Compare Scaleway and Seeweb on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.
Both listed as alternatives to: Amazon Web Services (AWS), DigitalOcean, Microsoft Azure
France· Cloud Computing
Needs review
Shortlist Scaleway for French-owned multi-AZ IaaS (Paris/Amsterdam/Warsaw) with bare metal, EU-resident GPUs and Kapsule Kubernetes—especially HDS/sovereignty-sensitive stacks. Skip if you need completed SecNumCloud today or hyperscaler global depth; consider OVHcloud, Exoscale/UpCloud, or AWS/Azure/GCP instead.
Italy· Cloud Computing
Needs review
Shortlist Seeweb when you want Italian-operated IaaS with KVM cloud servers, NVIDIA/AMD GPU capacity, managed Kubernetes, and ACN-qualified product scope—plus European data-center choices under DHH Group ownership. Skip when you need global hyperscaler PaaS breadth or many continents of regions; consider OVHcloud, Scaleway, or Aruba Cloud instead for scale or alternate Italian sovereign stacks.
Highlighted rows differ between the two products.
| Feature | Scaleway | Seeweb |
|---|---|---|
| Country of origin | France | Italy |
| Category | Cloud Computing | Cloud Computing |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hosted | No | No |
| Headquarters | France | Italy |
| Legal entity | SCALEWAY SAS (R.C.S. Paris 433 115 904), 8 rue de la Ville l'Évêque, 75008 Paris | Seeweb S.r.l. (p.IVA/C.F. 02043220603); fully owned by DHH S.p.A. |
| Governing law | French law (General Terms of Services) | Not listed |
| US parent / control | No known US parent | No known US parent |
| CLOUD Act exposure (indicative) | Low | Low |
| Hosting / residency | Customer cloud workloads on Scaleway-operated European multi-AZ infrastructure (Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw; Milan listed in availability docs)—not primary hosting on AWS/GCP/Azure. Account/controller activities use processors; privacy policy allows some non-EU transfers under SCCs. Full named subprocessor table is via Trust Center/contracts rather than a fully public marketing page. | Primary: Seeweb proprietary data centers in Milan and Frosinone (Italy). Additional cloud sites: Lugano (Swisscom facility), Zurich (Global Data Centers Switzerland AG), Sofia (Evolink). DR/backup marketed within Europe. No AWS/GCP/Azure as primary cloud host found on public pages. Network transit via multi-carrier mix (including Cogent, GTT, NTT) for connectivity. |
| Summary | French iliad-group cloud platform: bare metal, virtual instances, EU-resident GPU for AI, managed Kubernetes, serverless, storage and databases on Scaleway-operated multi-AZ regions in Europe. | Italian cloud and data-center provider (DHH Group): KVM cloud servers, NVIDIA/AMD GPU for AI, managed Kubernetes, VPC, and storage on European sites including proprietary Milan and Frosinone facilities. |
| Tags |
| At a glance | Scaleway | Seeweb |
|---|---|---|
| HQ | Paris, France (SCALEWAY SAS) | Not listed |
| Group | iliad Group subsidiary | Not listed |
| Regions | Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw multi-AZ (+ Milan listed) | Not listed |
| Model | Public cloud IaaS/PaaS (not self-hosted) | Not listed |
| Commercial model | Pay-as-you-go; compute Savings Plans (GPU rules differ) | Pay-as-you-go / consumption (SPU & hourly GPU); no public free tier |
| Open source | Platform proprietary; open standards (K8s, S3 API, Terraform) | Not listed |
| HQ / legal entity | Not listed | Seeweb S.r.l. — Frosinone & Milan, Italy |
| Ownership | Not listed | 100% DHH S.p.A. (Euronext Growth Milan) since 2020 |
| Founded | Not listed | 1998 |
| Hosting regions | Not listed | IT (Milan, Frosinone), CH (Lugano, Zurich), BG (Sofia) |
| Core products | Not listed | Cloud Server, GPU, SKS Kubernetes, VPC, storage, colocation |
| Self-host product | Not listed | No — managed IaaS / DC services |
Elastic Metal, Dedibox and Apple Silicon bare metal
Single-tenant physical servers without a shared hypervisor layer: Dedibox for a wide dedicated catalogue, Elastic Metal for bare metal integrated with Scaleway VPC, load balancing, storage and Kubernetes, plus Apple Silicon Mac mini hosts for native macOS/iOS CI. Best when you need hardware isolation, custom kernels, or GPU bare metal without VM overhead—product lines are still converging, so compare availability zone coverage per SKU.
