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I tried building my startup entirely on European infrastructure

"Made in EU" - it was harder than I thought.

coinerella.com

February 20, 2026

5 min read

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72/100

Summary

Building a startup entirely on European infrastructure presents unexpected challenges and friction points compared to using major providers like AWS. The process is achievable but requires navigating complexities not commonly discussed.

Key Takeaways

The author built a startup using entirely European infrastructure to ensure data sovereignty and compliance with GDPR.
Hetzner was chosen for core compute services due to its competitive pricing and solid performance compared to AWS.
The author faced challenges in finding European alternatives for transactional email that matched the pricing and deliverability of American providers.
Self-hosting various services on Kubernetes was time-consuming but allowed the author to maintain control over data and avoid reliance on American SaaS providers.

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Community Sentiment

Mixed

Positives

Building a startup on European infrastructure can ensure data sovereignty and independence, allowing for greater control over operations and compliance with local regulations.
Using baremetal servers in-house can effectively handle high traffic volumes, demonstrating that simplicity in infrastructure can lead to robust performance.

Concerns

Data encryption practices on some European cloud providers, like Scaleway, raise significant concerns about data isolation and security, which could deter potential users.
The reputation of OVHCloud has been marred by incidents like data center fires, which may lead larger companies to hesitate in choosing their services.