European Alternatives to Linode
Looking for a European alternative to Linode? Linode is now Akamai Cloud, and its master services agreement is governed by New Jersey law, with exclusive jurisdiction in Camden County, New Jersey, and mandatory individual arbitration for every customer.
Eleven European providers sell the same kind of plain cloud servers, from companies registered in Germany, Finland, France, Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe, with several offering extras such as object storage, Kubernetes and managed databases.
How we rank these tools — 4-step process
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1
European ownership, verified
The company is headquartered and incorporated in the EU, EEA or Switzerland, and processes customer data in Europe. A US parent company disqualifies a tool from this page regardless of where its servers are.
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2
Category fit and hands-on review
What the tool actually does, who it suits, and where it falls short — checked against the vendor’s own documentation, changelog and pricing page rather than its marketing copy.
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Compliance and pricing check
GDPR posture, hosting location and the prices quoted on this page are verified against the vendor’s public pricing before publication, and re-checked when we revisit the category.
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11 European Alternatives to Linode
Hetzner
Gunzenhausen cloud host under German law with an exclusive venue at its seat, plus S3-compatible object storage
Infomaniak Public Cloud
Geneva IaaS with Cloud VPS, Kubernetes and GPU, and CHF 300 of free credit for 3 months
Scaleway
Paris SAS with instances in Paris, Amsterdam and Warsaw and a broad catalogue beyond servers
cloudscale.ch
Zurich developer cloud on open source, run entirely in two Swiss locations, Swiss law and Zurich courts
Exoscale
Lausanne-based Akenes SA with zones in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, under Swiss law
OVHcloud VPS
Roubaix company whose VPS range reaches 8 vCores, 32 GB RAM and unlimited traffic
UpCloud
Helsinki cloud-server company registered in Finland since 2011 (site not verifiable here)
netcup
Karlsruhe vServers with hourly billing, DDoS protection and traffic flat rate
Contabo
Munich VPS and bare-metal seller with regions in Europe, the UK, the US and Asia-Pacific
gridscale
Cologne private and public cloud with a click-based panel, German law and Cologne courts
STACKIT
Schwarz Group cloud from Bad Friedrichshall, positioned as a European hyperscaler for companies
Key takeaways
- Linode is now Akamai Cloud (formerly Linode); its MSA applies New Jersey law, exclusive jurisdiction in Camden County and mandatory individual arbitration to all customers, including those contracting with Akamai's Swiss entity.
- Hetzner Online GmbH (Gunzenhausen, HRB 6089) uses German law with an exclusive venue at its seat, though it may also sue where the customer is, and sells cloud servers, S3-compatible object storage and a REST API.
- Infomaniak (Geneva) gives new Public Cloud users CHF 300 of credit for three months, and offers Cloud VPS, Kubernetes and GPU servers from a Swiss company.
- cloudscale.ch and Exoscale both contract under Swiss law (courts in Zurich and in the canton of Vaud respectively), and both are developer-oriented clouds.
- Scaleway runs instances in Paris, Amsterdam and Warsaw; OVHcloud, netcup, Contabo and gridscale cover cheaper or more traditional server hosting; STACKIT is the one built for enterprise buyers.
Why people leave Linode
Linode built its name on plain, readable cloud servers: pick a plan, pick a region, get a root login in a minute. It has since been bought by Akamai and now trades as Akamai Cloud (formerly Linode). Its pricing page promises "no egress surprises" and offers $100 in credits to new users, and it lists seven European cities, among them Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London.
The paperwork is where the change shows. The Master Services Agreement at akamai.com/legal/msa names two contracting sides: Akamai Technologies, Inc. for North American services, and Akamai Technologies International AG, a Swiss company, for services outside North America.
Whichever applies to you, the agreement is governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey, the courts of Camden County, New Jersey have exclusive jurisdiction, and all customers must bring disputes through binding individual arbitration (AAA International Centre for Dispute Resolution) with a class-action waiver.
This page covers the same plain end of the market: virtual servers for developers and small teams, not managed enterprise platforms. Eleven European providers qualify. They differ more than their price lists suggest: some are cheap server sellers, some are fuller clouds, and two contract under Swiss rather than EU law.
- The contract is American law and American arbitration Even if your invoice comes from a Swiss entity, the Akamai Cloud agreement is governed by New Jersey law, with exclusive jurisdiction in Camden County and arbitration for every customer. Every provider below is the opposite on this one point: the contracting company is registered in Germany, France, Finland or Switzerland, and the ones whose terms we read use their own country's law and courts.
