Every European database & backend tool reviewed
Helsinki, Finland
Founded 2016
Free tier for small services / from about $20/month, usage-based
Free tier
Best for: Teams running several open-source data services who want them managed in EU regions
Aiven is the one European provider that covers the whole data platform rather than a database. Managed PostgreSQL, Apache Kafka, ClickHouse, OpenSearch, Valkey, MySQL and Grafana all run under a single control plane with automated backups, failover and VPC peering — which matters because running Kafka well is a genuinely different discipline from running Postgres well, and having both under one operational contract removes a category of work rather than shifting it.
Aiven Oy operates from Helsinki, and services run across several clouds with region pinning, including EU-only, so a Finnish company holds the contract while the workload sits where compliance requires.
Bring Your Own Cloud goes further, deploying managed services into an account you own — the answer when a requirement says the data must live in infrastructure the organisation controls. A Terraform provider and a solid API cover infrastructure-as-code.
Crucially every service is the real open-source engine rather than a fork, so the exit cost is a dump and restore. Pricing is usage-based from about $20 per month with a small free tier, more than a self-managed instance and considerably less than the AWS RDS plus MSK equivalent.
What Aiven does well
- PostgreSQL, Kafka, ClickHouse, OpenSearch, Valkey, MySQL and Grafana in one platform
- EU region pinning across several clouds
- Bring Your Own Cloud deploys into infrastructure you own
- Standard open-source engines, so exit is a dump and restore
- Terraform provider and a solid API
Where Aiven falls short
- More expensive than a single self-managed database
- No self-hosted control plane
- Free tier is small
- Usage-based billing needs watching as volume grows
Standout feature. Kafka and Postgres under one contract: Aiven is the only provider here that manages the hard streaming infrastructure alongside the ordinary database.
Paris, France
Founded 1999
From about €0.0025/hour (DEV1-S); managed databases priced separately
Pay by the hour
Best for: Developers who want managed databases next to EU-only compute
Scaleway's managed databases matter most when the application already runs there. Putting the database in the same EU-only region as the compute removes cross-provider latency, egress charges and a second vendor relationship — and Scaleway keeps every data centre inside the European Union, in Paris, Amsterdam and Warsaw, so the data never leaves EU jurisdiction and the company is not subject to US law including the CLOUD Act.
Scaleway is based in Paris as part of the Iliad Group, offering managed databases alongside VPS, managed Kubernetes, S3-compatible object storage, serverless functions and GPU instances.
Pricing is transparent and hourly from about €0.0025 per hour for a DEV1-S instance, with managed databases priced separately and no hidden egress fees at reasonable volumes. The considerations are the same as for its compute: a smaller service catalogue than the hyperscalers, only three data centre locations, and support that leans on community forums and documentation at lower tiers with dedicated support reserved for enterprise customers.
What Scaleway does well
- Managed databases in the same EU-only region as your compute
- Every data centre inside the EU — Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw
- Transparent hourly pricing with no hidden egress
- Full platform alongside: Kubernetes, object storage, serverless, GPU
- Backed by the Iliad Group
Where Scaleway falls short
- Smaller managed-service catalogue than Aiven
- Only three data centre locations
- Community-based support at lower tiers
- Database features less deep than a specialist provider
Standout feature. Database and compute in one EU-only region: Scaleway is the option where keeping data in the EU costs no extra latency or egress.
Nantes, France
Founded 2010
From about €1.49/month
Pay as you go
Best for: European developers who want a PaaS with managed databases attached
Clever Cloud is a platform-as-a-service where the database comes with the application, which suits a team that wants to deploy from Git and stop thinking about infrastructure. Push a repository and Clever Cloud builds and runs it, scaling resources automatically as load changes, with managed database add-ons attached to the same application rather than provisioned separately — so the connection string is configured for you and the two scale together.
Clever Cloud operates from Nantes with EU data centres, giving intra-EEA processing and no transfer question. It supports multiple languages and runtimes, with networking add-ons and a developer-focused CLI and tooling.
Pricing starts around €1.49 per month and scales with the resources actually consumed, which for a small application is among the cheapest entries in this category. The trade-offs are the usual PaaS ones: less control than raw infrastructure, a smaller managed-service catalogue than Aiven, and costs that grow faster than a VPS once the application is genuinely busy.
