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 and DigitalOcean are closely matched on ownership (60 vs 55) — this one comes down to pricing and to which trade-offs below you can live with.
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
6 points of comparison, every one read from a verified field. Green marks the side that wins a row outright. A dash means we do not hold that fact — never that it is zero.
| Scaleway | DigitalOcean | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 60 | 55 |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Local-first data | 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.
Weighing both against staying on AWS (EC2 compute)? Is AWS (EC2 compute) free? What it actually costs →
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
Which one fits you
The trade-offs above, turned into a decision. Find the line that describes your team.
Choose Scaleway
if a lower exit cost matters more to you than any single feature, and eU jurisdiction and data sovereignty.
Choose DigitalOcean
if best-in-class documentation and tutorials.
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — eU-centric region map, and notably pricier per spec than EU rivals. If either of those is a dealbreaker for your team, the shortlist is wrong rather than the choice.
Scaleway vs DigitalOcean — common questions
Is Scaleway a better fit than DigitalOcean for cloud & vps?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: Scaleway scores 60 to DigitalOcean's 55 on data ownership and exit cost, so it is the safer choice if you care about being able to leave. DigitalOcean earns its place on a different axis — best-in-class documentation and tutorials. Neither is a wrong answer for every team; the table above is the actual comparison.
What happens if we want to switch later?
Neither of these is local-first by default, so plan the exit at the point you adopt rather than later. Export what matters on a schedule instead of trusting you can retrieve it on demand — that is the most common way a cloud & vps migration turns into a project instead of an afternoon.
Are Scaleway and DigitalOcean both alternatives to AWS (EC2 compute)?
Yes — both appear in our AWS (EC2 compute) comparison, which is why they are worth putting side by side. People usually arrive here already having decided to move off AWS (EC2 compute) and now choosing between the two replacements, which is a narrower and much easier question.
Related alternative guides
Facts verified 2026-07-19. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.