{"id":33640,"date":"2026-08-24T17:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T15:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/?p=33640"},"modified":"2026-08-24T18:00:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:00:57","slug":"moving-off-aws-european-migration-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/moving-off-aws-european-migration-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving Off AWS: A Cost and Migration Guide for European Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AWS bills usually spike from egress fees and managed-service markup (RDS, managed Kubernetes) rather than raw compute cost \u2014 and reserved instances or savings plans create a false sense of predictability that unravels the moment usage patterns change. How smooth a migration off AWS actually is depends almost entirely on one thing: how much of your stack already runs on portable layers like containers and standard SQL versus AWS-proprietary services like Lambda and DynamoDB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-why-aws-bills-spike-without-warning\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why AWS Bills Spike Without Warning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reserved instances and savings plans lock in a discount against a usage commitment \u2014 useful when usage is stable, but they create a false floor: the moment your actual workload shifts (a service you scaled down, a region you no longer use), you&#8217;re paying for capacity you committed to but aren&#8217;t using, on top of whatever new usage you&#8217;ve added. Egress fees compound this in a way that&#8217;s easy to underestimate when architecting on AWS \u2014 data transfer out of AWS is priced per gigabyte, and it&#8217;s rarely visible until a bill arrives with a number that doesn&#8217;t match the mental model of &#8220;we just pay for the servers.&#8221; Managed-service markup is the third factor: RDS, managed Kubernetes, and similar services bundle real operational value (backups, failover, patching) into the price, but that convenience premium is exactly what disappears if you&#8217;re willing to self-manage the equivalent open-source stack elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-what-moving-off-aws-actually-requires\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Moving Off AWS Actually Requires<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Migration difficulty isn&#8217;t uniform across an AWS stack \u2014 it depends entirely on which services you&#8217;re replacing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"cbo-awssvcmap-wrap\">\n  <style>\n    .cbo-awssvcmap-wrap { overflow-x: auto; margin: 24px 0; font-family: Calibri, \"Segoe UI\", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; }\n    .cbo-awssvcmap-table { border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; min-width: 720px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.55; color: #333333; }\n    .cbo-awssvcmap-table caption { caption-side: top; text-align: left; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; color: #1f2d3d; padding: 0 0 4px 2px; }\n    .cbo-awssvcmap-subcaption { caption-side: top; text-align: left; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; color: #6b7280; padding: 0 0 12px 2px; display: block; }\n    .cbo-awssvcmap-table thead th { background: #365F91; color: #ffffff; font-weight: 700; text-align: left; padding: 12px 14px; border: 1px solid #365F91; }\n    .cbo-awssvcmap-table tbody td { padding: 12px 14px; border: 1px solid #dfe6ee; vertical-align: top; }\n    .cbo-awssvcmap-table tbody tr:nth-child(even) { background: #f4f7fb; }\n    .cbo-awssvcmap-table tbody tr:hover { background: #eaf0fa; }\n    .cbo-awssvcmap-table tbody tr:first-child td { border-left: 3px solid #4F81BD; }\n    .cbo-awssvcmap-table td:first-child { font-weight: 700; color: #365F91; white-space: nowrap; }\n    .cbo-awssvcmap-note { font-size: 13px; color: #6b7280; margin-top: 8px; }\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {\n      .cbo-awssvcmap-table { font-size: 13.5px; }\n      .cbo-awssvcmap-table thead th, .cbo-awssvcmap-table tbody td { padding: 9px 10px; }\n    }\n  <\/style>\n  <table class=\"cbo-awssvcmap-table\" itemscope itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/Table\">\n    <caption>\n      What Moving Off AWS Actually Requires, Service by Service\n      <span class=\"cbo-awssvcmap-subcaption\">General migration difficulty by AWS service \u2014 actual effort depends on your specific architecture.