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OVHcloud vs Scaleway (2026)

By Noahlast updated

Verdict: Choose OVHcloud if you want a European provider with a wide footprint (46 data centers on 4 continents), VPS from about $8.50/month, hosted private cloud on VMware or Nutanix, anti-DDoS included, and $300 in combined Public Cloud trial credit. Choose Scaleway if you want the cheapest published entry point (about €0.43/month for a Stardust1-S instance), EU-hosted H100 and B300-SXM GPU instances, serverless functions, and bare metal from €4.99/month. The deciding factor is footprint versus focus: OVHcloud covers more regions and private-cloud needs, while Scaleway concentrates on EU zones, AI hardware, and very low entry prices.

OVHcloud

European cloud provider selling VPS, bare metal, public cloud and private cloud from its own data centers, with VPS from $4.54/month and $200 in free Public Cloud credit.

Pricing
From $4.54/mo
License
Paid

Best for running VPS or dedicated servers in EU data centers, under EU rather than US CLOUD Act jurisdiction, at published prices below the big US clouds

Scaleway

European cloud and AI infrastructure provider with transparent per-product pricing, VPS-class compute from about €0.43/month and bare metal from €4.99/month.

Pricing
Custom pricing
License
Paid

Best for European developers and startups who need transparent, product-level cloud pricing and EU-hosted GPU instances for AI workloads, without a US hyperscaler's custom-quote enterprise sales process

Which should you choose?

Choose OVHcloud if…

wins 3/6 use cases

  • You need servers beyond Europe: OVHcloud runs 46 data centers on 4 continents plus 15+ Local Zones
  • You want hosted private cloud on VMware or Nutanix with disaster recovery options
  • You want anti-DDoS protection included by default across products rather than sold as an add-on
  • You want $200 in Public Cloud trial credit plus an additional $100 credit to test workloads
  • You want a VPS that scales up to 8 vCores and 24GB RAM, starting around $8.50/month

Choose Scaleway if…

wins 3/6 use cases

  • You need EU-hosted GPU instances with published pricing, including H100, L40S, L4, and B300-SXM
  • You want the lowest entry price: a Stardust1-S development instance (1 vCPU, 1GB RAM) at about €0.43/month
  • You want serverless functions and containers alongside instances and managed Kubernetes
  • You want bare metal from €4.99/month, with Dedibox, Elastic Metal, and Apple Mac mini options
  • You manage infrastructure as code with Terraform and want first-class CLI and API support

OVHcloud vs Scaleway: feature comparison

FeatureOVHcloudScaleway
Starting priceYesVPS from about $8.50/moYesStardust1-S from about €0.43/mo
Free tierNo$200 trial credit plus $100 extra for Public CloudNostartup credit programs
Pricing modelYespublished per product; hourly or monthly Public Cloud billingYespublished per product, priced in EUR
Example compute priceYesb3-8 (8GB RAM, 2 vCores) about $0.0566/hourYesBASIC2-A2C-4G (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM) about €16.79/mo
Bare metalYesAdvance, Game, Scale, High Grade tiers; price varies by specYesDedibox and Elastic Metal from €4.99/mo
Data center footprintYes46 data centers on 4 continents, 15+ Local ZonesPartial4 EU availability zones, 65+ points of presence
GPU instancesPartialAI/ML tooling in Public CloudYesH100, L40S, L4, B300-SXM with published pricing
Managed KubernetesYesPublic Cloud KubernetesYesKapsule and Kosmos
Managed databasesYesPublic Cloud managed databasesYesPostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB
ServerlessUnknownYesfunctions and containers
Hosted private cloudYesVMware or Nutanix with disaster recoveryUnknown
Anti-DDoS protectionYesincluded by defaultUnknown
Management and automationYesweb control panel and APIYesTerraform, CLI, and API
Support reputationPartialresponsiveness is the most common complaintPartialsome reviewers cite slow support and billing disputes
Learning curvePartialmoderatePartialmoderate
External ratingsYes3.9/5 from 7,000+ reviews (Trustpilot), 3.2/5 from 75 (G2)Yes4.1/5 from about 20 reviews (G2)

OVHcloud vs Scaleway: pricing

Every tier both tools publish, as we last checked them — not just the entry price.

