Europe's company websites are mostly served by US vendors

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall attitudes toward EU vs US tech

  • Commenters see a split in Europe:
    • FOSS/self‑hosting camp that rejects SaaS entirely.
    • Pragmatic camp that uses whatever is best/known, usually US tools.
    • Very few prioritize “European-ness” enough to pay for EU SaaS if it’s weaker.
  • Many argue product quality, reliability, and DX matter more than origin; others say sovereignty, privacy, and resilience justify favoring EU vendors.

Sovereignty, surveillance, and legal constraints

  • Concern: dependence on US tech lets US authorities access EU corporate data (via CLOUD/Patriot‑style laws and gag orders), even if data is stored in EU regions.
  • Some insist true sovereignty requires avoiding US entities altogether or using strong encryption.
  • Others argue mutual economic/military interdependence between US and EU is stabilizing and preferable to isolationism.

EU alternatives and competitiveness

  • Hosting/cloud: OVH, Hetzner, Scaleway, Infomaniak praised for cost, EU data residency, EUR billing; some report poor reliability for specific vendors.
  • Payments: Several EU processors (e.g., Adyen, Mollie, Ingenico, local banks) seen as viable or cheaper than Stripe, though:
    • Some require high volumes.
    • Stripe is still viewed as best-in-class for DX and “platform” features (e.g., Connect, subscriptions), though it’s “stupidly expensive.”
  • View that EU often lags structurally/culturally in turning new tech into world‑class packaged services, and top talent/firms often migrate or get acquired.

Lock-in vs easy pieces (CDN, websites, email)

  • Many say focusing on front-facing web/CDN is misleading:
    • CDNs and static sites are easy to move.
    • Real dependency lies in deep cloud services, Office/AD, and proprietary PaaS features.
  • Others note many European APIs already run on OVH/Hetzner due to cost and locality, even if CDNs are US-based.
  • Email is mixed: some regions self‑host government mail; tools like mxmap highlight this.

Methodology and AI-written article concerns

  • Multiple commenters criticize the article’s methodology (small sample, only front CDNs, “skin deep”).
  • Several identify it as LLM-generated “AI slop”: initially plausible but ultimately shallow or proposing backward priorities, leading to frustration and calls to treat such content skeptically.