Best Web Hosting Europe 2026 — Top EU Hosts & GDPR Guide

Let's be honest: picking the best web hosting in Europe is a little like searching for the perfect espresso in Rome. It sounds deliciously simple, but one wrong turn and you're sipping a bland, watery disaster. If you're starting, moving, or upgrading your website in the EU, finding a trustworthy host means balancing privacy laws, performance, and actually helpful support (in your language, please).

European hosting has its own quirks: privacy law, VAT, invoice formats, and support hours that actually overlap with your working day. This guide is for you: the business owner, blogger, developer, or bold first-timer who just wants a European web host that won't let you down, leave you lost in translation, or charge you €20 for a typo. Grab a drink, and let's find your host.

Key Takeaways

• Choosing the best web hosting Europe ensures top privacy standards, local language support, and compliance with strict EU regulations like GDPR.
• Devoster, which publishes this guide, lets shared hosting and managed WordPress customers pick a European or a US location at signup, at no extra cost. Its VPS and dedicated servers are US-South only.
• SiteGround excels for managed WordPress hosting in Europe, while Contabo is ideal for budget-conscious users needing strong server performance.
• Hosting in European data centers improves website speed, local SEO, and makes VAT handling and billing easier for EU businesses.
• Prioritize hosts that offer clear data residency, robust uptime guarantees, daily backups, and local customer support to maximize reliability and trust.
• Always check trial periods, renewal pricing, and support response times to find the best web hosting Europe for your unique needs.

Quick summary — top picks for best web hosting Europe

Wondering who made the shortlist? These are the providers that actually run European data centres and publish EU-facing terms. Here they are if you just want the names:

If you just need one name to start: pick by the thing you care about most, because no single host wins every category in Europe. Now, let's get into the details for each pick, plus hidden gotchas and deal breakers.

A note on Devoster, which publishes this guide

Full disclosure first, because it changes how you should read the rest. Devoster publishes this guide. On shared hosting and managed WordPress you choose a European or a United States location when you place the order, and the European option costs the same as the US one. On VPS and dedicated servers there is no European option at all, so those products are out of scope for a Europe guide and this article says so wherever it comes up.

That is the honest scope: Devoster belongs in the shared and managed WordPress parts of this comparison, and nowhere near the VPS and dedicated ones. Everything below is checkable against the product pages, and the sections on the other providers are built from what those providers publish about themselves.

Best for WordPress in Europe

SiteGround wins for managed WP hosting that just works (auto updates, one-click staging, and EU-certified security baked in).

Best budget EU host

Contabo shocked me with pricing that looks like a typo, but the servers (and network speeds) are for real. If you don't need fancy bells, just get online and save big.

Best cloud/VPS in Europe

Hetzner is the playground for power users: scalable, by-the-hour pricing, snappy NVMe SSDs, and legendary German reliability. I dare you to crash their uptime metrics.

Best dedicated server hosting Europe

OVHcloud offers a dizzying range of bare metal servers peppered all across the continent. Picking by country is a breeze and the SLA is more than just marketing fluff.

Why choose a European web host?

Choosing an EU-based host isn't just about proximity. It's about privacy, performance, and those annoying currency conversion fees.

Data residency and GDPR / privacy advantages

Are you ready for the alphabet soup? Here's the thing: if you're handling EU citizen data (which includes that Swedish customer who just joined your email list), GDPR rules apply. Hosting in Europe means your data is covered by some of the world's strictest privacy standards. No sneaky data transfers overseas, and you're less likely to get the dreaded "Please sign this DPA" email from your lawyer.

Latency, performance and local SEO benefits

Google loves local. Hosting in Europe slashes latency (the time it takes for your website to load, which matters for your bounce rate and Google rankings). Your visitors in Berlin or Milan? They'll actually see your homepage before they finish their espresso.

Local billing, currencies, taxes (VAT) and language support

Nothing ruins a good hosting deal like VAT surprises. EU hosts bake in the right taxes, bill in euros or pounds, and answer your questions in your language. Need a French invoice for your accountant? No problem. I once spent two weeks chasing a US host for a proper EU-format invoice, never again.

How to test and rank European hosts yourself

Do not trust glossy marketing pages, and do not trust a comparison article's numbers either, including this one's. Here is a methodology you can run inside a refund window.

