Scaleway
European cloud built for developers, powered by green energy.
The verdict
Scaleway is a French cloud provider and subsidiary of Iliad Group (Free), offering developer-friendly virtual instances, managed Kubernetes, object storage and serverless containers. It runs its data centers on renewable energy and positions itself as the premier European alternative to US hyperscalers.
The full picture
Scaleway is a French cloud provider, part of the Iliad group that also owns the telecoms operator Free, and it has been building developer-focused infrastructure since 2013. It is best known for two things: aggressive pricing on small instances, including a long-running range of ARM-based servers, and a genuine commitment to European data sovereignty with facilities in Paris, Amsterdam and Warsaw.
The catalogue covers virtual instances, bare metal, managed Kubernetes, managed PostgreSQL and MySQL, S3-compatible object storage, serverless containers and functions, and an IoT hub. The console and API are well-designed, the Terraform provider is solid, and documentation is good in both French and English.
Scaleway is also unusually serious about sustainability: its DC5 data centre near Paris uses adiabatic cooling with no air conditioning, achieving a power usage effectiveness figure among the best in Europe. For a European team that wants hyperscaler-style services without American ownership and without hyperscaler pricing, it is one of the strongest options.
What you get
- EU-based data centers
- Managed Kubernetes (Kapsule)
- Serverless containers & functions
- Object storage (compatible with S3 API)
- Renewable energy infrastructure
- Per-hour billing
Every hosting type it sells
| Product | From | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Instances | $4.35/mo | Development, general purpose and cost-optimised virtual machines. |
| Elastic Metal | $40/mo | Bare metal servers provisioned in minutes. |
| Kubernetes Kapsule | Usage | Managed Kubernetes with a free control plane. |
| Managed databases | Usage | PostgreSQL, MySQL and Redis with automatic backups. |
| Object storage | Usage | S3-compatible storage with a generous free tier. |
| Serverless | Usage | Containers and functions billed per invocation. |
Plans & pricing
- 1 vCPU
- 1 GB RAM
- 10 GB local storage
- 4 vCPU
- 16 GB RAM
- 80 GB local storage
- 8 vCPU
- 32 GB RAM
- Dedicated resources
What the price actually costs you
- Pricing is published, hourly-billed and generally below the hyperscalers.
- Egress within Europe is comparatively cheap; check rates for high-bandwidth workloads.
- Free tiers exist on object storage and serverless products.
- No money-back guarantee, but hourly billing makes testing inexpensive.
Technical specification
| Control panel | Scaleway console, CLI, API and Terraform provider |
|---|---|
| Data residency | France, Netherlands and Poland — European owned and operated |
| Architectures | x86 and ARM instances, plus GPU options |
| Storage | Local NVMe, block storage and S3-compatible object storage |
| Networking | Private networks, load balancers, public gateways and IPv6 |
| Sovereignty | French owned, outside United States CLOUD Act jurisdiction |
| Sustainability | Adiabatic cooling and renewable energy in French facilities |
| Compliance | ISO 27001, SOC 2, HDS health data hosting and GDPR by design |
| Free tier | Free allowances on object storage and some serverless products |
| Support | Free basic support with paid advanced and business tiers |
| Uptime SLA | 99.9% to 99.99% depending on product |
Performance in practice
Competitive across the range, with good European latency from well-peered facilities backed by Iliad's own network. Cost-optimised instances are cheap and adequate; general purpose instances with dedicated resources are consistent. Elastic Metal bare metal provisioning in minutes is a genuine advantage over traditional dedicated server ordering. Coverage outside Europe is minimal, so this is a European platform.
Infrastructure & support
Support channels
- Ticket system
- Community forum
- Slack community
- Phone support (enterprise)
Data centers
- France (Paris)
- Netherlands (Amsterdam)
- Poland (Warsaw)
Security & compliance
- European data sovereignty with no United States CLOUD Act exposure
- Private networks and security groups included at no cost
- ISO 27001, SOC 2 and HDS health data certifications
- DDoS protection included at the network level
- Identity and access management with project-scoped permissions
- Operating system hardening remains the customer's responsibility
Moving a site in
Self-service, with image import and snapshot tooling. Professional services are available for enterprise customers. There is no managed website migration service.
The trade-off
In its favour
- Strong EU data sovereignty and GDPR compliance
- Green energy data centers
- Competitive pricing vs US rivals
Worth knowing
- Data centers primarily in Europe
- Smaller service catalog than hyperscalers
- Less community content in English
Who should look elsewhere
- Audiences outside Europe, given the regional footprint
- Anyone wanting managed WordPress, cPanel or email hosting
- Non-technical buyers
- Workloads needing the service breadth of AWS or Azure
The company behind it
| Ownership | Iliad Group, the French telecoms company behind Free |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
| Founded | 2013, with roots in Online.net dating to 1999 |
| Scale | Data centres in France, the Netherlands and Poland |
| Sustainability | DC5 uses adiabatic cooling with no air conditioning, among Europe's most efficient |
How it got here
- 1999 Predecessor Online.net founded as a French hosting provider.
- 2013 Scaleway launched with ARM-based bare metal servers.
- 2018 Opens DC5, an adiabatically cooled data centre with exceptional energy efficiency.
- 2021 Expands managed Kubernetes, databases and serverless products.
- 2023 Adds GPU instances and positions as a European sovereign cloud alternative.
Common questions
Is Scaleway GDPR compliant?
Yes, as a French company under EU law Scaleway provides strong GDPR compliance with data stored exclusively in European data centers.
Does Scaleway's object storage work with S3 tools?
Yes, Scaleway Object Storage is fully API-compatible with Amazon S3, so any S3-compatible tool or SDK works out of the box.
The bottom line
The strongest French cloud and a credible sovereign alternative for European teams that want modern managed services without American ownership. Good pricing, genuinely impressive sustainability engineering, and a clean developer experience. European focus is both the strength and the limit.