What Clever Cloud does well
- Git-based deployment with automatic scaling
- Managed databases attached to the application, not provisioned separately
- Multiple languages and runtimes supported
- French company with EU data centres
- From about €1.49/month, very cheap to start
Where Clever Cloud falls short
- Less control than raw infrastructure
- Smaller managed-service catalogue than Aiven
- Costs scale faster than a VPS at real load
- Fewer regions than the larger providers
Standout feature. The database arrives with the app: Clever Cloud is the option where deploying from Git provisions and wires the database without a separate decision.
Lausanne, Switzerland
Founded 2011
From about CHF 5.50/month (Compute); DBaaS priced separately
Trial credits available
Best for: Organisations needing managed databases under Swiss privacy
Exoscale offers Database-as-a-Service alongside its compute, which for an organisation already choosing Exoscale for Swiss privacy means the data layer does not have to move somewhere else. Managed databases sit next to compute instances, managed Kubernetes through SKS, S3-compatible object storage, DNS and network load balancers — a coherent catalogue built for people who automate their infrastructure rather than click through a console.
Exoscale is based in Lausanne as part of A1 Digital, with data centres in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Bulgaria. That geographic spread is the differentiator within this category: the Austrian and Bulgarian regions cover central and eastern European latency that the northern providers serve poorly.
Switzerland sits outside the EU and outside US jurisdiction with an adequacy decision covering transfers, so an EU customer needs no standard contractual clauses — though it is adequacy rather than intra-EEA processing, which matters for procurement rules that distinguish them. Compute starts around CHF 5.50 per month with DBaaS priced separately and trial credits available.
What Exoscale does well
- Managed databases alongside compute, Kubernetes and object storage
- Data centres in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Bulgaria
- Swiss privacy, outside US jurisdiction
- Strong API and automation tooling
- Central and eastern European coverage others lack
Where Exoscale falls short
- Smaller catalogue than Aiven for data services specifically
- Swiss Franc pricing for non-Swiss buyers
- Adequacy decision rather than intra-EEA processing
- Fewer community resources than larger providers
Standout feature. Databases in Vienna and Sofia: Exoscale is the only provider here with managed data services in central and eastern Europe rather than only the north and west.
Sofia, Bulgaria
Founded 2022
Free and open source
Free
Best for: Small to medium applications, internal tools and prototypes needing a real backend
PocketBase is a complete backend in one executable file, and the consequences of that are larger than they sound.
An embedded SQLite database, user authentication with OAuth2, file storage, realtime subscriptions, an admin dashboard and a REST API — all in a single binary. Deploying is copying a file to a server and running it. Backing up is copying a file. There is no container orchestration, no connection pooling to configure, no managed service to pay for and no vendor anywhere in the picture.
PocketBase is built by Gani Georgiev in Sofia, MIT-licensed and free, and it is extensible as a Go framework or through JavaScript hooks — so it is a foundation to build on rather than a box to be constrained by. Against Supabase it trades scale for simplicity, and the trade is explicit.
The limits are architectural rather than temporary: SQLite has a single writer and scales vertically, so PocketBase fits small and medium applications, internal tools and prototypes and does not fit a write-heavy system needing horizontal scale. It is also effectively a solo-maintainer project, which is a genuine continuity consideration, and there is no official managed hosting.
What PocketBase does well
- Single binary — trivial to self-host anywhere
- Auth, file storage, realtime and admin UI all included
- MIT licence with no vendor at all
- Backups are a file copy
- Extensible as a Go framework or with JavaScript hooks
Where PocketBase falls short
- SQLite means a single writer and vertical scaling only
- Effectively a solo-maintainer project
- No official managed hosting
- Not suited to write-heavy systems needing horizontal scale
Standout feature. A backend in one file: PocketBase is the only option here where deployment, backup and disaster recovery are all just copying a file.
Stockholm, Sweden
Founded 2020
Free tier / Pro from about $25/month per project
Free tier
Best for: Teams that want the Supabase model with GraphQL and European hosting
Nhost is the European answer to Supabase, and GraphQL is the deliberate difference. PostgreSQL sits underneath with an instant GraphQL API generated over it, complete with row-level permissions, so the client queries exactly the shape it needs rather than assembling several REST calls. Authentication with OAuth providers, file storage with image transforms and serverless functions complete the backend, plus an AI extension.
Nhost AB operates from Stockholm with EU regions available, giving intra-EEA processing from a Swedish company.
The position that distinguishes it from most backend platforms is openness: the whole stack is MIT-licensed and self-hostable via Docker, so a team can run the entire thing on its own infrastructure rather than choosing between hosted convenience and ownership.