Test methodology overview (real sites, synthetic benchmarks, uptime)

• Deploy identical WordPress and static sites on each shortlisted host
• Synthetic benchmarks: Pingdom, GTmetrix, or your own TTFB script
• Uptime tracking via an independent monitor such as HetrixTools or UptimeRobot, never the host's own dashboard

Performance testing: TTFB, load speed, global & regional latency

• Measure Time-to-First-Byte from inside Europe (Frankfurt, Paris and London test nodes are easy to find)
• Load test for traffic bursts before you need them, not during
• Compare global latency if you serve EU and US visitors from one origin

Reliability: uptime, SLAs and historical incidents

• Monitor monthly uptime yourself for at least one full billing period
• Read the host's public incident log and status page history, and note whether outages are actually posted there

Security, backups, and compliance checks (GDPR, ISO, SOC)

• Review SSL, backup frequency, data recovery options
• Ask for the Data Processing Agreement (DPA) and the certificate list: ISO 27001, sometimes ISO 27018 or SOC2

Support testing: response times, languages, channels

• Open a real ticket, from "Help, my site's down" to an oddball plugin question
• Try chat, phone, ticket, and (where available) WhatsApp
• Judge how human the reply is, and whether it comes in your language

Pricing audit: hidden fees, renewal pricing, payment methods

• Compare entry, renewal, and add-on pricing
• Check for sneaky extras (paid SSL, "restore fees," expensive migrations)
• Check payment method variety: SEPA, major cards, sometimes crypto, PayPal

Comparison matrix — features, pricing, locations, and performance

Here's the comparison chart for the best web hosting Europe, built from what each provider publishes. Prices are entry rates at the time of writing and move around, so check before you buy.

How to read the comparison table

• Data Centers: Countries/locations available for your data
• Starting Price: Usually for shared or entry VPS plans
• Published certifications: What the provider publishes, not a GDPR certificate. No such certificate exists.
• Support Languages: Not just English, crucial if you prefer native replies

Interactive filters: by country, hosting type, budget, eco‑hosting

If you're picky (hello, Germany), use online filters for:

• Hosting type: Shared, VPS, cloud, dedicated
• Country: Want your data only in France? You got it.
• Budget: Filter out the pricey types, or set an eco-friendly preference (look for green energy claims).

Pro tip: Match the table to your "must have" criteria. If green energy is key, skip to eco-hosting below.

Top EU hosts reviewed (detailed breakdowns)

Let's zoom in and get personal, here's what you REALLY get (and what annoyed or wowed me) with each top European host.

Devoster — EU or US location on shared hosting and managed WordPress

Treat this section as a disclosed pitch and check it against the shared hosting and managed WordPress pages before you believe any of it. The part that matters for a European reader is the location choice: on both of those products you select Europe or the United States at order time, and Europe is not an upsell. The European option is offered at region level. The city is not published, so if your requirement is written down as "France" or "Germany" rather than "the EU", one of the providers above is a better fit.

The two ladders are the same, so a managed WordPress plan and a shared plan cost the same at each tier. Prices at the time of writing:

Plan	Monthly	Yearly, per month	Websites	Disk
Lite	$2.90	$1.90	5	5 GB
Standard	$5.90	$3.90	10	10 GB
Pro	$9.90	$6.90	20	50 GB

Every tier includes staging, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited databases and FTP accounts, PHP 8.3 by default, free SSL and daily backups with 7-day retention. cPanel is available, migration is free, and DDoS protection is included. The published availability figure is 99.98%.

Two things a European buyer should weigh before ordering. Billing is in USD, not euros, so expect a currency conversion on your card and a USD invoice for your accountant, and expect the effective euro price to drift with the exchange rate rather than sit still. Second, there is no published Data Processing Agreement. If a signed DPA is a hard requirement in your industry, ask for one before you pay, not after.

On certification, get the attribution right, because most hosting pages do not. Devoster itself carries no certification. The partner data centres it uses maintain ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and ISO 14001. That is a statement about the facilities the servers sit in, not an audit of the hosting company, and it is a weaker claim than a provider that holds certificates in its own name. Ask any host you are comparing which of the two it actually means.

Where Devoster is the wrong answer. Its VPS range and its dedicated servers run from US-South only, with no European equivalent, so a European VPS or a European bare-metal box has to come from OVHcloud, Hetzner, Contabo or IONOS. There is no developer tooling either: no API, no CLI, no Git-based deploys, no infrastructure-as-code. And a region-level EU location does not satisfy a contract that names a country.

