Leaseweb vs Amazon Web Services
Leaseweb is a European alternative to Amazon Web Services: same cloud & hosting use case, headquartered in Netherlands and governed by EU GDPR, while Amazon Web Services (Amazon) is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
Amazon Web Services is the largest cloud provider, renting out computing, storage and databases on a pay-as-you-go basis to everyone from startups to governments. A limited free tier exists, after which costs scale with usage. AWS belongs to Amazon, headquartered in Seattle, and even its EU regions remain subject to the US CLOUD Act.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
Leaseweb vs Amazon Web Services at a glance
| Leaseweb | Amazon Web Services | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 Amazon ecosystem |
Choose Leaseweb 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 Amazon Web Services if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Amazon ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
About Leaseweb
Leaseweb is a Dutch infrastructure-as-a-service provider delivering dedicated servers, cloud, colocation, and network services to businesses worldwide, built around high-bandwidth bare metal and a global backbone with built-in DDoS protection. Customers provision GPU servers, storage clusters, VMware, Kubernetes, and multi-CDN through a single portal and API.
The platform spans 28 data centres across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia, interconnected by a proprietary 15 Tbps network with direct peering at more than 25 internet exchanges. Services cover dedicated servers, public and private cloud, object and block storage, floating IPs, private networks, and Acronis- and Veeam-based backups.
Key benefits:
- Dedicated and GPU servers with custom configurations and rapid provisioning
- Global backbone peered at 25+ IXPs for low-latency, high-bandwidth transit
- Built-in DDoS protection included on all services at no extra cost
- Colocation options from rack units to private cages in 28 data centres
- Public and private cloud plus Managed Kubernetes and VMware
- Object and block storage with Acronis and Veeam backup integrations
Leaseweb is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 1997 by Con Zwinkels and Laurens Rosenthal. Its data centres hold ISO 27001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, PCI DSS, SOC 1 Type 2, and ISAE 3402 certifications, and the company operates under full GDPR and Dutch data protection law.
Why choose Leaseweb over Amazon Web Services?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Amazon Web Services 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.
Leaseweb 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.