Standard PostgreSQL underneath means the exit is a dump and restore. Pricing has a free tier with Pro from about $25 per month per project. The honest costs: the ecosystem is much smaller than Supabase's, GraphQL and Hasura add a genuine learning curve for a team used to REST, and the free tier is modest.
What Nhost does well
- Instant GraphQL API over Postgres with row-level permissions
- Whole stack is MIT-licensed and self-hostable via Docker
- EU region hosting from a Swedish company
- Authentication, file storage and serverless functions included
- Standard PostgreSQL underneath, so exit is straightforward
Where Nhost falls short
- Much smaller ecosystem than Supabase
- GraphQL and Hasura add a learning curve
- Modest free tier
- Pricing is per project, which adds up across several
Standout feature. The whole stack is self-hostable: Nhost is the only hosted backend here where choosing the cloud version does not mean giving up the option of running it yourself.
Bucharest, Romania
Founded 2021
From about $10/month per service plus infrastructure cost
Trial available
Best for: Teams wanting managed open source without giving up the infrastructure
Elestio resolves a deadlock that stops a lot of organisations. A managed service means someone competent handles updates, backups, monitoring and TLS; owning the infrastructure means the data stays in an account you control. Normally those are mutually exclusive. Elestio deploys and fully manages more than 350 open-source applications inside your own cloud account or on dedicated European hardware — so the operations are outsourced and the ownership is not.
Elestio SRL operates from Bucharest with deployment into the region you choose, and the catalogue reaches well past databases: it covers most of the open-source software an organisation might otherwise run itself, with CI/CD from Git alongside the managed operations.
Pricing is about $10 per month per service plus the underlying infrastructure cost, which comes out cheaper than hyperscaler managed equivalents. The considerations are worth weighing honestly: Elestio is a young and small company operating production systems on your behalf, the management layer itself is proprietary even though everything it deploys is open source, and depth of expertise necessarily varies across a catalogue of 350 different applications.
What Elestio does well
- Deploys and manages inside infrastructure you own
- More than 350 open-source services in the catalogue
- Updates, backups, monitoring and TLS handled for you
- Cheaper than hyperscaler managed equivalents
- Romanian company, EU jurisdiction, region of your choice
Where Elestio falls short
- Young, small company operating production systems
- The management layer itself is proprietary
- Expertise depth varies across 350 applications
- Two bills: management fee plus infrastructure
Standout feature. Managed inside your own account: Elestio is the only provider here that runs the operations while the servers, and the data, stay on your cloud bill.
Roubaix, France
Founded 1999
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
Pay as you go
Best for: Teams already on OVHcloud infrastructure needing EU-hosted managed databases
OVHcloud brings the same multi-engine breadth to managed databases that Aiven does, from a considerably larger European infrastructure company. Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Kafka, Cassandra, OpenSearch, M3DB and Valkey (Redis-compatible) all run on OVHcloud's own European data centres rather than a hyperscaler's, with hourly billing down to the second and storage priced separately from compute. For a team already running compute on OVHcloud, adding a managed database means no new vendor relationship and no cross-provider egress.
OVHcloud SAS was founded in Roubaix in 1999 and remains one of Europe's few cloud providers that also builds its own hardware and data centres, with SecNumCloud certification from the French cybersecurity agency ANSSI and founding membership of Gaia-X.
The entry PostgreSQL tier — two vCPUs and 8GB of RAM — starts at about €0.16 an hour, with every other engine and tier priced on the same public catalogue. The trade-off next to Aiven is depth: OVHcloud's managed databases are a strong, transparently priced add-on to its cloud rather than the dedicated, single-purpose data platform Aiven has built its whole business around.
What OVHcloud does well
- PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Kafka, Cassandra, OpenSearch, M3DB and Valkey
- Transparent, publicly catalogued hourly pricing
- Own European data centres and hardware
- SecNumCloud certified, Gaia-X founding member
- No cross-provider egress if compute is also on OVHcloud
Where OVHcloud falls short
- A managed-database add-on to the cloud, not a dedicated data platform
- Fewer database-specific operational features than Aiven
- Console and tooling less polished than data-platform specialists
- Pricing is granular per resource, takes effort to estimate a real bill
Standout feature. The same engine breadth as Aiven — Postgres through Kafka to Cassandra — but billed by the second on OVHcloud's own European hardware.
Montabaur, Germany
Founded 1988
PostgreSQL from about €0.06/core/hour plus €0.007/GB RAM/hour, plus storage from about €0.04-0.15/GB per 30 days depending on tier; MongoDB and In-Memory DB priced separately
Best for: Businesses already on IONOS wanting managed PostgreSQL or MongoDB
IONOS turns the same instinct that makes it a popular European web host into a managed database: predictable, itemised pricing on infrastructure it owns outright.
