Scaleway and Hetzner are the two European providers most often shortlisted together, and they overlap on residency and hourly billing. They diverge on product philosophy. Scaleway is a French-rooted platform with multi-availability-zone regions inside the European Union, a developer-oriented toolset and a growing AI catalog. Hetzner is a German provider whose reputation rests on owning its data centers and pricing compute aggressively. The marketplace listings reflect that: one verified-status Scaleway account and three Hetzner options defined by limits or ports.
What each provider is
Scaleway operates regions in Paris, Amsterdam and Warsaw, each with multiple availability zones, and keeps infrastructure inside the EU. Its range spans development Instances, general-purpose and high-CPU or high-memory machines, bare metal and GPU and AI services. The Buy Scaleway Account page lists one option: the Scaleway ID Verified+Card Account at $60.
Hetzner owns and operates data centers in Germany and Finland, with additional presence in the United States and Singapore. It offers shared, dedicated-resource and ARM cloud instances and a dedicated-server line. The Buy Hetzner Account page lists the Hetzner 5 Server Limits Account at $50, the Hetzner 10 Server Limits Account at $70 and the Hetzner Open 25 Port Account at $250.
Key differences
- Residency scope. Scaleway is EU-only by design. Hetzner is primarily European but also has locations outside the EU, which is useful if you later need a US or Singapore presence.
- Listing type. The Scaleway listing describes an account status (identity verified, card attached). Hetzner listings describe a server count or an open port.
- Managed and AI services. Scaleway’s catalog includes managed services and GPU and AI products. Hetzner is largely self-managed with root access.
- Sustainability emphasis. Scaleway positions renewable-powered data centers and energy reporting as part of its offer.
Account options compared
The table sets four listings side by side. Neither provider carries a credit-backed option on this page, so prices reflect account position rather than a balance. Scaleway’s single listing at $60 sits between Hetzner’s 5 Server Limits Account at $50 and its 10 Server Limits Account at $70. The Hetzner Open 25 Port Account at $250 serves a narrower purpose.
Fit by use case
- Strict EU residency. A regulated workload that must never leave the EU fits Scaleway’s Paris, Amsterdam and Warsaw regions. See European data residency across providers for the broader picture.
- High-availability design. Scaleway’s multi-AZ regions support spreading a service across zones without leaving one region.
- Cost-driven fleets. A team running many small servers, or a few large dedicated machines, will find Hetzner’s pricing hard to beat. Our guide on Hetzner cloud versus dedicated servers helps pick the layer.
- Developer tooling. Scaleway’s CLI, API and Terraform provider appeal to teams that automate everything; read Scaleway’s residency and tooling for detail.
Considerations and limitations
The Scaleway listing’s verified status describes the account’s state at listing time. After purchase, bring the account fully under your own identity: update contact, company and payment details, enable multi-factor authentication and review existing API keys, all within Scaleway’s terms. Hetzner server limits cap concurrent instances; increases follow Hetzner’s process.
Neither provider offers a hyperscaler-scale catalog of managed services. Both expect technical teams to handle patching, backups and monitoring on their instances. The Scaleway and Hetzner FAQ sections cover provider-specific questions.
