AWS is broader on essentially every technical measure. OVHcloud competes on jurisdiction, on bare metal, and on the cost of moving data, and for a certain kind of organisation those are decisive.
Quick comparison
| AWS | OVHcloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | United States | France |
| Service catalogue | Enormous | Solid infrastructure, limited managed data |
| Bare metal | Limited and costly | Core product at scale |
| Egress | Metered | Unlimited traffic on parts of the range |
| Regions | Global | Europe-led, some global |
| Accounts here | 20 configurations from $20 | 2 configurations from $30 |
The jurisdiction argument
Choosing an EU region of a US-headquartered provider gives geographic residency. Choosing a European company operating European facilities changes the jurisdictional position, because a provider may be subject to legal requests from its home country regardless of where data physically sits.
Whether that difference matters is a legal question for your sector and regulator, not a technical one. It is also not the same as being compliant: GDPR obligations attach to your own practices. See European data residency explained.
Bare metal
OVHcloud sells physical dedicated servers at scale alongside public cloud. For steady, round-the-clock workloads this is dramatically cheaper per unit of capacity than virtualised instances, and it removes contention entirely.
AWS has dedicated options but they are priced as a premium enterprise product rather than a value one. See OVHcloud public cloud vs bare metal.
Data transfer
OVHcloud markets unlimited traffic on parts of its range. AWS meters egress, and for media-heavy applications it can become the largest line on the bill. This is a genuine structural difference rather than a pricing nuance. See cloud egress costs.
Where AWS is simply ahead
- Managed analytics and machine learning platforms.
- Breadth of instance families, including mature Arm options.
- Global region coverage.
- Third-party ecosystem and available expertise.
Account access
OVHcloud sign-up involves email verification, account type selection and, depending on region and payment profile, an identity review that is a common source of delay.
Our OVHcloud listings cover 2 configurations from $30, including a 34 vCPU tier and an open port 25 option. AWS listings cover 20 configurations from $20.
Which should you choose
- European jurisdiction is a requirement? OVHcloud.
- Need bare metal at sensible prices? OVHcloud.
- Bandwidth-heavy delivery? OVHcloud.
- Need managed analytics or ML? AWS.
- Need global low-latency coverage? AWS.
Common questions
Is OVHcloud cheaper than AWS?
For raw compute and bandwidth, generally yes. For managed services, it does not compete because it largely does not offer them.
Does an EU region of AWS satisfy sovereignty concerns?
It satisfies residency. Jurisdiction is a separate question worth taking legal advice on.
Can I combine both?
Yes. Keeping regulated data on OVHcloud and using AWS for specific services is a common pattern.