Building without US dependencies
A practical guide to running European infrastructure in 2026. Real alternatives at every layer, from hosting to payments to monitoring—based on what I actually use at EmailConnect.
Published January 2026 · 10 min read
Why this matters now
After 2025's sovereign cloud wake-up call—Microsoft's CLOUD Act admission, the ICC email shutdown, Airbus announcing migration off US hyperscalers—more European businesses are asking a practical question: Can I actually build a full tech stack without US dependencies?
The answer is yes. Not perfectly, not for every edge case, but for most B2B software companies and digital businesses, viable European alternatives exist at every critical layer.
This isn't theoretical. I run EmailConnect on a European-first stack, and I'm going to show you exactly what that looks like—including where I made pragmatic compromises and why.
The stack: Layer by layer
Cloud hosting and compute
This is where the most mature European alternatives exist. You're not sacrificing much by choosing European hosting in 2026.
What I use: Hetzner
German company, German data centers, excellent price-performance ratio. Their dedicated servers and cloud instances are genuinely competitive with AWS/GCP pricing while offering significantly better bang-for-buck on raw compute.
European hosting options
| Provider | Country | Best for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hetzner | Germany | Price-performance, dedicated servers | Excellent for startups and scale-ups |
| Scaleway | France | Developer experience, Kubernetes | Strong managed services ecosystem |
| OVHcloud | France | Enterprise, bare metal | Largest European cloud provider |
| Ionos | Germany | Traditional hosting, WordPress | Good for less technical teams |
| Infomaniak | Switzerland | Privacy-focused, green hosting | Strong sustainability credentials |
Object storage
S3-compatible object storage is now commoditized. No reason to use AWS S3 for European workloads.
What I use: Scaleway Object Storage
S3-compatible API, French data centers, straightforward pricing. I use this for attachment storage with configurable retention policies. Migration from S3 is typically a configuration change—the APIs are standardized.
Bring your own storage: Because S3 APIs are standardized, EmailConnect allows customers to configure their own object storage provider. Your attachments can stay entirely on your infrastructure if you prefer—true data ownership.
European object storage options
| Provider | Country | API | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scaleway Object Storage | France | S3-compatible | Good pricing, solid performance |
| OVHcloud Object Storage | France | S3-compatible | Part of larger cloud ecosystem |
| Hetzner Storage Box | Germany | SFTP/WebDAV | Different model, very affordable |
| Infomaniak Swiss Backup | Switzerland | Proprietary | Strong privacy credentials |
DNS and domain management
DNS is often overlooked in sovereignty discussions, but your DNS provider can see all your traffic patterns and could theoretically be compelled to redirect traffic.
What I use: Scaleway DNS
Managed DNS with a clean API, included with my Scaleway account. For email-specific DNS (MX records, SPF, DKIM), having DNS and hosting from the same provider simplifies operations.
European DNS options
| Provider | Country | Pricing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scaleway DNS | France | Included with hosting | Clean API, good for automation |
| Hetzner DNS | Germany | Free with hosting | Basic but reliable |
| deSEC | Germany | Free | Privacy-focused, DNSSEC by default |
| Gandi | France | With domain registration | Domain registrar with DNS included |
Transactional email
For sending emails (password resets, notifications, etc.), European alternatives to SendGrid and Mailgun exist and work well.
What I use: Scaleway Transactional Email
Simple API, good deliverability, French infrastructure. For a service that processes inbound email, having outbound email also European-hosted makes compliance straightforward.
European transactional email options
| Provider | Country | Focus | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scaleway Transactional Email | France | Transactional | Simple pricing, good API |
| Mailjet | France | Transactional + Marketing | Owned by Sinch (Swedish) |
| Brevo | France | Marketing + Transactional | Formerly Sendinblue |
Payments
Payment processing is where European alternatives genuinely shine. Stripe has an EU entity but remains US-headquartered. For true European payment processing:
What I use: Mollie
Dutch company, excellent developer experience, strong European payment method coverage (iDEAL, Bancontact, SEPA, etc.). Their API is clean and well-documented. For B2B SaaS targeting European customers, Mollie often converts better than Stripe because of local payment method support.
European payment options
| Provider | Country | Best for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mollie | Netherlands | SMB, European payment methods | Excellent DX, local methods |
| Adyen | Netherlands | Enterprise | Global reach, higher volume |
| Klarna | Sweden | BNPL, e-commerce | Buy-now-pay-later focus |
| GoCardless | UK | Direct debit, subscriptions | SEPA direct debit specialist |
Analytics
Google Analytics is the obvious sovereignty concern here. Fortunately, privacy-focused alternatives have matured significantly.
What I use: Plausible
EU-hosted, privacy-focused, no cookies required. The dashboard is cleaner than Google Analytics, and you get the metrics that actually matter without the complexity. Estonian company with EU data processing.
European analytics options
| Provider | Country | Model | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plausible | Estonia | Hosted | Privacy-first, no cookies |
| Simple Analytics | Netherlands | Hosted | Minimal tracking, clean UI |
| Matomo | France (origin) | Self-hosted or cloud | Full-featured GA alternative |
| Fathom | Canada | Hosted (EU option) | EU data processing available |
Monitoring and observability
For server monitoring and error tracking, self-hosting gives you complete control over where your operational data lives.
