EU Website Hosting with OVH or Scaleway: GDPR and Costs for UK Firms 2026

The verdict in three sentences

For a UK SME serving European clients, hosting its website with OVHcloud or Scaleway costs little in infrastructure (EUR 6 to 40 per month for a VPS, about GBP 5 to 34) but requires managed services at EUR 100 to 300 per month if nobody in-house can run a server. The migration costs EUR 500 to 2,000 depending on the number of sites, databases and mailboxes. The main gain is legal: your data stays outside the reach of the US Cloud Act, and SecNumCloud-qualified hosting only becomes necessary for health, sensitive or public-sector data.

OVHcloud or Scaleway: 2026 offer comparison

Both providers host in France (Roubaix, Gravelines and Strasbourg for OVHcloud, the Paris area for Scaleway) and fall solely under European law, which the UK recognises through its adequacy regulations. Differences lie in usability, support and managed services.

For a brochure site or a high-traffic WordPress site, a EUR 10 to 20 per month VPS is plenty. The apparent premium of a US host often comes from bundled services an SME does not need.

Total budget: infrastructure, managed services and migration

The server price is only a small share of the bill. What costs money is human time for administration, backups and monitoring.

A typical SME therefore pays EUR 1,500 to 4,300 per year once migrated, excluding SecNumCloud, compared with EUR 2,000 to 5,000 with a US provider offering fewer legal guarantees.

GDPR: what EU hosting really changes

Neither the EU GDPR nor the UK GDPR bans US hosts, especially since the 2023 Data Privacy Framework and the UK extension that followed. But that framework remains fragile, and the Cloud Act lets US authorities request data hosted in Europe by a US company. Choosing a European host simplifies three things: your record of processing no longer lists transfers to the US, your impact assessment becomes lighter, and your enterprise or public-sector clients approve your security questionnaires faster. Sign a data processing agreement (DPA) with the host, document where backups live and set a retention period, for example a rolling 30 days.

Mini case study

Mark runs an 18-person HR services firm in Manchester with many clients in France and Germany. His website, candidate extranet and email run on a US provider for EUR 380 per month, or EUR 4,560 a year. He moves to an OVHcloud VPS at EUR 25 per month, Scaleway off-site backups at EUR 10 and managed services at EUR 180, a total of EUR 215 per month or EUR 2,580 a year. The migration costs EUR 1,600 once. He saves EUR 1,980 a year, recovers the migration cost in ten months, and can finally answer yes when two large French clients ask whether their data stays in the EU.

FAQ

Is EU hosting enough to be GDPR compliant?

No, it mainly removes the international transfer issue. You still need records, a signed DPA, retention periods and security measures, roughly EUR 600 to 1,500 of initial advisory work.

Is SecNumCloud mandatory?

Only for sensitive or health data, or certain French public contracts. For a brochure site or a commercial extranet, a standard VPS at EUR 10 to 30 per month is appropriate.

How long does a migration take?

Two to five working days for a simple site, two to three weeks for several sites plus email. Actual downtime is limited to a few minutes if the DNS switch is prepared 48 hours ahead.

Is OVHcloud reliable after the 2021 Strasbourg fire?

The incident mostly hurt customers without off-site backups. Hence the rule: backups on a second site with 30-day retention, for EUR 5 to 20 per month.

Can I keep Google Workspace or Microsoft 365?

Yes, many SMEs move the website and extranet first. Email can follow later, at a migration cost of EUR 15 to 40 per mailbox.

Let's scope your project. List your sites, databases and mailboxes: we price the move to OVHcloud or Scaleway, the monthly managed service and the related GDPR audit. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.