The verdict in three sentences
For a business law firm in Paris or elsewhere in Europe, the price gap between hosts is small: 15 to 80 EUR excluding VAT per month for OVHcloud or Scaleway, 20 USD per user per month for Vercel Pro. What should decide is how contact and booking forms are handled, since they collect information covered by legal privilege and must appear in the GDPR record of processing. The most defensible setup is often to serve public pages through a CDN and keep forms and data with a European host not subject to US law.
What a law firm website actually processes
A law firm website is more than a brochure. An executive filling in the contact form often describes a dispute, a sale transaction or an ongoing tax audit. This information falls under legal professional privilege and sometimes under GDPR special categories (an employee's health in an employment case, criminal offenses). Bar rules and data protection authority guidance require appropriate security, a defined retention period and clear information to data subjects.
| Host 2026 | Indicative cost (excl. VAT/month) | Data location | Governing law | Watch point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OVHcloud VPS | 15 to 60 EUR | France (Gravelines, Roubaix, Strasbourg) | French, SecNumCloud offers available | Server administration required |
| Scaleway (Instances, Serverless) | 20 to 80 EUR | France (Paris), Netherlands, Poland | French | Smaller ecosystem |
| Vercel Pro | 20 USD per user + usage | Global CDN, EU region functions possible | US company, CLOUD Act | Transfer covered by Data Privacy Framework |
| AWS Frankfurt | 20 to 120 EUR | Germany | US company, CLOUD Act | More complex configuration |
| French managed hosting | 80 to 250 EUR | France | French | Managed service included, higher cost |
Recommended architecture and budget
Three options hold up for a firm of 10 to 40 lawyers. The choice depends on how demanding clients are (banks, funds, listed groups) and on the vendor audits they impose.
| Option | Architecture | Setup (excl. VAT) | Monthly cost (excl. VAT) | Sovereignty level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fully European | Next.js on Scaleway or OVHcloud, European CDN | 2,500 to 5,000 EUR | 40 to 120 EUR | High |
| Hybrid | Public pages on Vercel, forms and database on OVHcloud | 3,000 to 6,000 EUR | 60 to 150 EUR | High for data, medium for logs |
| Fully Vercel | Site and forms on Vercel, emails via a US provider | 1,500 to 3,000 EUR | 20 to 60 EUR | Low to medium |
| Sovereign booking | Calendar hosted in France, SMS reminders | 1,500 to 4,000 EUR | 30 to 100 EUR | High |
| Compliance work | Records, notices, retention periods, automatic purge | 1,000 to 2,500 EUR | none | required in every case |
The hybrid setup often offers the best balance: the speed of a global CDN for pages that hold no personal data, and a database in France for contact requests, encrypted and purged automatically after 12 to 36 months depending on the purpose. Compared with AWS Frankfurt, it keeps the data with a provider outside US jurisdiction, which is what many institutional questionnaires actually check.
Rules to set before choosing
- Record each form in the processing register with its purpose, legal basis and retention period.
- Limit the fields: a first-contact form does not need case details. Offer a short field and invite a confidential call.
- Avoid US analytics tools without consent, and prefer an audience measurement tool exempted by the regulator.
- Sign a data processing agreement (GDPR Article 28) with the host and the agency.
- Document backups and storage location, to answer security questionnaires from institutional clients.
Mini case study
Maître Leroy, managing partner of a 25-lawyer business firm in Paris, answers 6 legal panel tenders a year from banks and industrial groups, whose questionnaires require data hosting in the European Union outside US law. He chooses the hybrid option: 5,000 EUR setup and 110 EUR a month, for 6,320 EUR in the first year. If this compliance helps him win a single extra panel generating 60,000 EUR of annual fees, the investment amounts to just over 10% of first-year fees.
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FAQ
Is Vercel off-limits for a law firm?
No, transfers to the United States have been covered by the Data Privacy Framework since 2023. But CLOUD Act exposure is a problem for some institutional clients, whose security questionnaires often include 50 to 150 questions on hosting and subprocessors.
What is the difference between OVHcloud and Scaleway for a firm website?
Both host in France for 15 to 80 EUR a month. OVHcloud offers SecNumCloud-qualified services, Scaleway a serverless offer that is simpler to run for a small site.
How long should contact requests be kept?
Three years after the last contact for a prospect is the French regulator's benchmark. For clients, retention follows the matter file, often 5 years after the engagement ends.
Is encryption mandatory?
GDPR requires security appropriate to the risk. For privileged information, encryption in transit (TLS) and at rest is the expected practice, at close to zero extra cost.
Does a hosting migration take the site offline?
Not if it is prepared. The DNS switch takes under an hour, after full acceptance testing on the new host.
Let's scope your project. We design your firm's hosting architecture and bring your forms into compliance, for 2,500 to 6,000 EUR with go-live in 3 to 5 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.
