Gcore vs Amazon Web Services
Gcore is a European alternative to Amazon Web Services — same cdn & ddos protection use case, built under EU data-protection law.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Comprehensive cloud services, CDN, DDoS protection, and AI infrastructure across 210+ global locations. Scale your business with edge computing solutions.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- GDPR by default
- Yes
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- Yes
Amazon Web Services by Amazon.
- Jurisdiction
- US
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
About Gcore
Gcore is a Luxembourg-headquartered global cloud and edge services provider offering CDN, cloud hosting, edge computing, DDoS protection, managed video streaming, and AI inference from a single platform. With 210+ points of presence across six continents and an owned network backbone, it delivers sub-20ms latency to 95% of the global internet population.
Cloud VMs and bare metal servers deploy across multiple EU and global regions. AI inference at the edge runs models close to users for real-time applications without routing to central data centres, while managed Kubernetes, S3-compatible object storage, and a Web Application Firewall complete the platform stack.
Key benefits:
- 210+ global PoPs with EU-origin traffic served from European infrastructure
- Edge CDN with real-time purge APIs, custom rules, and developer-friendly configuration
- Cloud VMs and bare metal across EU and international regions
- AI inference at the edge for low-latency model serving close to end users
- Inline DDoS protection at network-layer speeds — no traffic rerouting or latency penalty
- Managed Kubernetes with autoscaling for containerised application workloads
- S3-compatible object storage for static assets, media, and backups
- Free tier for CDN and compute to evaluate performance before committing
Gcore is headquartered at 2 Rue Edmond Reuter, Contern, Luxembourg — an EU member state. The platform holds ISO 27001 certification and is fully GDPR-compliant, with EU data residency available across all core services. Founded in 2014 with approximately 600 employees, Gcore owns its physical infrastructure and peering agreements rather than reselling third-party cloud capacity.
Trusted by gaming companies, media platforms, and enterprises globally — offering hyperscale CDN and cloud performance with genuine EU headquarters and sovereignty guarantees.
Why choose Gcore over Amazon Web Services?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Amazon Web Services 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.
Gcore removes that overhead. As a Luxembourg-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.