EU-resident GPU instances for AI training and inference
On-demand GPU VMs with recent NVIDIA options (including L4, L40S, H100 PCIe/SXM and B300-SXM) aimed at LLM fine-tuning, inference and graphics/media acceleration, with data residency in European regions. Integrates with Kapsule via the NVIDIA GPU Operator; pay-as-you-go by the minute. GPU capacity and Savings Plan eligibility differ from general instances—validate stock and zone before committing multi-node jobs.
Kubernetes Kapsule and multi-cloud Kosmos
Managed Kubernetes control planes on Scaleway nodes (Kapsule) with autoscaling-oriented operations, plus Kosmos for hybrid/multi-cloud worker pools including non-Scaleway infrastructure. Suits teams standardising on portable Kubernetes rather than proprietary orchestrators; external Kosmos pools remain your responsibility to patch and size.
Multi-AZ European regions with VPC networking
Place compute and storage in Paris, Amsterdam and Warsaw multi-AZ regions (docs also reference Milan), using regional private networking, load balancers and related network services. Useful for EU latency and residency designs without a US region on the primary map—confirm each product’s AZ matrix in the product-availability guide before multi-region DR planning.
Managed storage and databases on open-ish APIs
S3-compatible Object Storage (including multi-AZ class options), block volumes, and managed database engines (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, ClickHouse-oriented analytics) plus serverless containers/functions/jobs. Reduces day-2 ops for common stack pieces while keeping export paths closer to open standards than pure proprietary PaaS—always check engine versions, HA options and backup retention for production.
API, CLI and Terraform-first operations
Full console plus documented APIs, CLI and Infrastructure-as-Code workflows for provisioning instances, networks and managed services. Fits platform teams automating environments; IAM permissions and account Owner roles still need deliberate design for production orgs.
KVM Cloud Servers with dedicated resources
Cloud Server is a KVM virtual machine with dedicated CPU, RAM, and SAN-backed storage, N+1 style redundancy messaging, and guaranteed 1 Gbps bandwidth class. Scale vertically (add CPU/RAM/disk) or horizontally by composing multi-tier stacks. Unmanaged or fully managed by Seeweb engineers—fit for production web, DB, and agency workloads that need predictable isolation rather than noisy shared hosts.
GPU cloud for AI/ML (NVIDIA + AMD)
Cloud Server GPU instances target training, inference, and HPC-style jobs with NVIDIA cards (H100, H200, A100, L40S, RTX A6000, L4 and related) and AMD options including MI300X. Ready-to-use drivers, Terraform support, hourly usage billing, and Spot Instances with a short preemption notice suit bursty or interruptible jobs. Data stays on European sites per vendor GDPR messaging—confirm region per SKU at order time.
Managed Kubernetes Service (SKS)
SKS is Kubernetes-as-a-Service with a HA control plane, worker sizing you design with Seeweb, CSI storage (Vast Data driver on the product page), optional S3-compatible object storage, load balancing, and GPU workers (including MI300X and NVIDIA H-class cards). Aimed at teams that want orchestration without running etcd themselves; Proactive Support tiers add predictive monitoring for production clusters.
VPC, Foundation Server, and hybrid DC footprint
Virtual Private Cloud builds private infrastructures on VMware or Proxmox; Foundation Server targets dedicated bare-metal-style capacity for business-critical virtualization. Combine with housing/colocation in Milan and Frosinone plus European partner sites for DR. Useful when you need private networking and dedicated hosts under the same Italian operator rather than public multi-tenant only.
