The best Scaleway alternatives are Hetzner for price, OVHcloud for European scale, and UpCloud for fast storage with hourly billing. DigitalOcean and Vultr suit teams that want global regions, Akamai Cloud suits data-heavy apps, and Netcup suits long-term self-hosting.
Scaleway is a French cloud provider and a subsidiary of the iliad Group. Scaleway’s about page describes four multi-AZ cloud regions in Europe, including France, Poland, Italy, and the Netherlands.
Many buyers choose Scaleway for its European base. Synergy Research Group reports that European providers hold about 15% of the European cloud market, while Amazon, Microsoft, and Google together hold about 70%.
Buyers still look elsewhere. Scaleway’s headline Instance prices exclude public IPv4 addresses and block storage, so the real bill is higher. Its region list is smaller than global rivals, and its range of Instance types confuses new users.
This guide compares 7 Scaleway alternatives on price, specs, billing, and regions. It sits inside our cloud hosting hub and extends our best VPS hosting guide. Every price comes from the provider’s own page, checked in October 2026.
Quick Comparison: Best Scaleway Alternatives
| Provider | Best For | Entry Price | Entry Specs | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hetzner | Price and performance | €5.49/mo (before VAT and IPv4) | CX23: 2 vCPU, 4 GB, 40 GB NVMe | Hourly, monthly cap |
| OVHcloud | European scale | $4.54/mo | VPS-1: 2 vCores, 4 GB, 40 GB NVMe | Monthly or upfront term |
| UpCloud | Fast storage | €3/mo (Starter) | 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 10 GB SSD | Hourly, 28-day cap |
| Netcup | Long-term RAM value | €8.26/mo (12-month term) | 2 vCores, 4 GB, 64 GB | 1, 12, or 24 months |
| DigitalOcean | Developer tooling | $4/mo | 1 vCPU, 512 MiB, 10 GiB SSD | Per-second, monthly cap |
| Vultr | Global regions | $3.50/mo (IPv4 included) | 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB, 10 GB | Hourly, monthly cap |
| Akamai Cloud (Linode) | Included transfer | $5/mo | Nanode: 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 25 GB, 1 TB | Hourly, monthly cap |
What Makes a Good Scaleway Alternative?
A good Scaleway alternative keeps hourly billing and a European option, then removes Scaleway’s extra costs by including IPv4 and storage in the plan price. It lists full prices on one page and offers managed services for growth.
Four Scaleway details explain why buyers compare options.
The headline price leaves out IPv4 and storage. Scaleway’s Instance page states that listed prices include egress and IPv6 but exclude public IPv4 and local or block storage. The STARDUST1-S at €0.0006 per hour grows once you add both.
Many Instance types. The page lists STARDUST1-S, DEV1-S, DEV1-M, PLAY2-PICO, and PLAY2-NANO, among others. The DEV1-S costs €0.00898 per hour for 2 vCPUs and 2 GB of RAM. The PLAY2-NANO costs €0.02754 per hour for 2 vCPUs and 4 GB.
Kubernetes costs step up. Scaleway’s Kapsule pricing offers a free mutualized plan with no SLA. The Dedicated-4 control plane costs €0.11 per hour, about €80 per month.
Region count. Scaleway names four European regions. Buyers who serve users in North America or Asia-Pacific need a second provider.
The 7 Best Scaleway Alternatives
1 Hetzner: Best for price and performance
Hetzner is the best Scaleway alternative for buyers who want European hosting with simpler pricing.
What it does well. Hetzner regular performance plans bill hourly with a monthly cap and include at least 20 TB of traffic on EU servers. Prices are the same across the three EU locations.
Key features:
- Shared and dedicated vCPU plans
- Load balancers, firewalls, volumes, and snapshots
- Official Terraform provider and REST API
- Locations in Falkenstein, Nuremberg, Helsinki, Ashburn, Hillsboro, and Singapore
Pricing. Hetzner price table lists the CX23 at €5.49 per month for new orders from June 15, 2026, before VAT and IPv4.
