GDPR-compliant EU VPS hosting: what to check

What 'GDPR-compliant hosting' really means

No host can make your application GDPR-compliant — compliance is about how you collect, store and process personal data. What a host can do is not get in your way: keep data in the EU if you ask, sign the paperwork that makes you the controller and them the processor, and avoid quietly tracking your visitors. This is a practical checklist for that, and where IntoClouds stands on each point.

Keep the data in the EU

Deploy your server in an EU region and keep it there. IntoClouds offers Falkenstein and Nuremberg in Germany and Helsinki in Finland — all EU, all on Hetzner Cloud. (US regions in Virginia and Oregon and one in Singapore also exist; simply don’t pick those if EU residency is a requirement.) You choose the region at create time; nothing moves it afterwards without you.

Sign a Data Processing Addendum

If you process personal data, GDPR expects a data processing agreement with your hosting provider. We publish a Data Processing Addendum and a Privacy Policy that spell out what we hold and who touches it. Payment details go straight to Polar, our payment processor — we never see your card — and domain details go to the registrar and registry as any domain requires.

No tracking bolted onto your account

There’s no analytics or ad tracking on the account side of the platform — nothing profiling you or your visitors from our end. What runs on your server is yours to configure; if you add analytics, that’s your controller decision to document.

The part that's still on you

• Backups of personal data. We take manual snapshots you trigger, not automatic backups. Retention and deletion of personal data — including honouring erasure requests — is your responsibility. Snapshot deliberately and delete on schedule.
• Your own SPF/DKIM/DMARC and access controls. Mailboxes you turn on get the right DNS records written for you; how you secure accounts and who you grant access to is your call.
• Records of processing and lawful basis. No host provides these — they describe your service, not ours.

Want the residency and paperwork sorted without four separate vendors? See the pricing page or the EU VPS pricing breakdown, then create an account and pick an EU region.