Sovereign hosting compared: Hetzner, Infomaniak, Exoscale, OVHcloud, Scaleway, Swisscom, Safe Swiss Cloud, netcup, Contabo, on-prem

What does sovereign hosting mean?

Sovereign hosting in the AI context means three things at the same time: first, that the data physically resides in a data centre inside an agreed legal space (Switzerland or EU, not the US). Second, that the operator itself is subject to that legal logic - a US company with an EU data centre remains exposed to a FISA order or a CLOUD Act subpoena, even with disks in Frankfurt. Third, that contractual and technical measures minimise the risk of uncontrolled access - customer-managed key encryption, clearly documented data processing agreements, ISO 27001 audit.

For Swiss fiduciary and law offices this topic is no longer academic in May 2026. The revised revDSG has been in force since September 2023, the EU AI Act since August 2024, and the professional associations (TREUHAND|SUISSE, EXPERTsuisse, SAV) have stated several times over the last 18 months that a third-country transfer impact assessment for AI-assisted client processing is now standard. Whoever stores client files in a US cloud bucket can do so, but must keep the TIA documentation, standard contractual clauses and possibly additional technical measures on hand - that is more work than CH or EU hosting from day one.

The ten options compared here cover the full spectrum: from the budget DE VPS provider (netcup, Contabo) via EU hyperscaler equivalents (Hetzner, OVHcloud, Scaleway) to Swiss premium providers (Infomaniak, Exoscale, Swisscom, Safe Swiss Cloud) and maximum self-determination in your own rack (on-prem).

Why the choice matters

Four hard factors decide in the Swiss context: legal reach of the provider, GPU availability, price per workload and support language.

Legal reach: a CH-AG with headquarters and staff in Switzerland is subject to the revDSG and CH jurisdiction - a US subpoena cannot force them directly to surrender data. A German GmbH (Hetzner, netcup, Contabo) is subject to the GDPR and German law - also no direct US subpoena effect. A US group with an EU subsidiary (AWS Frankfurt, Azure Switzerland North, Google Cloud Zurich, Akamai/Exoscale) is, via its parent, subject to the CLOUD Act. That is not "forbidden", but it must be documented in the TIA - and for mandates under SCC Art. 321 (professional secrecy) it is critical.

GPU availability: those who want to run open-weight models such as Apertus 70B or Llama 4 Maverick locally need a GPU. Since 2024 Hetzner has offered dedicated GPU servers (GEX44 with RTX 4000 SFF Ada 20 GB from EUR 184/month, GEX130 with RTX 6000 Ada from EUR 300+/month, with occasional long waitlists). OVHcloud has NVIDIA A100/H100 options. Scaleway likewise. Swisscom Cloud, Infomaniak and Safe Swiss Cloud still had limited GPU offerings as of May 2026, although they hold partnerships with CSCS or run their own concepts. netcup and Contabo do not offer production GPU servers for LLM workloads.

Price per workload: a sample configuration "24 GB VRAM, 64 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe" costs EUR 184/month at Hetzner GEX44. At OVHcloud from about EUR 400/month. At Infomaniak and Exoscale, equivalent setups EUR 600-900/month. At Swisscom Cloud higher still. The range is wide - and it measures not only hardware but also support depth and data residency guarantees.

Support language: Hetzner support speaks German and English. Infomaniak French, German, English. Exoscale English. Swisscom Cloud German, French, Italian. OVHcloud French, English. For a 3 a.m. emergency, the support ticket language matters - for fiduciary clients with French-speaking clientele, OVHcloud or Infomaniak is more natural than Hetzner.

The ten hosters in detail

Hetzner (DE origin, DCs in Falkenstein DE + Nuremberg DE + Helsinki FI): ISO 27001. Dedicated servers from EUR 39/month, GPU server GEX44 from EUR 184/month (NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada 20 GB), GEX130 with RTX 6000 Ada from EUR 300+/month. AVV/DPA available as standard. As of May 2026 our default for EU hosting of AI workloads. Caveat: GPU servers occasionally have waitlists.

Infomaniak (CH origin, DC in Geneva CH): ISO 27001 + ISO 14001 (environment). 100% Swiss hosting, power from Swiss hydro. CH AG, CH law, CH taxes. Classic hosting services plus own cloud platforms. GPU offer being built out in May 2026. Default choice for clients who require CH residency with an eco angle.

Exoscale (CH origin, DCs in Zurich CH + Geneva CH + Vienna AT + Frankfurt DE + Sofia BG + Munich DE): ISO 27001. Hybrid cloud with S3-compatible object storage, Kubernetes, managed PostgreSQL. Since 2023 owned by Akamai - US parent, but Swiss operating unit. CH data stays in CH regions, contractually guaranteed.

OVHcloud (FR origin, DCs in Roubaix FR + Strasbourg FR + Frankfurt DE + Poland + UK + Canada): ISO 27001 + ISO 27701 (privacy management) + ISO 27017 (cloud security) + ISO 27018 (cloud privacy). Wide regional choice, GPU options with A100/H100. Very cheap in EU comparison.

Scaleway (FR origin, DCs in Paris FR + Amsterdam NL + Warsaw PL): ISO 27001. OVH-like profile, good API, Kubernetes service, bare metal. As of May 2026 Scaleway is among the fastest EU hosters for new-instance provisioning.