<\/span>\n    <\/caption>\n    <thead>\n      <tr>\n        <th scope=\"col\">AWS Service<\/th>\n        <th scope=\"col\">What Replaces It in Europe<\/th>\n        <th scope=\"col\">Migration Difficulty<\/th>\n      <\/tr>\n    <\/thead>\n    <tbody>\n      <tr><td>EC2<\/td><td>Any VPS or cloud compute instance<\/td><td>Low \u2014 most portable layer<\/td><\/tr>\n      <tr><td>S3<\/td><td>S3-compatible object storage (widely available)<\/td><td>Low \u2014 API-compatible in most cases<\/td><\/tr>\n      <tr><td>RDS (managed Postgres\/MySQL)<\/td><td>Managed database (Scaleway, OVHcloud) or self-managed Postgres<\/td><td>Medium \u2014 self-managing means owning backups and failover yourself<\/td><\/tr>\n      <tr><td>EKS (managed Kubernetes)<\/td><td>Managed Kubernetes (Scaleway Kapsule, OVHcloud) or self-managed K3s\/Docker<\/td><td>Medium to High \u2014 depends on whether you need managed or are willing to self-manage<\/td><\/tr>\n      <tr><td>Lambda \/ DynamoDB \/ EventBridge<\/td><td>No direct drop-in equivalent<\/td><td>High \u2014 requires architectural re-engineering, not a lift-and-shift<\/td><\/tr>\n    <\/tbody>\n  <\/table>\n  <p class=\"cbo-awssvcmap-note\">Services built on standard, portable layers (VMs, containers, S3-compatible storage) migrate cleanly; proprietary serverless\/event services do not.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The practical takeaway: a stack already built on standard VMs, containers, and S3-compatible storage can typically migrate in a parallel-run window of a few weeks. A stack leaning heavily on Lambda, DynamoDB, or other proprietary AWS services is a re-architecture project, not a migration \u2014 plan and budget for that difference honestly before committing to a timeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">European Providers Compared for AWS Migration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The right European provider depends on whether you want AWS-equivalent managed services or are optimizing purely for cost and are willing to self-manage more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"cbo-eucloudcompare-wrap\">\n  <style>\n    .cbo-eucloudcompare-wrap { overflow-x: auto; margin: 24px 0; font-family: Calibri, \"Segoe UI\", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; }\n    .cbo-eucloudcompare-table { border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; min-width: 720px; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.55; color: #333333; }\n    .cbo-eucloudcompare-table caption { caption-side: top; text-align: left; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; color: #1f2d3d; padding: 0 0 4px 2px; }\n    .cbo-eucloudcompare-subcaption { caption-side: top; text-align: left; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; color: #6b7280; padding: 0 0 12px 2px; display: block; }\n    .cbo-eucloudcompare-table thead th { background: #365F91; color: #ffffff; font-weight: 700; text-align: left; padding: 12px 14px; border: 1px solid #365F91; }\n    .cbo-eucloudcompare-table tbody td { padding: 12px 14px; border: 1px solid #dfe6ee; vertical-align: top; }\n    .cbo-eucloudcompare-table tbody tr:nth-child(even) { background: #f4f7fb; }\n    .cbo-eucloudcompare-table tbody tr:hover { background: #eaf0fa; }\n    .cbo-eucloudcompare-table td:first-child { font-weight: 700; color: #365F91; white-space: nowrap; }\n    .cbo-eucloudcompare-note { font-size: 13px; color: #6b7280; margin-top: 8px; }\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {\n      .cbo-eucloudcompare-table { font-size: 13.5px; }\n      .cbo-eucloudcompare-table thead th, .cbo-eucloudcompare-table tbody td { padding: 9px 10px; }\n    }\n  <\/style>\n  <table class=\"cbo-eucloudcompare-table\" itemscope itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/Table\">\n    <caption>\n      European Cloud Providers Compared for AWS Migration\n      <span class=\"cbo-eucloudcompare-subcaption\">Grounded in real-world migration discussions, not a generic feature list \u2014 confirm current offerings directly with each provider.<\/span>\n    <\/caption>\n    <thead>\n      <tr>\n        <th scope=\"col\">Provider<\/th>\n        <th scope=\"col\">Managed Services<\/th>\n        <th scope=\"col\">Best Known For<\/th>\n        <th scope=\"col\">Honest Trade-off<\/th>\n      <\/tr>\n    <\/thead>\n    <tbody>\n      <tr><td>Scaleway<\/td><td>Managed Kubernetes (Kapsule), managed Postgres\/MySQL, S3-compatible storage, Terraform support<\/td><td>Closest functional match to AWS for containerized, cloud-native stacks<\/td><td>Smaller overall service catalog than AWS<\/td><\/tr>\n      <tr><td>OVHcloud<\/td><td>Managed databases, VMware\/Nutanix support, multi-AZ public cloud, compliance certifications<\/td><td>Broadest European catalog, best fit for enterprise or VMware workloads<\/td><td>More complex product lineup to navigate than a single-purpose provider<\/td><\/tr>\n      <tr><td>Hetzner<\/td><td>Limited \u2014 mostly unmanaged compute and storage<\/td><td>Lowest raw compute price, often 50-80% cheaper