Managed PostgreSQL, MongoDB and an In-Memory DB compatible with Redis are billed per CPU core, per GB of RAM and per GB of storage, by the hour, on data centres IONOS states are ISO 27001-certified and located in Europe — a smaller engine line-up than Aiven's or OVHcloud's, but one built for a buyer who wants a database next to a website, mail and domain portfolio already on the same invoice.
IONOS SE traces back to 1&1, founded in Montabaur in 1988, and the cloud arm contracts as IONOS Cloud GmbH from the same German town, so German law governs the agreement regardless of which region the data lands in.
PostgreSQL starts at about €0.06 per core per hour plus €0.007 per GB of RAM per hour, with storage tiers priced from roughly €0.04 to €0.15 per GB per month depending on disk type. The database catalogue is narrower than Aiven's or OVHcloud's — no Kafka, no Cassandra, no OpenSearch — which suits a buyer who needs Postgres or Mongo done well rather than a full data platform.
What IONOS does well
- Managed PostgreSQL, MongoDB and Redis-compatible In-Memory DB
- Granular per-core, per-GB, hourly pricing
- ISO 27001-certified European data centres
- German company with a long operating history
- Fits naturally alongside IONOS hosting, domains and email
Where IONOS falls short
- Narrower engine catalogue than Aiven or OVHcloud — no Kafka, Cassandra or OpenSearch
- No published free trial for the database service
- Pricing is granular per resource, harder to estimate upfront
- Less of a specialist data platform than Aiven
Standout feature. The database bill itemised down to the core-hour and the GB-hour, from a German provider that has been in business since 1988.
London, United Kingdom
Free Sandbox plan (2 services, 1 database, 2 cron jobs) / pay-as-you-go from $0.01667 per vCPU/hour and $0.00833 per GB RAM/hour / Enterprise on request
Free Sandbox plan
Best for: Teams wanting a Heroku-style deploy flow with a database attached
Northflank is a PaaS first and a database provider second, which is exactly the point for a team that wants to push a repository and get a running service with a database attached, the way Heroku used to work.
Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB and Redis are available as add-ons wired straight into the application, with per-second billing shared across compute and data services, and deployment either on Northflank's own regions or bring-your-own-cloud across more than 600 regions when the workload has to sit somewhere specific.
Northflank Ltd is registered in London, and the free Sandbox plan includes one database alongside two services and two cron jobs at no cost, which is enough to evaluate the platform before committing.
Paid usage starts at $0.01667 per vCPU-hour and $0.00833 per GB of RAM-hour, with Enterprise pricing for teams that need a VPC of their own, an SLA and onboarding support. Against Clever Cloud, the closer comparison in this category, Northflank leans more towards containers and Kubernetes-style workloads than a simple Git-push deploy, and the database is one add-on among several rather than the centrepiece.
What Northflank does well
- Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB and Redis add-ons wired into the app
- Free Sandbox plan includes one database
- Per-second billing shared across compute and data
- Bring-your-own-cloud across 600+ regions
- UK company, published pricing and terms
Where Northflank falls short
- Database is an add-on to a PaaS, not the main product
- Fewer managed-engine options than Aiven or OVHcloud
- United Kingdom jurisdiction, outside the EEA
- Leans towards container/Kubernetes workloads over a simple deploy
Standout feature. One database among several add-ons inside a Heroku-style deploy flow, billed by the second alongside the compute it serves.
Berlin, Germany
Free tier (single-node cluster) forever / Standard is usage-based for production / Premium requires a minimum spend
Free tier, forever
Best for: Teams building AI search or RAG needing a European vector database
None of the providers already in this category are built for the workload that has become one of the most common reasons to add a new database in 2026: storing embeddings for semantic search and retrieval-augmented generation.
Qdrant is a purpose-built vector database, open source under Apache 2.0, that a team can self-host for free or run on Qdrant Cloud, with a single-node tier that stays free indefinitely and a usage-based Standard tier for production workloads with dedicated resources, backups and a 99.5% uptime SLA.
Qdrant Solutions GmbH is registered in Berlin, and German law governs the Qdrant Cloud terms, with data stored only in the deployment region the customer chooses. Qdrant Cloud holds SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA certification, and a GDPR Data Processing Agreement is available for regulated deployments.
