The verdict in three sentences
For a mid-sized company, hosting a business application with a French sovereign cloud costs between EUR 150 and 900 per month in 2026 depending on size, often 10 to 25% less than AWS or Azure for the same scope. The real cost hides in the migration (EUR 4,000 to 12,000 excl. VAT) and in the choice between a standard offer and SecNumCloud (+30 to 60%), which is only justified for sensitive data or public contracts that require it. Aim for a 99.95% SLA on managed components, off-site backups and a restore test before cutover.
What monthly operations cost in 2026
A typical business application (back office, API, PostgreSQL database, file storage) relies on four building blocks. Here are 2026 orders of magnitude based on OVHcloud and Scaleway public price lists, excluding VAT.
| Component | Small app (50 users) | Mid-size app (300 users) | Critical app (1,000+ users) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Managed compute instances | EUR 80 / month | EUR 180 / month | EUR 400 / month |
| Managed PostgreSQL (high availability) | EUR 40 / month | EUR 120 / month | EUR 250 / month |
| Object storage + CDN | EUR 10 / month | EUR 35 / month | EUR 90 / month |
| Off-site backups (other region) | EUR 15 / month | EUR 45 / month | EUR 110 / month |
| Monitoring and alerting | EUR 0 to 20 / month | EUR 40 / month | EUR 80 / month |
| Indicative total | ≈ EUR 150 to 165 / month | ≈ EUR 420 / month | ≈ EUR 930 / month |
For comparison, the same architecture on a US hyperscaler costs on average 15 to 25% more, mostly because of data egress fees that OVHcloud barely charges. These are 2026 orders of magnitude: prices vary with commitment (1 or 3 years) and region.
OVHcloud, Scaleway or SecNumCloud: which level to choose
The right level depends on the data you process and on your clients, not on an ideological reflex.
| Criterion | OVHcloud standard | Scaleway standard | SecNumCloud offer (OVH, Outscale, S3NS) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extra cost vs standard | Baseline | -5 to +5% | +30 to 60% |
| Managed database SLA | 99.95% | 99.95% | 99.95 to 99.99% |
| Extraterritorial protection (Cloud Act) | Partial (French company) | Partial (French company) | Full, ANSSI-qualified |
| Managed Kubernetes | Yes, free control plane | Yes, free control plane | Yes, narrower catalog |
| Typical use case | Internal ERP, CRM, client portal | B2B SaaS, API, AI | Healthcare, defense, critical operators, sensitive public contracts |
| Setup time | 1 to 2 weeks | 1 to 2 weeks | 3 to 6 weeks |
For 80% of mid-market business applications (sales management, planning, extranet), a French provider's standard offer is enough. SecNumCloud becomes relevant if you process health data (on top of HDS certification), if a public client requires it in its tender, or if your legal team refuses any risk of extraterritorial access.
The migration budget to plan
Migration is the most underestimated line item. A containerized application moves in a few days; one that depends on proprietary services (AWS SQS, Lambda, Cosmos DB) needs a partial rewrite.
| Starting point | Effort | Migration cost excl. VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Containerized app, standard PostgreSQL | 5 to 8 days | EUR 4,000 to 6,000 |
| VM-based app, MySQL, local files | 8 to 12 days | EUR 6,000 to 9,000 |
| App tied to proprietary services (Lambda, SQS) | 12 to 18 days | EUR 9,000 to 12,000 |
| Adding infrastructure as code (Terraform) | +2 to 4 days | +EUR 1,500 to 3,000 |
| Restore test and dry-run cutover | 1 to 2 days | Included or +EUR 800 |
Plan a weekend cutover, a 2 to 4 week parallel run and a DNS TTL reduction 48 h before to keep downtime under one hour.
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Mini case study
Nathalie, CIO of a 450-employee distribution company in Nantes, pays EUR 1,150 per month on a hyperscaler for her order management app (300 users), including EUR 210 of egress fees. After moving to a standard French provider, the bill drops to EUR 430 per month, saving EUR 720 monthly. The migration costs EUR 7,500 excl. VAT (VM-based app, Terraform included). Payback: 7,500 / 720 ≈ 10.4 months. Over 3 years, net savings reach about EUR 18,400, not counting the sales argument with her public-sector clients.
FAQ
Is a 99.95% SLA enough for a business application?
A 99.95% SLA allows about 22 minutes of downtime per month, which suits most internal tools. For a 24/7 customer-facing service, combine two availability zones to approach 99.99%, about 4 minutes per month.
Is SecNumCloud mandatory to work with the French public sector?
No, only for certain sensitive processing covered by the government's "cloud first" doctrine. Most public tenders accept hosting in France or the EU, but check each tender, as the requirement is growing in 2026.
Should backups be kept with a second provider?
It is recommended for critical applications: an encrypted copy with another provider costs EUR 15 to 60 per month. The 2021 Strasbourg datacenter fire showed that a backup on the same site does not protect you from everything.
Can we keep our existing monitoring tools?
Yes, Grafana, Datadog or Sentry work with any provider. Budget 1 to 2 days to reconfigure agents and alerts in the migration estimate.
How long does a full migration take?
Between 3 and 8 weeks depending on the architecture, including 2 to 4 weeks of parallel run. The cutover itself usually fits in a 2 to 4 hour weekend window.
Let's scope your project. Send us your application's current architecture and cloud bill: we will cost the sovereign target, the migration budget (EUR 4,000 to 12,000 excl. VAT) and the cutover schedule. 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.