IONOS — overview, EU features, benchmarks

Love a bargain and 24/7 support? IONOS (the former 1&1) is an old hand in Europe. They're everywhere, especially for beginners who want to launch cheap and get a familiar dashboard.

Why choose IONOS for EU projects?

• Local EU datacenters in nearly every big market
• 24/7 multilingual support (they even have US/UK lines)
• Often the lowest starting price for basic sites
• Free SSL and regular site backups included

Pros & cons

Pros:

• Budget-friendly for smaller sites
• Local phone and email support in several languages
• Free custom email accounts
• Huge knowledgebase, including those "Help. I broke my WordPress" tutorials

Cons:

• Interface can feel a bit clunky (hint: their "classic" panel is a nostalgia trip)
• Upsells can be aggressive at checkout (watch for "optional" add-ons)
• Renewal rates jump after that intro year

SiteGround — overview, EU data centers, performance

WordPress lovers, you're in luck. SiteGround's EU presence is strong, and their hosting is buttery-smooth for WP sites with real-time security checks, geeky caching, and thoughtful support.

Why choose SiteGround in Europe?

• Exclusive EU data centers (Frankfurt, Eemshaven)
• Proprietary caching (SuperCacher) that actually helps site speed
• Security-first: auto updates, daily backups, isolation at the account level
• Native language customer support (you can get tech in five languages)

Pros & cons

Pros:

• Instant, competent WP help (no more "please wait…" tickets)
• Real-time uptime tracking (they share public stats)
• Managed email, one-click staging, and free CDN

Cons:

• Fewer advanced dev features (SSH, staging, etc.) on basic plans
• A bit pricier than entry-level hosts, but includes daily backups and CDN

OVHcloud — overview, country options (FR/UK/DE/ES), features

OVHcloud is a colossus in European hosting. Whether you're after French regulatory certainty or dedicated beast-mode hardware, OVH brings the options, and some nerdy network tools you won't see elsewhere.

Why choose OVHcloud?

• Choose from five+ countries for physical data residency
• Huge selection of VPS and dedicated servers
• Infrastructure built for techies, raw power, private networks, DDoS included

Pros & cons

Pros:

• Most transparent network monitoring dashboards
• Good value for dedicated servers (lots of configs to pick)
• API and custom firewall options (devs love this flexibility)

Cons:

• Support can be slow and a bit formal (don't expect banter)
• Documentation isn't always newbie-friendly

Hetzner — overview, dedicated & cloud offerings, benchmarks

Hetzner is the no-nonsense German precision pick for developers and power users. If the idea of per-hour billing and custom firewalls makes your day, this is your playground.

Why choose Hetzner in Germany/Europe?

• Top-notch datacenter network in Germany (Nuremberg/Falkenstein) and Helsinki
• Rock-bottom pricing on Cloud/VPS
• Nerd-tastic dashboard (if you like logs, graphs, and cold efficiency)

Pros & cons

Pros:

• Strong price-to-performance on cloud VPS
• "Pay for what you use" billing
• No-nonsense support, straight to the point

Cons:

• Expect minimal hand-holding (not for total beginners)
• Some services require basic German or English (duh, it's Germany)

Kamatera, Contabo, Kinsta, Cloudways, HostPapa — short reviews & who they’re best for

• Kamatera: Raw cloud grunt, insanely customizable, best for developers who want to scale on demand in EU and globally.
• Contabo: Budget king, lots of resources per euro, ideal for startups, hobby projects, tools.
• Kinsta: Managed WordPress luxury, superb support, Google Cloud backend, but comes at a top-tier price.
• Cloudways: Middleman for cloud (AWS, DigitalOcean) with UI magic and full server control, good for agencies and those who want options.
• HostPapa: Great for small local businesses, especially if you want eco-friendly hosting and can skip ultra-advanced features.

Best web hosting Europe by use case (clear recommendations)

Let's get prescriptive. Here's what actually works for your type of website:

Best for small business / brochure sites

IONOS or HostPapa: low cost, solid email, everything you need for a web "business card". Devoster is a reasonable third option if you want an EU location and a cPanel account on an entry plan and you do not need to name the country in a contract.

