300 EUR a month of managed services, 4,500 EUR of migration (forms rebuild included), i.e. 9,660 EUR in year one and 5,160 EUR in later years, against 7,800 EUR for option A. Over three years, option B saves about 8,900 EUR and removes the Cloud Act question from the record. Julien picks it, keeping AWS only for an internal tool that handles no personal data.

FAQ

Is AWS hosting in an EU region GDPR compliant?

It can be, with a signed DPA, encryption where you hold the keys and a transfer analysis covering the Cloud Act. Budget 1,500 to 3,000 EUR excl. VAT for a proper legal analysis.

What is the difference between OVH and Scaleway for a corporate site?

Both are French and outside the Cloud Act. OVH is unbeatable on VPS prices (15 to 60 EUR a month), Scaleway is more comfortable on managed services, which cuts managed service fees by 20 to 30%.

Is a 99.9% SLA enough for a corporate site?

Yes in most cases: 99.9% allows about 8 h 45 min of downtime a year. For a critical customer portal, aim for 99.95% with a redundant architecture, which adds 30 to 60% to hosting cost.

How much does a hosting migration cost?

For a standard corporate site, 1,500 to 4,500 EUR excl. VAT, with zero-downtime DNS cutover and restore tests. Architectures heavily tied to one provider can exceed 10,000 EUR.

Does a mid-sized company need SecNumCloud?

Rarely for a corporate site. It becomes relevant if you bid for sensitive public contracts or process health data, at 2 to 4 times the cost of a standard cloud offer.

Let's scope your project. Send us your current architecture and audit report: we quote migration and managed services, usually 1,500 to 4,500 EUR excl. VAT one-off and 150 to 600 EUR a month, delivered in 2 to 4 weeks. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.