The verdict in three sentences
For a 50-employee company that wants sovereign, GDPR-compliant hosting for its website and extranet, shared hosting at EUR 5 to 20 a month stops being enough once client data is involved. A VPS on OVHcloud or Scaleway (EUR 15 to 60 a month) works if technical skills exist in-house. Otherwise, managed hosting at EUR 150 to 600 a month is the rational choice: daily backups, a disaster recovery plan and a contractual 99.9% SLA.
The three hosting families in 2026
Finance directors often compare monthly prices without comparing what they cover. A EUR 25 VPS includes no updates, no monitoring and no restore when something breaks: someone has to do it, and that time costs money.
| Criterion | Shared | VPS / cloud (OVHcloud, Scaleway) | Managed hosting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price 2026 | EUR 5 to 20 | EUR 15 to 60 | EUR 150 to 600 |
| Data hosted in the EU | Yes (depends on plan) | Yes (France, Netherlands, Poland) | Yes, contractual |
| System updates | Host | Your responsibility | Provider |
| Backups | Daily, short retention | Paid option EUR 2 to 10/month | Daily, 30 days, off-site |
| 24/7 monitoring | No | No | Yes, alerts and response |
| Disaster recovery | No | You build it | Included, typical RTO 4 h |
| Guaranteed SLA | 99.9% platform | 99.9 to 99.95% infrastructure | 99.9% full service |
The key nuance: the OVHcloud or Scaleway SLA covers their infrastructure, not your application. If an update breaks the extranet on a Friday evening, nobody steps in without a managed contract.
What each option really costs over three years
Full cost includes people's time. We use an internal cost of EUR 60 an hour for a technician or contractor.
| Item over 36 months | Shared | Self-managed VPS | Managed hosting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription | EUR 540 | EUR 1,440 | EUR 12,600 |
| Off-site backups | included | EUR 216 | included |
| Maintenance time (4 h/month on VPS) | EUR 0 | EUR 8,640 | EUR 0 |
| Estimated major incident (1 in 3 years) | EUR 2,000 to 5,000 | EUR 2,000 to 5,000 | covered |
| Initial setup | EUR 0 | EUR 500 to 1,500 | EUR 800 to 2,000 |
| Order-of-magnitude total | EUR 2,500 to 5,500 | EUR 12,800 to 16,800 | EUR 13,400 to 14,600 |
Over three years, the "cheap" VPS costs as much as managed hosting once time is counted, with clearly higher risk. Shared hosting stays cheaper but does not suit an extranet holding personal data of clients or staff.
GDPR and sovereignty: clauses to check
Before signing, get in writing: the location of data and backups in the EU, no exposure to the US Cloud Act (EU-law provider), a data processing agreement compliant with GDPR Article 28, recognised certifications such as ISO 27001 (and SecNumCloud for sensitive data), and a breach notification procedure within 72 hours.
Mini case study
Need a professional website?
Kolonell builds websites that attract clients, optimized for the Sénégalese market. Free quote in 2 minutes.
Sarah, CFO of a 50-employee industrial company in Amsterdam, hosts the website and a client extranet. VPS option: EUR 30 a month plus 4 hours of monthly maintenance at EUR 60, so EUR 270 a month in reality. Managed option: EUR 350 a month with backups, monitoring and disaster recovery. The real gap is only EUR 80 a month, EUR 960 a year. A single 2-day extranet outage costing around EUR 6,000 in delayed orders pays for managed hosting with the first incident avoided.
FAQ
OVHcloud or Scaleway for an SME?
Both are European providers with EU data centres and charge EUR 15 to 60 a month for a suitable VPS. OVHcloud offers more data centre choice, Scaleway a simpler developer console.
Is shared hosting GDPR-compliant?
It can be for a brochure site without sensitive data, at EUR 5 to 20 a month. For an extranet with client data, a VPS or managed hosting with an Article 28 agreement is recommended.
What does a 99.9% SLA mean?
A maximum of about 8 h 45 min of downtime a year. At 99.95%, it drops to about 4 h 20 min a year.
What is disaster recovery and what does it cost?
A disaster recovery plan defines how to restore service after an incident, with a target time (RTO) often of 4 hours. It is included in most managed offers between EUR 150 and 600 a month.
Can we migrate without downtime?
Yes, a planned migration with a DNS switch limits downtime to a few minutes. Budget EUR 800 to 2,000 depending on site and extranet size.
Let's scope your project. Describe your website, extranet and GDPR requirements: we will price a sovereign hosting solution between EUR 150 and 600 a month, migration included. 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.