OVHcloud

  • VPS-1VPS 2027 range: 2 vCores, 4GB RAM, 40GB NVMe, 500 Mbps; $4.54/month with a 12-month prepayment or $5.35/month without commitment; daily backup and anti-DDoS included.$4.54/mo
  • VPS-24 vCores, 8GB RAM, 75GB NVMe, 1 Gbps; $8.50/month prepaid for 12 months or $10.00/month without commitment.$8.50/mo
  • VPS-36 vCores, 12GB RAM, 100GB NVMe, 2 Gbps; $12.32/month prepaid for 12 months or $14.50/month without commitment.$12.32/mo
  • VPS-48 vCores, 24GB RAM, 200GB NVMe, 3 Gbps; $23.37/month prepaid for 12 months or $27.50/month without commitment.$23.37/mo
  • Bare Metal (Advance)Advance dedicated servers with AMD EPYC 4005 CPUs and 3 Gbps public bandwidth from $189/month; Game, Scale and High Grade ranges are priced per configuration.$189/mo
  • Public Cloud (pay as you go)Billed per second with a one-minute minimum; for example a b3-8 instance (2 vCores, 8GB RAM) costs $0.0605/hour, or $37.54/month on a 12-month Savings Plan. A first Public Cloud project gets US$200 of free credit, valid for one month.Custom
Verified October 26, 2026Latest pricing

Scaleway

  • Development instance (Stardust1-S)Cheapest compute tier at roughly €0.43/month; 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, priced in EUR.Custom
  • General Purpose instanceStarting around €16.79/month for a 2 vCPU / 4GB RAM configuration (BASIC2-A2C-4G); scales up by vCPU and RAM.Custom
  • Bare MetalDedibox and Elastic Metal dedicated servers (including Apple Mac mini rentals) starting at €4.99/month.Custom
Not yet verifiedLatest pricing

OVHcloud vs Scaleway pricing: which costs less?

Scaleway has the lower entry price, with a Stardust1-S instance at about €0.43/month and bare metal from €4.99/month, against OVHcloud VPS from about $8.50/month.

OVHcloud and Scaleway price in different currencies and units, so compare like for like. OVHcloud Public Cloud bills hourly or monthly; a b3-8 instance with 8GB RAM and 2 vCores runs about $0.0566/hour. Scaleway's general-purpose BASIC2-A2C-4G instance with 2 vCPU and 4GB RAM starts around €16.79/month. Neither has a permanent free tier: OVHcloud gives new Public Cloud customers $200 in trial credit plus an additional $100, while Scaleway runs startup credit programs.

Which is better for AI workloads, OVHcloud or Scaleway?

Scaleway is better for AI workloads, with EU-hosted H100, L40S, L4, and B300-SXM GPU instances on published per-product pricing.

Scaleway aims its GPU stack at teams training or serving machine learning models within the EU, without a quote-gated sales process. OVHcloud's Public Cloud also includes AI/ML tooling alongside Kubernetes, managed databases, and object, block, and file storage, and new OVHcloud customers can test it with $300 in combined trial credit.

Which has better global coverage, OVHcloud or Scaleway?

OVHcloud has broader coverage, with 46 data centers on 4 continents and 15+ Local Zones, while Scaleway runs 4 EU availability zones backed by 65+ global points of presence.

OVHcloud designs its own servers and runs its own data centers, and it adds hosted private cloud on VMware or Nutanix with disaster recovery options plus anti-DDoS protection by default. Scaleway focuses on EU data residency, which suits teams that want workloads kept inside the EU. Both are French providers positioned as European alternatives to the US hyperscalers.

Which has better support, OVHcloud or Scaleway?

Neither stands out: support responsiveness is the most common complaint about OVHcloud, and some Scaleway reviewers report slow support, occasionally weekly rather than same-day, plus billing disputes.

OVHcloud rates about 3.9/5 from over 7,000 Trustpilot reviews but 3.2/5 from 75 reviews on G2, a smaller sample weighted toward IT professionals. Scaleway rates 4.1/5 from roughly 20 G2 reviews, with praise for correct billing and easy management. That small Scaleway sample makes its aggregate rating less statistically reliable.

