The verdict in three sentences
For a 60-person services SME hosting client files that contain personal data, a European provider such as Hetzner, Scaleway or OVHcloud usually costs 60 to 350 EUR a month, against 150 to 900 EUR on AWS for an equivalent setup. The bigger difference is not price but exposure to the US CLOUD Act, which weighs on your GDPR assessment as soon as clients are sensitive. The real budget lies in backups, disaster recovery and managed operations, which quotes often leave out.
Three architectures, three bills
A case management app for 60 internal users and a few hundred client logins does not need oversized infrastructure. Three levels cover most cases.
| Architecture | Hetzner, Scaleway or OVHcloud | AWS (Frankfurt or Ireland) |
|---|---|---|
| One app server and a managed database | 60 to 140 EUR a month | 150 to 300 EUR a month |
| Two servers, high-availability database | 150 to 280 EUR a month | 350 to 600 EUR a month |
| Containers (Kubernetes), replicated database, CDN | 250 to 350 EUR a month | 600 to 900 EUR a month |
| 500 GB object storage for attachments | 3 to 10 EUR a month | 12 to 15 EUR a month |
| 1 TB outbound traffic | included or near zero | 80 to 90 EUR a month |
| Support with response commitments | about 10% of the bill | from 100 USD a month |
AWS remains unmatched for the breadth of managed services and tooling maturity. For a classic business app with PostgreSQL, a web server and file storage, European hosts offer better cost and performance with simpler billing. Hetzner, with data centres in Germany and Finland, is often the cheapest of the three but offers fewer managed services than Scaleway or OVHcloud.
GDPR, CLOUD Act and European certifications
Hosting in an EU region of AWS does not remove the legal risk: as a US company, AWS can be compelled under the CLOUD Act to hand data to US authorities. The 2023 EU-US Data Privacy Framework governs transfers, but its durability is regularly challenged. For an SME managing client files in legal, health or financial services, a European host simplifies the impact assessment and answers to enterprise clients' compliance questionnaires, which the Dutch Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens expects to be documented.
Certifications such as ISO 27001, available from all three European hosts, and France's SecNumCloud or Germany's BSI C5 attestation go further. For a private Dutch SME they are rarely mandatory but help with public sector clients. Expect a 20 to 50% premium for sovereign-grade offers.
| Requirement | Standard EU host | AWS EU region | Sovereign-grade offer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data stored in the EU | yes | yes | yes |
| CLOUD Act exposure | no | yes | no |
| ISO 27001 | yes | yes | yes |
| Ease of GDPR assessment | simple | heavier | very simple |
| Indicative price premium | baseline | 50 to 120% | 20 to 50% |
Backups, disaster recovery and managed operations
A daily backup kept for 30 days and replicated to a second data centre costs 10 to 40 EUR a month. A disaster recovery plan with a 4-hour recovery target needs standby infrastructure and testing, roughly 100 to 300 EUR a month more. Managed operations, covering monitoring, OS updates and on-call, cost 300 to 1,200 EUR a month in Amsterdam in 2026 depending on service level.
On the application side, Kolonell's custom application grid applies: simple from 2,500,000 to 4,000,000 FCFA (3,810 to 6,100 EUR), medium from 4,000,000 to 7,000,000 FCFA (6,100 to 10,670 EUR), complex from 7,000,000 to 15,000,000+ FCFA (10,670 to 22,870+ EUR), and application maintenance at 35,000, 75,000 or 120,000 FCFA a month (53, 114 or 183 EUR). Hosting and managed operations by Kolonell are quoted based on the chosen architecture.
Mini case study
Need a professional website?
Kolonell builds websites that attract clients, optimized for the Sénégalese market. Free quote in 2 minutes.
Pieter, managing director of a 60-person wealth advisory firm in Amsterdam, compares two high-availability setups for his client file app. On Hetzner: 200 EUR of infrastructure, 30 EUR of backups and 500 EUR of managed operations, or 730 EUR a month and 8,760 EUR a year. On AWS: 500 EUR of infrastructure, 85 EUR of outbound traffic, 40 EUR of backups and the same 500 EUR of operations, or 1,125 EUR a month and 13,500 EUR a year. Difference: 4,740 EUR a year, 23,700 EUR over five years, and a GDPR assessment with no transfer outside the EU to justify to clients.
FAQ
Is a European host less reliable than AWS?
For a classic business app, no. Managed offers from Scaleway and OVHcloud carry availability commitments of 99.9% to 99.99%, enough for a 60-person SME.
Does GDPR forbid hosting on AWS?
No, but it requires documenting transfer risks and safeguards. For sensitive client files that assessment is heavier, and some enterprise clients refuse providers subject to the CLOUD Act.
How much does migrating from AWS to Hetzner cost?
For a containerised app with PostgreSQL, allow 5 to 15 days of work. Payback often comes within 18 months thanks to lower outbound traffic costs.
Does an SME need disaster recovery?
If an outage stops your business, yes. A basic plan with 24-hour recovery often costs under 100 EUR a month, far less than a day of downtime for 60 staff.
Which region should we pick?
Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Paris all keep latency under 15 ms from the Netherlands. Replicate to a second region for resilience.
Let's scope your project. We define the architecture, host, backups and disaster recovery that fit your data, with a clear go-live 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.
