Direct comparison
Scaleway vs Hetzner
Scaleway or Hetzner? The direct cloud comparison of services, data centers, costs and sovereignty. Services, pricing, data centers and sovereignty in a direct comparison.
Management summary
As of 2026-07Scaleway and Hetzner position themselves as sovereign EU alternatives to global hyperscalers, but differ fundamentally in their strategic orientation: Scaleway pursues a cloud-native approach with a broad managed service portfolio, while Hetzner, as a pure IaaS provider, focuses on maximum cost efficiency and bare metal performance. Scaleway impresses with a SEAL Score of 7.9/10 and a comprehensive offering of managed databases, Kubernetes, and AI services, making it attractive for modern, containerized architectures. Hetzner offers the best price-performance ratio for pure compute workloads with a Cost Rating of 9.6/10 and a Bare Metal Score of 10/10, but consciously refrains from complex managed services. For companies seeking a European platform for cloud-native development and AI, Scaleway is the more suitable choice. Teams that primarily need cost-effective Linux servers and bare metal infrastructure and can manage managed services themselves benefit more from Hetzner.
Methodology & data basisScaleway
EU providerUSP: European portfolio with a focus on AI infrastructure and cloud-native development
Recommendation: Recommended for companies looking for European Cloud Native alternatives
Hetzner
EU providerUSP: Very strong price-performance IaaS from a German independent Provider on EU-operated data centers, focussing on compute power
Recommendation: Recommended for cost-sensitive DACH teams that want a modern data center with basic requirements on bare metal inrastructure
Performance chart
Scaleway and Hetzner across 8 core categories, compared with the average of all providers (1–10).
Market positioning
All 13 providers by sovereignty and portfolio performance — purely computed from the category ratings.
Positions are purely computational: X = mean of technological & operational sovereignty, Y = mean of all remaining rating categories (each 1–10). Not a ranking recommendation. Methodology & data basis
Strengths & weaknesses
Automatically derived from the editorially reviewed rating data and backed by the category ratings (1–10) — fair to both sides.
Strengths
- Comprehensive managed service portfolio: Scaleway offers a mature platform for cloud-native applications with a score of 7/10 in databases and 8/10 in containerization (Managed Kubernetes), while Hetzner scores 0/10 and 1/10 respectively.
- Strong AI and Big Data capabilities: With scores of 6/10 in AI and 4/10 in Big Data, Scaleway offers productive services such as Generative APIs and Managed Inference, whereas Hetzner holds no corresponding services in these categories with 0/10.
- Higher technological sovereignty: Scaleway achieves the highest score in technological sovereignty with 9/10 (average of all providers: 7.4), supported by a SEAL Score of 7.9/10 and a broad open-source ecosystem.
- Mature storage and network portfolio: With scores of 8/10 in storage and 8/10 in network, Scaleway offers a complete range of block, file, object, and archive storage as well as advanced VPC features, which Hetzner does not deliver to the same extent with 6/10 and 5/10 respectively.
Points to consider
- No global reach: With a score of 1/10 (average of all providers: 4.5) and locations in only 3 countries, Scaleway is unsuitable for international workloads, whereas Hetzner reaches somewhat further with 3/10 and 4 countries (including USA/Singapore).
- Weak enterprise virtualization: With a score of 4/10 (average of all providers: 5.7), managed VMware solutions are missing, which complicates the migration of classic enterprise estates.
- Limited Microsoft integration: With a score of 4/10 (average of all providers: 4.5), support for Microsoft workloads (Windows Server, MSSQL) is limited, which is also an issue with Hetzner (1/10), but weighs more heavily with Scaleway due to its broader portfolio.
Strengths
- Superior cost efficiency: Hetzner achieves the highest price score in the comparison with a Cost Rating of 9.6/10 (Scaleway: 8.5/10), particularly for CPU (9.8/10) and S3 storage (9.6/10).
- Best bare metal offering: With a score of 10/10 in bare metal (average of all providers: 5.2), Hetzner offers the most extensive and mature infrastructure for dedicated servers, narrowly leaving Scaleway behind with 9/10.
- Strong Linux support: Hetzner achieves the highest score in Linux suitability with 9/10 (average of all providers: 8.8), making it the ideal choice for Linux-heavy workloads.
- High operational sovereignty: With a score of 9/10 (average of all providers: 8.0) and a SEAL Score of 7.4/10, Hetzner guarantees full operational control through a German, owner-managed company without a US parent company.
Points to consider
- Missing managed services: Hetzner offers no managed databases (0/10, average of all providers: 6.9) and hardly any containerization (1/10, average of all providers: 7.3), which significantly complicates the operation of complex, modern applications.
- No AI or Big Data services: With scores of 0/10 in AI and Big Data (average of all providers: 4.8), there are no productive services for analytics or machine learning, which blocks innovations in these areas.
- Limited data security and encryption: With a score of 4/10 in data security (average of all providers: 7.8) and 2/10 in encryption (average of all providers: 6.8), managed KMS/HSM solutions are missing, which can complicate compliance requirements.
Which provider when?
Use-case-based decision aid — both options are a valid choice.
Choose Scaleway if:
- You need a European cloud platform with managed databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis) and Kubernetes for cloud-native applications.
- Your strategy involves the use of AI/ML services such as Generative APIs or Managed Inference within the EU.
- You are looking for a solution with a high degree of technological sovereignty (SEAL Score 7.9/10) and a broad portfolio of storage and network features.