ACN-qualified IaaS and CISPE EU residency claims
Seeweb publishes ACN CSP qualification (QI2 infrastructure; QC2 for Foundation Server Pro, VPC, Shared CPU/High Memory cloud, and AI/supercomputing infrastructures) for Italian public administration procurement. CISPE Code of Conduct registration is used to assert customer data stored exclusively in European territories. Pair these claims with your own DPIA—they are procurement signals, not a substitute for a signed DPA.
| Assurance & compliance | Scaleway | Seeweb |
|---|---|---|
| Independent security / no-logs audit | Not applicable IaaS provider (not a no-logs VPN). Trust Center references penetration testing and security reports available on request; not a public no-logs audit product claim. | Not applicable IaaS/data-center provider—not a consumer no-logs VPN. Assurance is via ISO/ISMS and sector qualifications rather than a no-logs report. |
| ISO 27001 | Verified ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate documentation published (e.g. certificate IS 787020 for SCALEWAY, Paris). Confirm scope covers the services you buy. | Vendor claimed Vendor certifications page: ISO/IEC 27001:2022, AXE REGISTER cert IT18-27702D, valid until 28 Nov 2027; locations Milan & Frosinone. Re-verify serial in procurement. |
| SOC 2 / SOC 3 | Not found Not listed among public Trust Center compliance badges reviewed (GDPR, HDS, ISO 27001, CSA STAR L1). | Not found No SOC 2/3 report advertised on the official certifications page at research time. |
| HDS (French health data hosting) | Vendor claimed Vendor security and healthcare pages claim HDS certification; Trust Center lists HDS. Confirm certified service scope for your architecture. | Not listed |
| CSA STAR Level 1 | Vendor claimed Trust Center announces CSA STAR Level 1 (CCM self-assessment / CAIQ). | Vendor claimed Stated for Virtual Private Cloud and Foundation Server PRO (6 July 2022 on certifications page). |
| ANSSI SecNumCloud | Partial Qualification process started (public news); security pages mark SecNumCloud as ongoing—not obtained as a finished qualification in sources reviewed. | Not listed |
| GDPR / EU data protection | Vendor claimed EU controller/processor with published privacy policy and DPA; French entity. Not legal advice. | Vendor claimed Italian controller/processor entity, European hosting messaging, privacy policy, ISO 27018 claim, CISPE; confirm DPA for your processing roles. |
| US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative) | Partial French SAS / iliad Group; customer IaaS on self-operated EU regions; no US parent found. Controller-side processors and possible third-country transfers per privacy policy; SecNumCloud not complete. Assessment only—not a vendor “safe” claim. | Partial Italian Seeweb S.r.l., Italian DHH parent, no known US parent; primary hosting on European DCs (not AWS/GCP/Azure). Third-party Swiss/BG facilities and global transit carriers exist. Indicative only—not legal advice. |
| Data processing agreement (B2B) | Vendor claimed DPA PDF downloadable on https://www.scaleway.com/en/contracts/ alongside TOMs. | Vendor claimed Art. 28 DPA language used for Seeweb-operated services (e.g. published for Regolo); request current signed DPA + TOMs + subprocessors for core cloud/IaaS contracts. |
| EU AI Act | Not applicable Infrastructure/GPU host; customer models and apps drive AI Act roles. Not an AI Act conformity product claim. | Partial Infrastructure/GPU provider and Rethic.AI partnership messaging; AI Act duties mainly fall on customer AI systems. Not a full provider high-risk AI assessment by EuropeanStack. |
| ISO/IEC 27017 (cloud security) | Not listed | Vendor claimed Appendix to ISO 27001 certificate on certifications page; same validity window stated. |
| ISO/IEC 27018 (cloud PII) | Not listed | Vendor claimed Appendix to ISO 27001 certificate on certifications page; same validity window stated. |
| CISPE Data Protection Code of Conduct | Not listed | Vendor claimed Vendor states CISPE registry presence and European data storage under the Code (since 31 May 2017 on certifications page). |
| ACN Qualified CSP (QI2/QC2) | Not listed | Vendor claimed IaaS qualification for Italian PA; QI2 infrastructure and QC2 for listed products including AI/supercomputing infrastructures (19 Jan 2023 on certifications page). |
