Scaleway and UpCloud are both Europe-headquartered providers emphasizing data sovereignty, but Scaleway is the broader platform — over 100 products spanning…
Best for Scaleway: Teams needing GPU/AI compute (up to H100/B300-SXM), Apple Mac mini or other bare-metal hosting, or a wide range of managed database engines (Postgres, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB) and serverless SQL from a single European provider.
Best for UpCloud: Teams that want predictable, published pricing starting at $3/month, zero-cost data transfer on every plan, and a no-commitment 14-day free trial with credit before committing.
At a Glance
Scaleway
UpCloud
Primary category
Hosting
Hosting
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
Pay-as-you-go / usage-based, plus dedicated server plans
usage-based
Starting price
From about EUR 4.99/month for entry-level Dedibox dedicated servers; cloud instances billed per-second from fractions of a euro per hour
From about €3/month (roughly $3.50/month)
Free plan
Not documented
Not documented
Free trial
Not documented
Yes
Platforms
Web
Web
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Yes
Not documented
Public API
Yes
Yes
Key Differences
Pricing transparency
Scaleway: The pricing overview page routes to separate per-category pages without listing figures directly.
UpCloud: Publishes a $3/month starting price with hourly-capped, predictable billing.
Buyers who want to compare costs upfront benefit from a directly published starting price.
GPU/AI compute range
Scaleway: Offers a broad GPU lineup (L40S, L4, H100, B300-SXM) plus GPU clusters and generative AI APIs.
UpCloud: No GPU or AI-specific compute is documented.
ML/AI workloads need direct access to high-end accelerators.
Data transfer / egress cost
Scaleway: No comparable egress policy is documented.
UpCloud: States zero-cost egress bandwidth on all plans with no hidden fees.
Bandwidth-heavy applications need predictable egress costs.
Free trial availability
Scaleway: No free trial or credit offer is documented.
UpCloud: Offers a 14-day free trial with €250 in free credit and no commitment.
A no-commitment trial lets teams test the platform before paying.
Product breadth
Scaleway: Lists over 100 cloud and AI products, including bare-metal options (Dedibox, Elastic Metal, Apple Mac mini hosting) and four managed database engines.
UpCloud: Product set centers on three cloud server tiers plus MaxIOPS storage and Kubernetes-oriented Cloud Native plans.
Organizations consolidating vendors need broad product coverage, while others want a focused, simpler server product.
Feature-by-Feature
Compute & Hardware
Feature
Scaleway
UpCloud
GPU/AI compute
Available
Not documented
Bare metal / dedicated hardware
Available
Not documented
Kubernetes
Available
Available
Managed databases
Available
Not documented
Pricing & Trials
Feature
Scaleway
UpCloud
Published starting price
Unavailable
Available
Zero-cost data transfer/egress
Not documented
Available
Free trial with credit
Not documented
Available
Hourly-capped/fixed billing
Not documented
Available
Company & Footprint
Feature
Scaleway
UpCloud
Headquarters disclosed
Available
Available
Global points of presence / data centers
Available
Available
Storage options
Available
Available
Pricing Compared
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
Scaleway
Dedibox Dedicated Servers — From about EUR 4.99/month monthly
GPU Instances — Usage-based, varies by GPU type pay-as-you-go
UpCloud
Starter — From about €3/month hourly (billed up to 28 days per month)
Premium — From about €5/month hourly (billed up to 28 days per month)
Pros & Cons
Scaleway
Pros
Transparent, usage-based pricing with no long-term commitment required
European data centers support GDPR and data sovereignty requirements
Broad product range spanning bare metal to managed Kubernetes and AI GPUs
Backed by the well-capitalized Iliad Group, providing financial stability
Competitive pricing versus AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure for comparable resources
Cons
Smaller global data center footprint than the major US hyperscalers
Fewer managed service integrations and third-party marketplace tools than AWS or Azure
Documentation and community support are smaller in scale than larger providers
Some advanced enterprise features require contacting sales rather than self-service
UpCloud
Pros
Strong storage performance through MaxIOPS technology
Transparent, predictable hourly pricing compared to complex hyperscaler billing
European-owned infrastructure attractive for GDPR-sensitive workloads
Zero-cost data egress on outbound traffic
High uptime SLA of 99.99 percent or better on server plans
Cons
No data center presence in Japan, limiting options for Japan-focused latency needs
Narrower catalog of fully managed services compared to AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud
Users are still responsible for OS hardening, updates, monitoring, and backups
Smaller global footprint than major hyperscale cloud providers
Use Cases
Choose Scaleway: Teams needing GPU/AI compute (up to H100/B300-SXM), Apple Mac mini or other bare-metal hosting, or a wide range of managed database engines (Postgres, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB) and serverless SQL from a single European provider.
Choose UpCloud: Teams that want predictable, published pricing starting at $3/month, zero-cost data transfer on every plan, and a no-commitment 14-day free trial with credit before committing.
Need both: A team could run GPU/AI or bare-metal workloads on Scaleway while using UpCloud for cost-predictable, zero-egress-fee production servers where fixed monthly billing matters most.
Scaleway
European data-sovereign hosting — Companies that need to keep customer data within EU data centers for GDPR compliance can host workloads on Scaleway's Paris, Amsterdam, or Warsaw infrastructure.
AI and GPU workloads — Teams training or running inference for machine learning models can use Scaleway's GPU instances as a lower-cost alternative to hyperscaler GPU pricing.
General cloud application hosting — Startups and developers can run virtual machines, managed databases, Kubernetes, and object storage for typical web and application workloads.
UpCloud
High-performance web and database hosting — Businesses run performance-sensitive applications and databases on UpCloud to take advantage of MaxIOPS storage speed.
European data-residency workloads — European companies use UpCloud to keep customer data within EU data centers for GDPR compliance.
Cost-effective development and testing — Teams spin up low-cost Starter cloud servers for development and staging environments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Scaleway based?
Scaleway's registered office is in Paris, France.
Does Scaleway offer GPU instances?
Yes, including L40S, L4, H100, and B300-SXM GPU instances plus GPU clusters.
Does Scaleway show pricing on its pricing page?
The pricing overview page links out to category-specific pricing pages rather than listing prices directly.
Does UpCloud have a free trial?
Yes, a 14-day free trial with €250 in free credit and no commitment.
How much do UpCloud servers cost?
Plans start from $3/month, billed hourly and capped at 672 hours per month.
Does UpCloud charge for data transfer?
No, all Cloud Server plans include zero-cost egress.