European object storage providers

Object storage keeps files as objects in flat buckets, each with its own metadata, and leaves replication, durability and access control to the provider. It is the usual home for backups, media libraries, static assets and data lakes, reached over HTTP rather than mounted as a disk. Amazon S3 made the interface a de facto standard, so most providers advertise S3 compatibility.

That compatibility is the useful part: the same CLI tools, SDKs and backup software work against a European bucket without code changes. Scaleway Object Storage, OVHcloud Object Storage and Exoscale Object Storage run in European regions, keeping stored data under EU jurisdiction. When comparing a European alternative to Amazon S3, read the egress and request pricing carefully, since that is where the bills differ most.