European Kubernetes Platforms

#1 Giant Swarm

Cologne, Germany Founded 2014 Quote only, no public price list Demo on request

Best for: Platform teams that want an open source internal developer platform delivered ready-made, with operators on call

• Operating company. Giant Swarm GmbH
• Jurisdiction. EU (Germany)
• Where the data sits. Whichever environment you pick: AWS, Azure or your own servers
• Source code. Closed source
• Replaces. Red Hat OpenShift, Amazon EKS, Azure AKS

Giant Swarm GmbH of Cologne packages Kubernetes together with the tools platform teams normally assemble themselves: Cilium for networking, Kyverno for policy, Flux for delivery and Karpenter for scaling, all pre-integrated and described as entirely open source. A customer can have the company's engineers run the stack around the clock or run it in-house with training and support, and the vendor says no third party gets access to production in the second model.

The company was founded in 2014 by people who had run infrastructure at the ad exchange Adcloud, which gives it a practitioner origin story. It is a German GmbH and contracts under German law, which keeps the vendor in the EU even though hosting is the customer's: the homepage names AWS, Azure and on-premises. The vendor also states a CNCF AI-Conformance certification, and its claims about savings and cluster counts are vendor figures that we did not verify.

Standout feature. Giant Swarm is the only vendor here that sells the policy, delivery and observability layers as a ready-made open source stack and offers to run it.

#2 Cloudfleet

Berlin, Germany Three plans per cluster per month: Basic €12, Pro €69, Enterprise from €499, each including a vCPU allotment with a per-vCPU fee beyond it; €200 of trial credit Demo on request

Best for: Teams that spread workloads over several providers or want inexpensive European nodes under a managed control plane

• Operating company. Cloudfleet GmbH
• Jurisdiction. EU (Germany)
• Where the data sits. You choose the control plane region (Europe or North America); worker nodes sit wherever you attach them
• Source code. Closed source
• Replaces. Red Hat OpenShift, Amazon EKS, Google Kubernetes Engine

Cloudfleet GmbH of Berlin (HRB 279792 B) runs Cloudfleet Kubernetes Engine, a CNCF-conformant service where the control plane is hosted by the vendor and nodes come from Hetzner, OVH, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Oracle, Proxmox, VMware vSphere or your own hardware. Plans are Basic at €12 with 8 vCPUs, Pro at €69 with 24 and Enterprise from €499 with 96, with extra vCPUs at €2.45, €4.95 and €7.25 billed by the minute.

The tiers change more than the price: Basic runs a single-zone control plane with best-effort uptime, Pro adds multiple zones and a 99.95% SLA, and Enterprise offers 99.99% and a named account manager. New accounts get €200 of credit for 30 days. The vendor lists SOC 2 and ISO 27001 as in progress, and the control plane region can be North America, so European data residency has to be configured through region and node choices.

Standout feature. Cloudfleet is the only entry that publishes per-vCPU euro rates for one cluster stretched over rival clouds and your own servers.

#3 Nine

Zurich, Switzerland Per-minute billing; a full cluster costs from CHF 305.30 a month, with worker nodes from CHF 31.70 Demo on request

Best for: Swiss and EU teams wanting clusters under Swiss law and engineers reachable by phone

• Operating company. Nine Internet Solutions AG
• Jurisdiction. Switzerland (adequacy decision, outside the EEA)
• Where the data sits. Nine-operated data centres around Zurich
• Source code. Closed source
• Replaces. Red Hat OpenShift, Amazon EKS, Google Kubernetes Engine

Nine Internet Solutions AG of Zurich operates the Nine Kubernetes Engine in its own data centres, which its Trust Centre describes as two sites near Zurich joined by a redundant dark-fibre ring. The control plane runs on three nodes, billing is per minute, and a full cluster starts at CHF 305.30 a month with one worker; further workers cost CHF 31.70, 60.20 and 117.20 by size.