Best for WordPress (managed) in Europe

SiteGround or Kinsta for easy migration, automated backups and expert WordPress help. At the budget end, Devoster managed WordPress gives you staging on every tier, daily backups with 7-day retention and the same EU-or-US location choice, which is unusual at that price. Whichever you pick, read our step-by-step migration guide before you move a live site.

Best for e‑commerce in Europe (WooCommerce, Magento)

SiteGround or OVHcloud, EU data centres, PCI-friendly stacks and enough headroom for a sale event

Best cloud/VPS for developers and scaling apps

Hetzner, where you pick resources by the hour, or Kamatera if you want to cherry-pick every CPU and SSD combination imaginable. Devoster sells KVM VPS with full root from $3.49/month on Xeon Gold hardware, but only from US-South, so it does not belong on a European shortlist no matter how the specs read.

Best dedicated server hosting Europe (high‑traffic & control)

OVHcloud, the best choice if you need to absorb surges such as sale events and media blitzes. Devoster sells dedicated servers too, but again only from US-South, which rules them out here.

Best eco / green hosting providers in Europe

Infomaniak, HostPapa and SiteGround publish the clearest environmental commitments; ask any host for its energy documentation rather than taking a badge at face value

Country‑specific recommendations across Europe

Hosting flavor changes by country. Here's your cheat sheet:

United Kingdom

• IONOS (great local support, simple VAT invoices)
• SiteGround UK servers for WordPress speed

Germany

• Hetzner (king for cloud/dedicated)
• IONOS for small business, German legal compliance is tight

France

• OVHcloud (ultimate in-country flexibility)
• IONOS for French-language support and VAT-ready invoices

Netherlands

• SiteGround (Dutch data centers)
• Contabo (Dutch location, low entry price)

Spain

• IONOS for Spanish support
• Contabo for value

Switzerland & Nordics (special compliance and latency notes)

• Infomaniak (Switzerland) for privacy, green creds
• Hetzner (Finland DC for Nordics)

(And if you need obscure locations, Luxembourg, Portugal, contact hosts directly. They sometimes deploy private racks for big projects.)

One distinction worth holding on to before you sign anything: "a European location" and "a named country" are not the same product. Some hosts, Devoster among them, offer a European region without publishing the city it sits in. That is enough when your rule is "keep the data in the EU". It is not enough when your rule, or your client's procurement form, says the data must be in France. Decide which sentence describes you, then filter on it.

Technical deep dive — performance, CDNs, caching & data centers

Nerd mode: ON. These are the levers that actually affect how your site loads and ranks in Europe.

How data center location affects speed & SEO

Your site's files should live physically close to your main audience. An Amsterdam server for Dutch customers, a Paris DC for French traffic...

• Shorter physical distance = lower latency = happier users and better SEO
• Google can detect hosting country, it's a local ranking factor.

CDN options and edge locations for European audiences

Most top hosts (SiteGround, IONOS) offer built-in or 1-click integration with Cloudflare and BunnyCDN

• Edge caches mean your Italian visitors aren't downloading from Denmark
• For advanced control, look for hosts that let you use your own CDN (OVH, Hetzner)

Server tech: NVMe, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, TLS, PHP versions and caching layers

• NVMe SSDs (blazing-fast: Devoster, Hetzner, SiteGround tick this box)
• HTTP/3 and TLS 1.3 adoption boosts both speed and security
• Latest PHP versions (8.x+) are a must for dynamic sites

Caching: built-in object and page-level caching (if not, use a CDN or plugin).

Still confused? Ping me for a custom nerd-out session.

GDPR, data residency and legal considerations for hosting in Europe

If fines, privacy policies, and acronyms make your eyes glaze over, stick with hosts that lead with compliance. Here's your checklist.

GDPR checklist: processor vs controller, Data Processing Agreements (DPA)

• Your host must provide a clear DPA (Data Processing Agreement)
• Clarify if you or they are the data processor/controller
• Ask about onsite/offsite backups (where is data replicated?)
• Ask where the backups live, not just where the live site lives. An EU origin with US backups is still a transfer.

Where a host offers a location choice rather than a fixed region, the dropdown on the order form is the compliance decision, and most people click past it. Pick the European location on a Devoster shared or WordPress plan and the site and its database stay in the EU, which is what data residency means in practice. Pick the US location on the identical plan and they do not. Nobody moves it for you later without a migration, so choose deliberately at signup rather than assuming the default is the safe one.