| Considerations & known limitations | Scaleway | Seeweb |
|---|---|---|
| SecNumCloud not yet obtained | Medium ANSSI SecNumCloud is in progress on public materials. Regulated French public-sector tenders that hard-require a qualified cloud today may need another SKU/provider or a delayed migration plan. | Not listed |
| Smaller service catalogue than US hyperscalers | Medium Expect fewer proprietary managed services and less global region density than AWS/Azure/GCP. Multi-cloud or complementary SaaS may still be required for parts of the estate. | Not listed |
| Account-plane processors and possible non-EU transfers | Low Even with EU workload regions, privacy policy allows processor use and SCC-backed transfers for some controller purposes (support, payments, marketing, etc.). Pull the live subprocessor list for DPIAs. | Not listed |
| Shared responsibility for guest security | Medium Scaleway secures the platform; you own OS hardening, IAM, application security, encryption keys and backups. Recent Trust Center advisories on kernel issues illustrate customer patching duties on instances and Kapsule nodes. | Not listed |
| Dedibox vs Elastic Metal product split | Low Two bare-metal experiences still coexist while Scaleway documents convergence. Mis-choosing the line can affect API integration, networking features and migration effort. | Not listed |
| Smaller global footprint than hyperscalers | Not listed | Medium Region set is European (IT/CH/BG) with a mid-size operator catalog. Multi-continent apps or niche managed PaaS may force multi-cloud or a larger EU peer. |
| Certifications are vendor-published | Not listed | Low ISO and ACN claims include certificate numbers and dates on seeweb.it, but EuropeanStack did not re-download every registry PDF. Re-verify serials and scope statements in formal assurance reviews. |
| No single public subprocessor register found | Not listed | Medium Facility partners and network carriers are described on DC pages, but a consolidated customer-content subprocessor list was not found as one public document. Request annex under NDA for regulated workloads. |
| GPU Spot Instances can be interrupted | Not listed | Low Vendor documents ~2-minute notice before Spot termination when On-Demand needs capacity. Architect batch/checkpointing; do not run sole critical control planes only on Spot. |
| Some sites use third-party data centers | Not listed | Low Lugano, Zurich, and Sofia are presented via partner facilities (Swisscom, Global Data Centers Switzerland AG, Evolink). Italy-only residency must be contracted explicitly if required. |
When: You need completed SecNumCloud-qualified private cloud or a larger non-EU region footprint under one European operator
Consider: OVHcloud
Compare exact qualified product SKUs and region maps; OVH and Scaleway are both French industrial clouds with different strengths.
When: You want simpler EU VPS/dedicated economics with a smaller product surface
Consider: UpCloud, Exoscale, or Cyso Cloud
Leaner catalogues; validate GPU, HDS and multi-AZ needs separately.
When: You need maximum global managed-service depth and partner ecosystem
Consider: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform
Accept US-parent CLOUD Act exposure and design residency/controls explicitly.
When: German SMB hosting plus EU cloud under a DE-centric brand is the priority
Consider: IONOS
Different product mix and market focus than Scaleway’s developer/AI-oriented public cloud.
When: You need a large multi-country European cloud with denser product catalog and strong self-service DX
Consider: OVHcloud or Scaleway
Broader regions and developer tooling; less Italian ACN-specific packaging than Seeweb.
When: You want another Italian sovereign cloud with mass-market public-cloud SKUs
Consider: Aruba Cloud
Closest national peer; compare GPU/K8s maturity and PA qualification details side by side.
When: You mainly need simple self-service VMs/storage at aggressive commercial terms without Italian PA focus
Consider: Hetzner
Strong for general-purpose EU VMs; different compliance and support model.
When: You require global enterprise PaaS and marketplace ecosystems
Consider: AWS or Microsoft Azure
Accept US-group cloud and CLOUD Act exposure tradeoffs for breadth.