The 7 tools reviewed
Zurich, Switzerland
Founded 2016
Billed to the second per calendar day against prepaid credit (minimum top-up CHF 10), in Swiss francs. Shared-vCPU Flex flavours from CHF 1.10 per 24 hours (4 GB, 1 vCPU) and CHF 1.65 per 24 hours (4 GB, 2 vCPUs). Each server includes 10 GB NVMe root volume, public IPv4 and IPv6, private network and 100 GB free traffic per 24 hours (CHF 2 per additional 100 GB). Extra SSD storage CHF 0.30 per GB per 24 hours. S3-compatible object storage CHF 0.03 per GB per 24 hours, outbound traffic CHF 0.02 per GB, inbound free. Load balancer CHF 45 per 24 hours. Powered-off servers are still charged, purchased credit is not refunded.
Best for: Full per-second price list for developers, Swiss hosting
cloudscale, from cloudscale.ch Ltd. in Zurich, publishes its entire price list. A shared Flex server with 1 vCPU and 4 GB costs CHF 1.10 per 24 hours, and with 2 vCPUs CHF 1.65. Each server includes a 10 GB NVMe root volume, IPv4 and IPv6, and 100 GB of traffic per 24 hours, with CHF 2 per extra 100 GB. S3-compatible object storage costs CHF 0.03 per GB per 24 hours and a load balancer CHF 45 per 24 hours.
Billing runs to the second against prepaid credit with a CHF 10 minimum top-up. Two traps are stated in the terms: powered-off servers stay billable and unused credit is not refunded. Everything runs in two Swiss data centres, in Lupfig and Rumlang, so there is no EU region and every invoice is in Swiss francs. Managed Kubernetes and a wide database range are not listed on the pages we read.
What cloudscale does well
- Every unit price published, billed to the second
- Traffic and object storage egress prices stated
- Both data centres in Switzerland
Where cloudscale falls short
- Prices in CHF and no EU region
- Powered-off servers are charged and prepaid credit is not refunded
Standout feature. Prices are published down to the load balancer and the extra 100 GB of traffic.
Stuttgart, Germany
Founded 2019
Usage-based, billed per second, prices in EUR excl. VAT. Apps: Discovery (shared CPU) from DS-G2-256MB at about €1.00/month, 512 MB about €2.00, 1 GB about €4.00, 2 GB about €8.00; General Purpose (dedicated vCPU) from GP-G2-4GB1C at about €16.00/month up to GP-G2-32GB16C at about €160.00/month. Managed databases from about €1.50/month (Discovery, 256 MB, 4 GB NVMe) and about €24.00/month (General Purpose, 4 GB, 1 vCPU, 64 GB). Object storage about €0.010 (Basic), €0.02 (Standard) or €0.04 (Premium) per GB/month; outbound traffic from object storage and CDN €0.005/GB. Block storage about €0.15 (network) or €0.25 (local) per GB/month. Transactional email €0.00025 per delivered email. Every instance includes 1 TB free outbound traffic per month, then €0.04/GB. No recurring free allowance; new accounts can earn up to €15 in credit at sign-up. Payment by SEPA Direct Debit or card; invoice billing (Net 14) above €2,500/month. Support: Basic included; Standard €29/month + 3% of usage; Premium €499/month + 3%; Enterprise €9,999/month + 3%.
No free tier; new accounts can earn up to €15 in credit at sign-up
Best for: Euro price list for app hosting with databases bundled
Nodion GmbH in Stuttgart is a platform for deploying apps, and its price list is complete and in euros, excluding VAT. Shared-CPU apps start at about €1.00 per month for 256 MB, €4.00 for 1 GB and €8.00 for 2 GB, while dedicated-vCPU sizes run from about €16.00 to about €160.00 per month. Managed databases start at about €1.50 per month, and object storage costs from €0.010 to €0.04 per GB per month depending on tier.
Billing is per second, every instance includes 1 TB of free outbound traffic before €0.04 per GB, and there is no recurring free tier, only up to €15 of sign-up credit. Support is priced too: Basic is included, Standard is €29 per month plus 3% of usage and Premium €499 plus 3%. Frankfurt is the EU region, but US and Singapore regions exist, so residency is a choice you make per service.
What Nodion does well
- Complete price list including support tiers and egress
- Databases, storage and email on one bill
- Frankfurt region and a German control plane
Where Nodion falls short
- No recurring free tier, only up to €15 sign-up credit
- No raw virtual machines or managed Kubernetes
Standout feature. Even support plans and email delivery have a stated price.
Arnhem, Netherlands
Platform fee per cluster per month, excluding VAT: Development (shared infrastructure, isolated workload) €29; Dedicated (1 control plane + 1 worker, dedicated network and load balancer) €99; Dedicated HA (3 control planes + 3 workers, 99.9% uptime SLA) €299. Development runs on shared host infrastructure Mengi pays for; Dedicated clusters add cloud infrastructure billed at cost at the chosen provider's rate (the site mentions Hetzner as the cheapest). Managed databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) are priced separately in the dashboard.
Free trial credit for new accounts (no payment method needed, platform fee waived on Mengi-hosted dedicated clusters during the trial); amount not published in the pages read
Best for: Fixed monthly fees for managed Kubernetes across providers
Mengi Cloud B.V. in Arnhem publishes a platform fee per cluster per month, excluding VAT: €29 for a Development cluster on shared infrastructure, €99 for a Dedicated cluster and €299 for Dedicated HA, which carries a 99.9% uptime SLA. The fee covers the management layer: provisioning, upgrades, certificates, secrets, GitOps, backups and monitoring.