Best for: Developers who want strong value and a German base.
Limitations. Hetzner raised prices twice in 2026, and its managed service range is narrower than Scaleway’s. See our Hetzner alternatives guide.
2 OVHcloud: Best for European scale
OVHcloud is the best Scaleway alternative for EU buyers who want a large French provider with a wide product range.
What it does well. OVHcloud VPS page lists 2 vCores, 4 GB of RAM, 40 GB of NVMe, and unlimited traffic on VPS-1. Its Public Cloud adds hourly billing for larger projects.
Key features:
- VPS plans and hourly Public Cloud instances
- Anti-DDoS protection included
- Managed Kubernetes and databases
- A large global data center footprint
Pricing. VPS-1 costs $4.54 per month on the listed term, and longer commitments cost less.
Best for: EU companies that want a large provider with many products.
Limitations. Lowest rates need a term commitment. Our OVHcloud alternatives guide covers the trade-offs.
3 UpCloud: Best for fast storage
UpCloud is the best Scaleway alternative for buyers who want hourly billing and MaxIOPS storage from a Finnish provider.
What it does well. UpCloud pricing lists Starter from €3 per month and Premium from €5 per month. Billing runs by the started hour with a 28-day monthly cap.
Key features:
- MaxIOPS storage with up to 100,000 IOPS
- Managed Kubernetes with a free development control plane
- Managed MySQL and PostgreSQL from €9 per month
- 15 data centers in 12 countries
Pricing. Starter costs €3 per month for 1 vCPU, 1 GB of RAM, and 10 GB of SSD. Premium costs €5 per month with 25 GB of MaxIOPS storage.
Best for: Database and I/O-heavy apps that need predictable disks.
Limitations. Storage is priced per gigabyte on top of the plan, and Starter runs on previous-generation CPUs.
4 Netcup: Best for long-term RAM value
Netcup is the best Scaleway alternative for self-hosters who accept a 12-month term for extra RAM.
What it does well. Netcup VPS page lists KVM servers in Vienna, Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Manassas, and Singapore.
Key features:
- KVM virtualization with dedicated RAM
- Contract terms of 1, 12, or 24 months
- Three of five locations in the EU
- Good fit for mail, databases, and Nextcloud
Pricing. The VPS 500 G12.5 costs €8.26 per month excluding VAT on a 12-month term, with 2 vCores, 4 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of storage.
Best for: Small businesses and self-hosters on long terms.
Limitations. Netcup has no hourly billing, so it suits steady workloads, not short experiments.
5 DigitalOcean: Best for developer tooling
DigitalOcean is the best Scaleway alternative for teams that want simple tooling and strong documentation.
What it does well. DigitalOcean moved to per-second billing on January 1, 2026. DigitalOcean Droplet pricing caps each month at the listed price.
Key features:
- Basic Droplets with 500 GiB of outbound transfer
- Managed databases, Kubernetes, and app hosting
- European regions in Amsterdam, London, and Frankfurt
- Strong tutorials and community docs
Pricing. The Basic Droplet costs $4 per month ($0.00595 per hour) for 1 vCPU, 512 MiB of RAM, and 10 GiB of SSD.
Best for: Startups that value ease of use.
Limitations. The $4 plan has little RAM, and prices are in dollars. See our DigitalOcean alternatives guide.
6 Vultr: Best for global regions
Vultr is the best Scaleway alternative for teams that need servers beyond Europe.
What it does well. Vultr pricing lists hourly billing with a monthly cap, and the provider runs more than 30 cloud regions.
Key features:
- Regular Performance, High Frequency, and bare metal options
- Managed Kubernetes and databases
- Hourly billing with a monthly cap
- Regions on six continents
Pricing. The entry Regular Performance plan with IPv4 costs $3.50 per month for 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB of RAM, and 10 GB of storage.
Best for: Teams serving users across many countries.