Backups run nightly with 30 days of retention, and engineers monitor around the clock. The restriction to know is permissions: administrators do not receive cluster-admin on the standard offer, ClusterRoleBindings and CRDs are not possible, and Nine refers those teams to vCluster. Nine reports ISO 9001 and ISO 27001, audited by Swiss Safety Center AG, and the product page advertises that no CLOUD Act applies.

Standout feature. Nine pairs per-minute billing in francs with a statement that its Zurich clusters sit outside the CLOUD Act.

#4 Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform

Hamburg, Germany Founded 2016 Free open-core Community Edition; the Enterprise Edition is a consumption-based subscription priced through sales Demo on request

Best for: Platform teams that run dozens of clusters across clouds, on-premises racks and edge sites and want one policy layer

• Operating company. Kubermatic GmbH
• Jurisdiction. EU (Germany)
• Where the data sits. Your own infrastructure, on more than 20 public clouds or on-premise (VMware vSphere, Nutanix, OpenStack, bare metal)
• Source code. Open source
• Replaces. Red Hat OpenShift, SUSE Rancher, VMware Tanzu

Kubermatic GmbH of Hamburg has built its platform since 2016, first under the name Loodse, and Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform (KKP) targets the moment a company goes from one cluster to many. A single control plane provisions clusters on more than 20 providers, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, VMware vSphere, Nutanix, OpenStack and bare metal, in minutes according to the product page, and OPA Gatekeeper applies policy across all of them.

The model is open-core: the Community Edition is free and open source, and the Enterprise Edition adds proprietary features under a consumption-based subscription priced through sales. There is no self-serve trial, only a demo request. Kubermatic is a CNCF member and a Kubernetes Certified Service Provider, and it names Red Hat OpenShift, SUSE Rancher and VMware Tanzu as the products it competes with.

Standout feature. Kubermatic manages the clusters themselves across rival clouds and your own datacentre, where most entries here manage the infrastructure beneath them.

#5 Exoscale

Lausanne, Switzerland Founded 2011 Compute from CHF 5.50 a month Demo on request

Best for: Organisations that want managed Kubernetes inside a Swiss-run cloud with sites in four countries

• Operating company. Exoscale (A1 Digital)
• Jurisdiction. Switzerland (adequacy decision, outside the EEA)
• Where the data sits. Four countries: Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Bulgaria
• Source code. Closed source
• Replaces. AWS, Google Cloud, Azure

Exoscale of Lausanne sells its managed Kubernetes service SKS as one product in a cloud that also covers compute, S3-compatible object storage, managed databases, DNS and load balancers. The company belongs to A1 Digital International GmbH, part of the A1 Telekom Austria Group, and runs facilities in Geneva, Zurich, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Sofia, using Apache CloudStack and KVM underneath.

The category card describes a free-tier SKS control plane and a Pro tier, and compute starts at CHF 5.50 a month, so the price list is in Swiss francs. Switzerland is outside the EEA and relies on the EU adequacy decision. Catalogue breadth is smaller than at the hyperscalers, and its profile is lower, so expect fewer third-party tutorials.

Standout feature. Exoscale offers Kubernetes in a Swiss-run cloud that also has data centres in Austria and Bulgaria.

#6 Cleura

Karlskrona, Sweden No Kubernetes price on the service page; the cloud itself is pay-as-you-go and a €50 trial voucher exists Demo on request

Best for: Nordic and regulated organisations that want Kubernetes or OpenShift operated by a Swedish company on OpenStack

• Operating company. Cleura AB
• Jurisdiction. EU (Sweden)
• Where the data sits. Two Cleura regions, one in Sweden and one in Germany
• Source code. Closed source
• Replaces. Red Hat OpenShift, Amazon EKS, Azure AKS

Cleura AB of Karlskrona (company number 556630-7806), an Iver company, lists Managed Kubernetes and Managed OpenShift together under Containers. Its OpenStack cloud runs in Sweden and Germany, and the homepage shows ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 27001:2022. For a team that wants to keep OpenShift as a product but not the American operating chain, that pairing is the reason Cleura appears on this list.