Strengths and weaknesses

OVHcloud

Pros

  • Published, self-serve pricing across VPS, bare metal and Public Cloud, with VPS from $4.54/month prepaid or $5.35/month without commitment.
  • Anti-DDoS protection and a daily backup are included on every VPS rather than sold as add-ons.
  • 46 data centers on 4 continents, and OVHcloud states that services hosted in Europe are not subject to the US CLOUD Act.
  • SecNumCloud-qualified private cloud on VMware or Nutanix for regulated French and EU workloads.
  • A first Public Cloud project gets US$200 of free credit to test instances, Kubernetes and storage.

Cons

  • No permanent free tier; the only free offer is US$200 of Public Cloud credit that expires one month after activation.
  • Prices rose on April 1, 2026: about 9-11% on average for recent cloud hardware and roughly 45% on the VPS 2026 range (VPS-1 went from 4.49 to 6.49 euros a month).
  • Support is the most common complaint in negative Trustpilot reviews, and the 3.8/5 score hides a 36% share of one-star reviews.
  • Smaller ecosystem and third-party integration base than AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.

Scaleway

Pros

  • Transparent, published per-product pricing instead of a custom-quote sales process for most services.
  • Entry-level compute starts near €0.43/month, among the cheapest published cloud pricing available.
  • GPU instances (up to H100 and B300-SXM) give EU-based AI teams a data-sovereign option for model training.
  • Terraform and CLI/API support make it straightforward to manage as infrastructure-as-code.

Cons

  • No permanent free tier; evaluation relies on startup credit programs rather than an ongoing free plan.
  • Some reviewers report billing disputes and unexpected charges that require active monitoring.
  • Support response times are cited as slow by some reviewers, occasionally described as weekly rather than same-day.
  • Smaller review sample (around 20 on G2) than major competitors makes the aggregate rating less statistically reliable.

Which fits your use case?

Use casePickWhy
EU startup training models on H100 GPUsScalewayScaleway offers H100, L40S, L4, and B300-SXM instances in EU zones with published pricing.
Company that needs servers on several continentsOVHcloudOVHcloud runs 46 data centers on 4 continents plus 15+ Local Zones, while Scaleway's availability zones are in the EU.
Developer who wants a tiny test server for almost nothingScalewayScaleway's Stardust1-S instance (1 vCPU, 1GB RAM) costs about €0.43/month.
Enterprise moving VMware workloads to a European cloudOVHcloudOVHcloud's Hosted Private Cloud runs VMware or Nutanix with disaster recovery options.
Game server host worried about DDoS attacksOVHcloudOVHcloud includes anti-DDoS protection by default and sells a Game tier of bare metal servers.
iOS developer who needs a Mac in the cloudScalewayScaleway rents Apple Mac mini machines as part of its bare metal range.

Neither a match?

Both lists carry verified pricing and honest weaknesses for every option.

OVHcloud vs Scaleway: migration FAQ

Should I use OVHcloud or Scaleway?

Use OVHcloud if you need a wide data center footprint, hosted private cloud, and anti-DDoS by default; use Scaleway if you want very low entry prices, serverless, and EU-hosted GPU instances like H100 and B300-SXM.

Is OVHcloud cheaper than Scaleway?

Not at the entry level — Scaleway's Stardust1-S instance costs about €0.43/month and its bare metal starts at €4.99/month, while OVHcloud VPS starts around $8.50/month. OVHcloud offsets this for new Public Cloud customers with $200 in trial credit plus an additional $100.

Can Scaleway replace OVHcloud?

Yes for most EU-hosted compute, Kubernetes, storage, and database workloads, since Scaleway offers 100+ services with published pricing. Teams that need OVHcloud's data centers outside Europe or its VMware and Nutanix hosted private cloud should stay with OVHcloud.

Does OVHcloud have a free tier?

No — OVHcloud has no permanent free plan, but new Public Cloud customers get $200 in trial credit plus an additional $100 credit. Scaleway also has no permanent free tier and relies on startup credit programs.

Are OVHcloud and Scaleway both European?

Yes — OVHcloud and Scaleway are both French cloud providers positioned on European data residency as alternatives to the US hyperscalers.