Limitations. The entry plan has half a gigabyte of RAM. Our Vultr alternatives guide covers other options.
7 Akamai Cloud (Linode): Best for included transfer
Akamai Cloud, the former Linode, is the best Scaleway alternative for data-heavy workloads.
What it does well. Akamai cloud pricing includes 1 TB of transfer on the 1 GB Nanode and charges $0.005 per GB of overage.
Key features:
- Shared, dedicated, and high-memory compute plans
- Object storage, Kubernetes, and managed databases
- Hourly billing with a monthly cap
- Backed by the Akamai network
Pricing. The Nanode 1 GB costs $5 per month ($0.0075 per hour) for 1 vCPU, 1 GB of RAM, and 25 GB of storage.
Best for: Apps that serve large files or high traffic.
Limitations. The entry plan costs more per GB of RAM than Hetzner. Read our Linode alternatives guide.
How Should You Choose the Right Scaleway Alternative?
Choose a Scaleway alternative by deciding whether you must stay in Europe, then compare the full monthly price with IPv4, storage, and VAT. Pick the provider whose billing model matches how long your servers run.
- Staying in Europe: pick Hetzner, OVHcloud, UpCloud, or Netcup.
- Going global: pick Vultr or DigitalOcean for wider regions.
- Running steady servers: pick Netcup or OVHcloud and accept a term.
- Running short tests: pick Hetzner, UpCloud, or DigitalOcean for hourly or per-second billing.
- Moving heavy traffic: pick Akamai Cloud or OVHcloud.
Check data residency before you decide. A European provider stores data in the EU, but your contract and support terms still need a read.
How We Evaluated These Scaleway Alternatives
We compared each provider on public pricing, specs, billing terms, and region coverage, using the provider’s own pricing and documentation pages. We did not run benchmarks, and no provider paid for placement.
- Entry price: the cheapest usable plan, with notes on IPv4, VAT, and term.
- Specs: vCPU, RAM, storage, and included transfer.
- Billing terms: hourly, per-second, monthly, or fixed-term.
- Regions: coverage compared with Scaleway’s four European regions.
- Fit for Scaleway users: how well each plan covers Scaleway’s hourly billing and EU base.
Prices were checked in October 2026 and change often. Confirm current figures on each provider’s page before you buy.
The Bottom Line
Hetzner is the best Scaleway alternative for most buyers, because it keeps a European base and hourly billing at a clear price. OVHcloud and UpCloud cover scale and storage, while Vultr and DigitalOcean add regions outside Europe.
Start with one non-critical server, compare its cost and speed with your Scaleway Instance, then migrate the rest. For more options, see our best VPS hosting roundup and our UpCloud alternatives guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best alternative to Scaleway?
Hetzner is the best overall alternative to Scaleway, with a €5.49 CX23 plan, hourly billing, and at least 20 TB of EU traffic. OVHcloud and UpCloud are strong European alternatives.
Is Scaleway cheaper than Hetzner?
Scaleway’s STARDUST1-S costs about €0.43 per month, far below Hetzner’s CX23 at €5.49. It has 1 vCPU and 1 GB of RAM, and IPv4 and storage cost extra, so real-world costs converge.
Does Scaleway charge for IPv4?
Yes. Scaleway’s Instance pricing page states that listed prices exclude public IPv4 addresses and local or block storage. Listed prices include egress and IPv6.
Where are Scaleway data centers?
Scaleway describes four multi-AZ cloud regions in Europe, in France, Poland, Italy, and the Netherlands. It lists Sweden and Germany as upcoming.
Which Scaleway alternative has the most regions?
Vultr has the most regions among these alternatives, with more than 30 cloud locations. UpCloud lists 15 data centers in 12 countries, and Hetzner lists six locations.
David Austin is a technology writer and software analyst at DeployHyre, where he covers AI tools, SaaS platforms, cloud hosting, and business automation. He focuses on hands-on comparisons of pricing, features, and real-world performance so teams can pick the right software with confidence.