The Kubernetes page says Cleura handles starting, upgrading and scaling nodes while customers manage their own workloads, in both the Public Cloud and the Compliant Cloud tier aimed at regulated data. Versions, regions and prices are missing from that page and onboarding starts with a meeting. The public cloud offers a €50 trial voucher, and site quotes come from Saab, Kungsbacka Municipality, Boost.ai and Bonnier News.

Standout feature. Cleura runs the OpenShift product itself, on its own OpenStack cloud, from a Swedish contracting party.

#7 SysEleven MetaKube (secunet cloud)

Berlin, Germany Published as a separate price list on the vendor site Demo on request

Best for: German public bodies and regulated firms that want Kubernetes in German-only data centres from a security group

• Operating company. SysEleven GmbH
• Jurisdiction. EU (Germany)
• Where the data sits. Data centres in Germany, and nowhere else
• Source code. Closed source
• Replaces. Red Hat OpenShift, Amazon EKS, Azure AKS

SysEleven GmbH of Berlin (HRB 108571 B) is a wholly owned subsidiary of secunet Security Networks AG and now sells under the name secunet cloud, although MetaKube remains the Kubernetes product name. The documentation calls MetaKube a CNCF Certified Hosted Kubernetes Platform on an OpenStack cloud, and the homepage states that every data centre is in Germany and that no data goes to third countries.

The certification list on the homepage runs to ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, BSI C5 Type 2 and IT-Grundschutz, plus approvals for classified information up to VS-NfD. The menu also offers Red Hat OpenShift next to MetaKube, and support is German-speaking and round the clock. We could not read the price list, which loads in the browser, and some pages exist only in German.

Standout feature. SysEleven combines a BSI C5 Type 2 attestation with a choice of MetaKube or OpenShift, all in German data centres.

#8 plusserver

Cologne, Germany Founded 1999 Services are booked in the CloudHub. The homepage lists 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 comes with a free allowance of 20 GB or 20,000 objects, and there are no transfer costs when data leaves. Bigger projects are priced by quote. Demo on request

Best for: Mid-sized and regulated customers in Germany that want audited hosting with managed Kubernetes and a VMware option

• Operating company. plusserver GmbH
• Jurisdiction. EU (Germany)
• Where the data sits. Own data centres in Cologne, Duesseldorf and Hamburg; the vendor states that data is outside the reach of the US CLOUD Act
• Source code. Closed source
• Replaces. AWS, Microsoft Azure, VMware

plusserver GmbH of Cologne, in business since 1999, operates pluscloud open, an OpenStack cloud on the Sovereign Cloud Stack, from its own data centres in Cologne, Duesseldorf and Hamburg. Its CNCF-certified managed Kubernetes engine (PSKE) is listed from €66.96 on the homepage, next to a pluscloud VMware offer for existing VMware estates, managed databases, S3-compatible object storage and an AI platform.

Audit evidence is the strongest in this group: BSI C5 Type II, ISAE 3402 Type II, BSI IT-Grundschutz, ISO 27001, ISO 9001, ISO 50001 and PCI DSS according to the vendor. The vendor says there are no transfer costs on exit and that data is outside the US CLOUD Act. Germany is the only location, and many projects begin with a consultation rather than a checkout.

Standout feature. plusserver publishes a euro entry price for managed Kubernetes while holding a BSI C5 Type II attestation.

#9 Scaleway

Paris, France Founded 1999 Instances from €0.0025 an hour (DEV1-S) Demo on request

Best for: Developers and companies that want low-cost Kubernetes inside an EU-based general cloud

• Operating company. Scaleway (Iliad Group subsidiary)
• Jurisdiction. EU (France)
• Where the data sits. Four sites: Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw and Milan
• Source code. Closed source
• Replaces. AWS, Google Cloud, Azure

Scaleway of Paris began in 1999 as Online.net and belongs to the Iliad Group. Kubernetes Kapsule is its managed offer, with a control plane that is free and worker nodes that are billed, in a cloud that also has S3-compatible object storage, serverless functions, managed databases and GPU instances. Instances start at €0.0025 an hour for DEV1-S, which keeps a test cluster inexpensive.