One more piece of vocabulary, because vendors blur it constantly: nothing and nobody is "GDPR certified". GDPR has no certification scheme of the kind marketing pages imply. What actually exists is a signed DPA, an ISO certificate held by a specific named party, documented sub-processors, and a physical location for your data. Ask for those four. Treat a GDPR badge on a homepage as decoration.

Certifications to look for (ISO, SOC, HIPAA notes where relevant)

• ISO 27001 is the baseline. ISO 27701 covers privacy information management and is the more interesting one for a GDPR conversation.
• SOC 1/2/3 for more regulated sectors (finance, health care)
• HIPAA is rare for EU hosts, only needed for health data (look for private cloud)
• Check who holds the certificate. A host can sell capacity inside a certified facility while never being audited itself. The two are routinely presented as the same thing and they are not.
• Devoster states this correctly on its own site: the partner data centres it uses maintain ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and ISO 14001, and the company does not claim those certificates as its own. Ask every host on your shortlist to be that specific.

Cross‑border transfers and UK‑EU data rules explained

UK and EU post-Brexit: adequate data protection, but don't assume, check host policy. Avoid hosts that ambiguously route backups/replicas to US data centers. My tip: If you get a vague answer when you ask about compliance…run.

Security, backups and reliability — what to require from a host

Don't let a hack, clumsy update, or midnight data center fire ruin your week. Here's what's non-negotiable with European web hosting:

Backup frequency, restore process and retention policies

• Daily backups are the floor, not a feature. SiteGround, Kinsta and Devoster all include them; retention length is where they differ.
• Test that you can actually restore (some hosts make this hard)
• Retention: 7–30 days is the EU norm

DDoS protection, WAF, malware scanning and SSL/TLS

• DDoS and Web Application Firewall (WAF) are a must, especially for e-commerce
• Free SSL (Let's Encrypt or similar) is the norm, if a host tries to sell you SSL, run away
• Malware scanning and remediation: some hosts do it for free, some charge, read the fine print

SLA terms, uptime guarantees and incident history

• 99.9% uptime is the bare minimum (most top hosts are above this)
• Check public status pages/incidents for real downtime numbers
• SLAs, actual compensation if there's a big outage (not just a "sorry" email)

Pricing, contracts and hidden fees — smarter buying tips

I've had hosting invoices that made my accountant weep. Here's how to avoid buyer's remorse:

Introductory vs renewal pricing: how to avoid surprises

Entry offers look sweet, but check the fine print for year 2+ costs. SiteGround, IONOS, and others list renewal prices transparently, so start there.

Payment options: EU cards, SEPA, local currencies and invoicing

• SEPA (Euro bank transfer) is available with most top EU hosts
• Check for PayPal, crypto (for extra privacy), Google Pay, IONOS and Hetzner have solid payment diversity
• Local tax-compliant invoicing (if you need invoices for VAT, check this before signup)

Money‑back guarantees, trial periods and cancellation policies

• 30-day guarantee is the EU minimum (Kinsta, SiteGround: no-questions-asked refund)
• Test migrations for free (Devoster moves your site before you commit)
• Easy/cancel anytime contracts are now common, but always check in your portal

Migration checklist — move your site to the best web hosting Europe

Ready to relocate? Don't just wing it. Here's what's saved me (and, once, my site's dignity):

Pre‑migration audit and backups

• Back up everything (files, DB, email)
• Test restore on a local/dev copy
• List your DNS records and 3rd-party plugins, don't get caught missing something

DNS cutover steps and minimizing downtime

• Shorten TTL for your DNS a day pre-move (easier switches = less downtime)
• Point domains only when you're ready
• Use hosts (like SiteGround, Devoster) that will do the migration for you

Testing and post‑migration validation

• Confirm SSL, email, and forms still work
• Spot-check key pages in different browsers/devices
• Monitor error logs the first 24 hours, hosts with good support will offer hand-holding during this period

Developer & advanced features to look for

Tech heads, rejoice. The Euro hosts are stepping up their dev game.

