Most free hosting comes from US companies, even when the servers are in Frankfurt or Paris. If you want both the data and the provider in Europe, the free options are fewer but real: a monthly serverless quota, a small free-forever plan, a free PaaS instance and two no-card trials.
Use Scaleway Serverless Containers for a recurring monthly free quota that runs only in EU regions.
Use alwaysdata for a free-forever personal plan hosted in France with SSH and databases.
Use Koyeb for one free web service from a French company, if sleeping after an hour idle is acceptable.
Use Clever Cloud to try a sovereign European PaaS with signup credits and no card.
Move to Hetzner or OVHcloud when you need an always-on server; they have no free tier but start at a few euros a month.
Best recurring free quota
Limit
400,000 GB-s and 200,000 vCPU-s per month; ingress and egress free.
Scaleway gives every account 400,000 GB-s of memory and 200,000 vCPU-s per month, and its Serverless Containers regions are Paris, Amsterdam and Warsaw.
Best free-forever plan
Limit
1 GB SSD, 256 MB RAM and a quarter CPU share.
alwaysdata lists a €0 plan for life, positioned for personal needs, on a French platform with many languages and databases.
Best free PaaS instance
Limit
512 MB RAM, 0.1 vCPU and 2 GB SSD for one web service.
Koyeb is a French company with one free web service per organization, deployable in Frankfurt.
Best sovereign PaaS trial
Limit
One-time signup credit; the amount is not published on the pricing page.
Clever Cloud gives free credits at signup with no payment card and hosts on European sovereign infrastructure.
Most guides to “hosting in Europe” only ask where the servers are. That is the first question, and almost every large provider answers it with a Frankfurt, Paris or Amsterdam region. The second question is who runs the service and which law governs the contract. A US company with a Paris region is still a US company.
This guide only lists providers headquartered in Europe, and then tells you whether your data can stay in the EU. That matters for public-sector and regulated customers, for teams that want to keep GDPR compliance simple, and for anyone who simply prefers a European vendor. If you only need servers close to European users, see free hosting with EU regions, which also covers US providers.
| Provider | Country | Free option | Data in the EU | Main catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scaleway Serverless Containers | France | Monthly quota | EU regions only | Scales to zero; auto-bills above quota |
| alwaysdata | France | Free forever (1 GB) | Hosted in France | Personal use; small resources |
| Koyeb | France | One free web service | Frankfurt available | Sleeps after an hour idle |
| Clever Cloud | France | Signup credit, no card | EU regions | Credit runs out |
| Bunny.net | Slovenia | 14-day trial, no card | Not confirmed | CDN edge is worldwide |
| Hetzner Cloud | Germany | None | Germany and Finland | Paid from €5.99/month |
| OVHcloud VPS | France | None | European data centers | Paid from €3.81/month with commitment |
A small API, webhook or bot fits Scaleway Serverless Containers. You deploy any Docker image, the free quota renews every month, and traffic is free. The catch is the cold start after the container scales to zero.
A personal site or small PHP or Python app fits alwaysdata. It behaves like classic hosting with SSH, databases and scheduled tasks, and the free plan does not expire. Check the terms before using it for a business.
A Git-deployed web service fits Koyeb for free or Clever Cloud on credits. Koyeb is the simpler free option. Clever Cloud is the stronger choice when a client asks for sovereign hosting and you are ready to pay after the trial.
Anything that must stay on belongs on a small VPS. Hetzner and OVHcloud both offer 4 GB of RAM for a few euros a month. A self-hosted PaaS such as Coolify or Dokku brings back Git deploys on top.
Avoid the free European options for production apps that need instant responses after idle periods, large uploads or guaranteed uptime. They are best for learning, prototypes and personal projects. When the project earns money, a paid plan from the same European provider keeps your data and contract where they are.
Scaleway Serverless Containers runs Docker images in Paris, Amsterdam and Warsaw, with a monthly free quota of 400,000 GB-s and 200,000 vCPU-s.
Free tier
400,000 GB-s of memory and 200,000 vCPU-s per account per month, then pay per use
Usage-based · 3 EU regions
Scales to zero when idle · Overage auto-bills
alwaysdata is a French PaaS and hosting platform with a free-for-life plan: 1 GB SSD, 256 MB RAM and a quarter CPU for personal projects.
Free tier
1 GB SSD, 256 MB RAM and a quarter CPU share, positioned for personal needs, with no time limit
€5/mo · 1 region
Commercial use restricted · Some constraints remain unconfirmed
Koyeb is a serverless PaaS for GitHub and Docker apps, with one free 512 MB web instance, global regions and simple autoscaling.
Free tier
One free web service with 512 MB RAM, 0.1 vCPU and 2 GB SSD; free PostgreSQL is limited to 5 active hours and 1 GB storage
Paid from $1.61/mo · 2 free regions
Scales to zero when idle · Credit card required
Clever Cloud is a French PaaS that deploys apps from Git on European sovereign infrastructure, with free signup credits and no card needed.
Free tier
One-time free credits at signup with no payment card; the amount is not published on the pricing page
Usage-based · 2 regions
Trial that expires · Some constraints remain unconfirmed
Yes. Scaleway (France) has a monthly serverless quota, alwaysdata (France) a free-forever personal plan and Koyeb (France) one free web service. Clever Cloud (France) and Bunny.net (Slovenia) offer free trials.
No. Picking a Frankfurt or Paris region keeps the data in the EU, but the provider and its contract stay under its home jurisdiction. This guide lists providers headquartered in Europe.
Among the providers we track, OVHcloud VPS-1 starts at €3.81 per month excluding VAT with a commitment, and Hetzner CX23 at €5.99 per month excluding VAT, billed hourly. Neither has a free tier.
None of the free options we track is confirmed always-on. Scaleway and Koyeb scale to zero when idle, and alwaysdata does not document idle behavior. For a guaranteed always-on service, budget for a small VPS.