The review lists Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw and Milan and describes the company as under French rather than US law. Weak points are practical: fewer regions and niche services than the large clouds, community-based support at lower tiers, and thinner documentation for edge cases. Nothing in the cluster price covers a bundled policy or registry suite.

Standout feature. Scaleway charges nothing for the Kapsule control plane, so a cluster bill is worker nodes alone.

#10 STACKIT

Bad Friedrichshall, Germany Quote-based, no public price Demo on request

Best for: Organisations already buying from the Schwarz Group cloud that want Kubernetes in the same German environment

• Operating company. Schwarz Digits Cloud GmbH & Co. KG
• Jurisdiction. EU (Germany)
• Where the data sits. Germany; the region Germany South appears in the pricing table of the AI Model Serving service
• Source code. Closed source
• Replaces. Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock

STACKIT is the cloud of Schwarz Digits Cloud GmbH & Co. KG in Bad Friedrichshall, and the vendor's product list includes the STACKIT Kubernetes Engine. This site reviews STACKIT mainly through its AI Model Serving service, so the cluster product is covered more thinly than the others here, and its price is by quote.

What the pages we read do show is the operator and the region: the footer names the entity, and the AI pricing table names the region Germany South. The imprint page returned no content when we checked, so the company name comes from the footer. A buyer comparing Kubernetes engines should request the service description and a price directly.

Standout feature. STACKIT is the entry whose cluster product we can describe least, because our review covers its AI Model Serving service in detail.

#11 OVHcloud

Roubaix, France Founded 1999 Priced per resource and hour; the entry PostgreSQL tier (2 vCPU / 8GB RAM) is about €0.16 an hour, and each other engine has its own tiers Demo on request

Best for: Teams that want a large European provider with its own data centres and hardware, including a free Kubernetes tier

• Operating company. OVHcloud SAS
• Jurisdiction. EU (France)
• Where the data sits. A network of 46 data centres on four continents, mostly in Europe
• Source code. Closed source
• Replaces. Aiven, AWS RDS, Google Cloud SQL

OVHcloud SAS of Roubaix, founded in 1999, builds its own servers and runs 46 data centres across four continents, most of them in Europe. The category card describes a managed Kubernetes service with a free tier and a three-zone Standard tier. SecNumCloud certification from the French agency ANSSI and founding membership of Gaia-X appear on its tool page.

The Kubernetes page we read gives dollar prices and no region list, so we quote neither. Pricing is granular by resource and hour, which makes a monthly bill harder to estimate than a per-cluster plan, and the console is less polished than specialist platforms. A team already running compute at OVHcloud avoids cross-provider egress.

Standout feature. OVHcloud is the one provider here that designs and builds its own hardware and still sells a free Kubernetes tier.

#12 SUSE Rancher

Nuremberg, Germany Free community edition; the Prime subscription is quoted on request Demo on request

Best for: Organisations running many clusters that want a single governed console and a paid support contract

• Operating company. SUSE
• Jurisdiction. EU (Germany)
• Where the data sits. Follows the hosting you choose for your clusters
• Source code. Closed source
• Replaces. Red Hat OpenShift, VMware Tanzu, Amazon EKS Anywhere

SUSE Rancher is the cluster-management product of the SUSE group, which has its base in Nuremberg. The community edition lives on GitHub under Apache 2.0 and can be run without paying, while SUSE Rancher Prime adds 24x7 support, training and extended Kubernetes support, with a five-year window advertised on the Prime page. Rancher installs on a Kubernetes cluster you provide and manages EKS, AKS, GKE and on-premises clusters.

The product does not host or operate clusters, so data location depends on what you attach. SUSE's privacy notice names SUSE Software Solutions Germany GmbH in Nuremberg, but its trademark notice names SUSE LLC and the terms give a US address for US government purchases, so ask which entity signs a Prime order. Prime pricing is on request.

Standout feature. SUSE Rancher is the only entry offering Apache 2.0 fleet management with an enterprise support option from a German group.