Scaleway vs Google Cloud

Why Switch from Google Cloud to Scaleway?

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a US company subject to American law, including the CLOUD Act. This means US authorities can compel Google to hand over data stored on its servers — even if those servers are physically located in Europe. For European businesses handling sensitive data, this is a serious compliance risk.

Scaleway, part of French telecommunications giant Iliad Group, offers a genuine European cloud alternative. With data centers exclusively in France and the Netherlands, Scaleway provides the infrastructure you need while keeping your data firmly under EU jurisdiction.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Scaleway	Google Cloud
Compute instances	✅ DEV1, GP1, PRO2	✅ E2, N2, C2
Managed Kubernetes	✅ Kapsule & Kosmos	✅ GKE
Bare metal servers	✅ Elastic Metal	❌ Not available
GPU instances	✅ RENDER, L4, H100	✅ A100, T4, H100
Object storage	✅ S3-compatible	✅ Cloud Storage
Data location	France, Netherlands 🇪🇺	Global (US-controlled) 🇺🇸
GDPR compliant	✅ Full (EU entity)	⚠️ Partial (US entity)
Pricing model	✅ Transparent, per-hour	Complex, per-second
Renewable energy	✅ Adiabatic cooling	⚠️ Carbon-neutral claims

Pricing

Scaleway offers transparent, predictable pricing compared to Google Cloud’s notoriously complex billing:

• Scaleway DEV1-S: €7.99/month (2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 20 GB SSD)
• Scaleway DEV1-M: €15.99/month (3 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB SSD)
• Scaleway GP1-S: €40.79/month (8 vCPU, 32 GB RAM, 200 GB SSD)
• Google Cloud e2-small: ~€14.60/month (2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM)
• Google Cloud e2-medium: ~€29.20/month (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM)

Scaleway’s pricing is generally more competitive for comparable compute, and critically, there are no hidden egress fees that can turn a reasonable Google Cloud bill into a surprise invoice.

Privacy & Data Sovereignty

Scaleway’s European credentials are rock-solid:

• Owned by Iliad Group, a major French technology company
• All data centers located in Paris (France) and Amsterdam (Netherlands)
• Subject exclusively to French and EU law — not the US CLOUD Act
• Active member of GAIA-X, the European initiative for a federated data infrastructure
• SecNumCloud certification path for sensitive government and enterprise workloads
• Transparent about data processing and storage practices

Migration Guide

Migrating from Google Cloud to Scaleway can be done incrementally, service by service:

1. Audit your Google Cloud usage — list all services you use (Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, GKE, etc.) and identify which have direct Scaleway equivalents. Most standard IaaS and container workloads map directly.
2. Set up your Scaleway account and organization — create your account, configure IAM roles, and set up your project structure. Enable the API and install the Scaleway CLI for infrastructure automation.
3. Migrate storage first — move your object storage data using tools like rclone or s3cmd, as Scaleway’s Object Storage is fully S3-compatible. This is typically the lowest-risk migration step and lets you verify connectivity.
4. Migrate compute and containers — recreate your compute instances or deploy your Kubernetes workloads to Scaleway Kapsule. If you use Terraform, update your provider configuration from Google to Scaleway — the HCL structure is similar.
5. Update DNS and networking — reconfigure your DNS records, set up load balancers, and configure private networking on Scaleway. Test connectivity and performance before cutting over production traffic.

Estimated time: 1-2 weeks for simple workloads; 1-3 months for complex multi-service environments. Difficulty level: Moderate to advanced — requires DevOps or cloud engineering experience.

Real-World Use Cases

• A Finnish healthtech startup migrated from Google Cloud to Scaleway to comply with strict EU health data regulations. Scaleway’s HDS (Healthcare Data Hosting) certification in France and exclusive EU data residency satisfied their regulatory requirements, which Google Cloud could not guarantee due to the CLOUD Act.
• A Dutch AI research lab needed GPU instances for training large language models but required all data to remain under EU jurisdiction. Scaleway’s H100 GPU instances in Paris data centers provided the computational power they needed at 20-30% lower cost than comparable Google Cloud configurations, with no data sovereignty concerns.
• An Austrian government agency chose Scaleway for hosting citizen-facing applications after an internal audit determined that US cloud providers posed unacceptable risks under the CLOUD Act. Scaleway’s GAIA-X membership and path toward SecNumCloud certification aligned with the agency’s digital sovereignty requirements.

Company Background

Scaleway was founded in 1999 as Online.net, a French web hosting company, before rebranding to Scaleway in 2015 to reflect its expanded cloud infrastructure ambitions. Scaleway is a subsidiary of the Iliad Group, one of France’s largest telecommunications and technology conglomerates founded by Xavier Niel. Iliad Group also owns Free (France’s disruptive mobile operator) and has revenues exceeding 8 billion euros, giving Scaleway the financial backing of a major European technology company.

