Cloud86 vs Bluehost
Cloud86 is a European alternative to Bluehost — same cloud & hosting use case, built under EU data-protection law.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Independently-tested fastest hosting in Europe — Dutch-hosted with LiteSpeed, QUIC.Cloud CDN, and a 2-minute support response, trusted by 40,000+ customers.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- GDPR by default
- Yes
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
Bluehost by Newfold.
- Jurisdiction
- US
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
About Cloud86
Cloud86 is a Dutch web hosting provider marketed as "the fastest hosting in Europe" — a claim independently verified by tests from Start24, Hostingvergelijker, and Webhosters. The company runs all infrastructure from Dutch data centres, making it a fully GDPR-native alternative to US-based hosts like Bluehost and DigitalOcean.
With 40,000+ customers, a 4.8/5 Trustpilot score across 2,100 reviews, and a 2-minute average live chat response time, Cloud86 has built a reputation for performance and support quality among European SMEs and WordPress agencies.
Key features:
- Fastest hosting in Europe — LiteSpeed + QUIC.Cloud CDN + CloudLinux + Imunify360
- Web hosting from €1.95/month — entry-level plans with full feature set
- Managed WordPress & WooCommerce — optimised stacks from €7.95/month
- Managed VPS — high-performance VPS from €189.95/month
- AI website builder — no-code site generation from €2.95/month
- Domain registration with free migration service
- Plesk Control Panel with WordPress Toolkit pre-installed
- Automated daily backups — 7-day retention included
- 24/7 monitoring and malware scanning
- Dutch EU infrastructure — GDPR-compliant by design
Trusted by 40,000+ customers with 98% satisfaction. A strong pick for European WordPress agencies and SMEs prioritising speed and EU data residency.
Why choose Cloud86 over Bluehost?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Bluehost is headquartered in US, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes — the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Cloud86 removes that overhead. As a Netherlands-based provider, it operates natively under GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors — health, public administration, finance — that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single non-EU jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.