- Your workloads are primarily Linux-based, but you need more than just pure compute resources, but also managed services to reduce operational effort.
Choose Hetzner if:
- Your main criterion is maximum cost efficiency (Cost Rating 9.6/10) for compute and storage workloads.
- You need powerful bare metal servers (score 10/10) for specific performance requirements or GPU workloads without managed overhead.
- You operate your applications on Linux systems (score 9/10) and want to manage managed services such as databases or Kubernetes yourself or do not need them.
- You are looking for a pure IaaS provider with high operational sovereignty (SEAL Score 7.4/10) and prefer a German, owner-managed company.
Service comparison by category
All 19 rating categories in a head-to-head duel (1–10). A notable lead is marked from a 2-point difference.
| Category | ScalewayvsHetznerScale 1–10 | Avg. all | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Security & Encryption | 74 | 7.8 | Lead Scaleway |
| Technological Sovereignty | 98 | 7.4 | balanced |
| Operational Sovereignty | 99 | 8 | balanced |
| Strategic Capabilities | 63 | 6.2 | Lead Scaleway |
| Price | 99 | 6.4 | balanced |
| Collaboration Tools | 33 | 5.1 | balanced |
| Global Reach | 13 | 4.5 | Lead Hetzner |
| Big Data | 40 | 4.8 | Lead Scaleway |
| AI | 60 | 4.8 | Lead Scaleway |
| Bare Metal | 910 | 5.2 | balanced |
| Virtualization | 40 | 5.7 | Lead Scaleway |
| Containerization | 81 | 7.3 | Lead Scaleway |
| Databases | 70 | 6.9 | Lead Scaleway |
| High Availability | 64 | 6.7 | Lead Scaleway |
| Microsoft | 41 | 4.5 | Lead Scaleway |
| Linux | 89 | 8.8 | balanced |
| Encryption | 72 | 6.8 | Lead Scaleway |
| Storage | 86 | 7.7 | Lead Scaleway |
| Network | 85 | 7.8 | Lead Scaleway |
Management Summary
Sovereign Cloud
SEAL Framework
Strategic (15 %)
Legal & Jurisdictional (10 %)
Data & AI (10 %)
Operational (15 %)
Supply Chain (20 %)
Technology (15 %)
Security & Compliance (10 %)
Environmental (5 %)
Availability & Locations
Compute
shared & low-budget
Hot Storage
Cold Storage
Managed Databases
Network & Security
Orchestration
Virtualization
Management
Big Data
AI & Machine Learning
Quantum Computing
Compliance & Certificates
German cloud security catalogue
Information security management system
Privacy information management extension
Energy management for data centers
Cloud Security Alliance assurance registry
Service organization control audit reports
Payment card data security standard
Cost Indication
vCPU/h
H100/h
GB/h
Ratio1/4
GB/h | 3000 IOPS
GB/h
GB/h
Cluster/h
LLama3.3-70B per 1Mil tokens
LLama3.3-70B per 1Mil tokens
per GB
Our comparison methodology
The scores show a relative price comparison per service category. The lowest price earns 10 points; higher prices are marked down proportionally. Missing services are treated neutrally.
As of: List prices as of 11 September 2025, location Germany (DE).
More cloud comparisons
Frequently asked questions: Scaleway vs Hetzner
What is the difference between Scaleway and Hetzner?
Scaleway is a cloud-native provider with a broad portfolio of managed services such as databases, Kubernetes, and AI (AI score 6/10), while Hetzner is a pure IaaS provider that focuses on cost-effective compute and bare metal infrastructure (bare metal 10/10) and does not offer managed databases or Kubernetes offerings (score 0/10 and 1/10 respectively). Scaleway has a higher SEAL Score (7.9/10 vs. 7.4/10), Hetzner a better Cost Rating (9.6/10 vs. 8.5/10).
Which provider is more sovereign?
Both providers are sovereign, but Scaleway achieves a higher overall score with a SEAL Score of 7.9/10 (79%) than Hetzner with 7.4/10 (74%). In technological sovereignty, Scaleway is ahead with 9/10 compared to Hetzner (8/10), while both tie in operational sovereignty with 9/10. Hetzner, however, scores as a German, owner-managed company without a US parent company.
Who is cheaper?
Hetzner is cheaper with a Cost Rating of 9.6/10 than Scaleway with 8.5/10. This applies particularly to CPU (Hetzner 9.8/10 vs. Scaleway 7.5/10) and S3 storage (Hetzner 9.6/10 vs. Scaleway 8.0/10). However, actual costs are always workload-dependent and can vary through Saving Plans (Scaleway up to 25%) or specific usage patterns.
Does either provider offer AI services?
Yes, Scaleway offers productive services such as Generative APIs and Managed Inference with an AI score of 6/10. Hetzner has an AI score of 0/10 and does not offer any AI or machine learning services. For companies that want to operate AI workloads in the EU, Scaleway is therefore the only option in the comparison.
What is the global reach like?
Both providers are primarily focused on Europe. Scaleway has a score of 1/10 in global reach with locations in 3 countries (France, Netherlands, Poland). Hetzner has a score of 3/10 with locations in 4 countries (Germany, Finland, USA, Singapore). For purely European users, this is irrelevant; for international workloads, neither provider is ideal, although Hetzner reaches somewhat further through the USA and Singapore.
Not sure which provider fits you?
The Cloud Compass determines the best cloud for your use case — data-driven and vendor-neutral.
Start Cloud Compass