- Disputes move to a venue far from you Under the Akamai terms a dispute goes to individual arbitration in New Jersey, not to a court near your office. Hetzner, gridscale and cloudscale name courts in their own country (Gunzenhausen, Cologne, Zurich), and Exoscale names Lausanne. For a small business that is a practical difference even if you never expect to need it.
- Subprocessors are the provider's call The Akamai MSA incorporates a data processing addendum and says you authorise Akamai to appoint affiliates, subprocessors and third-party service providers for ordinary and necessary processing. That is normal for a global company, but it means you are trusting a large group's supply chain. A single-country company such as cloudscale, which says it runs everything in two Swiss locations, has a shorter chain to review.
- Europe has cloud servers at most price points The choice is wider than the "cheap German host" cliche. Hetzner and netcup sell lean servers, Infomaniak and Scaleway sell fuller clouds, Exoscale and cloudscale target developers with open APIs, and STACKIT and gridscale sit nearer enterprise buyers. Choose by what you run on it, not by the logo.
What you have to replace, not just match
List what runs on your Linode account: how many servers, which images, whether you use block storage, load balancers, backups, object storage or Kubernetes. A handful of plain Linux servers moves almost anywhere in a weekend. Anything that depends on a Linode-only feature, such as its backups or load balancers, needs an equivalent chosen first.
Keep your DNS and your domain with a registrar you control, lower the TTL a day ahead, and run old and new side by side until you have tested the new servers. Copy data over a private connection, check disk and transfer limits on the plan you land on, and only then cancel.
The alternatives compared
| Position | Tool | Headquarters | Pricing | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Hetzner | Gunzenhausen, Germany | From about €4.51/month (Cloud VPS) | EU (Germany) |
| #2 | Infomaniak Public Cloud | Geneva, Switzerland | From CHF 5.75/month (kSuite); kDrive Solo free | Switzerland (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #3 | Scaleway | Paris, France | From about €0.0025/hour (DEV1-S) | EU (France) |
| #5 | Exoscale | Lausanne, Switzerland | From about CHF 5.50/month (Compute) | Switzerland (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #6 | OVHcloud VPS | Roubaix, France | PostgreSQL essential from about €0.16/hour (2 vCPU / 8GB RAM); MySQL, MongoDB, Kafka, Cassandra, OpenSearch, M3DB and Valkey priced separately by engine and tier | EU (France) |
| #7 | UpCloud | Helsinki, Finland | From about €5/month (Cloud Server) | EU (Finland) |
| #8 | netcup | Karlsruhe, Germany | Webhosting 1000 EUR 2.69, Webhosting 2000 EUR 4.03, Webhosting 4000 EUR 8.10 and Webhosting 8000 EUR 13.17 per month, including 19% VAT | EU (Germany) |
| #9 | Contabo | Munich, Germany | From about €4.50/month (VPS) | EU (Germany) |
| #10 | gridscale | Cologne, Germany | From about €5/month (Cloud Server), billed per minute | EU (Germany) |
| #11 | STACKIT | Bad Friedrichshall, Germany | EU (Germany) |
How each alternative compares to Linode
- Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Linode (Akamai Cloud) is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. Germany (Falkenstein, Nuremberg) and Finland (Helsinki), plus Oregon, Virginia and Singapore.
- Source code. Closed source, as Linode (Akamai Cloud) is.
- Independently checked. ISO 27001.
Best for: Developers and small teams who want cloud servers, object storage and an API from a German company
The contracting company is Hetzner Online GmbH, Industriestr. 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen, entered at the Ansbach register as HRB 6089. Its terms are governed by German law, with Gunzenhausen as the exclusive place of jurisdiction, though it may also bring proceedings at the customer's location. Special terms apply for customers in the United States.
Its cloud page offers three plan lines (Cost-Optimized, Regular Performance and General Purpose), locations in Germany, Finland, Singapore and the USA, S3-compatible Object Storage, Storage Box backup storage and a REST API. At the time of reading, Cost-Optimized was marked as not currently available.
The prices on the page are rendered in the browser, so no figure is quoted here. Check the current price of the server you need.
What Hetzner does better than Linode
- German law and a named venue in Germany, where Akamai applies New Jersey law and arbitration
- Object storage and a REST API next to plain servers
- Register entry (Ansbach HRB 6089) shown in the legal notice
Where Hetzner is a step down from Linode
- Fewer managed services than Scaleway or Infomaniak
- The Singapore and US locations are outside Europe, so choose the region on purpose
- Prices could not be verified from server-rendered text
Standout against Linode. Plain cloud servers from a company that publishes its register entry and venue.
