The verdict in three sentences
For a standalone B2B brochure site, shared hosting at 5 to 20 EUR a month is enough, but once an extranet holds client data, a VPS on OVHcloud, Hetzner or Scaleway at 15 to 80 EUR a month with managed services offers the best balance of cost, security and sovereignty. AWS or Azure (60 to 400 EUR a month) make sense for heavy traffic spikes or an existing cloud architecture, at the price of exposure to the US Cloud Act. The real cost is managed services, 150 to 600 EUR a month, which belongs in the initial budget.
Monthly cost comparison in 2026
The figures below apply to a B2B site with 5,000 to 50,000 monthly visits and an extranet with 50 to 500 client accounts. They are 2026 estimates, excluding VAT.
| Option | Infrastructure per month | Managed services per month | Target uptime | Data location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shared hosting (IONOS, Strato, Infomaniak) | 5 to 20 EUR | 0 to 50 EUR | 99.5 to 99.9% | Germany or Switzerland |
| OVHcloud VPS | 15 to 60 EUR | 150 to 400 EUR | 99.9% | Germany (Limburg, Frankfurt) or France |
| Hetzner / Scaleway instances | 15 to 80 EUR | 150 to 400 EUR | 99.9% | Germany (Falkenstein, Nuremberg), France, Netherlands |
| German sovereign cloud (IONOS Cloud, STACKIT) | 50 to 250 EUR | Partly included | 99.9 to 99.95% | Germany, BSI C5 attested |
| AWS (EC2, RDS, CloudFront) | 60 to 400 EUR | 250 to 600 EUR | 99.95 to 99.99% | Frankfurt region, US company |
| Azure (App Service, SQL) | 70 to 400 EUR | 250 to 600 EUR | 99.95% | Germany West Central, US company |
A poorly administered 30 EUR VPS costs more than a well-managed 200 EUR AWS instance: a single day of extranet downtime can trigger 20 to 50 client tickets and reputational damage that is hard to price.
Sovereignty, GDPR (DSGVO) and the Cloud Act
GDPR does not forbid hosting on AWS or Azure in an EU region. But the 2018 Cloud Act allows US authorities to request data from a US provider wherever its servers are located. Since the Data Privacy Framework of July 2023, transfers to the US are regulated, but the framework is contested and could fall like Privacy Shield did in 2020. In Germany, the BSI C5 attestation is the usual benchmark, while France uses ANSSI's SecNumCloud qualification.
| Criterion | OVHcloud / Hetzner / Scaleway | German sovereign cloud (C5) | AWS / Azure EU region |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Act exposure | No | No | Yes |
| BSI C5 attestation | On some offers | Yes | Yes |
| SecNumCloud qualification (France) | On some OVH offers | No | No |
| Accepted in sensitive public tenders | Often sufficient | Yes | Often excluded |
| Extra cost versus a standard VPS | Baseline | +30 to 80% | +100 to 300% |
| Managed services ecosystem | Medium | Growing | Very broad |
For a CFO, the practical question is simple: do your clients or contracts require sovereign hosting? If so, an EU provider or a C5 sovereign cloud is the answer. If not, choose on total cost and available skills.
Mini case study
Thomas, CFO of a 140-employee industrial SME in Berlin, hosts the website and a 300-account distributor extranet on AWS for 280 EUR a month plus 450 EUR of managed services, 730 EUR a month or 8,760 EUR a year. A major energy client now requires hosting outside the Cloud Act's reach. Migration to two redundant OVHcloud VPS in Germany: 90 EUR a month of infrastructure, 300 EUR of managed services, a one-off 4,500 EUR migration. New annual cost: 390 x 12 = 4,680 EUR. Savings of 4,080 EUR a year, migration paid back in 13 months, and a 1.2 million EUR tender back within reach.
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FAQ
Is shared hosting enough for a B2B website?
Yes for a brochure site without sensitive data and under 20,000 visits a month. Once an extranet stores client data, move to a managed VPS to isolate the environment and control backups.
What does 99.9% uptime mean?
It allows about 8 hours 45 minutes of downtime a year, or 43 minutes a month. At 99.99% it drops to 52 minutes a year, but architecture costs usually double.
What do managed services include?
24/7 monitoring, security patches, tested daily backups and incident response within 1 to 4 hours. Between 150 and 600 EUR a month depending on commitment level.
Does GDPR forbid AWS?
No. AWS Frankfurt can be used with standard contractual clauses and a transfer impact assessment. The risk lies in the Cloud Act and the legal stability of the Data Privacy Framework.
How much does a hosting migration cost?
For a standard website and extranet, allow 2,000 to 6,000 EUR and 2 to 4 weeks, with a DNS switchover scheduled outside business hours.
Let's scope your project. Describe your website, extranet and client data requirements, and we will price hosting, managed services and any migration over 2 to 4 weeks. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