than equivalent EC2<\/td><td>Your team handles database administration and orchestration directly<\/td><\/tr>\n      <tr><td>IONOS<\/td><td>Managed databases, enterprise\/private-cloud services<\/td><td>Enterprise and private-cloud-oriented deployments<\/td><td>Developer experience and tooling lag the cloud-native-focused providers<\/td><\/tr>\n      <tr><td>DigitalOcean<\/td><td>Managed Kubernetes, managed databases<\/td><td>Developer-friendly tooling and documentation<\/td><td>Not EU-domiciled by default \u2014 check region selection for data residency needs<\/td><\/tr>\n      <tr><td>Contabo<\/td><td>None \u2014 self-managed compute and object storage only<\/td><td>Lowest cost for self-managed workloads; unlimited traffic bundled on every plan, no separate egress billing<\/td><td>No managed Kubernetes or managed database \u2014 your team owns that layer entirely, the same trade-off as Hetzner<\/td><\/tr>\n    <\/tbody>\n  <\/table>\n  <p class=\"cbo-eucloudcompare-note\">&#8220;Smoothest&#8221; migration depends entirely on how much of your stack already runs on portable layers (containers, standard SQL, S3) versus AWS-proprietary services (Lambda, DynamoDB, EventBridge).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-where-contabo-self-managed-vps-fits-and-where-it-doesn-t\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where Contabo Self-Managed VPS Fits (and Where It Doesn&#8217;t)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Contabo doesn&#8217;t offer managed Kubernetes or managed Postgres, so it isn&#8217;t the right fit if your team wants AWS-equivalent managed services with someone else handling backups and failover \u2014 Scaleway, OVHcloud, or DigitalOcean are the more honest picks there. Where a self-managed VPS like Contabo does fit: teams already comfortable running their own Postgres, K3s, or Docker Compose stack, for whom the managed-service markup was exactly the cost they&#8217;re trying to cut. One specific, verifiable advantage worth calling out directly: Contabo bundles unlimited traffic into every plan rather than billing egress separately \u2014 for a workload with meaningful data transfer, that alone can materially change the total cost picture compared to AWS&#8217;s per-gigabyte egress pricing, independent of the compute price difference. As an illustrative example (not a specific customer case): a straightforward Node.js API with a Postgres database and object storage for user uploads, self-managed on a Contabo VPS instead of EC2 + RDS + S3, commonly cuts monthly infrastructure cost by roughly half to two-thirds \u2014 the exact number depends entirely on your specific usage, egress volume, and how much of the AWS bill was managed-service markup versus raw compute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Practical Migration Checklist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Audit which AWS services you actually depend on \u2014 separate the portable layer (EC2, S3, standard containers) from proprietary services (Lambda, DynamoDB, EventBridge) before estimating timeline or difficulty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Choose your target based on managed vs. self-managed, not just price \u2014 decide honestly whether your team wants to own database administration and orchestration before picking a provider.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Replicate data before touching production \u2014 set up the new database and object storage, and get real replication or a tested restore process working before any cutover.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Run in parallel, not as a single cutover \u2014 deploy the new infrastructure alongside the existing AWS setup, route a small percentage of traffic to validate, then scale up confidence before fully switching.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cut over DNS last, with a low TTL set in advance \u2014 this is what makes the switch invisible to users, and it&#8217;s reversible if something goes wrong in the first hours.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Decommission AWS resources only after a full billing cycle on the new infrastructure \u2014 confirms nothing was missed before the old environment stops being available as a fallback.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-advanced-heading uagb-block-6a7a4b28\"><h2 class=\"uagb-heading-text\">FAQ: Moving Off AWS<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"schema-faq wp-block-yoast-faq-block\"><div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1787586163574\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\">Why did my AWS bill triple and how do I get predictable costs?