Why Every European Developer's Data Ends Up in San Francisco

A Confession

Last month, I did an audit of my side project's infrastructure. Here's what I found:

• Database: Railway (San Francisco)
• Cache: Upstash (San Francisco)
• Auth: Clerk (San Francisco)
• Email: Resend (San Francisco)
• Analytics: Mixpanel (San Francisco)
• Hosting: Vercel (San Francisco)

I'm a European developer, building products for European users, storing European data. And every single byte flows through the United States.

How did we get here?

The DX Trap

Let's be honest: American developer tools are amazing.

Vercel made deployment a git push. Railway made databases a dropdown menu. Upstash made Redis serverless. These companies have perfected the developer experience.

Meanwhile, European alternatives often feel like they're stuck in 2015. Clunky dashboards. Enterprise-first pricing. Documentation that assumes you have a DevOps team.

So we take the path of least resistance. We click "EU region" in the settings, tell ourselves we're GDPR compliant, and move on.

But are we really?

The Legal Reality

The CLOUD Act (2018)

Here's something most developers don't know: the US CLOUD Act allows American authorities to compel US companies to hand over data – regardless of where that data is physically stored.

That "EU region" checkbox? It's a technical decision, not a legal shield.

If your data is managed by an American company, it's subject to American jurisdiction. Full stop.

Schrems II (2020)

The EU Court of Justice didn't invalidate Privacy Shield because they were bored. They ruled that US surveillance laws are incompatible with EU fundamental rights.

The legal framework for EU→US data transfers has been shaky ever since. The new EU-US Data Privacy Framework (2023) is already being challenged in court.

What This Means For You

If you're building a B2B SaaS targeting European enterprises, this matters. A lot.

I've seen deals fall through because a CISO asked: "Where is our data actually processed?" and the answer involved too many American companies.

The European Landscape

"Fine," you say. "I'll just use European services."

Good luck.

The pattern is clear:

• Enterprise solutions exist (Aiven, Scaleway) – but they start at $25-100/month and target teams, not indie developers
• Self-hosted exists (Hetzner + Docker) – but you're back to managing infrastructure
• Developer-friendly EU-native services – almost non-existent

Why Does Europe Lag Behind?

I've thought about this a lot. A few theories:

1. Funding Disparity

US startups raise $10M seed rounds to build developer tools. European startups raise €2M to build "enterprise solutions" because that's what investors understand.

2. Market Fragmentation

Building for "Europe" means dealing with different languages, payment methods, and expectations across 27+ countries. Building for "the US" means one massive, relatively homogeneous market.

3. Cultural Differences

Silicon Valley celebrates developer tools. "We made deployment 10x faster" is a valid pitch. In Europe, you're more likely to hear: "But what's the business model? Who's the enterprise buyer?"

4. Chicken and Egg

Developers use American tools → talent learns American tools → European startups use American tools → no market for European alternatives.

The Sovereignty Wake-Up Call

But something is shifting.

The EU is actively pushing digital sovereignty:

• GAIA-X: European cloud infrastructure initiative
• Data Act: Rules on data sharing and cloud switching
• AI Act: Requirements that may favor EU-hosted AI services
• NIS2 Directive: Stricter cybersecurity requirements

More importantly, geopolitics is making people nervous.

When US policy can change overnight, having your entire infrastructure dependent on American goodwill feels... risky.

I've talked to CTOs who are actively looking for European alternatives. Not because they're legally required to – but because they want to reduce concentration risk.

What We Actually Need

Here's my wishlist for European developer infrastructure:

Tier 1: The Basics

• [ ] Managed Postgres – Neon/Supabase quality, EU-native
• [ ] Redis/Cache – Upstash experience, EU-hosted
• [ ] Object Storage – Better DX than raw S3

Tier 2: The Ecosystem

• [ ] Auth-as-a-Service – Clerk/Auth0 alternative
• [ ] Transactional Email – Resend/Postmark alternative
• [ ] Edge Functions – Cloudflare Workers alternative

Tier 3: The Platform

• [ ] Full PaaS – Railway/Render for Europe

Each of these is a company waiting to be built.

What I'm Doing About It

I decided to start with what I know: caching.

I'm building ArcticKey – a managed Valkey (Redis-compatible) service, hosted entirely in the EU.

• Company registered in Sweden 🇸🇪
• Servers in EU
• Data never leaves Europe
• Free tier for indie developers

It's one small piece of the puzzle. But you have to start somewhere.

Next week, I'll share the technical details of how I built it.

---

Over To You

I want to hear from other European developers:

1. Does this resonate? Or am I overthinking the US dependency thing?
2. What services do you wish existed with EU-native hosting?
3. Would you pay a premium for European alternatives, or does price win?

Drop a comment – let's figure out what European developer infrastructure should look like.

---

This is Part 1 of "Building EU Developer Infrastructure" – a series about why Europe needs its own developer tools and how I'm building one.

Follow along for Part 2: Introducing ArcticKey