- Which law reaches it. Switzerland (adequacy decision, outside the EEA). Linode (Akamai Cloud) is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. Switzerland (Geneva, Winterthur).
- Source code. Closed source, as Linode (Akamai Cloud) is.
- Independently checked. ISO 27001.
Best for: Teams who want a fuller managed cloud and a Swiss contracting company
Infomaniak Network SA has its registered office in Les Acacias, Geneva, in the commercial register of the Canton of Geneva (CH-660.0.059.996-1, CHE-103.167.648). We did not read the governing-law clause of its terms.
Its Public Cloud page offers CHF 300 of free credit to be used within three months, and lists Cloud VPS, a Kubernetes service, GPU Cloud, VPS Lite for low-cost servers, a managed Database Service and Jelastic (PaaS). It describes the infrastructure as running in Switzerland.
What Infomaniak Public Cloud does better than Linode
- Free starting credit of CHF 300 for three months, where Akamai gives $100
- Managed Kubernetes, databases and GPU servers in the same account
- Swiss company with a published register number
Where Infomaniak Public Cloud is a step down from Linode
- Governing-law and venue clause not verified
- Switzerland is not in the EU, which matters for some procurement rules
- Prices not quoted: the figures are not in the page text we read
Standout against Linode. States CHF 300 of free credit for three months on its public cloud page.
- Which law reaches it. EU (France). Linode (Akamai Cloud) is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw — EU only.
- Source code. Closed source, as Linode (Akamai Cloud) is.
Best for: Teams who expect to move from a few servers to managed services and want French hosting
Scaleway SAS is a French simplified joint-stock company with share capital of EUR 142,050, SIREN 433 115 904, RCS Paris, registered at 8 rue de la Ville-l'Eveque, 75008 Paris. The French business register confirms the entry as active.
Its virtual instances page states availability in Paris (France), Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Warsaw (Poland), and the wider site lists instances, bare metal, object storage, containers and GPU offers. The contract terms are on a page rendered in the browser, so the governing law could not be quoted.
Pricing is client-side, so no figure is stated here.
What Scaleway does better than Linode
- Three European regions where several rivals run in one country
- A far wider catalogue than a server-only host
- French register entry confirmed on the government service
Where Scaleway is a step down from Linode
- Governing-law clause not verified
- A larger catalogue than a simple VPS seller, so more to evaluate
- Prices not verified
Standout against Linode. A full cloud catalogue from one French company, in three European regions.
cloudscale.ch
a Zurich developer cloud that stays in Switzerland
Best for: Developers who want Swiss law, Swiss data centres and automation through Terraform or Ansible
cloudscale.ch Ltd. is at Neugasse 6, 8005 Zurich. Its Terms of Service state that the framework agreement is subject to Swiss law and that the exclusive place of jurisdiction is Zurich. They also say the IT infrastructure and online platform are operated exclusively in data centres in Switzerland.
The homepage describes infrastructure-as-a-service built on open-source technologies, from virtual servers to load balancers to object storage, integrations with Ansible and Terraform, and two cloud locations in Switzerland.
The pricing page shows flavour prices in Swiss francs, but with switchable time units, so we do not quote a figure.
What cloudscale.ch does better than Linode
- Swiss law and a Zurich venue stated in two lines of the terms
- Everything in Switzerland, with no US or Asian region to mistake
- Built for infrastructure-as-code from the start
Where cloudscale.ch is a step down from Linode
- Only two locations, both in one country
- Prices in Swiss francs, outside the euro area
- Smaller managed-service range than Scaleway
Standout against Linode. States Swiss law, Zurich courts and Swiss data centres only.
- Which law reaches it. Switzerland (adequacy decision, outside the EEA). Linode (Akamai Cloud) is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria.
- Source code. Closed source, as Linode (Akamai Cloud) is.
Best for: Teams who want Swiss law but servers in Frankfurt or Munich
The supplier in the terms is Akenes SA, Boulevard de Grancy 19A, 1006 Lausanne, Switzerland. The terms applicable from 2 July 2026 are governed by the laws of Switzerland, and the parties submit to the exclusive courts of the canton of Vaud, district of Lausanne, although the supplier may go to any competent court.
