The verdict in three sentences
If your enterprise clients require in their supplier questionnaires data hosted in the EU by a European provider, OVHcloud or Scaleway are the natural choices, at EUR 25 to 120 per month. Vercel and AWS offer a better operating experience but remain subject to the US CLOUD Act, even with a European region. Three-year total cost depends mostly on admin time, not on server price.
Costed comparison of four options in 2026
Public 2026 prices for a Next.js or WordPress site with 50,000 monthly visits, forms and a light client portal:
| Criterion | OVHcloud VPS or Public Cloud | Scaleway Instances | Vercel Pro | AWS Paris or Frankfurt region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indicative monthly price | EUR 25 to 80 | EUR 30 to 120 | USD 20 per member + transfer | EUR 60 to 200 |
| Data location | France (also Frankfurt, Warsaw) | France, Amsterdam, Warsaw | US by default, global edge | EU region |
| Subject to the CLOUD Act | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| SecNumCloud qualification available | Yes (dedicated offer) | In progress on some offers | No | No |
| Contractual SLA | 99.9% to 99.99% | 99.9% to 99.99% | 99.99% (Enterprise) | 99.99% |
| Backups included | Add-on EUR 3 to 10 per month | Billed snapshots | Immutable deployments | Billed add-on |
| Admin effort required | High (VPS) | Medium | Very low | High |
The legal point is decisive: the CLOUD Act lets US authorities request access to data held by a US provider, wherever the server sits. For suppliers in aerospace, defence or healthcare, that exposure is often a deal-breaker.
Three-year total cost: the server is the small part
The sticker price is misleading. A cheap VPS needs OS updates, monitoring and tested backups. Here is an estimate of the full 36-month cost including admin (agency rate EUR 70 per hour):
| 36-month item | OVHcloud VPS | Managed Scaleway | Vercel Pro (3 members) | AWS EU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting | EUR 1,800 | EUR 2,900 | EUR 2,300 | EUR 4,300 |
| Backups and storage | EUR 300 | EUR 400 | EUR 0 | EUR 500 |
| CDN and DDoS protection | Included | EUR 200 | Included | EUR 600 |
| Admin (hours per month) | 2 h, EUR 5,000 | 1 h, EUR 2,500 | 0.25 h, EUR 630 | 3 h, EUR 7,600 |
| Monitoring and alerts | EUR 400 | EUR 300 | Included | EUR 400 |
| Estimated 3-year total | EUR 7,500 | EUR 6,300 | EUR 2,930 | EUR 13,400 |
Vercel looks cheapest on full cost, but you must factor in legal risk and the data location clause in your client contracts. Managed Scaleway (Serverless Containers or Kubernetes Kapsule) is often the best compromise for a European mid-size company.
Questions to ask your provider
Before signing, get in writing: the exact location of data and backups, the legal status of the parent company, the SLA with penalties, the RPO (maximum data loss, ideally 24 h or less) and RTO (time to restore, ideally 4 h or less), and the exit procedure. These five items answer 90% of enterprise GDPR questionnaires.
Mini case study
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Anouk, CFO of a 280-employee maritime components company in Amsterdam. In 2026, three clients, including a shipyard, add a clause requiring all client data to be hosted in the EU by a provider not subject to the CLOUD Act. The current site runs on Vercel at EUR 80 per month.
Migrating to managed Scaleway costs EUR 3,500 one-off, then about EUR 175 per month all-in (hosting, backups, 1 h of admin). Extra annual cost: about EUR 1,140, plus the initial fee. Against that, those three clients represent EUR 2.4 million in annual revenue. The extra cost equals 0.2% of the revenue at stake in year one, a decision made in a single meeting.
FAQ
Is hosting with AWS or Google in an EU region enough for GDPR?
GDPR does not ban these providers, but the CLOUD Act creates a transfer risk. Since the 2023 Data Privacy Framework transfers are regulated, yet many enterprises now require a European provider in 100% of sensitive cases.
Can a EUR 25 per month VPS handle 50,000 visits?
Yes for a static or cached Next.js site, which uses few resources. For an unoptimised WordPress site with a client portal, plan for EUR 50 to 80 per month.
What is SecNumCloud?
It is the French ANSSI qualification for trusted clouds, increasingly referenced in EU tenders. It is required for some sensitive public data and costs 2 to 4 times more than a standard offer.
Can we keep Vercel for the front end and OVH for data?
Yes, it is a common architecture: the public site on Vercel, forms and the client portal on an API hosted in the EU. Personal data then only passes through the European server.
Let's scope your project. Tell us your client constraints and traffic: hosting recommendation, 3-year total cost and a zero-downtime migration plan. 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.
