Netcup vs DigitalOcean
Netcup is a European alternative to DigitalOcean: same cloud & hosting use case, headquartered in Germany and governed by EU GDPR, while DigitalOcean is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
German web hosting and server provider with ISO 9001/27001/27701/14001 certifications, 100% renewable energy, and award-winning pricing from €2.69/month.
- 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
Netcup vs DigitalOcean at a glance
| Netcup | DigitalOcean | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Germany | 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 Netcup 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 Netcup
Netcup is a German web hosting and server provider operating from Karlsruhe, known for aggressively competitive pricing on high-performance infrastructure. Part of the Anexia Group, Netcup runs its own data centres powered entirely by renewable energy and holds an impressive stack of certifications (ISO 9001, 27001, 27701, 14001).
The provider has won "Service Provider of the Year" gold in reader's choice awards and consistently ranks top in German hosting comparisons, combining German engineering with transparent, predictable pricing.
Key features:
- Web hosting from €2.69/month with email storage included
- Virtual servers (vServer x86) from €5.91/month or €0.01/hour
- ARM64 servers for efficient workloads from €7.78/month
- Root servers with dedicated AMD EPYC from €12.78/month
- Domain registration across 500+ TLDs, with .de from €0.42/month
- Multiple payment methods including bank transfer, PayPal, credit card, and SEPA
- ISO certified to 9001, 27001, 27701, and 14001
- 100% renewable energy powering the data centres
- 24/7 German support and active community forum
Winner of the Reader's Choice Service Provider Awards 2025 Gold and HOSTtest Web Host of the Year 2025. A top pick for German developers and SMEs seeking predictable, certified EU hosting.
Why choose Netcup 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.
Netcup removes that overhead. As a Germany-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.