Cloud86 vs DigitalOcean
Cloud86 is a European alternative to DigitalOcean: same cloud & hosting use case, headquartered in Netherlands and governed by EU GDPR, while DigitalOcean is based in the United States.
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
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
DigitalOcean won developers over with clear documentation and flat per-month droplet pricing, at a time when the big clouds billed in ways nobody could forecast. Charging is usage-based, with starter credit rather than a lasting free tier. It is a US company, so the CLOUD Act reaches its European regions too.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
Cloud86 vs DigitalOcean at a glance
| Cloud86 | DigitalOcean | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Netherlands | United States |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | United States |
| Primary privacy law | EU GDPR | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Yes |
| Best for | Teams that need cloud & hosting built for European data-protection requirements | Teams already invested in the DigitalOcean ecosystem |
Choose Cloud86 if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with DigitalOcean if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the DigitalOcean ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
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 thanks to LiteSpeed + QUIC.Cloud CDN + CloudLinux + Imunify360
- Web hosting from €1.95/month on entry-level plans with the full feature set
- Managed WordPress & WooCommerce with optimised stacks from €7.95/month
- Managed VPS starting at €189.95/month for high-performance workloads
- AI website builder for 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 including 7-day retention
- 24/7 monitoring and malware scanning
- Dutch EU infrastructure that is 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 DigitalOcean?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. DigitalOcean is headquartered in the United States, 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 under EU GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and 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 jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.