Scaleway made headlines in 2015 when it launched the world’s first ARM-based cloud servers, positioning itself as an innovator in energy-efficient cloud computing. Since then, the company has expanded its product line to include GPU instances for AI workloads, managed Kubernetes, serverless functions, and a full range of cloud infrastructure services. Scaleway operates data centers in Paris (multiple facilities in the DC2-DC5 range) and Amsterdam, with all infrastructure remaining exclusively within the EU.

The company employs approximately 600 people, primarily based in Paris, and serves tens of thousands of customers across Europe including startups, enterprises, and public sector organizations. Scaleway has been particularly active in the European AI infrastructure space, offering NVIDIA H100 GPU instances that allow European AI companies to train and deploy models without sending data to US cloud providers. The company is an active member of GAIA-X and is pursuing SecNumCloud certification from ANSSI to serve French and European government clients with the highest security requirements. Scaleway’s commitment to environmental sustainability is reflected in its proprietary adiabatic cooling systems, which use evaporative water cooling instead of energy-intensive air conditioning to cool data centers.

Security & Compliance

Scaleway maintains enterprise-grade security certifications and compliance frameworks appropriate for regulated European workloads.

• ISO 27001 certified information security management across all data center operations
• SOC 2 Type II certified confirming adherence to security, availability, and confidentiality controls
• HDS (Hébergement de Données de Santé) certified in France for hosting healthcare data
• SecNumCloud certification in progress from ANSSI, targeting the highest French cloud security standard for government and sovereign workloads
• Physical data center security including biometric access, 24/7 video surveillance, and on-site security personnel
• DDoS protection included as standard across all compute and networking services
• GDPR-compliant Data Processing Agreements (DPAs) available as standard for all enterprise customers
• NIS2 Directive readiness with infrastructure and processes aligned to the EU’s updated network and information security requirements

Integration Ecosystem

Scaleway provides a modern, standards-based integration ecosystem designed for DevOps teams and cloud-native applications.

• S3-compatible Object Storage allowing drop-in replacement for AWS S3 workflows using existing tools, SDKs, and libraries
• Terraform provider officially maintained by Scaleway for infrastructure-as-code provisioning and management
• Kubernetes (Kapsule and Kosmos) CNCF-certified managed clusters compatible with standard Helm charts, kubectl, and the broader Kubernetes ecosystem
• Scaleway CLI and REST API providing full programmatic access to all services, with SDKs in Python, Go, and JavaScript
• Ansible modules for automating server provisioning, configuration management, and deployment workflows
• Container Registry for storing and managing Docker images with tight integration to managed Kubernetes services
• Serverless Functions and Containers supporting Node.js, Python, Go, and Rust for event-driven and microservice architectures
• Managed databases for PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Redis with automated backups, scaling, and cross-region replication

Who Should Switch?

Scaleway is ideal for:

• European startups looking for affordable, GDPR-compliant cloud infrastructure
• AI/ML teams needing GPU instances under EU jurisdiction
• DevOps teams wanting managed Kubernetes without US data concerns
• Public sector organizations requiring European data sovereignty
• Companies tired of unpredictable Google Cloud billing

The Bottom Line

Scaleway delivers the core cloud infrastructure services that most European businesses need — compute, storage, Kubernetes, and GPU — at competitive prices with full European data sovereignty. Google Cloud offers more managed services and a larger global network, but at the cost of US jurisdiction over your data.

For European businesses that prioritize data sovereignty and predictable pricing, Scaleway is a strong, credible alternative that keeps growing its service portfolio.

---

Looking for more European alternatives in this category? See also: Hetzner and OVHcloud.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Scaleway large enough to handle production workloads?

Yes. Scaleway is part of the Iliad Group, a multi-billion-euro French technology conglomerate. They operate multiple data centers in France and the Netherlands and serve thousands of businesses, including large enterprises and public sector organizations. Their infrastructure supports everything from small web applications to large-scale AI training workloads.

Can I migrate my existing Google Cloud workloads to Scaleway?

Yes. Scaleway offers S3-compatible object storage, managed Kubernetes (Kapsule and Kosmos), and standard compute instances, making migration straightforward for most workloads. Tools like Terraform, Ansible, and Kubernetes manifests work across both platforms, reducing migration effort significantly.

Does Scaleway have hidden egress fees like Google Cloud?

Scaleway includes generous internal bandwidth and has much more transparent egress pricing than Google Cloud. While external egress is charged, the rates are clearly published and considerably lower than Google Cloud's notoriously opaque transfer costs that can cause surprise bills.

What certifications does Scaleway hold for regulated workloads?

Scaleway holds ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certifications. They are also on the path toward SecNumCloud certification from the French ANSSI, which is required for hosting sensitive government data. Additionally, they hold HDS certification for healthcare data hosting in France.

Does Scaleway support GPU instances for AI and machine learning?

Yes. Scaleway offers GPU instances with NVIDIA H100, L4, and L40S GPUs, suitable for AI training and inference workloads. All GPU instances run in EU data centers, making Scaleway one of the few providers offering high-end AI compute with full European data sovereignty.