STACKIT vs. IONOS Cloud vs. OVHcloud Compared

STACKIT, IONOS Cloud and OVHcloud are the three European providers that most often appear on the shortlist when a company wants a full cloud platform, not just virtual servers, under EU jurisdiction. All three offer compute, block and object storage, managed Kubernetes and managed databases. STACKIT is the most focused on Germany and Austria, OVHcloud has the largest international footprint and its own SecNumCloud track, and IONOS sits between them with German data centres and a wide product range.

Overview

As of October 2026. Details according to the providers; their own websites are authoritative.

	STACKIT	IONOS Cloud	OVHcloud
Headquarters	Germany (Schwarz Group)	Germany (IONOS group)	France
Data centres	Germany and Austria only	Germany plus other European and US locations	Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific
Managed Kubernetes	STACKIT Kubernetes Engine (SKE)	Managed Kubernetes	Managed Kubernetes Service (Free and Standard plans)
Notable certification	BSI C5 Type 2 attestation	BSI C5 attestation (check scope)	SecNumCloud qualification for selected products
Typical customer	Enterprises, public sector, retail	SMEs to enterprises	Developers to enterprises, global

STACKIT

STACKIT is the cloud of the Schwarz Group, the retail group behind Lidl and Kaufland, and was originally built for the group’s own workloads. Today it is sold to external customers, with a clear positioning around data sovereignty: data centres in Germany and Austria only, operated by a German company.

According to the Schwarz Group’s announcement, STACKIT has received a BSI C5 Type 2 attestation. C5 is the cloud security criteria catalogue of Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI); a Type 2 report confirms that controls were not only designed but also operated effectively over a period.

The portfolio covers virtual machines, block and object storage, the STACKIT Kubernetes Engine, managed databases and further platform services. STACKIT addresses enterprises and public bodies first; smaller teams should check support plans and onboarding before committing.

IONOS Cloud

IONOS is best known in Germany for domains and web hosting, but IONOS Cloud is a separate enterprise infrastructure offering. Its distinguishing feature is the Data Center Designer, a visual tool in which you draw virtual data centres with servers, networks and storage, alongside a regular API and Terraform provider.

IONOS Cloud runs data centres in Germany and offers further locations in other European countries and the US. The portfolio includes dedicated-core and shared virtual servers, block and S3-compatible object storage, Managed Kubernetes and managed databases such as PostgreSQL. IONOS states that it holds a BSI C5 attestation; check which services and locations it covers.

OVHcloud

OVHcloud, headquartered in France, is one of the largest European cloud providers and builds much of its own hardware. It runs data centres in France, Germany, Poland and the UK as well as in North America and Asia-Pacific. The Public Cloud is based on OpenStack, which makes APIs and tooling familiar to many operations teams.

For sensitive workloads, OVHcloud offers SecNumCloud-qualified products, including a Bare Metal Pod and a VMware-based private cloud, hosted in dedicated data centres in Gravelines, Roubaix and Strasbourg. SecNumCloud is the qualification scheme of the French cybersecurity agency ANSSI. It applies to these specific products, not to the whole OVHcloud portfolio.

OVHcloud’s Managed Kubernetes Service comes in a Free plan with a single-zone control plane and a Standard plan with a more resilient control plane and an SLA, according to the OVHcloud documentation.

How to choose

Start from your requirements, not from the brand:

• Location constraints. If data must remain in Germany or Austria, all three can do it, but STACKIT does not offer anything else. If you also need North American or Asian regions under one contract, OVHcloud covers the most ground.
• Certifications. German public-sector and healthcare tenders often ask for BSI C5. French public-sector workloads may require SecNumCloud. Always check the exact scope of an attestation, because it can be limited to certain services or locations.
• Managed services. Make a list of what you use today (Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, Redis, object storage, load balancers, DNS) and check each provider’s catalogue. Gaps mean self-operation.
• Pricing and egress. Compare compute, storage and outbound traffic for your actual workload. European providers often charge less for egress than US hyperscalers, but terms differ.
• Support and contracts. Enterprise support, named contacts and data processing agreements matter more than list prices for most companies.

For a broader view including Hetzner, Scaleway, UpCloud and Exoscale, see our European cloud providers comparison. If you are moving workloads, our guide to migrating from AWS to an EU cloud covers the practical steps, and managed Kubernetes in Europe compares the container platforms in detail. What sovereignty really means beyond the marketing is explained on our sovereign cloud page.

This comparison is general orientation, not legal advice. For regulated data, involve your data protection officer and review each provider’s data processing agreement.