Scaleway vs OVHcloud: Which Is Better in 2026?

Scaleway vs OVHcloud: At a Glance

Two French cloud giants dominate the European hosting landscape, each with distinct strengths. Scaleway positions itself as a GDPR-native cloud provider with freemium pricing and modern developer tools. OVHcloud operates as Europe's largest cloud infrastructure provider by server count, running 400,000+ servers globally with aggressive bare metal pricing.

Both providers offer comprehensive cloud services including VPS, dedicated servers, Kubernetes, and object storage. The choice between them often comes down to pricing model preferences, specific performance requirements, and geographic coverage needs.

Specs Compared

Scaleway Instance Types:

• DEV1-S: 2 vCPUs, 2GB RAM, 20GB NVMe, unlimited bandwidth - €2.99/month
• DEV1-M: 3 vCPUs, 4GB RAM, 40GB NVMe, unlimited bandwidth - €5.99/month
• DEV1-L: 4 vCPUs, 8GB RAM, 80GB NVMe, unlimited bandwidth - €11.99/month
• GP1-XS: 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 25GB block storage, unlimited bandwidth - €4.19/month
• PRO2 instances: Up to 48 vCPUs, 384GB RAM for production workloads

OVHcloud Instance Types:

• VPS Starter: 1 vCPU, 2GB RAM, 20GB SSD, unlimited bandwidth - $3.50/month
• VPS Value: 1 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 40GB SSD, unlimited bandwidth - $7/month
• VPS Essential: 2 vCPUs, 8GB RAM, 80GB SSD, unlimited bandwidth - $14/month
• Public Cloud instances: Up to 120 vCPUs, 750GB RAM available
• Dedicated servers starting from Intel Xeon processors with 32GB RAM

Storage and Networking: Scaleway provides NVMe SSD storage on most instances with block storage add-ons. The platform includes unlimited bandwidth on all VPS plans and offers object storage with S3 compatibility. Network performance reaches up to 10Gbps on higher-tier instances.

OVHcloud delivers SSD storage across VPS offerings and NVMe on dedicated servers. All servers include anti-DDoS protection by default. The provider offers unlimited bandwidth on most plans and maintains its own global fiber network for reduced latency.

Pricing Compared

Scaleway Pricing Structure:

• Free tier includes 1 shared vCPU instance with 1GB RAM
• Entry VPS from €2.99/month ($3.24)
• Object storage: €0.01 per GB/month
• Block storage: €0.12 per GB/month
• Bandwidth: unlimited on most services
• Kubernetes cluster management: free (pay for nodes)

OVHcloud Pricing Structure:

• VPS starting at $3.50/month
• Dedicated servers from $39/month
• Object storage: €0.01 per GB/month
• Additional disk space: €0.04 per GB/month for VPS
• Bandwidth: unlimited on most plans
• Public Cloud: pay-per-use with per-hour billing

OVHcloud typically offers lower absolute prices on dedicated hardware, particularly for high-core-count servers. Scaleway's freemium model provides better entry points for testing and small projects. Both providers maintain competitive European pricing compared to US-based clouds.

Performance and Locations

Scaleway Infrastructure: The provider operates data centers in Paris, Amsterdam, and Warsaw, focusing on European coverage. Scaleway's ARM-based instances provide energy-efficient computing for specific workloads. The platform emphasizes NVMe storage performance and maintains its own network backbone across Europe.

Scaleway's managed Kubernetes service integrates tightly with other platform services. Object storage delivers consistent performance with S3-compatible APIs. The provider's serverless functions support multiple programming languages with sub-second cold starts.

OVHcloud Infrastructure: OVHcloud maintains 37 data centers across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. The provider manufactures its own servers and networking equipment, controlling the entire hardware stack. This vertical integration enables competitive pricing on bare metal performance.

The platform's anti-DDoS protection operates at the network level, filtering attacks before they reach customer servers. OVHcloud's private networking allows secure communication between services without internet routing. The provider's CDN includes 19 points of presence globally.

Performance characteristics vary by service type. VPS instances share resources among tenants, while dedicated servers provide isolated performance. Both providers offer SLA guarantees, with OVHcloud providing more granular uptime commitments across different service tiers.

Who Should Use Scaleway?

Developers and Startups: Scaleway's freemium model suits developers testing cloud architectures or building proof-of-concept applications. The platform's developer-focused documentation and APIs accelerate time-to-market for technical teams. ARM instances provide cost-effective computing for containerized workloads.

GDPR-Sensitive Applications: Organizations requiring strict European data residency benefit from Scaleway's GDPR-native design. The provider maintains clear data processing agreements and transparent privacy policies. All services operate within EU jurisdiction with French data protection oversight.

Kubernetes-Heavy Workloads: Teams deploying container-orchestrated applications appreciate Scaleway's managed Kubernetes service. The platform handles control plane management while providing access to underlying node configuration. Integration with object storage and load balancers simplifies application deployment.

Modern Development Teams: Organizations adopting infrastructure-as-code practices find Scaleway's Terraform provider and APIs well-documented. The platform supports GitOps workflows and CI/CD integration. Serverless functions complement microservices architectures without vendor lock-in concerns.

Who Should Use OVHcloud?

High-Performance Computing: Applications requiring dedicated CPU cores and memory benefit from OVHcloud's bare metal servers. The provider's custom hardware delivers consistent performance for database workloads, analytics, and compute-intensive applications. Anti-DDoS protection secures high-value infrastructure automatically.

Global Enterprises: Organizations with worldwide operations leverage OVHcloud's extensive geographic coverage. The provider's presence in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific enables low-latency service delivery. Enterprise support tiers provide dedicated technical assistance.

Cost-Conscious Operations: Teams prioritizing infrastructure cost efficiency find OVHcloud's dedicated server pricing competitive. The provider's hardware manufacturing capabilities translate to lower customer costs. Unlimited bandwidth eliminates data transfer charges on most services.

Traditional Hosting Migrations: Organizations moving from shared hosting or colocation appreciate OVHcloud's familiar dedicated server model. The platform supports both modern cloud services and traditional hosting approaches. Migration tools assist in transferring existing applications with minimal downtime.

The Verdict

Scaleway excels for modern development teams prioritizing GDPR compliance and developer experience. The platform's freemium model and ARM instances provide unique value propositions in the European cloud market. Teams building cloud-native applications benefit from integrated Kubernetes and serverless offerings.

OVHcloud dominates scenarios requiring raw performance at competitive prices. The provider's global infrastructure and bare metal expertise serve enterprise workloads effectively. Organizations needing dedicated resources with anti-DDoS protection find OVHcloud's value proposition compelling.

Choose Scaleway for developer-friendly cloud services with European data residency requirements. Select OVHcloud for high-performance dedicated infrastructure with global reach and aggressive pricing. Both providers offer solid alternatives to US-based cloud platforms for European operations.

See the full comparison on ServerSpotter.