Alternatives to the big US cloud providers
There are more European alternatives to AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud than many shortlists suggest – from German mid-sized companies with their own data centres to subsidiaries of European groups. This overview names the relevant providers honestly, including centron’s competitors, and explains the criteria that should guide your choice when data sovereignty and the GDPR are the deciding factors.
Why look for an alternative at all?
The most important reason is legal, not technical: as US companies, the hyperscalers are subject to the CLOUD Act and FISA Section 702 – US authorities can compel the disclosure of data even when the servers are located in Frankfurt or Dublin. With its Schrems II ruling (C-311/18, July 2020), the European Court of Justice turned precisely this tension into a GDPR problem. Practical reasons come on top: euro pricing without currency risk, German-speaking support, predictable egress costs and shorter paths in audits.
European alternatives at a glance
This overview deliberately includes centron’s competitors – a shortlist containing only one’s own name would not be one. All information: as of 24 September 2026, sorted alphabetically; the evidence for the C5 attestations is on the page BSI C5 explained. Important for your assessment: a "European headquarters" is necessary but not sufficient. What counts is the complete chain – an ownership structure free of third-country control, data centres in the EU, a contract under European law and independently audited security. The 10-point data sovereignty checklist shows how to verify this.
| Provider | Headquarters | Data centres | BSI C5 | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| centron | Germany (Hallstadt near Bamberg) | Own data centre in Hallstadt, further sites in Nuremberg and Frankfurt | C5:2020 Type 1 (ccloud³ / Managed Cloud) | Owner-managed GmbH; ccloud³ VMs, managed Kubernetes, S3 object storage, GPU and managed servers. ISO 27001 based on IT-Grundschutz (BSI). |
| Hetzner | Germany (Gunzenhausen) | Own data centres in Germany and Finland | C5:2020 Type 2 | Price-aggressive infrastructure provider; strong in dedicated servers and cloud VMs, self-service model. |
| IONOS | Germany (Karlsruhe/Montabaur) | Germany and further sites in Europe | C5 Type 1 (Compute Engine, Cloud Cubes, S3) | Listed provider (United Internet group) with a broad portfolio from web hosting to enterprise cloud. |
| OVHcloud | France (Roubaix) | Own data centres in several EU countries | C5:2020 | Europe’s largest cloud provider, publicly listed; broad IaaS/PaaS portfolio. |
| plusserver | Germany (Cologne) | Four data centres in the DACH region | C5 Type 2 (pluscloud open, pluscloud VMware) | Managed cloud provider with OpenStack and VMware platforms; mid-sized businesses, healthcare and the public sector. |
| Scaleway | France (Paris) | France, the Netherlands, Poland | No attestation publicly stated | Subsidiary of the Iliad group; developer-focused cloud. |
| STACKIT | Germany (Heilbronn) | Germany | C5 Type 2 | The Schwarz Group’s cloud (Lidl/Kaufland); a platform geared to enterprise and retail requirements. |
| T Cloud Public (Open Telekom Cloud until January 2026) | Germany (Frankfurt/Bonn) | Germany | C5:2020 Type 2 | Public cloud from T-Systems (Deutsche Telekom), OpenStack-based; focused on large enterprises and the public sector. |
What to look for when choosing
- Jurisdiction of the parent company – it is not the server location that decides, but who can legally compel access (CLOUD Act, FISA 702).
- Evidence instead of claims – a C5 attestation and ISO 27001 with a matching scope; how to read an attestation is explained on <a href="/en/bsi-c5">Understanding and vetting BSI C5</a>.
- The full price calculation – include traffic, backups, snapshots and support; entry prices alone are not meaningful (see <a href="/en/vergleich/deutsche-cloud-anbieter">German cloud providers compared</a>).
- Migration effort and exit – S3-compatible interfaces, standard APIs and documented termination paths reduce switching risk in both directions.
- Operating model – self-service is enough for developer teams; anyone wanting to hand over operational responsibility needs managed offerings with an SLA.
Switching in practice
A migration away from AWS, Azure or Google Cloud rarely starts with the entire estate. A proven approach is to start with a clearly delimited project – a new workload, the staging environment or object storage (S3-compatible APIs make the storage move the easiest part). Detailed head-to-head comparisons: centron vs. Microsoft Azure, centron vs. Hetzner, centron vs. IONOS, centron vs. STACKIT.
Last reviewed: 24 September 2026 · Sources: ECJ, judgment C-311/18 ("Schrems II"); US CLOUD Act (H.R. 4943); provider information according to their websites, as of 24 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions about cloud alternatives
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