Scaleway vs Napkin
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Scaleway and Napkin.
Quick Verdict
4.0/5
Scaleway
0 reviews
3.5/5
Napkin
0 reviews
Scaleway is rated higher (4.0 vs 3.5). Scaleway provides bare-metal servers, VPS, and managed Kubernetes in European data centers. Designed for developers and small-to-medium businesses needing reliable cloud compute without vendor lock-in. Napkin lets you write and run Node.js and Python serverless functions directly in the browser with zero setup, deploying them as authenticated HTTP endpoints.
Scaleway European cloud infrastructure with competitive pricing and transparent billing | Napkin Write and deploy Node.js and Python functions as HTTP endpoints from a browser editor | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.0 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.5 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | usage-based | freemium |
| Starting price | From $0.1/mo | Free tier available✓ |
| Best for | European companies needing data sovereignty and a full cloud ecosystem — VMs, Kubernetes, storage, GPUs — under one EU contract | Developers who need an HTTP endpoint today — webhooks, bots, scheduled automations, and prototypes — without opening a cloud console or running infrastructure. |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 1 vCPU | — |
| RAM | 1 GB | — |
| Storage | — | — |
| Bandwidth | — | — |
| SLA uptime | 99.9% | — |
| Data-center count | 10 | — |
| €/vCPU/mo | €0.10 | — |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €0.10 | — |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ✓ | |
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | FranceNetherlandsPolandItaly | — |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tierhourly billingipv6ddos protectionsnapshotsmanaged optionbare metalgpu availables3 compatibleeu datacentergdpr compliantterraform providerkubernetes supportapi access | free tier |
| Visit Scaleway → | Visit Napkin → | |
Scaleway
Pros
- + Full EU footprint (Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Milan) under French/EU law, outside the CLOUD Act
- + One vendor for instances, bare metal, managed Kubernetes, Object Storage, serverless and GPUs
- + Transparent per-hour pricing published to the cent, with free Kapsule control plane and unmetered instance egress
- + ISO 27001 and HDS certifications; documented SLAs with service credits per product
- + S3-compatible Object Storage with 75GB/month free and competitive per-GB rates
Cons
- - Compute costs notably more per GB RAM than Hetzner at the entry and mid tiers
- - Flexible IPv4 (about €2.90/month) and snapshot storage bill separately and quietly
- - Egress terms differ by product class and sources disagree; read the fine print before budgeting
- - SLA band varies by service (99.5% GPU to 99.99% PRO2) and credit claims take effort per user reports
- - Europe-only regions and ticket-based support without enterprise escalation
Napkin
Pros
- + Genuinely free plan: $0/month with 25,000 API calls, unlimited functions, custom domains, and team invites
- + One-click deploy from a browser editor — Node.js and Python, no cloud console or CLI required
- + Clear published limits: 500 MB/0.5 vCPU free (2 GB/2 vCPU Pro), 15s/30s timeouts, explicit rate caps
- + Endpoint SSL, auth, production logs, and scheduled triggers included on both tiers
- + Pro tier is capacity-only at $10 per user per month — no feature gating, no sales call
Cons
- - No published SLA, regions, or data residency; small-vendor reliability story
- - Free tier caps at 5 requests/second and a 15-second timeout — real design constraints
- - Browser-only workflow with no local development story and no obvious export path
- - Node.js and Python only — no Go, Rust, PHP, or Ruby runtimes
- - Stale limit figures circulate on marketing and third-party pages, so verify before budgeting
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