Its datacentres page lists zones including Frankfurt (DE-FRA-1) and Munich (DE-MUC-1), the Frankfurt one hosted in an Equinix facility. Its compute page describes instances for CI/CD, apps and production workloads.
Prices are not quoted: they are not present in the page text we read.
What Exoscale does better than Linode
- Swiss law and a named Vaud venue, where Akamai uses New Jersey law
- Zones in Germany as well as Switzerland
- A clear one-document terms page
Where Exoscale is a step down from Linode
- The supplier may sue in any competent court, while the customer is held to Vaud
- Fewer plain budget plans than Hetzner or netcup
- Prices not verified
Standout against Linode. Swiss contract with the option of German data centres.
- Which law reaches it. EU (France). Linode (Akamai Cloud) is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. 30+ data centres, majority in Europe.
- Source code. Closed source, as Linode (Akamai Cloud) is.
- Independently checked. SecNumCloud (ANSSI), GAIA-X founding member.
Best for: Buyers who want big plans with unlimited traffic from a French company
The French business register lists OVH (OVHCLOUD), SIREN 424761419, at 2 rue Kellermann, 59100 Roubaix, as active. We opened the worldwide English site, so we cannot say which entity or terms apply to a given EU customer.
Its VPS page meta text advertises up to 8 vCores, 32 GB RAM, 640 GB NVMe and unlimited traffic. The site also covers public cloud, private cloud and dedicated servers.
Prices differ by country and currency on the site, so none is given.
What OVHcloud VPS does better than Linode
- Unlimited traffic is stated on the VPS page
- A large French company with a wide product range
- Register entry confirmed on the French government service
Where OVHcloud VPS is a step down from Linode
- We could not confirm the contract entity for EU customers from the worldwide site
- The range is large, so a plain VPS buyer has more to compare
- Governing-law clause not verified
Standout against Linode. States up to 8 vCores, 32 GB RAM and unlimited traffic on its VPS page.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Finland). Linode (Akamai Cloud) is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. Finland, Germany, Netherlands, UK, Poland, Spain, and beyond.
- Source code. Closed source, as Linode (Akamai Cloud) is.
- Independently checked. 100% uptime SLA.
Best for: Buyers who already know UpCloud and want a Finnish contracting company
The Finnish trade register (avoindata.prh.fi) lists UpCloud Oy, also named UpCloud Ltd, business ID 2431560-5, registered on 27 September 2011 as a limited company, with the main business line "Computing infrastructure, data processing, hosting and related activities".
The upcloud.com site and its terms returned HTTP 403 behind a browser check, so we could not read its terms, locations or prices. We therefore state nothing about its product beyond the register entry, and we rank it below providers whose own pages we could read.
What UpCloud does better than Linode
- Registered in Finland with a public business ID
- Operating since 2011 according to the register
Where UpCloud is a step down from Linode
- Terms, prices and product list could not be verified for this page
- Ranked lower for that reason, not because of a product flaw
Standout against Linode. The only provider here with a Finnish contracting company.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Linode (Akamai Cloud) is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. Data centres in Nuremberg (Germany), Vienna (Austria) and Amsterdam (Netherlands), plus sites in Virginia (US) and Singapore; the location is part of the product chosen.
- Source code. Closed source, as Linode (Akamai Cloud) is.
- Independently checked. ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO 27701.
Best for: Budget-minded users who want German hosting with a traffic flat rate
netcup GmbH is at Emmy-Noether-Strasse 10, 76131 Karlsruhe, in the commercial register of the Amtsgericht Mannheim as HRB 705547. The managing directors named are Oliver Werner and Alexander Windbichler.
Its VPS page describes vServers with selectable CPU, RAM and SSD, a traffic flat rate, DDoS protection, pre-configured images, snapshots and a remote console, with hourly billing mentioned in the page description, and contract periods of 1, 12 or 24 months.
The page shows prices that depend on the chosen country and VAT, so no figure is quoted.
What netcup does better than Linode
- German company with register entry in its legal notice
- Hourly billing and a traffic flat rate on VPS
- Longer contract periods give a discount when you want one
Where netcup is a step down from Linode
- Governing-law clause not verified
- Fewer managed cloud services than Scaleway or Infomaniak
- Prices vary by country and VAT setting
Standout against Linode. Lean German vServers with a traffic flat rate.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Linode (Akamai Cloud) is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. 12 locations including Germany, UK, US, Singapore.
- Source code. Closed source, as Linode (Akamai Cloud) is.
