Scaleway vs DigitalOcean
Both are alternatives to AWS (EC2 compute). Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as DigitalOcean vs Scaleway — same comparison, one verdict.
Scaleway
The EU-sovereign option — French cloud with ARM and bare-metal range.
For teams that want their infrastructure under EU jurisdiction on principle, Scaleway is the credible sovereign pick: instances billed by the hour, ARM options, object storage, and managed Kubernetes — all operated from France. English-language docs are thinner than the US providers'.
DigitalOcean
The smoothest developer experience in the VPS world.
Droplets from $4–6/mo, the best tutorial library in the industry, and clean managed add-ons (databases, App Platform, Kubernetes) when you want them. You pay more per gigabyte than Hetzner — what the margin buys is polish, docs, and an ecosystem that makes juniors productive fast.
Side by side
| Scaleway | DigitalOcean | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 60 | 55 |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Local-first | No | No |
| License | Proprietary service | Proprietary service |
| Pricing | Instances billed hourly from a few euros/mo; EU regions | Droplets from $4–6/mo; 2 vCPU / 4 GB ≈ $24/mo |
Scaleway edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Scaleway
Strengths
- +EU jurisdiction and data sovereignty
- +ARM instances and bare-metal range
- +Hourly billing
Trade-offs
- −EU-centric region map
- −Documentation thinner in English
DigitalOcean
Strengths
- +Best-in-class documentation and tutorials
- +Clean managed add-ons: databases, Kubernetes, App Platform
- +Predictable flat pricing, no billing surprises
Trade-offs
- −Notably pricier per spec than EU rivals
- −Bandwidth allowances are modest with overage fees
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Facts verified 2026-07-19. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.