I spent the last few months building akcache.io - managed Redis and PostgreSQL hosting that's actually EU-sovereign, not just "EU region of a US company." Here's what I learned about the economics and why this matters right now.
The Problem Nobody Talks About
Most EU developers use AWS, DigitalOcean, or Azure for managed databases without realizing what that means legally. Even if your data sits in Frankfurt, the CLOUD Act gives US authorities access to it. Your "EU-compliant" setup isn't actually sovereign.
When I was working with EU startups, I kept seeing the same pattern: developer picks AWS RDS because it's easy, compliance officer finds out months later, everyone scrambles. There had to be a better way.
The Hetzner Opportunity
Hetzner's CX23 servers cost €2.99/month. They give you:
- 2 vCPUs
- 4GB RAM
- 40GB disk
- Actually in Germany/Finland (yes, they also provide regions outside the EU)
- Subject only to EU law
Most managed Redis services charge €15-30/month for 512MB. But here's the thing: you can run 6 isolated Redis instances on one CX23 server if you architect it right.
The math:
- Server cost: €2.99/month
- 6 instances at €7.99 each: €47.94 revenue
- Margin: €44.95 per server (15x)
This works because Redis is memory-bound, not CPU-bound. With proper isolation (separate Linux users, memory limits, port binding), multi-tenancy is safe.
The Architecture
Backend: ASP.NET Core (C#)
- Fast, stable, excellent tooling
- Entity Framework for PostgreSQL data store
- Hangfire for background jobs (health checks, billing)
Provisioning flow:
- Customer clicks "Create Instance"
- API calls Hetzner Cloud API to spin up server
- SSH.NET connects and configures Redis/PostgreSQL
- Takes ~3-4 minutes end-to-end (even faster when the server is already up and running)
- Customer gets connection string
For PostgreSQL: Shared instances with separate databases per customer. Even better margins (one €2.99 server = 10+ databases).
Why This Timing Matters
The EU just announced the Cloud and AI Development Act:
- Goal: Triple EU data center capacity by 2030
- €3 billion IPCEI-CIS funding
- Public procurement shifting to EU providers
- US companies control 70% of EU cloud right now
This isn't just regulatory theater. Sweden banned US cloud in schools. Germany requires sovereign options for public sector. France has SecNumCloud certification.
Digital sovereignty is moving from "nice to have" to "legal requirement."
The Solo Dev Reality
No VC funding. No team. Just me, my existing server, and Hetzner's API.
Cost structure:
- Servers: Self-Hosted on a Hetzner Server
- Domain: €30/year
- SSL: Free (Let's Encrypt)
- Middleware: Cloudflare (Free)
- Payments: Mollie (EU Stripe alternative)
- Development: Nights and weekends
The beauty of multi-tenant: I can serve 50 customers on 8-10 servers. That's €25-30/month infrastructure cost for €400-500 revenue.
What I'd Do Differently
Started with multi-tenant from day one. I initially built "one server per customer" before realizing the economics were impossible.
Used GitHub Actions earlier. Was manually deploying for too long. CI/CD saves hours every week.
Better monitoring upfront. Sentry integration should have been day-one, not week-six.
Didn't overthink the frontend. Started with Next.js + TypeScript + complicated state management. Should've launched with simpler React first.
The Open Questions
Can this scale? Yes, but watching for:
- Support load (currently handling everything myself)
- Provisioning bottlenecks (Hetzner API rate limits)
- Network complexity as server count grows
What about backups? Currently daily snapshots via Hetzner. Point-in-time recovery coming post-MVP.
High availability? Redis Sentinel on roadmap. For now, positioned as dev/staging workloads.
Why Share This?
The EU needs more infrastructure that's actually European, not just EU regions of US companies. The economics work if you're willing to:
- Use affordable infrastructure (Hetzner, OVH, Scaleway)
- Build multi-tenant from the start
- Keep overhead low
- Automate everything
We don't need to compete with AWS's 200+ services. We need solid, sovereign basics that developers can trust.
If you're building in this space or thinking about EU cloud alternatives, I'm going to be documenting the journey herer or later at akcache.io itself. The backend is ASP.NET Core, frontend is Next.js, all running on Hetzner.
Stack details:
- Backend: ASP.NET Core 9.0, Entity Framework, PostgreSQL
- Infrastructure: Hetzner Cloud API, SSH.NET for provisioning
- Payments: Mollie (SEPA, PayPal, cards)
- Monitoring: Sentry for errors/performance
- Frontend: Next.js 14, TypeScript, Tailwind
Questions? Ask below. I also launched on Product Hunt
Also, special shoutout to Docker.
Want more like this? I'm writing about building EU-sovereign infrastructure and the economics of managed services. Follow me here or check out akcache.io.
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