SSH, Git, staging, Docker support, API access

• SSH access: standard but always check
• Git integration: SiteGround and Hetzner do it best
• Staging environments: essential for testing changes without breaking live sites
• Docker, API access, custom cron: Hetzner shines, and any full-root VPS gives you the same freedom if you are willing to manage it

Database options (MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL) and scaling

• MySQL/MariaDB for legacy and WordPress sites
• PostgreSQL: needed for big, custom apps, Hetzner and OVHcloud offer robust support
• Horizontal/vertical scaling: instant resource upgrades in dashboards = sleep at night

Real user reviews, case studies and trust signals

You want receipts? Here's the "word on the street" and proof from real folks moving their sites.

Where to find support ratings and uptime reports you can trust

• Read Trustpilot and G2 with the dates visible, a host's reputation can change in a year
• Weight recent reviews about billing and cancellations, they are the ones people lie about least
• Ignore any figure, including in this article, that does not say who measured it and when

What to measure when you migrate an EU e‑commerce store

If you are moving a store from a US host to an EU one, capture the same three things before and after, on your own site, so you know whether the move actually paid off:

• TTFB from the countries your customers are in, not from wherever your laptop is
• Checkout completion rate over a comparable period, not a single day
• Support first-response time on a real ticket, recorded from your own inbox

You can find independent uptime stats, rather than vendor claims, via HetrixTools, UptimeRobot, or Pingdom, always double-check.

Want to share your own adventure? Message me or drop your favorite EU host in the comments.

FAQ — everything people ask about best web hosting Europe

Does hosting in Europe improve GDPR compliance?

It removes the hardest part. Data that stays in the EU avoids the international transfer question entirely, which is the piece most small sites get wrong, and it makes the DPA conversation short. It does not make you compliant on its own, but it takes one whole category of problem off the table.

Which EU country offers the cheapest hosting?

Germany usually wins (Hetzner, Contabo) for no-nonsense, low-cost plans. Spain and Netherlands come close. But don't ignore support or VAT sneaks.

Can I use an EU host for a global audience?

Absolutely, just pair it with a CDN or global edge cache (SiteGround bundles one; Cloudflare works with anything) to ensure snappy global load times.

How do I verify a host's data center location?

Ask sales/support for full addresses or traceroute details. Great hosts will tell you exactly where your site lives (not just claim "Europe").

Does Devoster offer hosting in Europe?

On shared hosting and managed WordPress, yes: you select a European or a US location when you order, at no extra cost. On VPS and dedicated servers, no, those run from US-South only. The European option is a region rather than a named city, so it covers "keep my data in the EU" but not a country-specific requirement.

Is a European host automatically GDPR compliant?

No. An EU location removes the international transfer problem and is the simplest way to satisfy data residency, but GDPR is about what you collect, why, how long you keep it and what you tell people. Your host is a processor. You remain the controller, and no certificate on their side moves that responsibility off you.

Should I pick the EU or the US location if my audience is split?

Put the origin where your paying visitors are and put a CDN in front for everyone else. Cached pages and images serve from the edge either way; the origin decides how fast the uncacheable parts feel, meaning login, checkout, and the WordPress admin. If any of those users are in the EU and you hold their data, the EU origin is also the simpler legal answer.

Final recommendations — pick the best web hosting Europe for your needs

Hosting is personal. Here's your parting cheat sheet for the best web hosting Europe, by scenario:

One‑line recommendations by budget, use case and country

• Small budget, shared hosting: Contabo (Germany/Spain)
• Eco/green hosting: Infomaniak, HostPapa
• Managed WordPress: SiteGround, Kinsta (splurge)
• Developer cloud: Hetzner, Kamatera
• Dedicated servers: OVHcloud (choose your EU country)
• EU-or-US location choice on an entry-priced shared or WordPress plan: Devoster (region level, billed in USD)

How to test a host risk‑free (trial checklist)

• Sign up for the trial or money-back guarantee
• Deploy/test a copy of your real site
• Confirm data center location & privacy details
• Test support in your native language
• Time your site via GTmetrix or WebPageTest

Remember the one rule that matters when you pick the best web hosting Europe has on offer: where your files physically sit is the decision, and everything else is detail. If you need a named country, a signed DPA or a European VPS, buy from a European provider and do not let a price talk you out of it. If you need an EU-located shared or WordPress plan and a region is enough, the EU option on a Devoster plan costs the same as the US one and is a fair choice. Either way, set the location on purpose instead of accepting whatever the signup form had pre-selected.

Best of luck with your site, drop me a note if you need a hand or want to share your own hosting story.