This article lists a rough feature comparison between currently available European cloud providers and their American counterparts. European cloud is available and abundant. Stackit, OVHcloud, Scaleway, IONOS, Exoscale, Upcloud are all parties you should have on your radar when building critical infrastructure for European clients. The US is proving to be less and less reliable as an IT partner. You’ve got to move.
Legend: each cell is Yes/No for “service exists as a first‑party offering from that provider”.
Cloud infrastructure services
| Provider | Compute VMs | Managed K8S | Object storage | S3 API | Block storage | Rel. DB (PostgreSQL MySQL) | Lambdas |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STACKIT | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| OVHcloud | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes* |
| Scaleway | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| IONOS Cloud | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Exoscale | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| UpCloud | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| AWS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft Azure | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google Cloud | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Notes
- "S3‑compatible API" means an S3 protocol compatible endpoint (not just “object storage exists”). Azure Blob and Google Cloud Storage have their own APIs; they can be used via gateways/interop, but they are not natively “S3 compatible” in the same way many EU providers advertise it.
- OVHcloud serverless functions: documented by OVHcloud, but availability/maturity can vary by region/product line.
Office / productivity services (Docs + Sheets replacements)
| Provider | Web Docs | Web Spread- sheets | Real‑time collab. | E2EE | Self‑ hostable | European hosting option |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CryptPad | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nextcloud + Collabora/ONLYOFFICE | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Proton Drive (Docs/Sheets) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Google Workspace | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| AWS | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Microsoft Azure | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Sources
STACKIT
- STACKIT Docs (service catalog; includes e.g. Kubernetes Engine, PostgreSQL Flex): https://docs.stackit.cloud/
- PostgreSQL Flex product page: https://stackit.com/en/products/database/stackit-postgresql-flex
- Object Storage docs: https://docs.stackit.cloud/products/storage/object-storage/
OVHcloud
- Free/Public Cloud Block Storage: https://www.ovhcloud.com/en/public-cloud/free-block-storage/
- (Handy entry points) Instances / Kubernetes / Object Storage / Managed DBs:
Scaleway
- Virtual Instances: https://www.scaleway.com/en/virtual-instances/
- Managed Kubernetes (Kapsule): https://www.scaleway.com/en/kubernetes-kapsule/
- Object Storage (S3 compatible): https://www.scaleway.com/en/object-storage/
- Block Storage: https://www.scaleway.com/en/block-storage/
- Managed PostgreSQL & MySQL: https://www.scaleway.com/en/managed-postgresql-mysql/
- Serverless Functions: https://www.scaleway.com/en/serverless-functions/
IONOS Cloud
- Compute Engine: https://cloud.ionos.co.uk/compute
- Managed Kubernetes: https://cloud.ionos.com/managed/kubernetes
- Object Storage (S3 compatible): https://cloud.ionos.com/storage/object-storage
- Block Storage: https://cloud.ionos.com/storage/block-storage
- DBaaS (MySQL/PostgreSQL): https://cloud.ionos.co.uk/managed/dbaas
Exoscale
- Compute: https://www.exoscale.com/compute/
- SKS (Managed Kubernetes): https://www.exoscale.com/sks/
- Object Storage (S3 compatible): https://www.exoscale.com/object-storage/
- DBaaS (Managed PostgreSQL/MySQL): https://www.exoscale.com/dbaas/
- Products overview (mentions Block Storage): https://www.exoscale.com/products/
UpCloud
- Cloud Servers: https://upcloud.com/products/cloud-servers/
- Managed Kubernetes: https://upcloud.com/products/managed-kubernetes/
- Managed Object Storage (S3 compatible): https://upcloud.com/products/object-storage/
- Managed Databases (MySQL/PostgreSQL): https://upcloud.com/products/managed-databases/
- Cloud Servers docs (mentions compute + block storage): https://upcloud.com/docs/products/cloud-servers/
Office / productivity
- CryptPad: https://cryptpad.org/ ; GitHub: https://github.com/cryptpad/cryptpad
- Nextcloud + Collabora: https://www.collaboraonline.com/partners/nextcloud/
- Nextcloud office integrations (Collabora/OnlyOffice): https://help.nextcloud.com/t/collabora-integration-guide/151879
- ONLYOFFICE Nextcloud integration guide: https://guides.onlyoffice.com/integration/gettingstarted-nextcloud.aspx
- Proton Docs: https://proton.me/drive/docs ; launch post: https://proton.me/blog/docs-proton-drive
- Proton Sheets launch coverage (spreadsheet): https://www.theverge.com/news/838127/proton-sheets-spreadsheet-app-privacy
- Google Workspace: https://workspace.google.com/ ; Google Docs: https://www.google.co.uk/intx/en/docs/about/
AWS (for comparison, don't use this anymore)
- Amazon RDS (managed relational DB): https://aws.amazon.com/rds/instance-types/
- Entry points (service pages):
Microsoft Azure (for comparison, don't use this anymore)
- Azure products directory: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/
- AKS storage overview (mentions disks/blob/object + stateful options): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-adoption-framework/scenarios/app-platform/aks/storage
- Azure Functions on Kubernetes (KEDA): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/functions-kubernetes-keda
Google Cloud (for comparison, don't use this anymore)
- Products overview: https://cloud.google.com/products
- Serverless overview: https://cloud.google.com/serverless
- Databases category: https://cloud.google.com/products/databases
- Storage documentation hub: https://docs.cloud.google.com/docs/storage
Because news outlets finally see that this is a problem I thought I’d add this quick writeup. It might not be complete or correct, so I’ll probably revisit this. Feel free to comment.