Swisscom Cloud (CH origin, DCs in Zurich CH + Bern CH): ISO 27001 plus FINMA-specific certification. Expensive (factor 2-3 vs. Hetzner), but bank-, insurance- and fiduciary-grade at the highest level. Clients with FINMA supervision or strict internal compliance find their natural partner here.

Safe Swiss Cloud (CH origin, DCs in Embrach CH and near Zurich): ISO 27001 + FINMA compliance. Specialist provider focused on Swiss SMEs, fiduciaries and lawyers. Smaller than Swisscom but more agile, German-language support, clear sector focus.

netcup (DE origin, DCs in Karlsruhe DE + Nuremberg DE): VPS and root servers at very low prices, dedicated from around EUR 30/month. No production GPU offer for LLMs. Suitable for CPU-only workloads, classic web hosting, smaller databases.

Contabo (DE origin, DCs in Munich DE + St. Louis USA + Singapore SG): discount provider, VPS from EUR 4-15/month. No production LLM GPU offer as of May 2026. Caveat: at booking, the DE region must be selected explicitly - otherwise the VM lands in the US.

On-prem (no hoster, own rack in the office or own DC): maximum data control, no third party. Suitable for medium to large clients with IT staff. Hardware investment (server + GPU + network + UPS + cooling) from CHF 30,000, plus ongoing maintenance. For 90% of SMEs this is not an option, but for some FINMA-regulated mandates it is the only acceptable choice.

Hosting selection in 6 steps

1. 01Clarify data residency: CH-only, EU-only or non-critical? CH-only excludes Hetzner and OVHcloud.
2. 02Check sector and regulator: FINMA-regulated? Then Swisscom Cloud or Safe Swiss Cloud. Standard fiduciary: all EU/CH options open.
3. 03Determine GPU need: local LLM required (Apertus, Llama 4)? Then Hetzner, OVHcloud or Scaleway. CPU-only: all hosters.
4. 04Set monthly budget: EUR 30-100 (Hetzner CPU, netcup), EUR 184-500 (Hetzner GEX, OVHcloud GPU), EUR 600-1500 (Infomaniak, Exoscale, Safe Swiss), EUR 1500+ (Swisscom).
5. 05Determine support language: DE/EN enough - Hetzner, Infomaniak, Exoscale. DE/FR/IT needed - Swisscom or OVHcloud.
6. 06Run a PoC: two weeks of test setup at the preferred hoster, review AVV/DPA, measure provisioning times, test support response. Only then go productive.

Recommendation by use case

Standard CH fiduciary 5-15 people, Apertus or Llama 4 local, budget limited: Hetzner GEX44 in Falkenstein DE or Helsinki FI. EUR 184/month for 24 GB GPU plus 64 GB RAM. AVV/DPA available. EU residency suffices for the standard revDSG case.

CH fiduciary with strict CH residency requirement: Infomaniak Geneva or Safe Swiss Cloud Embrach. Higher cost (factor 2-3) than Hetzner, but CH law and CH residency without debate.

FINMA-regulated mandates, banks, insurers: Swisscom Cloud Zurich/Bern or Safe Swiss Cloud. Both have documented FINMA requirements. Swisscom priced higher, but with a larger setup apparatus.

Hybrid setup with S3 object storage, Kubernetes, managed PostgreSQL in CH region: Exoscale Zurich. ISO 27001, AVV available. The Akamai parent has to be addressed in the TIA.

Multi-region EU with GPU need, cost-optimised: OVHcloud. Four ISO certifications, good regional choice, A100/H100 options, EU price level.

Fast provisioning, good API, FR-DE-NL regions: Scaleway. As of May 2026 the fastest EU cloud at instance spin-up.

CPU-only AI workloads, small clients, budget under CHF 100/month: netcup or Contabo. CPU inference with Phi-4 or Llama 3 8B in quantisation, no GPU acceleration.

Client with IT department and maximum compliance: on-prem. Own hardware in own DC, no third party, full data control. Hardware investment from CHF 30,000 plus ongoing maintenance.

When CH premium hosting is wrong

If the concrete workload does not process personal data (e.g. an internal tool hosting only synthetic test data or anonymised statistics), a CH premium solution at factor-3 cost is over-investment. Hetzner EU or OVHcloud is perfectly sufficient.

If, exceptionally, the data really is better hosted in the US (e.g. because the clients are US groups anyway and the API call goes to US OpenAI), the argument for CH hosting becomes symbolic - the TIA discussion happens regardless. In such a setup, EU Hetzner as a "bridge hoster" with a clear TIA and encryption is more pragmatic than CH premium.

And: those who do not need a GPU (pure RAG pipeline with Qdrant + cloud API for the language model) can work with netcup or Hetzner Cloud at EUR 30-80/month. Premium CH hosting for a pure CPU workload would be waste.

Trade-offs

FAQ

Related topics

Sources

1. Hetzner - Dedicated GPU server lineup (GEX44, GEX130) · 2026-05
2. Infomaniak - Swiss hosting & ISO certifications · 2026-04
3. Exoscale - Akamai Cloud Computing for Swiss customers · 2026-05
4. OVHcloud - ISO 27001/27701/27017/27018 certification overview · 2026-03
5. Safe Swiss Cloud - FINMA-compliant Swiss hosting · 2026-05