Capacity is separate. Dedicated clusters add cloud infrastructure billed at cost at the provider you pick, and the site names Hetzner as the cheapest. Managed PostgreSQL and MySQL are priced in the dashboard rather than on the public page. A buyer therefore knows the management price in advance but must add the provider's bill, and choosing a non-EU region moves workload data outside the EEA.
What Mengi Cloud does well
- Three clearly priced cluster tiers
- Imports existing EKS, AKS and GKE clusters
- Dutch B.V. with DPA and sub-processor list
Where Mengi Cloud falls short
- Management layer only, infrastructure billed on top
- Database prices are not on the public page
Standout feature. A published fee for the Kubernetes management layer, separate from where the servers run.
Gunzenhausen, Germany
Founded 1997
From about €4.51/month (Cloud VPS)
No trial; pay by the hour
Best for: Low entry price on cloud servers in Germany and Finland
Hetzner Online GmbH in Gunzenhausen, founded in 1997, states cloud servers from about €4.51 per month and bills by the hour with no trial. Cloud servers sit in Falkenstein, Nuremberg and Helsinki, with further locations in Oregon, Virginia and Singapore, so a buyer should pick the location deliberately. All data centres are stated as ISO 27001 certified.
The range reaches beyond cloud servers: dedicated servers including an auction, Storage Boxes, load balancers, volumes and firewalls. Our record holds the entry price only, so the full list of volume, traffic and storage prices has to be read on the vendor pricing page. Support is thinner than a managed provider, and the offer is infrastructure, not platform services.
What Hetzner does well
- Entry price of about €4.51 per month, billed hourly
- Own data centres in Germany and Finland
- ISO 27001 stated for all data centres
Where Hetzner falls short
- Only the entry price is recorded here, not the whole list
- Some locations are outside Europe
Standout feature. A cloud entry price that undercuts most of the list while hosting in Germany and Finland.
Paris, France
Founded 1999
From about €0.0006/hour (DEV1-S)
Pay by the hour, no commitment
Best for: Hourly prices and an EU-only footprint across four cities
Scaleway, owned by the Iliad Group in Paris, publishes hourly compute prices, with a development instance from about €0.0006 per hour on our record. Data centres are in Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw and Milan, all in the EU, so the footprint is European throughout. The company dates back to 1999 and offers committed-use and volume discounts.
The catalogue is broad: instances, managed databases, object storage, serverless functions and containers. A free tier includes object storage and a development instance, according to the tool page. As with Hetzner, our record holds the entry price and not each unit price, and smaller customers rely on community support unless they buy a paid tier.
What Scaleway does well
- Hourly pricing with no commitment
- All data centres inside the EU
- Broad range of managed and serverless services
Where Scaleway falls short
- Only the entry price is recorded here
- Community support unless you pay for a tier
Standout feature. A fully EU footprint with hourly billing and a free tier to test it.
Munich, Germany
Founded 2003
From about €4.50/month (VPS)
No trial
Best for: Large server specs at a low monthly price, no trial
Contabo GmbH in Munich, founded in 2003, states VPS plans from about €4.50 per month, and its page cites an entry configuration of 4 vCPU cores, 8 GB RAM and 50 GB NVMe storage with 200 TB of monthly traffic. The pitch is size per euro, which suits development environments, small business workloads and projects where the owner manages the server.
The honest limits are stated on the tool page: no free trial, a basic control panel, slower provisioning in busy periods and no support tiers with guaranteed SLAs. It lists 12 locations including Germany, the UK, the US and Singapore, so European hosting needs a deliberate choice. Only the entry price is recorded here.
What Contabo does well
- Entry VPS price of about €4.50 per month
- Generous traffic and storage at the entry size
- DDoS protection included
Where Contabo falls short
- No trial and no guaranteed-SLA support tier
- Locations include the US and Singapore
Standout feature. The largest entry-level server specification for the price in this ranking.
Cologne, Germany
Founded 1999
Cloud services can be booked in the CloudHub. The homepage shows pluscloud open (OpenStack) from €25.81, Managed Kubernetes from €66.96, dedicated servers from €99.00 and the AI platform from €1,699.00. Object storage includes up to 20 GB / 20,000 objects free of charge. No transfer costs for moving data out. Larger projects are quoted on request.
Best for: Audited German sovereign cloud with headline prices only
plusserver GmbH in Cologne shows prices through its CloudHub: pluscloud open (OpenStack) from €25.81, Managed Kubernetes from €66.96, dedicated servers from €99.00 and its AI platform from €1,699.00. Object storage includes up to 20 GB or 20,000 objects free, and moving data out carries no transfer costs. Larger projects are quoted on request.
Its strength is assurance rather than price transparency: BSI C5 Type II, ISAE 3402 Type II, BSI IT-Grundschutz, ISO 27001, ISO 9001, ISO 50001 and PCI DSS are stated, and the vendor says its data is not subject to the US CLOUD Act. Locations are Cologne, Duesseldorf and Hamburg only. It targets mid-sized, public sector and regulated customers, so the public price list is thinner than at the developer-focused providers above.
What plusserver does well
- BSI C5 Type II and ISAE 3402 Type II stated
- No transfer costs when moving data out
- Managed Kubernetes, databases and 24/7 support
Where plusserver falls short
- Only headline prices published, larger projects by quote
- Germany is the only location
Standout feature. The widest audit list in the ranking, paired with a price list that stops at headline figures.