The honest comparison here is not to Aiven or Scaleway but to Pinecone and other US vector-database vendors — Qdrant is the European-jurisdiction option in a market segment none of the general-purpose providers in this category cover, at the cost of being a single-purpose database rather than a platform.
What Qdrant does well
- Purpose-built vector database for AI search and RAG
- Open source under Apache 2.0, self-hostable for free
- Free-forever single-node cloud tier
- SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA certified
- German company, GDPR Data Processing Agreement available
Where Qdrant falls short
- Single-purpose — not a general relational or document database
- Premium tier requires a minimum spend
- Newer and smaller company than the established providers here
- No specific EU-only region guarantee stated for every tier
Standout feature. The only purpose-built vector database in this category, open source and German-registered where the obvious alternatives are American.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Free tier ($0/month, 100,000 objects) / Flex from about $45/month pay-as-you-go / Premium from about $400/month prepaid
Free tier, no credit card required
Best for: Teams already committed to a vector-search stack wanting an EU option
Weaviate is the second vector database in this category, and the honest way to frame it against Qdrant is deployment breadth rather than a clear winner: Weaviate Cloud runs across AWS, GCP and Azure globally, including European regions, with a free tier capped at 100,000 objects, a pay-as-you-go Flex plan from about $45 a month, and a prepaid Premium plan from about $400 a month for dedicated or larger shared deployments.
The engine itself is open source under a BSD licence and supports hybrid search that combines vector similarity with traditional keyword matching in one query.
Weaviate B.V. is registered in Amsterdam, which is the reason to reach for it specifically when the rest of a team's infrastructure is already Dutch or EU-based and the vendor's own data-processing terms should sit under the same jurisdiction.
Against Qdrant, Weaviate's multi-cloud reach is an advantage when the application already lives on a specific hyperscaler region; Qdrant's German entity and stated SOC 2 and HIPAA certification are the sharper answer when a compliance questionnaire is the actual blocker. Neither displaces the general-purpose databases already in this category — both solve a narrower, specific problem.
What Weaviate does well
- Open-source core (BSD-licensed) with hybrid vector + keyword search
- Deploys across AWS, GCP and Azure, including EU regions
- Free tier with no credit card required
- Dutch company, EU jurisdiction
- Pay-as-you-go Flex plan for smaller workloads
Where Weaviate falls short
- Single-purpose vector database, not a general-purpose store
- No certification stated on its own pages
- Premium plan is a prepaid contract from about $400/month
- Smaller free tier than a self-hosted single-node Qdrant instance
Standout feature. Multi-cloud reach across AWS, GCP and Azure, from a Dutch-registered company, for the same AI-search workload Qdrant serves from Germany.
Sevenoaks, England, United Kingdom
Founded 2016
Community Edition free and open source / Memgraph Cloud and Enterprise scale with memory capacity, from 1GB RAM instances, no per-query fees / 30-day free Enterprise trial
30-day free Enterprise trial
Best for: Teams building GraphRAG or fraud/network graphs needing a British graph database
Memgraph rounds out this category with a third specialist: an in-memory graph database rather than a relational store or a vector index, built for sub-millisecond traversals across connected data — fraud detection, network analysis, knowledge graphs and, increasingly, GraphRAG systems that give an AI agent structured context instead of only vector similarity.
The Community Edition is free and open source, with ACID transactions, replication and the Cypher query language, and Memgraph Cloud offers managed instances from 1GB up to 32GB of RAM on AWS, with automatic backups.
Memgraph Ltd has been registered in England since 23 May 2016, which puts it under UK jurisdiction rather than inside the EEA, the same position as SuiteCRM elsewhere in this directory.
Pricing scales with memory capacity rather than per query or per replica, and a 30-day free Enterprise trial is available alongside the always-free Community tier. Against Qdrant and Weaviate, Memgraph solves a different shape of problem — relationships between entities rather than semantic similarity between them — so a team doing both will likely end up running a graph database and a vector database side by side rather than choosing one.
What Memgraph does well
- Purpose-built in-memory graph database with sub-millisecond traversals
- Free, open-source Community Edition
- Cypher query language, ACID transactions
- Memory-based pricing, no per-query charges
- Registered in the UK since 2016
Where Memgraph falls short
- United Kingdom jurisdiction, outside the EEA
- Solves a different problem than the vector databases here — not interchangeable
- Memgraph Cloud region list not published on the vendor's own pages
- Smaller company than the established providers in this category
Standout feature. A graph database built for GraphRAG and real-time traversals — the connected-data counterpart to the vector databases sitting next to it.