What I use: Self-hosted tools
- Beszel — Lightweight server monitoring (CPU, memory, disk, network)
- Bugsink — Error tracking (Sentry-compatible, self-hosted)
- Uptime Kuma — Uptime monitoring (live at status.emailconnect.eu)
All run on my own infrastructure, so monitoring data never leaves my servers. Operational data often contains request details, stack traces, and other information that could include customer context—keeping it self-hosted eliminates that concern.
European/self-hosted monitoring options
| Tool | Purpose | Model | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beszel | Server metrics | Self-hosted | Lightweight, easy setup |
| Bugsink | Error tracking | Self-hosted | Sentry-compatible API |
| Uptime Kuma | Uptime monitoring | Self-hosted | Beautiful status pages |
| Grafana + Prometheus | Full observability | Self-hosted | Industry standard, powerful |
| GlitchTip | Error tracking | Self-hosted | Sentry alternative |
Customer support and automation
Even internal tooling like customer support workflows can stay European with the right setup.
What I use: Self-hosted n8n + EmailConnect
Support emails come into EmailConnect, which forwards them to a self-hosted n8n instance for workflow automation. For any AI-assisted processing, I use Scaleway's Mistral API wrapper—keeping even LLM interactions within European infrastructure. It's a bit meta: EmailConnect uses EmailConnect for its own customer communication processing.
European customer support options
| Tool | Purpose | Model | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| n8n | Workflow automation | Self-hosted | Zapier alternative, full control |
| Scaleway Mistral | LLM API | EU-hosted | French AI, European data processing |
| Zammad | Helpdesk | Self-hosted or cloud | German, open source |
| FreeScout | Helpdesk | Self-hosted | Help Scout alternative |
Where I made pragmatic compromises
Full transparency: not everything in my stack is European. Here's where I made deliberate trade-offs and why.
GitHub for code repositories
Yes, GitHub is owned by Microsoft. I use it for source code management.
Why I'm comfortable with this: My code repositories contain no customer PII. The code itself is intellectual property, not customer data. The sovereignty concern is primarily about customer data protection—source code is a different risk category.
European alternatives exist: GitLab (can be self-hosted), Codeberg (German), Gitea (self-hosted). I may migrate eventually, but it's not a customer data concern.
The key distinction
I draw a clear line: customer data and PII stays on European infrastructure with European legal jurisdiction. Internal tooling and development infrastructure is a separate consideration where convenience trade-offs are more acceptable.
| Data type | Where it lives | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Customer email content | EU-only (Hetzner) | Core customer PII, highest protection |
| Attachments | EU-only (Scaleway Object Storage) | Often contains sensitive documents |
| Payment data | EU-only (Mollie) | Financial PII, regulatory requirements |
| Analytics | EU-only (Plausible) | Visitor behavior, privacy-sensitive |
| Support conversations | EU-only (self-hosted n8n) | Customer communication, may contain PII |
| Error logs | Self-hosted (Bugsink) | May contain request context |
| Source code | GitHub (US) | No customer PII, IP risk acceptable |
AWS vs Scaleway: A real comparison
One argument for US hyperscalers is that European alternatives "don't have feature parity." This was true five years ago. In 2026, for most workloads, it's not.
Scaleway, for example, offers nearly everything an SME needs: compute instances, serverless containers, Kubernetes (Kapsule), managed PostgreSQL, Redis, object storage, DNS, transactional email, secrets management, load balancers, and container registries.
Where AWS still wins
- Geographic distribution — 50+ regions vs 3 (FR, NL, PL)
- Global CDN — CloudFront has no Scaleway equivalent
- API Gateway — No direct Scaleway equivalent
- Specialized services — Machine learning, IoT, media processing
For most European B2B SaaS serving European customers, these gaps don't matter. If you need global CDN, you can add BunnyCDN or KeyCDN separately. The core infrastructure is covered.
Cost comparison
One common concern: "Isn't European hosting more expensive?" The reality is more nuanced.
My experience
For equivalent compute and storage, Hetzner is often 30-50% cheaper than AWS or GCP. Scaleway is roughly price-competitive, sometimes cheaper on specific services. The "AWS is cheaper at scale" argument assumes you're using their managed services ecosystem—raw compute is often more expensive.
Where you might pay more: managed Kubernetes, serverless functions at very high volume, and highly specialized services where AWS/GCP have invested heavily. For traditional web applications and APIs, European hosting is often cheaper.
The bottom line
Building a European tech stack in 2026 is genuinely practical. The alternatives have matured, the pricing is competitive, and the compliance benefits are increasingly valuable.
You don't have to do everything at once. Start with customer data, establish clear policies about what goes where, and migrate incrementally. The goal isn't purity—it's making informed decisions about where your data lives and who can access it.
EmailConnect: Part of your European stack
I built EmailConnect to be the email automation layer in a European-first infrastructure. No US dependencies, no CLOUD Act exposure, no sovereignty compromises for your email processing.
Further reading
- European Alternatives — Comprehensive directory of EU software options
- The European Cloud Situation (Bert Hubert) — Technical analysis of EU cloud landscape
- The hidden GDPR trap — Why server location isn't enough
Building a European stack and have questions? I'm happy to share what I've learned. Get in touch.