The verdict in three sentences
In 2026, local hosting in Dakar costs FCFA 25,000 to 120,000 (EUR 38 to 183) per month for a company website, against FCFA 15,000 to 90,000 (EUR 23 to 137) in a European cloud (Paris, Frankfurt or London) at a comparable service level. Local hosting gives Senegalese visitors 20 to 40 ms latency against 90 to 120 ms from Europe, but a CDN with a point of presence in Dakar or Lagos brings public pages under 50 ms. The right trade-off is often hybrid: public site in a European cloud behind a CDN, sensitive personal data hosted in Senegal to simplify compliance with law 2008-12.
Hosting options compared in 2026
Prices below are 2026 orders of magnitude for a services company website (corporate site, forms, light customer area), excluding development.
| 2026 criterion | Local data centre (Dakar, Diamniadio) | European cloud (Paris, Frankfurt, London) | EU cloud + CDN with Dakar or Lagos PoP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | FCFA 25,000 to 120,000 | FCFA 15,000 to 90,000 | FCFA 20,000 to 110,000 |
| Latency from Dakar | 20 to 40 ms | 90 to 120 ms | 20 to 50 ms (cached pages) |
| Latency from Abidjan | 50 to 90 ms | 100 to 140 ms | 30 to 60 ms |
| Contractual uptime | 99.5 to 99.9% | 99.9 to 99.99% | 99.9 to 99.99% |
| Payment | FCFA, bank transfer or mobile money | Card in EUR, GBP or USD | Card in EUR, GBP or USD |
| Support | Local, in French, business hours | Ticket, often in English | Ticket, often in English |
| Law 2008-12 compliance | Simple, data in Senegal | Transfer to declare to the CDP | Transfer to declare, unless sensitive data stays local |
Paying in FCFA is a real local advantage: it avoids international card fees (2 to 4%) and currency swings, and simplifies accounting for a Senegalese subsidiary.
What law 2008-12 says about personal data
Senegal's law 2008-12 requires personal data processing to be declared to the Personal Data Protection Commission (CDP) and regulates transfers outside Senegal: they are only allowed to a country ensuring sufficient protection, which is in principle the case for the European Union. A brochure site with no customer accounts raises few issues. Once you store customer files, ID documents or health data, local hosting or a prior CDP opinion becomes the prudent route. For a London-based group, UK GDPR also applies to data processed from the UK.
| Type of data on the site | Recommended hosting | CDP formality |
|---|---|---|
| Public pages, news | EU cloud + CDN | None |
| Contact form (name, email, phone) | EU cloud or local | Processing declaration |
| Customer area with order history | Local or EU cloud with contractual clauses | Declaration + transfer notice |
| ID documents, KYC | Local preferred | Declaration + enhanced security |
| Health data | Local, qualified host | Prior authorisation |
Hidden costs to include
- Off-site backups: FCFA 5,000 to 20,000/month, stored at a different site from the main server.
- SSL certificate and domain: a .sn costs about FCFA 15,000 to 30,000/year, a .com FCFA 8,000 to 12,000/year, free SSL with Let's Encrypt.
- Monitoring: FCFA 0 to 15,000/month for an alert within 5 minutes.
- Power and network outages: check that the local data centre has generators and at least two transit providers.
Mini case study
Ousmane, CIO of a 120-employee Senegalese financial services firm, pays FCFA 85,000/month for a local dedicated server hosting the corporate site and a customer area. Option studied: public site in a European cloud at FCFA 35,000/month with a CDN at FCFA 10,000/month, customer area kept on a smaller local server at FCFA 40,000/month. Total: FCFA 85,000/month (about EUR 130), same cost, but public pages load in 250 ms instead of 600 ms for visitors in Abidjan and Bamako, and brochure-site uptime rises to 99.95%. Customer data stays in Senegal, with no transfer to declare. A FCFA 450,000 migration pays for itself by avoiding 4 h of downtime a year, estimated at FCFA 150,000 each.
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FAQ
Is a European cloud legal for a Senegalese company?
Yes, law 2008-12 allows transfers to a country with sufficient protection, which is in principle the case for the EU. The processing and transfer must be declared to the CDP.
What latency is acceptable for a company website?
Server response under 200 ms and a page loaded in under 2.5 s on 4G mobile are good targets. A CDN is often enough to reach them from a European cloud.
Are local data centres reliable?
The best ones advertise 99.9% uptime with dual power and several carriers. Ask for the written SLA and penalties, plus a 12-month incident history.
Can a European cloud be paid in FCFA?
Rarely directly. Going through a local agency or reseller lets you pay in FCFA by bank transfer, Wave or Orange Money, with a 10 to 20% margin.
How much does a hosting migration cost?
For a standard company website, allow FCFA 150,000 to 600,000 (EUR 230 to 915) depending on whether there is a customer area, and 1 to 3 weeks with a zero-downtime DNS switch.
Let's scope your project. Describe your site, your data and your audience: we will price local, European cloud and hybrid scenarios with measured latency and monthly cost in FCFA and EUR. 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.
