Hosting a business application in the EU: cloud cost comparison 2026

The verdict in three sentences

For a 300-user business application, hosting costs between EUR 120 and 650 excl. VAT a month depending on the provider and the level of redundancy. OVHcloud and Scaleway are 25 to 35% cheaper than AWS Paris region for an equivalent setup, and they are not subject to the US Cloud Act. AWS is mainly justified if your teams already know its ecosystem or if you plan to expand outside Europe.

Realistic sizing for 300 users

An SME business application (scheduling, quotes, job tracking, documents) with 300 users, 60 to 80 of them online at once, runs on a modest setup: 2 application servers with 4 vCPU and 8 GB RAM, a managed PostgreSQL database of 50 to 100 GB, 200 to 500 GB of object storage for attachments and a load balancer. The price difference comes mostly from redundancy: a single zone, or several zones with automatic failover.

All prices excl. VAT. Outbound traffic and support explain a large share of the gap with AWS. These rates change several times a year: check the official calculators when you sign.

Sovereignty, the Cloud Act and public tenders

The Cloud Act allows US authorities to demand data held by a US provider, even when it is stored in Paris. For most SMEs this risk remains theoretical. It becomes concrete if you process health data, sensitive HR files, or bid on public tenders that require trusted hosting.

For a public tender or a large account that requires SecNumCloud, the list of providers shrinks sharply: ask for the current list published by ANSSI, the French cybersecurity agency, since the qualified scope changes with each offer.

Backups, disaster recovery and migration

A daily backup kept for 30 days, plus a copy in another region, covers most SME incidents: accidental deletion, ransomware, a zone outage. The extra cost is small, EUR 15 to 40 excl. VAT a month for a 100 GB database.

If the application ships in containers and the infrastructure is described as code (Terraform or equivalent), switching providers takes 5 to 10 days of work, or EUR 3,250 to 6,500 excl. VAT at EUR 650 a day. Without that preparation, the same migration can take three times longer.

Mini case study

Sophie, CIO of a distribution SME in Lyon, is launching a business application for 300 users. She compares a multi-zone setup with 30-day backups: EUR 420 excl. VAT a month at OVHcloud versus EUR 600 at AWS Paris. The gap is EUR 2,160 a year, or EUR 6,480 over three years. She also requires infrastructure as code, billed EUR 2,500 at launch: if she ever changes provider, the migration would stay around 5 days, or EUR 3,250. The three-year saving covers that reversibility cost twice over.

FAQ

Can a simple EUR 20 a month VPS be enough?

For a prototype or fewer than 30 users, yes. Beyond that, the lack of a managed database and off-site backups exposes you to data loss an SME cannot afford.

Is AWS forbidden for personal data?

No. AWS Paris is GDPR compliant with the proper clauses. The Cloud Act remains a legal risk to document in your assessment, especially for sensitive data or public-sector clients.

How much does managed operations cost on top of hosting?

Budget EUR 150 to 600 excl. VAT a month for monitoring, security updates and on-call, depending on the target availability, from 99.5% to 99.9%.

Should we pick the provider before development?

Ideally yes, in the requirements document. The choice shapes the architecture and can move the development budget by 5 to 10%.

What availability should a business application target?

99.5% is enough for most SMEs, about 3 h 40 min of downtime a month at most. 99.9% requires multi-zone and costs 30 to 60% more.

Let's scope your project. Tell us your number of users, the sensitivity of your data and your client constraints: we will recommend the provider, the architecture and a priced monthly budget, with a reversibility plan. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.