Best for: People who mainly want a lot of RAM and storage and accept a simpler platform
Contabo GmbH is at Welfenstrasse 22, 81541 Munich, with the register court AG Munich and number HRB 180722; managing directors are Stephan Wolfram and Mario Wilhelm.
Its VPS page lists lines named Core, Performance, Max Performance, Storage and Windows, plus bare-metal servers. The region selector includes the European Union, United Kingdom, United States, Singapore, Japan, India and Australia. The terms refer to German law in their text, though we did not read the dispute clause itself.
Prices depend on currency and country, so none is quoted.
What Contabo does better than Linode
- German company with register entry
- Wide choice of regions, including Asia-Pacific
- Storage-heavy and Windows plans are listed as separate lines
Where Contabo is a step down from Linode
- A thinner managed-service catalogue than Scaleway or Infomaniak
- Several regions are outside Europe, so check where your data lands
- Governing-law clause not verified
Standout against Linode. Lists regions in Europe, the UK, the US and Asia-Pacific.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Linode (Akamai Cloud) is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. Germany (Frankfurt, Cologne).
- Source code. Closed source, as Linode (Akamai Cloud) is.
Best for: Teams who want a click-based panel and a German private or public cloud
gridscale GmbH is at Oskar-Jaeger-Strasse 173, 50825 Cologne, with Amtsgericht Cologne HRB 97235. Its general terms, section 17, state that disputes are governed by German law, excluding the UN sales convention, and that the courts in Cologne have jurisdiction. The English version is for information only: the German terms apply.
Its homepage describes private and public cloud and a panel where you click instead of code, and its site offers a hybrid-core product for data centre automation.
Prices were not available in the page text, so none is quoted.
What gridscale does better than Linode
- German law and Cologne courts stated in a numbered clause
- Private as well as public cloud
- A panel aimed at people who do not want to script everything
Where gridscale is a step down from Linode
- Not a lean developer VPS seller
- The English terms are only informational
- Prices could not be verified
Standout against Linode. Private and public cloud from one German company with an explicit venue clause.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Linode (Akamai Cloud) is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. Germany: the AI Model Serving pricing table names the region Germany South.
- Source code. Closed source, as Linode (Akamai Cloud) is.
Best for: Larger buyers who want a European cloud with support plans
The imprint names Schwarz Digits Cloud GmbH & Co. KG, Am Campus 1, 74177 Bad Friedrichshall, entered at the Stuttgart district court as HRA 741347, represented by STACKIT Beteiligungs-GmbH (Neckarsulm, HRB 795936).
Its homepage presents STACKIT as a sovereign cloud for companies and a European hyperscaler with enterprise scale, and its site lists support plans from Advanced to Ultimate. We did not read its terms or prices.
What STACKIT does better than Linode
- Register entry and managing entity named in full in the imprint
- Support plans for larger buyers
Where STACKIT is a step down from Linode
- Aimed at companies, not at someone renting a single cheap VPS
- Terms and prices not verified
Standout against Linode. Positioned as the enterprise end of European cloud.
What actually breaks when you switch
The servers are the easy part. The friction is in anything specific to Linode, such as its load balancers, backups, DNS and API tooling. Decide the replacement for each before you move the servers, and rebuild automation against the new provider's API.
Check what each plan includes in outbound traffic, backups and snapshots, IPv4 addresses and disk type. Cheap plans on several of these providers are priced for a specific resource mix, and a plan that looks cheaper may need extra for backups or an extra address.
Not every provider here is European in every region. Hetzner has locations in Singapore and the USA, Contabo has regions in several continents, and Akamai itself lists European cities. Pick the region deliberately and confirm it in the account settings.
Which of these is closest to Linode?
Hetzner and cloudscale are closest in spirit: lean cloud servers with an API, aimed at developers. Scaleway and Infomaniak add more managed services (Kubernetes, databases, object storage) and are the better pick if you expect to grow beyond a few servers.
None replicates Linode's full product list. If you rely on a specific Linode service, check that your target has an equivalent before moving.
Which have free credit or a trial?
Infomaniak states CHF 300 of free credit for new Public Cloud users, to be used within three months. Akamai itself offers $100 in credits to new users on its pricing page. For the others, we did not find a credit or trial on the pages we read, so check the sign-up flow.
Several here bill by the hour (netcup says so on its VPS page), which makes a short test cheap even without a formal trial.
Does the jurisdiction really matter for a server?
