Garage vs Google Cloud Storage
Garage is a European alternative to Google Cloud Storage: same cloud & hosting use case, headquartered in France and governed by EU GDPR, while Google Cloud Storage (Google) is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Open-source distributed object storage with S3 API compatibility. Lightweight, resilient design for self-hosting across multiple zones with minimal hardware requirements.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- Yes
- Free tier
- No
Object storage most teams reach for because the rest of their stack already lives in Google Cloud, with buckets you can pin to Frankfurt, Belgium or an EU multi-region. Free usage is 5 GB a month and only in three US regions, plus 300 dollars of trial credit for 90 days. Parent Alphabet sits in Mountain View, so US law follows the data.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
Garage vs Google Cloud Storage at a glance
| Garage | Google Cloud Storage | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | France | 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 Google ecosystem |
Choose Garage if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- Open-source code and self-hosting matter to you
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with Google Cloud Storage if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Google ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
Why choose Garage over Google Cloud Storage?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Google Cloud Storage 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.
Garage removes that overhead. As a France-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.