The verdict in three sentences
Shared hosting at EUR 8 to 25 per month is fine for a low-traffic brochure site, but it gives way as soon as 3,000 recipients click on an email campaign at the same time. Moving to a managed VPS at Scaleway, OVHcloud or a Dutch provider costs EUR 40 to 150 per month and EUR 900 to 3,000 for migration (excl. VAT) in 2026, with a CDN at EUR 0 to 20 per month. The expected gain is 99.9% uptime, response times cut by two to three, and data hosted in the EU, which simplifies GDPR paperwork.
Why shared hosting fails at the worst moment
On shared hosting, your site shares CPU, memory and database connections with hundreds of others. The host enforces strict limits: concurrent PHP processes, MySQL connections, execution time. A campaign sent at 8:30 am creates a spike of 200 to 400 visitors in ten minutes, the limit is hit and visitors see a 508 or 503 error.
| Criterion | Shared (EUR 8 to 25/month) | Managed VPS (EUR 40 to 150/month) | Self-managed cloud instance (EUR 25 to 90/month) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resources | Shared, capped | 2 to 8 vCPU, 4 to 16 GB dedicated | Dedicated, self-administered |
| Traffic spikes handled | 30 to 80 concurrent visitors | 300 to 1,500 concurrent visitors | Depends on setup |
| Observed uptime | 99.0 to 99.5% | 99.9% contractual | 99.9% infrastructure, not application |
| Backups | Daily, paid restore | Daily + snapshots, tested | Up to you |
| Security updates | Host, partial | Provider, included | You |
| Data location | Varies by plan | EU (Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt) | Your choice |
| Support | Ticket, 24 to 72 h | Provider, 1 to 4 business hours | None |
For an SME without a sysadmin, the self-managed instance is a false economy: one unmonitored night of downtime costs more than the annual difference.
The full cost of migration in 2026
Migration covers inventory, server preparation, copying files and database, testing, DNS switchover and a monitoring period. A 40-page WordPress site with a quote form and a document area migrates in 3 to 6 days.
| Item | 2026 range (EUR excl. VAT) | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Audit of current setup and plan selection | 300 to 600 | One-off |
| VPS preparation (security, firewall, PHP, cache) | 300 to 1,000 | One-off |
| Migration of files, database, any mailboxes | 200 to 900 | One-off |
| Load testing and zero-downtime DNS switch | 100 to 500 | One-off |
| Managed VPS (Scaleway, OVHcloud or equivalent) | 40 to 150 | Monthly |
| CDN (free Cloudflare or Bunny, OVH CDN) | 0 to 20 | Monthly |
| Managed services (updates, monitoring, tested backups) | 60 to 200 | Monthly |
Typical budget for the Amsterdam SME: EUR 1,800 for migration, then EUR 190 per month (VPS 80, CDN 10, managed services 100), i.e. EUR 2,280 per year, versus EUR 240 per year for shared hosting. The annual difference is EUR 2,040.
GDPR and email watch-outs
Hosting with an EU provider avoids transfers outside the European Union for form data, which lightens your record of processing activities. Watch the email side, though: many SMEs use the shared host's mailboxes. They must be moved to a dedicated business email service (EUR 3 to 8 per user per month) before cancelling, and SPF, DKIM and DMARC records checked so your campaigns do not land in spam.
Mini case study
Need a professional website?
Kolonell builds websites that attract clients, optimized for the Sénégalese market. Free quote in 2 minutes.
Mark, CFO of a 60-employee machining subcontractor near Amsterdam, sends one campaign per month to 4,000 industrial buyers. During the last three, the site was down for about 2 hours. Each campaign generates an average of 12 quote requests, leading to 3 orders at EUR 6,000 with a 22% margin. He estimates losing 40% of requests during outages, about 1.2 orders per month, so EUR 1,584 in monthly margin. Over a year, that is EUR 19,000 in lost margin against an extra EUR 2,040 per year plus EUR 1,800 for migration. The move pays back in under three months.
FAQ
Scaleway or OVHcloud, which one?
Both host in the EU and offer 4 to 16 GB VPS between EUR 15 and 90 per month in 2026, excluding managed services. The choice depends mostly on the provider supporting you and its monitoring tools.
Does migration cause downtime?
Not if the switch is prepared: DNS TTL is lowered to 300 seconds 48 h before, then the switch happens outside office hours. Perceived downtime is 0 to 15 minutes.
Do we lose Google rankings when changing host?
No, as long as URLs stay the same. Server response time often improves by 40 to 60%, which helps Core Web Vitals.
What does 99.9% uptime mean in practice?
At most 8 h 45 min of downtime per year, about 43 minutes per month. Shared hosting at 99.5% allows 43 hours per year.
Do we need a managed services contract?
For an SME without IT staff, yes. At EUR 60 to 200 per month, it covers security updates, 24/7 monitoring and tested backup restores.
Let's scope your project. Tell us your current host, CMS and traffic peaks: we price migration, hosting and managed services, with a switchover planned within 2 to 3 weeks. 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.