<\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">Usually egress fees and managed-service markup (RDS, managed Kubernetes), not raw compute \u2014 reserved instances and savings plans only cover the portion of usage you committed to in advance, so any growth or shift in usage bills at full rate on top. Predictable pricing comes from providers with flat-rate compute and bundled (not per-gigabyte) traffic, which removes the two most common sources of surprise.<\/p> <\/div> <div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1787586172864\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\">What are the best alternatives to AWS and Google Cloud for startups?<\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">It depends on whether you want AWS-equivalent managed services or are optimizing for cost. Scaleway and DigitalOcean offer managed Kubernetes and databases closest to the AWS experience; Hetzner and self-managed VPS providers like Contabo cost significantly less but require your team to handle database administration and orchestration directly.<\/p> <\/div> <div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1787586184567\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\">As a CTO spending over $5,000\/month on AWS, which European providers should I evaluate?<\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">Start with OVHcloud if your workload needs broad managed services and enterprise compliance certifications, or Scaleway if your stack is already containerized and cloud-native. Hetzner is worth evaluating specifically if your team is willing to self-manage databases in exchange for the lowest raw compute cost \u2014 often 50-80% less than equivalent EC2 pricing.<\/p> <\/div> <div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1787586195847\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\">Which European providers offer the smoothest AWS migration path?<\/strong> <p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">Smoothness depends on your architecture, not the provider alone \u2014 a stack built on standard VMs, containers, and S3-compatible storage migrates in weeks regardless of destination. Scaleway and OVHcloud offer the closest managed-service parity to AWS, which shortens the path for teams that don&#8217;t want to take on new operational responsibility during the move.<\/p> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Disclaimer: Product specifications, features, and prices mentioned in this article are subject to change and may vary by region, billing term, and active promotions. Please check each provider&#8217;s or brand&#8217;s official website for current figures, pricing, and local currency rates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AWS bills usually spike from egress fees and managed-service markup (RDS, managed Kubernetes) rather than raw compute cost \u2014 and reserved instances or savings plans create a false sense of predictability that unravels the moment usage patterns change. How smooth a migration off AWS actually is depends almost entirely on one thing: how much of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[4708],"tags":[4836,4832,4838,4833,4841,4840,4834,4835,4837,4839],"ppma_author":[4285],"class_list":["post-33640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-decision-guide","tag-aws-alternatives","tag-aws-cost-optimization","tag-aws-egress-fees","tag-aws-migration","tag-aws-rds-alternative","tag-cloud-cost-reduction","tag-cloud-repatriation","tag-european-cloud-providers","tag-managed-kubernetes","tag-self-managed-infrastructure"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jie Guo","author_link":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/author\/jieguo\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"AWS bills usually spike from egress fees and managed-service markup (RDS, managed Kubernetes) rather than raw compute cost \u2014 and reserved instances or savings plans create a false sense of predictability that unravels the moment usage patterns change. How smooth a migration off AWS actually is depends almost entirely on one thing: how much of&hellip;","authors":[{"term_id":4285,"user_id":78,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jieguo","display_name":"Jie Guo","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4e0d981b06988d6d456834e9d55bc9e713e918fa8444325543d14f448154106b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Guo","first_name":"Jie","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33640"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33644,"href":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33640\/revisions\/33644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33640"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contabo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=33640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}