It matters when something goes wrong: a billing dispute, an outage you want compensation for, or a request for your data. Under Akamai's MSA, those go to New Jersey law and arbitration. With a German, French or Swiss provider, they go to the courts and law named in its own terms.
For a personal project it is a minor point. For a business that stores customer data, it belongs next to data location and backup in your checklist.
What about data location?
Choose a provider and region that put the servers where your customers or your rules require. Scaleway lists Paris, Amsterdam and Warsaw; Hetzner lists Germany, Finland, Singapore and the USA; cloudscale runs only in Switzerland; Exoscale lists Frankfurt and Munich among its zones. A European company with a US region is not the same as European hosting, so pick the region deliberately.
Which one to pick
If you want the closest equivalent for plain cloud servers, start with Hetzner: German company, German law, a venue at its seat, object storage and a REST API. If you want free starting credit and a broader managed cloud, Infomaniak states CHF 300 for three months, and Scaleway offers three European regions and a large catalogue.
If Swiss law and everything inside Switzerland matter, cloudscale.ch is the clearest: Swiss law, Zurich courts, two Swiss locations. Exoscale is the Swiss option with zones in Germany. OVHcloud, netcup and Contabo suit buyers who mainly want large plans for little, and gridscale and STACKIT suit larger or more traditional buyers.
Be honest about the gap. Linode has an established product set and API, and several providers here have fewer managed extras. We could not open UpCloud's site, we did not verify any price, and several governing-law clauses were not read. Move if a European or Swiss contracting party and a nearby court matter to you, and stay if Linode's tooling and the Akamai network are what you rely on.
Frequently Asked Questions
For plain cloud servers, Hetzner is the strongest all-round answer on this page: a German company with a published register entry, German law and an exclusive venue at its seat, with object storage and an API. Infomaniak is the better choice if you want free credit and a fuller managed cloud, and cloudscale if you want everything in Switzerland under Swiss law.
No. Linode is now Akamai Cloud (formerly Linode). Its agreement names Akamai Technologies, Inc. for North American services and Akamai Technologies International AG, in Switzerland, for services elsewhere, but the agreement is governed by New Jersey law with arbitration in Camden County, New Jersey.
Yes. Its pricing page lists seven European cities, including Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London. Location and contract are separate questions: the data can sit in Frankfurt while the agreement is still governed by New Jersey law.
We do not quote prices. The pricing pages we opened were either rendered in the browser or varied by country and currency, so any figure here would risk being wrong. Open the provider's own calculator, set your country, and compare the plan you actually need including backups and traffic.
Infomaniak states CHF 300 of credit for new Public Cloud users, usable within 3 months. Akamai states $100 in credits for new users. For the rest we found no trial on the pages we read, but hourly billing, which netcup describes, keeps a test small.
cloudscale.ch Ltd. (Zurich) applies Swiss law with Zurich as exclusive venue. Exoscale (Akenes SA, Lausanne) applies the laws of Switzerland with the courts of the canton of Vaud, district of Lausanne. Infomaniak Network SA is registered in Geneva, but we did not read its governing-law clause.
Hetzner Online GmbH states that its terms are governed by German law, with Gunzenhausen as the exclusive place of jurisdiction (it may also sue at your location). gridscale GmbH applies German law with Cologne courts. Contabo, netcup and STACKIT are German companies, but we did not read their governing-law clauses.
The Finnish business register lists UpCloud Oy (also styled UpCloud Ltd), business ID 2431560-5, registered on 27 September 2011 as a limited company. Its website blocked our automated access, so product details and terms are not covered here.
Contabo GmbH is a Munich company (HRB 180722) selling VPS in several tiers and bare metal, with regions in the EU, the UK, the US, Singapore, Japan, India and Australia. It is a fit for buyers who mainly want large servers for little. We did not verify its prices, uptime record or governing-law clause.
The French register lists OVH, SIREN 424761419, at 2 rue Kellermann in Roubaix. Its VPS page advertises up to 8 vCores, 32 GB of RAM, 640 GB NVMe and unlimited traffic. We opened its worldwide site, so we cannot say which entity or terms apply to a given EU customer.
Only partly. STACKIT, from Schwarz Digits Cloud GmbH & Co. KG in Bad Friedrichshall, positions itself as a European hyperscaler for companies and sells support plans. It suits a larger buyer more than someone renting two VPS.
Create the new servers, copy data over SSH or rsync, test with a hosts-file entry, lower DNS TTL ahead of time, and switch DNS once everything works. Linode-specific features such as load balancers or backups need an equivalent set up first.
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