Three European hosting providers, one winner for UK businesses. We put them head-to-head on pricing, performance, support, and compliance — so you can make an informed decision.
Last updated: July 2026 • Based on publicly available pricing and independent benchmarks
For UK businesses that need European data residency, UK-registered company backing, and real engineer support, Hostingowy wins. If you're on a tight budget and don't need UK support hours or local legal jurisdiction, Hetzner offers competitive pricing. OVHcloud suits businesses needing France-centric infrastructure or specific DDoS protection features.
All prices in EUR per month (approximate). Hostingowy prices are in USD but converted to EUR for fair comparison.
| Plan Type | Hostingowy | Hetzner | OVHcloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry VPS (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM) | €4.60 ($5) | €3.99 | €5.50 |
| Best Value — VPS (2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM) | €9.20 ($10) NVMe | €7.99 NVMe | €11.50 |
| Mid-range (4 vCPU, 4 GB RAM) | €23.00 ($25) NVMe | €16.90 NVMe | €23.00 |
| High-end (8 vCPU, 8 GB RAM) | €46.00 ($50) NVMe | €34.90 NVMe | €46.00 |
| Cost Factor | Hostingowy | Hetzner | OVHcloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egress / Bandwidth fees | None ✅ | None (included) ✅ | None (included) ✅ |
| Setup fees | None ✅ | None ✅ | None ✅ |
| VAT handling | UK VAT auto-applied ✅ | German VAT (19%), reverse charge ⚠️ | French VAT (20%), reverse charge ⚠️ |
| Support tiers | Free, all plans ✅ | Free, community-based ⚠️ | Paid tiers from €10/mo ❌ |
| Contract / lock-in | None, cancel anytime ✅ | Monthly or annual ✅ | Monthly or annual ✅ |
For businesses that need dedicated resources without noisy neighbours, here's how the three providers compare on entry-level dedicated servers.
| Configuration | Hostingowy | Hetzner | OVHcloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry (Intel i7 / AMD Ryzen, 16 GB RAM) | €69 ($75) UK Support | €45 | €55 |
| Mid (Xeon E / AMD EPYC, 64 GB RAM) | €139 ($150) UK Support | €89 | €110 |
| High-end (Dual Xeon / Dual EPYC, 256 GB RAM) | €279 ($300) UK Support | €199 | €229 |
Note: Hostingowy's bare metal plans include UK-based engineer support, free migration, and UK company invoicing — factors that add significant value for UK businesses beyond the raw hardware price.
When we compare hosting providers, price per GB of RAM or per vCPU is only part of the story. Here are the factors that matter specifically for UK-based businesses:
Hostingowy: Registered in England & Wales. UK contract law applies. Your data is processed under UK GDPR with a UK-registered data controller. If you need to escalate a dispute, you do so in a UK court.
Hetzner: German company (Hetzner Online GmbH). German law applies. Contracts are governed by German courts in Nuremberg. Customer support operates on Central European Time (CET).
OVHcloud: French company (OVH SAS). French law applies. Contracts governed by French courts in Lille. Support operates on CET.
Hostingowy: UK business hours support (9-6 GMT/BST). Real engineers — the same people who built the platform. No chatbots, no offshore first-line teams.
Hetzner: 24/7 datacenter technical support, but billing and sales support is German business hours (CET). Ticket response times can vary significantly.
OVHcloud: 24/7 support available, but quality depends on your support tier. Free tier gets community/forum support. Paid tiers start at €10/month.
All three providers offer European data centres, but the legal framework differs:
Hostingowy: Billing in USD (competitive rates). UK VAT auto-applied. British invoicing format — familiar for UK finance teams.
Hetzner: Billing in EUR. German VAT (19%) applied to non-business EU customers. UK businesses need to use reverse charge mechanism.
OVHcloud: Billing in EUR. French VAT (20%) applies. Similar reverse charge requirements for UK businesses.
Based on independent benchmarks and community-reported data for comparable VPS configurations (€5-10/mo tier):
| Benchmark | Hostingowy | Hetzner | OVHcloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU (sysbench — events/s) | ~4,200 | ~4,500 | ~3,800 |
| RAM (memtier — ops/s) | ~85,000 | ~90,000 | ~72,000 |
| Disk IO (4K random read — IOPS) | ~58,000 NVMe | ~52,000 NVMe | ~18,000 SATA SSD |
| Network (speedtest — UK server) | ~890 Mbps | ~750 Mbps | ~810 Mbps |
| Network (latency — London) | ~18ms | ~28ms | ~22ms |
Key takeaway: For I/O-intensive workloads (databases, file servers, web applications), Hostingowy and Hetzner lead with NVMe storage. OVHcloud's entry VPS plans still use SATA SSD, which is a significant performance gap. Hostingowy has the lowest latency from London thanks to our EU data centre location and UK-facing network.
| Feature | Hostingowy | Hetzner | OVHcloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| European DC locations | Poland | Germany, Finland | France, Germany, UK, Poland, Spain, Italy |
| UK data centre | EU DCs (low latency to UK) | No ❌ | London (limited) ✅ |
| Total DCs worldwide | 1 (EU) | 3 (EU) | 20+ (Global) |
| DDoS protection | Basic included | Basic included | Advanced (VAC) ✅ |
Hostingowy focuses on a single European data centre location with excellent UK connectivity — simpler architecture, lower overhead, and more predictable performance. Hetzner has data centres in Germany and Finland. OVHcloud has the widest global footprint, including a London data centre, making it the best choice for multi-region deployments.
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