Scaleway or OVHcloud? Our search for a European cloud provider

Looking for a European cloud provider

Anyone who has searched for a European cloud provider will recognise the challenge. You search for “European cloud provider”, find dozens of names, each with their own terminology and pricing models, and half an hour later you somehow know less than when you started.

Which providers are truly enterprise-ready? Which one fits the way we work? And what do all those managed services actually mean in practice? We decided to tackle the question properly. Rather than comparing providers at a surface level, we wanted to dig into the details. We set up a working group, defined the parameters that matter to us and our clients, and put two serious European players under the microscope: Scaleway and OVHcloud.

How did we compare them?

Choosing the right cloud provider starts with asking the right questions. Not “which provider is best?”, but “which provider best fits the way we work and the projects we work upon?” Those questions led us to a list of 24criteria, ranging from the basics to more complex technical requirements:

• Pricing and billing: transparent costs, pay-per-use, use of open standards
• Developer  experience: Terraform support, documentation, self-service    
• Scalability: multi-region, multi-AZ, managed services
• Managed services: Kubernetes, databases, object storage, queues, serverless
• Security and compliance: VPC, firewall, PAM, BYOK, observability
• Identity and authentication: SSO, identity federation
• Payment options: SEPA, credit card, invoice

For each criterion, we looked beyond whether a feature simply exists. We also assessed how usable, mature and practical it is in a real-world environment.

What did we find?

Our main conclusion: both providers are serious alternatives to AWS and Azure. Not for every scenario, not for every organisation and certainly not without nuance. But both are mature enough to deserve a place in a modern cloud strategy.

Here are some of our key findings.

• Pricing and billing
  Scaleway operates entirely on a pay-per-use model with a clear self-service approach. OVHcloud uses a more mixed model: some services sit outside its Public Cloud offering, and certain limits require a manual request.
• Developer experience
  Scaleway offers an official Terraform provider and performs strongly here. Everything is self-service and the documentation is clear. OVHcloud combines its own provider with an OpenStack provider. It works well, but requires slightly more configuration.
• Managed Kubernetes
  Scaleway offers Kubernetes Kapsule as a fully managed service, alongside Kubernetes Kosmos for multi-cloud environments. OVHcloud offers a Managed Kubernetes Service built around a Knative backbone, reflecting a deliberate focus on avoiding vendor lock-in and making it easier to move workloads between cloud providers.
• Managed databases
  Both providers support PostgreSQL, MySQL and MongoDB. Scaleway also offers Serverless SQL, which can scale down to zero while maintaining fast cold starts. OVHcloud provides a broad analytics stack including Kafka, ClickHouse and OpenSearch.
• Security
  Scaleway provides an Audit Trail that automatically records events across most services. OVHcloud offers Account Logs. Both support BYOK, although there are differences in how it is implemented for managed databases.
• Serverless
  Scaleway offers Serverless Containers, Serverless Functions and Serverless SQL. OVHcloud does not offer true serverless functions in the style of AWS Lambda. This is a deliberate choice that fits its focus on data sovereignty and reversibility.

No absolute winner, but a clear preference

Our comparison did not produce an absolute winner. It did, however, reveal a clear preference for the way we work.

OVHcloud is a very capable provider with a strong philosophy around sovereignty and avoiding vendor lock-in. Its Kubernetes approach through Knative makes workload portability structurally easier. For organisations that consider portability a priority, OVHcloud is a strong choice.

For the way we work today, however, Scaleway has the edge. It feels developer-first: the documentation is clear, Terraform support is strong and everything is built around self-service. For a development team that wants to move quickly while staying in control, Scaleway simply feels more intuitive.

That does not mean other cloud providers cannot be the right choice. Depending on the client’s preferences, technical requirements and project context, we assess which solution fits best. The real value of this comparison is that we now understand those nuances. And that allows us to advise our clients much more precisely.

What does this mean for you?

Considering a European cloud provider for a new project, migration or existing environment? Book a free introductory call with Wim. Together, we’ll identify which criteria matter most to your organisation andwhich provider is the best fit.

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